MBB: Duke 98, Elon 72 Post-Game Thread

[DevilHorns]

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...

That makes sense if you're talking offense.

The issue tonight was defense. Elon had far too many good-to-easy shot attempts (and they happened to shoot a healthy clip). Given the rust expected to build at this time in the season with exams and all, I think it's healthy not to read to much into our performance.

Landmark win for K. Congratulations to him and the program.

[fisheyes]

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...

Thank for the reality check. I would much rather peak in say...March or April.

[bluepenguin]

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

One thing he did that I really liked: when he got the ball underneath, he did not pump the ball several times to get the defender in the air, nor did he put the ball on the ground. He caught it high and went straight back up. Almost impossible to defend - would be nice if Mason would do that more often.

[Duke76]

tonight the boys flunked the test, let's hope they did
better on their academic exams with which they just finished.
We were very lazy in getting down in defensive position tonight.
Elon guys blew by most of our guys constantly with first steps...
not suppose to happen on Duke's team...K is gonna light them up when
they get back from holidays.

I think one charge was taken by us...kinda tells us the story, imo..that and a bunch of
reaches and swats as players blowing by us

[hurley1]

One thing he did that I really liked: when he got the ball underneath, he did not pump the ball several times to get the defender in the air, nor did he put the ball on the ground. He caught it high and went straight back up. Almost impossible to defend - would be nice if Mason would do that more often.

i absolutely agree....mason needs to directly attack the basket every opportunity he gets...that's where his gold mine is....he needs to play the game with some muscle behind him....he needs to challenge defenders straight up, and use his strength to gain position...i really like kelly...kelly is going to get even better...alot better....when april comes, kelly will be zoubek with a nasty 3 point shot....i am getting excited about that....i hope that is what is coming...we will see...

[delfrio]

I liked the announcer quote, "And Singler has become unstoppable."

[Newton_14]

I enjoyed the last 5 minutes.

Bingo. Just got in from the game. Actually with about 6 minutes to go is when we finally started playing defense and woke up as a team. It also led to better offense. Had we played that way out of the gate this would have been a easy 40 point win rather than the sluggish win.

I chalk it up to rust and still adjusting to life with out Kyrie. Nolan in foul trouble made it even worse as he missed 13 of the first 14 minutes of the 2nd half. The officiating was horrible all game on both ends which made for a choppy game.

Hopefully they will shake off the rust in Greensboro and put on a better showing.

Edit: I would be remiss not to give props to Elon. They are well coached, executed their game plan and played a very smart basketball game. Their 2 guards played really well and as a team they did not back down.

[watzone]

Here is a post game report with Coach K's post game audio verbatim where he talks of tying Dean, Kyries injury and such. http://bluedevilnation.net/2010/12/b...st-game-audio/

[ncexnyc]

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!

Have you ever considered that maybe Duke could reach it's team goals if Ryan reached his full potential?

Afterall, we saw what happened with last year's team. Everyone was ready to annoint the Plumlee brothers as our starting frontcourt and it just didn't work out like that.

If Ryan earns more playing time than Mason, then so be it. Coach K will go with the players that are contributing the most to what the team wants to do.

[hurley1]

Have you ever considered that maybe Duke could reach it's team goals if Ryan reached his full potential?

Afterall, we saw what happened with last year's team. Everyone was ready to annoint the Plumlee brothers as our starting frontcourt and it just didn't work out like that.

If Ryan earns more playing time than Mason, then so be it. Coach K will go with the players that are contributing the most to what the team wants to do.

i absolutely agree....how much better was zubek at christmas than ryan ???....remember, ryan can drain the 3....

[dukebluelemur]

i really like kelly...kelly is going to get even better...alot better....when april comes, kelly will be zoubek with a nasty 3 point shot

remember, ryan can drain the 3....

Listen Mrs. Kelly, I don't mean to be harsh, but we know you like Kelly and since you remind us 2-3 times per thread, there is no way on this planet we will ever forget he can shoot the three.

Maybe you don't realize just how often you've been doing it, so I'm going to start quoting you when you do!

For myself, this team is loaded with offense, what I desperately want to see is someone take over Zoubek/Lance's roles as rebounding/defensive maniacs, which I haven't seen yet. The big man who does that gets my vote for starter and 30+min/g, regardless of his offensive contributions.

[Kedsy]

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?

The good news is we scored 97 points, so we really didn't need the MPs to contribute more on the offensive end, or at least we didn't need more points from them, which admittedly is not exactly the same thing.

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

I agree. It's interesting that Mason seems to have lost some swagger with Kyrie out. Hopefully, he'll get it back whether Kyrie comes back or not.

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.

I wouldn't feel any. It's hard to take anything away from games against the likes of Elon and UNCG (no offense to either of those schools or teams, but there's just too much of a talent disparity).

...Mason just is not aggressive at all... he really needs to step up a bit if we want to win a title.

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!

If last season taught us anything it should be that things that seem necessary for us to reach our goals or win a title really might not be so necessary. Even without Kyrie I do not think any of our bigs have to contribute so much on offense for us to win. Tonight we got 21 points and 20 rebounds from our Mason/Miles/Ryan/Josh and I think that's adequate.

Note that since Kyrie's out, we are only playing the small lineup an average 4.33 minutes per game, so Coach K seems to be satisfied with the way the bigs are playing.

The issue tonight was defense.

I didn't see the game, but I have said since before the season that defense will pretty much always be the issue for us. The offense will come. What will determine whether our team is good or great is how well we play defense. Fortunately there's plenty of time for our D to gel.

...when april comes, kelly will be zoubek with a nasty 3 point shot....

I don't think Ryan's game resembles Z's game in any meaningful way, other than they sort of play the same position. Ryan does seem to have a good opportunistic 3-point shot, although he only hit 1 of 3 tonight. Just like Mason, though, I don't think Ryan's shooting or point production will ever be the critical factor for us this season.

[superdave]

I didn't see the game, but I have said since before the season that defense will pretty much always be the issue for us. The offense will come. What will determine whether our team is good or great is how well we play defense. Fortunately there's plenty of time for our D to gel.

I have to say that I noticed the Plums making their defensive rotations better tonight, hedging screens (and recovering) and maintaining pretty good discipline throughout. The team D thing is creeping up on them and that's really good for where this team can go. We'll have to see if the trend continues.

[hurley1]

Listen Mrs. Kelly, I don't mean to be harsh, but we know you like Kelly and since you remind us 2-3 times per thread, there is no way on this planet we will ever forget he can shoot the three.

Maybe you don't realize just how often you've been doing it, so I'm going to start quoting you when you do!

For myself, this team is loaded with offense, what I desperately want to see is someone take over Zoubek/Lance's roles as rebounding/defensive maniacs, which I haven't seen yet. The big man who does that gets my vote for starter and 30+min/g, regardless of his offensive contributions.

Well, first of all i have never met ryan kelly....but, i have watched duke basketball for many, many years....i see a very special player developing in kelly....and a special void being filled by his developement....i believe his developement is the most improved on the team....therefore, i am going to give him his props....and i believe when april comes, you will be just as big a kelly fan as i am...but, i could be wrong...how does he compare to zubek at christmas time ???... it's looking good so far...

[superdave]

Well, first of all i have never met ryan kelly....but, i have watched duke basketball for many, many years....i see a very special player developing in kelly....and a special void being filled by his developement....i believe his developement is the most improved on the team....therefore, i am going to give him his props....and i believe when april comes, you will be just as big a kelly fan as i am...but, i could be wrong...how does he compare to zubek at christmas time ???... it's looking good so far...

I like Mr Kelly but he's not going to be averaging 15 and 10 this season. It does not appear that any of our bigs will do that. Collectively they are pretty good and getting demonstrably better though, which is what we should expect out of them.

[moonpie23]

just got home from work. Gonna watch the game on DVR....

please don't tell me who won, k?

[snowdenscold]

just got home from work. Gonna watch the game on DVR....

please don't tell me who won, k?

Huh? Aren't you posting this in a threat with the score in the subject line?

[Greg_Newton]

First of all - WHOA. That Miles Plumlee dunk was the highlight of the season so far. Please tell me that made SC top plays of some sort? That was jump-out-of-your-chair nasty.

Anyway, I'll be glad when this little stretch is over. I suppose it could be nice in that it won't drain the guys during exam time, but there's almost no point in playing these teams.

I think our defense will ratchet up a little when the games start counting. It's hard work playing Duke defense correctly, and I can imagine it being a little tough to keep that extra edge when you know you'll win handily regardless. Nolan cracked me up running around with his hands behind his back and in the air for a couple of plays after his spree of fouls - I almost wonder if K told him he could do that to make a point to that Karl Hess-looking ref, who made a ton of phantom calls.

I also think Mason and Kyle will start coming on later in the year. Both seem to come up big in the biggest games, especially in physical slugfests.

Until then, it's fun watching Dre fill it up. He's showing some really, really good touch in his 5-15' game. Most shooters get used to shooting from a certain distance like the three point line or foul line - muscle memory, and all - and don't have the same kind of touch on a 10' floater. Dre, on the other hand, hasn't missed one that I can remember all year, and you could tell he knew exactly where the ball was going on that leaning 10-footer he hit today. Really impressive, especially considering how much he elevates.

I'm also glad Ryan is adding the drive to the basket from the three-point-line to his arsenal. He was so good at that in high school, and it makes him so much more of a mismatch on offense if he can do it well.

[TruBlu]

Highlight of the game for me was Nolan playing the first few seconds with his hands behind his back & laughing, after returning to action in the second half with four fouls.

[oldnavy]

Highlight of the game for me was Nolan playing the first few seconds with his hands behind his back & laughing, after returning to action in the second half with four fouls.

That was very funny! I think Nolan has the best sense of humor, he is so dead pan, yet has a very funny wit about him...