"Beatable"

I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. The team definitely needs to focus on tonight's game against Oregon. But I wanted to briefly comment on this Saturday's big match up against Duke.

I caught the first half of the Duke-Indiana game last night. Duke was up by 12 at the end of the half, but they only ended up winning by 3 (54-51). What I took away from the game, is that this Duke team is infinitely "beatable."

Even when Duke was up big, they looked sloppy -- not at all what you expect from a Coach K team. They definitely have some players that can shoot, but no one looked unstoppable. McRoberts did not have a good game and, in my estimation, Greg Paulus is a disaster. He's supposed to be fully recovered from his foot injury, but he did not look good. That didn't surprise me, because I've always thought his play was questionable. I would take J-Wal (or even Sapp) over him any day.

I was most impressed by junior DeMarcus Nelson. But you have to assume that he hasn't been a big contributor for the Blue Devils the past two seasons for a reason. If GU plays tough defense they can make him a non-factor.

In short, after watching Duke play I feel much better about our ability to go into Cameron and win this game. Now the question becomes whether we actually do it.

P.S. - Florida, on the other hand, looks very impressive. They beat Southern University by 56! Granted, Southern was 0-5 going into the game, but the Gators victory shows that they have that killer instinct. GU needs to learn to put its lesser opponents away in that manner.