Milly was in our room early this morning, but she didn’t say anything to get us up, so Amanda and I acted like we were asleep and fell back asleep. Milly was content. What we didn’t know was that she brought almost every toy from her room into our room in that time. I heard her talking quietly to her toys, but my eyes were closed, and I’m on the far side of the bed anyway, so I wouldn’t have seen her handiwork eve if I had opened my eyes.
Started not feeling great late last night, carried over into today. Milly was a little sniffly too. I spent some time playing Street Fighter IV last night and today, and let Milly play a little too. Is that bad parenting? Anyway, Michael got me PlayStation Plus for my birthday, which lets you download certain games for free to the PS hard drive, and that’s one of them that I got.
We did some running around in the morning. GG gave Milly some money to get an Easter dress, so Amanda let Milly pick one out while looking at the Old Navy website. We went there and Milly picked out the same one, though she later opted for a pink one instead. She looked around at dresses then went to where the toys are and started dancing to the music playing in the store. She was very social. There were a couple little girls about her age at different times that Milly walked up to and started talking with. I love when she does that.
Went to Costco after that and signed up for DirecTV. It’s cheaper, will give us an excuse to drop the phone line we don’t use, and the quality is better, at least on my parents’ TV. They’ve got the same TV we have and their TV looks so much better. Anyway, that will get switched over on Wednesday.
While waiting at a Costco grazing station, Milly saw a guy with a Tar Heel shirt and said something like, “Eww, Tar Heels.” The guy and I just laughed.
Amanda and Milly went to hang with the Griffens for a bit. I walked down to take Milly, as she and I had been napping when Amanda left, but I came back a few minutes later. Just too tired and work out, and I wanted to rest of the the game.
When I walked down the street, Christin’s brother was all decked out in Carolina gear. I had a shirt and hat and Gavin was wearing a Virginia shirt. They and another guy who turned out to be a Duke fan were shooting a basketball. Anyway, someone said something, nothing mean or anything, and I told Christin’s brother, who was very confident in his team’s chances tonight, that I hoped the Heels shoot like he was shooting. (He was missing most of his shots, obviously. Not that I’d have been any better.)
When they got back I introduced Milly to Little Big Planet 2, which I also downloaded. She spent most of her time trying to learn how to decorate her sack person.
The Duke-Carolina game, at the Dean Dome for their senior night, came on at 9:00. Milly wen to bed a little after 8, Amanda and I watched a half hour show then the game was on. My thoughts on it all week went kind of like this: Duke has the better team and better players, plus they match up well against the Heels. However, Carolina’s on a six-game win streak, Duke likes to start games cold and Duke hasn’t beat Carolina during senior night in a long while. Turns out Roy Williams was actually undefeated on senior nights at both Carolina and Kansas. So I thought Duke could have a good game, but I also thought it could be a game we see a lot of lately where Duke starts cold, gets behind then comes back and wins or keeps it tight the whole way, and could even lose. But if they played to their potential, the Blue Devils should beat the Heels handily.
Imagine my joy when Duke showed they were not going to get off to a slow start. In fact, Mason Plumlee scored on the first attempt with a hook shot, then Tyler Thornton hit a three, then Seth Curry hit a layup, then Ryan Kelly got a bucket. That was the first ten points, all without the Heels getting a single bucket. Seth went on to hit two more shots before Carolina got on the board with a free throw, making it a 14-0 start. It was awesome. Curry hit one shot that he put up where he was falling down, essentially making it while he was sitting flat on the ground. Mason went off for 23, Seth has 20. Ryan Kelly only hit two shots, but he only took four. While that may sound like Carolina took him out of his game, he affected it still on defense and creating space for Mason and Seth. Quinn Cook had 12 to go along with his five assits. Duke was ahead 18 at the half and won 69-53. Yeah, they came back down to earth, ending with 55% shooting, but the defense held the Heels to 34%. They were never in it. It was such a nice way to end the regular season, and if Duke keeps playing like they did tonight and in the second half of the Virginia Tech game, it could be a very special postseason.
The great thing about it was that Carolina fans were so jacked up on their win streak and a lot of them thought they had it in the bag. It was pretty fun to watch, honestly. If Duke had kept up the intensity, it could have been another 82-50 beatdown, I do believe.
Zach Dotsey