A Silent Kind of Dagger

Those poetic words come from Duke wordsmith Kyle Singler (some call him the greatest Blue Devil poet since JJ Redick), who hit 8 3s last night in a dominant 86-67 win over Georgia Tech. One of them came just before halftime:

Then, after his short trip to the bench to check his wrist, he came back moments later and hit the 3 just before the buzzer -- "a silent kind of dagger," he later called it -- that capped a half-closing 15-6 run and gave the Blue Devils their first double-figure lead, 45-33.

Fuck yeah! The Silent Dagger! It's sinister, ominous, and every other synonym for those two words (especially 'portentous'). Kudos to Sing, who needed a game like this to spark what will hopefully become a late-season outburst. Here's a creepy picture that should add some weight to the new 'Silent Dagger' moniker:


He's driving to the hoop with the grace of an eagle, but he's still looking at you.

I can't stop looking at that picture. *Tearing myself away.*

Scheyer added 21, and Nolan 14, so Earth, Wind, and Scheyer, the nation's top scoring trio, combined for 65 points. As I mentioned yesterday, I had to miss this game for my basketball league, but get this: I predicted the final score would be 83-67.

Am I awesome at predicting sporting events, or what?

(Please just take my word for it and don't look at any older posts.)

(Move on to the next paragraph, please.)

(Come on, don't be an asshole. Give me this one.)

(Okay, fine, you've humiliated me. Does that make you feel nice? Do you feel happy? Is your day any brighter?)

(Is this what it's come to between us? Petty arguments? Squashing each other's joy? Remember how good things used to be? Remember the time we found that stray dog in the park, and just played with it all day? And we were having so much fun that we couldn't believe it when the sun started to set? Remember how new and real everything seemed? And now this? Now you're spending your time nitpicking, exposing all my faults? I admit I haven't been the best partner, okay? I admit that. The college bowl prediction thing was hard. I didn't live up to some of my promises. But I'm trying to change things around. I'm trying to work on us. But sometimes...sometimes, I don't even want to look at you. There, I said it. I'm just so tired. Let's face it, we're both getting old. Can't you see that? Things are changing. We're changing. But not together. God, I'm so sorry.)

Ahem. I wonder if that really hit home for one reader, who will now go off and find a better sports blog to read. And he'll accidentally come back one day, and it'll be awkward, and we'll be like "oh...hey." And I'll ask how everything is going at the other sports blog, and he'll be like "oh, it's pretty good...he gets 10,000 hits every day." And I'll try not to act surprised or jealous, and I'll be all like "oh, that's cool. Yeah, I'm doing pretty good here, too. Someone from Afghanistan visited the other day...that was fun. Nah, no...they didn't stay long. It was a google image search thing, just a 2-second hit. But still, Afghanistan, you know..."

AHEM. Anyway, it looks like people not named Earth, Wind, or Scheyer only scored 21 points. The Plumblefucks (this is what I call the Plumlee brothers when I'm not pleased) were 0-5 from the line, and only played 28 combined minutes. Big Lance Thomas pulled down 11 boards, and we outrebounded them by 6 overall, a nice change from the first game. Our D was pretty solid too, holding them to 49% from the field. We hit 67% of our 3s, largely a product of Singler's 8-10 performance.

So a nice job all around. We've lost four times this year, and each time we've recovered with a big win (St. John's, BC, Clemson, Georgia Tech). Unfortunately, we have to face the road demons again this Saturday up in Boston College, which is a shitty place to play. As we all know, fans from Boston can be a bit obnoxious, and the Eagles faithful never fail to live up to stereotypes. Also, the team itself is consistently dirty. Never a fun trip. Basically, you want to get away with a narrow win and nobody hurt. At least Jared Dudley isn't there anymore.

Speaking of that, and a recent post I made about my top 5 favorite college basketball players, I'm going to try and come up with my least favorite. The All-Hatred Team. Khalid El-Amin would definitely start at point guard. Jared Dudley would be there. That fat guy from Arkansas who hit all the 3s against Duke...Scotty Thurman. Umm, who else...Rick Pitino is definitely the coach. Most Duke fans would say Steve Blake, but I kinda admired his tenacity, so he's cool. Maybe Drew Nicholas from Maryland. That guy was seriously obnoxious. Chas McFarland from Wake Forest infuriates me. And maybe Trevor Booker. But I'm definitely forgetting some historical bad guys. I'll have to give this more thought.

Okay, so. On Sunday, there's a big football game. The Super Bowl. Everyone's heard of it. I have nothing to add except a prediction. 31-26 Peyton Manning. With the Colts up handily most of the game, and New Orleans scoring late to make it close.

In other sports, Villanova plays at Georgetown. That's a Saturday noon game, and it should be awesome. If Nova comes in and kicks ass in the house where Duke got slaughtered, you can color me officially scared about our chances in the Big Dance. That bastard Obama* better show up and jinx them like he did for Duke. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, I say.

*I do not think Obama is a bastard. I actually kinda feel bad for typing that. Humor: very little payoff, and making its user lose self-esteem. Train your kids to be serious, America.

Have a great Super Bowl Sunday. Eat some wings, root for New Orleans if it makes you feel good, and enjoy watching one of the three greatest quarterbacks ever do his thing on the biggest stage. And I almost forgot: only one week until the Olympics!