MBB: Duke 98, Elon 72 Post-Game Thread

[JBDuke]

Please put your post-game thoughts here.

[cptnflash]

The most important stat: Congrats to Coach K on tying Dean Smith for #2 all time with victory #879!! He is the man of the match!

[BattierBattalion]

Ugly win... but I'll take it. Nolan was sensational. I love Kyle's leadership. I'm concerned with Mason. He's taken a step back these past few games.

Congrats to Coach K on 879! Truly remarkable!

[Lord Ash]

Hm. Some tough situations tonight with fouls and long break and still no Kyrie and all... very nice game by Kyle. I really do like Ryan... good sense, good IQ, great passing. Dre and Seth looked good. Still stumped by the Plumbros... they have decent feet (as you can see by how well they hedge) but their hands, which I think you cannot teach, are not very good, and Mason just is not aggressive at all... he really needs to step up a bit if we want to win a title.

Funny how a 30 point win can feel so disjointed

And congrats to the best coach in the game!

[cptnflash]

Hm. Some tough situations tonight with fouls and long break and still no Kyrie and all... very nice game by Kyle. I really do like Ryan... good sense, good IQ, great passing. Dre and Seth looked good. Still stumped by the Plumbros... they have decent feet (as you can see by how well they hedge) but their hands, which I think you cannot teach, are not very good, and Mason just is not aggressive at all... he really needs to step up a bit if we want to win a title.

Funny how a 30 point win can feel so disjointed

And congrats to the best coach in the game!

Manos de piedra, just like Roberto Duran back in the day. (Ok, way back in the day.)

[Saratoga2]

Can't really talk about how people played, seeing only gametracker, however it was clear that Nolan and Kyle gave us their usual excellent games. A positive sign is that Dawkins had a strong game and got his points in a variety of ways and also rebounded well. It is good to see Kelly get some points.

Was Elon in a zone? It is a little disconcerting to see each of the Plumlee brothers only able to get 4 points against this team. Anyone have a view as to why they aren't contributing more on the offensive end?

It also seemed that our defense was subpar tonight giving up quite a few points. Is Elon that good?

[Acymetric]

My Phoenix hung tough in this game...refs were whistle happy which sort of sucked some of the life out of the game.

Duke definitely had some rust (I was definitely wrong saying that they would be fine) but I think they light up Greensboro after Christmas.

Also, Nolan has to avoid foul trouble. I think tonight was an aberration with regards to officiating but the drop-off without him on the floor is pretty noticeable. I like Thornton and Curry but neither can run the point near as well as Nolan on both ends of the floor.

[Acymetric]

Was Elon in a zone? It is a little disconcerting to see each of the Plumlee brothers only able to get 4 points against this team. Anyone have a view as to why they aren't contributing more on the offensive end?

It also seemed that our defense was subpar tonight giving up quite a few points. Is Elon that good?

Yeah, that was definitely odd...our bigs should have eaten Elon alive tonight, maybe chalk it up to the touchy officiating?

[dukelifer]

Can't really talk about how people played, seeing only gametracker, however it was clear that Nolan and Kyle gave us their usual excellent games. A positive sign is that Dawkins had a strong game and got his points in a variety of ways and also rebounded well. It is good to see Kelly get some points.

Was Elon in a zone? It is a little disconcerting to see each of the Plumlee brothers only able to get 4 points against this team. Anyone have a view as to why they aren't contributing more on the offensive end?

It also seemed that our defense was subpar tonight giving up quite a few points. Is Elon that good?

This team really does not pass well to the post players. This is where Kyrie is missed most. Mason is much better with Kyrie in the lineup. Duke has many great shooters and absent Kyrie, no great drive and dish guys and that means the big fellas have to create more.

[ChicagoCrazy84]

Did Mason get benched? I was watching ESPN GameCast and didn't see anything in the stat sheet for him for a while.

[Wander]

I'm concerned with Mason. He's taken a step back these past few games.

It's certainly no coincidence that his step back has exactly coincided with Kyrie's absence.

[dukelifer]

Did Mason get benched? I was watching ESPN GameCast and didn't see anything in the stat sheet for him for a while.

Kelly was playing well tonight.

[Doctor Mu]

It's certainly no coincidence that his step back has exactly coincided with Kyrie's absence.

I completely agree. Mason benefits greatly from KI's style, speed, and triple threat to open lanes.

Kelly's hi b'ball IQ and hi-lo game is allowing him to develop under a more ordinary half-court game.

[CLW]

A rusty/sloppy win.

Mason just doesn't seem to have that "mean streak" in him. I thought he would dominate tonight on the glass and in the paint. However, his lack of a back to the basket game is really hurting him right now with Kyrie's absence.

[jipops]

If it weren't for the exam period, I would call this effort a bit disturbing. Because of exams, I'm not sure what to call it. Our big guys did a terrific job of moving the ball around, check out Kelly's 6 assists! Nolan did a great job of creating instant offense. But in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half our defense was abysmal, against an offense that is at the bottom half of division 1.

Mason gets almost no touches since Kyrie has gone out. Obviously he has been struggling the most. It is hard to produce when you don't get any more than 3 shots. I think he had figured out where he fit in and now with the offense having to change again he has lost some comfort out there.

Again I know this is that game of the season where we routinely expect a degree of sloppiness. But if we see this same kind of effort in Greensboro in 9 days I may feel some concern.

[superdave]

We out-rebounded Elon 40-26 and forced them into 18 turnovers. But they scored 41 2nd half points on us, and that's quite frankly not acceptable. Our defensive intensity disappeared after halftime.

I thought Elon played their butts off and exceeded our intensity for the most part. They should be proud of their effort tonight. Every time we had a chance to put them away, they put a little run on us. They forced Singler to play 37 minutes.

I thought Seth stepped up admirably tonight to run the offense and to pressure Elon's ball handlers. He was my MOTM.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I enjoyed the last 5 minutes.

[El_Diablo]

It is a little disconcerting to see each of the Plumlee brothers only able to get 4 points against this team. Anyone have a view as to why they aren't contributing more on the offensive end?

Miles did not do a lot of posting up tonight...mostly high screens & rolls. A few lob passes were broken up as he was rolling to the rim, which is starting to become a pattern with this team. The guards need to recognize the situation and make the smart bounce pass for a layup rather than try to go for the alley-oop every time.

Mason did post up a few times, and did get the ball fed to him. Two problems though. First, as is common with him, he did not start with great positioning. He tends to let the defender push him around a little while he's trying to establish position, so when he finally catches the ball, he's at least 6 feet off the block. Part of this is the guards' problem too...when they're looking to pass it down low, they sometimes take way too long, and they don't always establish good passing angles (they're often pounding the ball into the court while they wait for Mason to seal off the defender, rather than swinging the ball, for example, to the corner where it would be easier to get a better angle). Anyway, the second issue was that, at least in the second half, Elon ran a second defender at him every time he got the ball down low (even if he was 12 feet from the rim), so he had to pass out of the double team. I don't think he turned it over in any of those situations, so he did well in my book.

Not a great offensive performance from either one, but neither one was really looking for his shot. On the plus side, Kelly backed his man down a few times and got a couple nice looks from it.

[jv001]

A rusty/sloppy win.

Mason just doesn't seem to have that "mean streak" in him. I thought he would dominate tonight on the glass and in the paint. However, his lack of a back to the basket game is really hurting him right now with Kyrie's absence.

has fallen off from earlier games and it does go hand in hand with Kyrie's injury. When Mason receives the ball in the low post, it's plain to see he's thinking way too much. Two thngs that hurt him are his lack of a left hand shot and the lack of a quick power move in getting the ball to the basket. Miles has improved in both of these areas and he will get better. If Mason does not take his game to a higher level, Ryan will get some of his minutes and I hate to see this happen. We need for Mason to play to his potential in order for Duke to reach team goals for this season. Go Duke!

[hurley1]

score a hundred and win by thirty....some fans still are doubting thomases........you guys just kill me........is there any possibility that Coach K experiemented with any offensive or defensive schemes tonite ???....maybe tests that he would have not run againat a good ball team ???.....if Coach K wanted to test a few things in game action, tonite was the nite...duke will be fine...