Duke Beat FSU By 3 - Duke Is Always The Best Draw Of The Year - And They Get The Best Out Of Our Team

Florida State has a fantastic class of 4 recruits coming in next year. This year they have 3 seven footers and still have a losing record. So this year it is like watching the paint dry - waiting to exhale.

Tonight Number 4 Duke and Coach K came to town. It is usually the biggest crowd of the year when Duke comes down. Coach K can alter the schedule - so he comes here as little as possible. The paper said this morning that FSU has been 6 and 6 against the Dukies in the last few years. Just 3 years ago - FSU won the ACC Tournament by beating Miami/North Carolina/ and Duke on 3 straight nights in Atlanta - we were there with Brother Jackie. We seem to play our best against the better teams. We played Miami well a few nights ago and then lost to a clumsy Clemson team here. Now tonight we took Duke for a wild ride.

The Civic Center holds about 10,000 people. We NEVER fill it. We charge extra for tickets to the Duke game. We bought our tickets outside the arena - I paid $25 each for 2 lower level seats 14 rows behind the home bench. The tickets had a face value of $48. If you would ask me - I would say that 7000 people came out for the game. They will announce a higher attendance - but many of the sold seats were not used. There were plenty to sell outside. This is not Cameron Indoor Arena. One Duke guy was outside trying to sell me two tickets. He wanted face value. I guaranteed that he would eat them at that price. I keep little mustard packs around - just in case ticket sellers need them.

My sons were texting me during the game - one graduated from Duke - the other got a masters at FSU. They enjoy kidding each other - but both of them give me the business. Duke has like 10 High School All-Americans - I think FSU has one.

Many of the FSU fans were leaving early - as the Noles were behind by as many as 15. In the last couple minutes we whittled it down to 3 - but that is where it ended.

In my opinion - The Tucker Center is a nice place to see a game. It is 30 years old and they just put in new garnet leather seats - new scoreboard - and new video boards. The sound system is horrible - I wish they would hire and expert to design something decent. Sometimes it is even hard recognizing songs on it.