MBB: Duke 68, California 53 (NCAA Tournament) Post-Game Thread

[Jumbo]

I love the Three S's. But I like these two s's even more: Sweet Sixteen!

[juise]

Great game by Zoubs and Nolan. Kyle and Miles both had some big plays. I can't say anything else until I get over the intensity of the Purdue/A&M game.

[CLW]

Solid win with the 3s not falling the defense and rebounding was huge. Big game from Zoubs.

[AlaskanAssassin]

Let's keep it up!

[COYS]

I love the Three S's. But I like these two s's even more: Sweet Sixteen!

Handled an underrated cal team with great great great play from our post players and smith. Best passing as a team all year. If we can get scheyer's shot on track we will be very very tough to beat. Love it!

[devildownunder]

It's hard to imagine how the first two rounds could have gone any better for Duke. Two victories in which we were in total control throughout. Our depth and size inside is really causing teams some problems and we can beat teams with or without filling it up from outside.

What could be better? Some hot shooting from Dawkins, maybe? It's hard to find anything to complain about.

[superdave]

We shot 24/40 inside the arc.

Zoubek was big today.

[NSDukeFan]

A very solid win. The team did not shoot well from 3 but still defended and rebounded superbly and dominated inside. Great job. Nice double double by Zoubek. Nolan looked great, I loved his D on Randle to end the half, and he did a very solid job on Randle overall. I am very impressed with the defensive effort. I don't think Cal had enough good looks to win the game. Exciting to be headed back to the sweet 16 in a one-and-done tournament where the best team doesn't always win and didn't even make it to the sweet 16 this year.

[ice-9]

Very impressive win.

Nolan and Singler were very, very good.

The post players stepped up and Zoubs was a beast today.

If Scheyer can only get back to where he was, this team is easily a Final Four team.

[gwwilburn]

It's nice to see we can beat a good team with Scheyer shooting 1-11 and the team shooting 3-17 from three. However, I think that we'll need a lot of our game to be clicking if we want to succeed in the third weekend of the tournament, and quite possibly the second. (Sorry to be a negative Nancy).

[DukieInBrasil]

Awesome win, despite a mini-run to open the 2nd half, which K shut down with a TO and 2 finishes from Z, Cal never really threatened to make a game of it after the first 5 minutes. Awesome stuff.
Great game from Z, just dominated.
Sweet game from Nolan, especially nice following his blah game in the opener.
Special congrats to Jon for reaching an impressive milestone, 2,000 pts ain't easy.

[mapei]

Looked to me like Cal was star-crossed, missing so many bunnies. Great, great game by Zoubs, maybe his best.

[BlueintheFace]

Theme for the tourney continues, Defense and Rebounding. Big men looking better every game.

The team played well and everybody is at a good place for a legit run except for one player... arguably our most important one. I am starting to get very concerned.

[mapei]

Oh- I was also glad to see Boykin play well in the loss.

[arnie]

Team has dramatically changed since this time last year - Zoubs and the Plums give us so much. Great to win a game against a good opponent without shooting well.

Give Scheyer some rest and maybe his shot will show up next weekend. Go Purdue!

[cspan37421]

Zoubs and Nolan were equally valuable today. Jon and Kyle both were off from the outside today; if that "reverts to the mean" we're in excellent shape.

What a dreadful way to spend the last 3 minutes of game time, though. That was ugly and boring.

[SupaDave]

Nolan's pass to Zoubek for the dunk said a whole lot about our growth and our season to me. No way we would have seen that last year...

[roywhite]

Looked to me like Cal was star-crossed, missing so many bunnies. Great, great game by Zoubs, maybe his best.

Well, they were looking for Duke big guys around the rim.

And I don't feel too sorry for them, since many of those in-close shots resulted from moving picks.

[devildownunder]

Oh- I was also glad to see Boykin play well in the loss.

Same. He really seems like a good guy.

[gumbomoop]

Theme for the tourney continues, Defense and Rebounding. Big men looking better every game.

D and rebounding, definitely. Add to those:

1. low TOs; only 4 v Cal; keep the TOs to 6-7, big +

2. hard to stop all 3-S in a game; as long as 2 of 3-S are on, we're in any game