The Blue Hens are 2-5, but won at Virginia, and have played a pretty tough schedule. Below is a blurb from this article that gives a nice summary.
The line is 18, but in this day an age, we should never sleep on any opponent. Our guys will have to go out and play ball as Delaware will not roll over. Mason should get a nice challenge from the Hagins kid, and Saddler has been lighting teams up going for over 30 on 2 occasions.The Delaware Blue Hens come in with a 2-5 record and have lost 4 straight games to Lafayette, Temple, Pittsburgh, and Kansas State. All of Delaware’s games have come on the road or a neutral site and they have wins over Virginia and Penn. In their last outing against Lafayette, the Blue hens rallied from a 20-point deficit to within three points, but a last second shot would’t go down. Delaware allowed Lafayette to shoot 46% from the field, while the Blue Hens shot 36% from the field. Delaware loves to shoot the three, and they only connected on 8 of their 27 three-point attempts in this one. The Blue Hens did out rebound Lafayette 41-26, led by F Hagins who grabbed a career-high 23 rebounds. Hagins also scored 18 points and blocked five shots in the loss. Delaware averages 67 points per game, while their opponents are average over 71 points per game. The Blue Hens have shot over 45% from the field and over 30% from behind the arc so far this year. Delaware has -5 turnover ratio and +2 rebound margin so far this season. G Saddler is leading the way for the Blue Hens averaging over 22 points per game. Delaware is slightly undersized, but their athletic ability tends to make up for it in the front court.
Hopefully our guys will not be hungover from the big win late Wednesday night, and come out sharp and focused. I am looking forward to the game. I am taking a new friend who is a huge Duke fan but has never seen a game in Cameron, and also getting to meet my DBR buddy Kedsy in person for the first time, so really excited about that, and I hope all 3 of us have reason to celebrate at the end.
Let's Go Duke!
Looks like we are up against the Saddler and Hagins show...
Not a lot of size and not much depth. Delaware shoots a ton of 3's and is not exactly defense-oriented. Finally a game Duke should (they better!) win the battle of the boards. Maybe the first time this season we were bigger than the opponent at the 3 (and every other position too!!). K has said that was something that we were going to address, and if nothing else they'll get a confidence boost in that department on Sat. Delaware, to give the credit, has played a really tough schedue... and lost big in the last 2 games to Temple and Pitt.
Delaware Projected Starters:
10 Devon Saddler (6-2, 210, Jr.) - 21.4 ppg, 4.4 rpg
12 Terrell Rogers (5-8, 160, Fr.) - 5.7 ppg, 1.7 rpg
13 Kyle Anderson (6-2, 195, So.) - 7.0 ppg, 2.7 rpg
33 Carl Baptiste (6-9, 245, Jr.) - 4.4 ppg, 3.7 rpg
44 Jarnell Hagins (6-9, 235, Sr.) - 13.0 ppg, 13.4 apg
Reserves:
04 Jarvis Threatt (6-2, 165, So.) - 10.4 ppg, 4.8 rpg
32 Josh Brinkley (6-6, 250, So.) - 7.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg
21 Marvin King-Davis (6-7, 210, Fr.) - 1.8 ppg, 1.8 rpg
Here is the Scout preview:
http://duke.scout.com/2/1245334.html
Pomeroy has Duke by 19. Delaware is ranked 103 in Pomeroy (Duke is 5), so they're a non-tourney team, but not an awful one. Their "strength" is offense - which is above average if not particularly good. They're below average in 3 of the four offensive factors (Shooting, Getting to the Free Throw Line, and avoiding turnovers), but make up for it with offensive rebounding...which is our bane. That said, they're not THAT good at offensive rebounding, ranking 76th in the Country.
But where Delaware's offense is their strong suit, their D is basically average (171st). They're average in 3 of the four defensive factors (opponent's FG%, Defensive Rebounding, and avoiding putting opponents on the foul line), but are abysmal at forcing turnovers (300th in the country). In other words, Quinn Cook should have some fun as should the rest of the guys, as Delaware is unlikely to prevent Duke from taking shots at all.
Individually, Pomeroy suggests that Delaware is enormously reliant upon one player: Junior Guard Devon Saddler (21.4 PPG). He plays nearly every minute, and takes 1/3 of their shots - he's in the top 20 in both percentage of team shots taken and possessions used of players so far. And to his credit, he's actually efficient at doing so - he's an elite shooter, but he draws a lot of fouls and knocks down FTs at an 80% clip.
The other two guys to look out for are Jamelle Hagins (Senior Forward) and Jarvis Threatt (Sophomore Guard). Threatt takes more shots and is used in a LOT of possessions (over a 1/4 of his team's) - for comparison's sake, no DUKE player has the usage rate, considering both Possession usage and shot%, of Threatt and he's the 2nd most used player on the team. Like Saddler he draws a decent amount of fouls, but unlike Saddler, he's a LOUSY shooter - so he's tremendously inefficient. Duke would prefer that Threatt shoot as much as possible really.
Hagins is another story. He's 6'9" 235 Pounds, and plays clearly an inside game, and he's REALLY REALLY good. He's a monster rebounder (ranking 2nd in defensive rebound % in the country, 57th in offensive rebound %), doesn't commit a lot of fouls, shoots 64% from 2 (doesn't shoot 3s), and is an 89.5% FT shooter this year (though he was only a 66% FT shooter the last two years). Seriously, those are some monster #s. He had 18 points and 23 rebounds in that game against Temple which they lost by 3 and played all 40 minutes. He's also good at blocking shots.
So on Defense, the keys are Hagins and Saddlor. Cook probably guards Saddlor, though Sulaimon may get some of the job as well. Mason will be guarding Hagins and will obviously have the most important job on defense - Hagins is a monster when he gets the ball - it's just that Delaware doesn't get him the ball much.
NOTE: Two DE players, Brinkley and Threatt didn't lay in their last game on Wednesday due to injury. As such, it's really really REALLY the Hagins and Saddlor show. Handle em well, and we'll kill them.
<devildeac> anyone playing drinking games by now?
7:49:36<Wander> drink every qb run?
7:49:38<loran16> umm, drink every time asack rushes?
7:49:38<wolfybeard> @devildeac: drink when Asack runs a keeper
7:49:39 PM<CB&B> any time zack runs, drink
Carolina Delenda Est
Here are a few little tidbits on this matchup, that have no relevance to anything:
The teams have only met once before, and it was in Cameron. Duke won, but only by 6.
Pizza pie for anyone who can name Duke's leading scorer in that game. No looking it up. Only hint: game was played in the 1990's.
OK another hint: you probably blocked out the fact that this player led us in scoring in any game, ever.
Hopefully the team is focused and intense. After marque games such as Kentucky, Louisville and Ohio State, the team could be emotionally drained.
Is the game at 2 per Goduke.com schedule or at 9:30 per DBR front page?
erik meek or carmen wallace
can anyone provide an online link where the game can be seen? Don't see it listed on comcast's 800 channels.
thx
My Comcast has it on Fox Sports South, channel 48 in the ATL.
I am curious to see how Seth does in this one. I thought his play was pretty horrible against OSU. Don't know if his leg was hurting or what, but that missed pass and the forced threes were flexin'. I wouldn't be surprised to see him not start, whether to rest his leg, or because his play was so far below the rest of the team on Wednesday. Whether or not Tyler Thornton gets the nod over Seth today, I am not completely sold on Seth not practicing and just playing in games. We hear so much about how important practice is in Duke basketball. I don't know if the AI approach will work for the whole season.
Yes, Seth had a poor game against OSU. It may have been attributed to his leg issues or just the length and athletic ability of the OSU guards. Whatever it was, don't forget that Seth was instrumental in our winning several big games this year and we will need him to be good and to keep winning. It is easy for us to be confident about this team after such a terrific start, but an off night from Mason could cause us some heartaches. Having Seth's scoring would give us 4 scorers, even with Mason having an off night.
Saying that, I think Duke has a big advantage over Delaware in today's game. We shall see as the game is still played on the court.
Directv dropped fox rocky mountain here, so I don't have access. Per ESPN.com, it does look like it might be on ESPN3. Hopefully I can catch it there.