TruthBegins

With the NBA departure of Gerald Henderson and the unexpected transfer of Elliot Williams to Memphis, Duke was staring into a backcourt abyss with only two recruited guards, Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith, remaining on the roster for the upcoming season. While both players are undoubtedly talented, having only two legitimate options to play two positions is certainly an undesirable position for any program — surely one of the players will need a rest of at some point in the season!

Enter Andre Dawkins.

Dawkins is an acclaimed 5-star recruit that had already committed to Duke, expecting to matriculate for the 2010-2011 season. However, with a plethora of minutes available at the guard position, Andre Dawkins finds himself in position to capitalize on having already fulfilled his high school graduation recruitments.

This is an amazing turn of events for the Devils in the upcoming season.  While Duke is by no means deep in the backcourt now, the addition of a first-rate player at the guard position will go a long ways towards solidifying the backcourt rotation and helping Scheyer’s prognostications come true.

Admittedly, I was somewhat apprehensive to hear the news that Coach K elected to double down on his past Olympic success and will be returning to lead Team USA in the upcoming 2012 Games.  It’s no secret that Duke has underperformed (in relation to Duke standards only as nearly every other NCAA team would trade Duke’s perceived lack of success for their own results) over the last couple of seasons, and many people attribute the slump to K’s alleged lack of focus on Duke basketball as he guides Team USA to Olympic glory. Personally, I was not ready to accept that K’s Olympics duties were the culprit for Duke’s decline, but I wasn’t willing to rule it out either. Clearly, this situation required further research to reach a definitive conclusion, and I was chomping at the bit to review the historical data and write this article in order to finally put this issue to rest – one way or the other!

And then Al Featherston trumped me!  And frankly, I’m ecstatic that he did.  I couldn’t have produced a finer, more-researched article.  If you have any questions regarding the impact of the Olympics on Coach K and Duke basketball, this is the definitive article that you MUST READ: Featherston on Coach K, Team USA and Recruiting

As I returned to the office today freshly rejuvenated from celebrating America’s anniversary during this three-day Fourth of July holiday weekend, it occurred to me there was another important anniversary warranting attention – today marks one month since the Palm Pre was officially released!

With thirty days of Pre usage in the books, it’s now time to look back and evaluate how Palm and Sprint fared in this flagship offering.  Let’s take a closer look at some of the highlights:
 

• Design
  • Slim, polished, curvy, lightweight – one can’t ask for much more aesthetically!
  • The keyboard is ever so slightly on the small side; it’s still completely functional once you get used to it, but it is a few degrees smaller than those commonly used on traditional Blackberry devices.
  • Also, the Touchstone induction charger is a nice, yet pricey, addition that increases the overall coolness factor.
• WebOS
  • Multi-tasking! Multi-tasking! Multi-tasking!  The real beauty of the device is its “Deck of Cards” operating system that permits users to open up multiple applications simultaneously and shuffle through them at will.  Power users will love this feature!  The phone finally meets the PC!
  • If the multi-tasking makes you think Windows, the rest of the interface will make you think Apple.  Like the iPhone, the interface is very smooth and using the device is quite intuitive.  Occasionally, applications can be a bit slow to open, but overall, the user interface is very well done.
  • Perhaps most importantly, in less than 30 days, Palm has already delivered two OS updates to the platform.  Contrast this with the cumulatively meager four updates released over the entire life of the Instinct.  If Palm truly continues to put development resources into the WebOS as promised, the future will be bright for Pre owners.
• Audio Quality
  • Call quality is great on this phone; I have not experienced any issues hearing the called party, nor have I received any complaints of difficulty in hearing me despite my proclivity for using the Pre on noisy city streets.
• Display Quality
  • The screen on the Pre is amazingly sharp.  Very, very crisp!  It simply must be seen to be fully appreciated. 
• Battery-life
  • By far, the most disappointing feature of the phone.  Battery life is mediocre at best.  Simply put, if you are an active text messenger and often use the phone to surf the Internet, not to mention placing a few calls during the day, you had better plan on charging the phone during the day or you’ll risk full battery depletion by nightfall.
• Applications
  • Synergy – a very nifty, if cumbersome, contact synchronization tool.  This application synchronizes with your GMail, Facebook, and AIM accounts upon initial sign-in, leaving you with a plethora of contacts in your address book.  While the application does a decent job of combining profiles, users are certain to encounter situations where multiple contact profiles exist for the same person – for instance, think how many AIM ID’s bare no resemblance to one’s email address or Facebook user name.  To take full advantage of this Synergy application, Palm will need to release an online or PC-based utility to allow for manual off-Pre contact management to correct these situations.
  • E-mail – Pre comes with a built-in email management application that works with all the popular web-based email systems, as well as a synchronization option for corporate users with Exchange-based environments.  Overall, the email management application works very well, but there is presently no way for Exchange users to synchronize their corporate e-mail over-the-air via a desktop agent.  Hopefully, this shortcoming is addressed as new applications are developed.
  • Application Potential – 30 days, 30 apps.  Not terrible, but not great either.  Like Apple, the continued success of the Pre will heavily depend upon a strong application base to stay relevant.  Palm is promising to release their officially supported software development kit (SDK) in the near future, possibly as soon as September (even though leaked versions are already making their way online).  The release of this SDK to enable mass application development and sustain the Pre’s momentum is critically important to it’s overall success.

And the results are in… Ding, ding, ding – we have winner!  I am very pleased to report that Sprint and Palm combined for a real winner here!  I was one of the many Instinct owners that felt underwhelmed by the device shortly after purchase, and I am remarkably pleased with the Pre feature set to date.  I definitely believe this is far and away Sprint’s best cell phone offering, and I highly encourage any Sprint customers craving an iPhone-like experience to check out the Palm Pre – some of its features might even leave your iPhone friends drooling!

We at TruthBegins.com are pleased to officially introduce a new columnist, Esoteric, to our readers.

Esoteric and I have collaborated together on many projects over the last decade and I am happy to have him onboard for this endeavor.  I think you will find his writing style both informative and entertaining, two defining traits of TruthBegins.com.

With the addition of a new writer, you can also expect to see an increase in the frequency of article postings so be sure to check back often or subscribe to our convenient RSS feed to stay up to date.

Please join me in welcoming Esoteric – welcome aboard, sir!

Today, the recently-rumored E-Will transfer rumor officially bore out as Duke announced that Elliot Williams will indeed transfer due to family health reasons.  First and foremost, those here at TruthBegins.com want to wish Elliot and his family the absolute best of fortune in these trying times.  Elliot is currently dealing with undeniably difficult circumstances within his family, and our heartfelt condolences go out to them.  Additionally, we would like to thank Elliot for his year at Duke, and in particular, for his remarkable perseverance last season that reminded all Duke fans that hard work and dedication do pay off, as exemplified by Elliot’s ascension from minor role player to a contributing starter towards the end of the season.  We will continue to follow Elliot’s career and we expect his star will continue to shine.

Secondly, and I do mean secondly, we are all left to wonder how this transfer will impact the Duke team next season.  There is no doubt that struggles loom on the horizon as a team that was already woefully thin in the backcourt just lost its best athlete.  With only two recruited players returning at the guard position, Duke will be forced to investigate creative, perhaps very creative, contingency planning.  It will be extremely interesting to see how K molds the team strategy in the coming months to offset a lack of guard depth, but in the meantime, let’s all keep our fingers crossed that the ultimate contingency comes to fruition – a healthy Nolan ‘The Escalade’ Smith explodes onto the scene next season and emerges as Duke’s 2nd best (and arguably most important) player, behind Kyle Singler.

Nolan, the grandest of opportunities awaits you. Do work.

It’s time to look back at my NBA Playoffs Crystal Ball to see how well my predictions fared.  Flashback a few weeks to the 2nd round.  Much like everyone outside the Rockets’ locker room, I underestimated Houston’s ability to score points without Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming in the lineup.  Shane Battier and the undermanned Rockets demonstrated a tremendous amount of heart in pushing the Lakers to a Game 7.  This series featured the most intriguing offense-defense matchup (Kobe vs. Shane) of the playoffs and was probably the second most entertaining series, following the ridiculous Bulls-Celtics matchup in the opening round where nearly every game went to OT on clutch-shooting heroics.  All that said, I’m going to take a point here since I did predict the Lakers advancing.  Ditto for the Nuggets blasting the Mavs, the Magic taking out the Celtics, and the Cavs beating the Hawks.  (OK, maybe I should only get a half point for each of those since they were relatively obvious picks.)

Moving on, let’s see how I fared in the next round.  While I correctly picked the Lakers to advance past the Nuggets, the Nuggets proved substantially less threatening than I originally thought.  I also predicted that LeBron and the Cavs would steamroll the Magic on their way to the NBA Finals.  Someone forgot to send the Magic the script.  The Magic 3-point sharpshooters were on target in this series, and I was particularly amazed at the relative ease at which the Magic dispatched the Cavs.  So much for my recommendation to “safely pencil” LeBron into the NBA Finals!

And just like that, the NBA viewership was denied the ultimate Kobe-LeBron showdown.  Fortunately, we do have the Nike commercials featuring Kobe-LeBron puppetry hi-jinks, so all is not lost.  For the most part, the Magic have proven worthy championship opponents, but after falling in overtime last night, I think most of the suspense in this series is now gone.  In the end, my final prediction will hold true, as Kobe raises a 4th Larry O’Brien trophy over his head.  Lakers in 5.

As many of you tech enthusiasts already know, the much hyped Palm Pre will be released tomorrow. As a lifelong Sprint subscriber, I have been longing for a worthy Smartphone to make its way to this carrier for quite some time. I was hopeful that the Samsung Instinct would fill that gap, but the Instinct was not designed as a true PDA and its app store never got off the ground. That said, I do like the Instinct (in fact, I am typing this blog post from it), but it never materialized into a worthy iPhone competitor.

In the meantime, both Sprint and Palm have mired in mediocrity while other manufacturers like Apple and Blackberry and carriers like Verizon and AT&T dominated the market.

Hopefully some of that changes tomorrow. I am currently on my way to the airport to escape the NYC Palm Pre madness, heading for a more strategic Sprint venue with a higher Pre-to-population ratio. Now, before you condemn me to the nuthouse for flying multiple states away to get my hands on a Pre, do know that my wife asked me to accompany her to an out-of-state wedding. Let’s just say that the increased Pre-per-capita removed any hesitation that I may have had!

With any luck, you’ll be reading a Palm Pre review shortly – let’s hope it lives up to the hype!

Hopefully everyone returned to work this Monday refreshed from a nice weekend chock-full of sports action.  In case you missed anything, here are the weekend’s pertinent highlights:

• Lakers THUMP Rockets in Game 7:  Not what any Duke fan wanted to see, but it was a highly entertaining series, and it was particularly fun to watch Shane Battier’s defensive intensity pitted against the game’s greatest offensive force in Kobe Bryant.
• Magic Eliminate Celtics in Game 7:  While the Magic also won by 19 points, this game was much closer than the Lakers-Rockets matchup.  Hedo Turkoglu paced the Magic with 25 points and the Magic’s three-point shooters finally found their range, connecting on a blazing 62% in this game.  Duke fans were happy to see JJ Redick log a solid 24 minutes, including 5 points and 4 assists, in this pivotal Game 7.  While many people will argue that Ray Allen simply had a poor-shooting series, JJ’s superbly effective defensive efforts cannot be overlooked; as strange as it sounds, JJ earned his keep on the defensive end of the court in this series.
• I would also like to note that both of these outcomes held true to my NBA Playoff predictions – so far so good there!
• Duke Lacrosse Advances to Final Four:  The once-maligned Duke Lacrosse program continued its stellar play, beating arch rival North Carolina 12-11.  Duke looked to put the game away midway through the 4th quarter with a pair of goals to stretch the lead to 12-8, but Carolina mounted a comeback by capitalizing on untimely turnovers.  Carolina’s desperation shot on goal went awry in the closing seconds to secure the Blue Devils’ victory.  Duke will face Syracuse next weekend at the Final Four in Foxborough, MA.  This marks Duke’s third consecutive Final Four appearance and its fourth in five years.
• John Wall Does Not Commit to UK:  It was heavily rumored on many Internet sites and message boards that #1 PG prospect John Wall would commit to John Calipari and his UK Wildcats over the weekend.  You know what they say about rumors…

Based on how often each phrase is Google’d, John Wall is currently more popular than Duke Basketball, Shane Battier, and yes… sliced bread.

Calling all hoops fans!  Keep an eye out for the upcoming release of the new movie The Street Stops Here, featuring Bob Hurley’s life-long struggle to keep the dream of St. Anthony’s alive by inspiring inner-city youth to succeed despite their difficult surroundings.

Bob Hurley, Sr., the father of Duke’s own Bobby Hurley, is as legendary for his off-the-court triumphs as he is for his on-the-court success.  His three National Championships, 23 State Championships, and 957 victories pale in comparison to the fact that in his 36 years of coaching the poorest kids that Jersey City has to offer, only two (TWO in THRITY-SIX years!) did not pursue a college education.  Bob Hurley is true world example of doing things “the right way.”

Click The Street Stops Here to check out their website and view the movie trailer!

Also, I highly recommend reading Adrian Wojnarowski’s book The Miracle of St. Anthony.  It is an absolutely captivating story of Bob Hurley’s 2003 season at St. Anthony’s as he strives to turn his “most dysfunctional group” ever into champions on the court, and more importantly, men off it.