DDSCB25: Superstar

[Wayne23]

1/1/2035: At 3-8, 1-1 North Carolina. They’re struggling.

1/2: Early lead. Up 12 after 10. We get it to 20. 50-34 at the half. 16, 5 for Sitt, 12 for Turr. 3 TOs, big edge inside.

Big lead early. Up 23 with 10 to play. Big lead late.

90-63. 28, 9 for Sitt, 17, 4, 3 for Turr, 12, 7 for Jeff. +34 in the paint.

1/3: 9-3, 1-2 Southern Methodist is here. We’re better.

1/4: Back and forth. Down 1 after 10. 43-32 at the half. 11, 8, 4 for Deay, 9, 3, 3 for gate. 3 TOs.

Good lead early. Up 18 with 10 to go. Big lead late.

76-61. 13, 11, 5 for Deay, 14, 8 for Sitt, 14, 4, 5 for Gate. 6 TOs.

[Wayne23]

1/8: 11-4, 2-2 Louisville is here. They play good D.

1/9: Early lead. Up 19 after 10. 44-23 at halftime. 13 for Jeff. 2 TOs.

Big early lead. Up 22 with 10 left.

80-54. 21, 5, 4 for Jeff, 15, 6 for Deay, 10, 4, 5 for Gate.

1/10: 12-4, 3-2 Miami is here.

1/11: Early lead. Up 9 after 10. 43-28 at the half. 11, 5 for Sitt.

The lead goes to 20. They come back. Up 7 with 10 to play.

86-76. 23, 8 for Sitt, 19, 4, 5, 3 for Gate, 12, 6, 4, 4 for Jeff. +18 in the paint.

I haven’t talked about our routine when Von is in town. We get up at 7:00 and go for a 45 minute run. Von is very athletic and we cover about 5 ½ miles. We come back, she showers, I shower, we have breakfast, then I head for work.

I have lunch in the cafeteria whenever I’m in town. Sometimes Von joins me, sometimes not. I have soup, salad, and sometimes a sandwich. Then back to work for the afternoon. If we don’t have a game we usually have dinner in the caf, which has excellent food and lots of choices. Sometimes we go Indian or Japanese instead.

When Von is here I go home shortly after dinner and spend the evening with her. When she’s not in town I usually stay at work until 8:00 or 9:00, then go home and watch a game or watch video of a game or two.

[Wayne23]

1/15: 7-9, 1-5 Virginia Tech is here. We should win this one.

We’re up to #2 in the rankings.

1/16: Early lead. Up 8 after 10. Close late. 31-28 at the break. 10, 7, 3 blocks for Sitt. 4 TOs.

Early lead. Up 17 with 10 to go. Big lead late.

78-57. Solid D. 26, 13, 5 blocks for Sitt. +20 in the paint.

1/17: At 11-5, 4-3 Wake Forest. Their leading scorer is out with a torn MCL.

1/18: Early lead. Up 13 after 10. 37-28 at halftime. 9, 7, 3 steals for Sitt.

Big lead early. Up 14 with 10 left.

76-64. 19, 11, 3, 4 for Sitt, 14, 5, 0, 4, 4 for Jeff.

“Do you think you can go all the way?”

“I don’t think we’ll go undefeated, Kip, nobody’s done that for over 50 years. I think we’ve got a shot at winning it all though.”

[Wayne23]

1/22: 12-6, 5-3 Syracuse is here. They can play, especially inside.

1/23: It’s close early. Down 1 after 10. 40-33 at the break. +24 for the bench.

Close early. Fouls are hurting us. Up 11 with 10 to go.

93-67. 16, 5, 5 for Gate, 14, 3, 4, 4 for Jeff, 16 for Wils. Sitt played only 14 minutes due to fouls.

Kit Gate hurt his knee. It’s not serious.

1/24: At #16 Florida ST, 17-3, 7-2. This should be a challenge.

1/25: Close early. Down 4 after 10. We trail by 10. 27-37. We shot 30.6%. 4 TOs.

They extend their lead to 20. Down 18 with 10 to play. We’re in trouble.

62-79. The undefeated streak ends at 21. 16, 8, 3 for Sitt, 13, 2, 3 for Jeff.

“Dan Fran, EPSN here with Coach Wynn after Duke’s first loss. Coach. Tough loss.”

“Frankly, I’d rather get our butts kicked than losing by a point or two. When you lose a close one you’re up all night thinking about what you could have done differently. With a butt kicking it didn’t
matter what you did. We’ll bounce back.”

1/29: Our top recruit didn’t hit our SAT score. Damn! I won’t miss having this high SAT score when I leave Duke.

Sam Sitt is #28 on the Norton list. He’s better than that.

[Wayne23]

8-11, 7-3 UConn is here. They’ve been tough in conference play.

We’re still in 1st place in the ACC after the loss, 1 up on Florida ST, 2 up on UConn.

1/30: Early lead. Up 7 after 10. 39-31 at the half. Balanced scoring.

They’re staying close. Up 2 with 10 to go. Close late.

OT. 74-75. Turr missed a three at the buzzer. 11, 6 for Jeff. We lost it at the line. They went 30 times to our 17.

Back to back losses including one at home. Not good!

1/31: At 10-12, 5-6 Georgia Tech. We need a win.

2/1: Close early. Both teams are cold. Down 1 after 10. 29-25 at the break. Both teams shot poorly.

Back and forth early. Then we take the lead. Up 16 with 10 to play.

89-62. 18, 7, 3 for Jeff, 16, 6 for Deay, 15, 2, 3 for Turr. 8 TOs.

Florida ST and UConn both lost.

[Wayne23]

2/5: 13-8, 7-5 NC State is here. They can play.

2/6: Back and forth early. Up 3 after 10. 34-35 at halftime. 11 for Turr. Sloppy game for both teams.

We take the lead early. We get it to 10. Up 12 with 10 to go. We get it to 20 late.

74-57. 20, 3, 5 for Turr, 12, 10 for Sitt, 13, 8 for Deay. +16 in the paint.

2/7: At 12-11, 6-7 Virginia. They play good D.

2/8: Both teams are cold. Down 9 after 10. We can’t make a shot. 28-42 at halftime. Shooting 27.8%.

“Make some shots!”

We close the gap early. Down 4 with 10 left. Tied with 6 to play.

66-69. We were down 17 and came back but not quite enough. 16, 2, 6 for Gate, 12, 9 for Sitt.

Tied for 1st with FL ST.

[Wayne23]

2/12: At 13-12, 6-8 Stanford. They have a terrific C.

2/13: Early lead. Up 4 after 10. Double digit lead. 50-39 at the half. 18 for Sitt. 4 TOs.

They close the gap early. Tied with 10 to go. We trail late.

84-91. 23, 1, 3, 4 for Sitt. Lousy D, they shot 57.6%.

One game back of Fl ST. We’re definitely in a slump.

2/14: At 8-16, 6-9 California. They give up a lot of points.

2/15: Close early. Up 4 after 10. Double digit lead. 43-26 at the break. 10 each for Turr and Jeff. 3 TOs.

Holding our lead early. Up 15 with 10 to go.

80-72. 17, 1, 6 for Turr, 18, 2, 0, 3 for Klew, 12, 3, 6, 3 for Gate. 5 TOs.

[Wayne23]

2/19: At 14-12, 5-11 Pitt.

2/20: We lead early. Up 2 after 10. 43-38 at the break. 9, 3 for Sitt. Good inside play.

Double digit lead early. They catch up. Up 5 with 10 to play. It’s close late. Then we go on a mini-run.

89-75. 20, 8 for Sitt, 20, 5, 3 for Turr, 13, 2, 4, 3 for Gate.

2/21: 14-13, 8-9 Virginia is here. They beat us by three at their place. They’re good inside and they play D.

2/22: Early lead. Up 6 after 10. 36-22 at the half. They shot 22.6%. 4 TOs.

Holding our lead early. We get it to 20. Up 22 with 10 to go.

71-50. Great D. 16, 8 for Sitt, 13, 4, 6 for Jeff, 13, 4, 6 for Gate. 6 TOs.

FL ST lost. We’re tied for 1st.

“It’s nice when football season ends and I’m only doing one sport.”

“Gives you more free time.”

“Should I look for a realtor?”

“No! The word would leak out and that would NOT be good. We’ll need to wait until I get the job. Coach Calhern told me this is his last year when we played them but I don’t want any leaks about that.”

[Wayne23]

2/26: At 13-14, 5-13 Southern Methodist. We won by 15 at home.

2/27: Back and forth early. Up 3 after 10. 33-36 at halftime. Close all the way.

Close early. Down 8 with 10 left. Close late.

88-80. We scored the last 8 points. 19, 7 for Klew, 16, 12 for Sitt, 15 for Jeff.

FL ST lost so we’re alone in 1st with 1 to play.

2/28: 12-18, 7-12 Georgia Tech is here. We won by 27 there.

3/1: Early lead. Up 6 after 10. 47-33 at halftime. 15 for Gate. 3 TOs.

They close the gap early. Up 5 with 10 to play. Safe lead late.

77-70 and we finish 1st in the ACC. 24 for Gate, 13, 4 for Sitt. 6 TOs.

3/5: Kit Gate declares for the draft.

We finish the regular season ranked #2, 28-4, 16-4.

Sam Sitt leads in points and RBs with 13.2, 7.0.

+12.9 PPG, +6.0 RBs, -5.1 TOs. We average 11.1.

[Wayne23]

3/9: We play #9 seed North Carolina, 13-17, 10-10, in the quarter finals. We won by 27 there.

Von is working this tournament so we’ll be together for a few days. She’s in the booth so she may interview me at some point.

3/10: Close early. Up 4 after 10. 30-25 at the half. Good inside play.

The lead goes to 10 early. The lead is 20. Up 20 with 10 to go.

79-56. 18, 11, 3 blocks for Sitt, 11, 9 for Deay, 11, 4, 3 for Gate. +18 in the paint.

#4 seed Syracuse, 20-11, 12-8, in the semis. We won by 26 at home.

3/11: Close early. Up 7 after 10. Close late. 46-41 at the break. 10, 4 for Sitt. They went to the line 10 more times than we did and I’m on the refs. 3 TOs.

Fast start. They catch up. Up 9 with 10 to go.

81-71. 14, 8, 3 steals for Sitt, 16 for Turr.

#10 seed Virginia rode 3 straight upsets to the final. They’re 20-14, 10-10. They won by 3 there, we won by 21 at home. They’re hot.

3/12: Back and forth early. Up 1 after 10. Double digit lead late. 34-28 at halftime. We led by as many as 14. 1 TO.

“Rebound!”

Early lead. Up 10 with 10 left. Good lead late.

81-65. 15, 9 for Sitt, 16, 4 for Klew. 5 TOs. +20 in the paint.

“Von Gray, here with Duke Coach Jess Wynn. Congratulations Coach.”

“Thanks Von. We didn’t rebound very well but we did everything else pretty well.”

“#1 overall seed?”

“Could be. We’ll be #1 somewhere. Doesn’t really matter where.”

“Coach, we need to address a rumor. Coach Jeb Calhern at UConn has announced his retirement. The rumor is that you’re going to take that job.”

“I’m the coach of the Duke Blue Devils. I haven’t given a thought to any other jobs. Too busy trying to win.”