MBB: Michigan 81, Duke 73 Post-Game Thread

[Jumbo]

Tough loss before exams. Discuss (and show some poise).

[77devil]

Live by the 3, die by the 3. The team looked like it was taking the game for granted.

[bfree]

Forget it

[KShip21]

When was the last posession michigan didn't come away with points? Definitely wasn't inside 5 minutes

[Duvall]

The team looked like it was taking the game for granted.

What does this even mean? If anything, Duke started pressing and panicking late in the second half.

Look, the 1-3-1 concedes easy 3's to prevent easy 2's. Taking open perimeter shots is the smart move. Sometimes it's not your night.

[grossbus]

kyle wouldn't have had to struggle so much if someone, anyone, else had shown up. this was a pretty dismal effort all round. thought nolan looked lost and confused in the half court.

[throatybeard]

He can't play every single minute like that. The loss really isn't a big deal, but seeing Kyle struggle out there makes me really worry. If Kyle is playing 35+ every single game, performances like this are inevitable.

Ah, it's always great to see the "our star player is worn out from playing too many minutes" argument...in the 9th game of the season.

[Coballs]

Ugly loss with all the features of our recent tourney losses - dying by the 3 (over and over again), no shows from our top players, porous defense (easy layups, backdoors), and out energized. Good performance and great strategy by the Michigan players and coaching staff.

Just one game...but a pretty bad and unexpected regression. Not a good way to go into an 11 day layoff. Very disappointing.

[DukeCO2009]

I'm not too worried. While the 1-3-1 stiffled us a bit more than it did last time, the only thing that separated us from a win was the fact that we could only manage 21% from three. If we hit three more, which would've put us at 30%, it's a whole new ballgame. We just went cold--not much you can do about that, especially since most of the shots we took were open looks. We'll bounce back.

[77devil]

What does this even mean? If anything, Duke started pressing and panicking late in the second half.

Look, the 1-3-1 concedes easy 3's to prevent easy 2's. Taking open perimeter shots is the smart move. Sometimes it's not your night.

It means for much of the game Duke made one pass and launched a three point shot rather than running the offense. Duke was 12 for 16 inside the arc in the first half notwithstanding the 1-3-1. Get it now.

[BlueDevilBaby]

Boy, glad I did not watch that live. Don't have to bother watching it at all. Jeesh!

[ForeverBlowingBubbles]

I guess this goes along with living and dieing by the 3 - but today I saw a team out there that lacked a single player who could penetrate consistantly, lacked a single player with any kind of dominate 1 on 1 game; not a single one of our players could create their own shot except for a few mid-rangers Scheyer pulled up on,

and so as a result of lacking those things - the only thing we could do to attempt to score was launch the 3.

[NYC Duke Fan]

We were obviously not the 4th best team in the country. Almost lost to Rhode Island at home ,( who lost to Providence by 2 ), and beaten today.

For all those who posted on the post about who could beat UNC...unless we get better, eliminate Duke from any consideration....we have very little chance..UNC is heads and shoulders above Duke right now.

[Jumbo]

he wouldn't have had to struggle so much if someone, anyone, else had shown up. this was a pretty dismal effort all round. thought nolan looked lost and confused in the half court.

That's a bit of an oversimplification, don't you think? Other guys "showed up." Jon showed up. He had something like 16 points, a bunch of steals and assists, and did a solid job on Harris until the final couple of minutes. Gerald showed up. He gave a great effort -- he just fouled a lot. Etc.

Nolan did have a tough game, though. I'll agree about that.

[Son of Mojo]

Would've liked to have seen a few more calls on M, but we took too many unnecessary 3's (some of them fadeaways...definitely not needed), didn't push the offense, and had really bad defensive lapses. Still, on the whole, we were outplayed--give credit where it's due.

[DevilCastDownfromDurham]

Great game by Michigan. Not a single Blue Devil was prepared mentally or emotionally for what the Wolverines brought today. This one's on K.

Hope this stings for everyone and keeps us sharp as we prepare going forward. We don't have the talent to beat anyone if we don't play smart and hard.

Next play.

[chrisheery]

What does this even mean? If anything, Duke started pressing and panicking late in the second half.

Look, the 1-3-1 concedes easy 3's to prevent easy 2's. Taking open perimeter shots is the smart move. Sometimes it's not your night.

It is good to see that someone else understands this. If you miss the easy shots you are given, you will have trouble. It doesn't mean you took the wrong strategy. It just means you weren't on your game that day. Our guys are not professionals. They can have off days. If they had made even a few of those early open looks, this could/should have been a blow out.

We will get some rest and shoot better next game.

I do agree that Singler needs more rest though. These are the games to get the backups more time, especially when everyone is struggling anyway.

[Bob Green]

We had success attacking the baseline. We didn't have success hitting the corner shot. Michigan played a good game.

[jipops]

A typical ugly pre-exam game. Usually these are at home but instead it was the second straight road game. Fatigue was obviously an issue. Nobody should be surprised by this outcome but nobody should be freaking out either.

We didn't try to live by the 3, Mich's zone gave it to us and our guys couldn't hit them, plain and simple. Eventually this just deflated our D.

Just need to move on from this one.

[dukebluelemur]

This is one of the worst losses I can recall. Not because we lost, but because a team full of upper classmen played like freshmen. I'm not sure I can remember a game so devoid of good decisions and smart play...

At one point, before a few last desperation shots fell, we were looking at 3-27 from three, and 22 for 29 from two. While shooting that bad from three should be a good hint that you should look inside, the fact that youre shooting 76% inside the arc would seem to suggest going back there, REGARDLESS of how well or poorly you're shooting from outside.