Well, "quick hands" don't necessarily have to result in turnovers to be effective. Just by placing the offensive player in discomfort where he is concerned about the hands and/or by bothering the shot and getting said hands in the face of the shooter, the hands are doing their job. Still, I think Butler is pretty darn good at getting turnovers, and if you watch yesterday's press conferences, it was actually our coaches and players that complimented the Bulldogs on their "active hands" over and over again, in succession, and commented on how we have to be strong with the ball. Duke respects Butler's hands.
I've enjoyed reading Genedoc's posts in this thread and I respect that Duke has played against some very good defenses this season. But I think Butler's defense is indeed nasty and might be the best we've encountered this season. Two things:
(1) As Duke fans, we understand that the stats, as good as they look for us, can't completely capture how good a team Duke currently is because we've improved a lot throughout the season, including even in the past week or two and Pomeroy's rankings, as far as I know, weigh early-season games as much as late-season games. Well, I think the Bulldogs likewise are probably even better than their stats suggest right now. As Pomeroy points out
here, Butler has held its past 3 opponents to their second-worst offensive game of the season. Like I said, nasty.
(2) Jim Boeheim
told Jay Bilas (it's an ESPN Insider blog, so not everyone will have access) that Butler has the best defensive backcourt he's faced in the past decade. Now, Boeheim may be be guilty of bias since he lost to them, but I think Butler will definitely give us some trouble on the perimeter, which is why protecting the ball and winning the offensive rebounding battle will be so important. Duke's offense has been really outstanding recently, though. The Big 3 have played so well off each other, and we seem to be shooting the ball well, and of course, the offensive rebounding... I don't concede that we will lose the battle of our offense against their defense, but I caution that their defense really is pretty awesome or has developed into something pretty awesome.