Kyrie, oh Kyrie, wherefore art thou Kyrie.
We are a jumpshooting team, plain and simple. When we make our shots we look awesome. When we don't, we look terrible.
Very, very strange game to watch, and not just because of the camera angles. We looked solid for most of the game, and then it sort of sputtered away. Delaney hitting that shot with a minute or two to go, you knew it was trouble...
Very, very strange game. Not the least bit enjoyable to watch. The postgame celebrations were totally and completely over the top for a regular season game between two non-rivals.
Congrats to Virginia Tech. We dangled it out there and they took it.
Frustrating game all around.
My gut sunk the moment Nolan drew the offensive foul against Delaney, because I kind of felt that that was the WORST possible time to toss them momentum. Again, when the 3's aren't falling the upset's come a calling. Mason and Miles both had some pretty good moments under the bucket, but I swear those two need to gain some basketball "smarts", because some of the unforced errors really cost us momentum and points (missed dunks, lazy rebounds, poor help defense).
If Mason and Miles continue to improve (and Ryan continues to show HIS excellent improvement) and we manage to develop a consistent offense underneath, then maybe in games like this where the three-ball doesn't fall consistently we can grind out points and stop the big runs. When you can put 4 or 5 grind points on the board during a 7-8 point run it really helps keep momentum balanced. The runs we've seen opponents make have been off of stupid turnovers and rebounds off of missed three pointers.
Unfortunately, I'm afraid that unless we can find an alternative to shooting MORE threes when the three-ball isn't working there's very little hope in making it back to the title game. I would be content with an Elite Eight run for this team right now, but then again, I said a similar thing last year.
I think the biggest factor in this game was the stretches that Duke was just too impatient on the offensive end. In particular, I thought Kyle had a bad night, not just shooting the ball, but the actual shots he was taking. I think Duke would have been better served to try to get the ball to the rim more often then they did. Having Seth in foul trouble for the entire game was a huge factor as well because thats just one less ball-handler that can create.
34 percent (20 of 58) of Duke's shot attempts were from 3-point range, and when you only make 20 percent (4) of those, you are in for a long night.
But the bottom line for me is that, I just think we were too impatient on the offensive end.
I agree. Had he been on the floor tonight, we would have run that team out of the gym -- no way they could have kept up with us playing an up-tempo style. I kept hoping against hope that we'd find a way to force tempo, but we played at VTech's speed, and they played a hair better in it than we did.
1. R. Kelly is being left WIDE open for shots and he is just not hitting right now. You can say Nolan and Kyle need to get other people involved, but when your passing to a guy who is open and he continously misses, then it can't be their fought.
2. Rebounds: We got destroyed on the boards tonight. We were taller than them and just as athletic (w/exception of RK athletically) across the front line and they whipped us.
3. Kyle went from shooting only 1 three against Temple to jacking them up in the 2nd half, and that last possession was horrendous.
I think it's back to the drawing board for rebounding and somehow Kyle and Ryan have to get some confidence in their shots.
As I think about it, I think we need more than just winning the ACC. Kansas is above us right now, Pitt is likely above us, Ohio State is past us, and BYU may have just moved past us. We may need Texas to beat Kansas. The ACC is weak and having two losses this year will really hurt us.
However, I don't know how you could be happy with this game. We were up by 5 on a 14-3 run and stopped VA Tech three straight times but did nothing offensively. I think if we expand that lead (seems there was around nine minutes left) at that point we win relatively easy. Two wide open 3's by Kyle in that sequence and then VA Tech hits a 3 and it was game on. Biggest concern for me is we did not look like an experienced team those last five minutes.
Singler is averaging 17.2 points per game and had 22 points tonight. Yes he did not shoot great from 3 point land. He is also coming off a 28 point game. Singler will be ok. Last year he averaged 17.7 and he had Scheyer helping with the scoring.
UNC would have to beat us to win the ACC and that is if they beat Maryland and FSU.
The Terrapin Assassin
The effort was good, the result is disappointing.
- Seth headlines with 0 points, 5 fouls, and a very, very costly turnover at the end of the game. He also had defensive lapses that led to VT baskets
- Ryan took way too many long distance shots, 0-4 from three point and 1-6 overall. While Seth was disappointing defensively, Ryan was disappointing offensively
- Kyle took too many quick shots and went 1-7 from three point range. He was good though otherwise with 12 rebounds
The only two players who had decent games were Nolan (9-18 shooting, 7 rebounds and 2 assists) and Mason (nice hooks in the post, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks).
We should have gone to Mason in the post more instead of taking so many quick 3-pointers.
Even though we were bigger, we were outrebounded by 7. If VT didn't shoot such a horrible FT rate, we would've lost by more. Our getting outrebounded is probably the critical stat -- VT just wanted it more.
The silver lining is that despite shooting 20% from 3-point range we still only lost by 4 points.
But this means winning at UNC is imperative, for both ACC and NCAA tournament implications.
Next play. Let's go Duke!
Can we all just pretend that K threw Seth Greenburg a bone with this one so that he could finally make it to the tourney?
Sigh, if only I could believe our K would do such a thing.
Shot selection hurt us late. It almost looked like we lost focus.
The team scored 4 points in 9 minutes after taking a 51-45 lead. Kyle Singler took 7 jumpers, six of them 3 pointers, in the last 11 and half minutes of the game. He missed 6 of those 7 jumpers.
I hate beating up on one of my favorite Duke players ever, who'll have his final home game this coming week. But this has been a disappointing year for him offensively, and I just hope the last 11 minutes were rock bottom.
Probably the most bone-headed game of the year. Poor shot selection, bad TO's at the end of the game where we had so few for the duration, Seth being totally non-existant, and the jams....or lack thereof. Had Miles and Mason not tried to dunk on a few plays and merely attempted to catch the ball and hit a layup, we get by on just enough points. Save that stuff for when we're up 15+ in a game, not when it's a struggle. Congrats to VTech though--they played hard from start to finish. Let's hope that this was something to learn from and that we might have a KI sighting in uniform soon enough. NEXT.
I kept telling my daughters during the 2nd half when Duke would have a chance to go up by either 6 or more and we just kept going back and forth with VT. During one sequence I believe Kyle took 4 straight three's and missed all but the first one he took. Then Nolan forced a couple as well and we simply couldn't pull away during that stretch where VT couldn't throw it in the ocean. Bottom line, Kyle and Nolan really took it upon themselves to take just about every shot from about the 10 minute mark on, and they simply didn't look to get anyone else involved. At least that's the way I saw it.
Not at all shocked we lost this one. Discouraged, yes. Shocked, no.
If we don't get Kyrie back (and I mean effective Kyrie) then we are more than vulnerable heading into the NCAA's because we simply don't have enough offensive consistency without him. It's really just that simple. If others want to disagree, feel free. But that's what I see. Now, that doesn't mean we can't win it just like we did last year. Anything can happen. But I think we are ripe for the picking without a healthy Kyrie.
If someone was to say that this would be the last L then I will take it...does this game remind you of last year? Anybody anybody.