Norlander On Jeremy Roach

As Duke’s point guard gets some well-deserved praise.

You may remember not too long ago we ripped into CBS’s Matt Norlander because, in our judgement, he clearly had an issue with Duke.

It wasn’t so much the actual words he wrote on their website or spoke on their podcast. It was more the tone, the things that he clearly stopped himself from saying, kind of going “well -” and stopping before he got himself in trouble with his fans or superiors at CBS.

We also remember reading that he had grown up a Carolina fan which is fine. That’s his business. But his bias became a bit obvious.

We don’t know if he saw that or one of his superiors saw it. And it could be coincidental or we could be completely wrong about what we said (but we don’t think so obviously).

However, since that came out, coincidence or not, his tone has really changed when it comes to Duke.

Take Wednesday’s very complimentary article about Jeremy Roach:

“Roach is the unquestioned leader of a Blue Devils band bedecked with six freshmen and sophomore in the rotation...Duke held one of the most commanding offenses in the country — Iowa entered the night ranked third in efficiency at KenPom — to a season low in points...Tuesday was about Roach...Roach saw the opportunities and spoke them into action. The behavior of a leader...it’s fair to start speculating if he’s on his way to being one of the sport’s best point guards. If so, that changes Duke’s trajectory and makes this team a Final Four contender again...If Roach is going to be as reliable going forward as he’s been through the first five weeks of the season, then Duke in Year 1 under Scheyer will not be a disappointment.”

It’s not that you expect anyone to kiss Duke’s tushy. That doesn’t really happen in the media. But if he’s gone from choking off ugly comments and mocking Mike Krzyzewski (which he did fairly often) to seeing what’s in front of his nose, well, that’s an improvement.