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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    Coach K Chronicle Interview

    http://sports.chronicleblogs.com/

    Informative interview.

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by roywhite View Post
    http://sports.chronicleblogs.com/

    Informative interview.
    Interesting. K says, "we have four big guys" and mentions Ryan but not Kyle, Lance, or Olek. He says Kyle will play exclusively on the perimeter and that Jon will be the nominal point guard. He says we'll be really "big on the perimeter."

    Reading this after reading the various 09-10 threads, my guess is a lot of us are going to be surprised come November.

  3. #3
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    Meeting with Marie Laveau
    Quote Originally Posted by Kedsy View Post
    Interesting. K says, "we have four big guys" and mentions Ryan but not Kyle, Lance, or Olek. He says Kyle will play exclusively on the perimeter and that Jon will be the nominal point guard. He says we'll be really "big on the perimeter."

    Reading this after reading the various 09-10 threads, my guess is a lot of us are going to be surprised come November.
    Was the context of this remark not regarding recent recruits rather than the entire team?

    It's not surprising that what Coach K anticipates for next year bears little resemblance to what fans have discussed over the summer break.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kedsy View Post
    Interesting. K says, "we have four big guys" and mentions Ryan but not Kyle, Lance, or Olek. He says Kyle will play exclusively on the perimeter and that Jon will be the nominal point guard. He says we'll be really "big on the perimeter."

    Reading this after reading the various 09-10 threads, my guess is a lot of us are going to be surprised come November.
    Isn't that sort of what people have been suggesting here already, though? I don't think it should be that big a shock that Coach K listed those four because those are the four tallest players on our team, and also the guys probably least-suited to play on the wing.

    People have been discussing Singler as a "3" all off-season, given that somebody big is going to have to play there by default. Singler and Thomas are the only ones of the big(ger) players to have shown any propensity at defending wing players.

    Based on this, it would seem to confirm what some have suggested: the Plumlees and Zoubek will battle for center minutes, Mason Plumlee, Kelly, and Thomas will battle for minutes at the "4", and Singler, Thomas, and Scheyer/Williams will collect the minutes at the "3."

    Of course, I guess anything can change based on how the guys practice in the fall (as Coach K alluded to in the interview). But that would be my read on things.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Kedsy View Post
    Reading this after reading the various 09-10 threads, my guess is a lot of us are going to be surprised come November.
    Kedsy is right. I think some folks sleep on Kyle way too much. He's just a wonderful athlete with one incredible sense of position. He is radar on the ball and rarely makes mistakes. I realize that isn't the point of this thread and don't want to hijack but I just love Kyle. It's going to be a great season, indeed!

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
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    Texas/NC
    I'm somewhat surprised. I really see Kelly as a 3 that causes mismatch problems. Perhaps he just can't defend that position...?

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Devil in the Blue Dress View Post
    Was the context of this remark not regarding recent recruits rather than the entire team?

    It's not surprising that what Coach K anticipates for next year bears little resemblance to what fans have discussed over the summer break.
    He mentioned Zoubek (along with Kelly and the two Plumlees) so I don't think the context was recent recruits.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by weezie View Post
    Kedsy is right. I think some folks sleep on Kyle way too much. He's just a wonderful athlete with one incredible sense of position. He is radar on the ball and rarely makes mistakes. I realize that isn't the point of this thread and don't want to hijack but I just love Kyle. It's going to be a great season, indeed!
    Great hands, too.

  9. #9
    makes sense to think of it as center by committee. Against guys like G-town's Monroe and Michigan's Sims, might see more of Mason and Kelly. Against jumbo centers, more of Zoubek and Miles.

    Perhaps Kyle gets most of his 30-35 minutes at SF with the other 5-10 coming from Elliott or Olek.

    Lance gets his 20-25 at PF with the other 15-20 coming from Kelly/Mason.

    So if Zoubek and Miles each play 15 MPG, there's another 10 for Mason/Kelly giving them a total of 25-30 to share, with one getting 15 and the other 10-15.

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by BlueintheFace View Post
    I'm somewhat surprised. I really see Kelly as a 3 that causes mismatch problems. Perhaps he just can't defend that position...?
    All of the scouting reports project him as a PF with a Euro-style big man's game. I don't claim to have any insight on this, but based on the scouting reports I had always pictured Kelly as more in the Shav mold of player. By that, I mean that I see him as a big guy with good range - not that he's likely to struggle like Randolph did.

    I may be off (given that I'm only basing this on scouting reports), but I had not pictured him as a college 3. I saw him playing the type of role Singler played the last two years - defending another team's big, and drawing that big guy away from the basket and out of his comfort zone.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    Lewisville, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by ACCBBallFan View Post
    makes sense to think of it as center by committee. Against guys like G-town's Monroe and Michigan's Sims, might see more of Mason and Kelly. Against jumbo centers, more of Zoubek and Miles.

    Perhaps Kyle gets most of his 30-35 minutes at SF with the other 5-10 coming from Elliott or Olek.

    Lance gets his 20-25 at PF with the other 15-20 coming from Kelly/Mason.

    So if Zoubek and Miles each play 15 MPG, there's another 10 for Mason/Kelly giving them a total of 25-30 to share, with one getting 15 and the other 10-15.
    You may be right...but the idea of Lance, Zoubs, and Miles each getting as many or more minutes than Mason or Ryan Kelly...frankly, I hope not.

    Perhaps I'm being over-optimistic but I see Mason and Ryan as having starter/star potential, and that's just not so for the older trio of Lance, Zoubs, and Miles.

    We'll see.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by roywhite View Post
    You may be right...but the idea of Lance, Zoubs, and Miles each getting as many or more minutes than Mason or Ryan Kelly...frankly, I hope not.

    Perhaps I'm being over-optimistic but I see Mason and Ryan as having starter/star potential, and that's just not so for the older trio of Lance, Zoubs, and Miles.

    We'll see.
    I disagree, I hope that Duke doesn't have to rely on freshmen in the paint, they could easily wear down as we've seen in the past and freshmen usually have a learning curve. As Coach K mentioned in the interview, Zoubek can be a decent player after having his first full year without injury at Duke. Lance will be much more effective at the 4 with a true big alongside of him. According to K, Miles has put on some weight and we know he has great athleticism, once things click he could also be a decent player. I think Mason and Ryan will have a slight adjustment period to the physicality of the college game but by February should be contributors.

  13. #13
    Along the lines of what other people have mentioned, but I thought this was the most interesting bit of today's portion of the interview (emphasis added):

    TC: I’ve played the top spot on a zone for years and gotten burned by that move many times.

    K: Right. So I’m excited about it. It also means we’re going to be big on the perimeter, where Kyle [Singler] will probably be all perimeter.

    TC: Offense and defense?

    K: Yeah. He will be like the 3 man.

    TC: OK. People have been talking for two years now about Kyle banging more down low, but you think the opposite this year?

    K: I know the opposite.
    That’s his future too, and he is going to be an NBA player. That makes us real big.
    All of this is still highly fungible, of course, but it makes sense that Kyle would see major minutes at the three. The only other practical lineups would have him at the four and all three guards at 1-3, or him at the two with Lance or Olek playing the 3 for a truly huge lineup.

    One possible X-Factor would be Lance on the wing. If I recall correctly he was listed as a small forward coming out of high school, but he's been playing inside his whole career at Duke out of necessity. How would he respond if he were put on the court without being expected to spend all his time battling in the post?

    The only sure things going into this year seem to be: 1. Kyle, Nolan, Elliot, and Jon are going to play many, many minutes; and 2. We're going to see lineups that are markedly different than what Duke has fielded in the last 5 or so years.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by roywhite View Post
    You may be right...but the idea of Lance, Zoubs, and Miles each getting as many or more minutes than Mason or Ryan Kelly...frankly, I hope not.

    Perhaps I'm being over-optimistic but I see Mason and Ryan as having starter/star potential, and that's just not so for the older trio of Lance, Zoubs, and Miles.

    We'll see.
    There are only 200 minutes to spread around and the three guards and Kyle Singler will consume at least 120 of them, leaving at most 80 to spread across 6 players.

    Even if you limit Olek's minutes to 5 or less, spreading the other 75 over 5 players is an average of 15.

    Last year Lance played 19 and Zoubek 12 with better compettiion for minutes, not necessarily at their postions, from G and 5th year guy McClure than the competition they will face from two tall freshmen.

    But even if you kept their minutes the same, that's the same 15 minutes per player average. That only pleaves 45 minutes for the two Plumlees and Kelly who again would average close to the same 15 minutes as Z and Lance.

    With Lance at his normal forward position and not overmatched at center by necessity, I expect his 19 will grow to 20-25. Similarly with Zoubek being healthy all summer as coach K points out, his 12 could easily grow to 15.

    As seniors they have an advantage knowing the Duke system, though that did not connote automativc PT for Paulus last year.

    I had not really thought of Kelly as comepting for post minutes but if he can play a Pittsnoggle role, he has an even chance for PT with Mason (I had been thinking Mason competes at forward and center and therefore might get more PT than Ryan only at forward and Miles/Z only at center).

    My guess is if you just put all 5 guys down for 15 each, you would not be too far off the final mark, and Olek may compete for more than a token 5 too.

    The most encouraging part of the articvle for me though was that coach K said he would instruct his guards to play inside-out to ge tthe ball in to bigs who can score, rather than (my words now) three perimeter guys and two decoys that he played versus Nova. This year it would just be two guys Scheyer and Singler without G, so time to change tactics.
    Last edited by ACCBBallFan; 06-24-2009 at 02:38 AM.

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