MBB: Duke 64- Arizona State 53-- Post Game Thread

[BlueintheFace]

Ugly Win, but a win. Keep it civil.

[Welcome2DaSlopes]

Next up Uconn, Lets get this win.

[miramar]

I thought that we would see some improvement from Boateng, but his line was 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 8 turnovers.

[IBleedBlue]

Now we know how important M2Plumlee is for this team. We need more athleticism and more bodies to absorb all those fouls

[proelitedota]

Let Dawkins play.

[BlueintheFace]

stanford up 2 on kentucky with 1:27 to go... just sayin

[jacone21]

If Duke shoots better and turns the ball over a little less, the game would've looked a lot better. I know.. if a frog had wings.. blah blah. My point is that the boys played pretty awfully, yet still gutted out a win. They will play better. Gotta protect the ball and get better at team D. An elite point will eat tonight's defense alive. Lots of coaching points for K to emphasize.

[JaMarcus Russell]

Now we know how important M2Plumlee is for this team. We need more athleticism and more bodies to absorb all those fouls

Exactly. It was hard watching Zoubek on both sides of the ball tonight. He did grab some nice rebounds, but I got nervous every time he tried to defend a player past the free throw line. He just doesn't have the foot speed to catch up, and I think Mason would do much better in that part of the game.

Lance was good on the defensive end, but I get equally nervous whenever he decides to put the ball on the floor.

This was an ugly win, but it's not the end of the world. It's what happens when no one is shooting particularly well against a zone defense.

[Spam Filter]

Against decent competition, we look just like the 08-09 version and the 07-08 version, same weaknesses.

We are not athletic, particularly when it comes to quickness, maybe against an absolute scale we are athletic, but compared to other top flight NCAA basketball teams, we aren't. We don't have a single player that is above average quickness for his position. Maybe Mason can be that guy. But our perimeter is just not that quick.

[Poincaré]

I didn't see a single dunk in this game from our team. I couldn't believe it, so I went back and checked the play-by-play to confirm. Zero dunks. I am not saying that we need to be dunking all over the place, but the fact that we didn't get a single dunk is pretty worrisome. I understand that part of this is a product of Herb's preferred style. Can anyone shed some light on this matter? On a different note, I really enjoyed Miles' mini block party.

PS: I sure hope no high school kids were watching this game.

[DevilHorns]

haha i love how the first post says "keep it civil" even though we won the game.

hard to see jwill after the game predict uconn over us, though i think he's predicting correctly if we bring the same game friday. that said, u have to believe k will come out with an adapted plan, and im sure the squad will have learned a lot in these next few days to accomdate the much more athletic uconn squad.

right now im hoping for a johnny d out-coach calipari throwdown. should be ending soon.

as for my duke-uconn prediction, i think we come out ready, and in a way, im happy for this wake-up call.

[mapei]

I thought we were really late on defense on *many* plays. And, yeah, Duke seems really committed to having their bigs come out and flash to the perimeter. Wasn't working too well night, definitely won't work Friday.

[COYS]

If Duke shoots better and turns the ball over a little less, the game would've looked a lot better. I know.. if a frog had wings.. blah blah. My point is that the boys played pretty awfully, yet still gutted out a win. They will play better. Gotta protect the ball and get better at team D. An elite point will eat tonight's defense alive. Lots of coaching points for K to emphasize.

I think this is pretty much what we can take away from this game . . . well, besides that Scheyer is really, really good. Basically, we have to shoot better tomorrow, and we will. Singler missed a few interior buckets he'll normally make. And, of course, way too many silly turnovers were committed by everyone, including Scheyer's "risky" move to the basket that resulted in his foot stepping out of bounds. Glad he was finally willing to take some risks, tonight . I expect to see a great game on Friday. We'll see if we come out firing on all cylinders.

[obsesseddukefan]

Got to admit, it was ugly but a win is a win. We just need to protect the ball a little better, and need a little more speed and I think we will be fine against UCONNvicts. Next Play.

[jipops]

Huge props to Sendek's matchup zone. Lucky for us UConn won't be playing it. That D gave us fits, took away a lot of good looks and eliminated looks underneath. Jon played through it very well. ASU also spread the floor exploiting our bigs, Miles saved us with some key blocks. I thought our defense was stellar in the 2nd.

[moonpie23]

if they bring the same game friday, it's gonna be uconn all day.. tonight was out of sync...

hope they get a better flow...

[ChicagoCrazy84]

I didn't see a single dunk in this game from our team. I couldn't believe it, so I went back and checked the play-by-play to confirm. Zero dunks. I am not saying that we need to be dunking all over the place, but the fact that we didn't get a single dunk is pretty worrisome. I understand that part of this is a product of Herb's preferred style. Can anyone shed some light on this matter? On a different note, I really enjoyed Miles' mini block party.

PS: I sure hope no high school kids were watching this game.

I agree with both points! I didn't really think about it, but yes, we did not have any dunks. That was partially because we didn't get any fast break points off turnovers and because we didn't get to the basket much. Credit ASU for controlling the game, but man, we looked pretty dead. There was no excitement and it really didn't look like they were having fun out there. I hope we get a little looser against UCONN, otheriwse, we will get run out of the gym.

[dukelifer]

Well- Duke did not play well but they won. Lets not forget that this was a very late game and away from home for the first time. While there was not really a time that ASU looked like they might win, they did control the flow of the game for long stretches. Duke obviously did not shoot well- particularly Singler- and that helped ASU. But eventually Duke got into a little groove. It was a little frustrating that Duke could not establish much inside except off of misses. Perhaps MP2 can give this presence. But credit ASU - they played hard and deliberate. Herb has done this before against Duke. I thought Dawkins played well when out there- showing confidence on those deep threes. The kid is not shy and Duke will need his offense. Zoubek had some good minutes- despite many fouls and Scheyer really played well throughout. Not sure one can extrapolate much, though. We will learn more about this team when they play against UConn. Duke will need to find a way to stop their penetration and shoot much, much better to win. Singler needs to have a great game if Duke is to win. I expect Duke to play better than tonight but this will be a very tough test.

[roywhite]

Some positives---defense was better in the second half..did not allow drives resulting in lay-ups, rebounds and loose balls started going to Duke in 2nd half, Dawkins is a weapon. Really solid game by Jon Scheyer and spurts by Nolan and Kyle.

Get well soon, Mason. Could be a big upgrade.

[COYS]

Against decent competition, we look just like the 08-09 version and the 07-08 version, same weaknesses.

We are not athletic, particularly when it comes to quickness, maybe against an absolute scale we are athletic, but compared to other top flight NCAA basketball teams, we aren't. We don't have a single player that is above average quickness for his position. Maybe Mason can be that guy. But our perimeter is just not that quick.

Geez, yeah, we're so dang slow. We were so slow on defense that ASU shredded us to the tune of 39% shooting. Ok, so Zoubs and Miles got caught out on the perimeter a few times and got beat by quick guards. That happens when we play defense like we did tonight (a little disorganized, at times). Even on those plays, ASU needed a pick and roll to get the action going. Nolan, Scheyer, Dawkins, and even Singler did great jobs prevented their defenders from blowing by. Miles' rotations were slow not for lack of quickness, but from inexperience. This game showed how much he still has to learn. We also missed a lot of chippies and wide open threes. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of new pieces working this season and it will take time before things click all the time, but team quickness is far from our biggest concern.