Author: John Paulsen (Page 295 of 937)

      Duke edges Butler, 61-59

      April 5, 2010 /

      It was a storybook finish for Brian Zoubek.

      Something of a punch line for most of his four-year career at Duke, the light suddenly went on midway through his senior season. The game slowed down for the 7’1″ center and he quickly became a force defensively and on the glass.

      And he needed every inch of that big frame tonight. With just seconds remaining and Duke nursing a one-point lead, Butler’s best player, Gordon Hayward, drove into the lane. Zoubek helped off his man and forced Hayward into a difficult fadeaway jumper along the baseline that was a few inches too long. Zoubek was in the right spot to collect the rebound, and after a quick Butler foul, he had to make the long walk to the other end of the court to shoot a pair of free throws.

      Having shot just 55% on the season, Zoubek nailed his first attempt to give Duke a two-point lead. He was then told by his coach to intentionally miss the second* so that Butler would have to gather the rebound and drive the length of the floor to attempt a game-winning shot from half court. Hayward did just that, and once again missed by a few inches. The shot hit the backboard and clanged off the front of the rim.

      Just like that, Brian Zoubek became a national champion.

      Duke’s “Big Three” — Kyle Singler (19 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks), Jon Scheyer (15 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists) and Nolan Smith (13 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds) — certainly deserve much of the credit, but the Blue Devils would not have won the title tonight without the play of their big men, and Zoubek led the way. His eight points and 11 boards were huge; his play was especially noticeable in the second half when Duke only yielded two offensive rebounds. (Butler had 10 offensive rebounds in the first half.)

      Butler’s man-to-man defense was outstanding. The Blue Devils committed 13 turnovers and shot just 29% from long range. But Duke’s defense was just as good, forcing the Bulldogs into 35% shooting.

      It was a back-and-forth, white knuckle affair. Just when it looked like Duke might pull away, the Bulldogs would make a couple of plays to cut the lead back to one. It was just a great, great game.

      * This is a decision that I don’t agree with when there is 3+ seconds remaining — I’d rather go up three and have the worst-case scenario be overtime.


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      College Basketball, March Madness

      A Duke hater chats with The Scores Report

      April 5, 2010 /

      As we get ready for the Duke/Butler matchup tonight, I thought it would be interesting to get my buddy (and Duke hater) LaRusso on the line to bash the Blue Devils.

      John Paulsen: You’re a proud Duke hater, correct?

      LaRusso: I am.

      JP: What’s the biggest reason you hate Duke?

      LR: It seems like, I don’t know if they have a sense of entitlement, but columnists, I guess ESPN, Dick Vitale, just seem to put them up on a pedestal a lot. They’re on TV all the time. They’re a good program — a top of the line program — so they’re going to draw attention. Like me, people hate them or people love them. One way or another they’re going to move the needle. So I think it’s a perceived elitist mentality of how they are so much better than everybody. They seem to get calls, they get more publicity than other schools. So I think that’s the driving factor.

      JP: So one article I read listed like five reasons why people hate Duke and a commenter added a few more, so want to list them off and see what you think. So you think that they’re media darlings?

      LR: Yes.

      JP: They’re often compared to the Yankees, Cowboys and Patriots, and I guess the Lakers in terms of how much attention they get. I don’t like the Yankees comparison because it’s not like Duke can go out and outspend everybody. If anything, Coach K is at a disadvantage when compared with, say, North Carolina, in terms of recruiting because of Duke’s high academic standards.

      LR: They do have tougher standards for academics. Some schools make concessions for athletes, I don’t know if Duke does that, it doesn’t seem like it. They always have smart kids. I don’t know if they’re on the same level as the Yankees and Red Sox. That’s all the media talks about. And in football, I’d probably say it’s more Cowboys — I don’t think the Patriots get much love. They’re probably more hated now than loved like they were when Brady first came up and they started winning. It seems to have flipped 180 on them.

      JP: Well, we don’t have a local football team in Southern California, and if the Chargers aren’t on. We’re going to get the Cowboys because people either love them or they hate them. But it’s funny to me, because those teams that Duke is compared to — I hate them all. I don’t like the Yankees, or the Patriots or the Cowboys, so the fact that I’ve been a Duke fan since the days of Johnny Dawkins strikes some people as funny. I just gravitated towards the way that Coach K gets his kids to play night in and night out. We’ve talked about this in the past — I really take offense to this whole Yankees argument —

      LR: I guess a better way to put it is that Duke is force-fed to us a little too much.

      Continue reading »

      College Basketball, March Madness

      McNabb trade makes fantasy QB ranks even deeper

      April 5, 2010 /

      From a fantasy standpoint, the Eagles’ decision to trade Donovan McNabb to Washington throws another good quarterback into the fantasy mix. It’s too early to anoint Kevin Kolb the next Matt Schaub or Tony Romo, but in two starts last season, Kolb threw for 718 yards and four TD against the Saints and the Chiefs. Granted, that’s not the stiffest of competition in terms of pass defense, but Kolb proved that he could move the Eagles’ QB-friendly offense and gave the franchise enough confidence to not only trade McNabb away, but to trade him to division rival. That speaks volumes.

      Once again, it looks like Quarterback By Committee (QBBC) will be a viable option for fantasy owners who would rather load up on running backs and wide receivers in the first few rounds, and use two or three mid-round picks to form a quarterback committee. With Ben Roethlisberger’s situation still up in the air, I think you can draw a pretty thick line below the top seven guys: Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Philip Rivers, Tony Romo and Matt Schaub. After that, it’s a crap shoot in terms of who is a good bet to finish #8-#12. Kolb’s emergence as a fantasy option somewhat offsets the loss of Kurt Warner to retirement. And if Brett Favre unretires as expected, it will give QBBC advocates another strong fantasy option in the middle rounds.

      So don’t be surprised in a few months when I’m suggesting you draft Kolb, McNabb, Eli Manning, Matt Ryan, David Garrard, Jay Cutler, Carson Palmer, Joe Flacco, Matt Cassel, Matt Stafford, Alex Smith, Vince Young, Matt Moore, Chad Henne, Matt Hasselbeck and/or Mark Sanchez as part of a QBBC. It all depends on how the schedules line up and where these guys are going in early mock drafts.


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      Fantasy Football, NFL

      Three out of five ESPN college basketball experts pick Butler to win…

      April 5, 2010 /

      …and the other two want the Bulldogs to win.

      Who wins and why?

      [Eamonn] Brennan: My burgeoning relationship (and by “burgeoning” I mean I saw a dog in the press room and thought he was a sweetheart, and definitely way cooler than Uga) with Blue II would say Butler. Ah, but the heart says one thing and the head says another. I think Duke wins, only because of its size. Matt Howard will get into foul trouble. It’s going to happen. Once it does, Duke should be able to control the glass easily, get buckets on the interior and do what it did to West Virginia on Saturday night even if the offense isn’t quite that crazily efficient. Butler is an incredible, legendary story, and you have to have a heart of stone to root against them. (Even if I was a Duke fan, I might be having a Rocky-Drago moment right now.) But I think Duke wins, anticlimactic though it may be.

      [Pat] Forde: Butler wins 62-60 when Hayward pulls a Bobby Plump and hits the winning shot in the final seconds. Why? Because truth has been stranger than fiction this NCAA tournament.

      [Andy] Katz: Duke wins because of the uncertainty of Howard, the ability to rebound better off the offensive glass and the likelihood that Duke can score more easily than Butler and in bunches, too. Duke has the tendency to go on runs that stretch the game more than Butler does. That’s what my mind says, but my heart wants to see an iconic story receive a winning conclusion of a Butler Bulldogs team that refused to lose in 2010.

      [Dana] O’Neil: I think Butler pulls the single greatest stunner in NCAA tournament history. The Bulldogs’ quick hands will make it hard for Duke to set up in its half-court offense, and Butler’s savvy defense won’t allow the Blue Devils to get any easy shots. I know how well Duke shot the ball against West Virginia, but that’s more exception than rule. This isn’t ordinarily a great shooting team, and I suspect the Devils won’t be able to match that offensive firepower. Mix in the talent of Gordon Hayward, whom I suspect will be guarded by Kyle Singler, and I see Butler marching the five miles down the street with trophy in hand.

      [Mark] Schlabach: I’m probably guessing more with my heart than my mind, but I think Butler finds a way to win a close game. The Blue Devils won’t shoot the ball as well as they did in their rout of West Virginia in the national semifinals. The Bulldogs won’t allow them to have as many open looks on the perimeter, and guards Ronald Nored and Willie Veasley will take away two-thirds of Duke’s three-headed monster. Gordon Hayward will hit big shots down the stretch, and Butler will march the trophy from Lucas Oil Stadium to its campus in north Indianapolis.

      It seems like pundits can be broken up into two camps: 1) those that pick Duke to win, but are admittedly rooting for Butler, and 2) those that actually believe the Bulldogs are going to pull the upset.

      This is going to be a strange segue, but I’ve been reading Dan Brown’s book, The Lost Symbol, and its all about Noetic theory, which (among other things) studies the effect that the human mind can have on the physical world. What am I getting at? Well, if virtually everyone that’s watching the game tonight wants Butler to win, will it influence the outcome? If it were ever to have an effect, it seems like tonight would be the night — has there ever been a single game where such a vast majority of the viewing public will be rooting for one side to win?

      Did I just blow your mind?


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      College Basketball, March Madness

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