MBB: Duke vs Pennsylvania Pre-Game and In-Game Thread

[Bob Green]

Next up is the Penn Quakers on Sunday afternoon at 5 pm. The game is being televised on ESPNU.

Penn is 6-7 on the year but they have the ability to give Duke a challenge. Penn is coming off a 75-70 loss against Davidson. Davidson coach Bob McKillop was impressed by the Quakers:

"They're a dangerous team, this win didn't come easy. They're relentless."

Duke defeated Davidson 82-69 on November 18th.

Personally, I would like to see a much closer game than our last two to help prepare the team for the upcoming conference games. The 27 point win over UNC-G and the 40 point blowout of Western Michigan were fun to watch, but on Sunday I'd rather see a game that is still a contest with 10 minutes left in regulation.

[Acymetric]

Next up is the Penn Quakers on Sunday afternoon at 5 pm. The game is being televised on ESPNU.

Penn is 6-7 on the year but they have the ability to give Duke a challenge. Penn is coming off a 75-70 loss against Davidson. Davidson coach Bob McKillop was impressed by the Quakers:



Duke defeated Davidson 82-69 on November 18th.

Personally, I would like to see a much closer game than our last two to help prepare the team for the upcoming conference games. The 27 point win over UNC-G and the 40 point blowout of Western Michigan were fun to watch, but on Sunday I'd rather see a game that is still a contest with 10 minutes left in regulation.

I disagree...we should beat Penn handily. I don't see much benefit to having a tight game with an overmatched team. We'll have plenty of close games later in the season.

[DukieInBrasil]

I disagree...we should beat Penn handily. I don't see much benefit to having a tight game with an overmatched team. We'll have plenty of close games later in the season.

Agreed. As the DBR front page write-up of the game mentioned, WMU was disciplined enough and had enough players to make us work for the win rather than just loafing for it. Plus, K decided to pull players who weren't taking it seriously enough (Kelly behind-the-back-pass and Mason lack-of-rebs). It turned into a 40 pt win b/c other players really stepped in to fill the void, like Hairston, Gbinije and MPI. I think the distributing ability of Quinn was one of the main differences as all of our perimeter players scored the ball very efficiently (6-10, 4-4, 8-12 FGs), only Andre was off (1-6).
Vs. UPenn i would like to see more of the same, mostly in the form of intensity. They are another team of the WMU variety, quality players, well-coached. Which will require focus and quality play to beat by 20+, but one we should still beat even if we don't play all that well. In that regard, i don't think our lopsided wins represent un-beneficial games, just that we were able to play at a high level due to focus and the fact that K played guys who wanted to play hard.
Also, the value to the team of getting guys like Silent G and Hairston quality minutes and an extended Cook/Thornton duel should not be discounted. We'll need solid contributions from them in those tight games later in the year, and developing muscle memory for how to succeed in game-situations will be crucial.

[Bob Green]

Perhaps I'm guilty of not clearly communicating my thoughts. I do not desire to see a close game due to Duke loafing or playing beneath their potential, but rather I desire to see Pennsylvania come into Cameron and challenge us because they play great. Penn hung tough against Davidson a team we beat by 13 points so I do not believe it is a stretch to expect the Quakers to stay within striking distance for 30+ minutes. I simply desire to see the boys challenged a bit in the last couple of non-conference games before the ACC schedule starts. Perhaps I'm a game early and just need to cool my jets until Wednesday and the trip to Philadelphia.

[davidson]

I saw Penn on Thursday night, when Davidson won at home 75-70. Penn played a really good first half, and led 33-30 at halftime. Davidson took control pretty quickly in the second half. We were up 13 with about three and a half minutes left, but some silly turnovers and fouls along with a couple of long threes helped them make it close at the end.

The biggest scoring threats from Penn are their two guards - Zack Rosen (number 1) and Tyler Bernardini (number 4). Bernardini had gone 16-23 from three point range in the two games prior to playing Davidson, so guarding against the three was Davidson's key to the game. Both of them went 1-3 from three, so we were successful - but in return gave up some easy backdoor layups.

Penn played a very, very aggressive and physical defense. They foul a lot, and not all of them were called. Bernardini seemed to hold on every possession, but got away with it early. After McKillop pointed it out to the ref, he started to get called for it a bit more. Watch him on defense and you'll see what I mean. The player you will really dislike is number 34, Rob Belcore. He is extremely physical on defense, and whines about every call. He had been close to getting a technical on several occasions, before finally getting the t midway through the second half. The coach is pretty animated as well, and should have gotten a t when he hit the scorer's table (shades of Dean) when he was unhappy with how quickly the clock stopped on a timeout.

We did best when we took it to the hoop, so I would look for Austin to have a big day driving and scoring.

Penn is much improved over the last couple of years, but it should be an easy 20+ point victory.

Oh yeah - Toni Kukoc's son plays for Penn, so if you see a tall guy who looks vaguely familiar cheering for Penn, it might be Toni. Drove me crazy for a while during the game trying to figure out who he was.

Penn is much improved

[Bob Green]

I saw Penn on Thursday night...

Thanks for the scouting report. Eyewitness accounts are invaluable!

[PumpkinFunk]

To echo what davidson said: This team runs through Zack Rosen. He is by far their best player, and is even getting some buzz by some (Doug Gottlieb, mainly) as an NBA draft prospect. He's gotten a few double-doubles (points/assists) and is a solid shooter. Their only big loss this year was a 20-point loss to Pitt, but they've kept it close in every other game. Penn's going to be challenging to be the 2nd best team in the Ivy League (behind Harvard). This team is better than some ACC schools this year (Wake and BC) and will be a tougher out than Western Michigan was.

This game will come down to some good defense on Rosen and our bigs playing well. We've got a size advantage over them that the Plumlees and Kelly should be able to take advantage of.

[moonpie23]

bringing my son sam to his first game of the year. We'll be down on the end of the wheelchair section !!!

Funny story. While taking sam to a game a couple of years ago, one of the kind couples on the front row of the end zone section where they put the fans using wheelchairs came back and asked sam if he wanted to move to their seats to see the game better. Sam got all shy suddenly and said, "no thank you, but thank you for offering"...i didn't think much of it other than a lot of people were kind of watching this couple's kind gesture and thought sam just didn't want to be under that attention...

about 5 minutes into the game, mason plumlee came PLOWING into that couple knocking them to the floor...sam turned to me and said "see?"



I'll be wearing my new 903 shirt i got for christmas...

go duke!!!

[Bob Green]

bringing my son sam to his first game of the year. We'll be down on the end of the wheelchair section !!!

Have a great time at the game and say hey to Sam from all of us on DBR.

[OldPhiKap]

Have a great time at the game and say hey to Sam from all of us on DBR.

X2. Have a great game!

[Indoor66]

I'm rooting for Sam!

[Duke71]

I disagree...we should beat Penn handily. I don't see much benefit to having a tight game with an overmatched team. We'll have plenty of close games later in the season.

Oh contrare, my friend:

There is always great benefit to the collective consciousness of players to be able to win close games. More tortuous for diehard fans to watch - agreed - but the value is realizing that it's not a theoretical concept that you will win close games. You've done it and now have every documented reason to expect to do it again.

I remember years ago Duke had a couple of teams that were cleaning everybody's clock to the tune of 20+ point victory margins throughout the regular season and when they finally ran into some close games in the NCAA tournament the "we've done this before and can d*amn well do it again" attitude and confidence were just not palpable. It was foreign territory.

Bob Green, you didn't need to explain or backtrack on your point. The original version was spot on.

[Kedsy]

Two things I'll be looking for in this game:

(1) Will we continue the faster pace we used in the Western Michigan game? Quinn was very effective on the break and we got a lot of easy points in transition. The pace also seemed to confuse Western Michigan when they were on offense/we were on defense. It could have been a one game anomaly or it could be a philosophy change for the team. If it's a change, I like it, but I wonder if we can keep it up against good teams.

(2) If Quinn and Tyler are splitting 40 minutes at PG, as they did against Western Michigan, what will that mean for Andre's minutes? Andre only played 15 minutes against Western Michigan, and that was in a game where Seth and Austin each played probably 10 minutes less than they will in ACC games. If Tyler and Quinn split 40 minutes, and Austin and Seth split 65, that only leaves 15 minutes for Andre and Michael combined. Even if Michael's minutes dwindle to 3 to 5 in ACC games, that puts Andre at 10 to 12. I would hope Andre could play 10 to 15 minutes more than that, but Coach K may have other ideas, because if Tyler and Quinn are splitting 40 it's hard to see that many minutes for Andre. Anyway, we won't get the answer against Penn, but we'll at least see if Tyler and Quinn continue big minutes and if Andre plays a decent number against a lower-tier opponent.

[Bigdukeboi22]

Whoever is going to the game I hope y'all have a great time! As I did at the Western Michigan game. I do not see much of a contest though, Duke played Penn in the 2009-2010 National Championship year and won by a whopping 114-55 scoreline. Penn might have improved, but I still do not see much of a contest in this game. Have fun at the game though if you are attending, it's always electric in Cameron! I hope we crack 100 again!!

[Bob Green]

The DBR preview of Penn is interesting in that they make a very strong statement re Quinn Cook:

We wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s on Kyrie Irving’s level, but we really, really like his instincts. If his defense continues to improve, it wouldn’t shock us in the slightest to see him starting at some point soon.

As far as the game goes:

There are a lot of reasons for optimism for Duke right now, but that didn’t stop Coach K from getting irritated with sloppy play Friday. Expect intensity to be a focus Sunday, and expect the Devils to try their best to maintain it for 40 minutes.

That’s good news for Duke and Duke fans but likely bad news for Penn.

I agree with Kedsy, pace and playing time are two stats which will be interesting to keep an eye on during today's contest.

[Duvall]

Whoever is going to the game I hope y'all have a great time! As I did at the Western Michigan game. I do not see much of a contest though, Duke played Penn in the 2009-2010 National Championship year and won by a whopping 114-55 scoreline. Penn might have improved, but I still do not see much of a contest in this game.

Well, let's be clear - this Penn team is *definitely* improved over their 2010 edition, which was one of the worst teams in the country.

[Bob Green]

Vegas has Duke as a 22 point favorite with the over/under set at 146. That equates to an 84-62 Duke victory:

http://www.vegasinsider.com/college-...dds/las-vegas/

[magjayran]

Funny story. While taking sam to a game a couple of years ago, one of the kind couples on the front row of the end zone section where they put the fans using wheelchairs came back and asked sam if he wanted to move to their seats to see the game better. Sam got all shy suddenly and said, "no thank you, but thank you for offering"...i didn't think much of it other than a lot of people were kind of watching this couple's kind gesture and thought sam just didn't want to be under that attention...

about 5 minutes into the game, mason plumlee came PLOWING into that couple knocking them to the floor...sam turned to me and said "see?"

go duke!!!

Great story. Thanks so much for sharing.

Personally I'd like to see Duke beat the dog poo out of Penn and I'd like to see them continue to do that to everybody. This Duke team has played in an awful lot of close games this year so I don't doubt that they can overcome in-game adversity. Let's have some fun today. I hope Silent G gets 15 and Jiggy gets a double double. Of course I'd like to see an alley-oop drill at some point too. GO DUKE!

[Duvall]

Oh contrare, my friend:

There is always great benefit to the collective consciousness of players to be able to win close games. More tortuous for diehard fans to watch - agreed - but the value is realizing that it's not a theoretical concept that you will win close games. You've done it and now have every documented reason to expect to do it again.

I remember years ago Duke had a couple of teams that were cleaning everybody's clock to the tune of 20+ point victory margins throughout the regular season and when they finally ran into some close games in the NCAA tournament the "we've done this before and can d*amn well do it again" attitude and confidence were just not palpable. It was foreign territory.

Not sure how any of that applies to a team that already has five single-digit wins. Duke can save late-game learning experiences for road games against top 50 opponents - I would be much happier with a comfortable win in a home game against a team outside the top 150 teams in the country.

[Duke71]

Not sure how any of that applies to a team that already has five single-digit wins. Duke can save late-game learning experiences for road games against top 50 opponents - I would be much happier with a comfortable win in a home game against a team outside the top 150 teams in the country.

Hi Duvall:

I don't disagree. I'll concede your counterpoint about the multiple single-digit victories this season. It does differ from the blowout parades of the past that I cited.

However, little of value is learned in blowouts. Behind-the-back-passes (ala Kelly in the last game) resulting from potential ESPN "Sports Center" highlight temptations add little value to the greater objective of where we all want to see this season end up...