Yeah I said it, DOMINATE.

– 17 UCLA turnovers mostly caused by Michigan’s feisty 1-3-1 zone defense

– DeShawn Sims abused the UCLA bigs all game long (by the way, keep Sims coming off the bench Beilein, it’s working)

– 8th grader Stu Douglass had his coming out party with 10 points and 5 feeds

– Darren Collison and Josh Shipp combined for 10 turnovers and only 1 three pointer

– Nikola Dragovic felt compelled to launch shots quite frequently. Nikola has a nice shot, but he’s no Memo Okur

– Manny Harris was 5-13 from the field, turned the ball over 4 times

Ok, maybe DOMINATE was too strong of a description.

Statement game might suffice.

That Michigan-Duke preview Kevin said I had in store for you…

Duke’s experience will propel them to a double digit victory. They played with a lot of energy against the Southern Illinois Salukis. The team is starting to gel and that Nolan Smith character will not allow the 3 guard rotation of David Merritt, C.J. Lee and Kelvin Grady to stifle Duke like they did UCLA.

As for Greg Paulus, eh, he might turn the ball over some, but he’ll probably hit some threes to make up for his dudness.

Nolan Smith going vertical

DeShawn Sims should be able to have his way again. But Manny Harris must explode for 25 plus points because Duke will certainly drain their share of triples and get their share of calls.

Duke is probably a much more disciplined defensive team than the Bruins. That alone should give them a decided edge over the young Wolverines, who, at times, got some easy baskets inside off of back door feeds and such against UCLA.

But honestly, UCLA should not have been rated #4. By the time February rolls around…? Well see.

By the way, Michigan hosts Duke on December 6th.

Note- Kevin mentioned it before, but what went on against Texas Tech and East Central is stupid.

STAT of the DAY

Texas Tech lets DII East Central put 116 on the board.

It’s so wild and insane that not even a single Mississippi Valley State joke is worthy enough to follow it.

Post from: EveryJoe

First of 2 Michigan vs. Duke Tilts (Today, 7pm)

Brian Zoubek still must have his fist stuck in his ear or something, or else he would have beaten out raw freshman Miles Plumlee for that starting center spot by now.

Seth Davis from SI Hoop Thoughts

For someone who is as young and tall as he is, Plumlee has plenty of meat on his bones, and he is very agile to boot. (Krzyzewski told me he jumped 6 feet, 9 inches for his high school track team.) He seemed a little lost at times basketball-wise, but that’s nothing unusual considering it was only his fourth practice. Plumlee is Duke’s best shot-blocker, and he fits the Blue Devils’ wide-open style much better than 7-1 sophomore center Brian Zoubek. If the season started today, Plumlee would be Duke’s starting center.

About this leapfrogging of sophomore Nolan Smith over senior Greg Paulus:

I don’t necessarily like this move. It will probably mean better second unit proficiency considering Paulus will likely play a bit more with talented freshman Elliott Williams. This takes some pressure off of Williams. And it means Paulus will be the first or second scoring option for certain stretches of the first half.

Coach K, you might have just made a “genius” move.

Zach from Northwestern Wins

Surely a bold move by Coach K and we’ll see how long it lasts. I wouldn’t doubt the motives of Coach K, though; for all of Paulus’ talent, he knows his players more than anyone. And having Paulus’ shots off the bench could be genius. Expect a small crunch time team of Smith-Paulus-Scheyer-Henderson-Singler.

Ok. No more cheap shots about Duke for at least another week…

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Post from: EveryJoe

Gregory Paulus relegated to the bench