Duke 78 - Temple 61 - Slow Starts but W's Keep Coming

I have to toot my own horn here quickly.

My prediction: Duke 78 - Temple 62

Actual Score: Duke 78 - Temple 61

Toot...toot....

Singler is back -

Kyle's focus tonight was attacking the rim either from the perimeter or posting up Temple's over matched undersized players.  In the preview I predicted a good bounce back game today from Singler and he lived up to that, 28 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 1 block.  You can look at the box score and see that he only took 1 three to prove that he was focused on getting easy buckets around the hoop tonight.

Slow Start -

I predicted (and begged for) a quick start for Duke tonight.  I was off on that prediction it was another very slow start for Duke.  Again the offense was sluggish until really the second half.  This continues to be a trend for Duke, and as I keep warning this could be something that catches up to Duke. 

Temple was very beat up -

Scootie Randall who was listed as day to day yesterday and ended up not playing.  Micheal Eric is out for the remainder of the year.  I feel bad for Temple because you can see they are a solid team that are well coached and could make a good run in the tournament if healthy.  Unfortunately without Eric, they will lack the big men I think to make the run that they could have.  A ton of credit though to Temple for battling on the boards tonight even though they were undersized.  Lavoy Allen is a heck of a player, had a double double tonight and really battled.  Hopefully they get Scootie back and can still make a good push in the tournament.

With Temple being beat up this game meant less to me than I thought it would.  Still a good win over a top 25 team for Duke.  Still a win over a team that played like a team Duke could play in the tournament in a couple weeks.  Just not the test for Duke I had kind of hoped it would be.

Next up @ Virginia Tech, Saturday 8 pm CST on ESPN-

This will be a very, very, very desperate Virginia Tech team on Saturday.  They have been on the wrong side of the bubble so many times.  With a very shaky resume so far this year they will be looking to get their signature win against Duke.  Virginia Tech has been a thorn in Duke's side in past years, lets all hope Duke gets it going early (WOW WHAT A THOUGHT!) and silent the Tech crowd.