2008 Woodie Awards
Football is over, but here comes Duke-UNC and college basketball
Brendan Clark
Issue date: 2/7/07 Section: Sports
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The greatest time of year is settling upon us. You may not be able to realize it considering the sub-zero temperatures and overwhelming sadness that we have yet to get a good snowfall, but it is. The college basketball season is in full swing with only a short month until March Madness, the best few weeks of action in sports.
This Wednesday night proves to put fans in the madness mood with a match up of teams in the biggest rivalry in college basketball, North Carolina at Duke. Now let's just get this out of the way so that I can avoid making bitter comments throughout the remainder of the article. If you asked me to name the worst thing about this country, I would most likely answer "Duke," or maybe New Jersey. But seriously, I hate Duke for so many reasons that I am going to write a two page footnote to this article explaining my hatred for Duke and if you want to read it, just let me know.
In my opinion, UNC has the best talent on the floor in college basketball. That said, they are very young, starting three freshmen, and if you take them out of their rhythm, they are much worse. However, if they are running the floor, then the score will most likely get out of hand very quickly. On the other hand, Duke is a team that has some serious scoring troubles and rests entirely on defense. Hmm, I see a startling connection to the Super Bowl match up here. Let's make this happen.
Defense: Duke's defense is good. Hold on; I just threw up in my mouth a little because I complimented Duke. As I was saying, Coach K's team defense is stellar. They are giving up 57.1 points a game, about six less than the closest team in the ACC. It's why they win games. UNC, on the other hand, gives up 66.1 points per game and at times has struggled in the half court set. So I guess I have to give the edge here to Duke on defense, much like Chicago clearly had the edge on defense in the Super Bowl.
Offense: Really no contest here. UNC puts up VMI-like numbers on offense, averaging nearly 90 points per game. I predict Duke to be chasing after UNC's heels all night. Yeah, that was a pun. So the obvious comparison here is to the Colts offense which is the best in the game when its clicking behind Peyton Manning. Now we're cookin'.
X Factor: I'll give you an X Fact: Greg Paulus (Duke's point guard) is really bad. Actually, this is an opinion, but it is an opinion that is entirely correct and, therefore, it is a fact. When a team's point guard is not so stellar, it affects all aspects of the game, especially the half court offense. This is much like a quarterback in football. Dust off those SAT review books, I'm about to make a sick analogy: Greg Paulus is to Duke as Rex Grossman is to the Bears. Both are not very good and both will ultimately cause their teams to lose the big game.
Thus, I am predicting a UNC win at Duke tonight. It's tough to win at Duke, but I am confident, so confident that if I am wrong, my article next week will be about how sweet lacrosse is. I might even give a shout out to Barbaro for horse lovers everywhere. Probably not.
This Wednesday night proves to put fans in the madness mood with a match up of teams in the biggest rivalry in college basketball, North Carolina at Duke. Now let's just get this out of the way so that I can avoid making bitter comments throughout the remainder of the article. If you asked me to name the worst thing about this country, I would most likely answer "Duke," or maybe New Jersey. But seriously, I hate Duke for so many reasons that I am going to write a two page footnote to this article explaining my hatred for Duke and if you want to read it, just let me know.
In my opinion, UNC has the best talent on the floor in college basketball. That said, they are very young, starting three freshmen, and if you take them out of their rhythm, they are much worse. However, if they are running the floor, then the score will most likely get out of hand very quickly. On the other hand, Duke is a team that has some serious scoring troubles and rests entirely on defense. Hmm, I see a startling connection to the Super Bowl match up here. Let's make this happen.
Defense: Duke's defense is good. Hold on; I just threw up in my mouth a little because I complimented Duke. As I was saying, Coach K's team defense is stellar. They are giving up 57.1 points a game, about six less than the closest team in the ACC. It's why they win games. UNC, on the other hand, gives up 66.1 points per game and at times has struggled in the half court set. So I guess I have to give the edge here to Duke on defense, much like Chicago clearly had the edge on defense in the Super Bowl.
Offense: Really no contest here. UNC puts up VMI-like numbers on offense, averaging nearly 90 points per game. I predict Duke to be chasing after UNC's heels all night. Yeah, that was a pun. So the obvious comparison here is to the Colts offense which is the best in the game when its clicking behind Peyton Manning. Now we're cookin'.
X Factor: I'll give you an X Fact: Greg Paulus (Duke's point guard) is really bad. Actually, this is an opinion, but it is an opinion that is entirely correct and, therefore, it is a fact. When a team's point guard is not so stellar, it affects all aspects of the game, especially the half court offense. This is much like a quarterback in football. Dust off those SAT review books, I'm about to make a sick analogy: Greg Paulus is to Duke as Rex Grossman is to the Bears. Both are not very good and both will ultimately cause their teams to lose the big game.
Thus, I am predicting a UNC win at Duke tonight. It's tough to win at Duke, but I am confident, so confident that if I am wrong, my article next week will be about how sweet lacrosse is. I might even give a shout out to Barbaro for horse lovers everywhere. Probably not.
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