Duke and UConn isn't the consolation game everyone dreamed of. Most people,
including the promoters, expected it to be the title game. Such is
life. Iowa certainly earned the right to be there, and Stanford did, too.
We were highly impressed with both teams.
Duke has to bounce back tonight and learn from last night. The
challenge, to an extent, is going to be legs and heads. Can Cwell go hard after
going 43 minutes last night? Can Jason Williams shake off last
night? We heard from one visitor to the locker room that Jason was in
tears after the game, and we heard the same on ESPN's site this morning. So, as
Carrawell said last night, this ain't high school anymore. We have total faith
that Jason will bounce back and will be excited to play against a guy like Khalid El-Amin. It's a chance to see where he is versus one of the very best there is in the game today, and who wouldn't want to know that?
On another note, the other freshmen got their feet wet, and Horvath and
Dunleavy learned a lot about what they can do at this level. Boozer didn't
have as good a debut, but tonight's his chance to make up for it. Win or
lose, even if Duke comes out of this at 0-2, they'll profit from it. Now
let's go again!