Welcome to another edition of "This Week in Duke Tweets" where The Blue Zone brings you five of the week's most notable Tweets about Duke basketball.
1) Although it hardly needs retelling, last Wednesday Austin Rivers nailed a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give the Blue Devils an 85-84 victory over North Carolina at the Dean Dome. Blue Devil alumni from all across the world reacted to the win in the Twitter-verse, including Shane Battier, the 6-foot-8 forward who helped carry Duke to the 2001 NCAA title. Battier was traveling to Washington D.C. for the game, as his Miami Heat took on the Wizards that Friday, so at 12:49 a.m. on Thursday, with Duke nation in a frenzy over the win, he had some fun, Tweeting:
2) The Blue Devils' strong win over the Tar Heels shot them up in the rankings, catapulting them from No. 10 to No. 5 in the AP poll while the Heels sunk from No. 5 to No. 8. Still, not everyone is as sold on the Blue Devils, such as Seth Davis who kept Duke at No. 7 on his ballot. The true lesson of it may be, though, that beyond Kentucky, Syracuse and Missouri in the 1-2-3 slots, it's an open field with room for anybody to step up and grab that fourth No. 1 seed.
.3) Duke played a second game last week - even though all the attention has been focused on the instant-classic against the Tar Heels. The Blue Devils defeated Maryland for the second time this season, taking care of the Terrapins 73-55 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. In the win they sported a new set of gray uniforms part of a new series from Nike. The reaction to the new uniforms? Mixed, at best. Battier chimed in again on Twitter with his thoughts in response to a fan's question:
4) In that game against Maryland, Miles Plumlee came alive with a 13-point and 22-rebound performance. Two years ago, when Duke pushed down the stretch before an NCAA tournament run, it received help from the emergence of another senior post player. Former Chronicle sports editor Ben Cohen observed the eerily similarities between their breakout games:
5) Yesterday, the world celebrated chocolate hearts and love with Valentine's Day. The Blue Devil, a notorious bachelor, did some crowd sourcing in search of a Valentine:
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