Duke keeps pace with North Carolina in the ACC, Way too quiet on the Big Four front

Give the Devils their due, Duke will be tough this season in the ACC. They will probably end up just a few notches below North Carolina but that’s not bad at all. One of the so-called experts on the radio this morning was saying that both Kansas and Memphis are better than #1 North Carolina and the big question locally over the past couple of days is what happened to William Graves, our man out of Dudley High School, on Saturday in the Heels win over N.C. State? Graves got no minutes in what became a blow-out and William is usually in there for the Tar Heels as at least the #8 man.

Is it just me or does it seem like even though Duke is winning, they don’t have the same pizazz they used to have? Duke doesn’t have any name players this year, at least not to this point of the season, that will get people talking stir. Josh McRoberts wasn’t all that great of a player but he got people talking. Who’s the man this year? No more JJ Redick and not much stir for Duke. Maybe Gerald Henderson will have to get something started. What’s up with Greg Paulus these days?

As for Wake Forest is there a big bang for guys like James Johnson or Jeff Teague? Wake is way off the interest-meter this year. The Demon Deacons are winning but there is no juice. Whose the big name? They don’t have any names over in Winston-Salem. At least N.C. State has JJ Hickson and we know what North Carolina has when they come to the table. Tyler Hansbrough and a Heel of a lot of talent to go around. Names like Ellington, Lawson, Green, Ginyard, and Thompson have everybody talking big time hoops. We need some stir names to Wake up the rest of the Big Four.

Duke jumps on Virginia:

The shots fell for Duke, from both inside and outside. And when they didn’t, the Blue Devils were in position to outmuscle the best rebounding team in the nation.

Now this is how Mike Krzyzewski’s team is supposed to begin its brutal conference schedule.

Behind 20 points from DeMarcus Nelson, No. 9 Duke cruised to an 87-65 victory against Virginia on Sunday night, perhaps the Blue Devils’ most complete victory of the season.

Gerald Henderson added 18 points and Kyle Singler scored 13 for the Blue Devils (13-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference). They shot better than 50 percent, never trailed, led by double figures for the entire second half, hit 11 3-pointers and shut down Virginia’s perimeter game.

Duke limited the Cavaliers, a 40 percent shooting team from long range, to just 4-of-14 shooting from beyond the arc and held a 35-34 advantage on the glass against a Virginia team that entered outrebounding its opponents by 12.4 per game.

Sean Singletary scored 18 points and Calvin Baker added 13 for Virginia (10-4, 0-1), which was denied its first victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium since a double-overtime victory in 1995. Its four-game winning streak against ranked teams also was snapped.
*****from theacc.com*****

3 thoughts on “Duke keeps pace with North Carolina in the ACC, Way too quiet on the Big Four front

  1. Thanks Jim, one of our new Jims in fact, for the news. We will keep on watching for William Graves and be on the alert for his return to the Tar Heel lineup. He”s a good kid and he still stops in at George’s Pizza and Subs on Randleman Road. He left them a Carolina poster at George’s last week and Ahmed put up on his door. Thanks Jim.

  2. Henderson is one the most improved players in the ACC this year for Duke, they have 2 kids that could be rookie of the year this year, they should supply plenty of cheese at Ol Roys press conference because all he does is whine about Tyler getting fouled too hard, last year Tyler charged into Hendersons elbow and you see what happened to his nose– let them play Roy.

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