The House of Blue

Duke 78
UK 63

We are not ready for a team that will execute the way Duke will. Duke is always in midseason form at the beginning of the year. Their problem is they don't improve near as much as everyone else.

The thing that bothers me about the Duke game is 3-pointers. Maryland couldn't hit the broadside when open for threes, which they often were. If we hadn't out-gunned them on the 3s, we lose the game. Duke will be much better in this facet of the game. Can our raw and unbridled talent win out? I'm picking UK with my heart 73 - 68.

UK 66
Duke 64

Hate to say it, but the early inexperience showed against the terps. It won't be that way in March.

UK - 72
Duke - 79

Phil Jackson is ready to take a crap all over you. Coach K doesn't sniff Jackson's jock. Please never make this statement again.

By the way, I don't deny K his status among basketball's elite, but best coach in the world? Don't think so.

I cannot bet against the Cats playing in Catlanta. Coach K never schedules games like this for a reason. Duke folds under the intense pressure of the Big Blue Nation...but it will be close.
UK - 77
DUKE - 71

Duke 75
Kentucky 68

I don't think you can compare the two. Phil has never done anything without the best players on the planet. i would say Coach K best college coach ever and Phil one of best NBA coaches ever. If you try and compare them head to head i would have to give nod to Coach K. He has done more with less.

UK scored its 31 points in a total of 34 possessions for the half, and DUKE scored its 33 points on a total of 31 possessions. DUKE WON the boards, with a rebounding edge 19-15, and won the battle of the offensive glass 8-4. The Cats used their 4 second chance possessions to score 5 second chance point while DUKE used its 8 second chances to score 5 second chance points. DUKE had an offensive efficiency of 0.903 ppp on its 31 first chance possessions and 0.625 ppp for its 8 second chance possessions. UK had 0.765 ppp on its 34 first chance possessions and 1.250 ppp on its 4 second chance possessions. With respect to the offensive rebounding, UK grabbed a weak 26.7% of its misses as offensive rebounds while DUKE was able to convert a strong 42.1% of its misses into bonus possessions with offensive rebounds.

UK hit poorly from the free throw line in this half, making 6-11 [54.5%]. DUKE made 5-10 [50.0%] for the half. Field goal shooting for UK was 11-24 overall [45.8%] and 3-5 from long range [60.0%]. For DUKE, their field goal shooting from inside the arc was a strong 8-19 [42.1%] and from long range, DUKE hit 4-11 [36.4%].

The Cats committed 9 turnovers, one for every 3.8 possessions. The Cats forced only 5 DUKE turnovers, one for every 6.2 possessions.

Congratulations Kevin Ryan. And a rare occurrence for sure. He picked the exact final score.

I will go ahead and say you are out of your mind. Phil Jackson is the best to ever sit a sideline. I'm a Celtics fan by the way. I don't care about players. Ask Cal, managing their ego's is just as important. K couldn't do that. At all. So really there isn't even a discussion where K should be included. If you want to restrict it to the college game that's fine, you're probably right. But, what was said is the world, and that's just completely inaccurate.

See? I even got downvoted for it lol

I have explained this many times. I make mistakes on occasion. That is why it is each player's responsibility to check the prediction summary table to make sure that I entered your prediction correctly, and get it fixed before the game. That is why I post these prediction summary tables and update them throughout the process for each game.

After the game, the process I go through to update the standings is a manual process, and if someone asks me to make a change after than is done, I must redo it from the beginning.

So, I am sorry that I got your prediction wrong, but perhaps you will start verifying that I get it right before the games are played, at a time when correcting my error is easily accomplished.