That was so key when Nored went out. Also, Kyrie's two consecutive threes were clutch.
Discuss the game here. A good win against a tough team.
Bob Green
That was so key when Nored went out. Also, Kyrie's two consecutive threes were clutch.
Shooting was off today (partially due to just an off night and partially due to good Butler D). I didn't like the effort in the 1st half but I thought the intensity was there in the 2nd half.
Andre has REALLY improved so.... much from last year. I'm ready to "eat crow" on the big lineup that I just "knew" was going to be the best. IMHO, Andre is ready and deserving of starting and playing more minutes at the "3" and moving Singler to the "4".
Ronald Norad. Most important player on Butler team. First team AA. Lottery pick.
that is one tough-minded basketball team. They play their game no matter what. Hit big shots, too.
The announcers were saying that Louisville managed to force uptempo against Butler. That's something we really couldn't do. I think forcing tempo is going to be important for us this year, so I'm hoping that's something we focus on in the next few weeks, leading up to conference play.
Butler is a better team than I thought. Having Norad back makes them so much better. Kyle just never got it going after getting in early foul trouble. Andre continues to play very well. Go Duke!
Didn't Kyle start really slow last year as well, before turning it on in conference play? I seem to remember that.
I thought that this was a great win for the team. Duke had every reason to lose this game. The other team had way more emotion going in trying to avenge their championship game loss, Duke is at the end of a string of very tough games, Butler came out playing strong and pushing Duke out of their comfort zone. We got lucky with a couple of injuries/foul situations, but managed to capitalize on opportunities in the second half. We hit our foul shots when it counted, unlike some games this year. Most importantly, we never melted down under the pressure of a close game and let the game get out hand.
One quick note: on Howard's last foul he sort of attacked the ball carrier for no apparent reason, leading Bilas to go on a long speech about being smart with fouls. I saw Howard mouth to his teammates "I thought he said foul him". Seems like Howard thought his coach wanted a foul there, so he was simply following orders. Not that Bilas would've seen him say that, just wanted to save Howard a little criticism.
We weren't able to force tempo until Nored and Mack went to the bench. Once the fouls and injuries piled up on Butler, of course we got the tempo we want. I think we'd be able to force tempo against pretty much anybody's back-up guards. We need to be able to do it, at least to some extent, against starters.
Last edited by devildownunder; 12-04-2010 at 05:38 PM. Reason: left out word "able".
That dunk before the half was a thing of beauty. I thought was key to the second half...
I'm impressed that Duke scored 82 points while shooting so poorly.
Very happy with Dre these days. He is going to be one of my all-time favorites before he is done.
I was looking at Dawkins' stats for the year and saw that he just turned 19 in late September. He should have a good year this year, a great year next year, and a spectacular year as a senior leader. He showed emotion, hustle, and a nose for the ball - in addition to that sweet shooting stroke. He may have started slow (for understandable reasons) last year but he's going to be a key piece for years to come.
I'm not sure why Curry is having such trouble getting on track - it might be like the announcers have been saying, it's tough knowing you're only going to get 10-15 minutes and you start to force things when you're in the game. I'm sure he'll be fine, but it would be good for him to have a blow up game against the easier competition coming up for the rest of December.
Not only is Norad the best player in college basketball in the last 20 years, but did you see how well, exceptionally well, Butler executes? The guts, the fortitude, the fight!
Mason Plumlee finished with a solid 8 points and 8 rebounds. While his 25 point performance against Marquette was impressive, I'll take 8 & 8 from Mason night in and night out.
Miles had 4 rebounds and 2 points, while Ryan Kelly contributed 2 rebounds and 3 points, so our three interior players combined to score 13 points and grab 14 rebounds.
Bob Green
I was looking at Dawkins' stats for the year and saw that he just turned 19 in late September. He should have a good year this year, a great year next year, and a spectacular year as a senior leader. He showed emotion, hustle, and a nose for the ball - in addition to that sweet shooting stroke. He may have started slow (for understandable reasons) last year but he's going to be a key piece for years to come.
I'm not sure why Curry is having such trouble getting on track - it might be like the announcers have been saying, it's tough knowing you're only going to get 10-15 minutes and you start to force things when you're in the game. I'm sure he'll be fine, but it would be good for him to have a blow up game against the easier competition coming up for the rest of December.
Andre is coming along exactly as predicted. With his improved rebounding and defense, he is making a strong case for minutes at 3. Don't know if he'll be here for years to come; I'd say one more year and the NBA will be very interested. I think Seth is having confidence issues right now. He's having trouble with his D, and it's carrying over to his minutes, offense, and shooting. Needs some time to work it out.