sweet.
exhausting, but sweet.
Just checked IC, the refs gave us the game.
So I guess we'll have to live with that.
UNC didn't have the depth to play at this intensity for the whole game....they started running out of gas half way through the second half and duke turned it on....curry was outstanding as well as smith....plumlee played well too...
Tyler Zeller was really good tonight. They dominated the frontcourt matchups today to a degree that should either wake up our big guys or cause some adjustments.
This was a gut check for Duke. They answered the bell. They stepped up and hit tough shots and got the defensive stops when it mattered. I dont know why the energy level was lacking early, but we got out-hustled at the start. Nice 2nd half...perhaps the type of 2nd half that can help Duke jump a level. I certainly hope so.
Super "Box out" Dave
Hey, it's the Carolina game: A whole season in one night. So much intensity goes into it and it means so much that it's pretty much impossible to evaluate it as part of the larger season.
As such, IMO, style points don't matter, Kyle's points don't matter. Just win, baby.
And so the guys have.
Well done, boys!
Great job by the team to respond and adjust. Great, great win. This is a win to talk about for a long, long time.
"Just be you. You is Enough."
I said a few things in the in game thread at halftime what we needed to do to come back. Offensively, I said we needed 80 points, and we got 79, but we held them to only 30 in the second half! Our D stepped up bigger than I thought possible.
The specific things that I mentioned was cutting down on the turnovers and making rebounding harder for them in order to slow the transition game. I'd give Duke an A+ in that department. We came out on fire on the boards and you could count our second half turnovers on 1 hand. Because of this, they had very few transition chances. They also made their second chance points harder in the second half. Henson and Zeller for the most part had to shoot over people for the last 20 minutes. In the half court, we did a great job holding Marshall in check, and when he did get in the lane, we made him finish. Absolutely fantastic.
Two coaching things I noticed. Roy is really known for not using his timeouts, but he actually took a couple before the last two minutes. One to stem the tide after our first 8-0 run to start the half, and one after they brought it back to two and then we pushed it back out to 6. He missed a timeout call right around when we took the lead, but that is a big improvement for Ole Roy and he deserve a (very) little credit.
The other is the last play drawn up by Coach K to get Nolan the ball long. Before this, Kyle tried to sneak an inbound pass to Nolan after a foul shot, but it was knocked out of bounds forcing us to inbound from a stand still. We called timeout to get the Plumlees out of the game and couldn't get it in against the press. K saw that they were leaving the front court wide open and called the appropriate play.
Big props to Nolan and Seth for carrying us in the 2nd half. Mason, as bad as he was for much of the game, did play a big role in our comeback early in the 2nd with some key offensive boards, so grudging props to him. But possibly the biggest props go to UNC's outside shooters who missed a ton of open looks in both halves. I kept thinking "surely, this one will go in." But no...it was brick city.
This game brought on disappointment in the first half, but real hope throughout the second. In the last ten minutes I kept wondering where the team was we played in the first half. Thoroughly enjoyable.
A tale of two halfs.
We were DOMINATED in every facet of the game in the 1st half (especially down low and on the glass)
2nd half the effort/intensity was on another level and Smith and Curry took the game over.
Hoping this game gives Curry a confidence boost as we are going to need a 3rd scorer like last season in March.
Incredible comeback! Incredible energy and passion in the second half. As intense as any game I have seen. Wow! How do I sleep tonight?
Paging our board historians - what's the biggest halftime deficit overcome in the Duke-UNC series? And where does this one rank?
Just be you. You is enough. - K, 4/5/10, 0:13.8 to play, 60-59 Duke.
You're all jealous hypocrites. - Titus on Laettner
You see those guys? Animals. They're animals. - SIU Coach Chris Lowery, on Duke