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Game blog: Duke cruises past Radford 104-67

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By Tim Hall
Nov 21, 2009

4:47 p.m., Game over:  A really, very, nice and good game from Duke.  Blue Devils win it 104-67 and are now off to continue in the NIT Season Tip-off.  LSU, UCONN and Arizona State will be the other teams there in NYC.  That's going to be Duke's first test of the season, much like UNC got its first test there this week.

Brad Greenberg's Radford team is going to be pretty good in the Big South.  He and Coach K have some friendly words in the handshake line after the game.  Enjoy the rest of your football Saturday now, good evening. 

4:42 p.m., Duke leads 100-60 with 3:48 to play:  Look at all the scoring in this game.  Nolan Smith and Dawkins both have 20.  Jon Scheyer has 18 points.  Miles Plumlee has 12 points and 10 boards.  Kyle Singler has 13.  Singler seems like the low man today but he's played a great game.

This is a pretty solid mid-major team and Duke is just trashing them.  Nice performance today.

4:33 p.m., Hey at least there's basketball season:  That's what they're used to saying around here right?  At least it got better this year though.  Duke lost to Miami 34-16.  It was a closer ball game than the score said.  But Duke at 5-6 will not be able to go to a bowl game this year.  They still have a shot at a six win season though.  That's a big improvement.

Duke is still up by 30, now the score is 86-54.  It looks like another 100 point game for the Blue Devils. 

4:27 p.m., Lob passes:  Duke had two of them in a row to really bring the house down.  Miles Plumlee stuffed one in with two hands and then Ryan Kelly threw one in the same way.  I'm starting to feel bad for these Radford guys because they aren't playing too poorly.  Duke is just hitting every shot they take.  They've made over 60 percent of their 3's.  Of course Andre Dawkins enters the game and he knocks down his fifth 3-pointer of the game.

It's 80-46 with 11:33 left in the game.

4:15 p.m., Even start:  Too much ground to overcome.  Radford would need a miracle to get a win here today.  When Duke shot it that way in the first half it put the game out of reach.  But this Highlanders team is a very good team at their level.  They should win the Big South again and be back in the Tournament.  Parakhouski is one of the Top 5 mid-major players in America in my opinion.  They will dominate when they get into conference play.

Duke leads 64-41 at the first break of the second half.

4:06 p.m., Wow what a shooting half: Duke made an absurd 13 of 22 3-pointers in the first half.  I'll check after the game to see if that was some kind of record or something.  Smith and Dawkins both made four a piece for 12 points each.

There is a Cameron Crazie girl sitting right behind me in a full police officer Halloween style costume.  Sunglasses, handcuffs, everything.  She said the sole purpose for dressing like that is because Amir Johnson (Radford guard) was arrested over the summer.  Whatever helps the heckling. 

3:53 p.m., Halftime, Smith turns ankle:  With five seconds left in the half Nolan Smith must have stepped on someone's shoe or something.  It looks like he turned his right ankle.  He came up slow and was limping quite a bit.  He was able to walk it off and head into the locker room with no problems. 

Duke leads it 59-34 at the break.

3:45 p.m., Big man from Belarus:  It's been a big man's journey from Minsk to Radford.  Not quite like my favorite fictional Seinfeld movie Rochelle Rochelle, "A young girls erotic journey from Milan to Minsk", but close enough.  Art Parakhouski is doing his best to keep Radford alive.  There isn't enough he can do, especially the way Duke is shooting at the other end.  He has 14 points and 5 boards but Duke is killing them 59-34.  Yeah the Blue Devils have an amazing 13 3-pointers so far.  Andre Dawkins has four of them off the bench.  Nolan Smith has four of them.

3:39 p.m., Duke busting up the zone:  Radford is having trouble with its zone defense.  Duke is driving and kicking and they are getting open looks.  And it especially hurts when they make close to every shot.  Blue Devils lead it 45-27 with under four minutes to go before halftime. 

3:30 p.m., Two fouls on Lynch-Flohr:  One of Radford's best players just picked up a player control foul.  He drove the basket and got called for the charge.  Nolan Smith just hit a 3-pointer and its 36-19 Duke with 7:36 to play in the first.

The Crazies are really having a good time with Radford guard Amir Johnson.  He was arrested over the summer and convicted of petty larceny for breaking into the apartment of former teammate and stealing hundreds of dollars worth of electronics.  He got 12 months probation and a $500 fine.  Now he's in good standing with the team.  But not with the Cameron Crazies.

"i pod, i pod, i pod," they chant.  Or "mp3, PS3, mp3, PS3!"

And my favorite, "Amir fought the law and the law won!"

3:28 p.m., Duke killing it now:  It's almost as if the early spurt from Radford helped Duke.  Now the crowd is into it more than they would be.  The players are extra-pumped up to have a big lead.  Everyone is hitting shots and Duke leads 33-17 with under eight minutes to play.  They are playing great defense and are making Radford settle for bad shots.

3:22 p.m., Duke fights back:  It's 20-13 Duke with 10:45 to play in the first half.  The Blue Devils have gotten some balanced scoring.  Ryan Kelly hit a shot.  Scheyer and Singler both hit 3-pointers.

Here as I'm typing Nolan Smith hit a 3-pointer but Parakhouski hit a lay-up quickly at the other end to end the Radford drought.  They went about five minutes without a field goal.

3:13 p.m., Radford has a nice start:  This is a really good team, coming off a hot season with almost everybody back.  I mentioned that they have four starters back.  The fifth kid joining that group is a true freshman guard from Charlotte, Blake Smith.  He's already averaging 13.5 ppg this season.  He already picked Nolan Smith's pocket for a lay-up at the other end and hit a 3-pointer.  It's 13-12 Radford with 13:39 left to play in the first half.

Art Parakhouski and Lynch-Flohr are going to see a lot of double teams from Duke today.

3:04 p.m., Ready for tip:  The Michael Buffer intros are back for Duke hoops.  You know the "Let's get ready to rumble!" guy?  I thought this was going to be something they did before every game but I swear they didn't do it the last couple of games.  I think that might have had something to do with the NIT opening round games because visiting bands, mascots and cheerleaders were here too.  It had the tournament feel.

Radford actually has Air Jordan warm-ups.  How did they score that?

2:58 p.m., Wasn't looking good for Duke football:  Everyone was keeping an eye on the TV in the media room back there.  I'm courtside now so it's not in front of me anymore.  Duke had an intentional grounding and maybe a missed holding or pass interference call.  It killed their drive and then Snyderwine missed a 31-yard field goal that would have made it 20-19 Miami with under 10 minutes to play in the game.

Then Miami started shredding the Duke defense.  It wasn't over, but it appeared Duke's bowl hopes were going out the window.

So let's focus on hoops shall we?

2:18 p.m., Match of the Titans today:  Hey what more can you ask for on a Saturday going up against late-season college football.  Here at Cameron today we have a battle between undefeated NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago.  It's the 2-0 Radford Highlanders and the 3-0 Duke Blue Devils today.  Stick around!

But seriously this should be a decent test for Duke today.  This Radford team won 21 games last season including a 15-3 Big South mark.  They won their regular season and tournament title in coach Brad Greenberg's second season. 

Yes, it is the same Greenberg as nearby Virginia Tech coach Seth.  Brad coached with his brother at VT for four years before the head coaching job at Radford opened up.  Seth played a role in recommending Brad for the job.  Now the two are both head coaches and they're only 15 miles apart.  And it's Brad to have a league title, not Seth.

Everyone should remember Radford drawing the 16 seed in last season's tournament.  They got blown out 101-58 by North Carolina in the first round in Greensboro.  But they return four starters and three of their top five scorers from last year.  Big men Art Parakhouski and Joey Lynch-Flohr are as good as any at the mid-major level.  Both are averaging double-doubles in the Highlanders first two wins.

Duke has its eyes on MSG.  They are headed there to play Herb Sendek and Arizona State on Wednesday in the semi-finals of the NIT Season Tip-off.