Since today marked the first Duke-Carolina game of the season, it was hard to focus on everything else today (although I made some significant strides at work).  My guess was that Duke would either win in a blowout or lose a close game.  They ended up shooting 32%, 50% from the three (thankfully!) and only 61% from the charity stripe.  Jon Scheyer, Mr. Freethrows himself, missed three.  That’s not supposed to happen.  Seriously, what happened to Duke’s free throw shooting these last couple of games?  The Heels also recorded 12 blocks.  It was ridiculous.  In the first half I think Duke was sitting at about 9% shooting inside the arc.

I was wrong about my predictions, but fortunately Carolina is terrible this year.  In the last six minutes or so I put on my Duke hat at Amanda’s suggestion and Nolan Smith started scoring, Mason Plumlee got a monster behind-the-back dunk and the team went on a run to finish the game 64-54.  Seriously, it was one of the worst Duke-Carolina games I can remember watching just because it was so ugly.  But Duke got the win, and that’s what counts.  The Heels’ dreams of making a run to get into the NCAA Tournament are pretty much shattered unless they can miraculously win the ACC Tournament and they might be lucky to make the NIT.  Carolina fans are either giving up or telling everyone to wait until next year.  Yeah, they have a nice class coming in, but I don’t think it will make them much better than Duke, if at all.

So yes, I was thinking about the game all day long while I was working.  Amy and Eli came over and hung out with Amanda and Milly.  And that was my day.

Zach Dotsey