Charting Duke vs. Florida State (ACC Tournament)

[Jumbo]

Well, for all the talk about the new lineup, this game was a vintage, say, December contest from a plus/minus perspective. Early in the year, the team really kicked things up a notch when Nolan Smith and Brian Zoubek were in the game as opposed to their counterparts. That happened again today. Zoubek was +12 in nine minutes and you could see his impact out there -- Alabi got a couple of buckets early, but Zoubs came in and shot that down. And when Nolan is in with our top 3 guys, we have four legit scoring threats out there. He just has to stop fouling. It's also worth noting that our starting lineup got outscored again. So, while lots of credit is being awarded to the lineup change, the same guys who got things done earlier in the season are starting to come alive again. Anyway, on to the numbers ...

Individuals
Gerald Henderson 79-67 (+12)
Brian Zoubek 19-7 (+12)
Kyle Singler 79-69 (+10)
Nolan Smith 55-45 (+10)
David McClure 42-35 (+7)
Jon Scheyer 74-69 (+5)
Greg Paulus 2-1 (+1)
Elliot Williams 22-23 (-1)
Lance Thomas 23-29 (-6)

Per 40 Minutes
Brian Zoubek +53.3
Greg Paulus +20
David McClure +17.5
Gerald Henderson +12.6
Nolan Smith +16
Kyle Singler +10
Jon Scheyer +5.3
Elliot Williams -3.1
Lance Thomas -12.6

Lineups
Scheyer-Williams-Henderson-Singler-Zoubek (x3) 10-0 (+10)
Smith-Scheyer-Henderson-McClure-Singler (x2) 37-28 (+9)
Smith-Henderson-McClure-Singler-Thomas 5-0 (+5)
Smith-Scheyer-Henderson-Singler-Zoubek (x3) 9-7 (+2)
Paulus-Scheyer-Henderson-Singler-Thomas 2-1 (+1)
Paulus-Scheyer-Henderson-Singler-Zoubek 0-0 (0)
Smith-Scheyer-McClure-Singler-Thomas (x2) 0-2 (-2)
Smith-Scheyer-Henderson-Singler-Thomas (x2) 4-8 (-4)
Scheyer-Williams-Henderson-McClure-Singler 0-5 (-5)
Scheyer-Williams-Henderson-Singler-Thomas (x2) 12-18 (-6)

[-jk]

"History repeats itself," or "We learn from our mistakes?" Or, simply, "In K we trust?"

All in all, a nice outcome. They've tasted a championship. And that can't be bad, no matter how many minutes anyone played.

-jk

[COYS]

Getting demoted and then getting a concussion is never something you wish on anyone, especially a guy like Nolan. However, he has handled this adversity really well and seems to have hit the reset button on his season. The fouling aside, he's playing great defense and he's far more confident offensively when he plays off the ball. I hope the fouls will abate as he gets back to 100%. The fact that Greg is now our 9th option speaks volumes to the weapons at our disposal. Big lift from Z, too. He seems to be most effective in spurts and I think today illustrated exactly how K is likely to use him in the tourney. Ewil's limitation (his lack of shooting touch) has been very evident during the past few games, but Nolan's return will take the pressure off of him and allow him to concentrate on lockdown D and opportunistic put-backs and drives on offense. This is definitely a team that is getting better and is still capable of getting better as the NCAAT wears on. Wow, and we are quite efficient on offense when we keep our turnovers below 10 . . . when we commit 4 TOTAL, just wow.