MBB: Duke-67 Davidson-50 Post Game Thread

[Newton_14]

Post your thoughts on the game here.

[nyesq83]

Great team response to a tough Davidson team, a good tune-up before conference play.

Quinn Cook was superb tonight.

[Luther]

Another nice win. Mason and seth struggled and we still won by 17.

[subzero02]

Let me be the first to say that kenpoms predicted margin of victory, 17 points, was dead on...

[CLW]

Concerned about the lackluster effort the past several games in the 1st half. It's almost like this team "knows" it can just turn it on at will and will wait to see if they have to play hard.

Mason (and Ryan) really struggled with the double from the baseline. It lead to allot of turnovers and bad shots.

Our rebounding is still REALLY bad. Kenpom noted a few weeks back that it would he historically bad for a #1 seed team to be this bad on the glass (i think the only comparable was St. Joe's)

All that said we are now 13-0 headed to ACC play (honestly if you had asked me pre-season I would have predicted 2-4 losses by now)

[SCMatt33]

I'm sure there is a lot of things to say about that game, the first half, the rebounding, the start of the 2nd, the low assist rate, but I must say, Quinn Cook just sucked the life out of the last 7:30 of that game, and it was glorious to watch. He'd have 2 guys chase him like it was nothing and then get fouled, get a bucket, or find an open man. I know there is a lot of debate every year about stall-fence, but that was text book use of it right there. We haven't had a guy like that running the point (pre-injury Kyrie excepted) since Duhon graduated. I can't say enough about how great he was in that spot. Also want to give a big shout out to Tyler for the four minutes preceding that.

[dukelifer]

Concerned about the lackluster effort the past several games in the 1st half. It's almost like this team "knows" it can just turn it on at will and will wait to see if they have to play hard.

Mason (and Ryan) really struggled with the double from the baseline. It lead to allot of turnovers and bad shots.

Our rebounding is still REALLY bad. Kenpom noted a few weeks back that it would he historically bad for a #1 seed team to be this bad on the glass (i think the only comparable was St. Joe's)

All that said we are now 13-0 headed to ACC play (honestly if you had asked me pre-season I would have predicted 2-4 losses by now)

Duke cannot match the other teams effort every game because the other teams are playing with nothing to lose. Doing that the whole season will burn you out. I am fine with turning it on for a half. The issue for me is making mistakes and poor decisions and not boxing out. That said, Duke did most everything better in the second half. Kudos to Thornton - the kid is so tough and seems to play best when the pressure is on. Most everyone had an off night other than Ryan and Cook- but Thornton hit huge shots to give Duke the lead. Cook does a very nice job in stall ball. He takes his time going to the bucket and is very smooth. Davidson played a physical game and was pretty solid defensively. Not Duke's best game- but teams will have off nights and bench guys need to step up. Tonight- Thornton stepped up. On to ACC play.

[Saratoga2]

Another nice win. Mason and seth struggled and we still won by 17.

Mason and Seth both had sub par games and yet the team won by 17. On the other hand, Ryan and Quinn both had excellent games while Tyler chipped in a good 10 and Rasheed had the speed to threaten the Davidson defense. There are enough weapons to score, even against a solid defense. The other side, is that the defense is good enough to choke off a lot of opportunities. Still, the rebounding was rather poor and we did give up second chance points and seemed to be outhustled in the first half.

Where could Mason improve? More hustle and have a feel for when the double team is coming and pass out of it. Generally have a better feel for the game.

Where could Seth improve? Don't have any thoughts. His shot was off tonight and he couldn't drive by Davidson as he did against Santa Clara. I think we just have to be patient and he will reward us with many stellar nights.

Still almost no PT for Marshall, Alex and Amile. I know the game was close, but the time Josh put in was not productive. I would assume one of the three bench players might have contributed as much.

[FerryFor50]

I'm amazed that with a pair of near 7 footers, we get destroyed so badly on the glass. And this is almost always against undersized teams. Some if it is effort, but I think some of it is the tendency of the bigs to go for the blocked shot, putting them out of position.

If they'd stay home on defense and box out, I think we'd be much better on the boards.

[dyedwab]

1) We now know that we can beat a good team with Mason having a horrible game.

2) Our slow first half starts are getting old. And they look to be more about effort then about anything else. We keep getting beat to loose balls, play lackluster defense, etc. Won't work against good teams.

3) We played "stall ball" but I doubt there will be complaints about it - because having Quinn Cook execute it makes all the difference. Our stall ball problems over the years have always seemed to me to be about our inability to execute the strategy, rather then the strategy itself. Quinn has almost singlehandedly solved that

4) Ryan Kelly stepped up big time.

5) Boy, that was a physical game.

[milehighdukie]

Brooks was rebounding like a demon out there...

[OZ]

Concerned about the lackluster effort the past several games in the 1st half. It's almost like this team "knows" it can just turn it on at will and will wait to see if they have to play hard.

Mason (and Ryan) really struggled with the double from the baseline. It lead to allot of turnovers and bad shots.

Our rebounding is still REALLY bad. Kenpom noted a few weeks back that it would he historically bad for a #1 seed team to be this bad on the glass (i think the only comparable was St. Joe's)

All that said we are now 13-0 headed to ACC play (honestly if you had asked me pre-season I would have predicted 2-4 losses by now)

While I can understand your comment about Mason's play tonight, I am not getting your inclusion of Ryan. 18 points, 7 rebounds, 5 of 8 in field goals and ONE turnover. In fact, I voted him player of the game.

[wallyman]

Great games by Quinn, Ryan and Tyler. For all the (accurate) talk about how much Mason and Quinn have improved over the past year, same is true for Tyer.
Curious about who on the staff gets credit for recruiting a guy who was barely (if that) viewed as a Top 100 talent, and who has turned out to be such a tough, valuable player. Someone must have gone to bat for him early. Know he wasn't a complete sleeper but certainly was not universally seen as a Duke-level talent.

[mapei]

I haven't looked at the stats, but it sure seemed like our shots were getting blocked a lot.

[Newton_14]

Concerned about the lackluster effort the past several games in the 1st half. It's almost like this team "knows" it can just turn it on at will and will wait to see if they have to play hard.

Mason (and Ryan) really struggled with the double from the baseline. It lead to allot of turnovers and bad shots.

Our rebounding is still REALLY bad. Kenpom noted a few weeks back that it would he historically bad for a #1 seed team to be this bad on the glass (i think the only comparable was St. Joe's)

All that said we are now 13-0 headed to ACC play (honestly if you had asked me pre-season I would have predicted 2-4 losses by now)

Tonight was different for me. Although the first half was poor, I attributed that to the tremendous fight, and well conceived defensive scheme's that Davidson brought. Davidson beats a lot of good teams with that effort tonight. I thought our guys got knocked back early by the physical play of Davidson, and let it frustrate them to the point where they pressed on offense which led to mistakes and turnovers. Our first half defense was still good, with the exception again of poor defensive rebounding. But we have had that problem all year even in our best games.

In the 2nd half, we turned up good defense into great defense and then showed more patience on offense which led to the huge run. We held Davidson to 2 points in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half.

I am very pleased to get that win. Mason, Seth, and Rasheed had subpar games, yet we beat a very good opponent by 17. That is why this DUke team is so good. They can beat you in multiple ways with multiple guys. That was an incredibly physical game too. This team has faced numerous different styles of play against really good teams all year and have had an answer every single time.

Whoever beats this Duke team is darn well going to earn it. Davidson has to come away very frustrated, knowing they played a very solid game yet lost by 17 points.

Bring on conference play!!

[wallyman]

And Cohen scored 19 in 19 minutes? We got lucky on his fouls.

[Saratoga2]

1) beat a good team with Mason having a horrible game.

2) Our slow first half starts are getting old. And they look to be more about effort then about anything else. We keep getting beat to loose balls, play lackluster defense, etc. Won't work against good teams.

We got beat running back on defense and Mason in particular seemed to be trying to find his man instead of going for the rebound. He can be such a force, but he can also do things which make you wonder if he has a real feel for what is going on. I am sure the coaches go over the films of the games with the players and show them what they did well and what mistakes they made. Lets hope we don't have a repeat of the mistakes in the first half.

[FerryFor50]

While I can understand your comment about Mason's play tonight, I am not getting your inclusion of Ryan. 18 points, 7 rebounds, 5 of 8 in field goals and ONE turnover. In fact, I voted him player of the game.

Kelly struggled with the double team in the post, too. His points mostly came from put backs and on the perimeter, not from post moves.

[cptnflash]

Was that the ugliest 17 point win of all time? I can't remember one that felt worse.

The great thing, though, as others have noted, is that we have five really outstanding players (six if you count Tyler, who can be outstanding in spurts), so we can withstand one or two of them having an off night as long as one or two others step up. It reminds me a little bit of 2010, when we had Kyle, Nolan, and Jon as our primary scoring options. It seemed like at various points in that season at least one of them was in a shooting funk, but it usually didn't matter because we had other options. Same with this team.

That being said, Bob McKillop has just shown the whole world how Mason can be effectively neutralized with a high side overplay and a baseline double from the weak side. It'll be up to the coaches and Mason to adjust and figure out how to beat that scheme. I'm confident that they can do it. It'll be another step in Mason's maturation and growth into a fully deserving POY candidate.

Mission accomplished in the non-conference (to say the least). Great job guys! Bring on the ACC!

[cspan37421]

Duke cannot match the other teams effort every game because ...

I am fine with turning it on for a half.

Wow; I beg to differ.

My understanding is that when Coach K signs stuff for kids, he often writes, "Always do your best." Maybe it's just me, but I think it's good advice, and at this level, I don't see why you can't give it your all for 30 min over a 2 hr period, 2-3 times per week. If not, I'd question our conditioning regimen - and heart.