CAMERON INDOOR STADIUM/DURHAM—“If you ask me, this administration is completely out of control with all of this Marilyn business…Life is too short to worry about Marilyn Monroe.”—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
In Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot, author J. Randy Taraborrelli explores the relationship between the Kennedy wives. Marilyn Monroe was a strand that they all had in common. The above Jackie O quote came during a host of issues, including a debacle over whether Monroe would be allowed to sing happy birthday to President John F. Kennedy at his 1962 birthday gala in Madison Square Garden. That was just her way of giving Marilyn the middle finger.
Coach “Mike Krzyzewski” K took a similar approach in today’s postgame conference. The big elephant in the room wasn’t the lingering humiliation from 90-63 whooping that Miami gave Duke in Wednesday night’s competition. Not that one. The season is too short to worry about that. What we really wanted to know was how Coach K felt about Maryland’s succession from the ACC to the Big 10 Conference—especially today, after the 84-64 beatdown the Blue Devils put on the Terrapins.
“I don’t feel anything. I feel ecstatic that we won the game, “ he said. “Whatever decision schools want to make; They make them. I only have so much room for feelings.” Or, to borrow from Jackie O, life is too short to worry about Maryland.
Game-wise there wasn’t much too worry about either. Rasheed Sulaimon led Duke’s charge, putting up a career-high 25 points and knocking down 6-of-8 three-pointers. Duke is still re-fitting its offense to thrive without Ryan Kelly and the response from freshman Amile Jefferson has been gradually improving. His 11 points and nine rebounds came buttered with a bunch of rascally, down-low hustle and today he looked like he was a factory piece of the Duke system, rather than a just a replacement part.
Late in the second half, Mason Plumlee grabbed one of Quinn Cook’s rare (for the day) missed layups off of the rim and reverse-dunked it home. You only see dunks like these in dunk contests, when there’s time to plan-out the trick. But, in a hyper-second, Plumlee took the rebound to a freakish level when he swung the ball behind his head with both hands and crashed it through to become what will be gawked at as one of Duke’s (or college basketball’s) top jams ever.
Duke’s next two games are on the road against Wake Forest, then Florida St. before, they have N.C. State inside Cameron, where the Blue Devils will be seeking some ill revenge for another shocking loss. In the meantime, click here for the Duke/Maryland box score.
Plumlee’s dunk is here:
