WBB: Duke-UConn

[wandalee]

UConn comes to CIS on Monday night. We need a huge Duke crowd (especially lots of students) to help out the team. Tickets are still available. On paper, we look like a huge underdog, but maybe Jaz will play the role of Jessica Foley to get the win!

[MHTorringjan]

I like that the students were apparently heard to cheer at the men's BC game during the announcement, hopefully, that means we'll have a good showing (and hopefully, they won't be able to leave at halftime because the game will be exciting enough for them!). Everybody who's here and has a couple of hours free on Monday night should be there! Go, DUKE!

[miramar]

UConn has beaten Stanford 80-69, FSU 78-59, and UNC 88-47, so graduation has not affected them at all. Nevertheless, UConn is playing #3 Notre Dame on Saturday before traveling to Cameron, so the timing is as good as it's going to get.

Duke struggled mightily at times last night against Miami, but Katie Meier's team has improved significantly this year and they deserve their #25 ranking. Krystal Thomas played a very strong game (7/10 15 pts and 12 boards) and Jasmine really stepped up after scoring only 1 point in the first half. She hit two big threes and finished with 15 points on only 4/19 shooting. Joy Cheek had a really rough game offensively (3/17) but pulled down 11 rebounds.

Miami's Riquana Williams (22.4 PPG coming in, with 27 vs. FSU last Sunday) started off hot with back to back threes, as the Duke defense was MIA. Then the women started bearing down and Williams missed 12 straight and finished with 10 on 4/23.

Duke was moving the ball well on offense, but they often ended up taking bad shots, unfortunately. But after falling behind 20-11 Duke slowly started taking control. Duke had an 8 point lead with a few minutes left, only to let Miami come back to only three points down in the final minute. Duke finally pulled away with free throws and solid defense to win by 7, but the game should have been in the refrigerator by then.

It was a good road win against an improved Miami team, but Duke will need to put together 40 minutes of good basketball on Monday, something they only showed in spurts last night.

[heyman25]

They will have to give 40 minutes of effort or it will be over before they know what happened.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I think you can put less impact on their drubbing of unc, as the heels are not looking like a very good team right now. They got beat by double digits last night by VT, and the Hokies are not a good team.

[burnspbesq]

Interesting that there was a piece on goduke.com today talking about how hard our women work in the weight room and how that translates into a different style of defense. It's very noticeable on the court this season. The contrast between this year's team and past Duke teams is not subtle. I expect we'll hear a lot of complaints from Sylvia about thug-ball.

Monday could be the most physical women's game you've ever seen, because neither of these teams will back down.

It will be interesting to see how UConn reacts when they have to take the same stuff that they dish out.

[miramar]

UConn is beating undefeated Notre Dame by 23. At the half.

Does anyone remember how the Gipper speech goes?

[Gargoyle]

UConn is beating undefeated Notre Dame by 23. At the half.

Does anyone remember how the Gipper speech goes?

6'4" Tina Charles has 17 points and 9 rebounds. I cannot imagine leaving Krystal Thomas out of the starting lineup.

[wolfpackdevil]

Let's just all remember that this UCONN women's program is the strongest program in any sport right now. they are unstopable in a lot of peoples mind. and Mya Moore is simply amazing.


A Duke win would be a upset for the century.

[SCMatt33]

Let's just all remember that this UCONN women's program is the strongest program in any sport right now. they are unstopable in a lot of peoples mind. and Mya Moore is simply amazing.


A Duke win would be a upset for the century.

I'd contend that Penn St. women's volleyball with 102 straight wins and 3 straight NC's is better right now, but after those two there is a big drop off before reaching 3rd place.

[Verga3]

Our team will battle and are peers to the Huskies in terms of the physicality that the game will likely feature. I will be very surprised if our young women do not rise to the occassion and compete. After an impressive win v. Notre Dame tonight and a travel day tomorrow, UConn will be confident...but maybe a little tired. Coach P will have Duke ready. Stay tuned for a terrific women's college basketball game.

I hope Cameron is PACKED for this nationally televised contest!

[wandalee]

OK, show of hands. Who is going to tonight's game?? I'll be there with my husband and his sister. I'm also working to get several co-workers there.
According to goduke.com, there are still tickets available. They are only $10 for adults and $5 for children; Duke students are free. We need a huge crowd to cheer on the ladies!

[miramar]

WBB has often been offensively challenged the last two and a half years, but they have shown real improvement this season. Comparing this year's 17 games to last year's 33-game season, 2PT shooting is up from 43.4% to 48.1%. 3PT shooting has declined slightly, 32% to 30%. Scoring has increased from 72.1 to 76.3 PPG.

The team has also improved in assists and turnovers. This year they have 15% more turnovers than assists, which is about par for women's teams, compared to a really horrible +41% last year. Assists are up from 13.6 to 15.1 per game, while turnovers are down from 19.1 to 17.5 per game. Several of the women have a solid assist to turnover ratio (Jasmine Thomas, Keturah Jackson, Shay Selby), something that has not been seen since Emily Waner left the team about two years ago.

On the down side, the two leading scorers have pretty low shooting percentages: Jasmine Thomas (38.1%) and Joy Cheek (38.7%). I suspect that these results have more to do with shot selection than ability, so there is no reason why they can't improve dramatically.

Fortunately, several of the regulars are shooting over 50% (Bridgette Mitchell, Krystal Thomas, Allison Vernerey). Karima Christmas is only shooting 44.7%, but that is because she has been ineffective from 3PT range (27.9%). She is shooting 52% on 2PT shots.

That may or may not be enough tonight, but I expect that this game will settle once and for all the question of whether offense is truly overrated. I'm pretty sure that the answer is a definite no.

Finally, the biggest difference between last year and this year is that Duke WBB has the opportunity to play the first round in Cameron in March, which would be a far more hospitable environment than Lansing MI.

[zingit]

Does anyone know if General Admission tickets are still available? I tried purchasing them online, and it looked like GA tickets were still available, but it gave me the message "unable to secure tickets at this price level." Does that mean they're out, or there's just a glitch online, or what? The ticket office opens at 4 today (according to their phone message), so I guess I'll try again then, but I was just wondering if anyone had any information.

[Gargoyle]

Statistics can be misleading. It looks like Duke has improved this year in shooting but in the two games they have lost, the team shot 33.3% and 28.4%. JT and JC combined to shoot 19 of 67 (28.4%). Now, it may be that Duke is just not a good shooting team away from CIS but it also may be that they just aren't so good when matched up against comparably talented players who do not allow transition layups or uncontested mid-range jump shots.

Duke is definitely a strong rebounding team but so is CT. Against Stanford, Duke was +5 but CT was +14.

IMO, in order to be competitive, duke must:

break even on the boards (especially the defensive boards)
shoot 40% or better
have 16 or fewer turnovers
not lose their poise
hope that CT continues its shooting slump from behind the arc

This is a big game for Duke. If we are competitive, recruits will take notice (are any recruits going to be at the game?) and a good showing will go a long way toward getting a favorable seed in the Tournament.

[Rudy]

Just got in to see the last three minutes. 81-48. Ouch.

[uh_no]

great to see a sellout, but the uconn train keeps rolling, with no end in sight

57 straight baby

[Welcome2DaSlopes]

Uconn is an unstoppable force.

[wandalee]

What a great crowd. Special thanks to all the students, especially the huge contingent of Duke fball players next to the band. Please continue coming to games - we usually play better than we did tonight.

It was a rough game and Duke held on through the 1st half, but just didn't stop UConn's 3s in the 2nd half, plus we could not get any baskets. UConn is a great team with lots of great players. They look unbeatable!

[Verga3]

Great game for UConn. Lots of weapons. Congratulations.

Our girls fought hard, but it was just not to be tonight. There seemed to be a "total belief/freeflow play" aspect to our game that was absent tonight. Hope this game will be a growing and toughening experience for this special group. I believe this Duke WBB team is VERY good and will do some significant damage in the ACC and NCAA this year.