The ACC Tournament kicks off on Wednesday afternoon at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Unfortunately, Duke did not qualify once again.

However, the top eight teams in the conference did, including the five teams in front of Duke in the Coastal Division. Baseball America still has six ACC teams ranked in the top 25 (#5 Virginia, #6 North Carolina, #7 Florida State, #9 NC State, #18 Clemson, and #21 Virginia Tech).

The eight teams are broke up into two pools, A and B. Each team plays one game against the other three teams in their pool. The two teams with the best record in their pool advance to Sunday’s championship, which will be televised on ESPN2 at 1pm ET. The ACC champion receives the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The weather forecast for Durham has thunderstorms possible for the first two days, but temperatures over the final three days to be in the upper 70s. That’s perfect baseball weather, though it may get a little chilly for the night games.

Pool A: North Carolina, NC State, Clemson, and Miami.

Pool B: Florida State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and  Georgia Tech.

Defending ACC Tournament champion Georgia Tech kicks off the tourney at 11am Wednesday as the seven seed (15-15). They play the top seed in Pool B, two seed Florida State (20-10). Six seed Virginia Tech (15-14) faces three seed Virginia (22-8) at 3pm, with five seed Clemson (18-12) against four seed NC State (19-10) at 7pm to finish the first day of games.

» Continue reading “ACC Baseball Tournament Preview”

On Monday, the awards were announced in terms of ACC baseball. Two Duke players were named to the All-ACC second team.

Sophomore second baseman Andy Perez and junior third baseman Jordan Betts were named to the team. They were the first two Blue Devil position players to earn All-ACC honors since Nate Freiman (now in the big leagues with Oakland) and Jeremy Gould back in 2009. Perez is the first Duke second baseman to garner this honor since Quinton McCracken in 1992. Betts is the first Duke third baseman since Jeff Becker in 1999.

Perez led the team in hitting at .316 with 67 hits, five triples, and 18 stolen bases. He batted primarily from the leadoff spot and was the only ACC second baseman to rank in the top 15 in hits or total bases.

Betts has started all 164 games of his career. Batting from the cleanup spot, he hit a career-high seven homeruns and led the team in RBIs (48). His RBIs rank 12th in the conference.

The top two teams in the ACC took the big awards.

North Carolina third baseman Colin Moran, widely considered one of the top hitters in college baseball, was named Player of the Year. Prior to last night’s win over Florida State, he was hitting .376 and had a .504 on-base percentage. His 83 RBIs are tops in the country (by a wide margin). His teammate, Kent Emanuel, was named the Pitcher of the Year. He is 9-3 with a 2.28 ERA in 102.2 innings pitched. Both are semifinalists for the Dick Howser Award, given to the top collegiate baseball player.

Despite being young, Virginia surprised everyone by finishing the regular season ranked fifth in the country by Baseball America and won their series against ACC regular season champion UNC. They were picked to finish third in the Coastal Division during the preseason. That garnered head coach Brian O’Connor with being named Coach of the Year for the third time in four years. The Cavaliers had the second best record in the conference at 22-8, but are the three seed in the tournament.

UVA outfielder Joe McCarthy was named Freshman of the Year after hitting .333 with 47 RBIs.

» Continue reading “Two Blue Devils Named to All-ACC Team”

It was announced on Sunday that two of the five Duke women’s basketball players that were invited to USA team trials were selected to their respective team.

Rising sophomore guard Alexis Jones was picked for the USA U19 World Championship team. She was one of 12 players selected after four days of trials in Colorado.

Here is what Jones had to say about making the U19 team again:

“It felt really good to know that I made the team again,” commented Jones.  “We all worked hard in the tryouts to make the team. Coming out here and making the team again, I really felt good and I’m happy about making the team.  The competition was really tough. There were a lot of guards out there, there were a lot of good posts, but it was fun and exciting.”

Joining Jones on the U19 team are: Brianna Turner, A’ja Wilson, Candice Agee (Penn State), Nia Coffey (Northwestern), Bashaara Graves (Tennessee), Gabby Green, Linnea Harper (Kentucky), Kelsey Plum (Washington), and Moriah Jefferson, Breanna Stewart, and Morgan Tuck of UConn.

The team will regroup for training on July 1st in Colorado before heading to Europe from July 11-14 for a Spain-hosted event in the Canary Islands. The other teams participating include Australia, Canada, and Spain.

From there, the USA will head to Lithuania to defend their gold medal. As a member of Group D, they will play preliminary and second round games in Panevėžys. They open against Lithuania on July 18, followed by China on July 19, and Mali on July 20. The top three teams from each group advance to the second round (July 22-24). Each team will play three new teams as part of Groups E and F. Records from the preliminary round carry over to the second round. The top four teams qualify for the quarterfinals. The medal rounds begin on July 26th (quarterfinals), with the semifinals on July 27th and the gold medal game on July 28th.

» Continue reading “Two Blue Devils Selected to USA Teams”

The Duke men’s lacrosse team won in comeback fashion on Sunday, as they are headed to their seventh straight appearance in the NCAA Championship weekend. They beat the two seed, Notre Dame, 12-11.

Down 11-9 in the fourth quarter with 9:29 to go, the Blue Devils scored the game’s final three goals en route to their third consecutive one goal tournament win. They also avenged their regular season loss to the Irish.

The game went back-and-forth, as there were nine ties and five lead changes. Senior captain David Lawson scored a career-high five goals, including the game winner. Jordan Wolf had four assists.

Matt Cavanaugh of Notre Dame had three goals and three assists.

The Blue Devils will head to Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia for the semifinal matchup on Friday, May 25th at 2:30pm ET on ESPN2 against unseeded Cornell, who blew out the three seed Ohio State (16-6). If Duke wins, they will play in the finals on Memorial Day against the winner of Syracuse-Denver (the ‘Cuse are the number one team) at 1pm ET.

» Continue reading “Duke Men’s Lacrosse Headed to NCAA Final Four”

The Duke baseball team lost their season finale to visiting NC State on Saturday afternoon. The 9-1 loss came in a three-game sweep.

The Wolfpack scored four runs in the top of the first and pounded out 15 in the game. Four players had multi-hit games, including Bryan Adametz, who went 3-for-5 with four RBIs (two coming in the first).

The Blue Devils scored their lone run in the eighth on Andy Perez’ RBI single (one of his three hits). He finished the season as Duke’s top hitter at .316. He also stole his team-leading 18th base in the loss.

Drew Van Orden and James Marvel combined to pitch five scoreless innings of relief.

The Blue Devils season has come to a close on a low note. The ACC Tournament begins this week at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. I’ll have more on the eight teams who qualified and the matchups on Monday.

The Duke baseball team could not hold a lead to visiting NC State and lost in ten innings, 7-6. The Blue Devils led 6-5 heading into the top of the 8th inning when Logan Ratledge delivered a two out RBI single. They actually led 4-0 and then 6-3.

The Wolfpack scored the go ahead run on an Andrew Istler wild pitch in the tenth (he lost his sixth game of the season). The Blue Devils had the tying run on second base with one out, but Chris Marconcini fouled out to end the game off new pitcher Grant Sasser.

Duke got to Preseason All-American (and last season’s ACC Pitcher of the Year) Carlos Rodon, but he still pitched nine innings. He allowed six runs (four earned) on six hits and three walks while striking out 15.

They loaded the bases in the second inning with three straight singles, but could not push a run across. Duke scored four runs in the 3rd inning off Rodon, capped by Jordan Betts’ two-run double. The other two runs scored on wild pitches. They scored their final two runs in the 5th inning without a hit. One scored on a fielder’s choice, the other on Marconcini‘s sac fly.

From there, Rodon retired the side in order over his final four innings of work. In that timespan, he struck out eight.

Blue Devils starter Trent Swart allowed six runs (five earned) on eight hits and two walks over 7.1 innings. He struck out four. Istler entered in the 8th inning and allowed the go ahead run to score.

On offense for Duke, Andy Perez and Betts collected two hits each. Perez scored three runs while Betts drove in three.

The two teams finish out the series later this afternoon. It will be Duke’s final game of the season.

19 former Duke men’s basketball players played during the NBA’s regular season. Ten of those players advanced to the NBA Playoffs. However, just two remain as I am typing this.

That means that eight were eliminated, so let’s take a look at them.

The LA Lakers were swept by the San Antonio Spurs (who advanced to the Western Conference Finals last night) in the first round. Guard Chris Duhon played in two games. In the final game, he played 43 minutes and scored 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting. He also dished out seven assists. On the season, Duhon averaged 2.9 points and 2.9 assists over 17.8 minutes.

The Boston Celtics were eliminated by the NY Knicks in the first round. Shavlick Randolph played just three minutes in the April 23rd loss. He did haul in three rebounds.

The Milwaukee Bucks were swept by the Miami Heat in the first round (the Heat advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals). Two former Blue Devils were a part of the Bucks season. Mike Dunleavy averaged 12.3 points, four rebounds, and two assists over their four playoff games. During the regular season, he averaged 10.5 points in 25.9 minutes.

JJ Redick averaged 7.3 points in the four playoff games. After playing in 50 games to start the season with Orlando, he was traded to Milwaukee and played in 28 games. During the regular season, Redick averaged 12.3 points.

» Continue reading “8 Former Blue Devils Eliminated from NBA Playoffs”

The Duke baseball team lost to visiting NC State on Thursday night, 5-2. The Wolfpack scored three runs with two outs in the first inning. They are just percentage points behind the tie atop the Atlantic Division.

The Blue Devils had at least one base runner in every inning, but went just 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position. They struck out at least seven times with men in scoring position, according to Duke head coach Chris Pollard.

Jeff Kremer went 3-for-4.

Robert Huber took the loss, as he allowed four runs on seven hits and three walks over just three innings. Nick Hendrix was solid in relief, as he allowed one run on five hits and a walk over 3.1 innings. Sarkis Ohanian finished out the game with 2.2 scoreless innings.

The two teams continue their series tonight.

*With Thursday’s games, the top eight teams have clinched spots in the upcoming ACC Tournament. However, it has gotten interesting near the top.

Virginia beat top seed North Carolina, moving them a win from a tie at the top (with two more games to go). Clemson beat FSU to create a tie atop the Atlantic Division (with two more to go). Miami beat Georgia Tech, bringing them a game away from pulling out of the final spot.

Former Duke men’s basketball player Kyle Singler was named to the NBA’s All-Rookie second team after a solid season with the Detroit Pistons.

Via Duke Blue Planet

Singler was selected 33rd overall in the 2011 NBA Draft and elected to play internationally during his first season away from Duke. This season, he was the only Piston to play in all 82 games (74 starts). He averaged 8.8 points and four rebounds in 28 minutes per game. Among NBA rookies, he was fourth in scoring, fifth in three point percentage (35%), and sixth in rebounds.

Portland’s Damian Lillard was named the Rookie of the Year, and was joined on the All-Rookie first team by Dion Waiters (Cleveland), Bradley Beal (Washington), Anthony Davis (New Orleans), and Harrison Barnes (Golden State).

Joining Singler on the second team are teammate Andre Drummond, Tyler Zeller (Cleveland), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (Charlotte), and Jonas Valanciunas (Toronto).

On Thursday, it was announced that the Duke women’s basketball team will face Purdue on December 5th at Cameron Indoor Stadium, as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. It will be the seventh year of the women’s event, which has been extended to 2016. The official title of the challenge rotates each year (last year it was the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, but does it really matter).

Last season, the ACC won the challenge 7-5 and it was their fifth challenge win. Six Big Ten teams reached last season’s NCAA Tournament, while the ACC had five.

It is the second time over the last three seasons that Purdue will travel to Durham. Duke won on December 1, 2011, 64-53.

The Challenge gets underway on Wednesday, December 4th, with four games:

New to the ACC Notre Dame @ Penn State, Illinois @ Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech @ Indiana, and Michigan State @ FSU.

It concludes on the 5th with eight games:

NC State @ Northwestern, Boston College @ Wisconsin, new to the ACC Syracuse @ Iowa, Purdue @ Duke, Ohio State @ Maryland, Nebraska @ North Carolina, Michigan @ Virginia, and Miami @ Minnesota.