Cavaliers Battle but Fall Short

The Virginia Cavaliers, a 9 seed in the ACC tournament, charged into the Blue Devil's, but ended up suffering a defeat at the end of the game. 

The Cavaliers, entered today with a win over the 8th seeded Boston College Eagles yesterday.  The Cavaliers came alive yesterday without their star player Sylven Landesberg who is on academic probabtion and out for the rest of the season.  Sammy Zeglinski, stepped up for Virginia yesterday by scoring 21 points and going 5 for 10 from the 3-point line. 

Unfortunately, Zeglinski's performance was horrendous today against Duke.  He went 0 for 8 shooting the ball and had a few trunovers in the process. 

Duke, the favorite to win the ACC tournament, started the game struggling to score a field goal.  It took Duke 4 minutes into the first half to score their first points of the game.  Virginia wasn't any better, it took them five minutes into the first half to score their first points of the game. 

Both teams continued to play horrendously throughout the first half, which resulted in a tie of 27 points a piece at the end of the first half.  Nolan Smith lead the Blue Devil's in scoring in the first half with 11 points. 

The second half turned out to be a tad better than the first half, but both teams still had their problems shooting from the field. 

When it was all said and done, Duke scored 57 points, while Virginia came up short with 46 points.  Kyle Singler lead Duke in scoring with 18 points, 14 of the 18 points coming in the second half.  Jeff Jones lead the Cavaliers in scoring with 15 points and Mike Scott scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the loss. 

Virginia will be hanging up their jersey's for this season and the Blue Devil's will be marching on in the ACC tournament.  Duke will play the winner of the Virginia Tech v. Miami (FL) game today and will be heading to the NCAA tournament as a possible #1 seed.   

Nathan injured, but don't count Twins out

Joe Nathan, relief pitcher for the Minnesota Twins, tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow pitching against the Boston Red Sox last Saturday.  Nathan had bone spurs removed before last season in his right elbow to protect from this injury.  Nathan has not decided if he will have season-ending surgery or if he will rehab the right elbow.  

Last season Nathan finished with 47 saves, which was second in the American League and in the MLB, Brian Fuentes of the Los Angeles led the MLB in saves with 48 in 2009.

Nathan's injury has Twins manager, Ron Gardenhire, deciding on who will take Nathans place as the Twins closer.  Jon Rauch has 26 saves in his MLB career so far and he would be the first candidate in the running for the closer role. 

Never doubt the Twins minor league system though.  Every year the Twins call-up a minor league player or two and they end up becoming key players for the ball club.  The Twins are known for having a tremendous minor league system that successfully develops minor league players into hard-working day-to-day players in the MLB.

With Nathan possibly out for the season, does that mean that the Twins are not the favorite anymore to win the AL Central?  Absolutely not in my mind. 

The Twins have the offensive power to knock in runs left and right.  With a line-up that will feature Denard Span, Orlando Hudson, J.J. Hardy, Joe Mauer, Jim Thome, Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, Delmon Young and Nick Punto, the Twins have little to worry about. 

The Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox have a shot at winning the AL Central, but they will have to produce great offensive numbers and pitch well against the Twins in order to win the AL Central.      

The Warm-Up

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