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The departures of Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood for the NBA left a large hole in Duke's roster, but also a very temporary one. Exit Parker and Hood, enter seven gold medals for Team USA, two high school state championships and four McDonald's All-Americans.
Nate Freiman, Oakland Athletics: The A's needed to call someone up when they placed right fielder Josh Reddick on the disabled list, and Freiman was their guy. The 6-foot-8 first baseman spent the entire 2013 season on the major league roster in a platoon, but hadn't had a crack at big league action this year until Sunday, when he got the starting nod against Miami. He responded with the game-deciding three-run home run in the sixth inning of a 4-3 Oakland victory. His stint in the big leagues is likely contingent on the recovery of Reddick's right knee strain, as the A's already have a bit of a log-jam at first base.
This evening at 7 p.m., Duke alum Adam Silver will step to the microphone at the Barclays Center to announce his first NBA draft as NBA commissioner. The first name he calls could be that of another Durham product in Jabari Parker, who appears to be vying with former Kansas swingman Andrew Wiggins for the top slot and the opportunity to team up with another Blue Devil—Kyrie Irving—in Cleveland. Former Blue Devil Rodney Hood is also expected to hear his name called in the first half of Thursday's first round, but sharpshooter Andre Dawkins will likely have to sweat it out into the second round and might go undrafted.
With the NBA Draft hours away, six of The Chronicle's current and former editors in the sports department give their final predictions for tonight's draft, including the landing spots of the three former Duke players, their predicted lottery picks and their take on who will be the draft's biggest bust, biggest steal and Rookie of the Year.
For the first time since 2010, multiple Blue Devils heard their names called in the MLB Draft.
BALTIMORE—On a day when the nation's second-ranked offense was largely contained and occasionally disrupted, Duke was able to find another way to get the job done.
One more to go.
BALTIMORE—Conventional wisdom says good defense beats good offense. So far in this NCAA tournament, the Blue Devil offense has looked unstoppable.
Top-seeded Duke has started to pull away from fifth-seeded Denver after the first two quarters of play in the NCAA semifinal at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. The Blue Devils' sophomore midfield tandem of Myles Jones and Deemer Class led Duke's first-half charge, combining for three goals on 10 shots before giving way to senior attackman Jordan Wolf. The Tewaaraton Award finalist ended the second quarter on a personal 3-0 scoring run to create breathing room for Duke.
The hands of Jake Tripucka, David Lawson and Josh Offit were all over Duke's national championship run a season ago. Although the trio of All-Americans has departed from Durham, their impact on this year's championship bid is still tangible.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The road does not get any easier for Duke as it looks to assure itself of an above-.500 finish in ACC play for the first time since 1994.The Blue Devils will conclude their conference slate against No. 4 Florida State at Dick Howser Stadium in Tallahassee, Fla., opening a three-game set against the Seminoles Thursday evening at 6 p.m. Duke has not won at Florida State in 20 years.The stakes for the Blue Devils, however, are much higher than putting the cap on a historic season. Currently sitting in fourth place overall in the ACC, Duke needs to create some breathing room between itself and the rest of the conference. A lost series this weekend could bump the Blue Devils down into the play-in round of next week's ACC tournament in Greensboro, N.C."To a certain extent yes, but I think the most important thing is to get ready for Thursday's game and live in the moment," head coach Chris Pollard said when asked if avoiding the play-in game would affect his decision-making this weekend. "Our kids are looking forward to this opportunity, playing one of the best teams in the country and playing at one of the top venues, top environments in the country."After being swept by No. 15 Miami at home last weekend, Duke (31-21, 15-12 in the ACC) faces an even stiffer opponent in the Seminoles (39-13, 19-8). Florida State leads the conference in several team statistics including team batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, runs scored and doubles."We've got to get ahead 0-1. They take a lot of pitches," Pollard said. "If you fall behind, they can really grind out at-bats and run up pitch counts. They take their walks, hit by pitches, any way they can—they get on base and generate offense."
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Same opponent. Bigger stakes. Different lineups. Same result.No. 20 Tennessee edged out No. 11 Duke 4-2 Sunday at Ambler Tennis Stadium, eliminating the Blue Devils from the NCAA Team Championship on their home court. The Volunteers notched their second victory of the season against Duke, after defeating the Blue Devils 4-2 in Knoxville, Tenn., in early February.Despite having played the Volunteers earlier in the season, familiarity was at a minimum Sunday. None of the matches in either singles or doubles were repeats of the matchups from that February match. Injury and suspension forced Duke head coach Ramsey Smith to juggle the Duke lineup several times throughout the season.“We knew it was going to be a really tough match,” Smith said. “We played them earlier in [the] year and it was a battle and came down to a couple of points in the end. Tennessee is a really good team. Overall I thought we fought extremely well.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Duke sprinted out to an early 3-0 lead against Winthrop, but had difficulty shutting the door on the Eagles. Luckily for the Blue Devils, T.J. Pura was able to come up with the needed victory at sixth singles.Playing within the friendly confines of Ambler Tennis Stadium, No. 11 Duke swept Winthrop 4-0 to advance to the second round of the NCAA Championship. After registering three quick points with minimal resistance, the remaining four singles matches were hotly contested before Pura pulled away from Michael Chen.The Blue Devils will host Tennessee Sunday at 2 p.m. for the right to advance to the Round of 16. The Volunteers advanced to Sunday's second-round match with a 4-1 victory against Elon.“We took care of business today, and I thought it was good that we got pushed in some spots,” Duke head coach Ramsey Smith said. “We had a couple guys in some tough pressure situations, and they came through. I think that will help us for tomorrow against Tennessee.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The rust was there, but the score wouldn't indicate it.No. 5 Duke had no trouble advancing to the second round of the NCAA Team Championship, cruising past East Tennessee State 4-0 Friday afternoon at Ambler Tennis Stadium. The Blue Devils will meet South Carolina in the second round Saturday at 3 p.m. The Gamecocks defeated Ohio State 4-1 Friday morning.Playing for the first time in two weeks, it took some time for the Blue Devils (25-4) to get in sync on the doubles court, but they ultimately proved too much for the Buccaneers to handle. The duos of Beatrice Capra and Hanna Mar and Ester Goldfeld and Alyssa Smith dispatched their East Tennessee State counterparts by identical 8-4 scores to give Duke the doubles point and the early 1-0 advantage.The doubles victories were convincing, but didn't always adhere to the scouting report.“The biggest thing [Friday] was not having played in two weeks,” Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “You could definitely tell. We went out and just played. We didn’t play to targets we had been working on or any kind of strategy we had been working on. We’re lucky that we have some depth on doubles, but we have to be better with little things we’ve done well with all year. We got off to a decent start in doubles, with two breaks in each match and let it roll from there. I do think we competed well, and that carries us sometimes.”With doubles behind them, the Blue Devils appeared much more focused during singles play, which turned out to be a more lopsided affair. Redshirt junior Rachel Kahan got Duke started by blanking Sofia Espana 6-0, 6-0 on court four. Goldfeld followed with a 6-1, 6-0 victory against East Tennessee State's Lyn Yee Choo, and junior Annie Mulholland put the finishing touches on the match, defeating Salma Dahbi 6-1, 6-1.“[We were] a little bit more disciplined [in singles] than the doubles,” Ashworth said. “We played more toward targets. Our first serve percentage was pretty good. We capitalized on leads that we had, which was good. I think that’s something we have to do tomorrow when we have opportunities to end points or end sets, to take advantage of them."
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For the third consecutive year, the Blue Devils will face a Final Four team from the Big Ten.Duke will travel to the Kohl Center Dec. 3 to take on Wisconsin as part of the 16th ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The Blue Devils defeated Ohio State—a Final Four participant in the 2011-2012 season—in 2012 and defeated 2013 national runner-up Michigan last season.Both of those victories came within the friendly confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium. The last time the Blue Devils journeyed away from home for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, they were sent back to Durham with authority, suffering a 85-63 defeat at the hands of the Buckeyes. Duke owns a 13-2 all-time record in the Challenge, with the other loss coming in 2009—at Wisconsin.Bo Ryan's Badgers swept through the West Region in March to reach the Final Four for the first time since 2000 and return everyone except Ben Brust, Wisconsin's lone senior. Regarded as one of the nation's most fundamentally sound teams year-in and year-out, the Badgers' core of Sam Dekker, Frank Kaminsky, Traevon Jackson and Josh Gasser will present a challenge for the Blue Devils, particularly on the defensive end, where Wisconsin allowed just 64.0 points per game.A particularly interesting matchup to watch will be the battle down low between Kaminsky—a crafty, 7-foot senior center who dominated opponents throughout Wisconsin's run through the NCAA tournament—and Duke freshman center Jahlil Okafor, the nation's top recruit.The full slate of games, which includes the debuts of Maryland and Rutgers in the Big Ten and Louisville in the ACC, is below:Monday, December 1Nebraska at Florida StateRutgers at ClemsonTuesday, December 2Syracuse at MichiganOhio State at LouisvillePittsburgh at IndianaN.C. State at PurdueIllinois at MiamiMinnesota at Wake ForestWednesday, December 3Duke at WisconsinMichigan State at Notre DameIowa at North CarolinaVirginia at MarylandGeorgia Tech at NorthwesternVirginia Tech at Penn State
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____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Blue Devils struggled in close ballgames out of the gates, dropping five of their first six contests decided by two runs or less. They've won the last four.Duke will have a chance to avenge one of those early-season defeats Tuesday when it welcomes UNC Greensboro to Jack Coombs Field at 6 p.m. Coming off a sweep of ACC foe Virginia Tech, the Blue Devils will step outside of conference play looking to pick up their sixth consecutive victory."Some of it is the law of averages in baseball. You play a lot of close games, those things have a tendency to even themselves out," Duke head coach Chris Pollard said. "We've got some guys that are finally starting to heat up, and therefore we're getting some key, clutch hits."The Spartans (17-18) defeated the Blue Devils 9-8 Feb. 18 thanks to a three-run bottom of the 12th inning after Duke (24-17) struck for two runs in the top half of the frame. The two teams combined to use 15 pitchers in that game, as both managers looked to give their respective staffs some innings to get comfortable on the mound early in the season.That February afternoon was indicative of the struggles of the Blue Devil offense during the first half of the season, as Duke left 18 runners stranded. Able to set up scoring opportunities seemingly at will, Pollard's team could not capitalize.But the last five games suggest that the Blue Devil bats are rounding into form—powering three narrow victories as well as two blowouts. Duke has outscored its opponents 40-17 in that stretch and has been able to come up with clutch at-bat after clutch at-bat when needed.Aaron Cohn started the heroics with a walk-off single April 13 against N.C. State to complete an improbable comeback after Duke trailed 10-4 in the eighth inning. The Blue Devils haven't lost since, doing the little things right on offense to scrap for as many runs as possible. Against the Hokies Sunday, Duke was held to just seven hits but manufactured its runs on a sacrifice fly and a squeeze bunt to walk out of Blacksburg, Va., 2-0 winners.Pollard said he feels his team is starting to fire on all cylinders but stressed the importance of taking things one day at a time."The old saying in baseball is that momentum is only as strong as the next day's starting pitcher," Pollard said. "As long as we continue to pitch like we have, now that the offense is heated up, I think this is a team that's very capable of rattling off a good stretch."Luckily for Pollard, Duke's biggest strength all season has been its performance on the mound where the Blue Devils lead the ACC in strikeouts with 356 and rank third in ERA at 3.02. Pollard will send right-hander Andrew Istler to the hill Tuesday for the Blue Devils.Barring any setbacks, the junior will be throwing to Mike Rosenfeld to complete the other half of the Blue Devil battery. Normally a stalwart in the lineup, the captain has missed Duke's last four games due to injury. Tied for second on the team with 22 RBIs, the redshirt junior will be a welcome addition to the Blue Devil lineup, both at the plate and behind it."Not only is he a guy that's got a .400 on-base percentage, but he's been so good for us defensively," Pollard said. "He's a fiery guy and a leader and someone who our team really responds to. It's going to be a big shot in the arm to have him back in the lineup."UNC Greensboro has been bogged down of late due to weather. The Spartans have had three of their past four games canceled due to rain and haven't played since suffering a 7-6 loss in extra innings to Davidson April 17.In the early-season matchup between the teams, UNC Greensboro got its offensive production from the top four slots in its batting order, which accounted for all eight Spartan RBIs. UNC Greensboro's best hitter, third baseman Sean Guite, went just 1-for-5 but leads the team with 54 hits and is batting nearly .400 on the season."They've got a lot of balance offensively, meaning from both sides of the plate, so they can create some matchup problems," Pollard said. "They've thrived on ACC wins. They've beaten Wake Forest twice, and they beat us earlier in the year, so they get up for big games like this."
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Duke's 11-10 walk-off victory against N.C. State April 13 was the type of nerve-wracking game that makes fans and coaches complain about losing their hair.After celebrating Aaron Cohn's game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth, the Blue Devils shaved off theirs voluntarily.Both Duke and N.C. State participated in a fundraiser for Vs. Cancer, a non-profit that raises money to benefit pediatric cancer patients by teaming up with baseball teams from the youth level up through the minor leagues. The organization collects online donations, and in return, players on the participating teams trade in their hairstyles for buzz cuts to show their support for children battling cancer."Guys at our level, baseball's something we do every day of our lives," Duke captain Mike Rosenfeld said. "It's easy to get wrapped up in an 0-for-4 day, but there are so many bigger problems in the world, and it's great for our program to be able to help make a difference."Duke head coach Chris Pollard was first approached by the founder of Vs. Cancer, former North Carolina baseball player Chase Jones, while serving as head coach at Appalachian State. Jones was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer in fall 2006 but still fulfilled duties as a bullpen catcher for the Tar Heels from 2007 to 2011 and has been cancer-free for six years.Pollard said the idea was still in its infancy when the two began communicating. At the time, Jones' organization had a different name: BaseBald. When Pollard's career brought him to Durham, Jones got in contact with him once again."When I took the job at Duke and moved down here to the Triangle, Chase was one of the first people who reached out to me," Pollard said. "He lives in the Triangle, so it was a lot easier to connect with him down here."Pollard took Jones' idea to his players last season, asking if they wanted to participate. The answer was a resounding "Yes", and the Blue Devils received their first buzz cuts after a game against Jones' Tar Heels last April.When Jones came calling this spring, Pollard again deferred to his players, not wanting them to be forced to give up their locks."The players have to own it. They have to own the decision on whether or not we participate, because it's an undertaking," Pollard said. "It's hard work. But our guys were very much behind the idea of doing it again this year."In their two years of participating, Pollard said the Blue Devils have raised more than $20,000. Half of the money raised by Vs. Cancer supports a local hospital, with the other half going toward cancer research at the national level.The Blue Devil coaching staff and the team's four captains were invited to Duke University Hospital—the hospital benefitting from their partnership with Vs. Cancer—before the N.C. State series to see how the money was being used. Rosenfeld said the donations had been put toward creating a more patient-friendly environment—including flat-screen TVs—for the kids to enjoy."It was an incredibly emotional experience, I told our team it was life-changing for me," Pollard said. "We had a chance to meet with several of the patients and their families and just talk with them about their experiences. To see how strong and resilient those kids were was something that really touched me."Last season's head-shaving was the bright spot of an otherwise forgettable weekend for the Blue Devils, as the Tar Heels swept the three-game series by a combined score of 21-3. The monumental comeback effort against the Wolfpack made this year's edition of the head-shaving a happier occasion."To come back and win the way we did was unbelievable, but the event is way bigger than baseball," Rosenfeld said. "Having that win and then going through [the head-shaving] definitely made it more enjoyable than last year."
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Former Rice forward Sean Obi announced his decision to transfer to Duke Monday night via social media. The 6-foot-9 big man visited campus last weekend before ultimately choosing the Blue Devils.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>There are four opportunities left to see some Blue Devil fan-favorites back in action.As has become tradition, the departing members of North Carolina's four ACC schools have teamed up to take part in the 36th annual ACC Barnstorming Tour.Andre Dawkins, Tyler Thornton, Josh Hairston and Todd Zafirovski are all competing on this year's tour, which runs April 9 through April 25. The traveling squad opened the series in Bassett, Va., but will stick to high school gyms in North Carolina for the rest of the tour.Each game, played against a compilation of all-stars from the host county, features a 3-point shootout and dunk contest at halftime. Revered for his success from behind the arc during his time in Durham, Dawkins took home dunk contest honors on opening night of the tour. You can catch two of his throw-downs at the tail-end of this video:Former North Carolina guard Leslie McDonald is one of four Tar Heels represented on this year's squad, which also includes former Wake Forest starters Travis McKie and Coron Williams and N.C. State's T.J. Warren and Jordan Vandenberg.The squad next takes the court Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at East Surry High School in Pilot Mt, N.C. The team's closest game to campus remaining on the tour is Friday at Person High School in Roxboro, N.C., the only game location less than an hour away from Duke.
