It is Monday night and Selection Sunday is in our rear view mirror. Before we can look forward towards the NCAA Tournament and Duke's defense of its title we will quickly take a look tonight at the ACC Tournament.
Duke dominated its way through the ACC Tournament this past weekend. They controlled the game against Maryland, they then controlled the game against Virginia Tech and finally Sunday afternoon they took control and never relinquished it against UNC. Duke looked like a veteran, tournament tested, tournament ready and focused team. You could see it in all the player's eyes on Sunday against UNC that the fire of a champion was burning again. I had my doubts about the title defense coming into this weekend, but my doubts are now a distant memory again after the performance against UNC.
KYRIE UPDATE:
After Friday's surprise workout in his jersey prior to the Maryland game, Kyrie continued to work out prior to games all weekend and then dropped a quote bomb on Sunday after cutting down the nets. Talking about the possibility of returning in the NCAA Tournament, "I can't really put a percentage on it," Irving said. "It all depends on how I feel, and if the medical staff feels good about it." It isn't a statement saying "I'll see you Friday afternoon!" but it isn't like the statements that have come from Duke or Irving before. In previous statements from Duke and Irving, they have always ended the statement by saying something to the extent of "...but its a slim chance" or "...although its unlikely." This time Irving's statement is more of a statement of when he can comeback, rather than "if", also comments from Coach K have the same feeling.
"We're far away from that decision," Krzyzewski said. "But he's doing well. He's worked out here every day and we're not trying to hide anything. We tried to show that first of all we do have a guy named Kyrie and secondly that he's progressing well." One more thing to keep in mind, Kyrie talked about a special shoe that Nike has designed for him, that won't allow his toe to bend as far back as it did when it was injured by hyper extending. I pose this question, would Nike make a special shoe for a player to not play?
Other notes from the weekend:
Virginia Tech-
Wow, what a game against FSU on Friday night. Unbelievable game, and then after losing to Duke on Saturday the Hokies were thinking more of where they'd be seeded in the NCAA's rather than if they'd make it after the win against FSU. Instead the same feeling they had when the shot by FSU went in on Friday and was thought to have counted, came back on Sunday as the last team was named and they hadn't been called. I feel bad for the Seniors on Virginia Tech, I think this is the second year in a row they have been ripped off by the committee and for them they may feel more like its the 4th year they've been ripped.
UNC-
As I mentioned prior to the Tournament in the preview, Roy Williams does not care about the ACC Tournament. It showed that it rubbed off on his team that in each of the 3 games they started slow and lacked passion. In the end of 2 of them their superior talent was able to overcome their indifference, in the 3rd game against a team just as talented, they got embarrassed.
To me, this is Roy Williams issue as a coach in his entire career. His teams have always been uber talented, and have always had great regular seasons. But outside of his two championship UNC teams that each year had superior talent to the field, his teams have underachieved in tournament play. Why? Because Roy doesn't get his guys to play with consistent effort as shown this weekend. Also Roy has one style that works, and cannot adjust. As shown this year and last, when Roy doesn't have a guard that can push the ball and get the offense going, instead of adjusting his teams style and mindset, he pushes on and his team underachieves.
Great ACC Tournament and hopefully a preview of things to come from Duke. Speaking of previews, tomorrow I'll be posting my NCAA Tournament Preview, then Thursday morning I will post my bracket with all my picks. Also I'll be keeping a very close eye on any possible Kyrie Irving news and doing my best to post anything I read on the blog. Have fun picking your brackets the rest of the week and come on back Thursday morning to get some tips from my bracket if you'd like.
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