Duke Pulse respondents are anticipating a successful season with ALL respondents predicting between 25-34 wins, culminating in a 2, 3, or 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.  Interestingly, no one predicted more than 34 wins or a #1 seed in the NCAAT.

Additionally, no one felt that Duke is currently the best positioned team to win it all.  Respondents currently overwhelmingly favor the Kansas Jayhawks to win the title, with John Wall and the Kentucky Wildcats a distant second.

While no one believes Duke is best-positioned to take the championship, many respondents do feel Kyle Singler is in a great position to earn 1st Team All-American honors.

Additionally, survey respondents feel pretty confident about the team’s ability to takedown UNC at least once this year, but only half think the team has what it takes to win the ACC regular season.  That said, a bit over half are anticipating an ACC Tournament championship.  In the NCAAs, respondents are expecting Duke to build upon their recent tournament experiences in order to move beyond the Sweet 16.

And now onto a particularly timely question with Harrison Barnes’s highly anticipating college decision on Friday looming large in everyone’s mind.  How confident are respondents in Duke’s ability to land the following recruits?  Regarding Barnes, 69% feel that Duke will indeed sign the overall #1 prospect in the country – let’s keep our fingers crossed…

Looking forward even further, we asked survey participants to estimate the likelihood for the below players to declare for the NBA draft following the 2009-2010 season.  Interestingly, fans are just as confident that Kyle Singler will leave Duke as they are that Harrison Barnes will matriculate.  That said, other than Singler, respondents seem assured that Duke will retain the bulk of its non-graduating roster next season.

Stay tuned for future editions of the The Duke Pulse survey throughout the season.  As more results come in, it will be increasingly interesting to see how real-world events, namely on-the-court performance and off-the-court recruiting ruminations, impact respondent predictions.

I’m in a fantasy football keeper league. Last year, I had the good fortune of drafting Chris Johnson, Matt Forte and Andre Johnson. As such, my partner and I came to a crossroads this year, and long story short, we ended up with Forte, Andre Johnson and Tom Brady.

With every week that goes by, I realize that we let the wrong guy go, which will haunt me for years. Lost in the uncreative media’s need to embrace one guy – namely Adrian Peterson – as the best running back in the NFL is that Chris Johnson is quite possibly better.

It’s been well-hidden by how horrible the Titans have been this season, but Johnson has been damn near unstoppable, and that’s for a team that’s now 2-6 and has had to play from behind for much of their games. Johnson’s speed is his main attribute – he somehow famously ran a 4.23 40-yard dash at the Combine – but he’s developed shiftiness that will allow him to be a solid goal-line back. He’s also a decent receiver out of the backfield.

Through eight games, Johnson is on pace to run for just under 2,000 yards, and he’s picking up steam, in large part to his propensity to break touchdown runs of up to 89 yards. Granted, his outstanding yards-per-carry, which is nearly 7, is buoyed by his many long touchdowns, but that shouldn’t be held against him.

As long as the NFL can’t process marketing two players – think about how long Ladainian Tomlinson was the only guy you’d see in ads – then CJ won’t get the shine he deserves. It doesn’t help that the Titans are putrid.

But as much as I hate to admit it – given my keeper league follies – Chris Johnson’s going to be around a long time. And he’s going to be a great one!

But the Yankees are where it’s at in baseball. And it’s been that way forever.

Even during the last eight championship-free years, the Yankees have been the center of the sport. Everyone else was judged in comparison to them. I equate them to the Jordan-era Bulls in terms of their influence on and importance to the sport. Whether people love them or hate them, they constantly had to watch them.

Which is why, though I personally have no love lost for the franchise, I respect what they mean to baseball. As big an attraction as they were before, they have become even more so now that they will be defending champions.

And despite the amount of attention they already attracted, the brand just got even more powerful – and make no mistake, I estimate that they were already responsible for about 60% of baseball’s revenue, which I don’t believe to be a gross exaggeration.

The Yankees sell tradition, and they sell winning. And now they have a little more of each to sell. Everyone who owns (let’s be real, occasionally pretentious) apparel commemorating their 26 championships now has to replace it with something with the number 27 on it. The new Yankee Stadium, which was already a considerable draw, now has the added attraction of a world title attached to it.

What the Yankees have proved is that their business model, much maligned for their economic advantage, works – provided they make the right decisions. When the contracts for Jason Giambi, Carl Pavano and Mike Mussina ended, the Yankees took that money and put it toward CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, A.J. Burnett and Nick Swisher, providing a huge infusion fresh blood and All-Star caliber talent to what was already a super-talented (albeit high-priced) group. And though it’s not saying much, they actually lowered their payroll, deflecting at least some criticism, though it’s probably a product of just how much excess they had before.

It’s easy to say they simply bought the three best players on the market, but it’s better than spending all that money on players not worth that money, which is what they’ve done in the past. (i.e. Jaret Wright, Pavano, Kei Igawa)

And this is where it works – the Yankees have advantages over everyone else financially, and when they win, those advantages simply grow. The bandwagon grows, the people on board put more money back in, and they can keep on rolling. And as other high-priced talent ages and moves on – Hideki Matsui may not be back, though his final act etched his name in Yankees lore forever – they can reassign those funds to younger players on the market.

Who’s to say they won’t take the money from Matsui and Johnny Damon and go after Matt Holliday? Or John Lackey?

And what would stop them? They have little incentive to hold back provided they’re doing it within the constraints of their budget, which is considerable. And they may be more able to lure prominent players who want to play for a winner, compete for championships.

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be a Yankees fan. I thought there would be an inherent pressure attached – it’s World Series or bust. There is no room for moral victory, or any sort of small victory at all. It’s always big picture. Without the “ring,” a season is widely considered by most to be an abject failure. As a backer of teams that have not always been particularly strong, I’ve been fascinated by that culture of expected greatness.

But the payoff can be enormous as well. As a Yankees backer, you can allow yourself to be swept up by the team’s history and tradition. You’re part of a great fraternity; anywhere you go, you’re likely to find someone who shares your affiliation.

Don’t get me wrong, we all know our share of Yankees fans, quick to rub the team’s historical and recent success in the faces of fans of other teams. I think the sense of entitlement is what has always rubbed me the wrong way. This nine-year drought they “suffered through,” in which the Yankees made it to the playoffs every year but one, that’s nothing in the grand scheme of things, as many longtime loyal fans of other teams would tell you.

But I know plenty of Yankees fans who don’t do that, and with whom I was glad to share their happiness. Though it almost seemed anticlimactic given how well they played this year after bringing in all that talent, it’s not every day – or every decade – that the team you root for wins a championship.

So where do we go from here?

Well, the beat goes on for the Yankees. The one weakness the team had this year was a thin starting rotation that led Joe Girardi to go to a three-man rotation in the World Series. Assuming they can shore up their staff, and there’s no reason to think they can’t and won’t, they’ll be right back in the mix next season.

For their fans, they can enjoy a team that’s back on top of the baseball world, which most fans think is their rightful place.

And maybe it is. The Yankees have been the greatest show in the game every season, even when there have been better teams. Though not a Yankees fan, I actually found myself disappointed when they didn’t make the playoffs last season. Things are more interesting when they’re involved.

Dating back to the days of DiMaggio going right up to the Era of A-Rod, the Yankees have always had the most fascinating personalities. They’ve always been a magnet for intrigue.

And though I’ve never been quick to embrace this, the fact that the most high-profile team is back at the top of the sport just seems like it’s how it should be.

But if they make a habit out of it, which it appears they might just do, we may long for the days that the Yankees were unsuccessful in their efforts to purchase the best team in the game.

For now, let’s give credit where credit is due. When you think about the sport of baseball, the first thought is about the New York Yankees. And that’s nothing new.

Be sure to fully complete the survey.  Results will be summarized and posted periodically throughout the season as interesting trends emerge. Note that individual responses will not be made public without prior consent.

For better or for worse, the amount of access fans have has truly changed in big-time college basketball recruiting, and social media is a major reason why. In the past, high school stars were relatively shadowy figures. We rarely got to see them play, much less know very much about them before they showed up to be big little men on campus as freshmen.

But now? We’ve seen them play on YouTube, though it’s tough to draw conclusions since we likely only see the best the kid has, set to lousy hip-hop. We’ve read fervently on Twitter as they post important facts about their lives, like what cereal they prefer, when they’re studying for biology tests, and what songs they think are most noteworthy. We watch them make off-color jokes on a live stream and egg them on with a comment board. As always, progress is a double-edged sword. On the upside, it is empowering to be able to know ever more about the 16-year-old saviors of our favorite college basketball teams.

But on the downside, while the Lunatic Fringe formerly had to wait until the kid was out on the floor to let them know what they think of their mother and sister, they now have nearly direct access from adolescence. The meteoric rise of Twitter has given everyone with a computer and a fair amount of vitriol the ability to directly address young players who choose to use the 140-character juggernaut. With Facebook, they have room to be even more explicit. In the past, rabid – literally – fans had to resort to team message boards to spout their unhealthy disapproval of, well, everything. Unless recruits had a morbid fascination that I think only applies to the fans themselves, they didn’t subject themselves to reading it. But now you have situations such as that of Mr. Kyrie Irving, a top-flight point guard from New Jersey by way of St. Patrick’s in Elizabeth, who alienated tons of dozens of fans for the sole reason that he didn’t want to matriculate at their schools. Irving committed to Duke University on Thursday and is regarded as potentially the school’s best point guard prospect ever, very high praise indeed.  Never mind that Irving was limited to just one school and went with the one where he felt most comfortable. Picking a situation that didn’t correspond with the best interests of certain passionate Kentucky and Indiana fans made for a very distasteful backlash.

Irving runs a Twitter account which was followed by around 3,000 people, with likely most of them supporters of the schools which were recruiting him. I think he enjoyed the attention that he was getting – what high school kid wouldn’t? – and he almost certainly benefited in the selection process from hearing the selling points from fans of the schools he considered. He was also able to communicate with potential future teammates. But he saw the ugly side when he removed Indiana from his short list – leading him to respond… twice – and then when he “spurned” Kentucky to pick Duke. At both times, he was subjected to being called names that would make anyone’s mother blush. And they were able to send them directly to Irving with no filters to speak of. Irving, for his own part, used Twitter to help make his day in the sun a little brighter. From all accounts, he was likely certain he would attend Duke after his official visit several weeks ago. But he indicated that he would use Twitter to announce his choice, drumming up copious followers. He used the site to detail his subsequent official visits and demonstrate what appears to be a fantastic work ethic. He eventually chose to announce his destination with a news conference on ESPNU, which is fine – his hard work dictated that as a reward. Reports surfaced from time to time that called him a lock for Duke – correctly – and Irving actually took back his ability to make the announcement on his own by denouncing on Twitter that he had committed to Duke. Semantics dictate that Kyrie is technically accurate true, as he officially didn’t commit until his ESPNU presser.

So that’s the advantage. Twitter afforded the young man the ability to attract attention that he normally would not have been able to garner, and let him control his own announcement. In the past, a couple dozen hardcore aficionados would have heard of him. Now? At least 3,000, and then however many more watched his commitment conference. And make no mistake, every time he said something on his site, people overanalyzed it to death. The disadvantage is the unfettered access that allowed fans to voice their displeasure directly to him in quite colorful terms, even leading him at times to attempt to provide a lesson in morals to them. To Irving’s credit, he did not seem that adversely affected by the interaction. Now I can’t determine whether the positives of having the forum to self-promote outweighs the perils of letting idiots have a crack at you. But there’s no looking back. The days of word of mouth, and seeing a recruit for the first time when he steps on campus, are over. And though the enhanced access we experience is all in the name of progress, one has to think that just maybe, we were better off in a simpler time when we didn’t have the power to practically reach out and touch a recruit. Was it perhaps more satisfying learning about a player once he actually gets to campus? It just might turn out to be true that knowing everything isn’t the best thing.

Traditionally, Duke has not often participated in the annual brouhaha formerly known as Midnight Madness; however, this year marks a new tune for the program as Duke has decided to enter the yearly fray with its own customized kickoff celebration called Countdown to Craziness.

Overall, the staff did a wonderful job putting together a fun-filled event.  Highlights from the night included the annual Blue-White game featuring two special Duke legends — Christian Laettner and Bobby Hurley — as guest coaches, theatrical player introductions by legendary announcer Michael Buffer, a high-flying dunk contest, and performances from the Duke University Improv.

Visit www.countdowntocraziness.com for a full video recap of the night’s festivities!

What a throw! (And what a catch!) Hopefully, this will temporarily quell the naysayers that wish Brett a speedy career exit. Most are simply fed up with the annual retirement drama, but I say, let the man play the game he loves. It’s not Favre’s fault that his annual "Do I have one more run left in me?" debate makes for such compelling media drama. Simply put, if the man is still performing at a level worthy of a starting NFL quarterback, consider yourself fortunate to still be watching.

Check out Evernote at www.evernote.com for full details.

In addition routine note-taking, I’ve also found Evernote to be useful as a productivity enhancer, particularly when coupled with this article detailing nine lists that everyone should keep updated in order to maximize personal performance: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/9-lists-to-keep-updated-and-keep-handy.html

I recommend customizing those lists to fit your individual needs.  For instance, I spend quite a bit of my time investigating different technology arenas, so I’ve added a new list to my Evernote called "Tech Tasks" that enables me to quickly jot down ideas on new technology developments that I can follow-up on later.  Additionally, I created a new note called “Blog Ideas” to capture those moments of inspiration for future blog postings that will later find their way here to TruthBegins.com.  For this on-the-fly note-taking, I cannot overstate the importance of utilizing the mobile-phone based Evernote application, not that you need any refreshers on my passion for the Palm Pre!

Overall, I highly recommend checking out the Evernote program.  It takes a bit of discipline to get acclimated to using an online note-taking tool, but if you start using the desktop client and the phone-based add-ons, the tool becomes very powerful.  And it’s free, so there’s nothing to lose.

In addition, have the Nets stopped to think that it’s a terrible message to send to potential free agents? “Sure Joe Johnson, sign on and we’ll promote the hell out of Dwight Howard coming in to destroy you!” Here’s a quote from Nets chief executive Brett Yormark:

"The reality of the situation is that we target the casual sports fan in New Jersey and New York. As much as they like the Nets, they also like the opposing star players. The Match-Up plan enables us to market our players as well as the star players in the league. We’re a young team, the NBA is a league of stars, and we’re not ashamed to say that our fans are coming to watch the opposing star players as much as ours."

Why aren’t they ashamed of that? They should be. Isn’t it a problem when the best you can do for a counterpart for a LeBron jersey is Jarvis Hayes? Is anyone going to wear the Hayes side of that? I mean, is there anyone in America who currently owns a Hayes jersey, period? I think if a kid shows up at school with a Hayes jersey, he’s asking for a pounding from his peers. How about Courtney Lee, who Nets fans haven’t even seen in their uniform, matched up with Bryant in a rematch of their one-sided NBA Finals? He’s No. 6 – maybe they should have marketed it as a throwback Kenyon Martin jersey. Even their two most marketable stars, Harris and Brook Lopez, are overshadowed by brighter stars Dwyane Wade and Dwight Howard, respectively. Look, the idea here is to build up your own team’s identity. I still think it’s unconscionable to completely abandon any pretense that your games are anything but an outpost for LeBron and Kobe to pillage the Meadowlands.

Wouldn’t it have been enough to simply give out jerseys of the Nets? Are five jerseys of your own team not enough of a draw, rather than exterminating brand loyalty and replacing it with an investment in other teams’ players? The idea is to get the younger generation hooked on Nets players, rather than say, Wade, so that they’ll come more than twice a year. Because I’m a generous guy, how about I offer up some free marketing advice? How about: “The Start of Something Big” – and stick Devin and Brook on the posters and billboards? Then call attention to the fact that the Nets are building toward being under the cap for 2010 and signing some big-time talent, but that a couple of key pieces are already on the roster. Then in 2010, you’re all set up for “The Future is Now.” But the Nets need to figure out that putting themselves on a level below their opponents demeans the franchise and kills its value, and that it’s tough to break that cycle once you’ve started that trend. As such, I’ll look forward to next year’s marketing campaign, with jerseys of the loaded 2010 Free Agents – on their respective other teams.

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.