Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net,

INDIANAPOLIS-For Duke, the most polarizing team in this Final Four, success hinges on the play of it’s too stars who are (you guessed it) love ‘em or hate ‘em guys- Junior Forward Kyle Singler and Senior Point Guard Jon Scheyer.

Duke fans love to talk about how everyone hates them because of their success, and the attention the program receives. Of course, they don’t bring up the “flopping” a lot of players do to draw charging fouls, all the favorable calls the team usually receives, preferential treatment by the World Wide Leader and the “private school” factor that turns off so many casual college basketball fans.

However, I’m at the point where Duke hatred seems like a waste of time, and a very tired cliche. (Or maybe I’ve just moved on to hating their bitter rival North Carolina more than any other team, so why bother having contempt for Duke? Besides Coach K. is extremely charming in person) Nevertheless, let’s move and get to know their star duo. We’ll start by profiling Singler, a projected 2011 second round NBA Draft pick.

The 6-9 forward from Oregon can play the three or the four, and is currently fifth all time at Duke in offensive rebounds. His game has been augmented by the fact he’s played together with the same core of players for several years:

“It’s definitely helped our team this season,”  Singler said. “We’ve won some close games because of the bond that we have. We’ve gone through a lot of experiences together. It’s more of a friendship. You’re willing to do extra to help the team win.”  Scheyer called him “the toughest player I’ve ever played with.”

And Coach Mike Kryzsewki talked about what makes Singler so special, even when he has his ups and downs.

“I think Kyle is a great player.  He’s not always gonna play great.  You know, a few games before that, Scheyer was 1-11 and we won.  In fact, he still played pretty well.  You can’t give knee-jerk reactions when a kid just doesn’t perform at a top level.  I mean, he’s trying to fight through it,” Coach K. said about Singler’s struggles in the last game.

“Kyle had two fouls in the first five minutes, and you tend not to be as aggressive as far as attacking the basket, going into the post.  You can get into a mode where you’re a little bit more conservative because, you know, on the court you’re a valuable asset even if it’s not at a hundred percent,” Kryzewski continued.

Northbrook, IL native (and potential late second round 2010 NBA Draft pick) Jon Scheyer is greatly unloved in his home area of Chicago for choosing to attend Duke over Illinois. That doesn’t seem like a very controversial decision at first, but when you consider the fact that he made his decision off the heels of Illinois’ best season ever in 2005 and his Head Coach at Glenbrook North, Dave Weber is the brother of Illinois’ leader Bruce Weber, you can see why he’s drawn some ire.

The 6-5 team captain moved over from shooting guard to point guard this season to help fill a void, and responded by having a unanimous all-conference, all-district and Wooden award finalist season. He holds the ACC single season record for minutes played in a season and he’s the second leading free throw shooter in Duke history.

Coach K talked about where Jon Scheyer ranks among the best leaders in Blue Devil history.

“He’s not just been a good leader; he’s been a beautiful young man to coach. I mean, Jon has never had a bad day where he hasn’t tried.  He has a perpetual great attitude.  That’s infectious with his teammates,” Coach K said.

“He’s been a 2,000 point scorer at Duke, while being very unselfish.  He’s been willing to accept any role, which I think is leading by example, whether it be coming off the bench at times as a younger player, or being an off guard, to now where he handles the ball.” Kryzsewski continued.

Scheyer talked about how this Duke team got to the Final Four despite suffering some tough seasons (by Duke standards) early in his career. “Being at this point and being able to look back, I don’t know if we’d be here without those moments, especially my freshman year,” Scheyer said.

Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, an Upper Midwest sports webzine. He’s also a member of the Football Writers Association of America, the United States Basketball Writers Association and a sports writer for the Washington Times.com Communities and Walter Football.com

February is gone! Time to move on to the juggernaut of a month that is March. March has to be in the hall of fame of months. It boasts the NCAA Tournament, St. Patty’s Day, and that first day it’s nice enough to play basketball outside. What’s not to like? Still the February reared its ugly head for a while too long this year and left us without much to talk about this week other than Olympic hockey fallout, or did it?

About those Olympics. Sidney Crosby, hero to hosers everywhere, returned to the Pittsburgh Penguins for his first game after his golden goal. The captain received a nice reception (though riddled with a few good natured boos), but the Penguins’ opponent wasn’t the best draw for Sidney to get the heroes’ welcome. The Buffalo Sabres were in town and though he sat out, American goaltender Ryan Miller received the loudest ovation following his MVP performance in Vancouver. Good stuff, Pittsburgh.  As if getting upstaged wasn’t enough, Crosby is looking for some of his gear that he shed during the celebration. If you stole it I suggest trying to buy a replica stick–as if you killed his pet in a 90′s TV show–and keep the real deal for your basement bar. Oh, and you can check out other great Crosby-shops here.

Maryland beats Duke, fans get excited. In a night where all seemed right in the world, Maryland upset Duke in thrilling fashion. It was senior night in College Park and the Terps sent Grevis Vasquez out with a win over the Blue Devils. After the win Maryland fans stormed the court… by the way, there was a whistle with 0.4 seconds left in the game when it looked like the game would be over and the students showed amazing restraint in a situation that was sure to create a preemptive storming. Commendable. The rioting after? Not so much. Here’s an idea though: next time Maryland beats Duke, they should travel to Durham and riot there. Standing around on your own streets is getting old. Right Sparty?

Spring Training kicks off. I think pretty much every team has played some kind of exhibition game at this point. The favorites to win it all based on what I’ve seen? The Blue Jays, hands down.  There has already been a point of interest, though. In a Giants-Brewers game, Barry Zito plunked Prince Fielder in retaliation for a celebration by Fielder last year late in the season. The Giants and Zito have long memories, which makes you think Zito would remember how to get an out or two. Hey-o!

Let the Delhomme sweepstakes begin!NFL free agency is in full swing with a handful of moves already. The Lions signed Nate Burleson, the Bears offered anyone and everyone a contract, and there was even a trade sending Antonio Cromartie to the Jets. The names to watch before the draft are headlined by Julius Peppers and a bunch of running backs.  What this really means is just a chance for some mock drafts to take another stab, speaking of which, Ray Lewis is not available.

Chick basketball. Not sure if you noticed, but UConn’s womens basketball team is something else. Their win on Monday marked the 69th straight win for the Huskies and finished out their regular season at 30-0. Their closest game all year was a 12 point win against Stanford, handing #2 Stanford its only loss of the season. UConn is one win away from tying the womens record for consecutive wins and looks to have a good shot at UCLA’s record of 88 straight wins set by John Wooden’s squads.  There are so many stats to quote about their domination, I would just suggest going to look at their schedule and results.

It only took us 11 years, but the Big Ten has finally broken through in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge.  Finally a reprieve from articles and posts about how the Big Ten is so overrated after 6-to-5 losses in the Challenge, despite consistently impressive post-season performances.  Let the ubridled hype commence! 

Alright maybe not, but it still feels good.  I said on Tuesday that the Big Ten would be in good shape if it could enter the final day tied at three games apiece.  I didn’t think that would include a win from Northwestern Tuesday and certainly didn’t think Wisconsin would knock off Duke last night.  It was classic Wisconsin basketball last night with big white guys banking in eight-footers and superb defense winning the night. 

Wisconsin beating Duke was awesome, but Illinois had the game of the night.  The Illini used a 28-4 run in the second half to score their biggest comeback in school history.  Illinois managed to gel as a team in the second half, something that was visibly missing early in the year.  Behind Tisdale, Davis, McCamey, and freshman Brandon Paul, the Illini erased a 23-point deficit in the second half and when Tisdale had the go-ahead bucket with 41 seconds to go, they just had to hold off Clemson for the huge win.  Oddly, Illinois avenged a win from last year’s Challenge where Clemson was the team escaping with an identical 76-74 score. 

About a month remains until the Big Ten season starts and the Illini will have a couple more chances to build a resume before the battle begins in conference play.  That battle is sure to be fierce, but until then we can all bask in the glory of a sweet victory.

• Two Baltimore Orioles radio announcers left the ballpark during a rain delay and didn’t come back for the last eight innings.  I do this when my professor isn’t there five minutes before class. [Awful Announcing]
• Piniella tells Marmol to stop whining and just pitch after Carlos had complained that there was no real competition for the closer spot.  [Tribune]
• Liberty point guard Seth Curry, brother of Davidson star Stephon Curry, will transfer to Duke.  Seth Curry now 10 times less cool than his brother.  [ESPN]
• Orlando Pace met with the Bears yesterday.  Could a rational move in free agency really be on the horizon?  [FanHouse]
• The Blackhawks lost 4-0 to possible first round opponent Vancouver Sunday.  There were a few scuffles including some hair pulling by some Canucks.  Friggin’ Canadians.  [Slow Breaker]
• People in Ohio are complaining about the drunken and disorderly conduct of Siena fans.  I don’t even know where to start.  The comments on the Deadspin post are a good place.  [Deadspin]
• Here’s a glimpse into the future of Ohio State outgoing freshman BJ Mullens: Kosta Koufos is headed to the D-League.  Maybe after that Mullens idiot flops, teams will realize they should only draft players that were good in college.  [Cursed Cleveland via Big Lead]

In case you won’t be satisfied with two good games in the evening, there are two more to give you your fix at night.  I really love both of these match-ups.  While I could have never imagined being excited for Memphis and Missouri, the more I look at it, the better it looks.  Then we have Duke and Villanova, who could score a million points.  Let’s get to the previews and bad predictions.

(3) Missouri vs. (2) Memphis, 7:07 ET-

I really didn’t think Mizzou would make it here.  I saw something last week that said you’re better off not watching any games a team plays than you are watching one or two, because you acquire opinions of those teams that are skewed by those couple of games.  This is definitely the case with me and Missouri.  I watched them play once and they lost to Illinois by double digits.

Memphis is also a team I wasn’t high on coming into the dance.  I saw them play once and they looked pretty good against Gonzaga, but come on, Conference USA?  But man, they bludgeoned Maryland in the second round.

Missouri’s pressure is going to cause problems for Memphis and their point guard, Tyreke Evans.  Evans has a 1.1/1 assist to turnover ratio and Missouri forces as many turnovers as just about anyone in the country.  Missouri also has the athleticism to keep up with Memphis and as we saw against Cal State Northridge, a flustered Memphis team is very vulnerable, especially if the threes aren’t falling.  DeMarre Carroll will have to carry the load again for Mizzou to move on.

For Memphis, previously mentioned point guard Tyreke Evans will be oh-so important.  The freshman will be pestered all game long and while he has improved, he hasn’t been steady this year.  Senior Antonio Anderson will need to help out and alleviate some of the pressure on Evans.  Plus, Evans needs be free to score, as he averages over 16 per game.  Then again, you never know when a guy like Roburt Sallie is going to break out and score 30 more points than he averages.  Memphis also has the advantage of great players in Robert Dozier and Shawn Taggert in the frontcourt.

Ultimately, I like Memphis in this game because Missouri lost to Illinois, remember? Seriously though, Memphis is too athletic to be bogged down by this pressure of Missouri.  Therefore, Tigers…uhhh, the Memphis ones, 80-70.

(3) Villanova vs. (2) Duke, 9:57 ET-

Oh man, what a great game this looks like! Of course, that means it will likely be the most boring and disappointing of the entire slate, but I can’t help getting my hopes up for this one as the best game tonight.  I feel like these two teams are so similar and am really hoping for a game right down to the wire with the most heartbreaking loss since Old Yeller for the Dukies.

The Blue Devils sport the fantastic trio of Gerald Henderson, Jon Scheyer, and Kyle Singler.  Scheyer has been great in the postseason and Henderson is the best player this team has in my opinion.  The game could come down to Singler, who averages over 16 points per game, but literally disappears in some games.  It doesn’t happen a ton, but if it happens tonight, Duke doesn’t have a chance.  Conversely, if someone like Elliot Williams or Nolan Smith can step up and provide 15 points or so, I really like Duke’s chances. Duke is a different team since Williams replaced Paulus, but I don’t know if they’re better.  Watch for more of those epic travels from Elliot on the wings too.

Villanova has its own weaponry to bring to the table.  We’ll start with the trio of guards in Scottie Reynolds, Corey Fisher, and Corey Stokes.  These kids can fill it up, which makes it even more dangerous that each of them can get to the lane because once one of them penetrates, the others find ways to get open.  With these three, the game is rarely out of reach when they’re down and always in danger of getting out of hand when they’re ahead.  Much like Duke, Nova’s guards and shooters are paired with a great scorer/rebounder in Dante Cunningham.  Duke throws a lot of mediocre centers out there and Cunningham could really take advantage on the inside and be the difference for the Wildcats.

What does it all mean?  Who knows.  My heart says Villanova and my brain says “hell yeah heart, screw Duke,” but I really don’t like them. Duke struggled with Texas, but Villanova struggled with American.  They seem so equal on paper and I don’t know what separates them, except I think Duke has the best player on the floor and that’s Henderson.  I’ll say Gerald makes the difference and Duke wins.  Sorry to the family of the kitten that will die when it happens.  79-78.

While we all bitch about how much traveling there is in the NBA, college kids are getting away with it too. I linked to Maggette’s (former Dukie) traveling video last week, but this is even more steps technically. The person who made the video counts 12 steps that Duke freshman Elliot Williams took without the ball touching the floor. Judge for yourself: