Sorry it has been so long since I last checked in. It has been a busy couple of weeks with games and a little time back in Philly for the holidays. We had a great team win over Xavier up in New Jerseyjust before our holiday break. From there I went home for five or six days and got to see a lot of family and friends. It is always nice to be home during the holidays and get some of that great family home cooking. We are fed pretty well at Duke and get to go to some really nice places on the road but nothing quite compares to my grandma and mom's cooking.

By the end of the break up home I was anxious to get back to Durham and get out on the practice floor with my teammates. Of course that was before I remembered how hard those first couple of practices can be after a break. Even though you work out each day over break you still end up losing a little conditioning. We got after it in practice prior to our game on New Year's Eve. We even had a couple of two-a-days just to make sure we were as sharp as possible entering the new year. The work we put in paid off as we got wins over Loyola Md.and Virginia Tech in our ACC opener.

Virginia Tech came in played well after some tough losses to Xavier and Wisconsin in the last couple seconds of play. They were hungry for a big win, but we were able to match their intensity. It was good to come out a post a big win and set the tone for the ACC season.

We played Davidson last night and got a pretty good win. We got up big early in the second half and relaxed a little bit. Stephen Curry is probably the best guard in the country and led them back in the second half. They cut the lead to eight points late in the game, but Lance Thomas hit a couple of really big free throws to push the lead back to double figures and we tighten up defensively to finish off the game.  Jon and Kyle had great games and we beat a very good team.

Now we head back out on the road. Our next two games will be tough as we head to Florida Stateand Georgia Tech. They will have great crowds and great energy. The last time we went on the road we didn't bring the right mental approach and we got beat. So we are anxious to make up for that trip to Michigan in December. Both FloridaState and Georgia Tech will play tough, physical basketball so we are going to have to match that on both ends of the floor.

We are in finals week here at Duke so it has been a busy two weeks for me. I take four classes and only have two exams so I will have more time to study for each exam. We played two games on the road last week. It was rough stepping off the plane into the cold, windy and snowy weather of West Lafayette and Detroit. I thought I had escaped that when I came down to Durham from Philly.

The trip to Purdue was much better than our trip to Michigan. We came out against the Boilermakers playing hard with a lot of intensity. Their crowd serenaded us with the school's fight song on the way into the arena for shootaround that morning. That was a little different then our ACC road trips where fans are more likely to yell at you then sing to you. The pregame atmosphere was the best I'd been a part of as a college player. The stands were full 10 minutes before the tip and their band was pretty good too. We had a great team effort on offense and defense and we controlled the glass while winning by double digits. With the game tipping off around 9pm we didn't get back to Durham until 3 am on Wednesday. We are able to charter our flights so the seats are comfortable and have plenty of leg room. The staff also takes care of us pretty well so I can't complain about our road trips.

Michigan also had a great crowd in our next game. It was our first loss of the season. Michigan played a good game led by Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims, their two best players. We did not match their intensity or energy on both ends of the floor and had a poor shooting game as well. Michigan played a great game and deserved that win. We will rebound and learn from that experience.

We now have 10 days between games to focus on our class work and regain our edge on the court. I have a Psychology and Wolof (African language) exam that I must take care of. I've have had a good semester in the classroom and want to focus on finishing strong. When I break from studying me and Jon Scheyer, my roommate, usually play a few games of NBA Live '09. The three things he does in life are go to school, play basketball and play LIVE. Because of that I only beat him on occasion.

I saw a question from a reader in my last entry and wanted to take a minute to answer that. Jayb2113 wanted to know what it takes to become a walk-on at the Division I level. I would say that you have to be selfless. The walk-ons on our team, Steve Johnson and Jordan Davidson, come into every practice with the mindset of making the other guys better. They know that their own actual time on the court will be very limited so they put their emphasis on helping their teammates. I have found that they are two of the best guys to talk to about our team and myself because they really don't have to worry about how they're playing. They see the team from a different prospective. One that is very good to get advice from. Steve and Jordan really don't get as much credit as they deserve.

Anyway, I am looking forward to getting my exams over with and getting back out on the court on Dec. 17. We all have a pretty bad taste in our mouths after the Michigan game. After we play Asheville on the 17th we head up to NJ for a game with Xavier. I will have a lot of family at that game and then we will have a little break to spend the holidays with our families.

Sorry for the delay in my blog but we are coming off a stretch of 4 games in 8 days. We were pretty successful getting four wins and steadily improving.

We started in New York with a win against Southern Illinois. They were a physical defensive team and we did a pretty good job. We struggled in the first half offensively but then in the second pulled it together and made some connecting plays. Nolan and Kyle had some nice dunks to get us rolling and I knocked down a couple of open threes. Kyle and I didn't score in the first half, but we came out and had a combined 33 points in the second half. I hit four three-pointers in the second half (the most I have made in a game) and finished strong with a dunk off a curl play towards the end of the game.

After the win we were looking forward to potentially playing UCLA in the final but they lost to Michigan. Michigan is a good team with some pretty good players. We are actually scheduled to play them on December 6 in Ann Arbor.

We played solid throughout the game. Manny Harris, their best player, was the focal part of our defense. As a perimeter player, it was important for us to try to keep him from scoring as much as we could and attack him when they were on defense. He had a great game for them, but I felt like we really made him work for his points. We won the game to get our first championship of the year. It was good to have a tournament where a lot of guys played well and exciting to win a tournament championship.

I really enjoyed playing in Madison Square Garden. The building has a lot of history behind it and it is always fun to play there. It was cold up there but we got the job done so that always makes everything better. I also has a lot of family at the games in New York so it was nice to get to see and spend some time with them.

We had a quick turnaround after the Michigan game. We headed home right after our win in the Garden and got back to Durham around 2 a.m. We had Montana coming up at 1pm on Sunday so we got some rest and then had a good practice on Saturday afternoon.

We were focused on Sunday and played a pretty solid game. A lot of guys played and played well so it was a good team win.

We were off today, so I finally had time to sit down and reflect on the past week. It was good to have a day to get refreshed mentally and physically.

We have a couple of good practice days coming up to get ready for our game against Duquesne on Friday. We will have a team Thanksgiving dinner but I also have family coming in so I will definitely get some of my mom's great home cooking. She makes a mean stuffing.

We had a pretty good week last week getting our first two wins of the year. We played hard in our opener with Presbyterian but we were a little anxious and didn't play as smart as we would have wanted to. A positive was that our defense was great. We were a little stagnant on offense and only scored 80 points.

Our second game was a lot better. We beat Georgia Southern in Cameron to advance to the semifinals of the 2K Sports Classic in New York. The crowd was great throughout the game. We really got after it on defense and got alot of our points off of turnovers. We played really well together and had a lot of connecting plays. That was a great feeling so early in the season. We needed to win that game to move on and play in New York. We're looking forward to playing there next week against Southern Illinois in the semifinals.

Before we even start thinking about New York, we play a tough Rhode Island team at home on Sunday. We are preparing for them with hard practices and we know that they are a really good team. Though we are going to New York next week and playing in an exiting atmosphere at the Garden, we can't overlook Rhode Island. It is important for us to win every game we play and keep getting better.

I'll check back in with everyone next week.

We played our final exhibition game on Wednesday and are getting ready to open the season on Monday. Everyone on the team is anxious to get the season started. Kyle [Singler] was great on Wednesday, finishing with 22 points and eight rebounds. At one point he drained a three from about 30-feet out. When he shot it I wasn't sure if he was feeling it or if he was tired and figured coach would take him out after that shot. As a group, everyone is playing pretty well but we know we have a lot of work to do. We started both exhibition games a little slower than we would have liked, but there have been a lot of positives as well.

We have a great group of guys and everyone has really worked hard in the offseason and in preseason to get in great shape. Several guys have bulked up and we are a more physically mature team. For the first time since I arrived at Duke, our roster features more upperclassman than freshman and sophomores. Our experience as well as the energy and athleticism we get from some of the young guys will be big this year.

Off the court, things are good. Classes have been going well in the fall. I am also excited about doing this weekly blog to give everyone a behind the scenes look at our program. In October, I went to Atlanta for the ACC media day. That was a long day, talking to the media for five hours or so. But it wasn't too bad. Some of the questions got repetitive but it was fun to catch up with Wayne [Ellington], who was down there for North Carolina. The flight was good and I got to sit and talk with Coach about the team and this year.

Anyway, I will check back in next week with some more thoughts. Enjoy the start of the college basketball season and be sure to check us out on Monday and Tuesday on ESPNU.