Tag Archives: Greg Paulus

Duke Gets a Henson, Too

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In the state of North Carolina, the Duke-UNC rivalry is famous for its ability to put neighbors and friends at odds with one another, but how often does the rivalry separate a family?

It happened to the Capel family, when Jason decided to stray from older brother Jeff’s footsteps when he committed to play basketball for the Tar Heels. More recently, it happened to the Paulus family, when younger brother Mike decided to play quarterback for North Carolina.

Photo courtesy of ESPN

And it happened again earlier this week when Amber Henson, a junior from Tampa, Florida, committed to play basketball for the Blue Devils. According to ESPN, she is the No. 1 ranked forward in her class.

Henson’s older brother, John, is currently a freshman forward for the North Carolina Tar Heels. Upon hearing of his sister’s commitment, he tweeted the following:

“Tried my hardest but, Congrats to my Sister on her commitment to dook….guess ill be making a few more trips over there than expected lol”

Part II: Top Villains

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all-decade

This is the second in a series of Duke’s All-Decade teams, as named by various Chronicle writers, past and present. At the end of the series, you will be able to vote for your own All-Decade team, and your votes will determine The Sports Blog’s final choice. Stay tuned over the next two weeks for more All-Decade choices.

One doesn’t have to venture too far off Duke’s campus to find the program’s critics. Just miles down the road sits North Carolina’s campus, and nationally the combination of floor slapping, flopping, a perception that Duke gets all the calls and the Blue Devils’ success on the court fuels Duke hate. Of course, certain players in the last ten years have been special targets of opposing fans’ taunts and deserve to be mentioned.

Without further ado, here are the All-Decade Duke Villains:

Greg Paulus, 2005-2009

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Floor slapping is a quick ticket to the All-Villain squad.

The combination of the spotlight on the Duke point guard position combined with scrappy play, a pass-first mentality and some floor slapping earns Paulus a spot on this all-decade team. A trip up to Syracuse this year for a season of football has probably subdued some of the hate—perhaps he seems less like the prototypical Duke guard after showing off his ability to pass the football from the pocket. Nonetheless, while Paulus played on the hardwood in Durham, he was often the object of opposing fan’s taunts and jeers and without a doubt deserves a spot on this squad.

J.J. Redick, 2002-2006

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Redick, making signs to the crowd after nailing a bucket, insisted that the attention opposing fans gave him only fueled him to play even harder.

Redick is not only indisputably a member of this squad—he’s also the captain, and that’s not even up for discussion. Redick’s arrogance—or confidence, depending on your perspective—drove fans insane. He insisted on holding up his picture-perfect form long after the ball was released and had an infatuation with spreading his arms out and making hand gestures as he trotted back down to the defensive end after making a big shot. And then you throw in the fact that Redick enjoyed writing poetry in his spare time? Oh boy.

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Telling The Story: Scheyer As ACC Player of the Year?

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Two years ago, after Pittsburgh beat Duke on a last-second 3-pointer in Madison Square Garden, The Big Lead got on his soapbox and singled out Jon Scheyer, calling him “unquestionably, an awful college basketball player…. Offensively, after last night’s dreadful 1-for-10 shooting performance, one cannot begin to imagine the thought process that  Scheyer uses when he is in possession of the basketball.” A patently absurd statement in 2007, it rings even flatter almost exactly two years later, when the New York City media left the Garden singing Scheyer’s praises in their stories about Duke’s throttling of Gonzaga.

Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn focused his attention on Scheyer — who scored 20 points and dished out eight assists to just two turnovers — calling the guard not just an All-American candidate, but the new frontrunner for the ACC Player of the Year.

Sounds crazy, at first. Jon Scheyer, ACC Player of the Year? Well, Scheyer is third in the league in scoring, buoyed by a 36-point outburst against Gardner-Webb Tuesday. Plus, there is no  dominant player as in years past, and if Duke does enough to win the conference, it seems likely that Scheyer, Kyle Singler or Nolan  Smith would nab the honors. Take it away, Mr. Winn:

It feels strange saying those things about the Duke senior who had, up until recently, always been thought of as a complementary player. I imagine a large number of non-Duke fans will begin drafting angry e-mails immediately after seeing “Scheyer” and “ACC Player of the Year” in the same sentence, and not even read the rest of this article. But in this case the numbers back up the argument.

Scheyer played his standard, tidy game against the Zags, scoring 20 points while dishing out eight assists against just two turnovers — and his season assist-to-turnover ratio actually went down. He entered the game with a 6.4-to-1 ratio, third-best in the nation (according to statsheet.com) and best amongst ACC players. His season splits are now 59 assists against 10 turnovers, decent numbers for someone who also leads the Blue Devils in scoring at 18.2 points per game, didn’t start playing point guard until the latter half of his junior season, and still isn’t called a point guard by his coach. “Jon’s just a really smart, good player,” said Mike Krzyzewski. “He doesn’t have a position.”

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Greg Paulus To Attempt NFL Career

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10282009_paulus_extra1Former Duke point guard Greg Paulus has exhausted his football eligibility after a season playing for Syracuse, but the New York Daily News reports that the quarterback will make an attempt to play in the NFL:

Paulus is working out at Syracuse in preparation for the school’s March 4 pro day. Paulus, who had a workout with the Packers in April, said, “there has been some contact” regarding the NFL draft.

“I had a great time at Duke. I had a lot of fun there,” Paulus said. “But if there’s more time to play and I can keep playing this game, I would love to do that and keep learning and keep growing with it because I had so much fun this year and playing it again. There’s nothing like playing football.”

Paulus had one year of NCAA eligibility for football as a result of a rule that allows a fifth year of collegiate athletics for players who graduate from one school but play a second sport. His NCAA career ended Nov. 28, however, after a 56-31 loss to Connecticut.

On the season, Paulus completed 67.7 percent of his 285 pass attempts and threw for 2025 yards, 13 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. The Orange finished the season 4-8.

As a Blue Devil competing on the hardwood, Paulus averaged 8.6 points per game to go along with 3.4 assists per contest.

On Harrison Barnes, Part 2

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I ended my column today by saying that I didn’t think Harrison Barnes made the right choice when he decided to go to UNC. Here’s why:

If we think about the way Barnes handled his recruitment, his commitment ceremony on ESPNU, and his choice of reading materials (an si.com article reported that his summer reading list included Secrets of the Mind of a Millionaire: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth), it becomes clear that he wants to make a lot of money and that he plans to do so by building a Harrison Barnes brand. Barnes did all he could to stay in the spotlight and build that brand during his recruitment – blogging about his trips, delaying the moment of decision until he called Roy Williams on Skype – and it worked beautifully. Everyone and their mother (and my girlfriend) was talking about Harrison Barnes.

And right now, the Barnes brand is kind of on fire. When you think of Harrison Barnes, you think of a kid who is smart, religious, mature, technologically-savvy, grounded, and hard-working. And as long as Barnes remains in the spotlight and avoids the criminal justice system, that brand is going to make him a lot of money.

But the key is staying in the spotlight, and Barnes’ problem is that he chose the wrong school at which to do that.

For whatever reason, anything that happens at Duke seems to matter more to the national media than anywhere else (cf. The Duke Lacrosse Saga). Sweet sixteen-loser Duke is on national television 27 times this year; defending national champion North Carolina, 22 times. For comparison’s sake the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers appear on national TV 25 times apiece.

I don’t actually think that the extra five televised games really make that much of a difference, but for whatever reason, there’s something about former Blue Devils that allows them to stay in the national spotlight. Jason Williams and Jay Bilas call games on ESPN; Brian Davis and Christian Laettner bought up most of Durham and then tried to buy the Memphis Grizzlies; Shane Battier is Moneyball author Michael Lewis’ new darling; J.J. Redick jokes about dropping a rap album and it blows up on the Internet. Hell, when back-up point guard Greg Paulus was trying to figure out if he’d play football this year, it made the front page of espn.com. I don’t remember anyone getting that worked up about Bobby Frasor’s future.

The point is that a college basketball player can build his brand while in school as much or more than he can in the NBA – as long as he chooses the right school, has enough charisma, and stays there long enough. At Duke, the national media would’ve turned Barnes into the program savior, the guy who will lead Duke back to glory. Maybe some enterprising Chronicle staffer would’ve written 5,000 words about his life. At Carolina, he’s just another athletic swingman. Rashad McCants says “Hi” from the NBA unemployment line.

If it turns out that he’s actually the second coming of Michael Jordan, it won’t matter how much charisma he has or where he goes to school – he’ll make his millions selling Hanes and Nike. But if he’s not, then he’ll need all the help he can get building that Barnes brand, and coming to Duke would’ve been a good start.

So hey, it’s his loss.

Paulus Named Starting QB At Syracuse

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Syracuse’s football opener Sept. 5 against Minnesota just became must-see TV in Durham.

That’s because Greg Paulus, the former Blue Devil point guard using a fifth year of eligibility to play football for the Orange, has won the nod as the Orange’s starting quarterback, the program announced in a statement Monday night. Paulus beat out sophomore Ryan Nassib, senior Cam Dantley and freshman Charley Loeb for the position, despite not having played competitive football since his senior year in high school.

Although Paulus impressed the local media in early practices, few expected the graduate student to come in and take over right away, especially without participating in spring practice. But even in the beginning of his search for a football team, the chance to compete for a starting job was a priority for Paulus, who must have felt he was capable all along.

Of course, this latest development just makes the Greg-A-Palooza Homecoming Tour T-shirt an essential part of any Duke fan’s wardrobe, which is why we’re happy to report some more good news: the T-shirt’s creators are interested in making an alternate version in blue and white. Intrigued? E-mail them and let your voice be heard. Then order one. Your friends will be jealous.