Duke
Out: C Marcus Lind (shoulder), DE Wesley Oglesby (leg)
Questionable: WR Donovan Varner (leg)
Probable: S Matt Daniels (shoulder)
Clemson
Out: OG Barry Humphries (knee), DT Jamie Cumbie (wrist)
Questionable: LT Chris Hairston (concussion), DT Dorell Scott (knee)
East Chapel Hill diver Nick McCrory will sign a national letter of intent Wednesday to attend Duke, according to East Athletic Director Ray Hartsfield. McCrory will sign along with ECH baseball player James Heine, who has an NLI to attend Georgetown.
McCrory's decision isn't surprising. He represented Duke Aquatics at last spring's Olympic Trials. McCrory is the nation’s best high school diver and has broken the N.C. High School Athletic Association record three years in a row.
Heine is top all-around athlete at East Chapel Hill. He was a three-letter man — football, basketball and baseball — before deciding to concentrate on his pitching for the Wildcats last season.
Virginia Tech plays at Miami tonight and if you're a UNC football fan, you better have your Sebastian beak on and waddle like Elton John because this might be your last chance at winning the Coastal Division.
Virginia Tech, 3-2 in the ACC, has to lose once in the final three games for UNC to be able to take the Coastal. After tonight, Virginia Tech plays Duke and Virginia at home. Do you see the urgency?
DURHAM —Duke coach David Cutcliffe is so desperate to get his Blue Devils executing at a higher level than they've achived this season that he had the team practice in full pads on Sunday. That means it was a full-contact practice and increased the chance of someone else getting injured with three games left in the regular season.
Cutcliffe was taking the chance because Duke ranks dead last in the ACC in red-zone offense (scoring on 25 of 36 chances) and plays Clemson, the team ranked fourth (25 of 29) in Death Valley on Saturday. Here Cutcliffe breaks down Clemson's and Duke's red zone play.
DURHAM — The only thing that went wrong for Duke in its win over Georgia Southern on Tuesday went spectacularly wrong. The Blue Devils made just 25 of 49 attempts (51 percent) from the free throw line.
Lance Thomas made one of eight tries. Greg Paulus made 5 of 8 but missed on two shots after a technical foul on the Georgia Southern bench. Jon Scheyer made 1 of 3; Miles Plumlee 1 of 4. Scheyer said it was a weird feeling watching that many misses but he and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski both felt the night was an aberration. Scheyer talks about it more in the audio clip.
Staff photo by Chuck Liddy
DURHAM — Duke brings in so many highly touted freshmen year after year, it’s easy to forget the value of a good upperclassman.
Not so on Tuesday night.
Duke junior center Brian Zoubek started in place of freshman Miles Plumlee, and junior Lance Thomas and seniors David McClure and Greg Paulus played a good supporting cast during a Duke victory that passed for the Kyle Singler Show in the first half.
Singler scored 19 points, 18 in the first half, as eighth-ranked Duke beat Georgia Southern 97-54 in the second round of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
DURHAM — Duke coach David Cutcliffe worked in the SEC a long, long time so he has a gazillion stories. He opened his press conference on Tuesday with this one about his close encounter with the Mike V, the Bengal tiger who served as the LSU mascot from 1990 until his death in May 2007, in Baton Rouge as the Ole Miss coach in 1999.
You can listen to Cutcliffe tell the story in the audio clip below. Duke (4-5, 1-4 ACC) plays another set of Tigers, from Clemson (4-5, 2-4), on Saturday at noon. The game will be televised locally by Raycom.
DURHAM — Duke center Brian Zoubek fouled out in just seven minutes of playing time, with one bakset, three turnovers (all three on fouls on the offensive end), and one assist, in the 31-point win over Presbyterian.
That has been a common enough problem for Zoubek, now a healthy junior, but Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski feels Zoubek is being judged by officials on the court by Zoubek's previous showings, not what he's doing now. Krzyzewski talks about it in this audio clip after Monday night's game.
DURHAM — Duke’s three freshmen didn’t register in the game but each had a moment in front of soldout, nearly full, Cameron Indoor Stadium crowd late in the win over Presbyterian on Monday that could boost their confidence for future games. Like today's 9 p.m.game against Georgia Southern
Miles Plumlee, who started but played 13 minutes, made a noisy block with 2:12 left. Olek Czyz put down a power dunk on a baseline drive off of a Greg Paulus pass. And Elliott Williams executed a 360-degree spin and dunk at game’s end.
Listen to Williams and Czyz talk about why it was important to end strong after suffering from nerves all night.
DURHAM — Eighth-ranked Duke isn’t a well-oiled machine yet but, even lightly lubricated, the Blue Devils had enough to turn away Presbyterian College 80-49 in the first round of Coaches vs. Cancer Classic action at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Monday.
Duke (1-0) will play Georgia Southern (1-0), a 65-63 winner over Houston (0-1) in the early game, tonight at 9 p.m., again at Cameron. Presbyterian (0-1) will play Houston at 6 p.m.
Presbyterian, in just its second NCAA Division I season, trailed 46-22 at halftime but had a good stretch when it outscored Duke 19-17 in the first 12 minutes of the second half.
