MBB: Duke 70, Lehigh 75 Post-Game Thread

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Originally Posted by NYC Duke Fan

Please explain to me how this was a,"great ", season. Was it a good season, probably if you say we won 27 games. It was a great season up right after Coach K reached his milestone against MSU. After that No, No.

We only beat 2 good teams after that, UNC and FSU. We lost 3 homes to ACC opponents. Did UNC lose any home games..I do not know the answer ?

No I am sorry to disagree with you Duke did not have a great season. When you do not win the conference championship, do not win the ACC tournament and lose to a 15 seed, I would say that Duke had a disappointing season.

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UNC lost to Duke at Home- one of the "good" teams Duke beat. UNC also lost to FSU twice - a team Duke split with. UNC did not win the ACC conference championship- they won the regular season. This was a good regular season for Duke- no question. It was a bad post season - by Duke standards- but chemistry busting injuries are part of the game. There are two seasons in college basketball. It is unfortunate that people need to lump them together to define a team or make a point.

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Originally Posted by Bay Area Duke Fan

Many are saying that the loss of Kelly was the reason for the losses to FL State and Lehigh. Yet Syracuse is playing without Melo and has advanced to the Sweet 16. Duke was aware of Kelly's injury three days before the ACC tourney. Syracuse just found out about Melo on Monday of this week. Syracuse coaching staff was able to adjust and win. Duke coaching staff was unable to prepare team for game against a 15 seed.

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The comparison is not even close.
1) Syracuse had already played games without Melo (and lost the first) during the season. They were already prepared for his absence.
2) Syracuse's second unit would be ranked in the top 25. They have really depth.
3) Monday is three days before Thursday (when Cuse played).

A sad end to an uneven season. Thanks Miles for four memorable seasons.

While it might sound sacreligious to even ask, but I will anyway. We had about 1 week to prepare for Lehigh ad everyone knew or should have known what a terrific player McComber, ( probably spelling it wrong) is. Wasn't there a defensive scheme to set up to try and negate him. Obviously I am not a coach and my knowledge of coaching basketball is extremely limited, but if one player on the opposing team is so dominant, then you have to make some defensive adjustments to try and limit him.

Secondly, Duke lived and died with the 3 and last night it was not working, so why not at half time come up with another offensive scheme?

For that matter, in the week of preparation shouldn't the coaches have had an alternate if the 3s were not working?

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Originally Posted by NYC Duke Fan

Whoops...Forgot Sorry...Did they lose any other ?

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How do you forget the most memorable moment of Duke's season-- strange.

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Originally Posted by TNTDevil

Coach mentioned this in his post-game comments. Something to the effect of: "...they came out bold and played bold. we came out tentative and played that way."

Couldn't agree more.

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Honestly, the coaches said some version of that in post-game or halftime interviews in an awful lot of games this year. It suggests something about the teams mental approach that is separate from it skill and talent or lack thereof

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Originally Posted by duke96

Really DBR? The site had to go down for that long just at the time when people wanted to get online and reflect? I realize that people get a bit out of sorts when we lose like this (esp late on a Friday nite). But it seems to me you denied your community just when we kinda wanted you most. Just food for thought for next time (hopefully there won't be too many "next times" like this one!).

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Belated Happy Birthday Dean Smith!
That is what DBR likes to post.

Well, at least Elmore won't have us to kick around any more.
I'll bet he's bummed that 3/4 of his schtick is over for this season.

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Originally Posted by NYC Duke Fan

While it might sound sacreligious to even ask, but I will anyway. We had about 1 week to prepare for Lehigh ad everyone knew or should have known what a terrific player McComber, ( probably spelling it wrong) is. Wasn't there a defensive scheme to set up to try and negate him. Obviously I am not a coach and my knowledge of coaching basketball is extremely limited, but if one player on the opposing team is so dominant, then you have to make some defensive adjustments to try and limit him.

Secondly, Duke lived and died with the 3 and last night it was not working, so why not at half time come up with another offensive scheme?

For that matter, in the week of preparation shouldn't the coaches have had an alternate if the 3s were not working?

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If I'm not mistaken Coach K took the blame in his post game interview for the offense being being bad last night. GoDuke!

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Originally Posted by dukelifer

UNC lost to Duke at Home- one of the "good" teams Duke beat. UNC also lost to FSU twice - a team Duke split with. UNC did not win the ACC conference championship- they won the regular season. This was a good regular season for Duke- no question. It was a bad post season - by Duke standards- but chemistry busting injuries are part of the game. There are two seasons in college basketball. It is unfortunate that people need to lump them together to define a team or make a point.

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Unfortuneately that is the way it is when you have a tournament like the NCAA. If you are suppose to be a top 8 team than you are not suppose to lose to a 15 seed period, and that is why along with not winning the regular season or the ACC tournament, I feel that Duke had a disappointing season. It is only my opinion which is as valid or invalid as anyone elese on this board.

If you feel that Duke had a ," great", season then I respect you for that as I hope that you respect me for saying that Duke had a disappointing one.

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Originally Posted by NYC Duke Fan

While it might sound sacreligious to even ask, but I will anyway. We had about 1 week to prepare for Lehigh ad everyone knew or should have known what a terrific player McComber, ( probably spelling it wrong) is. Wasn't there a defensive scheme to set up to try and negate him. Obviously I am not a coach and my knowledge of coaching basketball is extremely limited, but if one player on the opposing team is so dominant, then you have to make some defensive adjustments to try and limit him.

Secondly, Duke lived and died with the 3 and last night it was not working, so why not at half time come up with another offensive scheme?

For that matter, in the week of preparation shouldn't the coaches have had an alternate if the 3s were not working?

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Just because one has a scheme to beat a team does not mean the players will be able to do it...and ultimately we weren't able to stop players from driving all season, and they weren't going to magically start being able to do it against CJ.

This season will be remembered for two things- the Rivers' shot and the loss to a 15 seed. The good news is that the pain from yesterday's loss will fade and you will see replays of the Rivers' shot a couple times a year for the rest of your life.

WHile the end had to be tough, from the perspective of the season, it's hard to be too disappointed. If you lose two first-team ACC players and the #1 player in the NBA draft, you are rebuilding, I don't care who you have coming in. And as rebuilding years go, this one wasn't too shabby. Is there a team in the country that wouldn't settle for a "down year" like the season that just ended?

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Originally Posted by jv001

If I'm not mistaken Coach K took the blame in his post game interview for the offense being being bad last night. GoDuke!

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He is one of the classiest coaches around but I thought that in having one week to prepare and knowing what an outstanding player he was going to oppose he might have devised something better to stop him. Had he we would be talking about Duke-Xavier now

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Originally Posted by NYC Duke Fan

Unfortuneately that is the way it is when you have a tournament like the NCAA. If you are suppose to be a top 8 team than you are not suppose to lose to a 15 seed period, and that is why along with not winning the regular season or the ACC tournament, I feel that Duke had a disappointing season. It is only my opinion which is as valid or invalid as anyone elese on this board.

If you feel that Duke had a ," great", season then I respect you for that as I hope that you respect me for saying that Duke had a disappointing one.

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But I love Dukebasketball and will be on DBR and Blue Devil Nation waiting on that tidbit of news regarding Duke basketball recruiting. Matter of fact I'll be following Duke Football right along with recruiting news. GoDuke!

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Originally Posted by sjl14

I don't think kville33 was implying that Mason shooting 9-9 was bad (obviously), but that maybe he was being asked to do to much offensively. Mason has never been a volume shooter, we probably shouldn't expect him to be. Anyways, him shooting 9-9 says nothing of his future field goal success...

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Yes it does. It indicates that the shooter is either hot or is being guarded ineffectively(3 fairly wide open dunks in the first 3 minutes 15 seconds of play)... Both of which bode well for future field goal success within a game.

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Originally Posted by NYC Duke Fan

He is one of the classiest coaches around but I thought that in having one week to prepare and knowing what an outstanding player he was going to oppose he might have devised something better to stop him. Had he we would be talking about Duke-Xavier now

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Coach K is going to play man to man and that's not going to change. So I guess the only change he could have made was the way we hege on picks. We just don't have the guy to stop dribble penetration. Especially a player like McCollum. When we use Austin as thatguy he seems to get worn down. GoDuke!

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Originally Posted by NYC Duke Fan

While it might sound sacreligious to even ask, but I will anyway. We had about 1 week to prepare for Lehigh ad everyone knew or should have known what a terrific player McComber, ( probably spelling it wrong) is. Wasn't there a defensive scheme to set up to try and negate him. Obviously I am not a coach and my knowledge of coaching basketball is extremely limited, but if one player on the opposing team is so dominant, then you have to make some defensive adjustments to try and limit him.

Secondly, Duke lived and died with the 3 and last night it was not working, so why not at half time come up with another offensive scheme?

For that matter, in the week of preparation shouldn't the coaches have had an alternate if the 3s were not working?

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Whenever a team loses- a coach takes full responsibility. I am sure this loss is killing K and it will motivate him for next season. This team had some fundamental flaws but they had managed to find a fragile chemistry that worked during the season. We now saw how important Kelly was this year for Duke. The guy is bad matchup for most teams and stretches the D. Without him, Duke plays different. They did not have enough games without him to really prepare. Lehigh is a very solid team and Duke did not handle the moment well- a sign of a team that lacks confidence because it is not whole. K made some mistakes yesterday as did his players. Time to regroup and start fresh next year. They will get better over the summer and will be motivated and the addition of some new players- a few who already know the system. All I know is that Duke will again play hard next year and will win 20+ games and make the tourney. The hope is they are hot at the end of the year and not limping into the post season.

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Originally Posted by muzikfrk75

He's not even the best player in his region.

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McCollum wasn't even that great last night.

From the field he was 9 for 24. Not only did he not shoot 50% from the field, he didn't even shoot 40% from the field.

"But he must have been lighting it up from outside, right?"

Um, no, he was under 30% from 3-pt land.

"At least he must have been JJ-like from the FT stripe, right?"

Not quite. Well under 70% from the line.

So, getting him to 30 points took 24 field goal attempts and 16 free throw attempts. Not exactly a model of offensive efficiency.

Which is not to say McCollum did not play the best of the players on the floor in that game. But it's relative to how poorly we played.

"If Lehigh showed what a fantastic team they are by beating Duke, then surely they are favored by a healthy margin over Xavier, right?"

Um, no, the line has Xavier by 3.5 points.

It's right for Coach K and our players to praise McCollum and the Lehigh team. That's what true sportsmen and people with integrity and class do.

But let's keep it in perspective, folks.

Overall, we had a very successful season. We beat a bunch of top teams. We were undefeated ON THE ROAD in the ACC (wow!). We put ourselves in a position to win the ACC regular season championship on the last game at home but came up short. And had Ryan not gone down, we might well have cut down the nets at the ACCT.

And congratulations to Miles (a National Champion) for his play and effort and always representing Duke to the highest standards.

Last night's game was simply not our finest hour, in fact our worst game in a big game in years.

Thank goodness Missouri also lost so the media vultures have something else to feed on as well!

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Originally Posted by NYC Duke Fan

Unfortuneately that is the way it is when you have a tournament like the NCAA. If you are suppose to be a top 8 team than you are not suppose to lose to a 15 seed period, and that is why along with not winning the regular season or the ACC tournament, I feel that Duke had a disappointing season. It is only my opinion which is as valid or invalid as anyone elese on this board.

If you feel that Duke had a ," great", season then I respect you for that as I hope that you respect me for saying that Duke had a disappointing one.

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I did not think they had a great regular season- just a good one. Losing three starters and a ton of leadership is hard on any team- but this team did okay and made things interesting for UNC. They had a very bad post season- cannot argue with that.

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Originally Posted by ChicagoHeel

This season will be remembered for two things- the Rivers' shot and the loss to a 15 seed. The good news is that the pain from yesterday's loss will fade and you will see replays of the Rivers' shot a couple times a year for the rest of your life.

WHile the end had to be tough, from the perspective of the season, it's hard to be too disappointed. If you lose two first-team ACC players and the #1 player in the NBA draft, you are rebuilding, I don't care who you have coming in. And as rebuilding years go, this one wasn't too shabby. Is there a team in the country that wouldn't settle for a "down year" like the season that just ended?

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Probably right now Missouri.

If you think that this year was a rebuilding year, what about next year? If Rivers and or Mason leave then next year will be more of a rebuilding year than this year.

Do you really think thaTMarshall Plumlee, Alex Murphy and Suliaman ,( spelling) are going to turn this team into a championship team? We do not have quich guards and teams that do, burn us. How is that going to improve next year?

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Originally Posted by subzero02

Yes it does. It indicates that the shooter is either hot or is being guarded ineffectively(3 fairly wide open dunks in the first 3 minutes 15 seconds of play)... Both of which bode well for future field goal success within a game.

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Have you even watched last night's press conference? Mason himself admitted that he felt that he didn't need more opportunities. We needed to get scores as a team, which we obviously struggled to do.