Bleacher Report - Articles by Josh Brill

Gerald Henderson Is the Key to Duke's ACC Championship Aspirations

Josh Brill — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:43:33 -0500

If Saturday's Duke-Florida St. game was played at this time one year ago, the end result would have led to a celebrating Seminole home crowd instead of Duke's 14th victory of the season.

The reason for the change? Simple. For the first time in his Blue Devil career, Gerald Henderson was both mentally and physically ready to be the best player on the court for an entire game.

Henderson, the junior swingman from Philadelphia, has been one of the most frustrating Duke players in recent history, playing well below the level he should be since the moment he stepped foot on campus.

In spite of being far and away the Blue Devils' most athletic player since his freshman year, he has never averaged more than 13 points or five rebounds per game, and is still best known as "that guy who elbowed Tyler Hansbrough in the face."

Granted, part of the blame for Henderson's disappointing numbers must be attributed to asthma and wrist problems that have hampered him throughout his career, but there has been many a game where even the most casual observer could see the lack of desire in his performances, content to settle for mid-range jumpers or pass to a contested teammate instead of using his freakish strength and athleticism to overpower defenders and take it to the hole.

The more games he played, the more it looked as though he would be the next in a growing number of career underachievers whose careers ended with premature defections from Durham and disappointing draft spots (see Randolph, Shavlik and McRoberts, Josh.)

But against Florida State, it was all different. With Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith both ice cold from outside, and Kyle Singler looking somewhat fatigued and unable to carry the team, the Devils desperately needed Henderson to step up.

And step up he did. Henderson erupted for a career-high 25 points, his first 20-point game since November against Southern Illinois, but more than that, he played with the high energy, attack the rim mentality that had been lacking from his game, and began to look like a legitimate Wooden Award candidate somewhere in the process.

It was exactly the type of performance the Dukies needed to eke out the win over a feisty Florida State team on an off day, and he will need to continue such performances if Duke wants to fulfill any dreams of winning into March this season.

Yankees Rotation Remains Question Mark in Spite Of Expensinve Overhaul

Josh Brill — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:06:31 -0500

Entering the offseason, Brian Cashman and the Yankees front office made drastically improving the team's shaky (to say the least) starting rotation a top priority. Three months and more than $240 million later, it is still unclear how successful they were.

Sure, the Bomber's management, aided by the Steinbrenner's deep pockets, were able to secure pitchers C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, the two biggest fish in this season's free agent pitching pool. But neither of the two are considered to be anything close to sure things. In fact, with the help of Burnett's fragile elbow and Sabathia's steadily ballooning weight, these deals each have the potential to go down as busts of Chan-ho Park/Mike Hampton magnitude.

The eyebrows began to raise as soon as the Yankees signed Sabathia in mid December to the richest contract ever awarded to a pitcher at seven years for $160 million. Despite his stellar 2007-2008 season, critics wondered how wise it was Sabathia, all 300 pounds of him, a contract in spite of his 253 innings pitched last season and his postseason ERA of nearly 8. But the general consensus remained that the possibility of Sabathia anchoring the rotation for the next 5-7 years far outweighed his bust potential.

Burnett, however, was a different story. After the Yankees shocked the baseball world by topping the Atlanta Braves' offer after they appeared to be Burnett's next home, the criticism grew noticeably louder. Five years at more than $82 million was a hefty sum to give to any player, let alone a pitcher who has missed significant time in almost every one of his seasons in the bigs because of injuries, had never broken 12 wins before last season, and recorded an ERA over four last season.

And Burnett is far from the only one of the Yankees' projected starters with injury concerns. The Yankees will be hoping Chien Ming Wang returns to form after not pitching past June 15 last year because of a foot injury, and that Phil Hughes comes closer to reaching his potential than he did last season, when he went 0-4 with a 6.64 ERA and spent extensive amounts of time on the DL and in the minors. But the good news for the Yanks? When Sabathia, Burnett, Hughes, Wang, and Joba Chamberlain are healthy and on their, each of them possess the nasty repertoire needed to be an elite Major League pitcher.

And that's just what the Yankees are hoping for.

Duke's Question Marks Remain in Spite of Hot Start

Josh Brill — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:34:22 -0500

Twelve games into this year's edition of the Blue Devil's schedule, what we have learned about the team can be described in just one word—nothing.

That's right—absolutely nothing.

True, the team has shown great promise throughout the young season, and victories at Purdue and against Xavier in East Rutherford are nothing to be sneezed at.

But the truth remains that every glaring question about the Devils posed during the preseason still lingers, and will remain intact until Duke takes care of business during ACC play, something that the boys from Durham have not done since the days when J.J. Redick was making defenders tremble at the mere sight of him spotting up for one of his patented 25-foot treys as Shelden Williams bullied opposing bigs in the blocks.

But since then, the Cameron Crazies have been subjected to what I like to call the Josh McRoberts era, consisting of a slew of underperforming teams who take care of business during non-conference play before faltering down the stretch, leading up to disappointing finishes in the ACC and NCAA tournaments.

Until this team proves otherwise, I will refuse to accept that they are any different.

When I posed this theory to fellow Duke supporters, I was greeted by a chorus of, "This team is nothing like last year! We have a big three consisting of a real go-to player (Kyle Singler), a kid who can light it up for 25 on any given night (Jon Scheyer), and a freak of natural athlete (Gerald Henderson) who is finally getting it done!"

Sure, I thought to myself, with those three guys leading the way, and Nolan Smith as a huge upgrade over Greg Paulus at the point, and hey, even Brian Zoubek looked solid against Xavier! What if he becomes a regular contributor?

But then it hit me. I had just made a completely serious remark that involved Brian Zoubek, the player I have referred to as "the single greatest waste of height since Shawn Bradley" for the last two years, contributing positively to basketball games on a regular basis.

After subjecting myself to a series of lashings as punishment for subjecting such a notion, I countered the optimistic fan by reminding him that the "big three" he was so high on consisted of Henderson, a career underachiever at Duke who is best known for being the guy who threw the elbow at Tyler Hansbrough during the ACC tournament two years ago, along with Scheyer, a nice shooter who has yet to prove that he can be an effective scorer when his shot is off.

As for Singler, it is unclear whether his legacy will be as a nice player who could fill up the stat sheet or as a true number one option on a successful team.

In addition, our starting point guard is coming off a season in which he averaged just six points and 1.3 assists in just under 15 minutes a game, and though he has looked much improved in non-conference play, he remains a question mark heading into the always grueling ACC schedule.

But then again, this year's team has shown great strides since last season's disappointing first round NCAA tournament exit.

Other than the early season near-catastrophe against a Rhode Island team led by a red-hot Jimmy Baron, who put on a clinic of three-pointers from well beyond the arc with a hand in his face that even J.J. would be proud of, and the post-Purdue hangover at a Michigan team that seems more legitimate with each passing week, the Blue Devils have looked sharp in every game they've played thus far.

They seem to understand the offense as well as any team in the last few years, have played some of the best defense in the country, can go nine deep when they need to, and have had spurts where the offense has looked close to unstoppable. By all accounts this is a team with the potential to go down as the kind of well-coached, talented, and successful team that has become synonymous with the words "Duke Basketball."

But early season success is something Duke fans have become accustomed to, and until the team shows that they can perform like they did against Xavier when pitted against bigger, more athletic teams, all the chatter about this being the team that brings us back to glory must stop.

But the good news? With games against Georgetown, Wake Forest, Clemson, Miami, and North Carolina all coming up before Feb. 11, the Blue Devils will have plenty of chances to prove themselves.