We've Moved!

Please follow our posts over at http://www.DukeHoopBlog.com. I considered keeping this site open as well, and the url will remain live for as long as Google will allow, but I now have a much more functional and hopefully more pleasing to the eye Wordpress site.

I also teamed up with YardBarker.com who promotes some fantastic sports-related blogs on their site, and hopefully one day mine will be included in the fantastic. Thank you very much for reading over here, and I hope you will continue to do so as I'm having fun writing.

Thanks for your support,

Adam

Boost Mobile Elite 24 Rosters

The first 12 members of the Boost Mobile Elite 24 event taking place in Los Angeles’ Venice Beach Friday and Saturday, August 27 and 28 were announced on August 5th. This is a game between what ESPNRise.com considers the Top 24 players in the country, regardless of class. It is obviously quite an honor to be selected. The announced list as of now is quite impressive:

Adonis Thomas, Amir Garrett, Austin Rivers, Bradley Beal, Dajuan Coleman, James McAdoo, Johnny O'Bryant, LeBryan Nash, Myck Kabongo, Deuce Bello, Quincy Miller, and Rakeem Christmas.

We have learned today that 2012 prospect Shabazz Muhammad will be participating as well. Congratulations to what we believe is the best scorer in the Class of 2012. The complete list will come out later today and we want to offer our preemptive congratulations to the other 11 names that will be announced this afternoon. We will, of course, let you know when the rest of the list is released.

ACC/Big Ten Challenge Times Set

Monday, Nov. 29

7:00 p.m. - ESPN2 - Virginia at Minnesota


Tuesday, Nov. 30

7:00 p.m. - ESPNU - Iowa at Wake Forest

7:00 p.m. - ESPN2 - Georgia Tech at Northwestern

7:30 p.m. - ESPN - Ohio State at Florida State

9:00 p.m. - ESPN2 - Michigan at Clemson

9:30 p.m. - ESPN - North Carolina at Illinois

Wednesday, Dec. 1

7:15 p.m. - ESPNU - Indiana at Boston College

7:15 p.m. - ESPN2 - N.C. State at Wisconsin

7:30 p.m. - ESPN - Purdue at Virginia Tech

9:15 p.m. - ESPN2 - Maryland at Penn State

9:30 p.m. - ESPN - Michigan State at Duke

Every year when this schedule is announced, it's a time for embarrassment for the one ACC team that doesn't make it into the Challenge, as the conference always has had more teams than the Big 10. Unfortunately for Miami, they will forever go down in infamy as the last team not to make it into the made for TV event as the Big 10 has now added Nebraska to it's ranks to make it the same size as the ACC. While the Big Ten stupidly refuses to change it's name even though it now has twelve members, the numbers will now add up if this event continues in the future.

Duke posted it's only loss in the event this past year at Wisconsin, and hopes to avenge that loss in Cameron vs. universally Top 5 ranked Michigan State. If the Devils can pull off the win, they will end with the best record of any team in the Challenge. The contract between the two power conferences is up this year, it remains to be seen if ESPN will continue extend the contract another time, as they did in 2005.

NC Pro-Am Highlights -- Andre Dawkins, Ryan Kelly

D1 Sports/Charles Ryan Basketball won the 2010 NC Pro-Am Summer League Sunday, August 8th, 2010. Duke Sophomores Ryan Kelly and Andre Dawkins were two of the team's top scorers (Andre had 18 pts and Ryan had 16.) Since joining the Duke Blue Devils, Ryan and Andre have competed in 4 tournaments (2009 Preseason NIT, 2010 ACC Tournament, 2010 NCAA Tournament, 2010 NC Pro-Am) and won all 4. Let's hope that trend continues with the CBE Classic this Fall.

TV Alert: Adidas Nations Final -- USA 2012 vs. USA 2011

We have the dream final tomorrow night on CBS College Sports TV. That is Channel 613 on DirecTV and 537 on Time Warner Cable in the Triangle Area. Watch as Duke recruits Marshall Plumlee, Quinn Cook, Rodney Purvis, Shabazz Muhammad, Alex Murphy, Kaleb Tarczewski, and Amile Jefferson compete on live TV at 8:45 PM EST.

Alex Murphy Throws Down on an And1

Who said Alex Murphy wasn't athletic? Watch him take it to Hanner Perea at the Adidas Nations in Chicago:



Video via Dan Poneman of SwagAir.com

#8 Favorite Moment From '09-'10

There were so many moments from last year's title run that made it so special to enjoy watching from the sidelines. One that most Duke fans I knew pegged as the one that needed to happen in order for Duke to be a true National Title Contender was for the Plumlee Brothers to be a consistent offensive force. While the Devils didn't end up needing that on a regular basis, it was always nice when it happened. One game in particular, both Plumlees had excellent games at the same time and here is what resulted: