Hill's PGA Debut, Defensive Changes At Duke, And Other Items

-- The Washington Times caught up with Matt Hill after his first round at the AT&T National on Thursday.

Hill started his round on the intimidating par-3 10th. Nearly 220 yards over water, the hole played as the seventh-hardest on the course with a stroke average of 3.1, but Hill birdied it. That's not to say he wasn't anxious, though.

"To be honest with you, it was pretty nerve-racking," said Hill, who plans to go back to school in the fall and turn pro at a later date. "I was shaking pretty good the whole time, but after the first few holes I started getting a little more comfortable."

Hill finished the day at +1 in a tie for 56th; certainly not a bad effort for a guy playing in his first PGA Tour event.  He's also writing about the experience for GoPack.com.

-- The Jules From Harlem, Possibly No Longer Destined For Stardom, is preparing to play with the Chicago Bulls' summer league team.

-- This is going to look strange, if it happens.  Duke might be using more zone defense this season:

"When you see big guys in that zone with their hands up, it takes a lot of space," Singler said. "Teams, you don’t practice against it because you don’t have the size. It’s something teams don’t see day in and day out."

Singler said Krzyzewski has discussed the idea with the team. During his yearly summer news conference on Tuesday, Krzyzewski mentioned that the Blue Devils will have to change the way they defend, but didn’t specifically talk about playing zone.

It'll be interesting to see what this does to Duke's perimeter D, which has consistently been one of their strengths. 

-- Scout has moved Ryan Harrow up in its rankings again.  I wish they'd cut that out.  Not that there's any real reason to worry, but after what happened with CJ Leslie, I (selfishly) feel like the less attention for Harrow, the better.

Have a good holiday weekend, folks!  Be safe out there.