MBB: Duke 89, Boston College 68 Post-Game Thread

[Billy Dat]

My ESPN3 feed was a little chunky, but I was able to catch the first half which seemed to be when the game was decided.

I liked how Mason aggressively blocked that shot in the 4th minute. As we've been discussing, Mason has been letting those block opportunities slide in favor of staying out of foul trouble, and I expected the same from him on that play and was energized by his emphatic swat.

While our offense looked amazing, and is easy to use as a barometer of our play, the advanced stats indicate, as we've been discussing, that our defense is really what has slipped in Ryan's absence and, right now, kind of has us outside the historic range for title teams (we are ranked 23 and I think most recent champs have been top 15). Hopefully we'll keep moving up - K claims that the recent practice time has done wonders, and we did look better these past two games, although the competition wasn't elite. I liked that we started picking up full to 3/4 court early to try and speed them up a little.

K talked a lot about Jefferson and Rasheed playing through contact and I noticed that a lot, especially with Amile.

We've got a nice gauntlet to run these last 4. With the exception of VPoly at home, all of the other games should be really tough. We seem to have shaken off some mid conference blahs and are starting to smell March. Sounds like Ryan is coming back - the sooner the better big guy. It would be nice to have at least 2 regular season games to start the re-invention process again.

[dukelifer]

Props to Mason for becoming a career 1,000 rebounder with a monster game on the glass!
Props to Rasheed for absolutely destroying Hanlan in the head-to-head matchup with his #1 competitor for ACC ROY.
Pretty solid game from pretty much everybody. Tyler didn't score, but we didn't need him to: i've noticed that he seems to play that way, when we need a big bucket he finds ways to get one or two, but when we have others going off he tends to stay quiet. Also Marshall didn't score, is it really possible that his offensive contributions this year will be less than what we usually see from walk-ons? He's 0-6 on FTs and is shooting 1-8 FGs, statistically he is playing at a level below Todd Zafirovski, and they both generally only play garbage time. I really hope he learns how to channel that exuberant energy into something productive by next year.

Also: watch out for the upcoming UVA game, they just destroyed GT by 28 at home. Looks like UVA might be playing pretty well right about now, so Duke'll have to bring its A game on defense as well as offense.

I have not watched much of UVa. They play good D and don't turn it over. Still - they do not have great size. They are 1-2 in the last 3 games so hard to know how well they are playing. It will be a tough game- but Duke has time to prepare. We will need Kelly walking onto the court against Miami to get the energy up. That will be a war.

[sporthenry]

I have not watched much of UVa. They play good D and don't turn it over. Still - they do not have great size. They are 1-2 in the last 3 games so hard to know how well they are playing. It will be a tough game- but Duke has time to prepare. We will need Kelly walking onto the court against Miami to get the energy up. That will be a war.

UVA is Wisconsin lite. They have a dearth of 6'6 type wing men who Duke has done decent with this year but obviously doesn't have the size to match up completely with them. Anderson is an athletic freak who could pose trouble going to the rim but for the most part, the others are shooters so their size shouldn't kill us. Obviously, rebounding will be an issue as it always seems to be.

Evans makes them tick. So Cook's defense or even TT's since Duke might be able to go small or if Cook gets into silly foul trouble. But once UVA takes the clock down, it pretty much becomes pick and roll with Evans so if they can keep him from penetrating, they should be good.

I'm guessing Amile might get some time on Harris, not sure this is a game for Hairston. Murphy might also get some PT if his defense on Nolte or even Harris or Anderson is good enough.

But this will show how far Duke's defense has come and if their half court offense is as good as its been the last 2 games. UVA will make you play for the full 35 but their offense can become anemic. And if Duke is able to score effectively, you can make this a 10 point game, which might as well be 20 in a normal game.

[Kedsy]

I wonder if Rasheed's breakout performance was a coincidence or if it was inspired by all the talk of Hanlan being ACC freshman of the year?

I know in the past couple games Josh has been making his outside shots a lot more, but has anyone noticed that he's going farther and farther out? Last game and today he took at least a couple shots in each game that were maybe a step inside the three-point line.

Here's a great stat: Mason Plumlee has led our team in assists in each of the past two games. In the two games since the debacle at Maryland, he's averaged 16.5 ppg, 13.5 rpg, 4.5 apg, 2.0 bpb, and 1.0 spg. Not too shabby.

...our defense is really what has slipped in Ryan's absence and, right now, kind of has us outside the historic range for title teams (we are ranked 23 and I think most recent champs have been top 15).

Not that it matters, but the idea that champions' defensive ratings have been in a certain range in Pomeroy is a bit of a myth, because the numbers available on-line are post-season numbers that include the NCAAT games. For example, two of the last four champions had sub-30 defenses before the Tournament started -- UConn in 2011 was #31 going into the Tourney (#14 after the tournament ended) and 2009 UNC was #35 going into the Tournament (#16 after it ended).

One obvious lesson from the above is that champions tend to play great defense in their tournament games (duh!), which explains how 2011 UConn and 2009 UNC moved all the way up in the final numbers, but this year's Duke team certainly isn't out of the range of past champions yet. Especially in light of the fact that we were a top 10 defense before Ryan got hurt.

UVA is Wisconsin lite. They have a dearth of 6'6 type wing men who Duke has done decent with this year but obviously doesn't have the size to match up completely with them.

"Dearth" means an absence of. I assume you really meant "wealth"?

[sporthenry]

"Dearth" means an absence of. I assume you really meant "wealth"?

Good point. Not really sure what I was going for there but it certainly wasn't dearth.

[moonpie23]

watching the game on dvr now....sulley was awesome....so glad to see him getting his due!!!

[Greg_Newton]

BTW, is that the first Sheed nickname reference we've actually heard from a teammate ("King Sulaimon")?

[Kedsy]

BTW, is that the first Sheed nickname reference we've actually heard from a teammate ("King Sulaimon")?

Well, probably, if you don't count "Sheed."

[OldPhiKap]

I bet that dinner at the Plumlee house must have been a damn funny occasion, Dry wit, boasting and false modesty. Hard to believe that Miles was the serious one.

[MCFinARL]

I bet that dinner at the Plumlee house must have been a damn funny occasion, Dry wit, boasting and false modesty. Hard to believe that Miles was the serious one.

Hopefully the humor helped Mom and Dad forget the size of the grocery bill.

[gep]

Well... 3 Duke graduates on full scholarships makes up for a lot too

[moonpie23]

BTW, is that the first Sheed nickname reference we've actually heard from a teammate ("King Sulaimon")?

chicken? CHICKEN???


like, "winner winner, chicken dinner" ?

[roywhite]

Good things happen when Rasheed drives toward the basket:

He makes the shot (with increasing frequency); he is finishing better, even through contact
He makes the shot and gets fouled -- he's now shooting nearly 83% from the FT line
He misses the shot but goes to the line for two -- see above on 83% FT shooting; plus getting opponent in foul difficulty
He dishes off either inside or to an open shooter outside -- he's getting better at recognizing and executing in this area
Even on a miss, we sometimes get offensive rebounding opportunities due to the defense shifting

Can he get stripped or get caught up in the trees -- yes, but seems to happen less frequently. And not many teams have "trees" (Miami does)

Love his confidence and aggressiveness; he's become more than a complementary player
Rasheed has become a playmaker

[BD80]

Good things happen when Rasheed drives toward the basket:

He makes the shot (with increasing frequency); he is finishing better, even through contact
He makes the shot and gets fouled -- he's now shooting nearly 83% from the FT line
He misses the shot but goes to the line for two -- see above on 83% FT shooting; plus getting opponent in foul difficulty
He dishes off either inside or to an open shooter outside -- he's getting better at recognizing and executing in this area
Even on a miss, we sometimes get offensive rebounding opportunities due to the defense shifting

Can he get stripped or get caught up in the trees -- yes, but seems to happen less frequently. And not many teams have "trees" (Miami does)

Love his confidence and aggressiveness; he's become more than a complementary player
Rasheed has become a playmaker

Sheed is the kind of guy a team needs to advance in tournament play, he breaks down defenses. He is also the kind of guy that has ended Duke's tourney runs if we run into on the wrong night

Rasheed seems to be hitting the accelerator at the right time, improving game-by-game as we approach the tournament.

Anyone notice that Coach K may still be fine-tuning his point guard's frame of mind? Quinn didn't make it back on D and got a view from the bench. Wonder if Bobby Hurley was watching?

[jv001]

Sheed is the kind of guy a team needs to advance in tournament play, he breaks down defenses. He is also the kind of guy that has ended Duke's tourney runs if we run into on the wrong night

Rasheed seems to be hitting the accelerator at the right time, improving game-by-game as we approach the tournament.

Anyone notice that Coach K may still be fine-tuning his point guard's frame of mind? Quinn didn't make it back on D and got a view from the bench. Wonder if Bobby Hurley was watching?

Yes I noticed that as well. Quinn has a habit of hanging his head or throwing up his hands after a bad play on his part. That gets him a couple of steps behind in the next play and we know how Coach K feels about the "next play". Let's hope Q gets the message soon. GoDuke!

[Kedsy]

Yes I noticed that as well. Quinn has a habit of hanging his head or throwing up his hands after a bad play on his part. That gets him a couple of steps behind in the next play and we know how Coach K feels about the "next play". Let's hope Q gets the message soon. GoDuke!

In our last three games, Quinn only has 10 assists, while Mason has 11. In our last five games, Quinn has 15 assists (3.0 per game) against 17 turnovers (0.88 a/to ratio). Even going back six games, Quinn only averages 3.17 apg. He's scoring a bit more (14.0 ppg in that six game span), but personally I'd trade some of those points for the great floor general we had earlier in the season.

[CDu]

In our last three games, Quinn only has 10 assists, while Mason has 11. In our last five games, Quinn has 15 assists (3.0 per game) against 17 turnovers (0.88 a/to ratio). Even going back six games, Quinn only averages 3.17 apg. He's scoring a bit more (14.0 ppg in that six game span), but personally I'd trade some of those points for the great floor general we had earlier in the season.

Yeah, for whatever reason, Cook's PG play has waned a bit the past few weeks. It's strange because, in the 7 games immediately following Kelly's injury, Cook averaged 13.86 ppg, 6.29 apg, and only 2 tpg. In the last six games, he's averaged 14.17 ppg, 3.17 apg, and 3 tpg.

Thankfully we've seen a real surge in play from the other guards (most notably Sulaimon). But it would be really nice for Cook to find his game again and return to being that dynamic playmaker who could score when needed but handled the ball well and created for others.

[Saratoga2]

In our last three games, Quinn only has 10 assists, while Mason has 11. In our last five games, Quinn has 15 assists (3.0 per game) against 17 turnovers (0.88 a/to ratio). Even going back six games, Quinn only averages 3.17 apg. He's scoring a bit more (14.0 ppg in that six game span), but personally I'd trade some of those points for the great floor general we had earlier in the season.

I think he has been directed to get the ball into Mason and some of those have resulted in TO's. It is a better situation for the PG when he takes what is available.

[Kedsy]

I think he has been directed to get the ball into Mason and some of those have resulted in TO's. It is a better situation for the PG when he takes what is available.

I agree this is probably a factor. More important in my opinion is that Quinn seems to be hunting his shot more and looking for his teammates less. Yesterday early in the game Quinn led a three-on-one break. Quinn from two months ago would have fed one of the open wings. Quinn yesterday took a semi-open 8-foot shot and missed.

[throatybeard]

My ESPN3 feed was a little chunky

Mine was like what I imagine the inside of cataracts looks like. I gave up on the 2H and watched the women on ESPN2 and the race.