MBB: UNC 81, Duke 67 Post-Game Thread

[terrih]

Nolan is just amazing (I am going to focus on a real positive). He had 30 points on 12 of 13 from the line and 9 of 19 from the floor (according to ESPN). Just fantastic and gave us a fighting chance until late in the game.

[Lord Ash]

I am stunned at how little this team has grown and progressed this year. Everyone has seen it over the last few months... listless ACC games against what SHOULD be overmatched teams, and yet somehow they were all these flat, close games where the other team stays in it, and it is only because of Nolan that we win. Ryan, Dre, Kyle, Miles, and Mason have all either not made any progress, or have actually REGRESSED as the year has gone by, and I cannot account for it.

Then, seeing it put up against Carolina, with Barnes having gone through a tough stretch and emerged as a better player than the senior small forward up the road... Marshall as a freshman has been composed and gotten better and better as he got more time... Henson has made HUGE progress from last year, and has even made progress DURING this year... Zeller has gotten markedly better... heck, even the UNC guards have really stepped up their game.

I cannot recall seeing such a frustrating Duke team in a long time.

[CameronDuke]

It's pretty simple. When we can't hit 3s consistently, we lose. When we are hot from behind the 3 point line, we usually win. There was a stretch in the 2nd half of about 7 minutes or so that we didn't hit a field goal and that was pretty much the end of the game for us. Mason can not foul out with out scoring and Singler has to have a better game shooting and scoring for us to be competitive. UNC played well, particularly Kendall Marshall who zipped many nice passes around. Our help defense on dribble penetration was atrocious, but I think that is something we can count on improving in the next week. If we can improve our shooting and get hot in March, we can play with anyone.

On to Greensboro. I would love to play UNC again for the official ACC Championship.

[JohnGalt]

Nantz and Kellogg were terrible.

Thank goodness for the SAP button. Spanish was better.

[g-money]

I'm really hoping we meet the Holes again in the ACC tournament. One of the hallmarks of a champion (which we may not ultimately be, but IMO there's still plenty of time to right the ship) is exacting revenge after an embarrassing loss.

We're better than we played tonight and they played out of their a--. Lets run it back!!!!

[Dr. Rosenrosen]

Really played very hard, I'm so proud of our guys. I liked Kelly's persistance to keep on shooting through an off night. We will need that determination to go deep in the tourney.

Let's go Duke on to the ACC tourney!!

are you kidding? We got outhustled, outrebounded, outsmarted all night.

[pfrduke]

Wow shocked UNC fans stormed the court. I was just telling a friend the other day the only good thing about a UNC loss was at least the fans act like they've won a game before.

If there's any silver lining to our losses this season, it's that each of the team's fans thought it was such a big deal that they stormed the court. 4 losses, 4 courts stormings.

[Channing]

I don't know how we got here, but we look like a team in desperate, desperate need of some coaching. Seems completely crazy, but that's how it looks.

Unfortunately I thought the same thing. We haven't looked like a well coached team in a few weeks. Our offense continues to go stagnant for long stretches and our Defense has the same old weaknesses

Really played very hard, I'm so proud of our guys. I liked Kelly's persistance to keep on shooting through an off night. We will need that determination to go deep in the tourney.

Let's go Duke on to the ACC tourney!!

Not sure proud is the term I'd use. outside of a two game stretch this year Kelly's three point shooting has not been good all year. maybe he needs to stop shooting threes altogether...

[Fuqua's Finest]

Hate to say it, but Chapel Hill at this point in the season is the better team. Luckily, the ACC Regular Season Championship means nothing more than a checkpoint in a marathon. They won the battle, but the war continues. Hopefully Kyrie comes back and saves us or Kyle finds his game again. Without either we're nothing more than a Sweet 16 team. I bleed Duke blue but I can call a spade a spade. We live to play another game on Friday. A week's rest should do us plenty well.

And for the record, Chapel Hill wanted the game more. The loose balls won the game for them. Cant remember Duke getting dominated on so many loose ball opportunities.

[moonpie23]

my phone is blowing up with "live by the 3, die by the 3"...

sucks...

[BlueDGal]

we had another half where we didn't play good defense and started 0-5 on 3pters....I don't understand why we do that...it cost us the game.

[cspan37421]

If you read between the lines (it's not hard), Kyrie is not coming back. We need to do the rest of this with the guys we have in uniform.

Let's just hope that we have teachable guys who will learn from their breakdowns in defense. Perhaps UNC is just faster down the floor and they exploited that advantage. Do we credit their 3pt shooting defense or were we just off with it having nothing to do with their defense? I know for Ryan, it was that he was just off. No hands were in his face most of his shots.

For whatever reason, it does not appear that Andre will get much burn. Surprising that Tyler didn't get much, unless - is it UNC's size? Nolan and Kyle never gave up, but Kyle just didn't have it going. I hope he can find his outside shot. Hate to see him going out throwing up bricks and getting the occasional 10 footer and layup.

Hard to believe Mason couldn't score. And I would have preferred 5 fouls from him being more the "not in my house" kind, rather than getting leaned into, reaching for a rebound (never saw what he did?)

Anyway, hats off to UNC, esp. Zeller as an academic all america(n) and good player.

Next play. Who do we have?

[OZ]

You are not going to beat many GOOD teams with the scoring basically limited to two players.

I am not sure why Curry didn't take a few more shots in the second half.

Kyle, you are a senior and one of our two really good players... with as much as was on the line tonight, you simply have to bring more than that.

[Kfanarmy]

Though I'm sure these will be discussed ad nauseum in here I don't want to hear about 3 point shots, rebounding, or Kyle's shooting. You only need one word to describe why Duke lost this game...Defense. It just wasn't very good tonight.

Defense in the first half, but wow...I think they hit two buckets in the last 10 minutes. Still, I'm not sure Carolina wasn't trying to coast a bit by then. Wow, no one could hit the inside of the gym with the ball there for an eternity. Bigs need to be more agressive...on a night like this, I'm not sure what they think they are supposed to do on the offensive end.

[grossbus]

was the last time we got off to a good start?

when was the last time we had more than two players show up?

[AlaskanAssassin]

just glad it wasn't 82-50

[Oriole Way]

I just hope K learns something from this game and makes some adjustments.

Kelly is strictly a matchups play... he shouldn't start against athletic, talented teams. All our bigs need to stop hedging on every play. Singler needs to work more inside. The reliance on 3's really needs to be toned down, especially by Singer. Curry needs to be a more focal part of the offense, and Singler should sacrifice some perimeter jumpers to accommodate that.

This was one of K's worst coaching jobs in a long time. His insistence on using Kelly and going back to him time and time again was baffling. He made little to no adjustments for the kind of team UNC is, especially the constant hedging on the perimeter by our plodding big men. He seems to be indifferent towards the fact that Singler's shot selection is a huge liability for our offense. It's almost as if K is willing to live the results of his team playing the exact same style of man-to-man defense no matter how ineffective that may be against certain opponents.

That said, I think this team has the pieces to win the ACC tournament and make a deep run in the NCAA's. K needs to start acknowledging the severe deficiencies of his offensive and defensive approaches, as well as some of the key players who are struggling with how they play in the context of those offensive and defensive systems.

[Chris Randolph]

At least we are on the good side of the bubble, the #1 or #2 seed bubble haha...

It comes down to making shots, plain and simple. Whether you are open or contested, gotta make shots. We (not just Kyle) missed a lot of good looks, they didn't. Pretty simple

And to those questioning coach K, really? In the last year he has won a national title, world title, completely changed the style of play from a championship season, changed it again during the year when the team's best player went down and we are still in contention for a #1 seed. Haha at you haters

[Les Grossman]

Unfortunately, 2 on 5 rarely works.
Lasting image of the game for me was the look on Dre's face as he shot those 3 FTs.
Oy

[KShip21]

was the last time we got off to a good start?

when was the last time we had more than two players show up?

@MD is the closest we came to playing a solid 40 minutes since ACC play started