Duel in the District: HoopsHD hangs out with Duke and Michigan

HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel has spent the past few months covering several Georgetown basketball home games, with a very special reward coming in March. However, since 2 of the sport’s bluebloods decided to play a 1-off game in DC in late-February, he was in attendance Saturday night for the Duke-Michigan game at Capital 1 Arena and prepared this photo essay.

My evening got off to an inauspicious start due to the pregame meal (none) and my seat location (upper level press box, which was so high that I felt like I was sitting atop the Washington Monument, and which is why this will be heavy on essay and light on photo).

Let’s tip it off in front of an announced crowd of 20,537, which makes this the highest-attended neutral-site game in the nation all season:

The 1st half was the Yaxel Lendeborg show, as the Michigan star made a bank shot, a pair of layups, an old-fashioned 3-PT play, and a pair of shots from behind the arc to lead the way with 16 PTS as his team built an early lead. However, Duke G Caleb Foster knocked down back-to-back 3s to give his team a 22-21 lead, and the 2 heavyweights went back and forth before we headed into halftime with Duke leading Michigan 35-33. Patrick Ngongba did a lot of damage inside during the 2nd half on a pair of layups and an alley-oop dunk, while Cameron Boozer did a little bit of everything all night long (18 PTS/10 REB/7 AST/2 BLK/1 TO) to help the Blue Devils knock off the top-ranked Wolverines 68-63. After heading down to the court I FINALLY saw some people I recognized including former Duke star Kon Knueppel (left) and former UNC standout Coby White (right):

In the postgame press conference I asked Lendeborg and his fellow big man Morez Johnson Jr. about getting outrebounded 41-28. Morez (left) said that it was due to their fellow/even-taller big man Aday Mara getting into foul trouble (the 7’3″ Spaniard only played 22 minutes due to picking up 4 fouls), but that they still needed to step up as a team. Yaxel (right) confirmed that Aday grabs so much attention that missing him on the floor was a really big hit for the team:

I wondered how Michigan coach/friend-of-Rocco Dusty May would compare Boozer to some of the other great players he has faced this season (Graham Ike/Bruce Thornton/Braden Smith/etc.). He admitted that Boozer’s physicality is impressive…and then did his best Kelvin-Sampson-evasive-answer impression by proceeding to discuss how the entire Duke team deserved credit for getting their own misses because they are well-trained. They have a good feel for knowing where the misses were coming off the rim and were able to get there quicker:

I reminded Duke coach Jon Scheyer that the East Regional would be taking place in this same areana in less than 5 weeks, then tried to get him to admit that he wants to be playing here, and if so then whether this win would give him any advantage. He claimed he was unsure because he tries to stay incredibly present…but also understands the future ramifications. However, he confirmed that not only would this game help his squad understand what an NCAA tourney environment is like, but even at open practice this morning it helped to be in front of the fans during College GameDay because it simulates what it will be like next month:

That is a wrap on an incredible day/night of basketball, but check back next month because the best moth of the year is almost here!