#152 R.P.I. Virginia Tech @ #4 R.P.I. Duke:

Virginia Tech men’s basketball takes to Tobacco Road (“cough-cough”) in an attempt to upset the mighty Coach K who coaches up the big-D’s.

The Hokies just got sunk by a mere triple OT category Hurricane and so much for our recently (seemingly) renewed so-called: “fresh-legs”. As we must now sojourn or bus 217 miles So.by.So.East to duke it out on Saturday night at 8 PM for a nationally televised men’s D-1 hoops contest on ESPN2. Vs. the no.6th ranked Dukies who check-in at a lofty looking 22 up and 4 down (.8oo or 12-3 in the A.c.c., and a ½ game outta 1st-place). Nonetheless, what you really wanna know is who is gonna win this one and by how much, right? Well, read on… to find, out!

Duke Head Coach: Michael William Krzyzewski: Age=72, 1,138–344 (.768) overall, 1,065–285 (.789) at Duke. 
$7,004,000.oo (down, if you are keeping score at home!)

Coach K is pretty good, and this just in, rain is rumored to be, wet. As this is about as well preserved of a seven-decade-years-old gentleman as you will ever ever see. And his résumé is about as well-heeled as any you will ever sporting read.

Among them {sic: accolades}: Baller K Played at West Point under Bob Knight as a 5′10″ combo Pt.G/Shooting-G. He was captain of the Army basketball team in his senior season, 1968–69, leading his team to the N.I.T. as Vietnam era West Point finished fourth in the tournament. From 1969 to 1974, Krzyzewski served in the United States Army and directed service teams for three years. In 2005 he was presented West Point’s Distinguished Graduate Award. And thank you for serving –after that Mike has not really done much of anything as a coach…

…he has only won nine, that’s (9) Gold Medals for the USofA! He has only won five, that’s (5) National Championships in men’s hoops (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, 2015)! He has only won thirteen that’s (14) Atlantic Coast Tourneys. Among men’s college basketball coaches, only U.C.L.A.’s John Wooden, with 10, has won more NCAA Championships than Coach-K.

Coach Krzyzewski has the most wins of any coach in college basketball history. Coach-K became the first Division I men’s basketball coach to reach 1,000 wins. And is only a six-time national coach of the year and a five-time A.c.c. coach of the year; that’s all. He is a two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, in 2001 for his individual coaching career and in 2010 as part of the collective induction of the “Dream Team.”

Additionally… Coach-K has only won 24 (varying) Coaching Awards, he is National Polish American Sports Hall of Fame inductee (class of 1991), he was the 2011: Sports Illustrated “Sportsman of the Year”, the United States Military Academy named the “Coach Krzyzewski Teaching Character Through Sports Award for him, and he was merely inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State’s highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 2014 in the area of sports. That’s, it! What a bum.

And God Bless the Emily Krzyzewski Center (charity) that he and his wife (Carol “Mickie” Marsh) founded to honor his reposed mum. Daddy K and Carol have
three daughters and nine grandchildren

Duke at a glance:

• 4th in Scoring O!!! (nice ⇑ move)
• (now) 8th in Swats!! (a slight drop from 1st, ⇓)
• 15th in FG percentage O!! (was not listed, so this is a real ⇑ move!)
• 17th in Swipes! (a slight drop from 9th, ⇓)
• 19th on the o-Glass! (unranked last time, ⇑)
• 20th in Assists. (a slight drop from 13th, ⇓)
• now 32nd in Rebounding Margin. (which did ⇓ or slip from 12th)
• all the way down to 65th in FTA’s! (from 4th! Quite the ⇓, or drop)
• now, 186th in fewest turnovers! (ALL the way ⇑ or up from 313th sloppiest, wowow!)
• there are only two-team listings north of 198th best, with five single-digit listings and yet 17 top-47 (outta 35o D-1 teams) or better!!!
• (1 injury; Coach God bless!) “No mas” as coach K is now back to 100% roster availability.

Dukie Returning Starters=1, (Tre Jones).

Duke Strengths:

• Freshmanic, and one #1, Vernon Carey Jr., who is a true-C who stands 6′10″, and tips the Toledo’s at a semi-muscular and a kinda lean looking 270 lbs., and is legit. Very. Actually. The team leads in scoring (~18 ppg) and rebounding (~8.8 rpg) while placing third in 3-pointing (37.5%), with the team and league-lead in shooting (58.4%), and blocking (1.5 bpg); would all seem to conspire to say so. This kid kinda/sorta reminds one of a leaner Moses Malone. Tho Vern’, he too, comes to dee.dub and do work. ESPN’s no.5 in the country last year does not suck; neither does the fact that he can (already) rock two that’s (2) International Gold medals at study-hall. A modern-era rarified consensus ***** (5-star) Center and that’s kinda like Elvis and his Dino’ farm… i.e. hard to come by these days or so last time I checked. Carey Jr’s old man played football at the University of Miami and was an eight-year veteran of the Miami Dolphins after being drafted as the 19th overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. Vern’s late grandfather, Vincent Carey, played basketball at Oral Roberts University. Yes, I and the roundball Genome Project would both say that projects rather handsomely indeed. As Vern was merely the #1 baller in the sunshine state last year where he only sports an AAAAA Florida state championship bling. The book says he’s a skillful big who mainly brings it from 15′ in, and he is known to have tremendous footwork for his skyscraping size. This guy is an Association pro’, when; not ‘if’. And oh ‘yes’, Mister Carey is a natural Koufax, a southpaw blocker and this unorthodox approach aids and abets his towering D all the mo’.
  (UPDATE: still a strong looking alpha-type-year, though down more than a bit everywhere I looked, ⇓)
• 6′6″, 193 lbs. nugget or rookie year voter Cassius Stanley is a highly coveted West-Coast recruit all the way from Lakerland itself. Cassius is a pure Two or S/G and he was only #21 in all the land last year per ESPN. He only won three straight State Titles scholastically and was only ranked #1 for the entire state of Cali’ last campaign. His family genome is actually that of T&F stars all over… so you’d have to think he might just propel some measure of pure speed if/when Stanley needs it. My rap-sheets all call Cassius a tremendous athlete in the open court who can and will attack the rack from all over. And frankly, he reminds a bit of a rookie year Kobe assaulting the hoop with something pre-Mamba days to prove. 12 ppg on 4.7 rpg with 33.3% long with highlight-reel dunks in between makes you wonder just how lead this third-fiddle is? (and he’s also whispered to be a lockdown defensive Ace (.8 spg) when he decides to be). As much as most like V.Carey up above -and I do to some extent as well- it is Stanley has me very slashing Lead-G curious. (UPDATE: hamstrung kid-n-play here who may be out for a while; possibly until at least Christmas, is the early vibe… St.Nikhon bless!)
  (UPDATE: way way down from distance, as in 13% and change down from deep, ⇓; as you have to think this kid is still dinged-up a bit here to drop this much and have this many skillz at his disposal.)
  (DOUBLE UPDATE: and now Eye know why… as poor Stanley is “PROBABLE” after an accidental eye-poke two games back… may St.Helen bless!)

  

• Tre Jones is a 6′3″, 185 lb., sophomoric kid from the former Lakerland or the Land of the Lakes (Minnesota) itself. He is Duke’s starting One (i.e. Pt.Guard) and he’s prolly got a modeling/acting career if he prefers not to remain drama-free. As I’d be betting the over on this kid’s social game off-court here. That said… he just set a Duke single-season record for assist-turnover ratio (3.62)! That’s all, he’s only #1 all-time at Duke of all the places. So you know he’s got 20-20 Qb eyes and Wr good-hands on his handles. Further, Tre also just became the first player in Duke history to record five different games in a career with 7+ assists and no turnovers. Snap! Now mix in: a second-best 15.8 ppg on 4.3 rpg per an A.c.c. leading 6.5 dimes dropped (apg) with a likewise near A.c.c. leading 1.9 spg and you suddenly have a very complete baller on your hands. 44% shooting and 34% long could use a bump; although those are not the worst shooting metrics either. Jones, however, does have a history of shoulder dings (St.Christopher bless) and hip dents (St.Wolfgang help). So none of that has helped any range of his… and yet this kid with his D and his Qb-skillz is indeed a paycheck Pro’, the only question being: export or domestic?
  (UPDATE: mixed, shooting better tho’ production has dropped all around for an ⇔ or even grade)

(score this one as a Weakness or Strength as you deign fit… tho’ this is a more verbally expressive Duke team than often seen under coach-K… wonder if this loosening speaks to their tongue-tied turnovers?)

Duke Weaknesses:

• Roster turnover is massive here; yet again… as we only face one true rotational guy from what we caught from Duke at the end of last season. (and ‘yes’, I know… 350 other D-1’s would indeed like to have Duke’s Equipment Manager’s uniform issuing problems; indeed!)
• There is only one basketball to go, around.
• Duke is short-handed and dented at the moment… so now is as good a hosting time as any.
• Though the whispers say that…  this year’s cast of newcomers is really an understudy to last year’s triune 1st-round draft pick(s) of one-n-done newcomers. And some Zionite kinda kid— I wonder what happened to him? (as a staggering ~65 ppg and 25 rpg did just (early-entry) Exit Stage Left).

Dukie Bench: (depth=5+, longer rotation than usual too)

Sr. year, 6′7″, 222 lb. Swing, from down-under, would be Jack White mate. Jack hails from Traralgon, Victoria, Australia by way of the fabled Australian Institute of Sport. Jack is clearly highly thought of as you seldom see many Team Captain’s checking in from the bench. Jack nets you 3.5 ppg on a nice 3.2 rpg, a swipe, a swat and even 1.5 dimes in relief. Only his shooting lags a bit as he’s a better more skillful baller than his 4o% so far suggests. As the word is/was that he fields a: ‘diverse’ shooting game and his D and rebounding are pretty useful enough as is. As Jack only has one Aussie gold-medal and was only Mr. Basketball for the state of: Victoria on Paul Hogan’s homecourt.
(UPDATE: scoring mo’, shooting better, yet rebounding far less for a flat or ⇔ grade)

Javin DeLaurier is a 6′10″, 238 lb. final-year Shipman, Va. backyard escapee. Javin has been a careerist sub’ at Duke with 16 overall starts. Javin is a 3.8 ppg and 3.8 rpg on a succinct 58% substitute type of contributor, and he has more of an offensive put-back machine and has a hack-attack rep’ at this stage of his tenure @Duke. Although he has not missed a shot in the last 10-days to boot. So there is that…
(UPDATE: down everywhere, straight across… ⇓)

6′6″ and string bean 19o lb. Alex O’Connell (who actually found four-pounds) kinda looks like he walked off The Outsiders set as an underfed “greaser” who put on some kayoed “soc’s” Jordache clothing and effortlessly fit right in. Seriously, Alex looks the L.L. Bean boy-model part and he’s basically the lowest-ranked (no.80) national recruit in the Duke rotation— poor Duke! Alex and his 5.4 pine-squad ppg are said to be dynamite in the open-court and he can dial a floor spreading long-distance at a mere A.c.c. leading 54% on his 3’s two years ago down to 39% last season and now plummeting to a mere 27.1% from deep! A.K.A: “ALL Raleigh-Durham slump-busting quality girls please report to the Duke dancefloor, STAT!” As I had thought this kid to be a Pro’ just on his depth alone; tho’ now who knows? Plus he Alex courts one of the rare stop-on-a-dime pull-up games this side of the Virginia Squires and a certain Dr. who made a lotta “J”‘s the very same way. With 2.3 rpg and .8 spg just ’cause.
(UPDATE: O’Connell has been better of late even if he is still off in annual terms, and he even (finally) blocked a shot! ⇑, here)

Illation, conclusion(s) and OPT digits:

Number of Dukies who could duke it out @Tech=10, maybe 15?

the takeaway:
The takeaway here is… we are about to get took— and “aye”, Eye get you don’t wanna read that, tho’ it really is as simple as dat.

Seriously, if VeeTee upsets Duke here I will drive to the techsideline.com entirely fabulous studio and Eye will eat these very words live and on camera. (St.Christopher, St.William and Coach God wiling…)

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Because I in my 10th season of middle-age can STILL play in this game -for either team mind you- and Duke is still gonna win.

(think about the gravitas of that one for a moment sports-fans) …

 ***

Our handy-dandy friend the so-called Forum Guide of Graham Houston fame is calling for a completely drunken and bamboozled looking 148 internal organ VomiTing in this one! As Duke has bludgeoned and woodshed’ed and basically curb-stomped most of the teams that have beaten us/VeeTee thus far. Then even when taken on a per capita basis, the Forum Guide is still calling for over a 12-point Tech trounce. The point being… the Forum Guide has been the only metric to correctly forecast this O&M royale flush of late. And it really does speak to Young’s coaching the verb. As he has nearly no business being in any of the A.c.c. games when you calculate just how lopsided things look in round-robin or reflexive-transitive terms alike.

The annualized year-to-date vitals say that… Duke is up +4% in shooting percentage margin (all on a defter O); Duke is up +2% in 3-point percentage margin (all on a slightly stricter D), and Duke is up a very useful looking +8 carroms in rebounding margin on the Glass for the duration (nearly all courtesy of Duke gettin’ that work).

The most recent 5-game metrics say that… the Dukes are now up +5% in shooting percentage margin (just a little mo’ from O); with the Dukies now up a downright noticeable +10% in 3-point percentage margin (with both teams shooting poor of late from range— yet the Dukies are defensing the 3 vastly better recently); and curiously enough, the Dukies are now only up +4 boards in rebounding margin (as the Dukies have been very porous in Windex Work (or nearly even) of late).

Oddly enough, VT is up +1% at the charity stripe for the year.
VeeTee is still up a healthy-looking is +7 in R&R recently.
Duke is a .857 host; whereas VT is .428 as a guest.

1. The Dukies (last game) a 88-66 setback @Nc.State was the first time this team has L by more than seven points all season!
2. ^^^this^^^ was the largest margin of defeat to an unranked opponent in coach Mike Krzyzewski’s 40-years at the Durham, Nc. school!
3. (the “whispers” say that coach K has really questioned the: “competitiveness” and the “hunger” of his team after Nc.State— stay tuned to see what that R.A.T.T. ends up being code for?)
4. Dukie G  Jones is averaging 19-points in his last five games to boost his season mark to 15.8
   – or second on the team- and the up-n-coming Pt.Guard leads the A.c.c. in assists (6.5) while sitting fifth in steals (1.88).
5. The Hokies’ most recent L, (102-95 to Miami) was the A.c.c.’s first triple-overtime game in 17-years.
6. The Hokies Top-4 scorers all conspire to add up to be a mere 72 years, young! (you do the 2023, maths).
7. Cone has drained 8-of-14 shots from 3-point range the last two games after going 1-for-7 behind the arc in the previous four. A hawt playar lives here folks…
8. (the “whispers” say that our Younglings need to be crisper on O and play into the shot-clock sooner with more pacing… as our big whistle is not in love with our diminishing quality of shots as the shot-clock itself diminishes).
9. In the Miami game, Tyrece Radford poured in 26 points and Jalen Cone added 20. Those are season-high totals for both t-freshmen.

The Call…

No.78 Net Ranking Virginia Tech @ no.6 Net Ranking Duke:

So, in all R.A.T.T. honestly and candor alike… Miami’s extra innings (and the L itself), did us NO favors here folks.

We need what legs we have lift; I mean left… like a dead man needs a coffin.

–oOo–

Then we arrive at the mutually R.A.T.T. and science-fact that the bigs for Duke are a naughty looking match-up no matter any Hurricane extra-innings or sudden-death or anything else.

The Netflix or Strange Things factor(s) are… the Dukies have slipped more than a scosche in: rebounding, 3-point shooting, and just overall flow for lack of a better more objective term of late.

Eye am not sure what is up with that?

Although Eye do not ascribe to that being enough to escrow this upset down in the you won’t get a call until after you leave or if there is (enough) blood on the Camcorder Indoor Arena floor.

At least not for our youngster’s very first visit to the intensity
(and/or the bias) that is @Duke.

Duke rolls, the only question is Duke itself?

🏀💪🏀
💯

(93% confidence interval)
Virginia Tech=63, Duke=86

“LETS GO!”

“Hokies!”

 bourbonstreet**

 

 

 

Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder part II:

So, and this is gonna be late-nite compressed or short— for a change squared-circle preview… as here are the pertinent taglines or things that we science-fact know to have changed or have been (seemingly) credibly “whispered” to have changed since fight no.1 …

1. The so-called and self-crowned Gypsy King DID suffer a vicious set of cuts-over-his-right-eye last time out vs. upstart Otto Wallin last time out. A truly leaky, sanguine, nasty gash that woulda got a B-sider, like oh I don’t know… like Otto Wallin? Stopped TKO style right-as-red-rain. As Tyson bleed all over creation and prolly left the ring a pint low on heart-fuel or hemoglobin itself. Additionally, it is fair-play to say that this rematch is likely to be the furthest back that a former truly sad-case cocaine and vodka binge-watching Tyson Fury has been since said chemically and drinking marathon and the well over 400 lb. associated bloating began. That’s the good news on numerous levels to be sure. The real news however is… you have to wonder out-loud if the best (possible) version of Tyson Fury has now been wasted (pardon the pun) outside the ring past-tense? There are also reports of Fury who did drop long-time trainer Ben Davison; and who did switch Camps to the entirely famous Kronk Gym of motor-city Michigan fame; where they teach an endgame or disassembly line finish your man approach; that Fury is coming to end this one! As opposed to being his formerly most elongated and unnatural pure boxing, feinting, herky-jerky heavyweight match-up of an outstretched boxer ever. If you believe said reports? Or the even seemingly more farcical reports that Tyson wants to weigh-in at 270 lbs.+ for this one which would injure his preeminent hunt-n-peck elite, nesting doll or Riddler type of boxing approach all the more. (UPDATE1: which Ty.Fury nearly unthinkably did at a refused to remove his shirt 273 lbs. when he went and found nearly 25 lbs. since part I on Friday out in Vegas!) (UPDATE2: this amid flourishing British website rumors that Tyson “did not camp well” and may have sustained an ankle turn during this training-game for Wilder part II (may St.Phillip, bless!))
2. “my boy” Deontay Wilder, on the other hand, is said to be in good orthodox or right-hand health itself for a change this time. Unlike in fight no.1, where he carried his 4th to 6th (depending upon whom you ‘source or ask) significant right-hand injury into this the last Split-Draw yet double Fury knockdown bout. (a bout that more than a few scored narrowly in Tyson’s favor mind yah). “my boy” the Bronze Bomber -same as Fury- is said to be looking to add mass for the rematch here as well. Deontay himself is quoted as saying he has been “waking up at 230 {sic: pounds}” or a career-high for most of this camp. (UPDATE: Deontay did just that… tipping the Toledo’s at a career-high 231 lbs. having found 12-lbs. in his own right). Team Wilder (including Mark Breland/Jay Deas his trainer(s)) has also been quoted as saying that Deontay lacked patience in loading-up and going for the kayo punch way too often and therefore way too early last time out. (as Deontay may have indeed tired just a scosche for it in the tail end of each of the championship rounds in late 2018).

There are other storylines and metrics here… granted… however; if you ask me -and you did via reading these very words- if you ask me… all you need to decide is… which Tyson Fury are we gonna see?

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If we see a never seen before -or at least not since the knockdown vs. the U.s.s. Cunningham- or a hell-bent for leather Tyson Fury… who may just use any extra weight to lean-on the southern hemisphere very spindly looking Deontay Wilder… if we see a gunning and not running Tyson Fury? This one ends inside of 36 minutes virtually gar-ron-damn-teed.

If, however, we see a part I Tyson Fury redux… one that tries to out-think, out-feint, out-slip and out-range the Alabama Hammer? We could still potentially see a Tyson Fury decision prop cash at approximately 1 AM on Saturday night. Nevertheless, even this more pure textbook pugilistic formatting from Tyson Fury does not and cannot negate the possibility of Wilder still getting to his chin. As Deontay did successfully get to and touch Fury’s chin twice for two knockdowns already in their first-fight.

🥊🥊

So, Fight won’t so sure seems to cover a lotta ground here to me men.
The only question for you is… do you feel the need to hedge said ground with Fury via decision?

The call…

• 8u on: Fight won’t go the distance-1o5 (with Duke-2ooo).
• 25u on: “YES” Either fighter knocked down-245 (with Duke-2ooo).
• 1.5u on: Wilder wins by TKO/retirement only+475 (with Duke-2ooo).
• 1u on: Wilder wins by technical decision+10ooo (with Duke-2ooo).
• (with: 2 to 3u on Fury wins by decision+25o (if you want it) parlayed with Duke SU).