Are You Surprised?

We were not really surprised, but it did look like all Duke for all but 12 minutes of this well-hyped game. Let's take a look a our "Keys" to the game for each team and see how they fared:

UNC

Shock and Awe: The Heels have to score fast and decisively to quiet down the 8,000 or so New Jersey transplants (i.e. Duke students) who have camped out all night to see their beloved, albeit average, Blue Devils. Once Carolina can stop these future day-traders from bouncing up and down and shouting "classy" chants, then it will be all over. A large component to the "shock and awe" strategy will be to dunk often and to dunk with emotion (SEE: Jerry Stackhouse).

Play tight defense at the three-point line: nothing makes a Dookie bounce like a three from the corner (SEE: J.J. Reddick) so if you can shut down the scoring beyond the arc, you limit the Duke momentum.

OK, neither of these things happened for Carolina. The Heels looked like they were content to bring their ho-hum attitude attitude they had against NC State into Cameron. Duke was able to get the Crazies bouncing with a lot of three's. UNC did not look dominate in the first half. They did manage some decisive dunks in the second half, though.

Keep the pressure on Paulus: Greg Paulus couldn't lead his team to the bathroom, so if you pressure him he will cave. Looks like no one even thought about pressuring Paulus until Wes Miller was charged with the task in the second half. Miller shut him down.

Draw the Foul: with a host of large players, Carolina should be able to force McRoberts into having to foul. Carolina's goal should be having McRoberts with 3 fouls in the first half and fouling out with 12 minutes to go. McRoberts did not foul out, but he did get into foul trouble and was pulled around the 12 minute mark. No depth at this position, and McRoberts is not a force.

Duke

Home Court: yes, they are the underdog, but if the Crazies start bouncing and get into the heads of the young Heels, it could be a long night for Carolina. Looked like this would be the case early, as the fans were bouncing and the Blue Devils were having their way with the Heels.

Cry: Coach Cry will undoubtedly cry and cuss about every foul called on the Devils. Depending on who the refs are, he may be able to get an edge here. Watch for Mike's "stare" during several time-outs. He likes to try and stare down the refs. We were impressed that Coach Cry did not throw any tantrums.

The 3's: as we have noted, if Duke can start hitting the three-pointers, then they could have a good chance. It almost worked.

Motivation: Mike Cry is an excellent motivator, if you like streams of four-letter words, and he will have this undermanned team believing that they are all-world and that everyone is out to get them. They did think they were rulers of the world 75% of the game. Then reality set in.

Cameron: good place to play only if you are a Blue Devil. It is hot and humid, the floor is slick, and there are a bunch of weird and ugly people (SEE: Duke Cheerleaders) jumping up and down and waving their hands and chanting things about opponent's body-parts or mothers or dogs or SAT scores. It is surreal (SEE: Clockwork Orange). Looking at all those kids painted up in blue we had to wonder just how many shower-hours were needed after the loss to return their skin to New Jersey-pale.

So, it was a classic. But UNC came out on top, and Duke drops to 5-5 in the ACC.

We are sure there were some games tonight, and that there are some tomorrow night, but we are taking a must-needed break as we start to review some of the NCAA bracket predictions that have come out this week. We will be back tomorrow (Friday) in full-force to comment on this weekend's games.