Guess Who's Back in the Starting Line-up

Like him or not, you have to give Greg Paulus some credit. His career at Duke has been tumultuous, to say the least. As a freshman, he started for a team that won both the ACC regular season and tournament titles, handing out the third highest assist total for a freshman in Duke history (behind only Bobby Hurley and Jason Williams).

As a sophomore, he was named captain of the Blue Devils, but Duke ended up going 22-11, 8-8 in the ACC, that season, eventually losing to VCU in the first round of the tournament. As a junior, Paulus helped lead a relatively young Blue Devils team to a 28-6 record and a #2 seed in the NCAA tournament by becoming Duke's best perimeter shooter in ACC play (he averaged 13.2 ppg in league games while shooting 41% from deep).

But the Blue Devils were once again eliminated from the tournament early, this time in the second round by West Virginia after barely surviving Belmont.

The Blue Devils struggles had a lot of people, including Duke fans, questioning whether Paulus could actually lead Duke to a Final Four.

Paulus has been no stranger to hate in his career. He is so notorious for his tendency to flop that he has earned the moniker "Greg Flopus". Don't believe me? Watch this video. Or this one.

That tendency to flop is one of the reasons he is the best in the country at taking charges. But when you try to take charges too often, it means you are going to get dunked on a lot (h/t to No Guts, No Glory via the Dagger for that link).

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As a result, saying that Paulus is now universally despised everywhere outside of the Duke fan base can hardly be considered an exaggeration. Want an idea of the kind of torment this kid gets on the road every game (here is a video of the same chant at the same time from a kid with a camera in the stands)?



Nothing against Paulus as a player, because I think that he is a lot better than people give him credit for, but I've always hated Paulus on a personal level. I don't really know why, either. Never met the guy. Probably never will.

Maybe it is because I find it hard to respect the ability of an athlete that I'm fairly certain I can beat up.

Maybe it is because he gives off the aura of a cocky asshole while looking like (and sometimes playing like) the four-eyed dweeb in gym class that was always picked last because he couldn't dribble.

Maybe it is because at times I find his bravado, his floor-slapping defensive intensity, his "I'm the point guard for Duke so this is how I should be playing" dog and pony show to be forced. To be an act.

But no matter how much I dislike him, I still had to feel for the guy when, after starting for three years, he was relegated to the bench for sophomore Nolan Smith. Smith is more athletic. He is the better defender. He is a better penetrator and creator.

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Everything was fine and dandy while Duke was winning, even with Smith's play starting to drop off in league play. His turnovers were up while his scoring and assists were down. It came to a head when the Blue Devils lost to Wake Forest by two (in a game they should have lost by more if Wake had hit their free throws) and to Clemson by 27.

The issue was that Duke didn't have a leader on the floor. As talented as Nolan Smith is, he is not a guy that is going to direct traffic on the floor. He is not a guy that is going to pull the team together in a huddle and get in someone's ear about a missed defensive assignment. He is not a guy that will put the team first and lead by example, even if it means ending up on Sportscenter on a way-too-regular basis for all the wrong reasons. He is not the kind of guy that is going to let Jon Scheyer or Gerald Henderson or Kyle Singler know when they need to take over a game.

Say what you want about Paulus, but he is that guy. That is why, against Miami on Sunday, Coach K gave Paulus the start, playing him 40 minutes in the overtime game. What did Paulus do? He finished with a season-high 18 points, which included a number of big buckets down the stretch. He hit a three with about a minute and a half left that gave Duke a one point lead and two free throws with 10 seconds left in OT to ice it.

But the play that defined what Paulus means to this Duke team happened midway through the second half. Gerald Henderson had just hit a jumper that cut what had been a 16 point lead down to just two. On the ensuing in bounds play, Paulus made a steal and went in for a lay-up to tie the game. After he scored, he made sure to let DeQuan Jones know about it, and the frustrated freshman hit Paulus with an elbow in the chops.

That elbow definitely made contact with the face of Paulus, but in typical Flopus fashion, the senior played up the contact, hitting the floor and writhing in pain. DeQuan Jones got a flagrant foul, was ejected, and Duke got two free throws and the ball. In total, it ended up being a six point possession for Duke.

While this is the type of play that makes a guy like me hate a player like him, it is also the type of play that makes you realize how valuable and important a player like this is to a team.

Is Nolan Smith a better player than Paulus? Yes. Is he a better pro prospect than Paulus? Clearly (Paulus would be a defensive liability in a high school girl's game in Wyoming, how can he possibly defend someone like Chris Paul). But Paulus brings an element to this team that Nolan Smith just doesn't have yet.

So the question becomes what does Coach K do? Does he leave Paulus in the starting line-up? Does he go back to using Smith?

I think I leave Paulus as the starter. In the last two seasons, he has played his best basketball down the stretch in ACC play. He is a genuine leader on the floor, which is something you don't find too often these days.

And with every thing he has put up with in his career, has he not earned the right to finish it as a starter?