A Whole Season in Forty Minutes

For Duke, yesterday's game versus North Carolina was a microcosm of sorts of the 2007 ACC season.

Right out of the gates, Duke found themselves down on sloppy play. Carolina went on a quick run, and it was a couple of minutes in before Duke righted the ship and stopped the bleeding. Even so, while holding their deficit steady, the sloppy play continued, and Josh McRoberts finished the first half with six turnovers, eventually allowing UNC to put together another run to go up 13 before the half, a lead which Duke barely cut down to nine in the final seconds.

Coming back from halftime, Duke went on a little run, cutting the lead to two, a la Boston College through St. John's, before coming face to face once again with North Carolina's superb depth, and crumbling at crunch time.

As a Duke fan, this season has been a tough one. Dropping the first two, winning five in a row, losing four in a row, winning three before crumbling at crunch time and falling all the way to seventh in the ACC to finish the season. I don't think any Duke fan can grumble too much over a loss to a much deeper and better overall North Carolina team. What does sting, however, is the black eye Duke is going to receive from the fallout of the final seconds of the game.

With under twenty seconds to go and down by twelve, Gerald Henderson went up strong to block a Tyler Hansbrough shot and cracked him in the face with an elbow.

Watching the tape, you can see Henderson go up strong for the block and then turn when the ball gets stripped early, putting his elbow at grill-level for a collision with Hansbrough. If one felt that the tape is somewhat inconclusive, then you look at Henderson's record as a player. He's not dirty. He's just not the type of guy who would lose it like that.

Now, granted, I'm pretty sure that he was going up to deny Hansbrough in a powerful way. North Carolina was looking to pile on in the final seconds. Hansbrough wasn't looking to dump it outside and run down the clock. He was looking to add insult to injury.

And that's fine. That's what teams do in rivalry games. Likewise, however, losing teams fight to the death in rivalry games and one cannot expect a pile-on dunk as Hansbrough was preparing to throw down to go uncontested. And contest it, Gerald Henderson was prepared to do.

Pat Forde shows his colors as a Duke-hater when he lets the basic laws of physics take backseat to his fortune-telling, stating for a "fact" that Gerald Henderson went up to foul Hansbrough hard. Not to punch him but to foul him hard and thus, the ejection was deserved. Last I checked, Patty-me-boy, you have to go up strong and get equal momentum behind a block to have any chance of success. Henderson went up hard because Hansbrough was going up hard. There is no way to tell if Henderson was looking to stop the dunk with a foul or a block. Given Henderson's record, it's just as likely he was looking to salvage a little dignity with a strong block.

Either way, this moment will be replayed from now till the end of time whenever these two teams meet, and I'm sure the intent will be debated for just as long. In any case, it's a black eye for the Blue Devil image in the eyes of anyone who doesn't stand behind them. Unfortunately, as much as I love and respect Coach K, I think his post-game comments may have made things worse. After the game, Coach K insinuated that if Hansbrough hadn't been in the game it wouldn't have happened.

Ouch. Mike. Please. I know you are competitive, and I know the pile-on hurts. But this is how it works. That comment makes you sound one step ahead of Isaiah Thomas. So what that Williams left some of his starters in? You've just got to take this one on the chin. As soon as Hansbrough took it in the nose, this became a battle of image. While attacking Williams for leaving starters in would have been totally legit before the mishap, afterwards you've just got to suck it up and keep your mouth shut.

We'll see if the loss of Henderson for one game will inspire, or deflate this ragged Duke team. After all, this is a team that wins on grit and determination, not refined talent. Their success in the ACC and NCAA tournaments depend largely, therefore, on how they respond to this kick they have given themselves in their own teeth.