Even Turtles Bleed Blue

Last season, Maryland point guard Greivis Vasquez wrapped up his accomplished college career by winning the ACC Player of the Year award. For years, Vasquez has been the cocky, arrogant leader of the Maryland team -- the guy who wasn't afraid to mouth off to whoever he was playing, and who, at least most of the time, could back it up. Last year, when Maryland beat Duke for the first time in three years, it was Vasquez who was front and center, screaming at the fans, trash-talking the players, and generally being a loud douche. Which is why this story is sure to make any Terps fan recoil in horror.

On a radio show, Duke commit Josh Hairston was asked about playing at Maryland -- specifically whether Greivis had ever counseled Hairston about dealing with the crowd there. (Maryland fans might want to look away now.) Hairston replied:

One Shining Zoubek: A Tribute to Greatness

Between amazing basketball, amazing weather, getting to live like I was in college again, and a reverse jinx executed to near-perfection, these past few days have been pretty spectacular. Other than the picture below, I'll spare you the gloating -- I got that out of my system last night -- and bring you the fair and balanced. Also, you haters will be happy to hear that this will be the last Duke post for at least six months. After I wrap this up, it's time to move on to bigger and better things like, you know....the invention bracket. Sweet 16 voting ends tomorrow.

To comment on Daniel's last post: yes, I was pessimistic. Ask anyone in Durham, and they'll tell you that I spent the weekend acting as an emotional tether. At Duke, national championships are celebrated with a giant bonfire on the main quad. After the dominant win over West Virginia on Saturday night, people were talking about the bonfire as if it was as sure a thing as Bob Huggins and Da'Sean Butler eventually running away together. For the next two days, I put my downer soundtrack on repeat. "You guys know the bonfire isn't happening, right? Man, it's gonna suck when we lose to Butler. I've seen Hoosiers. I know how this ends."

Text Messages From a Duke Fan: Reverse Jinx or Lack of Confidence?

There are two types of sports fans: those who believe in jinxes (ie that you as a sports fan have an effect on your teams chances of winning/losing) and those who are misguided. Jinxes exist.  If you say aloud in the presence of other people that your team is going to win, it does not bode well for your team. My older brother, Zach, knows this all too well as he cost the Giants a win in the 2002 wildcard game against the 49ers when he inexplicably blurted out "Bring on the Bucs, this game is over!" with a 38-14 lead in the 3rd quarter.  I tried watching in a different room and changing into a different Giants jersey in order to appease the sports karma gods but the fate of the game was sealed. The Giants lost and I have held it over Zach ever since.

The Quad, The Quad, The Quad is on Fire

We don't need no water, let that something something burn.

Gloat gloat gloat gloat gloat gloat gloat.

Butler made us sweat. But Duke sweats championships. To all you Duke haters, my apologies; please keep reading the blog. To those of you who I went to school with, this one was for JJ, Shelden, Luol, Sean, Duhon, DeMarcus, and all of those McDonald's All-Americans who never had the chance. 

Be ready for a more comprehensive review tomorrow.

This is why Duke doesn't suck.

Painful to Watch

Duke took on Purdue in a Sweet 16 matchup on Friday night, and of course, everyone watching could only think of one thing:

Purdue Basketball: It will COMB YOU OVER!!!

But then the game started, and suddenly, I wasn't having so much fun. Purdue ground the game down to a halt. Duke was missing open looks. Purdue was airballing threes on several of their possessions. At one point in the first half, the two teams were shooting a combined 44%. And to clarify, this wasn't a combined average. Duke was shooting 23%. Purdue was shooting 21%. This one was as ugly as, well...I'm not gonna say it.

Cautious Pessimism

When I was in 8th grade, Duke had one of the greatest college basketball teams ever. Led by the inside play of Elton Brand and the sharpshooting Trajan Langdon, this team was stacked. They went 16-0 in ACC play, and rolled through the ACC Tournament, beating UNC by 23 in the final. They had only lost one game all year, their 6th game of the year, where they lost to Cincinnati when a buzzer-beater that would have won the game was waved off because it came a split-second too late. There were no expectations of anything less than a championship. Rolling into the NCAA Finals against UConn, this team didn't just look unbeatable, they were unbeatable.