And tonight we shall…

Saw this on DBR this morning - a quote from Maryland freshman Cliff Tucker:

I can’t stand Duke. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to come here so I can beat Duke, I already got North Carolina. Duke is next. I cannot stand Duke. I tell people all the time, if they gave me a scholarship and that was my only Division I scholarship, I’d go Division II or something like that. I would never, ever go there. I don’t know what it is, I can’t stand Duke.

Looks like you’ll have to wait a little longer for that one: Duke 93, Maryland 84.

Duke was down by nine at the half, only to turn it around in the second half and win by the same margin. That can only mean one thing in the mind’s of Maryland fans: the officials are to blame. :)

And don’t worry about that scholarship to Duke, Cliff. I think they’re doing just fine without you.

That’s 5-0 in the ACC now. I’m pretty pleased with that start. Next two games are at home, and if they can hold serve, they’ll go to Chapel Hill at 7-0 in the ACC. Unfortunately, they’ll probably leave 7-1. Still, considering last year, this ACC season is off to a fantastic start.

Let’s go Duke.

Wednesday during lunch I was eating at a local Chili’s and from where I was sitting, I could see a television over in the bar area. I couldn’t hear it, but this is what I saw:

It’s been a long week. More on that another time. For now…

From the land down under

In my US Open recap a few months ago, I wrote that Djokovic’s time is coming, and coming soon. The gap between Federer and everyone else was closing fast. Nadal already owns him at the French, and almost pulled off the upset at Wimbledon. And Djokovic finished strong last year and, in my opinion, was headed for a grand slam title in 2008.

He’s not there yet - he still has one match to go - but he took a significant step today in not only knocking Federer out of the Australian Open semis, but doing so in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (5). That’s a big one, and there seems to be somewhat of a changing of the guard going on right now, considering Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s straight set win over Nadal in the other semi yesterday. No Federer-Nadal final here. No Federer. No Nadal. But Djokovic’s time may have come. Tsonga - if he plays like he has been in this tournament - will be no pushover. I’ve seen him once and he was looking very good, and considering Nadal’s post-match comments (”I played fine, but he was unbelievable”) he was pretty impressive there, although I didn’t see that one.

I look forward to the men’s final Saturday night. It should be a pretty good one, and while I’ve grown to like Tsonga watching him play in this tournament and last year, I hope for the breakthrough for Djokovic. He’s my favorite player right now, and I hope to see him holding the trophy down under. We’ll see.

“I’ve created a monster that I need to win every tournament,” Federer said. “Still, the semifinals isn’t bad.”

Federer is right, of course. His success and dominance of the men’s game in recent years has caused us all to be shocked when he loses in a grand slam (well, except for the French.) Yes, it’s a little surprising that he’s not in the final. It’s been a while since he lost in a non-French grand slam - three years to be exact, at the 2005 Australian Open, where he also lost in the semifinals. He’d won two straight Australian’s, and has won five straight at Wimbledon and four straight at the US Open. That’s pretty amazing.

Reaching the semifinal before losing indeed is not that bad. It’s good he recognizes that, because with the rise of younger players like Djokovic, Nadal and Tsonga, that may become a more regular occurrence.

But he’s not done yet. This may be a signal that his dominance is beginning to fade. The gap was closing last year, and with this loss, his grand slam titles will likely be more difficult to achieve. But he’s not Bjorn Borg. He’s not going anywhere. He’ll be back with a vengeance at the French, where he’s been owned, and at Wimbledon, which he owns.

The women’s final will be on ESPN tonight, in what may be the best-looking women’s final in the history of tennis, when Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic face each other. It should be a great match, too.

Duke wins, Tech flops

Okay, I am constantly hearing people complain about Duke players “flopping” in attempts to draw charges or other fouls. And, yes, it happens, and much of the criticism is deserved. Greg Paulus is among the worst, and some of his are simply embarrassing. Taking charges has always been a part of Duke’s game, and sometimes they try a little too hard to convince the officials of something that’s not really there. That’s bound to happen, and they’re bound to look stupid on such occasions. They’re not the only ones, but like so many other things, it always seems to be highlighted more when it’s Duke.

But nobody on Duke’s team - past or present - has anything on Virginia Tech’s Deron Washington. His performance in last night’s Duke win at Blacksburg was painful to watch. (Some of it is here, but there was much more.) I’ve never seen someone throw himself around the floor and flail his arms about the way Washington did, at times when there wasn’t even contact. It was stunning. I don’t care for Len Elmore, who was calling the game with Mike Patrick, but I had to agree with his assessment. After a while, as Elmore pointed out, Washington was not getting some legitimate calls because he’d been so theatrical for much of the game. All of his flopping and flailing came back to bite him in the ass. And he deserved it. Hopefully, for Virginia Tech’s sake, he’ll learn something from this.

I would also say this, though, in Washington’s defense. Despite the kick to Lee Melchionni’s face two years ago, I don’t think Washington was doing anything intentionally dirty on a couple of calls last night. First, the tripping of Kyle Singler. I thought Washington was upset and reacting to what he thought was a foul (which clearly wasn’t) as they ran back down court. I thought their feet got tangled up and that’s all. They will sometimes call that, sometimes not. But I thought the intentional foul on Washington was unwarranted. Again, had he not been so theatrical at the moment and many times prior to that, it might have just been a foul, or even a no-call. I think he was angry at the officials for the no-call, but I don’t think there was anything intentional about the contact with Singler.

The other was the undercut of DeMarcus Nelson. This one was less clear, but I also thought Washington was not being malicious. After multiple replays, it appeared to me that he was actually trying to get out of Nelson’s way, but unfortunately moved under him enough to cause the contact and the foul. Nelson was hot, and I can understand that, as it easily could have caused an injury. And I could be wrong, but I don’t think Washington was trying to do anything there.

Up next for Duke is Maryland. If they could pull of the road win, they could have a good shot at going to Chapel Hill in a couple of weeks still unbeaten in the ACC. But, Maryland, while not having looked that impressive for most of the year, did go into Chapel Hill and win last week. Plus, they’re always up for Duke, especially at home. So this may be the young Devils toughest test of the season. It should be a good one.

I did a lot of work around the house the past two days, so I was able to keep my eye close on the sports world (well, at least, the NFL, tennis and college basketball.) It was a great weekend in my opinion.

NFL

The Super Bowl is now set.

A year after Peyton reached his first Super Bowl, his oft-maligned younger brother will make his first appearance there. A great finish in the NFC championship as the Giants, once again, won on the road (their 10th straight road win) to upset the Packers. I love Favre and would like to have seen him with another shot, but I also felt pretty good about Eli making it as well. I hope that, win or lose, he has a great game. I also had to feel good for the Giants’ kicker after missing two field goals late in that game.

Oh yeah, and the Patriots won again.

Australian Open

Some great tennis this weekend in Melbourne, although I didn’t see much of it. There were some great 5-set matches on Saturday. With ever-underachieving Andy Roddick packing his bags earlier in the week, James Blake came through for the American men on Saturday. Blake was down two sets to Sebastian Grosjean before pulling out the win 6-2 in the fifth. I love Blake and would really like to see him win a major, but the deck certainly seems stacked against him considering the top three players in the world right now. Hopefully, he’ll eventually get his shot.

One of my other favorite players is Marcos Baghdatis, who took a two set to one lead on Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt, before eventually falling 6-3 in the final set. Baghdatis is always a lot of fun to watch, and I’d like to have seen this match in full, and certainly would like to have seen him win.

Finally - the one match I did get to watch most of - was the Roger Federer/Janko Tipseravic match. This was also a five-setter that saw Federer on the brink of losing. Federer rarely is challenged in the third round, so this was certainly news. Even more so, considering it went five sets. And it’s almost incomprehensible that he would be taken to 10-8 in the fifth. Tipseravic was playing outstanding and went up two sets to one before Federer finally did what he always does - win. I admit I’m growing tired of Federer and would love to have seen him drop this one. I’m looking forward to seeing how he finishes out in Sydney. Can he do it again?

I’m hoping one of the other two top seeds - Raphael Nadal or Novak Djokovic - is the one that takes him out. If they all keep winning, Federer would have to go through Blake, Djokovic and then Nadal to win. I don’t think he’ll have much trouble with Blake, but facing Djokovic and Nadal on successive days would be quite a challenge. But, as I said, they all have to keep winning. If they do, I think Federer will not get #13 just yet.

College basketball

This was a weekend of upsets with two of the top four going down Saturday - both at home. Maryland went into Chapel Hill and knocked off #1 UNC, which was just astonishing. I didn’t see that coming at all. And, I literally didn’t see it, because, while it was on ABC, it wasn’t shown here because of the contract our local ABC station has to show SEC games instead. So, we were treated to Alabama vs Mississippi State instead. Great. (That comes in real handy during football season, but really sucks during basketball season.)

Then, USC went to #4 UCLA and came out with their own upset. Oh, and while not an upset by any stretch of the imagination, Kentucky lost again. I thought I would enjoy mentioning that. I was right.

My fear was that a another top ten team was going to go down when Clemson came to Cameron Indoor later that night. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, but Clemson’s size proved to be difficult for Duke to handle, which wasn’t exactly a surprise considering the dearth of post players for the Blue Devils at this point. Clemson killed Duke on the boards, but fortunately Duke was able to force 20+ turnovers (and score nearly 40 points off turnovers) to counter the Tigers rebound dominance. I’m not sure how many second-chance points they had, but it was far too many. Duke needs to figure out a way to solve their lack of inside game before they have to face a team with size that won’t turn it over with the regularity that Clemson did Saturday night.

Still, Duke won, UNC lost, God is good.

I haven’t done one of these in a while (other than my year end lists), so I figured it was about time. My eMusic downloads refreshed yesterday and I’ve already used nearly half of them, plus I’ve acquired a few others in the past month or so. Here are some samples of what I’m listening to these days. This is all from eMusic, iTunes, used CD’s or free downloads. (Some of the YouTube audio is good quality, others not as good.)

By the way, one of these - the Scott Orr album - is available for free download here. (That’s where I got it.)

Also, there’s a Great Lake Swimmers live EP available here, which is where I was introduced to them initially.

A few random things . . .

Barack Obama: closet Muslim or racist Christian?

It’s no secret that those on the right seem intent on demonizing Barack Obama. I was only slightly surprised at what appeared in my inbox this past week. It seems that the “racist Christian” angle on Obama has more traction these days (see some recent discussion of that here), but it seems that the “closet Muslim” emails continue to circulate. I received one last week from a relative, and my wife received the same email from a friend a couple of days later. I thought that particular one - considering how ridiculous it is - had already blown over, but it seems to be making a comeback. I guess if you’re in the business of fear mongering, you have to continue to fire all of your guns because there’s always someone out there who will buy into it and pass it on.

Just this morning I came across a message board post (a Christian board dominated by conservatives, not surprisingly) in which someone claimed to have “done their research” on Obama, and was apparently convinced he is in fact a Muslim. The research seemed to be largely based on quotes taken from his books (conveniently, without the benefit of context.) It’s really stunning.

Nevertheless, it seems clear to most reasonable people that Obama is neither secretly a Muslim nor a member of a racist church. Here’s a few things everyone else should check out. First of all, the factcheck article on these emails attempting to disparage Obama has a good analysis of both of these “issues.” Also, the snopes articles (Muslim/Racist) provide some of the same information. The head of the UCC has weighed in on the claims made about Obama’s church, which is relevant considered he’s actually someone connected in some way to the church (as opposed to, say, Sean Hannity.) And one of the best articles I’ve read on the Obama church issue is at The Christian Century, written by Jason Byassee. This is all just a lot of political nonsense stirred up to frighten people by those on the far right. The sad thing is that many people actually seem to be buying it.

Spears book

I saw this a while back and I’m still floored that it is true. I was reminded of it again recently when I heard someone bring it up.

Lynne Spears’ book about parenting has been delayed indefinitely, her publisher said Wednesday. Lindsey Nobles, a spokeswoman for Christian book publisher Thomas Nelson Inc., said Wednesday that the memoir by the mother of Britney Spears was put on hold last week. She declined to comment on whether the delay was connected to the revelation that Spears’ 16-year-old daughter, Jamie Lynn, is pregnant.

Yes, the mother of Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears has written a book on parenting. Considering that her 16-year-old is now pregnant, and the train wreck that is Britney’s life, what possible advice could this woman provide? More importantly, who is this book for? I have to assume one would suck as a parent at an exceptional level if you’re looking to Lynne Spears for parenting advice. Seriously, who at Thomas Nelson thought this was a good idea?

NFL

I watched some of the NFL playoffs this weekend. (Playoffs??) The final four is set, and it’s not quite what most expected. First of all, the wrong Manning will be playing this week. The two games I expected to be least likely to involve an upset were the Sunday games. I expected Dallas to, at worst, squeak by New York, and I didn’t think the Colts would have any problems with San Diego.

I stand corrected.

The Saturday games seemed more likely to produce upsets, although I still expected the home teams to win. I just thought they’d have tougher battles at home than the teams playing Sunday would. Jacksonville seemed to me to be one of two teams (along with Indianapolis) that had a shot at knocking off New England, and it seems like Green Bay lays an egg every now and then, and it seemed like a perfect time for them to do so.

I still am somewhat stunned that the Colts lost, and hate to see Dungy go out that way if, in fact, he walks away now, as some reports indicate is a strong possibility. But I am thrilled that the Cowboys lost (nothing against the players; I just can’t stand Jerry Jones.) I guess Tony Romo can go wherever he wants with Jessica Simpson now. And good for Eli Manning. He’s been hammered quite a bit in NY, and while he wasn’t necessarily the deciding factor in their playoff wins thus far, at least he’s not screwing it up, either.

I enjoyed the Packers/Seahawks game the most, because of all of the teams in the playoffs (playoffs??), Green Bay is the one I’d like to see win it all. I’ve always liked Favre and would love to see him get another one. And, like just about everyone else outside of Boston, I’d like to see the Patriots lose.

But regardless, this week I’ll have to go with the home teams yet again. Super Bowl = New England vs Green Bay.

Thanks for the memories

Speaking of the NFL, these two guys will be there next year. One was a given. There was no doubt Darren McFadden would be headed to the NFL after this season. (In fact, he seemed to already be gone by the time the Cotton Bowl started.) His family would likely have suggested some sort of psychiatric evaluation had he chosen to remain in school. His decision was no surprise.

Felix Jones’ decision was not a surprise either, although it was not as certain that he would leave. Many were hoping he might stick around one more year, but he’s certainly proven that he can get it done, too, and will be receiving a nice paycheck next year as well.

Clearly, they will be missed - you usually miss players who provide the overwhelming majority of your offense. But they’ve certainly provided a lot of good memories over the last three years. Just think of what they could have done with a coach…

It’s true. But who cares? The ACC basketball season has begun!

Duke tips off their ACC season on Sunday night as Virginia comes to Cameron, so I need to go on record with my ACC record prediction for the Blue Devils. Last year I thought I was being a bit pessimistic when I predicted a 10-6 record in the ACC. Turns out it was actually an optimistic pick instead, as they finished at 8-8. With a number of very close games, they only needed a few more shots to drop to finish 10-6 or even 11-5. Of course, had a couple of shots not dropped, they may also have been 6-10.

The expectation is always high for Duke, but after a sub par season and with the arrival this year of three talented freshmen (including one of the best in the country,) significant improvement over last year is certainly the expected outcome this season. And yes, 22 wins evidently qualifies as sub par at Duke, although the 8-8 ACC mark is probably the primary reason it was considered a “bad year.” Clearly they’ve looked much better in the preseason this year, but as always, the ACC is a step up, so it all starts for real this weekend. It’s a late start for Duke, as they usually play their first ACC game in December, but they were not on that schedule this year. Duke and Virginia are two of the four teams that haven’t yet played a conference game.

The biggest area of concern for Duke, of course, is their inside play. Lance Thomas and Brian Zoubek have been adequate, but again, henceforth the competition will be stronger most nights. They’ll have to bring it every night. Duke clearly missed both of those players Wednesday night in a win over Temple - Zoubek is out 1-3 weeks with a foot injury, and Thomas is battling a respiratory infection. They’ll need these guys in the game to avoid being too overmatched inside. Their quickness and athleticism help them overcome some of their inside deficit, but if these two cannot stay healthy for the long haul, it will be much harder on them. They were fine last night, but they don’t play Temple every night.

After predicting 10-6 last year, and seeing marked improvement so far, I will go a little better this year. While Marty Pocius is already out for the season, I don’t think that will hurt them significantly, and I will otherwise assume everyone else stays healthy for the most part.

First, I expect them to win all of their home games. Their toughest competition at Cameron will be NC State, Clemson and, of course, North Carolina. But I have confidence they can take all of those. Clemson may want some revenge for the “clock issue” at Cameron last year, Duke could also still be without Zoubek at that point. But I’m counting on a win there. UNC is clearly one of the best teams in the country, and beating them anywhere will be difficult, even at Cameron. However, after having lost four in a row to UNC (assuming a loss in Chapel Hill at mid-season), Duke will finish the regular season with UNC at Cameron, DeMarcus’ senior day, the freshmen having played a full ACC season, and I fully expect them to get the job done.

As for road games, I’m counting UNC as a loss, and I think a win will be difficult to pull off at NC State as well. Maryland will tough road game as usual, no matter that they’ve not looked very impressive thus far. They’ll show up for Duke. Of course, in the ACC, I think they could lose any other road game as well, but I expect a minimum of a split on the road. So, I’ll go with a 4-4 road record.

After predicting their finish last year and seeing them fall short, I’m a little apprehensive about doing so again this year. Nevertheless, while I - along with everyone else - expect UNC to win the regular season, I expect Duke to finish no worse than tied for second at 12-4. Hopefully that won’t prove to be optimistic again. They’ll have to stay healthy to do so, but I think they will.

The ACC season has begun.

GTHC!

I haven’t written much from Camp’s book recently, but here are a couple of other quotes from a section I read through recently. In discussing just war and “just war Christians”, he shares the following story:

Indeed, those who bore the name of Christ were those who often perpetuated the madness of twentieth-century warfare, simply assuming that their country’s warfare, simply assuming that their country’s cause is always the justified cause. Lecturing at a retreat of church workers in Germany, I had a number of occasions to visit with some of the German Christians attending the gathering. On a long walk through the countryside, one dear woman recounted her memories of World War II - nights in the bomb shelter; a morning walk to school after thousands upon thousands of civilians had been killed in bomb raids in her town the night before; a brother in Youth for Hitler. This was not the first conversation during my time there in which “the War” had come up in casual conversation. My curiosity finally got the better of me, so I asked what I had been wanting to ask: “So you all thought you were in a ‘just war’? That you had ‘just cause’ to fight?” With a surprised look she turned to me and excitedly responded in her thickly accented English, “Oh yes, of course!. Don’t you Americans always think that your wars are just?”

Later, Camp closes the section with the following:

This is a great irony of American Christianity: exalting the nation that affords us “freedom of religion,” we set aside the way of Christ in order to preserve the religion we supposedly are free to practice. We kill our alleged enemies in order to “worship” the God who teaches us to love enemies. The most important question about our pledge of allegiance is not whether we pledge allegiance to a flag under “one God,” but to what god we are pledging our allegiance. Perhaps it is, after all, not the God revealed in Jesus Christ we are worshiping, but the god of the nation-state, the god of power and might and wealth.

Can the present day American church learn from the German church of the 30’s and 40’s? This is not a comparison of the U.S. to Nazi Germany, but rather a comparison of Christians’ reaction to their nation’s involvement in war. With so many American Christians conspicuously supporting war at this point in our history (at least in my experience), it seems that we should at least caution ourselves against assuming that it is always for good and just reasons.

I admit my ignorance of the history of the German church during that time period, but apparently at least some of them believed that their government was acting for just reasons. Of course, our belief is that they were very wrong. (And perhaps we should be more aware of and consider what Christians outside of this country think of our own wars waged.)

Had the German church stood up in unison to their government, what would have changed? Would Hitler have been rendered ineffective in waging war on others? What about Rwanda? If all of the Christians had refused to participate in the genocide there in 1994, would it have made a difference? And, of course, here - what would have happened in 2003 had the church as a whole condemned the invasion of Iraq instead of, for the most part, it seems, voicing it’s approval? If the church in any country opposes war now or in the future, how will that be received by the world and what positive results will it bring both for the church and the world?

The real question here is not as much how effective would we be in stopping such events, but rather how much more effective would we be at showing the way of Christ to the world if we did? Are we, as Camp suggest, “setting aside the way of Christ to preserve our religion”? I don’t know with any certainty the answers to all of these questions, but I do believe without a doubt that, as a disciple, I must daily consider seriously what it means to follow Jesus - whether it be in decisions on supporting war, how to spend my money, how to be a father and husband, or anything else. And, for too long, those days have been far too few.

I didn’t make any “New Year’s resolutions” this year (as I never do), but that is certainly something I want to do more so in the coming year than I ever have in the past. After 30 years as a Christian, I still wonder sometimes if I know what the hell I’m doing, if I really have any clue of what it means to follow Jesus. What does it really mean to take up my cross and follow Him, in this country, at this point in time? What do I need to recognize in the example of Jesus that I’ve missed for so long? What do I need to change in order to truly walk in His steps? And, am I willing to actually do it?