Butter Parque

I put neutral, but we have some question marks. 1. We have no clue how are lineup is going to do because half of them weren't even on the team last year. 2. Our fielding is way overrated. I like the left side of our IF, but podsednik's arm is pretty weak (even though he's playing LF and it doesn't matter), Tad Iguchi is preety bad out there, and Pierzynski doesn't know how to call a game. 3. I know it's just Spring Training and I know it's Arizona, but so far there has been nothing to show me that this pitching staff will even be average. Buehrle will be fine, but after that: 2) Garcia struggled in Chicago (4.46 ERA) 3) Contreras has been a bum his whole carrer and has done nothing this Spring to convince me otherwise. (7.10 ERA) 4) If Hernandez is even healthy, will he be effective. Forget that, lets just focus on him being healthy, which he hasn't been able to do in years. ( Has made 30 starts, once in 6 years.) 5) You know what your gonna get out of Garland now, you just don't like it. He should be capable of being a solid #3 starter, but he's not. Now he's settled for being an above average 5th starter. Expect around a 4.6- 4.9 ERA.

Needed time to decompress after the loss. First off, I said I would do it, and I will, I give props to Michigan State for a well earned victory. They played 40 minutes of non-stop, physical basketball. I'll also apologize to Paul Davis, while I still don't believe he is a very good big man, he did do the job last night and carried Michigan State to victory. As for Duke, it was evident that they were completely dead-tired. Everything hit off the front of the rim and nobody was able to get down the court in transition. JJ Redick also wasn't himself last night. Usually he never stops moving without the ball, but he seemed almost motionless. I just don't know how they were tired when they had 4 days in between games. Never the less, we basically were run off the court last night. The hardest part of losing, is watching the seniors play their last game. I feel bad for Daniel Ewing and wish he could play for Duke forever. He had become my favorite player over the last 25 years (including Laettner, Hill, Battier, Hurley, Duhon, Carrawell) for his un-selfishness. He probably had the most offensive ability on the whole team, but sacraficed it when Coach K needed a point guard. Good luck in the NBA Daniel! This might have been a down year for Duke, but for fellow college basketball fans, "Watch Out!", Duke has the # recruiting class in the country coming in next season and nearly everyone returning. The fall of Duke won't last very long. Good luck to Michigan State and everyone else that has survived so far, P.S. except North Carolina!

It's kind of stupid for me to go through all 65 pages here, but I just got the game and I'm tryin to make the rosters accurate. I don't have online either. Can anyone post the CAP they got from the roster updates for Tad Iguchi? Or at least an official one. Thanks.

That preety much sums it all up.

I don't know how this Paul Davis thing escalated into a debate as to who is better: him or Williams, but I thought that was just implied.

I have no idea what your talking about, I think you lost your mind. Tjis post doesn't make any sense. How does what Carrawell, Langdon, and Avery do in the NBA affect how great they were in college. You make no sense with this argument. Then you talk about how bad Duke players will be in the NBA and how McCants, Stoudamire, and Davis could be much better. HELLO! What the hell does that have to do with anything? I'm talking about college and how these kids have done this season and in prior college years. here's the 1999 Duke Starting Lineup's stats: Langdon- 17.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 1.9 apg, 1.4 steals per game Brand- 17.7 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 1.1 apg, 1.3 spg, 2.2 blocks per game Avery- 14.9 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 5.0 apg, 1.5 steals per game Carrawell- 9.9 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 3.3 apg, 0.9 bpg, 0.8 spg Battier- 9.1 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 1.2 bpg, 1.8 spg, 1.5 apg Maggette didn't have a chance to make that lineup.

We don't really know why Davis plays less then Williams. It could be because of Michigan State's depth or it could be because Davis isn't as well conditioned as Shelden. I'm not going to really further speculate into all that.

Maggette came off the bench in his one and only year at Duke. The starting lineup was Battier, Carrawell, Avery, Langdon, and Brand. Maggette averaged 17 minutes a game, and he still was able to score 10 points a game and grab 4 rebounds at 6'6. Paul Davis at 6'11, has averaged only 6 rebounds per game. Thats even more horrible. Paul Davis has started for 2 years in a row and has doen nothing. Corey Maggette was a superior athlete who lit up the highlight reels. Paul Davis, in my opinion is junk.

Thanks for proving my original post Palehosefan. How in the hell is Paul Davis a damn good basketball player when he's averaged over his career 11 points and 6 rebounds? How in the hell does your teams big man who is suppose to be one of the best in the nation only averaging 6 rebounds over his career. Thats freakin appauling! Let me show you, in their two meetings in two years, Paul Davis and Shelden Williams' stats: 2003, Duke at Michigan State: Williams- 16 points, 8 rebounds, 5 blocks, 3 fouls Davis- 7 points, 3 rebounds, 1 block, 0 fouls 2004, Michigan State at Duke: Williams- 10 points, 12 rebounds, 5 blocks, 4 fouls Davis- 17 points, 10 rebounds, 0 blocks, 3 fouls Lets Total em up: Williams- 26 points, 20 rebounds, 10 blocks Davis- 24 points, 13 rebounds, 1 block While the #'s aren't significantly different, Williams will still be able to controll the paint. Michigan State will have to win it with their guards.

Paul Davis=Shavlick Randolph Difference being is that Paul Davis gets all the publicity. I respect Shav because everyone just talks bad about him.

Which foot is it? Lets go B-Mac It's time for the Brandon McCarthy Hearings

Is UCONN any worse now because they suffered a major upset? s*** happens, if Duke suffered a major upset, I wouldn't say they sucked. It's part of the game. yeah your right, Wake and NC State both suck. Good luck aboz, it will be a pretty good game. Hey, if your team wins, I'll come back and give them props for it.

Haha, no you wouldn't. Do you actually think you would blow them out again. Illinois is not exactly playing their best basketball of the season.

he Gawn, still countin on Duke to tire against Michigan State?

You know it's completely different when you win in an upset game. That means your team was better then advertised. When you get a major upset against you, that means you had an offnight or overlooked the opponent. Let me ask you this, would you like your team to face Wake Forest in the Sweet 16, didn't think so.

Since you want to throw out bad conference losses, what happened in that game against Indiana? Did they make the tournament? What happened aginst Iowa at home? Don't you think you should have won that game.

They have 3 with a major upset that occured to them. The Big ten has 3 as well, so thats a washout. Now let's see who was better in the regular season. Oh yeas, that would be the ACC. Good Night Willie!

Let me see, have you seen Mississippi State play. They were a great team who underachieved and battled injuries all year. Do you know who Lawrence Roberts is? I gotta little statement for ya here, Paul Davis couldn't hold Lawrence Roberts' jock strap.

I have a question, why does everyone believe that Duke is gonna all of a sudden tire. They haven't done it all season, so why now. Their gonna have 4 days rest going into the game. I'm sorry slick, but don't count on Duke tiring. You better think of another way in which Mich. State can beat them.

Yeah, the Big ten was a monster conference this year!

Oh no doubt about it, the game will be close. Duke doesn't blow anyone away. We just don't have the fire power. The key with the foul trouble has been Shelden and Shav learning how to play with fouls, something they didn't know how to do last season. They showed how much they have grown mentally today. In my opinion, Randolph and Williams together, give Duke the best 1-2 punch of big men in the country defensively.

The game will definitley be close, there is no doubt about it. Duke doesn't blow anyone out. We don't have the fire power for that. The key though with the foul trouble has been Shelden Williams and Shavilk Randolph learining how to play with fouls. Both showed it today. Together, Randolph and Williams make an incredible 1-2 punch on the inside. In my opinion better then anyone in the nation defensively.

I think I have a right to judge both teams since I predicted Duke would lose to Miss. State. In my opinion, Mississippi State is way better then Michigan State and would beat them easily if they play their game. Lawrence Roberts is a top 5 big man and that guy Winsome could hit the three. If you guys can remember, last season Miss. State was a #2 seed in the tournament and were off to a great start this season befor that guy Winsome got hurt. They were much better then their seed and record indicated. Michigan State has the most overrated big man in the country in Paul Davis. That guy is a waste of space out there. he'll get controlled by Shelden for the third time in their career's.

I'm not getting cocky, if you saw before the game, I posted that I thought we would lose to Miss. State. I was just replying to a post that didn't have much logic behind it. If I can't go back to last season, then we still beat them with ease this season. They made a run at the end of the game to get it under 10 points. No one on the Duke bench was sweating bullets at the end there.

Let me use your philosophy on this one. We beat North Carolina at home and we lost by 1 point to them on the road, so does that make North Carolina bad?