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As for Redick, for the third time in four years, he came up small in the regional semifinals. Unable to get away from tenacious freshman defender Garret Temple, he was a dismal 3-for-18 against LSU.
Anyone can have a bad game, you say? True. But how about last year, when Redick was 4-for-14 as the Blue Devils lost to Michigan State in the regional semis? And what about his freshman year, when he scored only five points in a bittersweet 16 loss to Kansas?
Forget about how many points a guys scores against Wake Forest or Clemson in January or February. It's what he does in the NCAA tournament in March that people remember.
Now, the truth is that, in every team sport, even a great player can be shut down. That's when his teammates have to step up. And when his coach has to come up with alternative ways to win.
--Jim Donaldson, Providence Journal
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| posted on Saturday December 5, 2009 | |
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Will Leitch has a preview of St. John's visit to Dook in New York Magazine:
Every sport needs a villain, a Cobra Kai, the bad snotty guys who have everything and want more, the kids with the nice cars who only care about ascots, three-pointers, and hair gel. That's a comically wrong version of what Duke is, but so what? Having Duke around gives us all enemies. We all need enemies.
Let's hope St. Johns follows in Wisconsin's footsteps.
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Permalink!
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Elton Brand -
Elton has been a great player in college and the NBA. He was also the first Duke player to leave early for the NBA.
Elton's early exit brought on an hilarious e-mail exchange between Elton and a Duke student.
Elton talked about sending this e-mail in Slam Magazine afterwards, and the link to this has resurfaced:
There's an e-mail that has haunted Elton Brand and won't go away. He's never admitted to it, not until now. Chillin' in his modest downtown apartment with teammates Ron Artest and Corey Benjamin, watching Duke ball UNC, Elton confesses--but only because I asked. "So E," I say without Corey or Ron hearing. "Did you really write that e-mail back to that white girl when you were at Duke?"
Elton looks around, rubs on the red Coogi sweater, and spits honesty. "I'll tell you, I did."
To paraphrase the episode, some co-ed at Duke wrote Elton an e-mail degrading him for leaving school early. According to her, "no one should ever leave Duke before they graduate." She called EB some derogatory names, made racial and athletic references and basically said he didn't deserve to wear Duke blue. The reply was classic. Calm. It basically told the struggles of a particular young black man and how he "wasn't like these other brothas and athletes you see that go to this school."
"She didn't know my background," E says, making a move to the kitchen. "I ain't come from money like a Christian Laettner or a Grant Hill or even like Shane [Battier]. She didn't know my background, so for her to just go off on me...you know I had to say something."
"So when you were on Up Close with Rip Hamilton before the '99 title game and Chris Myers asked about it, you basically lied?"
"No. I was protecting myself. I knew when I sat down in Corey Maggette's room and typed that e-mail, I was doing the right thing. But it was to her, not the public. And I wasn't about to mess up my Draft chances by admitting that. Because, c'mon, you know the deal, the average [and E says this eloquently, without using the word "white"] person wouldn't have understood where I was coming from." I did.
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