The View From Above
So Duke is No.1 again. After beating Maryland Saturday—well, is beating really the right word? Dismantling? Embarrassing? How about this: You know the movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," in which Brad Pitt ages backward toward infancy? If there is a verb for making someone all at once feel like a child, then, yeah, that's what Duke did to Maryland.
Of course, the lead up to the game was, 'If Duke can defeat the inferior, but always pesky Terrapins, then they'll be No. 1 in the country.' Well, we've already covered the fact that 'defeat' doesn't capture what really happened, so naturally Duke did earn the top spot in the land for their impressive outing. But there's still this belief among some that the Blue Devils are overrated.
Take for example the fact that 10 out of 72 AP voters, which consists of select members of the media, chose a team other than Duke as the best team in the country. On the other side, though, only 1 out of 31 voters in the ESPN/USA Today poll didn't go with the Blue Devils. Maybe there's something to that, and maybe not. But with all the whining there is about Duke being favored by the media, sometimes it doesn't always seem to add up that way.
Wednesday, when Duke takes on No. 6 Wake Forest, we'll all start to see just how good Duke really is. Granted, something similar was said in this segment before the Georgetown game, too. And we all saw how well Duke handled that one.
But, speaking of the Georgetown game, it's time for this week's...
Pat-Yourself-on-The-Back Awards
And we'll start with yours truly. Two weeks ago, I proposed a props bet between former Duke linebacker Michael Tauiliili's tackles total in the East-West Shrine Bowl and Duke's margin of victory over the Hoyas. Now, before I get too proud of myself, I must admit even I didn't expect it to turn out the way it did. No, if you're looking for the real clairvoyant one on this staff, look no further than Tim Britton. (Have you seen his score predictions recently? Crazy good!)
But as it turned out, Tauiliili earned the Defensive MVP Award with his 13 tackles, besting Duke's nine-point margin of victory. Every scouting report I've read about this guy keeps mentioning his size (5-foot-11) as a severe disadvantage heading into the NFL Draft, but, hey, if you can fly to and bring down the ballcarrier as effectively and prolifically as this guy, then you should most certainly be on some people's draft charts. My prediction (since I'm all cocky, now) is he's picked up in the waning moments of the first draft day.
As for other earners of this prestigious award, there's Chronicle staffer Tim Britton for the aforementioned deft use of his Tarot cards, Gerald Henderson, and the women's basketball team's defense.
As for Henderson, this is what people expected of him, or at the very least hoped to expect from him. He's taking over games now, scoring in bunches and bunches even when literally no one else can score at all (see: Duke vs. Florida State, when Henderson scored four of the Blue Devils' five first half field goals.) If Duke is going to retain its No. 1 ranking, or more importantly capture the No. 1 honor in the NCAA Tournament, then it's clear Henderson, Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler need to be hitting on all cylinders. These three were all operating at near-100% effectiveness Saturday against Maryland, and look what happened. Dominance.
Segue. Listen to this quote from guard Abby Waner on the current state of the No. 3 Blue Devils: "There's a chemistry that's almost brewing, like you can feel it getting stronger and better. We're on an ascent, I guess you could say." This could certainly be said for both Duke teams right now. I mean, on Saturday, the men's team handed Maryland a historically lopsided loss, and on Sunday, the women—not to be outdone—jabbed back with a rout of their own over Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets shot 18% in the first half on their way to a dismal offensive outing totalling just 34 points. If you can hold a team to 34 points, chances are you're going to walk away victorious. The women's team proved again they, too, are one of the best teams in the country and equally capable of embarrassing their conference foes.
Craigslist and Roadtrips
These next two Wednesdays will be tense for Krzyzewskiville inhabitants and Duke fans everywhere, as the Blue Devils travel to face No. 6 Wake Forest and No. 12 Clemson in a seven-day span. Duke also plays Virginia this Saturday. But much of this 'Is Duke overrated?' discussion should be answered one way or another following these games. When the Blue Devils host No. 5 North Carolina one Wednesday later, the conference standings could be very different and people's perception of Duke equally so.
But if you want to ensure you see at least one game in which Duke is ranked No. 1 and your wallet is as deep as your love for Duke Basketball, then you should take a look on Craigslist. And by deep, I mean, triple-digits deep. Offerings range from $100 to $125, and those are upper deck. Of course, you could consider waiting the extra week and driving the 4.5 hours to Clemson. The pros: tickets are cheaper, ranging from $50 to $75. The cons: it's 4.5 hours away. On a Wednesday. But then, that just raises the same question: How deep is your love for Duke Basketball?
Duke by the Numbers
Normally this space is exclusively full of fake gambling propositions, and we'll get to that. But first, check this out.
What Happens Now? Duke is 19 games into the season. If you look at Henderson's first nine games, he was shooting at a 43-percent clip for an average of 10.3 points per game. In the last nine games, he's nailed 58 percent of his shots for a stellar 18.8 points per contest. And the 10th game of the season, the one that, for our purposes, will serve as that perfect middle point between the old Henderson and the new Henderson—14 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Now, that's symmetry.
Now for the betting lines:
Props
Men's Basketball's Season Avg. Margin of Victory vs. Women's Basketball Season Avg. Margin of Victory—Just scanning the two teams' stat sheets, this one jumped out at me. So far, the men have outscored their opponents by an average of 20.8 points per game. The women: 19.2. Watch to see if these two teams can continue to trade blows, as the men won this weekend's tilt with their 41-point throttling of Maryland while the women only managed a 26-point squeaker over Georgia Tech. This could get interesting as the margin of victory almost has to start coming down for both these teams as its mostly all ACC from here on out. But, actually, after this weekend, maybe not.
As of February 12, Number of Duke Men's Losses vs. Duke Women's Losses—The date in this is obviously critical. By then, the men will have faced top-tier teams Wake Forest, Clemson and North Carolina. The women will have faced No. 18 Florida State, which is the only other undefeated team in league play, No. 19 Virginia and No. 10 North Carolina. If each team escapes unscathed, then the men should remain firmly planted in the No. 1 spot and the women should be nipping at the heels of unanimous No. 1 Connecticut. No doubt, the Basketball Gods would be smiling on Durham.
But the opposite is possible, too. Rain, sleet and snow could befall these two programs, probably landing each one outside the top ten. The only solace to take in that scenario, though, is these will be a tough three weeks for both squads, and falling to this caliber of team, even three times, doesn't preclude either the men or the women from reaching their ultimate goal come March.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.