... was how well Goldwire did on Ayo. Goldy is a DPOY candidate in the ACC, and he lived up to that expectation last night.

It might be crazy to feel this way, but I wasn't *that* discouraged last night. We got off to a dreadful start, thanks to an awful starting lineup choice-- so we were down 12 in the first five minutes... and we were only a -3 the entire rest of the game from there. If we hadn't started with that ill-advised big lineup and given Illinois that immediate burst, maybe the game is a little closer. I still think we lose, but it could've been less ugly.

I liked what Jeremy Roach showed last night, and DJ Steward started finding his shot again. Both guys are still pretty raw, but playing in a loss against a talented team should help them come along more quickly-- they both acquitted themselves fairly well last night on the whole.

Duke's three biggest problems are:
1. Johnson and Hurt play the same position, and they're easily our two most talented scorers, so it's hard to find a good rotation. If we play them both, we can't play a true 5, so the defense suffers. But neither of them can play the 3. So what does K do? We still don't have a solution there. (I'd put Johnson at the 5, but what do I know?)
2. If Hurt's shots aren't falling, we have no consistent shooting beyond that. (Brakefield's actually been a good shooter, and I'm hoping he plays more/starts going forward.)
3. Wendell Moore is supposed to be a captain and a leader, and he's absolutely terrible. He's been one of the worst Duke players in memory these first four games.

Illinois is just a much better team right now, which wasn't a surprise to me. I've been very, very high on Underwood since he arrived, as some people here may remember. Hopefully the young Duke guys figure it out.