MBB: Duke 67, Maryland 61 (ACC Tournament) Post-Game Thread

[CBDUKE]

My heart is beating and I'm still breathing. I'm too old for this too! GO DUKE

[loran16]

Elliot showed some poor play in the first half. Still in the 2nd half he had a few good solid boards, including 3 Offensive rebounds and one putback.

I want him to remain our starter, but K has to emphasize he should NOT take an open 3 pointer unless its near the end of a shot clock or the team has had a chance to survey its opportunities. He's NOT a great 3 point shooter, but he can drive, pass, and play D.

This is something K should have a word about, and he should be fine though.

Great play by nolan though.

[weezie]

Here's to hoping those 3 zebra-clad bozos do NOT make the final tomorrow.

It's not terping if you win, right?

No, it's not terping, it's just par for the course when Duke is playing. The game is too fast for the refs and they are too short. They can't see the entire body in play and they focus only on the waist.

Be careful what you wish for, Hess is definitely in the rotation for tomorrow's game.

[COYS]

I loved watching this win. Yeah, it wasn't pretty but with the refs swallowing their whistles (except for fouls away from the ball), this game was destined to be a physical, defensive struggle. I love seeing our renewed commitment to lock-down defense. Also, Nolan had his best game in a month or so. The rust is starting to come off. Good timing, too, since Elliot's limitations were exploited today by Maryland. Still, good defensive effort from the freshman. If Nolan starts scoring, it's going to take the pressure off of Elliot to be a fourth scoring option. Ironically, I think this will make him a more effective force on the offensive end as he can pick his spots and play within his comfort zone and focus on being a defensive stopper. I DO expect to see him knock down those open threes next year, though.

It's always tough beating a team three times in one season. We got one chance to do that today and were successful. Hopefully we can make it two for two, tomorrow. FSU will be tough and I expect another physical, defensive game. Hopefully Gerald will regain his shooting touch and, as a team, we can grab (instead of just tipping) more rebounds and loose balls to keep a tall FSU team from getting easy buckets. I don't know about you guys, but I'm loving the idea of cutting down the nets and claiming the ACC title. Given how successful Duke has been in the past during these tournaments, it's easy to forget that, with the exception of Paulus, Pocius, and McClure, no one else on this team has any kind of post-season trophy to celebrate. I'm sure that our guys will be just as hungry for that trophy tomorrow as FSU.

[Bob Green]

Our reserves scored 19 points off the bench. That is 28.4% of the points we scored today. One weakness this team has had is bench points. This is a really nice development at the right time of the year. We are going to need to play eight or nine players the rest of the way and we need the three or four who come off the bench to score points when they are in the game.

[miramar]

Duke shot 11/33 (33%) on two pointers but 9/22 (41%) on threes. FTs were an impressive 18/21 (86%). Duke had a 9-4 advantage on threes and an 18-7 advantage on FTs. Rebounds were tied at 28, but Duke had a 14-12 advantage on the offensive end. It's kind of strange to see 30 defensive rebounds and 26 offensive. Nolan's 10 off the bench were key and must have been very satisfying all around.

[Faison1]

I thought some of the best ball played by Duke was in the first half with Paulus, Nolan, and McClure in the game...besides, of course that little run they went on around the 7 to 5 minute mark in the 2nd half.

Glad to see signs of life from Greg. A few nice threes will come in handy tomorrow.

FSU is going to be tough...

[devildm]

Speaking of terping, I just heard Mike Hogewood point out (emphatically) that Duke had 21 free throws while Maryland only had 9. Did he not watch the last 90 seconds of the game in which Maryland kept fouling Duke, causing Duke to shoot 10 free throws? I get so frustrated when sports comments make statements on statistics when they don't put them into context.

[weezie]

Speaking of terping, I just heard Mike Hogewood point out (emphatically) that Duke had 21 free throws while Maryland only had 9. Did he not watch the last 90 seconds of the game in which Maryland kept fouling Duke, causing Duke to shoot 10 free throws?

No, he was waiting in line for the half-priced hot dogs at the end of the game.

[COYS]

Speaking of terping, I just heard Mike Hogewood point out (emphatically) that Duke had 21 free throws while Maryland only had 9. Did he not watch the last 90 seconds of the game in which Maryland kept fouling Duke, causing Duke to shoot 10 free throws? I get so frustrated when sports comments make statements on statistics when they don't put them into context.

He also could point out that Maryland has one of the worst free throw rates in the country, rarely getting to the line. They are primarily a jump shooting team that simply does not draw many shooting fouls. Based on that statistic alone, Duke would be far more likely to have an advantage from the free throw line. Then add in the 8 free throws that Duke took while Maryland was trying to foul us and the margin of 21-9 is not surprising at all.

[77devil]

There use to be a strongly held belief among ACC basketball writers that the league was disadvantaged in the Big Dance because of tighter ACC officiating. This has been changing for awhile now but today demonstrates that the transition is complete. It's no wonder it was an ugly game. This Duke team doesn't back down though

[natkap]

Sure is nice to be playing tomorrow when Carolina will be sitting at home talking about how the ACC championship doesn't matter. I was very impressed with the defensive effort and thought that McClure really stepped up. We really needed that extra boost since G was struggling today. Go Duke!!!

[MB in MD]

This was a gratifying, if ugly, win. I thought we played hard but Maryland out hustled us--it seemed like every loose ball that was pingponged around went out of bounds off of us because they didn't let us get a clean grab. Our defense was great--we held Vasquez in check, made MD play in the half court most of the time, and most of their shots were contested. I think that that Hayes explosion in the last bit was calculated--we wanted to deny 3's and not foul to run clock and K knew that with the margin we had to work with it didn't matter if Hayes made a bunch of 2's (as long as we hit our free throws, which we fortunately did).

Maryland put an outstanding combo package on Henderson, with Mosely doing the heavy lifting, but consistently running him into help. If he'd made a few more of his pullups then maybe the rest of his game would have opened up, but I wouldn't chalk his performance up to just a bad game--Gary had a good game plan.

Our best lineups today, especially in the second half, had Smith and McClure, and Jon's offensive consistency kept us just enough ahead that MD had to work too hard.

I'd love to see the defense we've seen in the last couple of games get matched up with the offensive machine we saw down the stretch in the regular season. We will need to shoot better than 33% from 2 point range.

Still, we are still playing and Carolina is not. How sweet is that!

[Saratoga2]

Gary Williams has taken his share of criticism on this site, however, he did come up with a good defensive strategy against Duke. They zoned and sagged back against anyone not named Henderson, Singler and Scheyer. They dared Williams to shoot and know we tend to be a three headed offensive threat. Nolan helped that situation as did McClure. I think others will try that defense on us, since it was fairly successful.

GOOD WIN!

[mgtr]

It is wonderful that we have a three-legged stool (G, Jon & Kyle), but the great news is that we can find a few extra legs when we need them! That gives me a lot of optimism for the NCAAs.

[Bob Green]

I think others will try that defense on us, since it was fairly successful.

Exactly! Which is why it is so important for our bench players to score when in the game. The 19 points off the bench today were huge.

[InSpades]

Watching ESPN2 at halftime of Baylor vs. Mizzoo... Some guy asking Steve Lavin "so coach, who has the edge tomorrow in the ACC final?". As they show the combined result of the 2 games Duke has played against Florida St. this year Lavin replies "It's got to be Florida St., they just present a matchup problem for Duke". The other guy was almost laughing as he replied "but coach, they've beat them 8 of the last 10 and twice this year...".

[dukelifer]

The bench really played well today. Smith has some really nice moments and McClure gave great energy. All is all, a strong effort. Is it me, but Duke seems to be able to play O or play D but not both at the same time. I thought Duke relied too much on the jumper today. I wish this team would pass the ball more and attack more. But a win is a win and it is great to be in the finals again. A conference tourney win would be a great accomplishment for this team- but it will take a great effort tomorrow. Toney Douglas is on a roll.

[Dr. Tina]

Jon had a great game today. He's responded so well to the PG spot and I think it rather suits him. It's worked to our advantage in many ways. We have fewer TO's and his offense has picked up as a result.

G needs to play better for us tomorrow. I'm wondering if he's putting too much pressure on himself or something? I think he wants to be SuperG out there sometimes and can start trying to do too much. It leads to poor decisions. The upside is that I think there's potential for him to be fresher in tomorrow's game because his minutes were limited on Friday and he only played 33 minutes today.

Kyle had a great first half. His offensive boards helped, but I think he could have gotten more if they all weren't playing volleyball out there so much when the ball was up for grabs. He looks good for the postseason. I don't get this worn out vibe from him.

Nolan has benefited from his break on the court. He did really well today. He hit some good shots for us and played good D. I'm happy to see him back.

McClure is huge whenever he can give us defense AND offense. He really lifted us in the 2nd half with his play. Greg's 3 was good and I thought he did a decent job.

EWill played a bit more tentatively today and MD took advantage. I hope he recognizes that teams are going to tempt him to take an open 3 and he'll be more assertive. I love the fact that he does play so well in general for us that we now have 3 options at guard with him, Nolan, and G.

Overall, good game and I feel positive about our prospects tomorrow and in the NCAA's. It's nice to feel like we're playing better at the end of the season for once. Also, who doesn't like seeing UNC vanquished so they have no chance at an ACC Tournament championship?

[dukelifer]

Watching ESPN2 at halftime of Baylor vs. Mizzoo... Some guy asking Steve Lavin "so coach, who has the edge tomorrow in the ACC final?". As they show the combined result of the 2 games Duke has played against Florida St. this year Lavin replies "It's got to be Florida St., they just present a matchup problem for Duke". The other guy was almost laughing as he replied "but coach, they've beat them 8 of the last 10 and twice this year...".

Florida State does have the advantage because I think the shooting from down deep is most likely to be affected by the three days of playing. As a result, the inside play will be big tomorrow. Duke will need to have great midrange shooting game and turn to's into points to be effective. The goal will be to keep it close and then try to win it at the end. Duke has the advantage at the end of the game.