MBB: Duke 79, FSU 69... ACC Champions! Post-Game Thread

[BlueDevilBaby]

Tremendous effort, fellows! Finished like Duke teams of old, playing keep-away and making freethrows. Could not be happier for a great group of guys. I love Dave Henderson - an unsung hero on this team . Gman gave him a great compliment - unrecognized MVP. Take this momentum forward into the big dance!

[BlueintheFace]

1) CONGRATULATIONS... today, in the first half, we saw what it looks like when G, Jon, and Kyle are all playing great on both ends of the floor and our bench is contributing. It's beautiful.

2) Jon is playing great right now. Kyle is too. Those two are just warriors who hit one big shot after another.

3) G was the best and worst player on the court today. He made some amazing plays and knocked down some really big ones too. However, he made some really bad shots at the end of the 1st half, and completely tanked our offense at the beginning of the 2nd half with one bad decision after another. (also- he needs to not jump into defenders looking for the foul call)

4) Our defense won us the game. We didn't play 40 minutes of great D, but 30 was enough.

5) We played REALLY STUPID in the last 4 minutes (G's three attempt, not pulling the ball back out after misses, waiting to be fouled in the corner with 2 minutes remaining, fouling on drives (I'm looking at you Dave), etc...). I thought we were the kind of team that handles those situations well. Let's hope this was an anomaly.

6) THIS CANNOT BE IGNORED: Nolan made a huge difference for us on this title run. His defense and occasional bursts on offense lifted the team and provided another weapon. It is so huge to have him back.

7) Dave and Z provided GREAT INTERIOR DEFENSE when they were on the floor. Again, our bench was great.

... onwards to March

[grossbus]

"Celebrate, folks! There will be plenty of time to analyze and such coming up. But enjoy this. Huge, huge accomplishment for these kids. Way to go!!!"

what he said!

[RelativeWays]

Wow, I used to take this thing for granted a few years ago but now it feels great to win it. This team seems to be quite in sync right now. My only hope for the rest of march is that we can get Nolan and EW back into an offensive streak. Nolan has played well in two games returning, if we get those guys contributing buckets, we could surprise some folks.

Great win, great accomplishment, we are so far away from where this team was 30 days ago its pretty amazing.

[BlueintheFace]

ACC CHAMPS!!!! We are not peaking in February this year baby!!! We are getting BETTER AND BETTER. Bring on the Tourney!

[sagegrouse]

Aside from the absolutely clutch play of Scheyer and the brilliance of Henderson and Singler, EVERY PLAYER today distinguished himself. Zoubek was a revelation, in neutralizing Alabi. Paulus was a sparkplug in limited minutes. Smith -- where have you been Nolan? His play was brilliant at both ends. EWill helped silence Douglas in the first half, when it really counted. McLure and Thomas were very gritty players.

sagegrouse

[jipops]

Clearly the Duke brand is dying.

Felt both relief and exhilaration in this one. I'm so glad these guys get to hang a banner in Cameron. After some struggles and criticisms by the self-proclaimed duke-hating "experts" over the past couple seasons, it's nice to see these guys accomplish something like this.

On to the NCAA tournament.

[gwwilburn]

Again, nice Win. Would have loved to see more from Greg, but he played his heart out in the last part of the first half in a game where he did not really match up well with anyone. Hopefully, this carries over into the next three weekends.

[godukerocks]

You know, I really like winning championships.


Great job guys!

[CBDUKE]

ACC CHAMPS!! I really wanted this one in the year of the unbeatable Holes!!

[tendev]

This was a great championship effort in all three games. We got better as the tournament went on and that is a sign of a very good team. I thought Zoubek had a great game in the first half, obviously frustrating Alabi and getting several big boards. He also is so much larger than LT that his screens are more effective, which gave our shooters more room and time to take and hit the threes.

The defense and rebounding was great. A well deserved championship and while I am hoping for a great run in the NCAAT, they can't take this one away. IT IS DUKE'S FOREVER.

[hudlow]

Used to the the winner of the ACC tourney was a lock for a #1 seed in the NCAA.

This year should be no different.

Go Duke!

hud

[Faison1]

What an accomplishment!!!! Way to go, guys!!

My buddy (UNC fan) and I were talking last night about what a cool feeling it must be to accomplish stuff with teammates you like being around.

And it seems these guys are friends, which makes it so much more satisfying.

So, thank you for the great ACC season, and keep up the great work!!!!

[kaufmjo]

It feels so great to win an ACC tournament and get back to the top. The guys played a fantastic tournament and being 8 out of 9 at the end of the season is certainly a huge change from years past. Putting aside the lights out shooting throughout spurts of the first and second half, I think Zoubek's interior defense was great to see. Especially coming from a guy who has been getting steamroled in recent games - his ability to step up and contribute in the face of a matchup problem is the kind of depth we will need in the tournament. Way to go to the coaching staff as well - nice intensity and focus for last few weeks to turn the ship around.

Let's hope for getting the 6th ranking in the tournament, a strong 2 seed and likely matchup against Memphis or Pitt. Little worried about Pitt, but think we can beat either one.

[InSpades]

Great game! Coming into the tourney we were playing geat offense, not great defense. 1st 2 games of the tourney we played great defense, not great offense. It was nice to see a combination of the 2 in the 1st half. Though I'm not sure it was so much "great offense" as "great shooting" but those 2 can be the same thing sometimes. Would be nice if we could start getting easier buckets, we shot poorly from 2-point range again but we more than made up for it from 3.

Nolan is not-so-quietly asking for his starting spot back. He might not get it but he will be seeing a lot of the court. His drives to the lane were something else and that dunk was just NASTY. Love it! The future is certainly bright w/ him and Elliot in the backcourt.

[MChambers]

For about 35 minutes, it was pretty close to hitting on all cylinders. The last 5 were a little frustrating, but it didn't matter.

Great job on defense for most of the second half. We cut out the cheap fouls.

[roywhite]

Great win, guys.

28-6 on the season, finished strong with great ballhandling, timely shooting, and good defense.

Congrats to Dukies everywhere on our 17th and a big congrats to this team on their 1st championship!!

[PallasAthena]

Tremendous effort, fellows! Finished like Duke teams of old, playing keep-away and making freethrows. Could not be happier for a great group of guys. I love Dave Henderson - an unsung hero on this team . Gman gave him a great compliment - unrecognized MVP. Take this momentum forward into the big dance!

From Drewry? Wonder where he is today? Smiling, I bet.

[dukelifer]

Championship games are rarely pretty and Duke relaxed a bit too much after that huge lead with 5 minutes to go- but Duke did their thing. What was nice to see is that Duke has been playing good D and solid O in the last three games- not always at the same time but now in the same game. When all three guys are on- Duke is tough to beat. Also, a ncie game for Nolan. He was aggressive and confident. That little time off has done him a world of good. Duke now has another option. Elliot hit a bit of wall in the tourney but he is still a much better player now and will give Duke options. Lance had a nice rebounding game- just needs to convert the short ones. Still Duke is playing well at the moment and they don't look tired. Right now is time to enjoy a championship- despite what the rest of the world thinks- an ACC tourney championship still means something and should give these guys some confidence.

[wallyman]

fabulous play by almost everyone. scheyer a worthy mvp, but story of the tournament was nolan coming back and making a huge difference. if we rotate smith and williams on quick guards we can stop -- or at least slow down -- almost anyone. loved seeing them celebrate at the end. they really earned it.