The Upside - Duke II | Syracusefan.com

The Upside - Duke II

SWC75

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- The Marek Dolezaj we saw tonight is the Marek Dolezaj I had hoped to see this season: a confident and aggressive offensive player who could shoot, drive to the basket and pass for more baskets. He was our best and most spectacular player. He wound up with 10 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 1 assist and 1 block, (which is crazy because he had two on one play). We’ve seen that before. But we haven’t seen the aggressive drives and dunks we saw tonight. And that one assists (also ridiculous) was a classic behind the back from the high post to a driving Elijah Hughes. Hopefully, this is the Dolezaj we’ll see the rest of the season. If it is, great things are possible.

- We had four double-figure scorers and two other guys who had 8 and 7, respectively. Admirable balance, even if no one was putting up R. J. Barrett numbers. Like most teams, we are best when we share the ball and at our worst when players try to win the game on their own.

- The record crowd was energized and enthusiastic throughout. It reminded me of the old days when it was like that, (if not quite so large) every night. In 1989-90 we averaged 29,919 per game and everyone was into the game. People wanted to have a good time and they did. I was never the only one in my section making noise, as often seems to be the case these days. We didn’t gripe so much about what the team didn’t do. We enjoyed what they did do.

- I thought the death of Mr. Jimenez was handled as well as it could be: JB waited until the last moment to come out, got a standing ovation. I didn’t applaud as I was recording it on my phone but I kept shouting “We love you coach!” and “Hang In there coach!” to add to the enthusiasm. They had a moment of silence, (which Matt Park announced as “a moment of silence in English and one in Spanish” when the same moment was simply announced in the two languages). I do wish moments of silence actually lasted a full minute. You need some time for contemplation. Jim’s press conference was dignified and heart-felt. There’s much to felt but not much to be said. The only thing you can do is get back to doing what you do and doing it as well as you can and tonight was a start.

18-9 (9-5) and with 4+ to go

LET’S GO ORANGE!
 
I think I said in another thread that the vast majority of the crowd stayed in their seats, even when it became obvious we were going to lose. As luck would have it, a Duke fan was siting right next to me in the Stub Hub seats. We were so loud he at times held his head in his hands. But he was very low key and quite worried in the first half when we played so well.

The FACT of our good play in the first half continues to give me hope that these guys can pull off and upset win or two yet and that we will be into the NCAAs before the ACCT.
 

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