MBB: Duke-Georgetown Pre-Game Thread

[sagegrouse]

Maybe you are thinking what I am -- "Just what we need. A tough inter-conference game in the middle of a brutal ACC schedule."

This is always an interesting match-up, and I hope some of my neighbors in DC get to see the game. I understand the G'town ticket office has been most uncooperative with Duke groups and fans.

Two questions seem foremost:

1. How well does our "center by committee" cope with the mobile and skilled Greg Monroe?

2. Can Duke wear down Georgetown like Syracuse did Monday night? Georgetown has an even shorter bench than Duke.

sagegrouse

[gumbomoop]

Perhaps this point would be more appropriate in the "Minutes/Bench/Fatigue" thread, but did you folks catch K's intriguing comment in the post-FSU quotes: "It's [G'town game] a good game for our young guys to step forward and have an opportunity to be more of a part of the actual win and not just the preparation of a win."

I assume [maybe....] K sees this game as less pressure-packed than any ACC game, and that, despite the big Sat aft national ACC-Big East emphasis, this game he views as "Let's have fun and play" rather than "Jeez, can Mason and Andre and Ryan deal with the pressure?"

So I for one hope to see the frosh getting a few more minutes on Sat, with perhaps a special surprise appearance by Casey Peters [an honorary frosh].

[superdave]

His game probably best compares to Aminu out of anyone we've played so far. At least that's the comparison that first came to mind.

I cannot help but think that this Gtown team fell apart the 2nd half of last year.

But I'm sure it will be a good test, and we'll see more minutes (and hopefully more production) from the bench.

[davekay1971]

It was a curious comment, and I read it as having two possible implications:

1) It's out of conference, and therefore not such a must-win. Coach K has always been very clear about how significant he considers conference championships and regular season "titles" (since the official ACC champion is the tournament champion). As tight as the conference race is right now, each game is signficant. I find it hard to imagine that Coach K is thinking "well, it's not such a big deal if we drop the Georgetown game", but my mind-reading skills are a bit iffy lately, so who knows?

or...

2) Mason, Dawkins, and Kelly each have a skill set that he thinks will match up well with Georgetown. I thought his comment that he doesn't know much about G'town was wonderful coachspeak. I bet he's already got a pretty good idea about their team and has some thoughts about what his guys may be able to do against them. He may have some specific plans for helping to use Dawkins and Kelly to open the floor, or a matchup advantage he may see for Mason's combination of skills.

I tend to think he was implying the latter. If so, I'm going to be very interested to see what our freshmen can accomplish against the Hoyas.

[J_C_Steel]

This will be a tough test, but that Coach K quote is VERY interesting. I caught a small portion of the post-game interview with the 620 AM radio guys, and Coach K was emphasizing that "every ACC game is equally important."

It seems to me that Duke is approaching the G-town game as more of a chance to gain experience against a Big East foe than a must-win-for-NCAA-tournament-seeding type of game.

[roywhite]

Watched a good part of the Georgetown--Syracuse game and I'm not sure what to think about the Hoyas. As impressive as their 14-0 start was, they were totally dominated by a very good 'Cuse team the rest of the way.

Freeman and Monroe will certainly give us problems, but the Georgetown backcourt just doesn't look solid to me. I look for Nolan to have a big game, and as noted by others, sounds like the young guys will get decent playing time. Should be interesting.

[duke4life32182]

I think they will do fine checking him. Duke by 8-10 pts for there second true road win. Singler will build on his play from last night, Scheyer will play his steady hand ans Smith will do his thing. Look for the three of them to combine in the 65+ points and I think you may see the Plumlees step it up. They will be trying to get Monroe in foul trouble and I think Miles, of the two will bring his A game for Greg. Another chance for us to show Monroe why he should of come to Duke. Take it to em boys. Go Duke!

[91devil]

I'm thinking Lance will guard Monroe, Kyle will guard Summers and Miles on Vaughn - at least to start. Monroe might be a bit too agile for Miles, but his (Monroe's) extra height shouldn't bother Lance much.

Thoughts?

[BlueintheFace]

They have soooooo much more preparation time. This one will be very very difficult to win. Odds are certainly against Duke.

Also, does anybody else think reggie will bring POTUS along? I kind of have a feeling...

[superdave]

That makes sense because Lance is on a defensive tear of late. He played a lot of minutes last night.

But based on Coach K's comment about the bench, this could be a good stretch to see if Mason can produce when told "You're going to play a lot so be ready."

[airowe]

Keep the streak alive sagegrouse! I think we matchup fairly well against Georgetown. They play the least deep bench in the nation so the quick turnaround may not hurt us as much as it would against a deeper, quicker team like Kansas or Texas. They are big at almost every possession and while Monroe has more realized talent than any of our bigs, our depth there should help us neutralize much of their advantage. Hopefully, we can contain Chris Wright on the perimeter as he is a dangerous outside shooter and force him into some bad decisions with the ball. I'm not going to be upset if we lose this game, but a win could cement our place in the elite teams in the country. I hope the team that showed up against Gonzaga and UCONn will be there on Saturday instead of the team that appeared in Raleigh.

[airowe]

They have soooooo much more preparation time. This one will be very very difficult to win. Odds are certainly against Duke.

Also, does anybody else think reggie will bring POTUS along? I kind of have a feeling...

DBP said there will be some very special guests. I wonder if K would even let Obama into the locker room.

[KyDevilinIL]

DBP said there will be some very special guests. I wonder if K would even let Obama into the locker room.

Well, a surprisingly significant number of UK fans blamed Obama for the Cats' loss at South Carolina, because Obama had called the team earlier in the day to congratulate the team for its Haiti efforts.

If Obama's power is such that it can make UK lose with a mere phone call, then I have no idea what a face-to-face meeting with Duke – considering K's politics – would lead to.

[flyingdutchdevil]

G'Town fans love it when they play Duke. My friends still give me a hard time about that 2006 loss (and even though we've beaten 'em every time since, they still love that win. Gotta give it to them - it was a helluva win!).

G'Town will be tough. This is another opportunity for LT to shine again. I don't think it's his more difficult challenge - Booker is more of a beast than Monroe, IMO (Monroe just has more potential). However, LT will be busy with a quick, long big. We shut Monroe down last year - should be able to again.

I have a feeling that Nolan will be the difference maker. After his first poor game in a long time (and for Nolan, 11pt, 4 assists, and 1 turnover is a "bad" game), I think Nolan will absolutely erupt. I'm calling it - career high vs GTown!

[soccerstud2210]

freeman. how will he play? how do we match up against him? will he shoot lights out? with he just be another player on the court?

i think he is a difference maker.

[moonpie23]

DBP said there will be some very special guests. I wonder if K would even let Obama into the locker room.

politics aside, not after what he did to UK...(obama)



phone in locker room rings - caller id says "numero uno"

Coach K: "don't answer that !"

[SilkyJ]

2 days more rest for G-Town. Super and Sensational (Kyle/Jon) have played 38-40 minutes for like the last 10 games and Scintillating has played just a few less minutes. Combine that, and it would make sense that maybe playing some of the fresher guys a few extra minutes would seem to make sense.

Get 'em in DC, boys!

[NYDukie]

Two questions seem foremost:

1. How well does our "center by committee" cope with the mobile and skilled Greg Monroe?

2. Can Duke wear down Georgetown like Syracuse did Monday night? Georgetown has an even shorter bench than Duke.

sagegrouse

This will be a hard fought game no matter what. It will provide a good barometer of where the team stands on a national level as they face a G'Town team rated Top 10-15 that plays in the rugged Big East. In addition, it will provide a nice break from the ACC monotony for the players.

Monroe will be a huge challenge in my opinion because he is so versatile and the fact that he has stepped up his game to the level many have expected. Plus I think he will look to have a better showing than the one he had last year. LT is probably the best equipped to guard Monroe. The key will be for him to stay out of foul trouble as Monroe does have the size advantage, whether he utilized it from the perimeter or down low. After LT, the responsibilities will fall the MP1 and MP2 in that order. I think Mason will have a great role in this game as I just don't see Z making a huge impact against Monroe, especially trying to chase Monroe on the perimeter when he is out there. I'm not saying they won't try to get Z minutes but it's not the same type of matchup for Z as say Alabi was in the FSU game. Personally, I'd lay off Monroe and let him try to do his damage by shooting from the perimeter and keep him out of the lane, etc.

2. I think G'Town getting worn down might be slightly overrated. Again, this depends how much Coach K utilizes the bench. Both teams could rely primarily on 6-7 guys if Coach K decides to limit the minutes of Kelly, Dawkins and MP2. I know based on Coach K's post game comments from last night hint at using them more but until it occurs, both teams could be in the same boat in using a tight rotation.

As one poster mentioned, I think we will win a tough road game by virtue of having the better backcourt. Chris Wright is good but we have two exceptional guards in Jon and Nolan. I think Kyle and Freeman may be a wash so it will come down to in my opinion, which strenght has the greater impact on the game - Monroe v. Duke's Committee of bigs or Nolan/Jon v. G'Town's mixed bag of guards? As I said, I'll go with Jon and Nolan.

[jv001]

This one time that I hope Coach K plays our young guys more. He commented that because of travel and just bad timing we were tired when we played NC State. I think with the short turn-around and big conference games coming up, GT home, BC away and unc away he will play more guys against G-Town. I look for a good game and a close win. Go Duke!

[mapei]

As many of you know, I'm a fan of both teams (and constitutionally incapable of rooting against either, so these games make me crazy). My spouse and I are season ticket holders to Georgetown, and I've seen almost all of both teams' games.

Here's how I see it.

Monroe is the one position (whether we call it the 4 or 5, there's a lot of moving around in the Hoyas' system) where Gtown has the clear advantage. He's better than any of Duke's bigs IMO, and seldom gets into foul trouble. Big matchup problem for Duke.

But the Hoyas will have a big matchup problem with Nolan. He is IMO better than Jason Clark and better most nights that Chris Wright, though it's much closer with Chris. Gtown will have to make a choice regarding whom Clark (the best perimeter defender) guards, and it will be a problem for them whether it's Nolan or Jon.

At the other big, Vaughn and Lance are very close and play similar styles, Lance the more aggressive defender, Vaughn a bit better under the basket. Both are foul-prone.

Jon and Wright are both very, very good, but play very differently. Chris is more of a Scottie Reynolds type, very quick, can score from anywhere, good but not great defender. Sometimes he has what I call "DeMarcus disease," deciding too soon to drive for the layup and getting turned over in the process.

Freeman and Singler are also a very intriguing but very different matchup. Kyle is probably the better defender and rebounder, Austin the better shooter and slasher. Last year's Kyle was definitely superior to last year's Austin, but this year I rate them even.

Duke's bench is *much* better, even though both teams are thin at guard. Gtown played Villanova evenly when Chris Wright was in the game; when he was out with foul trouble, Nova made their run. Hollis Thompson will eventually be very good but he's not there yet, and can't provide instant scoring like Dawkins can. Vee Sanford is just someone that Hoya fans hope won't mess up too much if he gets in the game.

At the bench bigs, Jerrelle Bennimon is coming on, and Henry Sims alternates between great and awful when JT3 allows him some playing time, which isn't often. Blocking shots is what he does best. Duke has three quality bigs plus Mason; advantage Duke.

Duke will be a better matchup for the Hoyas than Cuse was, because Duke doesn't have big & long guys fronting a zone D, plus majorly physical inside players. But Gtown isn't great at breaking the press and traps, so that might be something to exploit. It will help Duke that Gtown almost never presses.

It's not true that the Hoyas are big at every position - they are 6', 6'2", and 6'4" at the 1-2-3. Monroe and Vaughn are big, but not unusually so. When Hollis Thompson subs in (usually for Clark), he does add some height at 6-6.

Georgetown still plays a variant of the Princeton - you'll see a high post, pinpoint passes, and cuts, along with *very* good interior passing. But they play it at a much faster pace than in previous years.

I give a slight, very slight edge to Duke, even at Verizon. But it is *far* from a lock.