Pirate Galaxy » ties in the final voting, so

DURHAM, N.C. -- Grayson Allens foot is feeling a little better -- and so is his shot.Allen scored 17 points to help No. 6 Duke beat William & Mary 88-67 on Wednesday night.Allen injured his right foot in last weeks loss to No. 5 Kansas, and coach Mike Krzyzewski said his star guards health is improving but hes not there yet.Not coincidentally, Allen was just 2 of 18 from 3-point range during his last three games -- the Kansas loss, and wins over Penn State and Rhode Island. He missed five of his first six long-range attempts against the Tribe before making his last two to finish 3 of 8.Its about time I made some shots, Allen said. It felt better to see the ball go in the net. The confidence in my shooting never left me. I just had to make them, and finally tonight I was able to make a few.Freshman Frank Jackson scored 19 points to help the Blue Devils (5-1) win their third straight since the Kansas loss. Duke shot 50 percent and outrebounded the Tribe 39-25.Amile Jefferson finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds, Luke Kennard had 11 points and Matt Jones scored 10 points. Duke has had five double-figure scorers in every game this season.Jack Whitman and Daniel Dixon scored 13 points each for William & Mary (2-2), which hasnt beaten a ranked team since 1977 and has never beaten one on the road.The Tribe hung around this one until the second half, but Duke shot 52 percent after the break and pushed its lead well into the 20s with an 18-7 run midway through the half sparked by two 3s by Jackson.BIG PICTUREWilliam & Mary: All the Tribe have proven so far is that they are not one of the nations Top 10 teams. No shame in losing either to Duke or to No. 10 Louisville, as they have done in the past nine days, and they made Duke work much harder than the Cardinals did when they beat them by 33.Weve played two teams we were better than, and should have won, and played two teams ... in Louisville and Duke, Top 10 teams in the country that would have taken great performances for us to win, coach Tony Shaver said.Duke: This felt like business as usual for this group of Blue Devils, who can always seem to count on a big run to blow past an overmatched nonconference visitor. They used essentially a six-man rotation during the pre-garbage time portion of the game while cruising to their 128th straight non-ACC win at Cameron Indoor Stadium.POLL IMPLICATIONSThe Blue Devils figure to move up a spot next week and return to the top five -- thanks to IPFWs upset of No. 3 Indiana a night earlier -- and they gave no indication against the Tribe that they deserve any ranking lower than that.INJURY REPORTDukes three injured freshmen -- Harry Giles, Marques Bolden and Jayson Tatum -- seem to be getting closer to playing. They have still yet to check into a game, but for the first time they were in uniform, and Giles and Bolden even took part in warmups. Those three were a big reason why the Blue Devils were picked No. 1 in the preseason.In the transition from serious injury, its not just physical, its mental, psychological, Krzyzewski said. I just think, to put on your uniform, to do warmups as much as you can, to be more a part of a team is something, we want to transition to that. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. We just dont know how long the tunnel is. Days like today help.STAT LINEKennard finished two rebounds and four assists shy of Dukes first triple-double in 10 years. Shelden Williams was the last to do it against Maryland in 2006.UP NEXTWilliam & Mary: The Tribe return home to play host to Liberty on Saturday.Duke: The Blue Devils play host to Appalachian State on Saturday before welcoming in No. 24 Michigan State next week for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.---More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25.Los Angeles Lakers Store . Halifax beat the Saint John Sea Dogs 7-5 on the strength of two goals apiece from Nikolaj Ehlers, Matt Murphy and Brent Andrews. Jonathan Drouin also scored and had three assists while Zachary Fucale made 17 saves for the Mooseheads (16-8-0), who led 6-1 after two periods. Los Angeles Lakers Gear . Oyama had six birdies and two bogeys at Kintetsu Kashikojima in the event also sanctioned by the Japan LPGA Tour. "I have been having this neck ache thats been affecting my golf recently," Oyama said. https://www.lakersjerseycheap.com/ .Y. -- Paul Byron and Matt Stajan scored as the Calgary Flames started a five-game road trip with a 2-1 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon. Fake Lakers Jerseys . The injury bothered Bledsoe in the Suns victory over the Clippers on Monday and he sat out the teams home loss to Memphis on Thursday night. Los Angeles Lakers Pro Shop . If ever they start actually putting pictures beside words in the dictionary, the Blue Jays left-handers mug will appear beside “Consistency.The collective baseball minds at ESPN have determined that only 20 players in the history of Major Baseball have been better than Alex Rodriguez.According to Baseball-Reference.com, the online encyclopedia of the sport, that encompasses some 18,485 players who have appeared in at least one major league game.And yet, a case can be made that A-Rod was better than that, better statistically than at least two of the hitters ranked ahead of him -- Ken Griffey Jr. and Joe DiMaggio --?and perhaps more than that, given that only three players in history have hit more home runs than Rodriguezs 696 or driven in more runs than his 2,084 and only nine had a higher career OPS than his .932.Rodriguezs career WAR of 118.3 is higher than that of all but eight position players. It is nearly 10 points higher than that of Mickey Mantle and six points higher than that of Lou Gehrig. It is 35 points higher than that of Griffey Jr., his former teammate on the Seattle Mariners, who sits higher in our rankings, despite retiring with 66 fewer home runs, 248 fewer RBIs and a career batting average 11 points lower than A-Rods .295.That brings us to the essential problem with, and the tragedy of, Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez. No one knows how good he was or is or could have been because of what he once termed the pink elephant in the room.That curious animal, of course, was a euphemism for performance-enhancing drug violations, a crime against baseball that Rodriguez has copped to twice. And that is why, despite his incredible numbers on a baseball field, his number in our all-time rankings is a bit lower than you might expect.Rodriguezs misdeeds off the field left many voters scratching their heads over where he belongs in baseball history and how many of his gaudy numbers can be trusted.?I wrote a column about this in June 2015 on thee occasion of his 3,000th hit.dddddddddddd It is worth reading again, if only to remind us of what Rodriguez is and, more importantly, what he might have been.Interestingly, strong indications of PED use were not enough to work against Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens, who finished ahead of A-Rod. In both cases, the numbers are both too impressive to ignore and too ridiculous to fully trust -- for me, anyway.For some reason, A-Rods numbers did not work in his favor the same way. Perhaps after he retires and another 20 or so home runs are added to his total, a younger and presumably more permissive generation will see fit to rank him higher. Maybe hell even, along with Bonds and Clemens, get serious consideration for the Hall of Fame, which at one time seemed to be the destination of all three.There are other curiosities in the final voting, some of them no doubt generational. Were Pedro Martinez and Greg Maddux really better pitchers than Bob Gibson and Tom Seaver? Was Mike Piazza, at No. 99, truly one of the 100 greatest ball players who ever lived? Was Griffey Jr. really a better player, by a considerable margin, than Rodriguez? Clearly, our voters put more trust in Griffeys numbers than in those of A-Rod, who bests him in virtually every offensive category.Arguments such as that are what make lists such as this so popular and entertaining. Theyre the reason these polls will be done again and again by numerous outlets. No doubt, ESPN will do another one sometime in the future.When we do, it will be interesting to note what a future generation sees when it looks at Rodriguezs career. Greatness? Artifice?Or simply an unsolvable mystery, which, it seems, is how many of us view him now. ' ' '