MBB: Duke 76, Louisville 71 Post-Game Thread

[dairedevil]

but that is one plug-ugly trophy. I think my son had better looking trophies in youth soccer.

[chaosmage]

Weird comment.

I teach band. In band, every band stays for the trophies. Even if all you get is the "thanks for showing up" plaque. So if I'm the coach, out of respect, I stay for the presentation of all the awards and make my players stay as well. I would like to think that if we had lost, Coach K would've made the all-tournament selections stay and get their trophies.

Hence my comment.

[striker219]

It is a huge accomplishment to beat a good team, VCU (ridiculously tough team) and then the No. 2 team in the country in your third game. Maybe A firework.

No kidding, I think they've earned a little down time. At least they get a few days of R&R before they have to...

Wait, no, I'm being told that they actually have to catch an early flight home tomorrow to prepare to face another top 5 team on Wednesday. Brutal stretch of basketball.

Amazing for fans!

[ChicagoCrazy84]

Let the celebration begin! Well done Devils. I have to admit I did not expect us to win this tourney going in due to the tough competition and our team still learning and coming together, and finally I thought fatigue, combined with Curry's leg and conditioning would be too much to overcome. Little did I know that Mr Featherson's gut before the season was spot on. This is a darn good basketball team. Period. If they can fix the rebounding issues, and get solid development from the bench guys, they can be a final four team. I don't see this as a "peaking early" team either, because they have so much more growing to do. We have not seen their best yet. The ceiling is much higher imo.

Love it!

I think so too. With Marshall hopefully coming back in the next few weeks and getting some more burn for Amile/Alex in the coming weeks, we're going to continue to get better. Also, no offense to Austin but Rasheed is so solid especially defensively. He played against some solid guards the last few days and he was impressive all three days. If he can get a little more consistent with his shot, he could be an All-ACC selection by the end of the year.

[pamtar]

I hate to nitpick after ANOTHER huge win, but we NEED to get better with our rebounding. I don't know why Mason was shying away so much in the 2nd half, he finished the first half with 2 fouls and ended up finishing the game with 2 fouls. Hmmmm. Also I don't know if it's being at an unfamiliar stadium or what, but our long range game is almost non existent. I'm sure we'll be ok but its still a little concerning.

FWIW, Ohio State is ranked 196th nationally in rebounding...

[mapleleafdevil]

If Mason does not start boxing out it could mean trouble against a team with decent bigs. He is so used to being the biggest guy on the floor that he forgets the most important thing.

[mgtr]

Normally, I enjoy the games the most when Duke smashes the opponent into the ground (exhibitions). However, I did enjoy this game, thought both teams gave it all they had, plus the stars stepped up when needed on both teams. I hope we don't meet either VCU or Louisville in the big dance.

[subzero02]

Tough to pick a MOTM tonight - different players at different points in the game were key.

I have to go with Cook... The floater and the clutch free throws. He really impressed me down the stretch. You can literally see his confidence growing... I loved it when he waved off Curry and then spun into the lane for the floater. Straight butta...

[Newton_14]

FWIW, Ohio State is ranked 196th nationally in rebounding...

So you're saying there's a chance?

[lotusland]

Our guy showed a lot of composure tonight. Free-throw shooting at the end was awesome. I would have preferred a little less matador D at end so maybe we wouldn't have to keep in-bounding the ball and hitting free-throws but our guys really showed a ton of poise. Our starting 5 is playing better than anyone right now. I could post something nice about each of them but I was really impressed with Ryan's Defense all night and I did think he got tough calls on both his 4th and 5th fouls there at the end. Mason made good decisions and good passes when in-bounding the ball against the press and did a good job running the floor and knocking down free-throws. Quinn played great all game and made clutch shots and free-throws at the end. Sheed had a great first half and Seth made clutch shots at the end of both halves.

If I had to list a concern about this team at this point it would be our depth (at least what we know of it with MP3 hurt and Amile/Alex playing very little) and that our guards, although improved from last year, are still vulnerable to the drive especially against big aggressive guards like Smith and Siva.

[House G]

Quinn and Sheed are very impressive
handling those two senior guards of L'ville was no easy assignment

Do we have to refer to Rasheed as Sheed? It conjures up memories of one of my least favorite Tar Heels.

[BlueDevilBrowns]

Man, if we only had a 7' player on the bench we could bring in to help out! Oh wait, we will soon. And Mason and Ryan can battle more and be a bit fresher.

Or, if we could develop a 6'8" wing so we didn't have to play so small. Oh wait, they're also working on that.

Along those lines, I think this tournament solidified the starting 5 going forward the rest of the season. I wasn't wild at first about a 3 guard line-up again this year but Rasheed has more than proved the value of him being a starter.

Going forward, the focus should be on developing the bench, especially considering Curry's health and Kelly/MP2 foul-trouble. We need solid, consistent contributions from 2 of the following(I'm excluding TT as he's already a known quantity):

Amile, Alex, and/or MP3.

I want our starters fresh and ready for March as I believe we have the parts to go DEEP this year - an effective 8-9 man rotation will do it.

[dukelifer]

Tough game- both teams fought hard. This tourney was great for Quinn and Rasheed. Quinn is gaining confidence with every game and seems to like the big moments- nice to see. Rasheed is both quick and fast and if he continues to develop that midrange game- he is going to be a force. This team plays very well together- and the D is more than solid. There were moments where they had lapses tonight when they let Louisville back in the game- but overall they have been pressuring well and defending the rim. Mason is a different player. The game has slowed down for him and his free throw shooting is amazing- he has clearly figured a lot out over the summer. I was not sure about this team when the season started- but if Quinn Cook continues to show this type of poise and leadership- Duke can play with anyone.

[UrinalCake]

Box score shows that rebounding wasn't quite as bad as it appeared when watching the game - they beat us 37-31 overall and 13-7 offensively. But they also said on the radio that Louisville averages 15 offensive boards per game. So we got beat but not destroyed on the boards. But hey, we gotta have something to work on in practice this week 8-).

[ncexnyc]

Another fantastic finish. Many people on the board were concerned about the 3 guard line-up and so far we are seeing some of their concerns about rebounding being played out. I'm not sure there's much Coach K and his staff can do about it as their hand has been forced by the outstanding play of Rasheed. Stressing the basic fundamental of boxing out is about all they can do for right now. Hopefully either Alex or Amile can elevate their game big time so they earn more playing time.

I was saying some nasty things about Ryan's defensive effort throughout the game. He seemed a tad slow moving to the ball and then out of nowhere with Big Mo shifting to the Cards, he stonewalls a guard in the open court. He then follows that play up with two clean blocks, which were whistled for bogus fouls.

With all that we've seen in this young season, the biggest shock is not only Mason's FT%, but that of the team as a whole, outstanding job under some tough conditions.

[UrinalCake]

Going forward, the focus should be on developing the bench.

I totally agree, but I don't think that will happen until after the OSU game, when the schedule eases up and we'll have more practices in between games. Murphy especially is a guy we expected to play multiple positions, so not having him out there much really weakens our bench production.

[BlueDevilBrowns]

but that is one plug-ugly trophy. I think my son had better looking trophies in youth soccer.

Yeah, if you put your ear up to the seashell on that trophy, you can hear Ol' Roy whisper "Daggummit".

[KenTankerous]

Boxing out and rebounding, to those who have played, coached or watched much ball, are the easiest of skills to learn or teach. K is biding his time. He'll get Mason there. And Kelly will lead the way.

Relax and enjoy a GREAT win. And another championship.

[lotusland]

Do we have to refer to Rasheed as Sheed? It conjures up memories of one of my least favorite Tar Heels.

How about RS? I hate typing names when I post from my phone so there must be an abreviation.

[UrinalCake]

I was saying some nasty things about Ryan's defensive effort throughout the game. He seemed a tad slow moving to the ball and then out of nowhere with Big Mo shifting to the Cards, he stonewalls a guard in the open court.

That was a huge play, especially since we turned right around and scored. Last year there were countless times when Ryan was in a similar position and would choose to just keep his arms folded and fall over. It always drove me crazy that an almost-seven footer wouldn't even hold up his arms and would instead choose to flop. Looks like he finally started listening to me 8-)