Next up for the Raiders a trip to Pittsburgh

He also has a Final Four/National Final to his credit."Too Easy's" numbers: 12.8 points per game, but factor in he only played 17 games as a freshmen, Mateen played in 26. Lucas dishes out 4.6 assists per game, and shoots 41 percent from the field.Remember, these means are brought down a bit because of his freshman campaign. Kalin pops threes at a success rate of about 38 percent, significantly higher than Cleaves' 31 percent.This stat is important for one reason: it shows that Kalin is not a one-dimensional player; he can drive and shoot.Mateen notoriously had problems at the charity stripe, sinking only 74 percent of his freebies, compare that to Kalin's FT percent of 80.I'm sure that this article will draw a debate, and that's okay, it's what I intended to do. If Kalin Lucas can lead the Spartans to glory in 2010, there should be NO debate on who the better of the two is.I've left Magic out of the latter part of the article for one reason, he's Magic, enough said.Kalin will need to win back-to-back titles in order to surpass Earvin (Spartan-wise, of course). Kalin brings a certain swagger and winning attitude to the Spartans. MSU's version of the Fab Five.They were SUPPOSED to win a championship Kalin came to Izzo and East Lansing to do the same thing.. One step forward, one step back.Oakland came into the game had reasons for hope, considering the team has been good pulling off wins against the Bengals and the Eagles.As it was, after Oakland had pulled to within 10 in the third quarter there was still some hope the team could repeat last week's comeback.A touchdown by Tony Romo to Roy Williams sealed the Raiders fate early in the fourth quarter.So, what did the Raiders learn from this gameFor one, the Raiders do have some offense now. For the team, the Raiders had 305 yards of offense, and 14 first downs. When Russell was playing quarterback, some games they would have seven first downs and manage only 124 yards.Not for the first quarter, not for the first half.

The whole game.We learned, that Darrius Heyward-Bey can catch the ball and score a touchdown at the same time. To be honest, if you put a guy in crutches out there and stood him up, he could catch the ball, too Darrius was hit right between the numbers. Pure and simple, it doesn't excuse all the throws the Raiders make in his general direction that he doesn't catch.We also have a running game that is coming along nicely. Now someone needs to tell Tom Cable to go ahead and let the running game control the outcome. It's obvious that the running backs the Raiders have will carry the team.However, we did learn several things about the team that were unsettling.We learned that our tackling is regressing and that several times the Raiders had golden opportunities to change the game.

On one play, the Raiders had the ball tipped up, two players ran into each other, and a fourth player just missed the interception. This was deep in Dallas territory.Other cases when a tackle early on was needed, the Raiders failed to wrap up the player, allowing Felix Jones to go for a long run. But until they can put more points on the board, they will lose those games.Next up for the Raiders, a trip to Pittsburgh.. Another early season tournament victory for Duke, and another victory over a big-time opponent are in the books.But we've all seen that before.Duke isn't new to winning preseason tournaments, and they are familiar enough with beating the big dogs, or Huskies in this case, early on in a season. So Friday night's win over UConn would be best dealt with in a tempered manner by all.It is a big victory, as big as any over a program the caliber of UConn, but if the Blue Devils are hoping to forget about their recent history of late season collapses, or early exits from the NCAA tournament it starts now.In seasons past some Duke fans have gotten inflated expectations based on early season performances just to see their hopes come crashing down.That isn't to say that this year's Blue Devils will follow that trend, but it may behoove them to keep their expectations in check.It may be that mentality that has kept Duke from being ranked higher so far this season despite playing as well at times as any team above them in the polls.This is a much different Duke team after all, and right now no one really can say what to expect out of this group of Blue Devils.In the last two games alone, Duke has looked outmatched by a methodical matchup zone scheme of Arizona State and at times dominated a clearly more athletic UConn team.In both games arguably the best player on the team, Kyle Singler, was virtually nonexistent at least on the offensive end.Yet the poor big, slow, goofy, guys from Duke still managed to win the game.And while the first inclination for Blue Devils fans might be to gloat, I would suggest a more subdued approach Wait and see how the rest of the year pans out first.

Savor each victory.It is still early in the season and who knows what will happen so there is no need to get too excited.That being said, I'm sure it was still a good feeling getting a big time win even if it is early.. There is clearly a production problem with the QB position in Oakland. First JaMarcus Russell completely bombed the first half of the season with a 51.6 completion rate and nine interceptions this season. He was then replaced by Bruce Gradkowski who gave us very similar results mis-firing just as badly with a 52.2 completion rate, three INTs, and three fumbles this season. Aside from the 0.6 percent completion rate improvement, Gradkowski's performance is nearly identical to Russell's. Gradkowski over-threwreceives, mis-read defense, and was unable to recognize openreceivers.With results like that many are calling for the Raiders third QB Charlie Frye. And it isn't completely un- warranted as Frye has the highest career completion rate of the three Raider QBs: Gradkowski 52.8, Russell 51.6, and Frye 62.0.