This game will for me be known as Ryan's Song with respect to Ryan O'Neal and Ali Mcgraw, this was Ryan's swan song for regular season play for his career, he said good bye to Carmeron! He has been up and down all season shooting wise but last night he was on fire and we needed it. He has worked hard to become a solid defender all season, been very vocal out there, showed great leadership, and he saved his best for last!
The refs allowed a LOT of physical play, after running thru RJ I began to wonder exactly what Flipperkwalski had to do to pick up that 5th foul, I guess we will never know? That guy has great talent but he has a bush league streak in him that is very Laetner like. Clearly duke made an effort after half time to get the flipper flopper more involved, in doing so McCain went quiet for a long stretch. That trip on Ingram is just one example of this kid's bush league traits. They straight up robbed Cadeau on that trey they called a 2 even AFTER reviewing it. I didn't like they called Bacot for shoving off and yes he did and yes it was a foul but they had allowed that from both teams al game yet tagged Bacot for it late? Just running over RJ for what may have been flipper flop's 10th foul and no call and no make up for any of those? The refs did let both teams play and not get whistle happy and I do prefer that to the quick whistles but some things just have to be called and duke benefitted constantly from the slow whistle. The trip should be reviewed by the league office and action taken but you know they will take no action against a dukie.
Ingram, man, that kid played such a good game, he may not have shot great but he was every where, big time rebounding game AGAIN, hit critical free throws late, and just put in work. Seth was really good and you just can't look at the box score to see it, when he comes in a scorer goes quiet, what he chips in with points is gravy! JWit with 8 huge boards and just hard solid play/work, really happy for him. Bacot was more focused on the defensive end and I don't think he had a first half foul? Flipper flopper held him all night, clear hook & hold and what was it called, a common foul?
Credit to RJ, he just played within the flow and didn't try to force things, the attention they gave to RJ left Ryan clean looks, just shows the un-selfish nature of this team. JWash gave us really good minutes, that was a man's stick back in the deep paint with dukies all around him.
But yeah, this was Ryan's song and he was in tune!