MBB: Duke vs. FSU post game thread

[Bob Green]

Post your FSU game thoughts here.

[grossbus]

be nice to have this G every game.

so much for our starters shooting 83% from the line. everyone was front rimming them until mcclure got up and whammed two off the back rim.

when we are focussed, we are pretty darn good. we seem to have attention span lapses however.

[Coballs]

Highlights:
1. Winning
2. G
3. Team defense for much of the game
4. McClure's effort

Lowlights:
1. Second half let up after opening up a 25 lead
2. Little to no inside production from LT and Zoubek against the big front line
3. Paulus
4. Singler looking fatigued towards the end of the game (short on his late free throws)
5. Late game FTs
6. No run at all for Plumlee

[roywhite]

Dear Seminole fans,

Sorry you did not get to rush the court this year.

Scoreboard.

[miramar]

Duke played some great basketball in the second half, but things got ugly at the end. Before Scheyer hit the final two free throws, Duke had a stretch where they hit 4-12 FTs and turned the ball over twice.

Gerald played his best game so far, and that was good to watch.

[pamtar]

Dear Seminole fans,

Sorry you did not get to rush the court this year.

Scoreboard.

Hilarious.

[geraldsneighbor]

Talk about an annoying group of students.

Paulus didn't play much today, and we saw alot of Scheyer handling the ball I believe mainly because of how big the perimeter guys were on FSU.

Nolan took a step forward today asserting himself well in transition.

And then there was Gerald Henderson...he played pretty well.

[DukieInBrasil]

i´m glad we won, FSU has been very tough for us in Tallahassee lately. We built a huge a lead, 25 pts, and then just funked it up all the way to the end. Did we go to the spread offense there? If so, i would strongly recommend to K that he not do that anymore. Why stop the flow of your team building a 25 pt lead? If there was spread and just poor Duke basketball then i take it back.
Great game from G, his first truly excellent game this year.

[Oriole Way]

It was good to play our C game against a good defense and big team and still win, but we did too much in the second half to lose the game. Turnovers and terrible free throw shooting when we should have put the game out of reach. We played good defense in the first half, but much of that is attributable to FSU being a mediocre jump-shooting team and missing open looks.

Nolan Smith has a bad habit of making bad turnovers at the absolute worst times. In our next couple games, I would like to see Scheyer bring the ball up in the second half until Smith starts making better decisions. Smith is young and talented, so I'm hopeful for some improvement, but our point guard play is concerning.

Why did K go away from Zoubek in the second half? When he was out of the game, we were absolutely punished on the offensive glass. I didn't think Zoubek played terribly, and he was taken out after making a nice play to get the ball and get fouled, hitting two free throws. He never re-appeared - why?

This team still gets big leads in the second half only to give up the lead late in the second half. It's a broken record. What can be done to solve this? I'm still not a big fan of the stall offense, but obviously that's a hot debate on these boards.

It was nice to see Gerald assert himself. This game will be good for his confidence and that can only be a good thing. Gerald finally took over a game late in the second half, which is something we have not seen since last season against Belmont.

It was a tough and gritty win, but I'm concerned by our turnovers and our offense in general. We've played two bad games in a row against decent teams. I don't like our chances against UNC, Wake, and Clemson at this point. I am encouraged by the fact our defense is ahead of our offense, and that there are things we can do to improve the offense. But we need to be making drastic improvements offensively soon, or we're going to see a disappointing replay of the past two seasons' collapse.

[houstondukie]

Highlights:
1. Winning
2. G
3. Team defense for much of the game
4. McClure's effort

Lowlights:
1. Second half let up after opening up a 25 lead
2. Little to no inside production from LT and Zoubek against the big front line
3. Paulus
4. Singler looking fatigued towards the end of the game (short on his late free throws)
5. Late game FTs
6. No run at all for Plumlee

Lowlights:
7. 3 bench points
8. 21 offensive rebounds by FSU
9. 17 turnovers (7 by Nolan Smith)

I'll take the win. Brilliant defense at times. G was terrific.

I'm also confused why Zoubek didn't play more.

[Duvall]

i´m glad we won, FSU has been very tough for us in Tallahassee lately. We built a huge a lead, 25 pts, and then just funked it up all the way to the end. Did we go to the spread offense there? .

No.

11

[huied]

I agree that we have too many TOs, but I think a lot of them were 'slap fouls' that just weren't called. That reach around poke is almost always a foul in every game that I've played or seen.

[Jumbo]

Talk about an annoying group of students.

It's that one moron sitting behind the announcers, every game. The guy is more concerned with Paulus than his own team. You could hear everything he said -- pathetic.

[Jumbo]

i´m glad we won, FSU has been very tough for us in Tallahassee lately. We built a huge a lead, 25 pts, and then just funked it up all the way to the end. Did we go to the spread offense there? If so, i would strongly recommend to K that he not do that anymore. Why stop the flow of your team building a 25 pt lead? If there was spread and just poor Duke basketball then i take it back.
Great game from G, his first truly excellent game this year.

How can you comment on a game you didn't even see? No, Duke didn't go to the spread offense until quite late.

[jpfrizzle]

Apart from all the thuggish playing from FSU in the first half, Duke got the jump on FSU in the 2nd half, just as I hoped for. Just when it looked like Duke would have a huge lead, something goes wrong and FSU climbs closer. Another tough game from another tough team and there's more where these came from too.

We have to step it up a notch if we plan to go further. No doubt about it.


Go DUKE ! ! ! !

[Jumbo]

First of all, I hope someone gives FSU credit for playing really good D and really tough for most of the game. A game is never just all about us.

Next, this was obviously an ugly win, but I'll take a few ugly wins on the road in the ACC. The fact that we won (and built a 25-point lead) in spite of the following things is pretty amazing:
-The entire first-half performance on offense.
-Our steadiest player (Scheyer) putting forth his worst all-around performance of the season.
-Zoubek turning into a non-factor finally playing against someone his size (he has to work harder off the ball).
-Singler's pedestrian, foul-plagued performance.
-Paulus struggling so much in his first stint that Williams took his place in the rotation during the second part of the first half.
-Poor free throw shooting from our best free throw shooters.
-A ton of turnovers by Smith.

To have so many things go wrong and still win fairly comfortably says a lot. I'm quite confident that Scheyer and free throws are not any kind of a problem moving forward. The other issues pop up from time to time, but it's pretty amazing to see them all in one game.

And that's why this team is so good. We have three upper-echelon players. When one of them is really off his game (Scheyer) and the other isn't at peak form either (Singler), the third (Henderson) stepped up in a big way to compensate. This team is quite talented and, as Bilas said, the ceiling is much higher for continued improvement throughout the season.

We've got to get the offense to a more consistent level and find a way to get a few more easy baskets in transition, but that's why we have two more months of games and practices to go before the Tourney.

[mike88]

Highlights:

Lowlights:
1. Second half let up after opening up a 25 lead
2. Little to no inside production from LT and Zoubek against the big front line
3. Paulus
4. Singler looking fatigued towards the end of the game (short on his late free throws)
5. Late game FTs
6. No run at all for Plumlee

I am very happy with our play today. FSU is as physical a team as we will see all year and Douglas is a great scorer. To compete toe-to-toe and gut out a win on their court is another step forward. We are going to have more games like that, particularly in February-March.

I don't think this is the kind of game where we can expect points from Lance or Zoubek. I do think they need to give us minutes, although Dave McClure helps in that regard, too. The physicial play took its toll on Kyle and Jon, leading to their (uncharacteristic) FT misses. I don't think it will be a trend.

I also don't think we are going to blow out many (if any) ACC teams on the road. I would be happy if we can win 5-6 road games- the league is tough and, as usual, everyone gets up to play us.

Not to beat a dead horse, but I am also concerned whether we have the energy to play games like this in February and March. I hope we can keep Kyle and Jon's minutes at a reasonable level, as the difference in their play when they are tired is noticable- they don't have al ot of athletic margin for error. Having E Williams play more today was a good sign, but those minutes effectively came at the expense of minutes for Greg, who did not have good match-ups.

All in all, a great win. We are going to need Gerald to play like this consistently if we want to make a deep run in March.

[Duvall]

I definitely think these last two games, in which Duke notched a double-digit win against a tournament-bound Davidson squad, and an eight-point ACC road win against an FSU team that lost to #1 Pitt by the same margin, are cause for real concern.

[FireOgilvie]

Florida State is really good. I was impressed. They aren't great on offense, but if they can hit ANYTHING, they can be a top team. They really use their size and athleticism to their advantage on defense in stopping the drive.

[FerryFor50]

My favorite moment was when Bilas said near the end of the game, after a turnover from a non-called foul:

"The refs can't call EVERY slap foul."

Uh, YES THEY CAN. And they should. You can't let a team just hack their way into a comeback like they did today.