Duke Down

I owe a friend a post about the benefits of living in New York, but that will have to wait. The NCAA tournament and two pleasant phone conversations have conspired to pass the night pretty quickly. So, it's a light night -- an archive above, and this, a post celebrating the defeat of Duke. Good riddance to the Blue Devils, who were vanquished by a scary-talented LSU team tonight (if LSU could hit some free throws, and if their freshman phenom Tyrus Thomas didn't appear to share the emotional make-up of Dennis Rodman and Ron Artest, they'd probably be my pick to go the distance).

I felt bad for Duke's Shelden Williams at the end of tonight's game, a senior who's had a great, undersung career. Less bad for J.J. Redick, who was the same pouty, pushy punk in this game that he's been during his career. I think someone on the comments board at Deadspin put it best: "OH, YES! JJ REDICK'S TEARS! SO DELICIOUS! I DON'T KNOW IF I HAVE ANY ROOM, THEY'RE SO FILLING! Aw, heck, I'll have some more. DELICIOUS!" And I feel the least bad for freshman Josh McRoberts, who screamed and mugged his way through every call he disputed, and seems perfectly capable of fitting into the role of Most Hated Blue Devil next year. He was born to play it, I think. Here's a picture of him you can boo at during the offseason, for practice: