MBB: Duke 91, Vermont 90 Post-Game Thread

[CDu]

Congratulations on your semantic victory!

Hey, it isn't my fault you said something completely wrong!

[OldSchool]

Vermont was 2 for 5 from the free throw line in the last four minutes. They left this game at the stripe.

I think our coaching staff is looking at our quick, athletic personnel and foreseeing an overplay style of defense that can turn the opponent over frequently, as has been the case with certain heralded Duke teams from the past. Obviously, we're seeing some growing pains in forging our defensive identity. We're quick to try to cut off a passing lane, but slow to rotate or find and cover or get a body on an open man.

[Potato Head]

Hey, it isn't my fault you said something completely wrong!

Did you watch the game? They couldn't miss in the second half.

[gurufrisbee]

Yes they hit a bunch of pull up and mid-range jumpers, not just layups...

And many of the jumpers were pretty well defended.

With all due respect, what game were you watching?

Vermont spent all night dribbling around our pressure into wide open lanes and/or extra help that came and left their man wide open.

[mapei]

They hit quite a few mid-range shots. They did not shoot well from long distance.

Does anyone have the second-half stats on that? It did seem like they hit from distance down the stretch.

[moonpie23]

great win…..need to work on defense….

I'll take it...

[FerryFor50]

With all due respect, what game were you watching?

Vermont spent all night dribbling around our pressure into wide open lanes and/or extra help that came and left their man wide open.

The game where they hit a bunch of mid range jumpers...

[CDu]

Did you watch the game? They couldn't miss in the second half.

If you had said "they shot ridiculously well from midrange," I wouldn't have disagreed with you. But you didn't say that. So I disagreed.

[Henderson]

Did you watch the game? They couldn't miss in the second half.

But it wasn't from long range. They killed with layups and jumpers in the paint. This wasn't one of those games where an outmanned team rained threes to keep it close.

[burnspbesq]

With all due respect to the Chicken Little Brigade, nothing of significance is at stake on November 24.

The only way this game hurts us is if we fail to learn from it. That applies to both the players and the staff.

[DBFAN]

I know this May seem weird, but I bet we play better D against the bigger and better teams. The reason: the refs won't have some pre conceived notion that if the better team does something that it has to be a foul. Kinda like watching Shaquille play, everything that involved him looked violent so the refs for a long time automatically blew the whistle on him. Or if you want a more recent example, Brian Zoubek

[CDu]

The game where they hit a bunch of mid range jumpers...

And layups.

Yes, they hit some tough shots. They also got a ridiculous number of easy shots.

[loran16]

Duke's D is a man to man D with a strategy of big guys helping out frequently on guard penetrating. It has always been this way.

Duke's interior defenders this year however do not want to be interior defenders. For most of the second half, it was Jabari playing Center and Hood playing PF, and neither guy seems to understand their role inside. Hood didn't box out at all - one guy counted 10 points on offensive boards by Hood's man and there was one comical board where Hood had position jumped and completely whiffed on the ball going to the guy behind him. And Jabari seems deathly afraid to help out - and when he does, he's often incredibly slow to do so.

This cannot happen - the new rules make it FAR HARDER for guards to keep in front of penetrating guards...they're going to get in far more easily. To handle this, guys need to step up and force opponents to make an extra pass - but we're not even doing that.

[kAzE]

I (and others) brought this up a week or two ago. We may need to go zone. We won't do it, but we may need to do it.

I thought we used some zone in recent years? Maybe as early as 2008, after Coach K's first Olympics, he seemed to use it for a few possesions here and there. It's not impossible that he could tinker with it. Obviously, he needs to try something to salvage this defense right now.

[FerryFor50]

And layups.

Yes, they hit some tough shots. They also got a ridiculous number of easy shots.

Yes, and layups. But not as many as people are suggesting, I'd bet...

[drcharl]

Why shouldn't we shift to zone at least periodically? It's too agonizing to watch those easy and often uncontested layups.

[gurufrisbee]

Our scoring is excellent, now we need to make changes that include playing defense and rebounding. I am not as convinced Thornton is helping the team much although he has a lot of supporters at Duke. Anyhow, coach K needs to think of what next. Only a couple of days until we play again so not much time to correct things. Would a bigger player inside have helped? I agree that Vermont scored from mid range and inside more than from the three.

Hood is a slightly tall shooting guard. Parker is a slightly tall small forward. We can pretend they are a 3 and a 4, but we can't pretend they are a 4 and 5 and use THorton in a line up with Cook and Dawkins/Sheed. None of them defend the ball well enough to make up for the fact that then no one can rebound.

[kAzE]

With all due respect to the Chicken Little Brigade, nothing of significance is at stake on November 24.

The only way this game hurts us is if we fail to learn from it. That applies to both the players and the staff.

Nobody is saying the sky is falling. Everybody is saying we need to get better.

[meowmix911]

But it wasn't from long range. They killed with layups and jumpers in the paint. This wasn't one of those games where an outmanned team rained threes to keep it close.

They had almost the same field goal percentage in the 2nd half as the first. Both were 65% I believe. 21 assists on 35 made FG's. 6 TO's only from Vermont. Hard to say a team got lucky and/or shot the lights out when you see those numbers. Strangely a team so quick on offense can't speed up a slow unathletic team on D. Layup line city. Got to improve going forward (and it well, obviously). But the game should have been lost. In a weird way, I wish we lost it--sometimes we need a kick in the face.

[CDu]

Yes, and layups. But not as many as people are suggesting, I'd bet...

Pretty sure you'd be wrong. I will look it up for you though.