Nice game!
-jk
Nice game!
-jk
I love routining a team in a hostile environment.
Everybody played solid to great and Singler played dirty to in-your-face dirty. The only negative I can think of is Gerald's play.
The defense was spectacular.
Really? G had a great defensive game. We don't need his offense right now. Dude is the Wolf from Pulp Fiction - when we need him, he'll step up and clean up our mess (see Belmont, Southern Illinois).
Plus, I don't remember the last Duke player that got double teamed off the ball more than he does. When we have other offensive weapons, why force the ball through him when the D is denying him the ball?
I'm not saying all the time, but the help defense came over to him at least twice and stole the ball when we were trying to pass it to him. I guess I mean the help defense is coming to him before he gets the ball rather than helping on the Duke guy with the ball. It's the second game I've seen where the defense is actively trying to deny him the ball before he gets it.
A great defensive effort. Still want to see more offense from G but he was huge on the boards early and a big reason we built the early lead IMO.
Nice Defense good game. Dont like Jon playing 38 minutes, and Kyle playing 35 minutes when we have a double digit lead the whole game.
I fear that we relied heavily on the three tonight... will it still be there in march?
We shot 8-22 from behind the arc. Certainly not lights out but a solid shooting night. I agree with godukecom, there seemed to be stretches where we looked for the three ball an awful lot. While I love it when the threes are going in, the last few years we seemed to have lost our touch at some inopportune times. I hope that we continue to attack the basket and get to the line. That gives us a better chance of wining on off shooting nights.
All in all a great effort. Purdue played very hard and physical, yet we kept attacking and played extremely tight defense. It was hard to tell if our defense was jsut that good or if they were simply pressing too much in a big game. Either way, it was fun to watch. It's also nice to see such great rebounding. I'm not sure I can remember a Duke team that rebounded better than we are so far this year.
I see your point to a degree, with 22 threes taken. However, I do not have any problem with any of those shots, if I remember correctly. They were all good shots in the flow of the offense that Duke needs to take when they are there. I know Singler missed something like his first 4 or 5 threes, but they were all good shots.
A few points...
- G with only 2 points...he brought it on defense and the boards, but if you would've told me we'd win by 10+ with Hendo only scoring 2, I'd call you crazy
- Absolute nuts by Singler. Great game.
- I think we need to spread the minutes out around. We could've used Nolan and Greg a little more to sub Jon out, and the Lance/Dave combo to give Kyle a bit of rest. Not alarmed they played so much, but they can't keep doing that all year.
I think the substitution pattern tonight was impacted by Nolan's fouls and Zou's fouls. Nolan had 4 for much of the second half - that is why Greg played the point so much. If he had more floor time, we could have had Greg spell Jon more.
And I think that the fact that Purdue typically relies on the 3, and can get back in the game fast, meant that the lead wasn't as big as we would think .
Although Vitale usually drives me up a wall, I thought that he was remarkable restrained tonight, especially in the first half. He kept on talking about the game, and actually made some insightful comments in the process. It really was night and day compared to the last Duke game he did...either he took his meds, or the network somehow chilled him out. There was some slippage in the second half, but overall, a well-called game for Dickie V.
And Duke played well too.
My wife and I decided that during the next Duke game Vitale calls, we are going to institute a little drinking game. The rules are simple: drink every time he mentions UNC and/or Hansbrough.
On second thought, I don't think I'll do that. I'm not in college anymore, I don't think I have the stamina for that.
So Vitale called a good game tonight? Well, he called a better game.
But am I right in thinking he opined that Bobby Knight should be back in coaching? I thought to myself, well that means he would be eliminated as competition for you in calling games--and the almost unanimous consensus on DBR is that Kniight is the superior color commentator