MBB: Duke 91, Vermont 90 Post-Game Thread

[loran16]

Kyle Singler was at his best for him and for the team when he was playing at the 3. Thanks for the confirmation.

Kyle Singler was at his best at the 3, yes. Duke's D was still great with him at a big man position.

Way to ignore the point.

[mbwalker]

According to play-by-play on ESPN, Vermont made 10 layups in 1st half, 11 layups/dunks/tip-ins in 2nd half. That's 21 total, or 42 points. Add in 12 points from threes (4/13) and 16/23 free throws for a total of 70 points. That leaves 10 baskets you could call mid-range.

So more than two layups for every midrange shot made. Don't know if that qualifies as a layup drill, but it certainly isn't good defense. Way too many points in the paint.

[mgtr]

I have several questions. Why was Sheed in the game so long? Unless he has some mystical role not shown in the stats, he didn't do much. I know he started last year, and did well in some games, but this year I haven't seen much. Second, what Amile's role? I assume it is to rebound and get easy putbacks. Yet he had 6 rebounds, (2 offensive). I think he had 2 points. I don't know what the answer is, but we need to be doing something different when we start playing good teams.

[gurufrisbee]

Kyle Singler was at his best at the 3, yes. Duke's D was still great with him at a big man position.

Way to ignore the point.

Nothing was ignored. Singler was at his best at the 3 - and the team, including their DEFENSE, was their best then, as well.

[azzefkram]

The bigger issue is that Hood is clearly not comfortable inside on defense. He needs to be on the perimeter.

Couldn't agree more. Jabari could man the 5, though I'm not a huge fan of it, but Hood is not a good fit at the 4 when it comes to defense and rebounding.

[wilko]

great win…..need to work on defense….

I'll take it...

I'll agree with that...
I think our strategy on D so far is so shock and awe the opponent into submission with an eruption of a hot start on offense... Our D HAS to get better... I'm sure K sees it.

Right now "We are Uke" the D is silent...

[DukeWarhead]

I thin this sums up the teams effort the last two games

@laurakeeley: Very somber Mike K. Said his guys didn't respect Vermont or the game enough, something he's rarely felt about one of his #Duke teams

I wish that was the only problem. Something tells me it is more than just not respecting the opponent.

[CDu]

Per ESPN's play by play, 21 of Vermont's 35 baskets were layups or dunks. That does not include short jumpers or fouls drawn in the paint.

They played well on offense, but we very much let them do what they wanted throughout the game. This was NOT a case of a team shooting out of its mind.

[Goduke2010]

I thin this sums up the teams effort the last two games

@laurakeeley: Very somber Mike K. Said his guys didn't respect Vermont or the game enough, something he's rarely felt about one of his #Duke teams

Look, Coach K is great. But that doesn't mean he's infallible. I hope he's not so set in his ways that he can't rethink what this team can/can't do and adjust accordingly. If that means zone, or Jones/Semi starting, or whatever, I hope he and his staff use the rest of pre-conference to push the reset button and start from scratch. Because nothing could be worse than what we saw tonight.

I think sometimes we say "effort" or "focus" is lacking, when the real culprit is lack of playing well. The staff needs to fix this at a strategic level.

[Duke76]

I thin this sums up the teams effort the last two games

@laurakeeley: Very somber Mike K. Said his guys didn't respect Vermont or the game enough, something he's rarely felt about one of his #Duke teams

no offense, just defensive possessions, their switching is exceptionally confusing to me this year, sometime they both follow the ball
other times they don't...just don't understand their strategy, the lack of boxing out is especially poor this yr...where was jefferson this yr
not sure he got even 10 minutes and Matt jones so 0 minutes i think...thought he was somewhat of a defensive stopper

offense looked disjointed as well...no driving what so ever and that is all vermont did...

[dukelifer]

I'll agree with that...
I think our strategy on D so far is so shock and awe the opponent into submission with an eruption of a hot start on offense... Our D HAS to get better... I'm sure K sees it.

Right now "We are Uke" the D is silent...

K said non-existent but either way it is no where to be found.

[CDu]

Nothing was ignored. Singler was at his best at the 3 - and the team, including their DEFENSE, was their best then, as well.

And when we get 4 bigs to bump Parker to the 3, we can do so...

[jipops]

The bigger issue is that Hood is clearly not comfortable inside on defense. He needs to be on the perimeter.

Beat me to it. Hood is not effective at all in his defensive role.

[Henderson]

Rebounding. 30-24.

Free Throw Shooting. 83%, including some clutch ones down the stretch.

Andre: 16 points. Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.

Jabari: 26 points. The Real Deal.

Rodney: 22 points and 7-8 from the line. His season FT% is now about 85%.

[CDu]

Beat me to it. Hood is not effective at all in his defensive role.

Furthermore, the entire offseason argument was that we might offset our lack of size inside with extra length on the perimeter. Playing Hood at the 4 makes us even smaller inside and takes away our size advantage outside.

[CDu]

Rebounding. 30-24.

Free Throw Shooting. 83%, including some clutch ones down the stretch.

Andre: 16 points. Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.

Jabari: 26 points. The Real Deal.

Rodney: 22 points and 7-8 from the line. His season FT% is now about 85%.

Lots of nice offensive stats. No nice defensive stats .

[wallyman]

And, for the Tyler fans, worst play of a dreadful game was when he fouled the three-point shooter throwing up a prayer at the buzzer. Understand what he brings and what he doesn't, but if, as a senior, he makes that play, hard to figure out an argument for why he should be in there when it matters.

[DBFAN]

I find myself being wrong most of the time when I am trying to speculate on some of K's tactics, but I'm not so sure some of this game being so tight wasn't because K felt like his team needed a kick in the rear end before they head to NY. Maybe because they didn't get the lesson when they played ECU, or maybe it takes a diff kind do pressure off of a kid when they start to believe its their effort mad not their skill. Now instead of wondering or being worried going into next week, they may feel like they have something to prove to themselves, and to their Coaches, and school. Obviously I'm just guessing here but so,e quotes from the presses seem to reaffirm my thoughts

@DukeReport: Coach K presser " it's their day to play against us... Our guys don't always see that".


@laurakeeley: K: "You’re going to have questions, and you’re going to pick different parts of the game, and I’m going to just tell you we were awful.”


@laurakeeley: Very somber Mike K. Said his guys didn't respect Vermont or the game enough, something he's rarely felt about one of his #Duke teams

[fogey]

Wow.

I coached 4th graders today who blocked out better than our guys. Rodney may not be large enough to play underneath, but he was just as big or bigger than the guy he was guarding and several times he just turned and became a spectator when the ball went up, rather than finding his man and exploding to gain rebounding position on him. That goes for others as well; blocking out is really a lost art in this switching, man to man defense.

Maybe Dennis Rodman is available (if he is back from North Korea) to give a guest lecture on the subject.

[Henderson]

Lots of nice offensive stats. No nice defensive stats .

Agreed about the defensive stats. But our defensive play was like the old joke about Wagner music: "Worse than it sounds."

Even among the offensive stats, we only shot 49% from the field (solid, not exceptional) and 37% from 3 (good, not exceptional). FT% was really good. But we can't play defense like that and expect to make up for it on offense.