bstrickland@heraldsun.com; 419-6671
GREENSBORO -- Miami sophomore Julian Gamble obviously won't be rooting for Duke today when his Hurricanes take on the Blue Devils in the ACC Tournament semifinals.
That's really nothing new for the Southern High School product.
"I never really liked Duke growing up; I always rooted for North Carolina," Gamble said after scoring two points and grabbing five rebounds to help Miami down Virginia Tech 70-65 on Friday. "Even back when they had Joseph Forte, back when I was a little kid, I always watched Carolina play.
"But it's a great honor playing Duke -- my teammates will tell you that. Duke is one of the top programs every year, so having an opportunity to be able to play them and beat them is exciting."
Gamble and the Hurricanes topped Duke -- for a while -- in the teams' lone meeting of the season. Miami led 37-25 at halftime on Feb. 17 in Coral Gables, but the Blue Devils rallied to an 81-74 victory.
"If the game had stopped at halftime, we would have won obviously, but we've got to put together a 40-minute effort," Gamble said. "You can't play Duke for 20 minutes. They're the type of team that will expose any mistake, and we had a lot of mistakes in the second half."
Defense, which is a significant part of the reason that Gamble joined the starting lineup 10 games ago, has been a key to the Hurricanes' surprise run. They held Wake Forest to 35-percent shooting Thursday and held Virginia Tech to 29-percent shooting in the second half Friday.
"You can't stop Nolan Smith, Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler; they're going to get their points," Gamble said. "The only thing is to stay consistent with your defensive effort and rebound the ball."
