The Kyrie Irving Cleared-to-Practice Vigil

[dairedevil]

Just announced at halftime...discussion about how to work him back in to the rotation by Seth Davis, et al.

Yeah, Coach K has a bit of a pickle, but really, Kenny, if Kyrie is ready, how would you NOT play him..they'll figure it out.

oops - should have put in the K-toe thread. mods, please move!

[striker219]

Brilliant! My thought was a line from Billy Madison (right before he plays dodge ball against first graders):

"Now you're all in big... big trouble."



GGLC, indeed.

If he can shake the rust off this weekend that is exactly what it's going to look like in Anaheim.

[Mike Corey]

SethDavisHoops
Kyrie was never close to coming back RT @jonmachota: Can you give the same update on Kyrie Irving?
10 Mar Favorite Retweet Reply

~

Dear Seth: Please don't pick Duke to win the national championship.

[dukelifer]

I think this really helps Duke on the defensive end - by giving a safety buffer if Curry or Smith get into foul trouble by allowing Duke to stay aggressive. Duke won this weekend because the upped the defensive pressure. This is what they need to do in the tourney. If Irving can give minutes- it allows Duke to pressure more and still have excellent scorers on the floor at any one time. I am pretty sure Kyrie will not start or play significant minutes in the first couple of games- but he may be on the floor during crunch time if he continues to progress. A few minutes of Kyrie could mean a lot to keeping Nolan fresh!

[wsb3]

I have complete confidence in Coach K to manage Kyrie coming back for whatever time it may be. It is not like he has not known this was a possibility all along and that he has not planned accordingly.

[striker219]

Can you imagine being an opposing coach? Let's say that you've successfully put the screws to Nolan and really tired him out (I know that this hasn't happened in about two years, but hear me out). You see the ACC PoY and NPOY candidate calling to the bench for a sub and you think to yourself, "Excellent, maybe we can make a little run while he's on the bench."

And then Kyrie Irving steps on the court in his place.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Gee, I guess I was right when I said that Kyrie was going to play this weekend. OpTOEmism pays off! DebbieDowners need not apply! I am soooooooo happy for Kyrie! I am so happy for Duke fans! I am GGLC! Let's Go Duke!

[wilson]

I have complete confidence in Coach K to manage Kyrie coming back for whatever time it may be. It is not like he has not known this was a possibility all along and that he has not planned accordingly.

Exactly. I have felt all along (as have many) that K was somewhat downplaying his hopes for Kyrie's return, and I have no doubt that potential strategies for working Kyrie back into the mix have at least been percolating in his mind for weeks now.
Add this to Kyrie's comment from Sunday about how his basketball IQ has "skyrocketed" during his time as a spectator, and I'm really just not worried.

[gam7]

I think this really helps Duke on the defensive end - by giving a safety buffer if Curry or Smith get into foul trouble by allowing Duke to stay aggressive. Duke won this weekend because the upped the defensive pressure. This is what they need to do in the tourney. If Irving can give minutes- it allows Duke to pressure more and still have excellent scorers on the floor at any one time. I am pretty sure Kyrie will not start or play significant minutes in the first couple of games- but he may be on the floor during crunch time if he continues to progress. A few minutes of Kyrie could mean a lot to keeping Nolan fresh!

When Coach K says Kyrie will not be playing extended minutes in any one stretch, I assume he means that Kyrie will be rested during TV timeouts.

[Bob Green]

I think this really helps Duke on the defensive end -

I agree it helps on the defensive end, but it also helps on the offensive end. In addition to Irving being a great distributor, he is a very good shooter. Irving made 14 of 31 (.452) 3-point attempts in the eight games he played. The ability to place another solid shooter on the court is exciting.

[1 24 90]

Pipe dreams can come true!!!

[DeBlueDevil]

I think this really helps Duke on the defensive end - by giving a safety buffer if Curry or Smith get into foul trouble by allowing Duke to stay aggressive. Duke won this weekend because the upped the defensive pressure. This is what they need to do in the tourney. If Irving can give minutes- it allows Duke to pressure more and still have excellent scorers on the floor at any one time. I am pretty sure Kyrie will not start or play significant minutes in the first couple of games- but he may be on the floor during crunch time if he continues to progress. A few minutes of Kyrie could mean a lot to keeping Nolan fresh!

Also, I think this completely will add another 10 points to our point total and thats being modest. I say this because it takes our drive and kick offense to a whole nother level. Kyrie doesn't have to play a whole game to increase our chances completely. Just a 10 minutes of hmm beating someone of the dribble making the defense commit and kicking out wide open shooters could give us a 20 point lead in minutes. Let alone the damage he could do by himself.

Can you say back to back? I sure can.

[MCFinARL]

SethDavisHoops
Kyrie was never close to coming back RT @jonmachota: Can you give the same update on Kyrie Irving?
10 Mar Favorite Retweet Reply

~

Dear Seth: Please don't pick Duke to win the national championship.

Don't worry; he didn't--though he did pick us to be runner up.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/bas...rts/?eref=sihp

[MChambers]

Don't worry; he didn't--though he did pick us to be runner up.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/bas...rts/?eref=sihp

That kind of puts a damper on things!

[CDu]

I think this really helps Duke on the defensive end - by giving a safety buffer if Curry or Smith get into foul trouble by allowing Duke to stay aggressive. Duke won this weekend because the upped the defensive pressure. This is what they need to do in the tourney. If Irving can give minutes- it allows Duke to pressure more and still have excellent scorers on the floor at any one time. I am pretty sure Kyrie will not start or play significant minutes in the first couple of games- but he may be on the floor during crunch time if he continues to progress. A few minutes of Kyrie could mean a lot to keeping Nolan fresh!

I think it helps us in many aspects, not just defense:

- it gives us more depth, so we can play pressure defense
- it makes guard foul trouble less of a concern, because now we have four guys capable of running the point if needed
- it gives us another guy who can create his own shot or create for others
- it gives us the ability to put three guys who are strong at attacking off the dribble on the floor at the same time
- it gives us another good perimeter shooter
- it gives us another guy capable of playing pressure defense
- it takes pressure off of Smith and Singler to carry the scoring load
- it allows us to let Smith sit for a few minutes a game (if needed) without experiencing a dropoff at the playmaker spot

Honestly, a healthy Irving makes us so much more dangerous than we already were.

[watzone]

Here are Coach Krzyzewski's comments, see them for yourself - http://bluedevilnation.net/2011/03/k...-this-weekend/

[billyj]

How many weeks do you need to get back to competitive form for an athlete? Kyle Singler said, “He hasn’t missed a beat, but is not in the shape he needs to be.”

I like the idea Kyrie coming off from the bench. We'd know there will be an extra gear we can go to when we need it.

[loldevilz]

I think this really helps Duke on the defensive end - by giving a safety buffer if Curry or Smith get into foul trouble by allowing Duke to stay aggressive. Duke won this weekend because the upped the defensive pressure. This is what they need to do in the tourney. If Irving can give minutes- it allows Duke to pressure more and still have excellent scorers on the floor at any one time. I am pretty sure Kyrie will not start or play significant minutes in the first couple of games- but he may be on the floor during crunch time if he continues to progress. A few minutes of Kyrie could mean a lot to keeping Nolan fresh!

I've been thinking the same exact thing. Duke can put a lot of ball pressure on good guards like Kemba Walker with Nolan Smith and Kyrie Irving alternating on them at all time which is just like they did with Pullen and Lucas.

In fact Irvings defense best thing about his play in those early games. He shut guys down.

I think the other thing is that if Duke struggles to score at times, Kyrie can really help bail this team out and carry us. I love Nolan, but he can't get to the rim the way Kyrie can. Kyrie is just magical some times.

So against a strong defensive team like Texas he could be very helpful.

Of course this is all speculation. I'm still a little doubtful that he will be able to displace Curry who is playing great ball right now. We will just have to see how it goes.

[ajgoodfella7]

Kyrie just tweeted:

There's still no guarantee...

http://twitter.com/#!/kyrieirving/st...12742425493504

So now we can speculate some more.

[Hancock 4 Duke]

http://twitter.com/#!/kyrieirving
From Twitter
Kyrie Irving, "There's still no guarantee..."
Woops, AJ beat me to it!