USA Returns to Gold

On Sunday, Team USA beat Spain 118-107 to win the gold medal in men's basketball at the Beijing Olympics. The win marks Team USA's first Olympic gold medal in men's basketball since the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Unfortunately, since the Olympic basketball final aired live at 3:00 AM Eastern time on Saturday night/Sunday morning, most people probably didn't get to see it. And if that's the case, they missed a really fun, exciting game.

Spain gave Team USA all it could handle -- especially under the basket, where Spain's twin tower Gasol brothers (the Lakers' Pau Gasol and Marc Gasol) couldn't be kept off the glass.

But thanks to a spectacular first half performance by Dwayne Wade (who subbed for Kobe Bryant when Kobe was saddled with early foul trouble) and designated go to "closer" Kobe Bryant's heady decision to take over in the final minutes of the game, the Team USA proved to be too much for the scrappy Spaniards.

After having found the previous two U.S. teams (2000 & 2004) difficult to watch -- those editions of Team USA had too many egos, too many ball hogs, not enough defense, not enough teamwork, etc. -- it was a joy to see this U.S. team buy into their respective roles and "leave it all on the floor."

Sure, the U.S. team was perimeter heavy & not very big in the interior. And yeah, Spain got into the lane at will (the culprit often being whomever Chris Paul was guarding) and got too many rebounds and second chance opportunities.

But it was just outright fun to watch Dwayne Wade come off the bench and explode for 21 points in the 1st half, with a crazy burst of energy (knowing that he was merely spelling Kobe, and could lay it all on the line rather than pace himself in order to remain strong throughout the game). As a role player, Wade had the luxury of gambling on defense, over playing the passing lanes to an almost ridiculous degree and gunning for weak side steals on ball handlers.

The result was a flurry of steals and fast break dunks that one doesn't normally see in NBA games.

Credit U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski for being able to get his players to accept their respective roles and gel as a team ... a team dedicated to the common goal of winning Olympic Gold. And credit Krzyzewski and Team USA President, Jerry Colangelo, for assembling a roster with the right combination of basketball talent and character to achieve that goal.

(Image: New York Times)

West Virginia Upsets Duke

By Trashtalk Superstar

Immediately after selecting Duke to beat West Virginia in my NCAA Tournament bracket, I started to wish that I'd picked West Virginia instead. I'd waffled a bit before I picked Duke because I felt certain that West Virginia could (and maybe should) beat the Blue Devils.

But ultimately, I decided that West Virginia had been too inconsistent this year for me to feel especially confident about picking them over Duke. Then I made a major error: I started to project how West Virginia would match up against Duke, position by position. I thought that West Virginia was as good as, or better than Duke at every position except for at the wing. I concluded that Duke's combination of Gerald Henderson and DeMarcus Nelson would be hard for West Virginia to defend, and that the game would likely turn on Duke's advantage in that particular matchup.

On Saturday, West Virginia upset Duke 73-67, and earned a trip to next week's Sweet 16.

DeMarcus Nelson was held to 6 points.

Now I really I wish that I'd just gone ahead and picked West Virginia. I wanted to, but I let myself over think my decision.

Look, for the last two or three years years it's been my contention that Duke has been vastly overrated.

Before last year's NCAA Tournament field was announced, I questioned whether Duke even deserved an NCAA Tournament bid, and I suggested that they probably really belonged in the N.I.T. And I wasn't exactly shocked when Virginia Commonwealth knocked Duke out of the Tournament in the first round.

But I believe that many of the world's ills are directly attributable to mankind's seemingly insatiable thirst for ego-gratification: particularly the kind of ego-gratification that one gets from saying,"I told you so," "I was right and you were wrong," etc. And besides, I didn't think that Duke's loss to VCU was that big of a surprise. So I refrained from commenting on Duke's early exit from the 2007 NCAA Tournament on Drive and Dish. I did, however, take note of ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale's preposterous explanation of Duke's first round Tournament collapse last year . Furthermore, in that archived Drive and Dish post, I cast my cynical eye on what I considered to be overly optimistic projections of a Duke return to glory in 2008. I asserted that I'd noticed the development a trend wherein ESPN college basketball analysts would attempt to minimize poor NCAA Tournament showings by Duke with the promise of an immediate return to dominance for the Blue Devils in the upcoming season (and NCAA Tournament), courtesy of yet another stellar incoming Duke recruiting class:

"Not to worry, Dukies. Vitale jubilantly pointed to Duke's outstanding recruiting class for 2007. He told the Sports Center audience that the Devils will get right back to kickin' ass and takin' names in '08. Help is on the way! Duke has some serious studs coming in! The Dukies will be back at the top next year, baby!

Sound familiar? It should. Again, Vitale said exactly the same thing last year. Hey, how could Mike Krzyzewski be expected win Tournament games with overachievers like (Shelden) Williams and (J.J.) Redick? Once Duke replaced that dead weight with incoming super freshmen such as Gerald Henderson and Jon Scheyer, Vitale pleaded, they would be right back on top of college basketball in '07. Baby!"

And I questioned the logic by which Vitale (and other analysts) arrived at the conclusion that Duke was destined for greatness in 2008:

"Vitale would have college basketball fans believe that some scrawny white (kid) named Kyle Singler is going to step on campus next year, and -as a skinny, goofy looking freshman- lead Duke back to the promised land. Naw, Dickie V, you're not putting undue pressure on a kid who's still in high school. Kyle Singler already has enough to stress about: graduation, whom to take to Prom, what to do after Prom, etc. Now he's got to figure out how to single-handedly lead Duke back to the Final Four next year.

Just as Jon Scheyer and Gerald Henderson were going to lead Duke back to the Final Four - as skinny freshmen- this year.

Just as Greg Paulus was supposed to do -as a skinny freshman- last year."

It has been my contention that over the last three years, the national sports media has over-hyped and overrated Duke (and, to a lesser degree, the entire Atlantic Coast Conference). And ESPN has done so, in large part, because of programming considerations.

Duke has truly become college basketball's equivalent of Notre Dame football.

Consider the fact that just as every Notre Dame football game is broadcast to a national television audience, so too is every Duke basketball game. No other college basketball program can claim that distinction. It doesn't matter whether Duke plays an opponent that would naturally generate a large television audience -- such as when they play their arch-rival, North Carolina (in yet another "battle of the century," or "game for the ages") -- or whether Duke plays an early season patsy such as Florida A&M or Cornell. Every single Duke game is nationally televised.

And most of those games are broadcast on ESPN. Duke basketball has all but become the centerpiece of ESPN's college basketball programming. Therefore, it's in ESPN's best interest to have Dick Vitale and their other college basketball analysts constantly doing their best to hype up and, hopefully, generate interest in Duke basketball.

Another way in which Duke basketball mirrors Notre Dame football is in the way Duke basketball generates extreme emotional responses from sports fans. Just like Notre Dame, plenty of folks love Duke and everything that Duke basketball purports to represent, but a hell of a lot more people absolutely DESPISE Duke, and loathe everything that they perceive Duke basketball to represent.

Although contributing Drive and Dish basketball commentator Mark Buckets will, undoubtedly, balk at the following characterization, Duke basketball (and, for that matter, Duke University) is widely perceived as being arrogant.

Duke is college basketball's "blue blood" program du jour. And unlike college programs that have previously been (and occasionally still are) referred to as "college basketball blue bloods" (Kentucky, Kansas, UCLA, Indiana, North Carolina), Duke's basketball program represents an institution (Duke University) which is an extremely selective, highly reputable, ungodly expensive private university that boasts an amazing $6 billion dollar endowment.

What's more, the nutty Duke students who camp outside Cameron Indoor Stadium for weeks before each Duke game, paint their faces and bodies blue, pack Cameron's 9,000 (or so) seats to the rafters, boisterously bop up and down while chanting, screaming and taunting, and mercilessly ridicule opposing teams' players (often with predictions of those players' pending status as future professional subordinates/flunkees of said Cameron Crazies) do nothing to minimize the public's widespread perception of Duke as an elitist institution, comprised of arrogant little prick students who come from wealthy, privileged Northeastern families.

It's easy to understand why lots of people don't like Duke. Duke is an easy target. And it doesn't help that Duke's coach, Mike Krzyzewski, often comes across as aloof and arrogant himself.

There's just no way around it: Duke basketball generates passion. People either love Duke or they hate Duke. There's really very little in-between. Just as in the case of Notre Dame football.

So ESPN's constant promotion of Duke should be seen as a smart move. Duke's basketball program is different from any other program in the college basketball. Duke basketball equates to drama. For ESPN, programming and promoting Duke hoops is a no brainer. It's kind of like their version of having a soap opera or reality show.

Duke basketball games have esentially become ESPN's answer to American Idol and Dancing With the Stars. Duke basketball broadcasts provide drama, intrigue and live/unscripted competition.

And you either root for Duke or you root against them. But one thing you aren't is apathetic.

In my opinion, that's why ESPN and the national media hype Duke up so much. It has everything to do with drama and with television programming.

So guys like Dick Vitale talk about Duke until the cows come home.

But, in the end, it results in Duke being perpetually overrated (although that, in no way, should detract from the actual success -- 3 National Championships, multiple Final Four appearances -- that the Duke basketball program has had over the past 25 years).

Before filling out my NCAA brackets, I really thought that West Virginia had a good chance of beating Duke. And before the season started, I thought that Duke was overrated and that their youth and inexperience (along with their weaknesses at point guard and in the post) would prevent them from being an elite team and from making a deep run in hte 2008 NCAA Tournament.

But as the season went along (and especially after Duke went into the Dean Smith Center and beat North Carolina in February), I began to let the chatter affect my better judgment. That's why I ultimately picked Duke over West Virginia.

I won't be fooled again.

Krzyzewski Gets 800th Win

With today's 87-86 win over North Carolina State, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski entered the rarefied air of coaches who have 800 career wins.

Congratulations to Coach K.

Drive and Dish Tidbits

By Trashtalk Superstar

It's mid February, it's 10 degrees in Chicago, the second half of the NBA season has officially begun, college basketball's regular season is heading into its stretch run, and Drive and Dish presents another installation of the ever popular Drive and Dish Tidbits:

1.) North Carolina coach Roy Williams has taken umbrage with remarks made by Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, with regard to "certain" college basketball teams' reporting of injuries.

Much has been made by the media -- both local (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) and national -- of the injuries that have plagued several members of the North Carolina basketball team this season. On Sunday, Krzyzewski stated that Duke doesn't discuss injuries, "unlike other schools."

Williams interpreted Krzyzewski's statement to be a backhanded jab at him and at his North Carolina program.

On his Monday radio show, Williams opined that an unnamed coach should "coach (his) own damn team, I'll coach my team."

And in a Tuesday news conference, Williams revisited the topic: "It's not like I'm getting a dadgum plane and flying it around to say, 'Roy fell against a wall and banged his nose' or anything." Williams continued, "We have to do those things (talk about injuries) and everybody's hurt. But there's different stages of being hurt."

"If you're hurt and missing games, that's not exactly like having a hangnail. And so we do have some people that are getting hurt and missing games. I don't think that somebody should say we're putting it in front of the public."

Apparently, Coach K's comments really got under Roy Williams' skin. According to the linked article:

When a reporter attempted to ask a follow-up question, Williams said he didn't want to discuss the comments further and have "battles through the media." But when the news conference ended, Williams came back to the topic once more.

"I said before we played Duke it's impossible to have any more respect than I do for Mike," Williams said, "but I felt like that comment was aimed towards us."


After thoroughly researching the subject matter, and following hours of intense deliberation, the Drive and Dish editorial staff has arrived at the following revelation: Coach K and Roy must really not like each other as much as they say they do.


2.) ESPN's Pat Forde says that a "source close to the unsettled coaching situation at Indiana University" has told him it's likely that Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson will be suspended "for the purpose of future termination."

Drive and Dish has heard this before. Our official position is: we'll believe it when we see it.


3.) Speaking of the Indiana/Sampson scandal, Toki Wartooth at Paint the Town Orange reminds readers that Indiana knew exactly what they were getting when the hired Sampson in 2006.

IU was well aware that Sampson had a history of violating NCAA bylaws at Oklahoma. They simply didn't care.

Last Thursday, Drive and Dish discussed Sampson's history, his hiring at Indiana, and his shady behavior since arriving in Bloomington.

Indiana used to be one of the cleanest programs in major college basketball.

But integrity has been in short supply in the IU Athletic Department as of late.

Hopefully, Indiana will have to pay a price for their indifference toward the following of NCAA bylaws (just to be clear: Drive and Dish likes Indiana University and IU basketball [and we've got several friends and associates who are IU alumni] ... we just don't like Kelvin Sampson, or what Indiana basketball has become under his stewardship).


4. ) Also at Paint the Town Orange: despite being a few days old, Mr./Ms. Wartooth's post game account of the Penn State / Illinois game provides a great synopsis of Illinois' 2007/08 season.


5.) Tuesday's upset victory over #16 Drake marked Bradley's sixth game of the season against the four Division I basketball programs from the state of Iowa. Bradley has now defeated all four of Iowa's Division I teams.

Bradley beat Iowa State (65-56) Nov. 14 at Carver Arena in Peoria, beat Iowa (67-56) Nov. 23 at the South Padre Island Thanksgiving Tournament and beat Northern Iowa (75-73) Jan. 12 in Cedar Falls, IA.

According to the official website of the Bradley Athletic Department:

"Of the states that boast multiple NCAA Division I institutions, Bradley has not swept every Division I team a state has to offer since beating both Arizona (67-59) and Arizona State (92-85) during the 1963-64 season (Northern Arizona was not yet playing Division I men’s basketball at the time)."


6.) Drive and Dish doesn't like to discuss recruiting, but since we've been so Duke/North Carolina-centric lately (and since hardcore Duke fans account for a significant portion of the Drive and Dish community), we'll pass along the following recruiting buzz: Duke appears to be the likely destination for 6'11" power forward Mason Plumlee, of the Christ School in Arden, NC.


7.) More Duke stuff: DeMarcus Nelson takes viewers on a tour of Duke's practice facilities at Dukeblueplanet.com.


8.) As the NBA trade deadline approaches, two league sources have indicated that Denver is in "full pursuit" of troubled Sacramento forward Ron Artest.

Wake Forest Upsets Duke

Last night, #2 Duke traveled to Winston-Salem to face Wake Forest, in what was supposed to be a relatively easy win for the red hot Blue Devils. Instead, Wake Forest upset Duke 86-73.

In an uncharacteristically sloppy showing by coach Mike Krzyzewski's Devils, Duke committed 22 turnovers and saw all five of its starters foul out of the game.

Early in the season, Wake Forest looked awful. Drive and Dish even made special mention of Wake's dismal showing at Iowa in the Big Ten/ ACC Challenge because both teams appeared to be so inept (Wake did manage to beat Iowa, which looked to be the worst team in major college basketball at the time). After the shocking off-season death of head coach Skip Prosser, the young Demon Deacons struggled to adjust to new coach Dino Gaudio.

But Wake has been hot as of late. They're 14-1 at home. They have talented youngsters in Jeff Teague and James Johnson. And with last night's win, the Demon Deacons may have punched their NCAA Tournament card.

What's more, Wake Forest has an outstanding recruiting class waiting in the wings for next season. When those players arrive and combine with Wake's current young stars, Teague and Johnson, Wake Forest should have the talent to be a legitimate player in the ACC.

And since Wake has found its groove under Gaudio, has turned its season around and is likely headed to the NCAA Tournament, Wake Forest's program will have a strong foundation in place when the vaunted 2008 recruiting class arrives on campus.

Although his coaching tenure didn't start out on the best of terms, Dino Gaudio has clearly established himself as the leader of the Wake Forest basketball program. He's no longer merely the guy who took over in the wake of Skip Prosser's untimely passing. Tonight's win only served to reinforce that. Thus, when the highly regarded 2008 recruiting class arrives on campus in the Fall, Wake Forest will definitely be Dino Gaudio's program.

Wake Forest figures to be one of the top teams in the ACC in 2009.

If Wake Forest basketball were publicly traded, Drive and Dish would issue it a strong "buy" rating.

As for Duke, last night's loss is nothing more than a mere bump in the road. Duke will be fine.

Rick Majerus: Open Mouth, Insert Foot (Again)

By Trashtalk Superstar

In yesterday's Sunday Chicago Tribune, Columnist Rick Morrissey took on basketball coaches who espouse their political views in public forums. Morrissey's column was prompted by comments that Saint Louis Billikens' basketball coach Rick Majerus made about abortion and stem cell research at a recent Hillary Clinton campaign rally.

I had intended to write about Majerus' comments myself, but then a rash of upsets occurred in college basketball last week, and Rick Majerus' latest incident of shooting off his mouth quickly fell by the wayside in terms of warranting Drive and Dish's immediate attention.

But Morrissey's article hits on most of the points that I had intended to address. So I decided to link it up on Drive and Dish.

For the record, I don't know why coaches (or athletes, actors, rappers, rock stars, celebrity chefs, daytime TV talk show hosts, playwrights, screenwriters, authors, etc...) think that the world needs a public hearing of their political views. If a basketball coach wants to talk publicly about the intricacies of the match up zone, then let his voice be heard. But when he starts to believe that it's imperative that the world hear his thoughts on water boarding, Guantanamo Bay, capital gains taxes, the economic stimulus package, or any other political issue of the day, he's letting himself fall victim to his super sized ego ... if not to delusions of grandeur.

Rick Majerus should never have spouted his political views to a television reporter. And he should have understood that, as a representative of both Saint Louis University and the Billikens' basketball program, part of his job description is to present a positive, non controversial, apolitical public image. But Majerus has a long history of doing his thinking out loud. Drive and Dish has discussed this before.

Look, I was pretty critical of Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski's very public support for Elizabeth Dole during her 2002 North Carolina Senatorial campaign. And I like Coach K. What's more, I had a fairly strong dislike for Elizabeth Dole's opponent, Erskine Boles (even though he's, most likely, a distant relative of mine and doesn't exactly have a lightning rod personality).

But Coach K stuck his neck out too far when he injected himself into the larger political debate. He's a great basketball coach. He's a fine leader of young men (as North Carolina fans will surely attest). And hell, I don't doubt that he knows what he's talking about with regard to government and politics. Krzyzewski is, after all, a really sharp guy.

But it's simply not a basketball coach's place to make his political views and policy recommendations known to the public.

Not Mike Krzyzewski, not Dean Smith, not Bob Knight, Nolan Richardson, Rick Majerus, or even John Wooden.

And as for Rick Majerus, he's certainly always spoken his mind. But he's been speaking a little too much of it as of late.

Rick Majerus just needs to show some self discipline and shut his pie hole -- for the first time in his life.

Dick Vitale Must Double as Coach K's Publicist

By Have Jumpshot Will Travel (a.k.a. Trashtalk Superstar)

After watching an early edition of ESPN's Sports Center Friday night (the first time I've seen SC all year-basketball games are the only TV that I watch), I think I can probably make the following declaration: I may have finally "seen it all."

When asked about Duke's first round NCAA Tournament upset loss to Virginia Commonwealth, Dick Vitale said that the loss wasn't actually disappointing for Duke. He said that, given the dearth of talent on this Duke team, it was simply amazing that they were able to get to the NCAA Tournament in the first place. He said that Mike Krzyzewski turned in the best coaching job of his career this season. In his ridiculous attempt at spin, Vitale argued that with the cupboard bare, Coach K somehow managed- against all odds - to corral this motley assortment of scrubs into into a competitive unit. With the wind at their backs and the gods looking after them, those poor, underdog Blue Devils were able to scrape by- pulling out just enough miracle wins over far superior teams to will their way into the Tournament.

There are so many problems with this picture that I simply don't have time to delve into them all. However, I just can't let Vitale make such a statement without calling him out.

Dick Vitale picked Duke to reach the Sweet Sixteen in his Tournament bracket. He reiterated that prediction two days ago. Just this Wednesday, Vitale went on Jim Rome's nationally syndicated radio show and said that Duke was a good team and that they would make a run in the Tournament. He couldn't "go against Coach K, baby!" In two days, Vitale has gone from telling people not to underestimate Duke, to proclaiming the Devils to be an inferior team that overachieved more than any other team ever has, in all of recorded history.

Sound familiar? It should. College basketball fans may recall that last season, after Duke's disappointing showing in the NCAA Tournament, Vitale opined that Krzyzewski had done the best coaching job of his career by taking a team so devoid of talent as far as he did. That was simply preposterous. Duke had eight McDonald's All Americans on its roster. Two Duke players were selected in the first round of the NBA draft (Shelden Williams and J.J. Redick, who Vitale insisted was the best shooter in college basketball last year, and maybe ever).

Man! Poor lil' Coach K is doing it with smoke and mirrors these days.

Not to worry, Dukies. Vitale jubilantly pointed to Duke's outstanding recruiting class for 2007. He told the Sports Center audience that the Devils will get right back to kickin' ass and takin' names in '08. Help is on the way! Duke has some serious studs coming in! The Dukies will be back at the top next year, baby!

Sound familiar? It should. Again, Vitale said exactly the same thing last year. Hey, how could Mike Krzyzewski be expected win Tournament games with overachievers like Williams and Redick? Once Duke replaced that dead weight with incoming super freshmen such as Gerald Henderson and Jon Scheyer, Vitale pleaded, they would be right back on top of college basketball in '07. Baby!

M'kay.

Vitale would have college basketball fans believe that some scrawny white boy named Kyle Singler is going to step on campus next year, and -as a skinny, goofy looking freshman- lead Duke back to the promised land. Naw, Dickie V, you're not putting undue pressure on a kid who"s still in high school. Kyle Singler already has enough to stress about: graduation, whom to take to Prom, what to do after Prom, etc. Now he's got to figure out how to single-handedly lead Duke back to the Final Four next year.

Just as Jon Scheyer and Gerald Henderson were going to lead Duke back to the Final Four - as skinny freshmen- this year.

Just as Greg Paulus was supposed to do -as a skinny freshman- last year.

Look, I respect Dick Vitale. Since he joined ESPN over twenty five years ago, nobody has done more to promote the game of college basketball. Vitale's energy and enthusiasm are contagious. He brings life to any broadcast that he does. However, Dick Vitale has little, if any, credibility on this one.

College basketball teams typically succeed when experienced upper class men are the core of the team. Freshmen can be great, but even the best freshmen need to have good upper class men around them to succeed at the highest level. True, some freshmen have led their teams to Final Fours (Carmello Anthony led Syracuse to the National Championship in 2003, the Fab Five took Michigan to the Final Four in 1992), but, more often than not, experienced talent is what wins in college hoops. Carmello Anthony and the Fab Five were the exception, rather than the rule. It takes time for kids to mature into a great college basketball players. It's just not realistic to expect a freshman to step onto campus and turn a basketball program around by himself.

Dick Vitale should know this. He was a successful college and NBA coach. He knows the game inside and out. But, for as much as Vitale has done to promote college basketball, he has done more (over the last ten years) to promote Duke. He is a personal friend of Mike Krzyzewski's. His daughters are Duke alumni. Duke is very close to Dick Vitale's heart. Vitale is simply not credible when discussing Duke basketball.

That's okay. College basketball fans know that Dick Vitale has unconditional love for Duke basketball. Heck, his nickname is Dukie V. But Vitale was really, really, really reaching when he said that this was the best coaching of Mike Krzyzewski' s career.