MBB: Wake Forest 70, Duke 68 Post-Game Thread

[DU Band Prez 88]

Same team (Wake), Feb. of '92.

Duke down two with 2.5 seconds left. G. Hill throws a full-court pass to Laettner. The pass curves to the left and Laettner can't catch it while keeping it in bounds. Turnover. Ballgame.

About 1.5 months later. Duke/Kentucky at The Spectrum.

Duke down two with 2.5 seconds left. G. Hill throws a full-court pass to Laettner. The pass is perfect. Laettner catches the ball, shoots, scores. Ballgame.

Live, play, learn.

-EJ

Was also by almost the exact same score - I believe it was 72-68.

[DukeDevilDeb]

I'm a little unclear about what really happened on the Wake inbounds play that made them look so smooth and Duke look so bad. I've read the boards, I've read the Chronicle, and I've read the ESPN and SI websites. I don't have tivo, so I cannot go back and check. It appeared to me that a couple of different things might have happened:

1. Coach K called for switching on EVERYTHING. Nolan failed to switch on James Johnson. That's what the Chronicle said in a front page story on Thursday.

2. Both Henderson and Smith failed to switch. That's what SI said today in Seth Davis' column.

3. Zoubek was out and McClure was in for a variety of reasons. David had played an absolutely stellar defensive game, but no matter how good he is, he's not 7'1". Wouldn't it have made sense to have Zoubs guarding the passer? But, again according to Seth Davis, K didn't feel he could make the play successfully.

I really thought we had a chance when Henderson grabbed that rebound and went from elated to devastated when they called a travel. But end of game defense has always been something our guys have worked hard on, and I had a lot of faith that they would at least force Wake to take a hard or bad shot, and we'd move into overtime. No guarantees, of course, but the momentum had swung our way.

Can we prevent that or something similar from happening for the rest of the season, in the ACC tournament, and in the NCAAs? That's what Bilas meant by tough in his article yesterday (which I thought was great!).

Any thoughts?

[Hancock 4 Duke]

I'm a little unclear about what really happened on the Wake inbounds play that made them look so smooth and Duke look so bad. I've read the boards, I've read the Chronicle, and I've read the ESPN and SI websites. I don't have tivo, so I cannot go back and check. It appeared to me that a couple of different things might have happened:

1. Coach K called for switching on EVERYTHING. Nolan failed to switch on James Johnson. That's what the Chronicle said in a front page story on Thursday.

2. Both Henderson and Smith failed to switch. That's what SI said today in Seth Davis' column.

3. Zoubek was out and McClure was in for a variety of reasons. David had played an absolutely stellar defensive game, but no matter how good he is, he's not 7'1". Wouldn't it have made sense to have Zoubs guarding the passer? But, again according to Seth Davis, K didn't feel he could make the play successfully.

I really thought we had a chance when Henderson grabbed that rebound and went from elated to devastated when they called a travel. But end of game defense has always been something our guys have worked hard on, and I had a lot of faith that they would at least force Wake to take a hard or bad shot, and we'd move into overtime. No guarantees, of course, but the momentum had swung our way.

Can we prevent that or something similar from happening for the rest of the season, in the ACC tournament, and in the NCAAs? That's what Bilas meant by tough in his article yesterday (which I thought was great!).

Any thoughts?

I agree on 1 and 2. He didn't let any of the players to get used to who they were on. It was only K's fault that everyone failed to switch, IMO.

[dbd4ever]

It is now Saturday and one day from our game with Virginia. The loss to Wake is still lingering a lil bit, but I think more of the fact that everyone(ESPN and other commentators) has kind of written us off with one loss. What else is new though? But I guess the silver lining in all of this, is that we are back flying under the radar and out of the discussion for now. This is the way we were earlier after the loss to Michigan and we just moved right along taking care of business and I wish that could happen the rest of the season. But unfortunately there are too many people interested in the chance of seeing us lose a game to let us fly unnoticed into March and the Tournament. And I think just as people over the years have taken on the mentality that we are always there in March, just as many have adopted the opinion that we are a pretender due to the last few seasons. I believe this is the year that it all stops and things return to the way they were in the days of Laettner, Hill, Battier, and J. Will. I love this team and I believe we are a match-up nightmare for a lot of teams and that we can play with anyone. Go Duke!!