Postgame: thoughts from Duke's 98-85 win vs. N.C. State, with an edition of cheer myth-busting at the end

Tyler Lewis was a target of the Cameron Crazies, who chanted "Bilbo Baggins" and "Past your bedtime" at him Thursday night.

DURHAM—After beating N.C. State Thursday night, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said that he doesn't really do revenge games, and for good reason.

"If you’re always playing revenge that means you’ve lost," he said. "I don’t want to play many revenge games. You’ve got to learn to play because you want to win and you want to get better. Tonight, we did that."

Quinn Cook had said something similar leading up to the game, and Seth Curry also echoed his coach and teammate in the locker room.

"We wanted to avenge that loss in Raleigh, but more so we just wanted to keep playing well," said Curry, who poured in 26 points. "We played well at Florida State, and we wanted to carry that momentum."

Mission accomplished for Duke. And, whether revenge was actively on their minds or not, the Blue Devils got it. With that, a bevy of links from the NandO team in Cameron last night:

My game story, with reaction from both sides, as Duke's first-half cushion survived a late N.C. State rally.

Luke DeCock on Seth Curry playing well despite his nagging right shin injury

Andrew Carter on Mason Plumlee's steady performance in the post, outshining his Wolfpack counterparts

And Joe Giglio with the N.C. State perspective

By the way, if you don't follow Andrew and Joe for UNC and N.C. State coverage, respectively, you're missing out. Both guys do a phenomenal job.

With that, just a few more thoughts...at least until I write my story spotlighting Duke's two starting freshmen:

***Josh Hairston didn't play due to an infection in his right arm. He cut it at Wake Forest and did play in Duke's next game at Florida State. The infection, though, progressed to the point where he needed surgery earlier in the week, Krzyzewski said after the game (that explains why Hairston was in a sling at practice Tuesday). His status for Sunday at Boston College is unknown, though Krzyzewski sounded optimistic.

***One of the largest cheers of the night came midway through the first half, when Alex Murphy drove the lane through the N.C. State defense and finished with a two-handed slam. It was easily Murphy's top highlight to date. Murphy saw additional minutes due to Hairston's injury and finished with four points and a rebound in 12 minutes. Most importantly, he gave Jefferson a break.

"That was a beautiful play," Curry said. "We see his athleticism everyday in practice, but that just has to carry over to games."

***No Wolfpack opponent had hit more than nine 3-pointers in a game this season.

Duke hit 10 in the first half.

The Blue Devils hit three treys before the first media timeout, with Rasheed Sulaimon contributing two and Curry adding one. Curry hit four 3s in the first half, with two of them coming in the closing two minutes of the first half, when he personally went on a 10-2 run.

“We got some good stops and hit some big shots, and the crowd was into the game right away," Curry said. "When that atmosphere is like that in Cameron, we feel like we have an advantage.”

***Speaking of the crowd in Cameron, there seems to be some confusion about a particular Cameron Crazies cheer—or should I say, an imaginary cheer—directed at Tyler Lewis. In the second half, when Lewis was at the free throw line, the students chanted, "past your bedtime."

I'd suspect that's because Lewis, a freshman, is a shorter guy, listed at 5-11. And hey, when you're already young and standing next to people about a foot taller than you, you can look childlike.

I actually sent out a Tweet when this happened. Check the time stamp.

For reasons unknown, though, some Internet folks have decided that the Crazies were, in mass, really saying, "How's your Grandma?" in reference to Lewis' grandmother that died last week. That's just false.

There was no such chant on a large scale.

Now, were a few people in the stands saying that? That's what Tyler Lewis's father Rick, said to our Joe Giglio this morning.

"It wasn't the entire student section, I think a few tried to outdo themselves," Rick said, adding that he would rather the focus be on Tyler's performance in the past two games rather than the misbehavior of a few fans.

"It's time to move one, in my opinion," Rick said. "No need to make it more than a few immature comments by a few select fans."

But the Internet never let a fact get in the way of a story, and people have put out a Youtube video that allegedly supports their claim of a mass cheer. It doesn't because that cheer never happened. I actually asked five other sportswriters if they heard the Grandma cheer. None of them did.

Duke associate athletic director Jon Jackson said the school has spent the morning trying to find people in the building that had heard the cheer but had not yet found anyone who did.

There is a long history of Duke getting greeted by unprintable words in Maryland, and, if you listen close enough in any arena, you're likely to hear someone say something off color. There's no justifying that type of behavior. But to take the actions of a few and claim an entire student section organized a cheer about Lewis' dead grandmother is just false.

And that's enough words wasted on an event that didn't happen.

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