Heels, Sox & Steelers

Thoughts on Duke v UNC, Duhon in the NBA
Overall, the Tarheels played well last night despite too many turnovers and a defensive let down at the worst time to maybe the worst player on the court. Although criticized much of the season for lack of conditioning and lack of effort, or both, Sean May had a big game last night. Seemingly, for the first time this season, he battled for tough rebounds (18 total)--and got them against a solid Duke frontcourt. He did miss way too many layups, but that is easier to forgive when you step it up on defense (see Jackie Manuel).

Speaking of Jackie Manuel, I thought he had one of his top games of the season. He did a pretty good job of shutting down Reddick and made a couple of big plays on the offensive end of the court. David Noel also had his biggest game of the season, and showed a little more confidence in his jump shot. Reddick did a pretty good job on Melvin Scott, although the few looks he got he converted. I still wish he would make better decisions with the ball when he runs the offense.

Ray Felton had his usual high-impact game, breaking down the best defense in the country and creating easy shots for his teammates. Billy Packer commented last night that "Duhon's and Felton's numbers are so similar it's scary." Scarier still, is that Packer had the cajones to bring it up. I don't think even the most ardent Duke fan would prefer Duhon to Felton. In fact it could be argued that UConn's Diana Taurasi might be a better fit (she certainly has a better handle and jump shot).

Today Andy Katz talks about how important Duhon is to this Duke team. Katz talks about how he's battled back from his woes the last two years when trying to pick up the slack left by Jay Williams. How Coach K and his teammates have the utmost confidence in him and as Daniel Ewing put it, "the Blue Devils wouldn't be the team they are without him." It's hard to argue with one loss through the first week of February, but I suspect that would still be the case if Duhon hadn't played one minute.

I'm not sure you're the go-to guy, or now have regained confidence lost by making one shot to decide a game while continuing to shoot in the high 30% from the field--or shoot 65% from the line. Reddick is someone who looks to have a lot of confidence; and so does Ewing (and they should). Confidence is the result of being successful often enough to have faith in your abilities. It's been said that the Spud Webbs', Muggsy Bogues' and Doug Fluties' of the world had to have a lot of confidence to make it as successful professional athletes. That may be, but we shouldn't overlook the fact that these guys were great athletes--and performed with a lot of success for a sustained period. That claim can't be made of Duhon. Last year he shot 27% from 3, down from the 34% he shot the previous year. That's horrible. All this ranting brings me to this point (which you may have already picked up on): simply stated, Chris Duhon is not good. Yesterday Andy Katz had another article on espn.com about how Duke players have historically been mediocre pros. He mentioned that this year's team has 4 or 5 future pros (Williams, Reddick, Ewing, Deng, and I quote, "And it wouldn't be a total surprise if senior point guard Chris Duhon winds up playing in the Association next season").

What? I have no doubt that Williams, Reddick, Ewing and Deng will play in the NBA, and probably be successful. But there is no way an undersized guard with a below average jump shot, lackluster defensive skills and an inability to beat people off the dribble, can play in the NBA. Taking a quick look at the point guards currently on NBA rosters, Duhon is easily at or very, very close to the bottom (with the likes of Brevin Knight and Jacques Vaughn--both of whom are still much better than Duhon).

Maybe Duhon is the inspirational leader of the Blue Devils (perhaps more in the mold of Rudy Ruettiger, than Jay Williams) and has willed them to several victories this year, but as a lifelong UNC fan, I'll take Ray Felton every time.