Tom Werme WCNC Sports

After we had conducted interviews with the Duke players in their locker room after losing to West Virginia on Saturday, I walked over to Greg Paulus who was sitting in front of his locker, his eyes still bloodshot and glassy, a residue of the tears shed in the aftermath of the disappointing loss.

I shook his hand and told him how gracious he was in defeat and best of luck next year. He said to me, "Thank you Sir". Besides making me feel old, which to him, I am old, it made me think of what it means to be respectable and gracious in victory and defeat. It's a great lesson that I will surely tell my 7-year-old son Cameron, who plays sports. Losing hurts and you feel for these kids who put so much effort and dedication into what they do, and when you're covering them as closely as photographer Reid Bennett and I have over the last few days, you can't help but pull for them. Even when Saturday's game looked bleak and nearly out of reach, you could still see all the Duke players clinging to the hope for a miracle, which never came. Duke won the first half, West Virginia won the second half and the game, and a trip to the Sweet 16.

I don't think Paulus or any of the other players wanted to take off their uniforms after the game. The NCAA tournament is so final and abrupt, only one team of the entire 65 teams in the tournament finishes the season with a win. I asked DeMarcus Nelson, the only senior of the group, to articulate his emotions, having just played his final game for Duke. It took him a few seconds to gather himself, and when he regained his composure, he said in a soft, reflective tone, "It's the last time I'll ever wear this uniform, the last time I'll get to play with my teammates, I love my teammates".

This was Coach K's 24th NCAA Tournament, and there will be a lot more for him, maybe a few more national championships, and other than senior DeMarcus Nelson, the rest of the players have a chance to come back, after this week conducting themselves with class in the face of tournament defeat.

It was a great experience here in Washington, D.C., Reid and I worked hard, we took you to the White House, The Capitol building, and right onto the court at the Verizon Center and we hope we kept all the great college basketball fans of the Charlotte area right in the middle of Hoops Hysteria.

Game day

Game day has a different feel, especially this one, because a lot of people think Duke shouldn't be here. All the more reason for the Blue Devils to step it up and beat West Virginia today at 2:10 p.m. here at the Verizon center in Washington, D.C.

Photographer Reid Bennett and I were anxious to get to the arena for today's game so we caught the media shuttle from our hotel at about 11:45 am. By the way, the problems with the media shuttle that we encountered on the first day have been cleared up and the shuttle has been available to us much more. Somehow Reid has it timed out that when we leave the arena after our nightly live shots, there's the shuttle just waiting for us, perfect timing.

Reid has been hustling almost as hard as some of the players, you can't imagine all the gear he has to keep track of, cameras, tapes, batteries, cables, microphones, lights. He's got all the stuff we need, and even with all he has to do, he still had time this morning to by a dozen doughnuts for the satellite truck operators who are helping us this week, Brian and C.J., as we are working out of a sat.truck from the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia. At last check Brian ate one maple frosted, 11 to go.

It's now 12:30 p.m. and the attendants in the media room are getting everything ready, including restocking the popcorn machine, for the massive media crush that's about to take place. It seems like there are even more media people here, despite the fact that the amount of teams playing today had been cut in half, from 8 to 4, Duke against West Virginia, and then it will be Purdue against Xavier.

With the quirky way this tournament system works, if Duke wins it will actually play the winner of Purdue and Xavier...but first things first...beat West Virginia, and prove you should absolutely be here, and earn a spot in Phoenix, in the Sweet 16.

Duke moving on after narrow win over Belmont

In the NCAA tournament there is almost no time to think about your previous game, unless it's Thursday night's game, Duke beating Belmont on a last second basket to avoid the upset.

So Friday before Duke's closed practice the players told me they were all talking about their narrow escape from the dreaded early round defeat, something some of them had experienced last year in the NCAA tournament, losing to Virginia Commonwealth in the first round.

Photographer Reid Bennet and I went in the Duke locker room Friday around 3 p.m. to get more interviews from the players on their thriller against Belmont and to find out if they are recharged from the emotionally draining first round game.

Our first interview was with Greg Paulus, who seemed to remember us from Thursday night when we interviewed him in the locker room just 17 hours ago. If you watch him play for two minutes, it's easy to see that he is the toughest guy on the court. He always looks like he just got done with a sparring session. He is another link in the long chain of great Duke point guards. He is not overly gifted with speed and size, but his toughness has no equal, he would be a great hockey player, and he knows how to handle himself in an interview.

Click here to watch the entire interview with Greg Paulus
I asked him how Friday's practice went and he said, "Same as usual." I honestly couldn't believe it. How could it be the same as usual when Coach K called the win over Belmont one of the top five pressure games in his career? And, this is a guy who has now has won 803 games, including 69 in the NCAA tournament, the most by any Division I coach in history.

I asked Paulus how could it be same as usual. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's because we've been here before. We play in the ACC. We play big time games all the time."

That's all true, but had Duke lost, Paulus and his teammates would have been part of one of the biggest upsets in tournament history, and should Duke beat West Virginia Saturday and advance to the Sweet 16, people will always remember Washington, D.C. and that first round game against Belmont, the Blue Devils hope it follows them all the way to San Antonio for the Final 4.

Coach Ks health might not be great right now. He said he had a 104 temperature during Thursday night's game, and his voice a little raspy. But for him its a small price to pay to advance in Hoops Hysteria.

Duke's big escape

Wow...Houdini would have been proud of that escape. Duke won Thursday night 71-70.

Belmont took the lead with just over two minutes left as I was sitting in my seat in the second media row courtside at the Verizon Center thinking how can this happen again. Last year I watched Duke lose to Virginia Commonwealth in the first round in Buffalo. I was beginning to think maybe it's me.

Photographer Reid Bennett was waiting in the hallway near the Duke locker room to shoot Coach K and the players walking in after the game. Reid heard the cheers from the arena but didn't know who was winning. He called me at courtside to ask what was going on and I told him I don't believe this, we might be going home early.

That's when Duke sophomore Gerald Henderson saved the day and extended our visit to Washington D.C. I didn't go to school at Duke. I didn't go to school at Belmont. I just love college basketball and my heart was pounding, about to jump out of my chest. It was just that exciting and when you are so close to the action it's all around you.

Back to Henderson, who might be listed as a sophomore, but Thursday night he was a man. He chose not to pass to a couple open teammates and drove to the basket for the winning finger-roll lay-up with just 11.9 seconds remaining in the game. It seemed to happen in slow motion but it was a thing of beauty.

After the game Reid and I went into the Duke locker room to do some interviews with the players, who conducted themselves with incredible class and dignity in victory, giving credit to Belmont for fighting with them right down to the final seconds.

Sophomore Jon Scheyer told me he was excited about winning a game when 90 percent of the people in the arena wanted his team to lose. Junior Greg Paulus, who always looks like he's spent every last drop of energy, summed it up best saying, "This is what March Madness is all about."

I think Paulus would have felt the same way had his team lost, but teammate Gerald Henderson made sure that didn't happen.

Now Duke will play West Virginia on Saturday. The winner goes to the Sweet 16. As for Reid and myself, we'll be back at the arena Friday to get more interviews with the Blue Devils, who will probably never forget their NCAA escape against Belmont in '08.

Coach K for president?

Our sightseeing tour of Washington took us to the steps of the Capitol today. Photographer Reid Bennett and I decided to do a story seeing if people would find Coach K as a good presidential candidate. Reid even bought some Hillary and Obama bumper stickers, which we used in the story. Click here to watch the story

We also had a picture of Coach K, showed all these items to folks and asked if they would vote for Coach K.

You meet some pretty interesting people when you do stories like this. First we used the Metro again to find our way to the Capitol and then I approached people to see if they would like to be part of our story. Just about everyone we encountered said yes. Click here to watch raw interviews with Duke fans in DC

We met folks from all over the country, and even one gentleman in full costume from the 1770's. When I asked him to give me his real name for the story, he wouldn't and would only give me his colonial name, staying true to his character the whole time.

After our unscientific poll it appears that Coach K may have a future in politics after coaching basketball.

Coach K; the White House

I hope Duke has an easier time getting to the Final Four than we did getting to the Verizon Center. When we finally made it to the media room, we were greeted by a media liaison named Bruce, a former federal judge, who could not have been nicer and more helpful to us on our first day in a building where we were just trying to get our bearings. Bruce is originally from the Boston area, and in his charming Massachusetts accent he said, "What-evah you guys need you let me know."

Later in the day as my photographer Reid and I were walking down a hallway to get some video of Duke getting off its bus to enter the building, we ran right into Coach K and his players walking down the hall to their locker room. Later, in the media interview room we found out that Coach K was a little sick, as he said in a very raspy voice, "We're excited to play Belmont," the Blue Devils' first round opponent today.

That night we decided to go to the White House to get some video for our story about how the national champions get to come to Washington to visit with the President. When we left the arena the media shuttle magically appeared before us and while we were riding it back to the hotel, we decided to ask the driver, Lawrence, for directions to the White House. Instead of giving us directions, he took us right where we wanted to go, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Reid was taking some video of the White House when a security guard approached him. Reid handled it well and explained to the guard that we were just taking a few shots for a story we were working on. The video worked out great, and the White House shots made it into our story.

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