I'm just happy to have a stress free game for once. I feel like it's been forever since we've been able to play our scrubs in the NCAA.
I was happy to see Paulus make some contributions, and also to see Zoubek, Pocius, Plumlee and Czyz in at the end. Something to tell their children and grandchildren. Somebody needs to whisper in Plumlee's ear that he not a point guard.
I'm just happy to have a stress free game for once. I feel like it's been forever since we've been able to play our scrubs in the NCAA.
Given all the things we've done differently this year, it could actually be to our advantage that Barnes might think he's familiar with K and Duke. If he thinks it's a team similar to the ones that blew his squads out in 2003 and 2006, he's in for a big surprise. Totally diff. style.
He also shot threes without hesitation when he was left open, which despite his abysmal percentage for the year, I'm happy to see. Obviously, when the games on the line I'd rather have one of our other guys take the shot, but you never know when Elliot may find himself wide open on a broken play.
Nolan is really looking like a new player. Attacking the basket, stepping into his perimeter shots, finding the open man . . . Before he got injured, he had been so out of sorts I had almost forgotten how much of a positive impact he can have for us. Scheyer is still clearly better running the offense, but Nolan looks far more comfortable even when he's directing traffic. With Elliot, Jon, Gerald, Nolan, and Greg all playing well, our back-court is extremely difficult to match.
It's also nice seeing our perimeter shots falling right away. We seemed loose and mentally refreshed. A couple mistakes with the ball in transition, but I can live with that as the team continues to morph as Nolan works his way back into the rotation. Oh, and a great game from Thomas. When we get buckets from Thomas, we're really rollin'.
G was just 3-9 from the field, which isn't great, but he scored 13 points, including 7-7 from the line, had 6 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal (espn stats). And I was much more focused on our offense this game than on D but I don't recall G being a liability on defense either. I think it's totally unfair to say he "didn't really show up".
I definitely think that teams will have trouble with Williams in the tourney. FSU and BC and Maryland had prepared for him. FSU and Maryland had already seen him. They were used to seeing the big three, and were able to add Williams into their preparation.
Teams in the tourney that haven't seen us yet have to concentrate on preparing for the big three. There REALLY isn't much film on Williams yet, and he can take advantage of that against teams that haven't seen us.
And I definitely loved seeing Greg get some positive minutes. We'll definitely need him in that capacity going down the stretch. At some point, somebody's gonna be tired or get into foul trouble, and if he can play like he did today, it'll be huge.
And who DIDN'T love seeing Marty hit that tres at the end?
JMHO.
Last edited by bjornolf; 03-20-2009 at 12:32 AM.
I'm not saying he played terrible, he just wasn't aggressive on either end of the floor and didn't assert himself very often when the opportunity was there. His turnovers were pretty bad ones too that led to fast breaks. He didn't pay poorly, just didn't seem to really play with much umpph. No big deal.
We were so much bigger and stronger than this team, we certainly should've dominated them inside, and we did. Nice job.
As for the perimeter shooting, many of the continuity-related factors that go into shooting a high percentage from distance are starting to turn in this team's favor, after being against it for much of the year. A steady lineup, consistent point play getting us into the offense smoothly on nearly every trip up the floor, and a rotation that's defined well enough for guys to know their roles. This all leads to better shots and better shot selection, which leads to better shooting, as in the acc final, and now added confidence, which just adds even more in your favor. I still don't want to see us start to lean on the 3 for the majority of our offense but you can see the difference in the strokes now that guys are taking shots in rhythm, in the flow of the offense, knowing they're taking good shots and pulling the trigger with confidence. It's great to see.
http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.db...ATCLID=3696658
Big advantage on the boards for Duke, and we hit our foul shots. Another team shoots 50%+ against us.
An uncharacteristic number of turnovers for us; we were bothered by their defensive pressure (which included plenty of illegal hand-checking).
I'm not nominating him for man of the match but I disagree about your assessment of his game because you seem to imply a lack of effort. G put the ball on the deck and drove, a lot. For this, he was rewarded with frequent trips to the line. I liked his approach today. I don't think he's ever going to come off as fiery as a guy like Thomas.
Yes, they shot 50% against us, but at one point, they put up a stat showing that they were shooting 36% for over half of the second half. They got it back to 50% with the layups in trash time. When it REALLY mattered, at the beginning of the second half, we shut them down.Another team shoots 50%+ against us.
What about Jon's line? 15 points, 3 boards, 4 assists, 1 turnover, 1 steal. We had a few more turnovers than usual, but that's how Binghamton plays, and Jon really handled the pressure well. G and Kyle had 8 of the 15, and 3 more were by backups, Paulus, Pocius, and Plumlee, the three P's.
Haha, I second that. Definitely didn't see any mop-up minutes in last year's clash with Belmont. I much prefer the way it happened this year. I think some of the turnovers were just the result of us being a little amped up at the start of the game. It's easy to forget that most of our team has had primarily difficult experiences in the NCAAT. This game was a clear statement that last year's team has little in common with this year's team.
I liked the many contributions to the win. Kyle was not converting relatively easy shots,but did yeoman's work in other facets of the game.
Glad everyone got in except Steve Johnson. I was glad to see Marty probably hit his last shot in a Duke uniform.
For what it's worth this was a quote by the Binghamton head coach after the game.........
"They just wore us down," Broadus said. "People have already said that they're going to lose in whatever round. I tell you, they're good, and I don't see them losing anytime soon. ... We gave it our best shot, but at the end of the day, they were the better team. They wore us down, and there was nothing we could do."
I only saw the few minutes of the game that CBS chose to cover. Not criticizing them for this as our game was a forgone conclusion.
What I saw early on is that we tried to rush our shots and weren't solid offensively. Our defense and rebounding were, so we clearly had a big advantage. I thought Williams contribution to the offense early, by getting to the basket, was a real positive.
I understand we did a lot of substitution and that was good for a lot of reasons. We have the guards who can give AJ Abrams a lot of in your face pressure and should be able to get by Texas, but need our offense to play with maturity. Scheyer can give it that quality by keeping turnovers down and helping us to get good shots.
And lest anyone forget, that one turnover would not even have been recorded in a just world
I was both overjoyed and relieved at the way we started the second half. One of Jumbo's Phase VI points was about finishing off plays and teams. Check and check. The team knew that this game was theirs, and it would have been easy for them to come out and cruise through the second half and win by fifteen. But they came out with not a winning mentality, but a championship one, putting the game completely on ice by the first TO of the second half.
I can't wait to see the intensity our guys come out with on Saturday. I really see this as one of those classic K games: all of the heads droning on about all of the challenges an opponent presents to Duke, and then our guys come out and control the basketball game for 40 minutes.
I love Tubby Smith. I respect Minnesota. Duke is no Minnesota.
Nice, solid win. I have nothing to quibble about - our guys dominated a team they were supposed to beat. I was glad that Binghamtom didn't roll over for us - our guys had to play. Dominating a team that comes out really fighting to win is a great thing to see.
Can't wait for Saturday!