Game blog: No. 1 Duke beats Virginia 79-54
Feb 1, 2009
3:57 p.m., Duke wins it big: They were never in danger the entire game. Duke gets to 19-2 and 6-1 in the ACC with the win. Henderson leads them in scoring again with 18 points.
3:53 p.m., Dunks are flying: Plumlee caught a nice oop for the slam, and Elliot Williams e-mailed one down as well. Duke is up by 25 in the final minute. Steve Johnson is in the game on his birthday. That must be great for him. The crazies sing him happy birthday. I have confirmed that Kelly is here with Lindsay Cowher, who is a senior at Ravenscroft with Kelly. She will play hoops at Wofford next year. How bout this, Steve Johnson takes it to the tin for two and gets fouled. The crowd went nuts.
3:45 p.m., Kelly is here again: The Ravenscroft big man that is coming to Duke next season is here again. They gave him some great season tickets. Or maybe he bought them I don't know. NCAA sanctions here we come! But seriously he is at every game. Does his high school ever play games or practice? Rumors from the crazies behind me say Kelly's girlfriend that is at all the games with him is Bill Cowher's daughter. I haven't read that or anything. Duke is up comfortably 70-48. I'm trying to watch Miles Plumlee work down low as he gets some minutes. He has a long way to go before he is in the regular rotation. I feel like he can fight more in the post to want the ball. He's going to be important for Duke in the future.
3:36 p.m., Ugly game now: Duke is blowing the Cavs out 65-42 with under eight minutes to play in the game. Gerald Henderson has 18 points to lead all scorers in the game. I don't think the Wake Forest loss is sticking with this team. That is far behind them. The Cavs have got a was to go before they are a serious ACC contender. A ways to go.
3:28 p.m., Ice on the floor!: A drink got spilled a little down press row and some ice went out on the floor. The players had to dodge it for a few possessions and then the towel guys got out and got the job done with the help from the crazies. They got quite a cheer when they finished. They are still working on getting all the moisture up right now. Duke leads 61-37 with under 12 minutes to play in the game. This seems to be a game where this lead stays pretty consistent. I'm starting to think about Super Bowl food.
3:18 p.m., Scheyer raining threes: Jon has hit two long balls to start the half, giving Duke a 54-29 advantage. Virginia is going to continue to get blown out in this one. Singler only has 3 points too. One thing I noticed about UVA is a few of them wear those silly undershirts under their jerseys. They aren't quite short sleeves and they aren't quite sleeveless. They are really short sleeves that are really tight. They just look ridiculous. Either go all sleeves, or no sleeves at all.
3:10 p.m., Turnovers!!: UVA had 17 of 'em in the first half. I didn't know they were that careless. That would be a horrible game to have that many, let alone a first half. Duke got 20 points off those as well. Duke was pretty good with the ball turning it over just five times.
2:54 p.m., Halftime: Duke leads 43-21 at the break and Paulus finally hit a three with 10 seconds to go in the half. Yours truly made a nice one-handed grab on a loose basketball. Maybe I got on TV. But does anyone watch FSN? Henderson and Smith are the two guys in double figures for Duke, Henderson with 16 and Smith with 11.
2:45 p.m., Paulus is cold: He keeps jacking up long shots in this game and hasn't made a one. He is 1-7 and 0-3 from three-point land. Duke still leads 39-21 with under four minutes to play in the half. UVA is still way behind and Duke didn't even look good at all those past few minutes. Kyle Singler has no points, imagine what happens when he gets going. Henderson has 16 in the game so far.
2:35 p.m., Aint nothin but a G thang: Henderson owned that last four minutes of action as he had two dunks, a couple of free throws, and a steal. I love the way he spreads his arms and flies back down the floor after a dunk. He knows he can soar. UVA went back to man-to-man defense. Zone, man-to-man, neither is working and they are getting destroyed 34-14 with 7:33 left to play in the half. They have nothing offensively.
2:30 p.m., Keep Nolan': Smith took a steal to the tin and finished and will go to the line for a possible three-point play. He can't convert it but Duke got the offensive board and got to the line again. Henderson has 10 points already and Smith has nine early points. Duke leads 26-11 with under 10 minutes to play in the half.
2:24 p.m., Duke's threes: It seems UVA watched the film on how Wake beat this team. Virginia is playing a 2-3 zone with all their bigs crammed in the paint. Right now they are going to make Duke beat them with outside shooting, and they probably will in the end. Jon Scheyer just knocked down a triple as Duke leads 19-9 with under 12 minutes to play in the opening half.
2:15 p.m., Duke out early: Sylven Landesberg has all the points for UVA so far with five. Duke is up 11-5 with 15:49 left to play in the first half. Gerald Henderson started hot as usual in his late trend of upping his scoring. He came out and buried an early three and followed it with a jump shot. I also thought it was a little early to pull him out, as Coach K sat him only a few minutes into the game.
2:06 p.m., Pretty cool: I got the chance to be right next to the Duke locker room when they were doing their pre-game pump-up. Dave McClure gets them going in that huddle, Lance Thomas as well. Brian Zoubek is not starting, Thomas will in his place. Poor Zoubek couldn't get a shot off against Wake Forest. Here we go with the tip-off.
1:52 p.m., Be careful when you come to Duke: When I was parking my car today out in the lot, I witnessed an old man in a Jaguar convertible hit another parked car. He didn't appear to do any damage but he smacked it pretty good. So as I was getting out of my car I shook my head in disbelief that this man did this. Then he had the nerve to confront me, for doing nothing. He of course wasn't going to leave his info in case something was wrong with the other car's front end or hood. He claimed to me there wasn't any damage and accused me of passing judgement. He said I had an "elitist attitude"! A old Duke alum in a Jaguar called me an elitist! I had to let him win the argument because I am wearing a press pass and technically at work. I see this more as fun than a job, but I can't throw bows with a sixty year old dude in the parking lot before coming in. You win sir! Keep going around knocking into cars and then get in the faces of the witnesses!
1:46 p.m., What to know: Virginia is 1-4 in the ACC and has lost four straight games. They are led in scoring by a true freshman in Sylven Landesberg with just over 17 points per game. Duke of course lost their first time out as the new number one ranked team in the country. They will be hungry to beat one of the few weak links of this conference.
