MBB: Duke 79, BC 59 Post-Game Thread

[BlueintheFace]

20 point win. Have at it.

[OldPhiKap]

I enjoy the chmistry and balance of this team more than any in a while. Should be a fun ride.

Go Dke -- GTH,C!

[proelitedota]

Need to invent a new bottle to cap the start of the second half for future games.

[OldSchool]

One of my favorite plays of the second half:

At about the 5:40 mark, Mason has the ball and is being guarded on the perimeter.

Mason puts the ball on the floor and drives by his man, and Miles' defender rotates over to stop Mason.

Mason passes to Miles, who is open under the basket, but fumbles the pass.

Mason is showing us flashes here and there as to what he is capable on the offensive end.

Also, I liked the 3-ball Mason shot, he showed good form, it just didn't go down.

[Welcome2DaSlopes]

Zoub looked like he was having fun out there. Had a ton of energy.

[BlueintheFace]

It very obviously took the Plumlees a half to catch on to the unique Skinner flex, but half court adjustments were effective.

[Jumbo]

Lots of good things to appreciate, including Nolan's scoring, Lance's D, a vintage Duke run to start the second half, solid scoring by Miles and solid rebounding/D from Zoubek. But maybe the biggest thing was that Duke found a way to win going away despite Scheyer not playing anywhere close to his usual level (his two worst games have come with Knight announcing -- Wisconsin and this one; odd) and the team struggling from deep again. And you'd think Mason Plumlee would have been one to step up, but that wasn't the case. Shows that this team does, in fact, have a variety of ways to win.

[SCMatt33]

I LOVE Coach K's game plan for tonight. First is the stat of the night, 20.7% 3PA/FGA. This has been a team that every has said that they don't need to rely on the 3, but they had been choosing to rely on the 3. It was easy to tell that the team was told not to shoot as many 3's, and the team responded. They did a great job driving and getting the ball to the bigs.

There were some blown assignments on the defensive end, but that's ok because they were trying to press. It was great to see Duke try some new things, because I feel that in recent years, we have found something that works, and stuck with it to the bitter end, usually to our demise in March. It was great to see Coach K take an opportunity against a not very good BC team and experiment, just to see what cards we have in the deck on both ends.

Finally, props to the bigs, especially Z and Miles. Great effort all around.

[moonpie23]

much better in the 2nd half...much more enthusiasm....

[BlueintheFace]

Singler with the double-double. He stinks.

[JaMarcus Russell]

This might have been the best all-around game for Duke this year. Miles and Mason are very good on the offensive end, but they got lost on defense in the first half. That's the only reason why Duke didn't dominate in the first half. They definitely made the right adjustments in the second half.

Thomas has seen his minutes go down with Mason's emergence, but he played great today, tracking some loose balls and grabbing tough rebounds. Nolan's body control is awesome. If only he had the vision, he could be a legit first rounder this year. Now, he can come back and work on that last aspect of his game next year. Singler made some nice passes today and wasn't trigger happy. He also got some good rebounds against a physical BC team.

[Saratoga2]

In the first half, it looked like a hangover from GT. The interior defense in particular didn't rotate over and no help appeared. It seemed particularly true with the Plumlees. Coach K must have pointed that out at the half, since the team came out energized and the interior defense looked muck better.

Nolan Smith had an excellent second half. I liked him running the floor, getting to the basket and using the shot fake to get open. Singler also played better than any recent game with energetic and smart defense and hustle to get baskets on the run. His shot is still not falling very well, but they didn't need the 3 tonight. I thought Zoubek really played hard and smart throughout and had one of his best games this season. He asserted himself around the basket and got putbacks.

Both Plumlees give us an athletic scoring mentality around the basket and it has to be wearing on other teams to have to go up against so many really big post guys.

They tried to get Dawkins going offensively, but his shot is just a little off. In and outer tonight. They will fall in the near future

[arnie]

much better in the 2nd half...much more enthusiasm....

And Singler looked much better, seems to pull in every rebound he gets his hands on.

[Oriole Way]

Nolan Smith with a great game, which is encouraging to see. Our outlook is much better if Nolan continues his progression into a dynamic high-scoring combo guard, especially if he continues to drive into the lane effectively. He will eventually start getting to the line more frequently and creating opportunities for teammates off of passes since defenders will be collapsing to help out on his drives.

Brian Zoubek played a great game... he looked as confident as I can remember him, and he did a better job of keeping the ball high and not bringing it down (which is something Coach Knight always emphasizes during telecasts in regards to big men). The 16 minutes he got tonight is about what I would like to see him get from here on out.

Kyle Singler put up a double-double and he didn't seem to be forcing shots like he was at Georgia Tech. Still, he still seems to be a little bit off compared to last season. I really wonder if he has been dealing with an injury; I seem to remember one of the December OOC home games (Gardner Webb or Long Beach State I believe) where he was listed as questionable to play prior to game time, I think it was a sprain of some sort. Perhaps he is still dealing with it, or perhaps it's just playing on the perimeter this year, but hopefully Kyle returns to form soon.

[Jumbo]

I LOVE Coach K's game plan for tonight. First is the stat of the night, 20.7% 3PA/FGA. This has been a team that every has said that they don't need to rely on the 3, but they had been choosing to rely on the 3. It was easy to tell that the team was told not to shoot as many 3's, and the team responded. They did a great job driving and getting the ball to the bigs.

There were some blown assignments on the defensive end, but that's ok because they were trying to press. It was great to see Duke try some new things, because I feel that in recent years, we have found something that works, and stuck with it to the bitter end, usually to our demise in March. It was great to see Coach K take an opportunity against a not very good BC team and experiment, just to see what cards we have in the deck on both ends.

Finally, props to the bigs, especially Z and Miles. Great effort all around.

Wow, I don't agree on either front. I don't think K "told them not to shoot as many 3s," because when guys were open, they launched without hesitation. But BC's defense presented different options, and we took advantage of them. Note that Duke was able to get out in transition far more often.

And the token pressure Duke showed on D was no excuse for the poor help against the Flex on D. Again, Duke wasn't trying something new there; the bigs were just really slow reacting from helpside in the first half. I was glad to see they were able to make corrections in the second half.

[dukestheheat]

Enter: The Assertive Mr. Nolan Smith!

Witness: Happiness within The Duke Nation.

dth.

[bird]

Lots of good things to appreciate, including Nolan's scoring, Lance's D, a vintage Duke run to start the second half, solid scoring by Miles and solid rebounding/D from Zoubek. But maybe the biggest thing was that Duke found a way to win going away despite Scheyer not playing anywhere close to his usual level (his two worst games have come with Knight announcing -- Wisconsin and this one; odd) and the team struggling from deep again. And you'd think Mason Plumlee would have been one to step up, but that wasn't the case. Shows that this team does, in fact, have a variety of ways to win.

Scheyer's ESPN boxscore is 12 points, four assists, one turnover, on 4-12 shooting, 1-6 from three point land. Not bad for a "worst" game - though I had him with two turnovers and also felt he was playing one of his worst games.

The beginning of the second half was a classic Duke moment.

I agree with Knight. If we can get all three of the Ss performing at a high level at the same time, we will be a load for anybody. We saw a top-flight Nolan, an average Singler, and a below average Scheyer, and won fairly easily.

[MB in MD]

I was extremely impressed, bordering on the amazed, at how well we adjusted our defensive rotations at halftime. Great job by the coaches. But in a way the most gratifying thing about today was a big win on a day that we shot so poorly. After Saturday I was starting to worry that in spite of the big changes inside and on defense we were still going to be a live-by-the-3-die-by-the-3 team. After today I'm more confident that we can find other ways to win.

[Greg_Newton]

Eh... we only outrebounded them by 2, 18-16. Oh wait - that was our offensive rebounds to their defensive rebounds!

We outrebounded them 40-25, pretty impressive.

Strong dislike on the press/extended pressure on D. Not sure how much we benefited from that, and it resulted in a ton of breakdowns.

Kyle continues to be very good when he catches the ball within 15 feet of the basket, and not very good otherwise.

Z actually has a pretty darn good back-to-the-basket game when he decides to use it. I actually didn't think Miles played as well as his stats indicated... he still walks every time he gathers himself under the basket, he was very his first two baskets weren't TOs. Mason will put up some points once he in other ways than dunking - he needs to learn what Z learned this year about staying high and going up quick and straight.

At least we're not down 40-18 to Clemson right now...

[RelativeWays]

We played so bad in the 1st half, especially on D, 2nd half was nearly flawless. It needs to be said that even though he scored around 15, Kyle was one of the main cogs that drove the offense and they would not have gotten as many transition points without him.