Duke vs Maryland - Top 5 highlights of the game

wall builders

I recently watched a portion of a program on television called "American Heritage" featuring David Barton. His website is called Wallbuilders.com is "dedicated to presenting America's forgotten history and heroes." Since I am keenly interested in American history, this program caught my attention. The television broadcast may be hard to find; it can be found on TBN or Cornerstone Christian cable networks, but the second week I tried to watch it, the station was broadcasting a local program instead. The website has many interesting links. For example, under the "Library" button, you will find links to "Black History," with many African-American resources in pdf format, "Historical Documents," with proclamations all the way back to the 1700's "Historical Writings," with many sermons and other writings from the 1700 - 1800's and much more. It looks like a very useful sight for teachers.

Dukies back in the game

After losing a couple of games back to back, I was having a tough time dealing with the Dukies in the losing column. I could relate to Pat Summit, the Tennessee Vols ladies coach. In an interview after she had coached her 1000th winning game, she responded to a reporter asking how she felt when she lost a game. She said she just gets physically sick when the team loses. Well, I am not quite that bad, but I do feel much better when the Dukies are winning than when they are losing!

Just to recap, the Blue Devils lost to the North Carolina Tarheels at home, 87 -101. It was hard to believe the Dukies scored 87 points and still lost the game. Duke followed their loss to UNC with a close game against Boston College. Even though they were tied and/or ahead with about 30 seconds to go, Duke still lost the game, 74 - 80. It seems the ACC teams always play their BEST game against Duke. So I am feeling much better now after the Dukies beat St Johns 76-69 at Madison Square Gardens last Thursday and then put Wake Forest in their place this weekend. (101-91) Now the Blue Devils are playing like a final four team again. Gerald Henderson and Jon Scheyer were both outstanding in the game Sunday night. Henderson scored a season high 35 points and Scheyer was hitting his 3-point shot again. Even Coach K was showing some emotion for a change! Now, we need to make it through the next two weeks without losing to Maryland (Weds. - 2/25) Virginia Tech (Sat 2/28) Florida State (Tues 3/03) and the final regular season game and rematch against the NC Tarheels ( Sun 3/08 ).

March Madness is already here !

Click to read QUOTES after the game against Wake Forest
Click to read "Lineup change paying off for Duke" at ESPN
Click to read the game recap
Click view photos of Duke-WF game

family photo Sunday

My mother - Martha Loretta (Rice) - age 8 1/2

Photo taken in early 1942

home improvements slideshow

Our family's Christmas presents to us this year were several projects for our new home in Georgia. Our sons worked on clearing the backyard fence and trees of some pesky monster vines, possibly English ivy - no one seems to know for sure. The last of the vines were cut at the bottom of the trees about 2 months ago now, and the vines still look green and healthy - maybe in another month they will die. Another project was to repair/replace the flooring at the entrance. The previous owner had cats which did not know how to use the litter box. So the floor at the entrance and coat closet had cat urine soaked into the sub-flooring. Josh and Stephen cut out and replaced the sub-floor and by the end of the week, Stephen was able to finish installing a new porcelain tile floor. We really enjoy the look of the tile and it blends very well with our stone fireplace in the living room.

family photo Sunday

Among the old family photos I recently acquired is this picture taken of my late uncle Jimmie Rice standing in front of the Azay Le Rideau Castle in France. The castle (click to read more) was "close to camp" according to the back of the photo and was taken on Sunday, March 5, 1952.

Slideshow - places to visit when in Atlanta

The first time I tried to visit the Varsity Restaurant (click to view website) was about 4 years ago when we were tourists in Atlanta. The sign inside the building says that there is seating for 650 people and when we walked in the door that Saturday afternoon, it looked as if all seats were taken and another 500 people were in line waiting to place an order. So obviously, we picked a bad day and time to go to the Varsity and turned around and walked back out. Now that we live only 30 minutes from downtown, we have been several times. Bob, one of my co-workers in Jacksonville who used to live in Atlanta, gave me a couple of gift certificates to enjoy the Varsity when I moved here two years ago. So we took some of our family to visit the world famous Varsity on New Year's Eve. (read more below slideshow)

On that same day we discovered another interesting place to visit, the Cyclorama,(read more) located near Grant Park. Inside this building there is a 360 degree hand painted Civil War canvas of the Battle of Atlanta, about three stories high. You are seated in the center of the room and the seats turn as you view the painting. We were not allowed to take pictures as the painting was done by hand with oil paint in the late 1800's. A Civil War general commissioned the painting to use while he was running for election. But he died before it was completed, and it was sold to a circus. After traveling around the country with a circus for many years, it ended up in Atlanta in the early 1900's when the circus closed down. The animals in the circus became the Atlanta Zoo and the building to display the painting was completed and named the Cyclorama.

family photo Sunday

This is one of the few photos I have of my Dad's mom, Mattie Belle (Keeter) Franklin. It was probably taken in the early 1950's in front of their home in Clifton, SC. My mother recently gave me an envelope full of old photos so I am looking forward to scanning and posting them this year on my blog. Grandma Franklin was born on April 13, 1889 (120 years ago) and lived until she was 91 years of age.

Blue Devils rally to beat the Hurricanes in OT 78-75

Click to view photo gallery
It has been a tough week for the Dukies. Wednesday night, Duke played their worst ball game of the season at Clemson, and the Clemson Tigers played a perfect game - humiliating the Dukies 74-47. At least my sister was happy :) I think that was the first time this season that Duke has scored under 50 points. Duke had at least 13 turnovers in the first half of the game on Wednesday night and most of those were from bad passes. In today's game, they started the first half of the game against Miami stone cold, even though the game was at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The half time score was Miami 34, Duke 19, but the Dukies came to play in the second half and prevailed in overtime to win the game 78-75. (I have no finger nails left) The team was definitely a different team that played the 2nd half, so I can only guess what Coach K told them in the locker room.
Click to read the recap at ESPN

After the game, Coach K had some interesting comments:

Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
“Today’s game was one of the most different that I’ve coached in my 29 years here, and I thought it was a game that we lost, then we won. President [Richard] Brodhead came into our locker room after I was finished talking with the team and I think he put it in the best description. He said, ‘That was a game you had to win over and over again.’ Both teams had to do that. There was so many great efforts and plays in the last 17 minutes and overtime that it was a game you had to win over and over again. [Jack] McClinton was spectacular. The shot he hit with two guys on him was just a big-time shot. I stopped to mention a couple things to him because that’s not luck. The kid is just a great player, a great shooter. You worry that you spend so much to come back that you’re not going to have enough for overtime, but I thought we were great in overtime. Gerald [Henderson]’s penetration of the zone – there was so much more movement in the last 17 minutes that we didn’t have before, but his penetration helped a great deal, and no turnovers and four assists. Then Greg [Paulus] when he hit, and was cutting through, that was pretty good. But, the relentless pursuit of the ball by [Dave] McClure was just a great example for the rest of the guys that we’re going to keep doing until it works, which wasn’t the attitude that we had [in the first half]. We were absent of attitude. I think we just had such residue from Clemson in that first half. I thought we did some good things, but when our shots weren’t going we slipped right back into that, and somehow we got out of it. Paulus’ performance – he became our leader today. . . I saw some amazing things this afternoon for the making of a team that happened for our kids. We were real men, and we beat a team that is very talented and very difficult to play against.” click to read more quotes at duke.edu

February Birthday Slideshow

Duke bounces back to win big over Virginia, 79-54

What a difference a "game" makes! After losing a tough game against Wake Forest, the Dukies were able to bounce back with a win over Virginia. Duke is now 5-1 in the ACC and holds onto first place in the conference. Another tough game is coming up on February 4th against Clemson, but lately every game in the ACC is tough - just look at what happened to Wake Forest Saturday when they lost to Georgia Tech in the last few seconds.

Click to read recap of game by AP

Photo: Kyle Singler dunks the ball during Sunday's game

Click to view more photos at espn

family photo Sunday

One big happy family . . . the Franklin family Christmas photo (2008)