Toliver and Coleman Nearly Defeat Duke By Themselves

What a weekend at the Comcast Center. First the men upset UNC, then the women lay an old fashion beatdown on the Blue Devils. The first half was a little frustrating with the team's tentativeness on offense, but I knew if we kept it close the second half would be ours - and it was.

That was the best opening minutes of the second half I have seen us play in a long time. Usually we look like we are going through the motions, but we played aggressively and let Duke know they were going to have to work for the victory.

The win almost guarantees us a two seed in the ACC Tournament. We have to win our remaining two games and Friday will be hard as Kristi and Marissa will be emotional. To get the 1 seed we need a huge win by Virginia later this week as Miami collapsed in the final minute of their game against FSU.

What I loved
- Kicking the crap out of Duke and watching Coach P look dumbfounded the entire game.
- Kizer and Dee's defensive presence. While most here will pick Toliver or Coleman for player of the game, my vote is between Kizer and Dee. Those two disrupted most of Duke's low post game by either blocking shots, tipping the ball away and grabbing key rebounds. Without that this is a shootout.
- Strickland's defense. I think if you asked Marah what flavor gum Abby was chewing she would have known. Except for a few times, Marah won the game of shadow. Now if she could just work on her offense a little bit.
- Yemi. Honestly, when Yemi came into the game I was worried that Duke would take over in the post, but Yemi held her ground and even came up with some key rebounds.
- Toliver's decision making. Kristi was feeling it early but she did her best to keep her teammates involved and that's great change from earlier in the year.
- Watching the starters on the bench with a minute to go and a huge lead.
- Kicking the crap out of Duke.

Leave it for Rick Maese to be the wet blanket today.

We also said Goodbye to Sa'de yesterday who has decided to remain in school but not with the team. I wish her good luck but it would be nice for her to at least be on the bench like Christie Marrone did last year and Emery is doing this year.