Defense
Originally Posted by
Bob Green
I voted for Ryan Kelly. Our half court defense was good last night and Kelly was an integral cog in the wheel with four blocks. On offense, his solid low post move screamed "look at me I have a huge upside" or the ubiquitous "potential" in basketball vernacular.
Nolan Smith was awesome as usual and I wouldn't argue with anyone who voted for him, but for me Ryan Kelly was the difference in the victory over Virginia. Mason Plumlee deserves to be mention in the discussion with a solid nine points and nine rebounds performance.
I voted for Nolan, but thought about voting for Ryan. Yes, Ryan had a nice offensive game, scoring very efficiently. Yes, he was in good position and contested inside and got 4 blocks. Yes, he seemed aggressive going after rebounds. But, what impressed me most about Ryan's game was the way he defended on the perimeter (where he got two of his blocks.) Granted, Virginia's guards aren't Kyrie Irving, but Ryan did a great job guarding perimeter players most of the night and kept them in front of him most of the time. This allowed Duke to continue to play with two bigs for a lot of the game to take advantage of their height advantage. MOTM for Nolan, but great game for Ryan. It was nice to see Duke's D step up in this way against a patient offensive team.
“Those two kids, they’re champions,” Krzyzewski said of his senior leaders. “They’re trying to teach the other kids how to become that, and it’s a long road to become that.”