MBB: Duke 75, Wake Forest 70 Post-Game Thread

[JBDuke]

Put your post-game thoughts here.

[NSDukeFan]

Put your post-game thoughts here.

Really nice poised finish and Plumlee was POTY throughout. Nice to get an ACC road win.

[OldPhiKap]

First road win, build from here. Ryan, get well soon.

[Luther]

Put your post-game thoughts here.

The only thing that comes to mind is ssshhhewwwwww!

[burnspbesq]

Any road win is a good win. Wake is back to being a nuisance. One more good recruiting year and they'll be more than a nuisance.

[dukelifer]

Really nice poised finish and Plumlee was POTY throughout. Nice to get an ACC road win.

Road wins are hard. Sheed's shot may have been a big confidence builder. A close win is sometimes better than a blowout. Guys have to make shots with Pressure. Curry fought hard tonight!

[RoyalBlue08]

Road wins aren't often pretty, so I'll take it.

[kmspeaks]

So what do the haters say now, Duke...live by the Plumlee, die by the Plumlee??

[FerryFor50]

Ugly win.

Inconsistent defense and offense.

Plays of the game:

- Cook's "dribble around for eternity and turn it into a layup" play
- amile's steal that led to a Mason to Cook assist/role reversal
- Curry's dagger 3
- Mason's block with less than a min left and Hairston's subsequent save
- Sulaimon's huge pull up to keep the lead
- Mason's overall game

Gut check win. Road victory monkey is officially off our backs.

[sporthenry]

A road win is a road win. Can't say this team won't be tested come tourney time. ACC road wins are tough and Wake has been tough. Would have liked to see some more defense and Duke go on its patented runs but can't complain. Mason played like a man tonight and even hit his FTs but Seth hit the most important shot of the game. Seth reminded me a lot of Scheyer, struggle throughout but not let it affect you as you hit the shot to win the game.

Hopefully this builds some confidence and Duke can win the next couple of games but they will all be tough and nail biting like this one.

[PADukeMom]

I can't believe it took until January 30th for our 1st ACC road win.

[jipops]

Our guys made winning plays when tbey had to be made. Mason was a force offensively. Hairston had a couple valuable hustle plays at the end. Big shot under pressure by Sheed!

[TKG]

Mason was 8-10 from the line.

[Utley]

Survive is the only word that comes to mind for me. Big last 4 minutes - The Curry 3 was the key shot of the game.

While a win is a win, it sure didn't build on the Md game. we need to see consistent performance from Rasheed and Amile at least to keep going forward (I'm taking great games from Seth and Mason as given). I'd like to see Quin show more of the bravado that he shows at home - I still think we feed off him.

Maybe this gets the whole ACC road monkey off the guys back.

[sporthenry]

I can't believe it took until January 30th for our 1st ACC road win.

To be fair, we only had 2 other chances and they happened to be against other top 25 teams sans Kelly.

[davekay1971]

Strong finish after a frustratingly sloppy defensive performance. No complaints at all about our offense - sometimes for guys like Cook and Sulaimon the shots don't fall. But the team did a nice job looking for Mason (excepting a mystifying few minutes toward the end of the game) and Mason delivered again, and again, and again. Typically gutty game by Curry.

The defense in the endgame was outstanding. That was the difference in the game.

[pamtar]

I have two officiating question. First, the double-dribble call on Mason. Are you not allowed to stop the ball by bouncing it off the floor without taking possession? Second, the over-and-back call where Mason chased down a rebound and had his pass deflected to the backcourt where Amile caught it with a foot on the line. If the ball is deflected, even off a pass, does that not give us full court? Thanks in advance for any help provided. I could be completely wrong on both of these but just wanted to clarify.

Otherwise, good road win. It's gotta be hard taking every team's best shot. Way to tough it out and R.K. get well soon...

[vick]

While I'm not going to claim this game was a thing of beauty, the negativity in the in-game thread was kind of over the top. I believe Wake Forest has scored 0.95 points per possession in ACC play to date if my calculations are right. In this game we gave up...1.01. Obviously you want to do better, but it was hardly the total train wreck that it was being made out to be. Given that Mason obviously has to play to avoid fouls--I believe three of his four fouls were on the offensive end, and unlike some others I think those were fair calls, though the fourth one was pretty weak I thought--and our best perimeter defender, Sulaimon, was saddled with foul trouble in the first half, I don't think it was horrible. It was just...average.

[Ben1029]

Mason was 8-10 from the line.

Maybe his poor FT shooting for the last month was a prolonged slump.

[-bdbd]

Ugly win.

Inconsistent defense and offense.

Plays of the game:

- Cook's "dribble around for eternity and turn it into a layup" play
- amile's steal that led to a Mason to Cook assist/role reversal
- Curry's dagger 3
- Mason's block with less than a min left and Hairston's subsequent save
- Sulaimon's huge pull up to keep the lead
- Mason's overall game

Gut check win. Road victory monkey is officially off our backs.

Pretty much agree with almost all of the comments so far. But I really thought Seth was the person the rest of the guys were looking for to make something happen at less than 4 minutes and the game tied. He came through, and I thought inspired the others. Yes MP2 had a great box score night, but I find myself about as frustrated as I've ever been at a Devil who just scored 29 points... He plain out simply played just weak D at several key points in the second half, getting beat by (much) lesser players. More than a couple missed "help D" opportunities for him too. The block at the very end was nice though. But he sure went silent down the stretch - I think G-man said with a minute to go that he hadn't scored since the 12-min mark??

Several guys made key plays in the final minute. Gritty, tough win. I don't know how many of these I can take though!!