Refreshing

Last night after the Carolina-Duke game coach K said the Duke played well. It is very refreshing to hear someone say that instead of we played poorly.

One of the biggest faults all of us is never giving the other side their due when they win whether it's in sports or on the job.

Practically every player Duke puts on the court was labeled a 5-Star athlete while the recruiting process was going on. When coach K says they were better what he is telling you is their 5-star athletes are better than Dukes.

If you line up the starting five for Carolina and Duke the biggest difference between the two is the big man.

Coach K's style is he plays chest to chest defense once you cross the mid court line. Teams with poor ball handling skills have a hard time being able to set up to shoot a good shot before the end of the time clock.

For those teams that are able to attack the basket Duke does not have a big man to defend inside. In coach K's style they need a big man like Singler who can cover the court but in order to cover the court he is not strong enough to win inside defensively.

So Duke's shortcoming is they need a big man say a Ben McCauley who can play strong inside. If Duke had a Ben McCauley to play inside the score last night might have been different. The bottom line is you have to play with what you have.

Looking at N C State if they has a Greg Paulus at point guard they would be one of the elite teams in the country. But they don't.

So when Carolina matches up with just about every team in the country they are as good as any one. The problem for elite players is the hunger to play at your maximum on every play when you are ahead by 20.

That expectation of winning by 20 every game makes it possible for players to be lulled into thinking they can do whatever they want any time they want.

Taking last night as an example when Duke plays to their maximum like they did for a major part of the game, it means Carolina must play at a high level to match it.

Just a few weeks ago I thought Wake Forest was a very elite team. Last night Jeff Teague scored only eight points against a very frail back court for N C State. For Teague it is a matter that he has to show up all the time. When he plays well the entire Wake team well.

Any team that you wonder which team is going to show up will never make it in the NCAA tournament because one game they won't show up and they will be out.

There are several teams in college basketball who have a shot at the National Championshhip including Oklahoma who has possibly the best player in the country.

All the Duke fans today that feel like the world had ended need to just think about this . You are only a big man from being as good as any body.