The Huskies are ever improving, to the point where they nearly beat a Marquette team that is among the best in the country. Tony Wroten played the best game of his career and Darnell Gant hit several big shots throughout the game while most other players played like you'd like to see. Except Abdul Gaddy. Gaddy had one of the worst performances of his career, including a poorly thrown pass to Terrence Ross in crunch time that led to Marquette taking the ball the other direction and scoring. But his biggest problem was that he couldn't throw the ball in the ocean standing on the shore, and that's something that comes and goes... usually. Sometimes players have off nights, and sometimes certain stadiums give certain players trouble locking in on their target with their sightlines and depth issues. Let's hope for the team's sake that it was the former, and not the latter.
Duke is a very good team (shocking I know). They're good, but not some unbeatable machine. The Huskies have the length to match up with anybody, and as long as Aziz N'Diaye can stay out of foul trouble Duke shouldn't have too much of an interior size advantage. The key for N'Diaye will be keeping the Plumlees off of the offensive glass. Desmond Simmons (who quietly had a very good game against Marquette) will be counted on as well.
My dreams of Abdul Gaddy handling the ball with Scott Suggs and C.J. Wilcox on the wings, while Terrence Ross slashes to the basket and N'Diaye mans the low post will have to wait another year (hopefully) as Suggs is not going to be suiting up this season. Some people have said that one of the biggest losses is Suggs' leadearship, but that is nonsense. The biggest loss is his 45% three point shooting. Here's hoping he gets in the weight room and the gym, improves his game more than he already has (remember, some thought he would transfer after his freshman year when he looked completely lost at times) and helps next year's squad to great things.