Sweet Sixteen

What a a great victory last night for Duke. At least that is how I should start this post thanks to a 74-69 victory last night over Texas. Instead I keep thinking about how it seems like everyone is complaining about how Duke won the game because of the refs. At the bar last night I would keep looking around to make sure that everyone that was booing was watching the same game. From the reaction of the fans I would have thought that that Duke had shot 36 free throws compared to 7 (like UNC-Clemson last year) for Texas. The good news for the people at the bar is that they can find plenty of people to complain to since the amount of anti-Duke bias out there is enough for Yankees fans to say enough. People don't seem to analyze the facts that:

• Duke shot 27 free throws. Texas 25. 4 of those free throws for Duke were on intentional fouls because Texas was behind, so if you took those free throws out of it then Texas would have actually shot more free throws.
• 1 Texas player fouled out. 2 Duke players (their starting front court actually) fouled out.
• The Texas player pushed off on Elliot Williams and a foul should have been called. I don't know why people like Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline has to write things like "And when the two got near the ball all the way down at the other end of the court, the whistle blew, and I don't have to tell you who fouled whom, because one of the teams was Duke and the other was Texas, and this game was in the final minute in Greensboro, and that's just the way it goes." It was a foul and the refs made the correct call there.
• There were other missed calls with some favoring Duke, but don't be mistaken into thinking all of them favored Duke. The very questionable foul on Singler when Abrams was shooting a 3 with 7 minutes left hurt Duke more than any other call against Texas. We could go over every foul call, but I don't think any objective fan can think that that Duke got "every call."
• In the game before in Greensburo UNC shot 18 free throws and LSU shot 6. Now, that stat alone doesn't mean it was a poorly officiated game (maybe LSU just fouled a lot), but it something used against Duke.

Anyway, I am going to try not to care about what the general public thinks about it is clear that they don't like Duke and they want them to lose. This Duke team is good and deserves some credit. They have beaten some really good teams and are ranked very highly in any subjective or objective polls confirm the fact that they are a good team.

That is all I have to write about Duke right now because the NCAA tournament bracket was just realized and the mighty Redhawks of Miami got a 4th seed and will be playing in Minneapolis on Friday. Of course I am going to go support my school and cheer them on as they try to make it to the Frozen Four.