...The Ultimate Truths!
Well, let The Ultimate Lord begin by saying He has missed you all. Talk of bacon and D'nika Romero aside, basketball season is where it is at. And what little The Ultimate Lord has been able to make out through squinting at a computer screen while DookSucksGoHeels! has been blasting away on the chat about **** buying off the refs led Him to believe it will be a very interesting season! Finally though it is time for ESPN... and let the games begin!
* Ahhh The Ultimate Lord missed the ESPN basketball music! It is like Pavlov's dogs... play the music, and The Ultimate Lord starts screaming obscenties and insisting K recruit a big guy!
* This will be a terrific test of SIU?!?! WTF is that crap?!?! A test of THEM? Seriously?
* Come on Gerald... we need you to really step up this game and get nasty here... otherwise we might start getting nervous.
* BTW, sorry to say it, but The Ultimate Lord's money is on cancer. Sorry, Coaches, but it's got a lot of experience.
* Wow. Bob Knight looks crusty and cranky. In other words, like Bob Knight.
* Kyle w/hair > Kyle w/out. The Ultimate Lord always hated the "concentration camp survivor" look that our skinny white guys seem to adopt sometimes.
* Doris > Erin in every way. Well... almost every way.
* Gerald jumping when we have 7 foot Zoubek in there never gets old. Or any less depressing.
* Speaking of Zoubek... goddamn it.
* Wow... MSG looks BEAUTIFULLY empty on HDTV to start! Where are all the Dukies?! Or did they all move back to New Jersey after losing their jobs on Wall Street?
* WTF is a Saluki, anyway?
* Thank god for Kyle this year.
* Love that clip of the '93 team. Seeing the 33 and the 11 out there is ALWAYS a treat.
* Wojo is going to have some SERIOUS "crazy old man" eyebrows someday. Think "Andy Rooney" eyebrows.
* Hmmm... so this is three Duke games, three Nolan starts, and three slow, disjointed starts by Duke. It is time to put Greg back in as the starting PG.
* BTW; a Saluki is maybe the oldest domesticated dog breed in the world, first being kept as a pet as long as 7000 years ago, and bred in Iraq. Not only does The Ultimate Lord socialize (and get frustrated with Brian Zoubrick) but The Ultimate Lord informs! (Thank you Dwight.)
* When Zoubek did the first right thing of the game (that reach in to cause a TO... which, in retrospect, may have actually been a WRONG thing with a lucky result) did you see the bench go nuts?
* The Ultimate Lord hearts Jon Scheyer.
* Man, Nate Dogg looks SHARP in a suit! Only thing he looks sharper in? A Duke uniform.
* BTW, speaking of Jon... don't let The Ultimate Lord hear another moron say Jon isn't athletic. He really, really is. Just because a brother is skinny and white and makes funny O-faces when exerting himself does NOT mean he isn't athletic.
* When Plumlee first came in the other guys really missed him a few times when he was open.
* BTW; The Ultimate Lord LOVES Bob Knight as an analyst. Just listening to him you can HEAR the years of experience... the philosophies, the play theory, how used he is to tracking numbers and trends... awesome.
* Heh, when Plumlee fouls they say Zoubek. Paging Dr. Freud!
* Speaking of Miles, they say he cleared 6'9 as a high jumper in high school. That is like Miles Plumlee jumping... well, over Miles Plumlee. That is very zen.
* Anyone else think Nick Evans looks a bit like a dopey Michael Rappaport?
* No Time Outs in the air anymore? Aw... man, that sucks. Those were always fun and exciting.
* The Frosh are showing up earlier this game. Apparently the 360 Doghouse only lasts a game.
* OHHHH!!! Fay HURDLED that family!! You notice how appreciative that Dad was? Man, that would have been UGLY... right into the boys in the front row. Awesome move by Fay.
* Oh baseball. Where else would a "20 win season" be a HUGE deal for a player (a pitcher in this case) when the team plays something like 3,000 games in a season? What a bunch of wussies.
* Ahhh nice block and recovery by Plumlee! Memo to Coach K: Please, sit Zoubek forever.
* Speaking of Plumlee, there were a few occassions where SIU players clearly passed out/backed off, respecting Plumlee's blocking ability.
* God these turnovers are BRUTAL. Some of our drives, it is like the Duke player is just putting their head down and GOING, and the resulting TO or charge is just SO predictable.
* The Ultimate Lord hearts the Jump-hook.
* Jon has got SUCH a nose for the ball.
* BTW, the "Talk about how good a free throw shooter a guy is and watch him miss the next one" Curse is TOTALLY real.
* Comment from Hal Steinbrenner; "My Dad, needless to say, is a hard act to follow." Not reported; the follow-up "So I fired his grandpa *** and had him dragged out by security." Ahhh those Steinbrenner genes! Second only to the McMahon genes in inhereted assholeishness.
* Beautiful fake 3/pass to Thomas by Greg. The Ultimate Lord hearts the faked 3.
* Email doesn't seem to have a lot of fear at going right at the D... sometimes a good thing, sometimes not so much.
* "None of them." God, The Ultimate Lord loves Bob Knight.
* Good things happen when Zoubek gets the ball? Seriously? "This is good, this is very good?" "Get Zoubek the ball?" Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....
* Wow... Singler, Hendo, and Paulus with no points? Is that a GOOD sign, like "Oh look, even with our best guys struggling we respond and take the lead?" Or is it a crap sign, like "Oh look, our best guys are struggling?" The Ultimate Lord will let you know in March.
* Damn... turn down the music during the K & K talk!
* Len Elmore has the biggest mouth The Ultimate Lord has ever seen.
* And Steve Lavin has the biggest HEAD The Ultimate Lord has ever seen. Seriously, its like an old-school cash register.
* BTW... would you?
* BTW; The Ultimate Lord has always agreed with Knight that Zoubek DOES have a nice looking free throw stroke, especially for a big guy.
* "Not even Zoubek would have caught that one?" Seriously... that would make ANY Duke fan giggle like a schoolgirl.
* WOW Nolan! JEEZ. Angry, ANGRY! Expected the Gerald alley-oop, but GOD that was nasty nasty NASTY!
* The key is around the 10 minute mark in the second. If a team sticks with Duke until then, it will be a game. But often, that is where it all starts to slip away.
* Apparently the inverse of the "He never misses a free throw" Rule is true as well, as evidenced by the "Gerald hasn't scored tonight" 3 pointer.
* God, speaking of Gerald, look at those arms. Hard core NBA body. Hard core NBA game? We'll see.
* "A guy who is very effective, like Zoubek." Jesus H. Ultimate Lord, this NEVER gets old!!!
* Fay looks like he should star in High School Musical 4, after Efron leaves. Mannnnnnn-crush!
* Foul #3 on Fay was a pure frustration foul, through and through... nothing like that "I just screwed up, I'm going to grab a hold of an opposing player in a desperate attempt to make up for it now" foul.
* Oh man... look at the foul disparity. Cue the whiney ***** Cryolina fans in 3, 2, 1...
* Anyone catch that graphic for Mullins "-3rd in School History for Assists?" Negative 3rd? Seriously? Do you really need the dash in an isolated graphic like that?
* The Ultimate Lord doesn't adore Nolan's dribble when under pressure; he sometimes has this awkward skip-step that feels like a turnover waiting to happen.
* Wow, K got EXCITED over that multiple save, multiple jump play. Love that!
* Since the wrist injury, it seems like Gerald has lost that midrange pull-up shot and depended more on the 3 and the drive... it is a shame, because the midrange pull-up is a good weapon for Gerald, and leads to more "Troy" jokes for The Ultimate Lord.
* Amazing there aren't more strained backs in basketball when you see a guy go up for a layup and get hammered/held/pushed down by a foul.
* Oh JESUS Singler went down HARD. Arrrgghh! Right into the pylon! God that looked HORRIBLE. Just terrible. So glad he bounced back up. And cue the Tyler Zeller comparisons in 3, 2, 1...
* VMI 133, Stevenson 72?! JEEZ VMI scores a LOT.
* The Ultimate Lord loves the ref/coach relationship. We always just think it is yelling and fighting, but there is SO much more there. The Ultimate Lord would love to have them both miked during a game so we could hear them.
* Chris Paul... 12 assists a GAME?! Jeez. Wonder what his Punch-in-the-nuts per game average is?
* Great to see the free throws really improve.
* Wait; there are 3 ingredients to drawing fouls, and the third is being in a position to draw a foul? Uh... why bother with the other two? Isn't that third one enough?
* Carlton Fay totally speaks with a Scottish accent.
* OHHHH GERALD!! JEEZ!!! Seriously, two NASTY nasty dunks in a single HALF!! And both times, the Duke player gave a little stare-down... can't remember the last time we've had two such intense dunks in a single half. Anyone?
* Heh... love hearing Bobby K praise Coach K.
* Playing even with Duke for 25 minutes actually doesn't mean that much. Many teams do that. It is the playing-even-for-40 minutes that matter.
* BTW; just to reintroduce... Cameron W! Ahhh so lovely!
* Anyone else think that Kevin Dillard actually looked a bit like maybe Demarcus? Same angelic look. Not the same bowling-balls-for-shoulders.
* Jeez... NO ONE in Puerto Rico for that St. John's game. Never seen an arena so empty. What, was there a blizzard and no one could make it?
* Thank god Gerald really stepped up... The Ultimate Lord was getting very, very nervous.
* All in all, a good game. The first was bowling-shoe ugly, but the second was vastly improved, and it was nice to see Gerald really step it up... we will need him to be an All-Star if we want to make it deep into March. Kyle did well, Jon with his traditional nose for the ball... Nolan was a bit unsure at times, but he'll be fine. And the surprise of the game?
Brian Zoubek, who was praised the entire game by Bob Knight, who actually said that a player wasn't effective like Zoubek, that not even Zoubek would have caught an errant pass, and that it was good, very good, that Duke passed it to Zoubek.
Who woulda thunkit?
It is great to be back, and it is GREAT to have basketball start again!
Go Duke! And bring on the Bruins!
No comments:
Post a Comment