Man of the Match vs. Texas

[slower]

So, to hell with carolina and ACC unity from this point out. I want the 'holes to choke on their own bile and cry in the night. Their disgraceful fans deserve nothing more than to have what goes around, come around.

you are only NOW coming to this conclusion?

[mapei]

Jon: smartest Duke bball player since Shane. And this year he is showing athleticism to go with it. He did have that mid-season slump, but it is pretty easily forgiven now!

[ice-9]

I love Scheyer. I believe his heady play at the PG spot is by far the #1 reason we turned things around since the BC loss in the ACC season. In fact, he's been so good, I don't even really think we need to recruit a PG for next season any more, though of course I wouldn't mind a talent like Wall.

I also thought Scheyer had a tremendous all around game yesterday.

That said, I agree with the other poster that "The Save" isn't that crucial of a play. It's an incredible play, and it was important, but the heave itself wouldn't have counted for much if Elliot didn't chase it down AND get fouled. According to the announcers, even if Gary Johnson hadn't fouled Elliot, he wouldn't have gotten the ball back. Texas would've gotten the possession. So...big play, but it needed that Johnson foul to have mattered.

If you ask me, if I had to name THE play of the game, I would point to Singler's tip in. Texas had huge momentum, tying the game for the first time; there's 1:24 left in the game; the dome is roaring. A play is drawn up for Henderson to drive in; he missed the layup and BAM out of nowhere you see Singler flying in like Superman and tipping it in. Wow. I was just floored by the play.

I would say the next most important play is a sequence by Nolan Smith. Again, tied ball game, under a minute left to go. Henderson does a good job of penetrating but misses the layup. Who gets the rebound? NOLAN SMITH!! He's fouled and he makes two huge clutch free throws. Nothing but net free throws.

When Texas tied the game, I have to admit I thought we were going to lose.

After Singler's and Nolan's plays, I knew we were going to be OK: we were calm, we were focused, and we were not knocked back. I knew we were going to pull it out for a tough win. Scheyer's and G's great plays down the stretch proved me right.

[Newton_14]

Jon's save was huge/special/incredible for numerous reasons and should get all the praise being given.

"All" players know to not save the ball back into the opponents end of the court, however, "most" fail to actually remember that in the heat of the moment. In most cases the following happens on a play like that:
- Player X throws a low pass back into the Texas end of the court, or
- Player X spins as he is falling OOB and throws in the direction of the nearest teammate he see's, or
- Player X decides to "eat it" and goes OOB not attempting the save

What Jon did:
1. He recognized that his team is up 3 and the clock is running out. (it's about 15.4 seconds left once he grabs the ball)
2. We know throwing it back towards the Duke end was intentional, and I believe he also threw it as high as possible intentionally as well, knowing this would eat up more precious time on the clock. So his decision making on that play meant that the worst possible outcome would be that Texas chases the ball down, but the clock would now be below 10 seconds and Texas would have to get the ball back up court into Duke's waiting defense with time running out.
3. Throwing it where he did also allowed a possible scenario that one of his teammates run it down as well.
4. And finally, as others have pointed out, not only was it a heady play, it was a heck of a physical play as well, getting the pass as high and long as he did with his left hand while falling OOB.

It was just an incredible play, that came at a critical point in a very important game. Because of all of that I believe it warrants the praise being given...

[Greg_Newton]

Jon did do a great job on Abrams and had several huge plays... I thought his off-balance three off of an inbounds play a few minutes earlier was just as important as the save to the swing of the game at the time (although I agree with Boozer, I have no idea how you get that much leverage/power on a behind the back pass!).

I'm voting for G though, because I think it was a more important game for him. From the numbers, it looks like I missed some of his misses during my frantic struggle with my laptop and the ensuing tear to a sports bar when Tennessee's CBS affiliate once again switched to Western Kentucky partway through the first half, but from what I saw, he looked closer to his peak mid-ACC form than he's been in a while. He was confidently pulling up and nailing 18 footers, and had that extra gear on his second step towards the basket that makes him such an intimidating offensive player. The clutch FT shooting was also huge.

That huge, explosive second step had seemed to be missing from his game recently... he'd often look kind of hesitant going to the basket, almost like he was trying to drive through defenders rather than past them. Maybe I'm just seeing things, but either way I was very glad to see him moving confident and purposefully with the ball last night. For the stretches I saw (early 1st half, second half) he was clearly the best player on the floor.