New Fun Feature

Starting today and continuing throughout the rest of the season College Basketballs Finest Bloggers will be posting our thoughts following a few handpicked games each week. We will precisely pick a few impact games and briefly summarize them in a post that will be available shortly after each contest. To find out which games we will be analyzing, we will post our upcoming schedule at the beginning of each week. With that said, here is our first one.

Maryland vs. Duke

I picked this game for two reasons. 1. Duke is my team and I watch every game so mind as well start with one of their games 2. Maryland and Duke always produce a good game so why not start with a guaranteed good game.

First Half

Duke truly dominated the first half from the beginning. After a quick Duke bucket and a quick Maryland miss, Singler goes down the lane and Osby greets the frosh with a nasty swat right back in his face. Duke then catches a little fire, hitting their first two 3’s to take the game to a quick 6-2 game. They would trade baskets for a little while when Duke’s defense would allow them to pull ahead. Vasquez had a very good half for Maryland though, showing off his talent with a hell of a lay-up to put Maryland down 8. This kid is just a raw point guard. Any team that wouldn’t want this kid running their point should have their head checked. Duke then regained their fire and showed that if they get hot from the outside they are as good as anyone in the country. Duke would continue playing well and lead by 11 after 20 minutes of play.

Second Half

Uh oh, Gary is pissed already, he calls a timeout just 50 seconds into the half. I don’t get that. Your guys have only messed up once or twice in all of 1 minute, why get back in their face, we know that’s where you just were 5 minutes ago in the locker room. Stacey makes a good point, where the hell is Gist? Only 3 points in the first half has allowed it to be the Vasquez show. He continues his solid play pulling the Terps back to within 6, and I’ll reiterate, Vasquez is solid and here comes Maryland. Duke would answer briefly with a big 3 by Scheyer. Duke would then struggle as Maryland starts to bring the heat. A few no calls get Coach K fired up and Vasquez equally as fired up, showing his emotion by jawing at the crazies. Duke has now gone 5 minutes without a basket right when Scheyer again knocks down a big 3. Here is a Gist sighting pulling Maryland back within 2 while Paulus has gone ice cold missing 4 straight from behind the arc. Duke would then get the lead to 9 with a great look from Paulus and another unselfish dish by Singler when he had a possible free basket, but quickly dumped it off to Nelson for an easy dunk. Duke has stretched the lead and here comes the spread offense and they will burn the clock. Maryland starts to foul and a long 1:15 later and this game is officially in the books.

Good game by Duke. Although their offense looked dismal at times in the Second half their defense kept them from losing the lead. Duke is a very good team this year and this game just exemplified their talent. Maryland should not hang their heads though. They are also a good team who has a very bright future. They showed a lot of heart coming back from the start that they had this season and I don't see them flopping down the stretch. If they continue playing the way they are now, there is no way the NCAA can snub them of a spot in the tourney.

Player of the Game

Kyle Singler

26 Points

7 Rebounds