Duke 82, Marquette 77 Post Game Thread

[Bob Green]

Discuss the game here.

[DukieInBrasil]

Mason Plumlee. won. the. game.

[ice-9]

Mason Plumlee. End of discussion.

[roywhite]

Mason was terrific.

Marquette gave us a good shot; had trouble stopping them; good learning experience.

[OZ]

Mason was the man...great game!

We better start hitting those free throws or it is going to cost us.

[gotoguy]

Good game Mason way to finish.

Freethrows, ouch

survive and advance

[VaDukie]

Just an incredible game by Mason Plumlee and a shaky effort from just about everyone else. Way too many unforced errors from our backcourt. We'll need a better effort tomorrow night and I think we'll get it.

[Bluedevil114]

Mason was incredible on both ends. If we can get consistent play from him every night we will be great. If Mason continues this play (hopefully this is not the Wake game from last year) our shooters will find more room on the perimeter. We were sloppy with the ball but that can be fixed. Marquette is a good team and unlike UNC we took care of business beating a team we should beat.

[superdave]

Thanks to Marquette for putting us through some presses and traps, for making us step up after a big run and for putting us in a scenario where we need to run the spread offense. This game will serve us well over the next two weeks.

[SCMatt33]

Obviously not the greatest game ever, but here's a scary thought. Duke plays a sluggish game and is bailed out not by the seniors, not by perimeter shooting, not by getting to the line, but by a dominant low post performance. Mason still has kinks to work out (coughfoulshootingcough), but for him to get those numbers, especially at the end is just ridiculous.

[elvis14]

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Plumlee,

Thank you!

Sincerely, Duke Basketball Fans

[CLW]

Survived a sloppy game with too many turnovers/miscues. Hopefully, it will grab the team's attention. I don't think we win the next game against either K State or Gonzaga with 18 turnovers and shooting 50% from the free throw line.

[mapei]

Mason Plumlee. won. the. game.

Agreed. Kyle was way off in the second half, Nolan sort of average. We failed to get back on D a bunch of times and let Marq pick our pockets for steals. But Mason's tenaciousness on the boards and putbacks was ultimately the difference. Good sparks when we needed them from Dawkins and Curry.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Good game for us. We were sloppy, but today's sloppiness will turn into March's ballet. When we were challenged, we responded. And Mason became a man today (happy Bar Mitzvah, Mason! )

[Gthoma2a]

Mason has become a new monster completely.

Now, that is a coach that can lead, and players with the character to respond. Things didn't go our way for part of the game, but we showed the heart to make it our night.

[loran16]

For those curious (probably like 2 of you at most), SCACC's #s were way off tonight.

Duke played 77 possessions (Marquette 80, due to Duke Missing 1 and 1s), Duke scored only 1.065 Points per possession (Way below Duke Average...Duke should score at least 1.18, NCAA average is roughly 1.01), while Marquette scored .963 Points per possession. For contrast, none of the teams we'd played previously had scored more than 0.77 points per possession. Sooo, our defense was way below it's usual, and our offense was way down.

Which is what you'd expect. Mason was amazing, but the team's D was really poor tonight. Also, way way too many turnovers. Just ugh. Play better in the finals or we lose.

[delfrio]

Yeah, this is about as expected. I predicted a 6 point win, basically because this is our first real test, and we have bugs to work out of the system. We'll figure out how to dial back the sloppy passing. Nice job by Mason, he just looked bigger than everyone. The main worry at this point seems to be free throw shooting. Don't know what we need there other than focus and practice.

[ice-9]

Agreed. Kyle was way off in the second half, Nolan sort of average. We failed to get back on D a bunch of times and let Marq pick our pockets for steals. But Mason's tenaciousness on the boards and putbacks was ultimately the difference. Good sparks when we needed them from Dawkins and Curry.

Nolan was good (18 pts on 8 of 13 shooting, 9 rebounds, 3 assists) except for turnovers: he had 6! Kyrie had 5. Turnovers really hurt us this game.

[Faison1]

I figured this would be a tough game. Kyrie has had NO challenge so far. You have to expect a frosh point guard to have an adjustment period. Hopefully he puts it together in 24 hours.

The game does not seem to be slowing down for Miles. Maybe it's just going to take him a bit longer.

I LOVE Andre. Kid is a player. As much as I am going to enjoy this year, I am equally looking forward to next year when he can star. Same with Ryan Kelly.

[dukelifer]

Discuss the game here.

Never quite sure how to evaluate these kind of games. First, Duke is playing away for the first time and that always takes adjusting. Second, they are playing back to back games so there is a tendency to hold back a bit in the first game to conserve energy. Duke played a bit too fast in the first half and then did not really do a good job stopping Marquette on the drives to the hoop. Marquette played pretty well and seemed to make a lot of tough shots. But all in all- Duke is a better team and it showed. This team is still a work in progress. Will need to work hard on the stall ball- you have to hit foul shots! Great game by Mason. The single Plumlee lineup with Dawkins and the other starters is probably the best team Duke can put on the floor. Overall- Duke got pushed and responded well. They should have won by 10-12 and probably would have if they hit their throws down the end. But survive and advance.