March Through Madness: An NCAA Tourney Blog : Update: We Hope for Better from DeMarcus Nelson

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Update: We Hope for Better from DeMarcus Nelson

Devin Gordon

One of my Duke pals took me slightly to task for my earlier drubbing of DeMarcus Nelson. Not that he disagreed--he just felt that I should've backed up my words with hard numbers, like any good journalist. Point well taken. Luckily, he also provided me with Nelson's career NCAA tournament statistics, and--good grief!--they're even worse than I thought. In eight career games, Nelson has played 152 minutes. In that time he has scored just 35 points (4.3 per game on a rather ugly 38 percent shooting) and has committed a staggering 23 turnovers against just seven assists and only one steal (though admittedly, it was a big steal--the one that sealed last night's game). Remember, this is the ACC's defensive player of the year we're taking about, not to mention our team captain. Nelson's numbers for this regular season, just to offer a comparison: 15.2 points per game on 51% shooting, and about a 1.5-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Gerald Henderson, meanwhile, led the team against Belmont in every major statistical category: points (21), rebounds (7), assists (5) and steals (2). That's how it's done.

The Duke homer in me wants to believe that last night's turd blossom will spark a resurgence from Nelson starting on Saturday afternoon. The realist sees no evidence of that, though news reports from this morning note that he, along with Kyle Singler, played through the Belmont game with a nasty flu bug. We'll find out against the Mountaineers if it was nerves or the flu that got to him, so come on, DeMarcus, give me a reason to believe! OK, now back to the rest of the tournament.

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