MBB: Duke 74, Alabama 64 Postgame Thread

[pfrduke]

Tough night for Rodney and Quinn

Quinn scored well but didn't have a great game

I was at the game as well tonight, and though Quinn had his struggles against the press, I thought he played a fantastic defensive game against Releford. Every time Releford didn't have the ball, Quinn played full ball denial defense and played it well. Releford had to work extremely hard just to get the ball in his hands. Thanks to that defense, Releford took just 7 shots in 31 minutes and, aside from a brief stretch in the latter portion of the second half, had essentially no impact on the offensive end for the Tide - Alabama's leading scorer and primary driver of their offense was relegated to a third banana role

[kAzE]

I really thought he take over a little bit more of the scoring load with Hood on the bench for most of the game, but just 2 attempts, both from beyond the arc. He did an admirable job of finding the open man with 5 assists to just 2 turnovers, but I think this is starting to become a bit of a head scratcher. he had 33 points in the first 2 games combined, but just 16 points in the 5 games since, including just 3 in the last 2 games.

He's out of the first round on Chad Ford's big board (Parker is up to #3 and Hood is WAY up to #11). I'm not seeing any real signs of regression, he seems like the same player. I'm just going to chalk it up to an extended shooting slump for now, but if this keeps up for another 5 games, people might start reaching for the panic button.

[NYBri]

I was at the game as well tonight, and though Quinn had his struggles against the press, I thought he played a fantastic defensive game against Releford.

Since you had a vantage point from MSG, I'll defer to your analysis. From watching the TV machine however, Quinn scored, but seemed to be erratic when it came to decisions and the press.

My thought late was, "Dude, Jabari has Duke on his uniform and NO ONE can stop him. What's with all the wild drives into the triple team coverage?"

But, I was ball watching on D, so I missed his work on the denial on Releford, who we contained pretty well.

[grad_devil]

After the Vermont game, Tyler was skewered (and somewhat fairly) by some on this board for his play. It's not often you see a senior leader (and future coach?) make a more boneheaded play than fouling an end-of-the-shotclock desperation 3-pt shot in a tight game.

Last night I thought he came up huge for us on D. In the last 3 minutes, he had two major steals, one of which sealed the game, IMHO, when he took converted the steal into a layup.

I love the grit and hustle that Tyler brings to the floor, even if I get frustrated at his foul rate.

Kudos to Tyler for a great game..

[davekay1971]

Lots of good and some bad last night.

The defense was much improved...except for a stretch in the middle of the second half where we seemed to lose that focus. And, as with the last two games, it began when we had a big lead and you could almost feel the guys relax, just a little. That's going to be part of the growth process of this team: learning to maintain focus and intensity when they have a big lead. Jabari mentioned once that he wanted to re-establish that fear teams had about playing Duke. Well, that's how you make them fear you: rabid dog defense and never letting up, even when you're winning big.

But, overall, the intensity was much better. When Alabama made their runs, Duke responded before things got out of hand. It was a good learning game, forcing us to play against an intense, aggressive, well coached team, and forcing us to answer the bell when that team took their best shot at us in the second half.

[jv001]

Much improved defense and Parker is fantastic. Sulaimon, Jefferson and Dawkins= 0-7 fgs, but Sheed had 5 assists with 2 tos. Thornton played well with 5 steals, Cook scored well but had only 2 assists to go with 4 tos. His play against the press was terrible.(Duke turned it over 19 times). But he did play well on defense. Good game to get our defense back on track. And we outrebounded The Tide 35 to 34. GoDuke and beat unc and beat AZ.

[Atlanta Duke]

Coach K apparently was not pleased with the post-game questions

Head coach Mike Krzyzewski, though, abruptly left the press conference when asked about the 12-0 Alabama run that cut into an 18-point lead for Duke.

"It’s too bad you couldn’t give credit to someone who played really well tonight,"...

"Happy Thanksgiving," he said, sarcastically, as he left the podium.


http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/11/...o-advance.html

Seems like a legitimate question - would be interested as to whether there was more going on that set K off

[roywhite]

Coach K apparently was not pleased with the post-game questions

Head coach Mike Krzyzewski, though, abruptly left the press conference when asked about the 12-0 Alabama run that cut into an 18-point lead for Duke.

"It’s too bad you couldn’t give credit to someone who played really well tonight,"...

"Happy Thanksgiving," he said, sarcastically, as he left the podium.


http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/11/...o-advance.html

Seems like a legitimate question - would be interested as to whether there was more going on that set K off

Just seems like K sticking up for his guys, especially when they had made such good progress on the major point of emphasis, team defense. I would guess the team members liked his response in this case.

Yeah, I'd say breaking a good press is another educational area for this team. Bob Knight talked about it and had some ideas. I wonder if he and K will talk in the next day or so.

[Saratoga2]

Before I read what others have to say I decided to put down my own observations.

1. Clearly the emphasis was on the defense at the start of the game. Coach K started his leaders along with Quinn who is very experienced and Jabari who is exceptional. The defense was simplified with less switching and was pulled in a little tighter. It worked very well and the guys who came in later got to see good defense in operation. The problem was that with Josh and Tyler in the game and with Rodney having a tentative game, the offense sputtered. Only Jabari and Quinn seemed to have any answer. Coach K switched his guards around and stuck Amile in and the offense started to pick up.

2. Rodney's game was tentative all night. He wasn't making good offensive plays and uncharacteristically mishandled the ball or didn't pass to an open man. I am wondering if it was another off game or whether the opposition with quick bigger men give him trouble, ala Kansas.

3. Our free throw shooting was much improved. There must have been a lot of work on that phase of the game.

4. Jabari continues to amaze. No one seems able to stop him and few even slow him down. If a team puts total focus on him, I wonder how our offense will go?

5. I can see Matt Jones making a big splash this season. While he is green, he came in a provided good defense, a lot of energy and put the ball in the hoop. He seemed to be our third best option in scoring tonight. Rasheed made some good plays but he is still not at the level he was at last year. I am hoping it will come soon.

6. Our guards and even Rodney were not good at finishing plays at the rim. In some cases they got to the line, but it looked like the shot was there to make, but we often appeared not to concentrate on making the shot and have it bounce the wrong way. With 5 guards, I am looking for a slasher who can get to the rim. So far it is Quinn and to a small degree Matt.

7. Our approach to dealing with the pressure defense of Alabama was poor. Too often, Quinn was stuck with no where to go and that holds for other guards to some degree including Tyler. We had a total of 18 turnovers. When Quinn has a bad play he seems to come back and try to be a hero by jacking up a shot or being out of control. I would like to see him go to the next play and let what happen not impact him the next play. Coach Knight said he believed we needed more crossing of the guys to provide and open player to pass to on inbounds. He also was critical of the tendency to bring the ball into the corner rather than near the top of the key, making it easy for teams to trap us into a turnover.

All in all it was a much better game than Vermont but there is still a lot of improvement possible. The guy I wondered about was Semi. He still may be a little to raw, but with his athleticism and strength, he gives us another option. I am hoping he continues to improve and becomes a real option as the season moves forward.

[slower]

Yeah, I'd say breaking a good press is another educational area for this team. Bob Knight talked about it and had some ideas. I wonder if he and K will talk in the next day or so.

Maybe it's just me, but I've always had the impression that Bob Knight wouldn't go out of his way to help K any more than anybody else. There just seems to be an ego thing with Knight (and I LOVE Knight as an analyst - he's the best), as if he's pissed that K passed him in wins and on the "all-time greats" coaching list.

If anybody has inside knowledge on this, please enlighten me.

[FerryFor50]

Had a feeling we would see Thornton and Hairston starting tonight. Sure enough, Coach K went to his vets.

Hairston had a rough stat line, but I thought he had his best "hedge and recover" game of his career. He really helped negate dribble penetration. Kudos to Parker on that front as well.

Interesting to see us go to the 4-guard lineup for much of the last few minutes after Hood and Hairston fouled out.

As could have been predicted, we saw more of Matt Jones tonight. I thought he looked good. Very disruptive on D, and found good spots to score.

Oh yeah: Parker is amazing. I am not sure he came out in the second half, and he played C for most of that time. And still managed to drop nearly 30 on the night. The only negative was that he was a bit sloppy at times, committing some careless turnovers.

In general I wasn't thrilled with how we handled Bama's pressure defense. I would expect more from our team of good ballhandlers.

Still, a very nice bounceback game. Alabama helped us a bit with their sloppiness, but our defense looked so much better than Sunday.

I thought the issue handling the press was with Cook's indecision and his retreating from the double teams. He didn't look to pass to open teammates, picked up his dribble, etc.

Another issue was when Hairston was in the game - they kept trying to use him in the "Mason" press breaking role. Problem is, he's not Mason. Doesn't have his size, speed, vision or ball handling skill. He's also not Ryan Kelly, who had better size and vision.

However, Sulaimon was extremely effective against the press. He did what you were supposed to - advance the ball and find open teammates. Hopefully, they keep using him against the press. I thought Jones did well against the press as well.

[DevilYouthCoach]

[QUOTE=Billy Dat;681634]I attended the game and, because of a ticket mix-up, MSG wound up moving my buddy and I to the second row, behind the basket, right next to the Bama bench. Fantastic!

Our half court defense was excellent. Bama only kept in the game because they got offense from defense. Their press and their half court trapping was really impressive up close. For a seriously limited offensive team, they are smart to get offense from defense. They competed hard, and Anthony Grant looks like he could lace them up right now, that dude is in sick shape. Bruiser Flint looks that way too, and I think he's in his 50s.

Jabari is just special, and we need to get him the ball even more. I don't like these bad "bright lights" games that Rodney is having, I hope he plays well against Arizona. Great call by CDu on noting Hairston's hedge and recover D, it was impressive up close. Matt Jones was a stud, that lower rotation is still very much up for grabs...no Marshall, Murphy or Semi, very late entrance for Rasheed, who only really played toward the end because of the foul trouble. Quinn scored well but didn't have a great game, Amile was fairly invisible. As others have noted, we did go small.




I am truly impressed with Quinn Cook. Sure, he makes some mistakes, but basketball, as we know, is "a game of mistakes." I love Quinn's confidence and energy, plus he has tremendous skills. Against a determined press like Alabama plays, with super-quick athletes, there are going to be steals, but Quinn is our only true ball handler, by far the best on the team, and he was dealing with double and triple teams much of the second half. And after all, since he has the ball in his hands way more than any other player on the team, he is going to be facing the pressure much more than anyone else. I think he's Duke's best PG since Bobby Hurley (and I remember a lot of us screaming at Bobby Hurley's mistakes often!) Quinn is also an excellent scorer, and as last night's performance indicates, he can play superb defense. I predict an All-ACC selection for Quinn in the spring.

[slower]

I am truly impressed with Quinn Cook. I think he's Duke's best PG since Bobby Hurley

I can only assume you are not counting Kyrie Irving's Duke career, because otherwise...

[pfrduke]

I can only assume you are not counting Kyrie Irving's Duke career, because otherwise...

And, much more importantly, not counting Jason Williams as a point guard...

[BlueDevilBrowns]

And, much more importantly, not counting Jason Williams as a point guard...

or Chris Duhon.

[Newton_14]

First, I look forward to say, mid-January, when this team finds itself, and starts playing the game at a high level consistently. Tonight was one small step towards that goal on the defensive end, but I did not like the offense tonight at all. We did not play team offense. The ball movement was not good, and we were not attacking correctly. It came down to Jabari or Quinn going one on one much of the time. Thank God Jabari is a machine out there on offense. Just unstoppable

The good: the team defense was much better last night for the most part. We packed it in tighter, hedged better, rotated better, and as others noted, switched far less. We also forced turnovers better and rebounded better. The vets including Andre all played solid defense in the first half especially. I still don't like how the refs are reacting to the new rules with how they call fouls. That hurt both Hood and Hairston as both got called for 2 cheapies that should have been non calls. Tyler had one of his better games of the season with 6 points, 5 steals, 4 assists, and 4 rebounds, and only 2 fouls in 32 minutes of action. The kid played a heck of a game so hopefully the haters will back off a bit. On offense, Jabari was just unstoppable in all areas with another 27 point effort and 11 for 12 from the line. He carried us on offense for a long stretch. I agree with others that our offense on the whole was hurt by K going with the better defenders, and Rodney having an off game.

Quinn on the one hand, played really well in the halfcourt offense in terms of scoring, knocking down 3's, and when driving under control, finishing well. However, he only had two assists, and his decision making was really bad at times, including a couple of key moments where we need to extend the lead to remain comfortable. He also made several bad decisions against the press, and attacking the basket in the halfcourt. He just has to improve there for this team to reach full potential. We need him driving becasue he is really good at it when under control, but he has to eliminate the wild, out of control, 1 on 3, throwing up a prayer that has no chance in hell of going in. That is so frustrating to watch. If he can fix that, it will greatly help this team.

The bad:

• Going with defensive personnel hurt our offense quite a bit, so there is a balance to strike there that has not been figured out yet.
• Once again we let up after getting a big lead. These kids need a speech from Jay Williams and Battier on how to destroy a team. Up 18? great, let's put the hammer down and get them down 30!. Never let up!
• We did not handle the press well at all. Much of it was poor decision making vs execution. That needs work. (Side Note: The way Bama ran their fullcourt press and had success with it, was how I envisioned this Duke team doing it. I am still miffed at why we can't press like Bama did and get the same level of success. Maybe it will come with time.

A couple of final thoughts. I said earlier that K may use a bit of a NBA approach and modify the reserves rotation based on matchups. Although Andre had a solid first half last night, due to the excellent Bama press, we needed ball handlers on the floor, so Matt got some of the minutes and the move paid off well. In the 2nd half Andre got pulled for going up weakly for a layup after we had broken the press and had the numbers advantage. Really really wish Andre would have went up strong there and tried to power dunk it. Not sure what holds him back on those type plays. With his hops and strength he should definitely try to throw it down on a play like that.

Rodney Hood- I don't believe he suffered from stage fright last night or against Kansas. The guy truly is a stud. In the Kansas game I thought it was the height of the Kansas players that bothered his mid-range and attack the basket offense, and last night I though the early foul trouble just threw him off and caused him to be tentative. He will have big games against big opponents. He is too good not too.

[freshmanjs]

The bad:

• Going with defensive personnel hurt our offense quite a bit, so there is a balance to strike there that has not been figured out yet.
• Once again we let up after getting a big lead. These kids need a speech from Jay Williams and Battier on how to destroy a team. Up 18? great, let's put the hammer down and get them down 30!. Never let up!
• We did not handle the press well at all. Much of it was poor decision making vs execution. That needs work. (Side Note: The way Bama ran their fullcourt press and had success with it, was how I envisioned this Duke team doing it. I am still miffed at why we can't press like Bama did and get the same level of success. Maybe it will come with time.

I really liked what Wojo said in the halftime interview. Paraphrasing -- that they wanted to give the captains the opportunity to set the tone and focus on defense. I think that makes sense. I don't expect the overall balance of playing time to shift that much, but likely we'll see a few games where those guys play more as the Coaches look to improve the defense.

[BD80]

... I would like to see our experienced point guard not spin dribble into two and three defenders over and over. It was like a "how not to handle the press" blooper reel. ...

Golly, if there were only something the others players on the court could do to help!

Too bad his teammates can't warn Cook that the trap is coming from his blindside and they are therefor open for an outlet. Oh, wait. It's that communication issue again huh?

Cook is a very good point guard, he has the best post entry passing ability at Duke since Bobby Hurley, yes I said it. He is still learning, things I would have expected him to master by his junior year, but everyone runs his own race ...

Tyus will not start the beginning of next season over senior (captain?) Quinn.

[diveonthefloor]

Defense showed major improvement...excellent communication, hedging, and help when appropriate. Big step forward.

QC to me is an enigma. Great raw talent. I had hoped his decision-making would be more advanced at this stage in his career. IMO, that's the main thing standing in between Duke and a Final Four run: PG decision-making.

[mgtr]

Regarding Cook as great point guard, he is certainly the best we have had for awhile (not counting Irving who played briefly but brightly). Based on last night's game, Cook is looking more like a pass seldom point guard. He seems intent on taking it into the middle, regardless of how many defensive players are there. So, while he had 17 points, he had 2 assists and 4 turnovers. Of course, this could have been at K's direction, but I wonder. We are lucky to have Mr. Cook. We could the "Point Guard Wars" next season.