Tag Archives: Austin Rivers

Duke basketball alumnus Kyle Singler named to All-Rookie second team

Duke had two former players drafted in the first round of the 2012 NBA Draft, but neither Austin Rivers nor Miles Plumlee was honored Tuesday with All-Rookie team selections.

Kyle Singler was named to the NBA All-Rookie second team after averaging 8.8 points and 4.0 rebounds during his first season in the league.

Kyle Singler was named to the NBA All-Rookie second team after averaging 8.8 points and 4.0 rebounds during his first season in the league.

Instead, it was the 33rd overall selection in the 2011 draft who received hardware. Kyle Singler was named to the NBA All-Rookie second team after averaging 8.8 points and 4.0 rebounds during his first season with the Detroit Pistons. Singler played in all 82 games for the Pistons, starting 74 of them.

Duke associate head coach Steve Wojciechowski tweeted out his congratulations to Singler for his accomplishment.

Singler was a rookie this season after spending the lockout-shortened 2011 season playing in Spain first for Lucentum, then later for Real Madrid. Singler is under contract with Detroit for the next two seasons and is expected to be an important part of the Pistons’ rebuilding efforts.

Singler was joined on the All-Rookie second team by teammate Andre Drummond (UConn), Jonas Valanciunas (Lithuania), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (Kentucky) and Tyler Zeller (North Carolina).

Duke basketball Seth Curry flashback: Curry overcomes injury to topple N.C. State

Over the next three weeks, The Blue Zone will be counting down the top five performances from each of Duke’s graduating seniors during their collegiate careers. This week, we continue with guard Seth Curry.

No. 2: Curry scores 21 in the second half despite ankle injury to complete comeback over N.C. State.

The date: February 16, 2012

Curry overcame a left ankle injury to score 21 second half points and lead Duke's comeback over N.C. State.

Curry overcame a left ankle injury to score 21 second half points and lead Duke’s comeback over N.C. State.

The game: Duke 78, N.C. State 73

Curry statline: 26 points—21 in the second half—on 9-of-18 shooting to go along with four rebounds and two assists.

The breakdown: No. 4 Duke was in trouble at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils were lifeless on offense through the first half against the in-state rival Wolfpack. Duke went to the locker room at halftime trailing by 16 points with Josh Hairston the leading scorer at six points.

Seth Curry struggled to get into a rhythm offensively in the first half due to a left ankle injury he suffered just two minutes into the game. The injury cost Curry almost five minutes on the bench, but the junior guard shook off the discomfort to return to the court. With his ankle plaguing him, Curry shot just 2-for-7 from the field and scored five points in the first half.

Things didn’t get much better for the Blue Devils at the start of the second half. With 11:33 remaining in the game, Duke trailed by 20 points. Then Curry overcame his injury and checked back into the contest.

What happened next was an offensive clinic from the Blue Devil guard. Curry went off for 21 points in the second half on 7-of-11 shooting, including a timely 3-pointer after the final media timeout that brought his team within two points of the Wolfpack.

Curry’s fight combined with 16 Austin Rivers points were enough to help Duke overcome N.C. State and preserve their perfect home record.

The quote: “It was a heroic performance by Seth,” Krzyzewski said. “Seth said, ‘I don’t know if I can go’ [following the injury]…. We’ll see where he is tomorrow.”

Previous Curry performances:

No. 5: Curry leads comeback against North Carolina

No. 4: Curry leads the way as Krzyzewski wins No. 903

No. 3: Curry pours in career-high 31 to defeat Santa Clara

Duke basketball Ryan Kelly flashback: Maui Invitational Tournament

Over the next three weeks, The Blue Zone will be counting down the top five performances from each of Duke’s graduating seniors during their collegiate careers. This week, we start with forward Ryan Kelly.

Blue Devils sweep at Maui Invitational 

The dates: November 21-23, 2011

Kelly's strong performance in the Maui Invitational set the stage for his big junior season.

Kelly’s strong performance in the Maui Invitational set the stage for his big junior season.

The games: Duke 77, Tennessee 67; Duke 82, Michigan 75; Duke 68, Kansas 61

Kelly statline: In three games, Kelly tallied 51 points (averaging 17.0 ppg), 14 rebounds (4.7 rpg), and shot 16-18 from the charity stripe.

The breakdown: Hawaii’s Maui Invitational was the first real test for the 2011-12 Duke team. Under Ryan Kelly’s leadership, the Blue Devils passed with flying colors: Duke defeated two ranked opponents, won its fifth Maui Invitational, and extended its winning streak to 15-0 on the islands. Kelly earned MVP of the Tournament honors for his performance.

Kelly was certainly proficient on the offensive end, averaging 17.0 points per game against high-caliber defense, but the junior forward also set the tone on defense. Providing a stellar example for Duke’s rookie backcourt of Austin Rivers and Quinn Cook, Kelly was relentless in his perimeter man-to-man.

Entering their opening-round matchup against the Blue Devils, the Volunteers had nailed 26 threes in their first two games, in which they went 2-0. Against Duke, however, they did not hit one shot from beyond the arc.

Kelly also displayed excellent physical stamina throughout the tournament—he played a total of 99 minutes (33 minutes per game) in the tournament. In the semi-final and final games, Kelly was allowed only four minutes of rest apiece.

The 2011-12 season marked an enormous increase in production for Kelly; his points per game and rebounds per game averages both nearly doubled from the previous season and he began to dramatically increased game minutes as a result of his improvement. The Maui Invitational was a significant benchmark in this development, one that earned Kelly increased confidence from both his teammates and the coaching staff.

The quote: “You get more comfortable with each other so you realize what a guy like Ryan can do, what Seth can do,” Mason Plumlee said. “Playing with them in back-to-back-to-back games, you learn that.”

Previous Kelly performances:

No. 5: Kelly scores 20 points against Wake Forest

Duke basketball Andre Dawkins flashback: 22 points against Florida State

Duke basketball guard Andre Dawkins announced last week that he will return for the 2013-14 seasonAfter Dawkins spent this season redshirting, we’re counting down his top-five performances as a Blue Devil.

No. 2: Dawkins’ 3-point shooting fuels revenge over Florida State

Dawkins' 3-point touch ignited Duke's road victory over Florida State during the 2011-12 season.

Dawkins’ 3-point touch ignited Duke’s road victory over Florida State during the 2011-12 season.

 

The date: Feb. 23, 2012

The game: Duke 74, Florida State 66

Dawkins statline: 22 points on 6-of-12 shooting—6-for-9 from beyond the arc—with four rebounds and a steal.

The breakdown: This game against No. 16 Florida State had a little extra meaning for the Blue Devils. The previous month a then-unranked Seminole team knocked off then-No. 4 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Meeting in Tallahassee this time around, the Blue Devils wanted retribution.

With Florida State leading 13-12 around the midway point of the first half, Dawkins provided the spark off the bench he is well known to do. The junior guard connected on three triples and got to the free throw line a few times to score 12 of the team’s next 14 points and propel Duke to a halftime lead.

In the second half Austin Rivers joined the scoring effort and ended the day with 20 points of his own as Duke’s 3-point prowess led them to a key ACC road victory. With Dawkins leading the way, the Blue Devils shot 46.4 percent from long-range.

The quote: “We know they like to converge a lot on drives,” Dawkins said. “So we wanted to be ready for kicks, be ready to shoot. And we did a good job of that today.”

Previous Dawkins performances:

No. 5: Dawkins scores 16 off the bench against Miami

No. 4: Dawkins hits two threes to help send Duke to the Final Four

No. 3: Dawkins drops career-high 28 points against Bradley

Foreign Policy writer responds to everybody hating Duke

We get it. Everybody hates Duke basketball.

A couple weeks ago, USA Today had a slideshow with a list of the most hatable college basketball players, and go figure it included: Steve Wojciechowski, J.J. Redick and Christian Laettner.

This week, Grantland has a bracket going for the most hatable college basketball player ever. There are four regions: players from the 80s, 90s, 00s… and Duke players.

In the regional finals, second-seed Redick is against top-seeded Laettner in the Duke quadrant that also included Wojo, Greg Paulus, Shane Battier, Danny Ferry, Austin Rivers and Bobby Hurley.

In a piece today for Foreign Policy titled “America’s March Madness Problem” writer Marc Lynch—a Duke grad—breaks down the hate.

Here’s a snippet:

Why all the hate? Sure, objectively, Duke appears to represent the best of college sports: graduating most of its players, while running a system built around individual freedom and creativity on offense anchored by hard-nosed, relentless teamwork on defense. But in popular mythology, Duke has become an avatar of an overly white, overrated, and overly praised team with an air of entitled superiority.

This national consensus is fascinating, in that it seems utterly blind to what the rest of the planet knows deeply and profoundly: In world politics, we’re Duke. Americans like to think they are Butler, the scrappy unheralded Midwestern underdogs one shot away from a miracle. But let’s be real. The United States is a global superpower, since 1990 the unipolar hegemon atop the global order. In the Middle East it is the imperial hub, a status quo power with deep security and military alliances with almost every regime and global sanctions against the few remaining “rogues.” When the world looks at the United States, it doesn’t see Butler. It sees Duke.

Despite their country’s overwhelming global dominance, Americans have struggled to comprehend the depth and resilience of hostile attitudes and negative perceptions. In a 2008 survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Americans rated restoring their country’s global standing above any other national priority — including combating terrorism and protecting jobs. The whole tenor of the “why do they hate us” punditry meme suggests just how much this global distaste upsets Americans. But if Americans want to understand the resilience of anti-Americanism, they could do worse than to examine their feelings about Duke.

Conventional explanations of anti-Dukism mirror those of anti-Americanism. Some see it as a natural outgrowth of dominance, attracting the incomprehension and resentment of the less fortunate. Everyone hates Mr. Big.

 

Remembering Duke basketball’s “Miracle on Franklin Street”

Today marks the one-year anniversary of arguably the most exciting conclusion to a Duke-North Carolina basketball game in the history of the storied rivalry.

In case you don’t remember the game’s dramatic conclusion, here is the final scene from “The Miracle on Franklin Street”:

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — With the final seconds ticking off the clock, Austin Rivers had already played the game of his life on the season’s biggest stage. But the Blue Devils still trailed by two, and the 6-foot-4 freshman stood dribbling on the right wing, guarded by 7-foot senior Tyler Zeller.

Looking first at the clock, then the imposing body in front of him, Rivers subtly jabbed, creating all the space he needed to swish a 3-pointer and give Duke an 85-84 victory over North Carolina at the Dean E. Smith Center.

Although the play was designed for Rivers to attack the lane and attempt to draw a foul, the guard came off Mason Plumlee’s pick and exploited his quickness advantage against Zeller, who could not reach his attempt.

“The team, they had a lot of confidence in me,” Rivers said. “Once Zeller switched I thought ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got Zeller on me.’ I just looked up and saw the time, did my little jab and shot it.”

Of course there was much more to it—involving a number of key 3-pointers and some help from Tyler Zeller, tipping in a Ryan Kelly shot, but the remarkable comeback was the first time a Duke-UNC game ended on a buzzer-beater.

But many people forget, Duke led for almost the entire first half before Duke pulled away, in a game that showed the contrasting styles between the two teams:

Although Austin Rivers’ buzzer beater instantly became a part of Duke-North Carolina lore Wednesday night, the real fiber of the game was the battle between two contrasting styles. The Blue Devils pulled out the 85-84 comeback win as their perimeter-oriented offense endured against the Tar Heels’ interior attack.

Duke came out of the gates showing no hesitation to shoot early in the shot clock from anywhere on the floor. Rivers set the tone early, hitting two deep 3-pointers and scoring 10 of the Blue Devils’ first 12 points. With just under eight minutes left in the first half, the Blue Devils had already attempted 13 shots from beyond the arc, connecting on six of them, on their way to a 32-25 lead.

“We have a lot of guys that can shoot 3s,” Rivers said. “If you look at our starting lineup, four or five guys are great shooters. A lot of people are saying they miss shots, but we shoot the ball with confidence.”

And on a day that has become about so much negativity and hate directed towards Duke fans after last night’s N.C. State game, here is a video of Rivers’ shot to warm the hears of Cameron Crazies as they head into the weekend:

“And this place is in stunned silence…”