The Front Row

Impressive win....not ready to say they are better than last year yet. If they can come out of Kansas with a W, that will be an even bigger statement than the beatdown put on Duke IMO.

I wish people would stop complaining about the 7 man rotation.

We are talking about 19 yr old kids playing 40 minutes of basketball. These kids play more than that every day I'm sure.

There are all kinds of TV timeouts and long breaks in big games like this and tourney games. Unless they are out of shape big boys like Oden and Sully last year, they all seem to have plenty of energy.

The team versatility allows for us to only sub 2 guys and move players around to rest everyone that needs it.

We will probably meet these guys again down the road. The bad news? Duke always improves during the season and will not have another cold night like last night. The good news? Ohio State under Matta also improves greatly and it is scary to think what this Buckeye team could become. Great game in an electric atmosphere.

In his post game comments Coach K mentioned his team having played "tired". From an ESPN article, "Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said the fatigue from last week’s trip to Hawaii played a role in the Blue Devils’ struggles. 'I thought Ohio State played a great game against us. They were a fresher team,” he said. “I thought our team played tired.'” If you look at the schedule, Ohio State has played the same number of games as Duke over exactly the same period of time. In fact, despite the fact that Duke had to travel back from Maui (tough assignment), they had six days off since their last game. The Buckeyes had 4. I recognize travel does take a toll on players but you would think that fatigue wouldn't be a factor after 6 days. I think what happened was that Duke's lack of athleticism was exposed tonight. It certainly makes you optimistic for this season is you are a Buckeye fan.

He also went on to say fatigue alone does not account for everything that happend. He said flat out they got their butts kicked. I am not a fan of his, but his presser was really spun in different ways depending on the website you go to. Just read Jeff Goodman's article on CBS Sportsline and compare to ESPNs. Let's face it, ESPN has a certain investment in Duke, so they are going to protect it.

As for what we learned, more than anything, 7 players. That's it 7 PLAYERS. 20+ point lead with 10, 8, 6, 5 minutes left... it didn't matter. 7 PLAYERS. Wow. But, like Dave said, hard to argue with Matta's success.

I got a chance to chat with a few ex-players yesterday morning and everyone of them wishes they could go back and have their OSU play this one to see who is best (hint that includes two seperate final 4 teams). To me, that is the biggest sign of respect one player can have for another. None of them are suprised at what happend last night. In fact, they called it. Needless to say, I was. That's one of the things that Matta has done quitely here. He brings back the alums. He shows, by inviting them and welcoming them back, that OSU does have a lot of history. Yes, we are a football school, but it is closer to 1a and 1b nowadays thanks to Thad.

also worth mentioning that most of plumlee's pts were off uncontested dunks (times he was open on fast breaks, or just over committed to their guards & didn't rotate,etc).... i think the stats make the sullinger/plumlee matchup seem closer than it actually was, but i can only remember 1 or 2 contested baskets from plumlee & i can't remember a single basket plumlee created for himself with his back to the basket.... sullinger was dominant.... & if we can continue to get that type of performance from the rest of our starting 5 we will be very difficult to beat.

I'm deferring to Tri on this one. I like the way you're thinking sir!

Kingsman...

Agree the uncontested dunks made the Plumlee/Sullinger matchup look closer than it was in reality. However, I do remember one time in the first half he backed down Sullinger and got a basket. I remember mostly becaused I yelled SULLY, you can't let that bum do that to you.

Tripol...

I agree. There seems to be three types of fans with Duke. 1. Duke fan. 2. Duke hater. 3. NC State fan

For whatever reason, NC State fans cheer for Duke. I think it has something to do with their hatred of UNC. However, some of them act like they have won when Duke does in the tourney. The rest of the ACC seems to hate them but not NC State.

People can make excuses of being tired, over traveled, refree calls, shots not falling, etc...but its kind of like some one said about recognizing pronography--"You know it when you see it""....a butt kicking- you knew it when you saw it!

Living in the deep south where tobacco road rules, people have been quiet as church mice. (Little girl giggle)