MBB: Duke 66, Boston College 65 (ACC Tournament) Post-Game Thread

[Oriole Way]

The bad from yesterday's games:

- Free throw shooting. When our best free throw shooter consistently misses clutch free throws (let alone most of the team) in the last two minutes of most close games, we are going to have a very tough time winning many games in March.

- It has become a consistent pattern with this team to build a sizable lead (8-12 points) late in games only to completely relinquish them. We still have almost no killer instinct. It's frustrating, and it will kill this team in the NCAA tournament if it continues. Henderson and Singler are steadily becoming better at hitting big shots for us, however, so that's very encouraging.

The good:

- Obviously it's good to have Nolan Smith back. He was a half-second slow on almost every one of his plays, both offensively and defensively. But him being back and healthy will make this team much better.

- I liked our shot selection, for the most part, in regards to 3's. Unless we are shooting lights out, I don't want this team shooting any more than 20 attempts per game. I want to see Henderson and Singler driving to the rim as much as humanly possible.

- Our defense looks a little better in the half-court against penetration. We had 8 blocks on drives and almost all of them were a result of good defense on the ball to begin with or good recovery help defense.

- The most important good thing: Kyle Singler stepping up. Not only in this game, but over the past month. He has drastically changed his offensive game and made it much more efficient. Aside from Scheyer moving to the point and Williams getting big minutes, the third thing I have wanted to see the most this season was Kyle Singler emphasize posting up and driving to the rim. The first two were largely on K, but Kyle has always been in control of his ability to make Duke a better team in regards to the third positive development.

Kyle is driving to the rim and posting up a LOT more than he used to. His 3-pt shooting is better as well; he's taking better shots at better times than he was earlier in the season. Most of his 3's are much more within the flow of the offense, and his shot selection and decision-making (in terms of when to drive and when to shoot 3's) are much improved. Unlike last season, Singler's shooting percentage is improving as we head into the NCAA tournament. This is great to see.

[dukestheheat]

I promise you I almost had a heart attack last night. Man, what an exhale when that shot didn't go! GREAT defense with G on that last shot.

I felt that Duke was very fortunate to win this game. When is the last time we shot 13/22 at the free throw line?

We are going to have to get many more of those down if we're going to be competitive in the NCAAs this year.

It's time for turtle soup!

dth.

[MChambers]

I agree on Smith. I am really hopeful with his return. I envision he and Williams sharing the responsibility of being the primary defender of the other team's PG. I can also see them occasionally getting time together (with Scheyer as the third wing and running our offense) and causing havoc on the perimeter defensively. And if Smith can get his offensive game back, he can perhaps give us a bit of a boost on both ends, and just as importantly give us another option if Williams isn't having a good night.

Yes, I thought Nolan looked remarkably good, and played better than he had in the two weeks before the concussion. His three in the second half was huge and his defense was solid. I hope he can get three games under his belt this weekend.

[Highlander]

Frankly, I don't think the situations are that similar. Gerald is a good defender, but I (and obviously K) don't have the same trust in him to not pick up that next foul. I disagree with your statement "K usually has disagree with that strategy." I can't think of many instances at all actually.

I actually agree with Jumbo here. K has rolled the dice differently in the past, most noteably UConn in 2004, and Shel and Shav both fouled out before the last 5 minutes (Shel btw, was a pretty good defender, and pretty adept at NOT fouling out). Calhoun sat Okafor for the entire first half and he dominated the second and UConn won the game by a bucket. The move worked for Calhoun, and so at the time he looked like a genius and K the goat. In fact, most people pointed to that move as THE REASON UConn won and Duke lost.

Pretty similar situation here, and I think K played it exactly the way Calhoun did him in '04. The difference was that Duke built a lead without Gerald in the game, and was playing stifling defense. It wasn't pretty, but given those circumstances, I wouldn't have risked playing Gerald since we were leading without him. Even at the end of the half with BC went on the run, we were only down 4. It was only a big Rice 3 at the buzzer that put us down 3 possessions. IIRC, Henderson DID get into the game again in the 1H for a few plays, but I may be wrong.

In the past, I've seen K usually do the opposite of what he did with Gerald. I know that K left Laettner in the 1H more than once with 2 fouls, and left guys like Shane in the game in the 2H after they picked up their 4th with 8+ minutes to go. It's a gamble either way. We both agree that K had to sit him after those two quick fouls. The only thing we may disagree on is whether he sat him too long or not.

The good news is Henderson didn't foul out or end up in foul trouble, Duke won by a bucket, and the gamble worked. It almost didn't, but you could argue that Calhoun's gamble almost didn't either. Since it worked, I think K gets the benefit of the doubt on this one.

[devildownunder]

I don't understand why coaches are so petrified of picking up a third foul before the second half. In some ways, I'd rather have a guy foul out playing 35 minutes than a guy wind up with 3 or 4 fouls in 25. Sacrificing as much as 10 minutes without your best player is bad game management. Gerald is a junior and has experience. Just tell him not to pick up his third or he's not playing the rest of the first half.

I think K kept G on the bench way too long in the first half and it could have cost Duke a win yesterday.

Foul trouble, especially early foul trouble, makes players tentative. If a guy has 2 fouls in the first 8 minutes, you are much better off benching him for 12 minutes so he can give you 20 full-speed minutes in the 2nd half, than leaving him out there and making it highly probable that he won't be himself for much of the remainder of the game. Plus, there is the major possibility that he'll get that 3rd foul in the first half and pretty much assure that his productivity won't return to normal for the rest of the game.

[geraldsneighbor]

Scheyer missing the FT late after steal sure felt a lot like Demarcus vs. Belmont. Weird game, just glad to come out on top.

[-bdbd]

I actually agree with Jumbo here. K has rolled the dice differently in the past, most noteably UConn in 2004, and Shel and Shav both fouled out before the last 5 minutes (Shel btw, was a pretty good defender, and pretty adept at NOT fouling out). Calhoun sat Okafor for the entire first half and he dominated the second and UConn won the game by a bucket. The move worked for Calhoun, and so at the time he looked like a genius and K the goat. In fact, most people pointed to that move as THE REASON UConn won and Duke lost.

Pretty similar situation here, and I think K played it exactly the way Calhoun did him in '04. The difference was that Duke built a lead without Gerald in the game, and was playing stifling defense. It wasn't pretty, but given those circumstances, I wouldn't have risked playing Gerald since we were leading without him. Even at the end of the half with BC went on the run, we were only down 4. It was only a big Rice 3 at the buzzer that put us down 3 possessions. IIRC, Henderson DID get into the game again in the 1H for a few plays, but I may be wrong.

In the past, I've seen K usually do the opposite of what he did with Gerald. I know that K left Laettner in the 1H more than once with 2 fouls, and left guys like Shane in the game in the 2H after they picked up their 4th with 8+ minutes to go. It's a gamble either way. We both agree that K had to sit him after those two quick fouls. The only thing we may disagree on is whether he sat him too long or not.

Highlander - I agree and don't agree on some aspects.

- 2004 FF - (I actually was there, though you probably had a better view than I did from the SA nosebleeds...) As I recall Shel fouled out and I think two of his fouls were on offense - kinda unusual. Actually, we had three (3!) Centers foul out in that game trying to guard Okafor. He was special (and so was the zebra treatment he received in that game I would argue). Also, JJ not getting the call at the end while being mugged on his way to the basket made that game the poster child of the "Duke doesn't gets all the calls" crowd.

- K has stated more than once that he doesn't understand why coaches keep their star players out until the very end, when they have multiple fouls.

- K's theory is this: Why leave potential fouls on the table? Say your star player picks up his 4th foul with 12 minutes to play. And say you can, on average, expect to get 7-9 minutes out of him per foul. Then why not leave him in and get the full 7-9 minutes out of him, as opposed to waiting until 4 minutes remain to reinsert him (and get only 4 minutes of play out of him)?
(In theory, at least, a minute of play is a minute of play whenever it occurs.)

- Of course, in most cases, a well-coached player w/ 4 fouls is likely going to play "softer" D, to avoid #5 ...and we have all read the refs generally tend to be a little slower to call a foul when they know it is #5 on someone. So you can probably get more than 7-9 minutes. (But, to your point, you have to be able to trust the player to be more cautious.)

Last night, I think Duke playing so well w/o GH helped K to keep Gerald out for so long. He'd have been hard pressed to do so if we were down by 10.

Honestly, I don't look for K to change his philosophy too very much though. I still expect to see our top guys playing with 2 fouls late in the first half, or with 4 with say, 8 minutes to go in the game. We'll see...


-BDBD

[-bdbd]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think we're playing a rival tomorrow.

"Not our rival! Not our rival! Not our rival! Not our rival!" Sound familliar? ;-)

In all seriousness, I do have a rules question: At the very end of the first half BC had the ball down the stretch, but with a 6 second differential between game and shot clocks (i.e. Duke would have to get the ball back, per one commentator). With about 15 seconds to go BC gets trapped and calls a timeout. When they come back from the timeout the shot clock is turned off and BC runs it down for the Rice 3 at the buzzer. (Arrgh!)

How was this possible? Does the shot clock reset after a timeout? I was very surprised. It seemed to give BC an extra 6 seconds to set up that shot.

-BDBD

[dukee94]

In all seriousness, I do have a rules question: At the very end of the first half BC had the ball down the stretch, but with a 6 second differential between game and shot clocks (i.e. Duke would have to get the ball back, per one commentator). With about 15 seconds to go BC gets trapped and calls a timeout. When they come back from the timeout the shot clock is turned off and BC runs it down for the Rice 3 at the buzzer. (Arrgh!)

How was this possible? Does the shot clock reset after a timeout? I was very surprised. It seemed to give BC an extra 6 seconds to set up that shot.

-BDBD

The timeout was at the 18 second mark. Elliot Williams then fouled Tyrese Rice at the 13 second mark to reset the shot clock:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/playby...meId=290720150

[BulldogDancer81]

"Not our rival! Not our rival! Not our rival! Not our rival!" Sound familliar? ;-)

In all seriousness, I do have a rules question: At the very end of the first half BC had the ball down the stretch, but with a 6 second differential between game and shot clocks (i.e. Duke would have to get the ball back, per one commentator). With about 15 seconds to go BC gets trapped and calls a timeout. When they come back from the timeout the shot clock is turned off and BC runs it down for the Rice 3 at the buzzer. (Arrgh!)

How was this possible? Does the shot clock reset after a timeout? I was very surprised. It seemed to give BC an extra 6 seconds to set up that shot.

-BDBD

BDBD I am pretty sure there was a foul there not just a timeout. Thus the shot clock reset.

[bird]

Be careful what you wish for. Duke would be better off in Philadelphia sans the UNC hoard than Greensboro IMO.

I respectfully disagree with the seeming concensus that Greensboro is a worse draw than, say, Greensboro. I've been to first round games in Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro. Charlotte was bad, I'll give you that. But I didn't think there was any real problem with in Greensboro or Raleigh. Anyway, I look forward to Duke forcing the opposing fans to sit there and watch Duke win. In fact, one of the sweetest years was when Duke got the Dean Dome and UNC had to travel.