Changes are coming. That's the only thing I really know. I don't know what changes they will be, my changes will be made.
We've seen Coach K make drastic changes mid-season before: moving Elliot Williams into the starting lineup, moving Seth Curry back to SG after starting the season trying him at the point, benching Paulus, and numerous others that were necessitated by injury. So even though many view him as being stubborn, I won't be surprised to see some changes made after this loss. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with Hood and Parker trying to guard the 2 and 3, but at this point things really can't get any worse so why not...
Changes are coming. That's the only thing I really know. I don't know what changes they will be, my changes will be made.
First post so be gentle... Been watching Duke basketball for some 50 years now... Way north of 1000 games starting with Vic. Don't have any wins yet, much less 950+. But IMO the problem today was a lack of coaching like I am unfamiliar with. The staff's collective biorhythms must have been way low.
All of us could have seen within the first 5 minutes today that our lack of size and strength inside is a major flaw that no amount of impressive practicing can help. Having Marshall on the bench today was beyond reason. K has wasted half a season that could have been used to bring MP3 along to help this team. It's great to finally have such a talented set of athletes but in today's game, no team can reach its potential without size. Surely K should have learned that lesson over the past several years, especially 2010.
I think that we all had high expectations for this team and we still do, but it's sad to see the missing piece continue to sit at the end of the bench ... I can see where MP3 may be K's last chance to develop a big. A lot can still be done in January and February ...
The triangle teams are 2-7, and I don't remember when that has happened before.
UVa is 3-0 in conference and coming to Cameron on Monday, so something has to give. No matter what, Coach K will have something prepared two days from now.
I came home today from watching my son's HS game, where I saw 80% of the guys on his team failing to block out on rebounds, to watch the Clemson game on the DVR. Maybe it was the perspective, but it sure seemed like we had guys standing around not blocking out very much. I was not surprised to see Duke fall to the same fate as my son's team today after I saw that. Fortunately for Duke, I think the coaching staff has a bit more of a clue than my son's coach and may figure out some way to get the guys that get minutes to block out, either by switching personnel or lighting a fire under a few young blue devil's posteriors.
Yeah, a couple weeks ago I was in the "Tyler and Josh need less minutes" camp, but I mean Josh played 9 minutes at ND and 8 min at Clemson which were our two worst losses of the year. He played 9 minutes against Vermont, our "worst win" of the season. So the numbers seem to indicate that we're a better team with him playing more minutes, even if this disagrees with what we think we see on the court. Regardless, I don't think Josh is our problem right now. The fact that Jabari's scoring has fallen off a cliff is a much bigger issue, whether it's him hitting the freshman wall or other teams adjusting or him still getting over the flu, I don't know.
How is it possible that MP3 doesn't look like an NBA all-star in practice? Every big man we face looks like an All-American. The fact that he can't dominate us in practice is the most telling reason he isn't on the floor.
As I mentioned in the post-game thread - coaching was the biggest issue today. K is not infallible. He is quite stubborn, and can be slow to see and embrace change. Well, now is the time to change.
What's not working?
1. Pressure D - we haven't displayed the ability to defend quick guards on the perimeter. Trying to pressure opposing guards simply allows them more of an opportunity to beat us off the dribble. Also, we aren't getting a high rate of turnovers and opposing teams are shooting quite well against us. We need to back up 1/2-1 step and play solid defense focused on containing not stifling the opposing guards.
2. Rebounding in small ball - we get dominated by opposing bigs because our bigs that are playing aren't really bigs. Jabari's natural position is 3/4, Amile's natural position is HS 4, and is trying to beef up to a college 4. Rodney's natural position is wing. He has no business defending the post ever. Josh has an old man's game but at 6'7" with limited athleticism he has a lot of trouble rebounding. Now, Josh does play good position defense, but he isn't physically equipped to compete at major college level, imo. These are the bigs Coach K is playing and it's clearly not getting it done.
3. Post offense - Jabari didn't get one touch in the post in the Clemson game. This is BAD coaching. Jabari is our only real post threat, and as K was doing at the beginning of the year - moving Jabari from interior to perimeter - K needs to do the same now. Whenever we needed a basket against Zona - K put Jabari in the post and we went to him and he delivered.
Where to go from here?
1. New lineup - Cook, Hood, Jabari, Amile, Marshall
2. Play contain, not pressure, D. Use our length to contest shots and rebound
3. Move Jabari around... put in post, on perimeter.
4. Have Amile and Marshall crash offensive boards
5. Reserves - Rasheed, Dawkins, Matt Jones should get primary minutes as wing reserves; Hairston & Semi should spell Amile & Marshall. Tyler? I guess he can spell Cook for a few minutes a game, but no more. He tends to be a defensive liability because of his propensity to foul and continues to get beat off the dribble and back door. Offensively, he's no real help. I'd much rather see Matt take his spot in the rotation.
It's time for our coaches to step up. It doesn't matter how many W's a coach has, he still must be flexible enough to make changes and realize when "his" way is not working. K's way is clearly not working and he must tweak it some. He has done it in the past and I'm sure he can do it again. Also, I'm sure K's loss of his brother has affected his focus on this team and the amount of emotional energy he can give to this team. Hopefully, Coach K and the team can bounce bac
The offense is fine. People need to realize this. It was not a great performance against Clemson - although as I mentioned in the other thread, they have the #1 field goal defense in the country - but overall it is fine. We rarely turn the ball over and we have a decent assist rate. Our biggest weakness on offense is probably offensive rebounding, which I think just says something about our lack of size and not much about chemistry or "playing like a team."
Our defense is bad and I think the comment is spot on there. I don't think it's as much of a silver bullet as some others do, but I agree we should experiment with giving Marshall more minutes to help this.
K needs to move Wojo back to coaching the bigs.
~rthomas
I've been firmly in the camp wanting to see him get more time in games, but this is a fantastic point.
Here is another one that is pretty foreign to Duke basketball, but very true. Sometimes you're just a BAD team. The solution to becoming a winning team isn't anywhere to be found in line up or style changes, because you just aren't good.
I have no doubt Coach K and all will keep working and tinkering to try to find the right solution, but sometimes its just a team that isn't that good.
Think about this - who is actually playing well for Duke both on offense and on defense?
NO ONE. Absolutely no one. How long do you have to go back to find a Blue Devil team without one single player who was doing well on both ends.
One word: Zone.
When we played a couple of possessions of zone, sure it was shocking, but it was effective.
...but actually I agree with you. The zone seemed to befuddle Clemson. I'm not advocating becoming Syracuse, but I do think changing things up with a zone a couple of times in the game would help. I don't know why we didn't try it again in the second half.
Two other questions:
1. We had a lead in the first half and looked awful in every way in the second. One of the things I have most admired about K over the years has been his ability to make half-time adjustments. Yesterday, if there were adjustments, they didn't work. When that happens, usually K calls a full timeout early and fixes again. That didn't happen. Why did we come out for the second half looking worse than we did in the first half?
2. How much are we missing Chris Collins? Is this a relevant issue or one that shouldn't be worried over?
This isn't the end of the world, but it sure feels like it. I've been at virtually every Cameron game of the team since 1986, and even during the real droughts (like 1995), I didn't think we were as befuddled as we were yesterday in the second half. This team hasn't gelled even though we are three games into the ACC season (and about to be 4 games in). I just don't know why it hasn't happened and am not sure that it is because someone is getting too few (too many) minutes or whatever. This just isn't Duke basketball...
DukeDevilDeb
A few points on the much maligned duo of Josh and Tyler...
1. They ALWAYS play with great effort.
2. They are two of the few players on the team that consistently help and play physical, team-oriented defense. Many of their fouls are doing the dirty work that others are failing to do on the front end and unwilling to do on the back end (we have enough guys willing to stand right next to the basket with their hands straight up or stand near the 3 point line and watch while their teammates get beat to the hoop -- watch the tape). Thank goodness we have at least 2 guys willing to support their teammates and play solid team-oriented defense.
3. They generally avoid taking bad/selfish shots. We have enough guys to score (and who at times get too self-focused).
4. They are exceptional and positive teammates.
5. I wish some of our supposed more talented players were more of 1-4.
This thing can get turned around if more players consistently play in the passionate, team-focused way that Josh and Tyler do.
I thought we looked lousy in the first half (even though we had the lead); however, I too noticed that Coach K seems to be attempting to let this team play through many of the rough patches. It seems that our guys are generally resorting to one-on-one/me-oriented offense too often in these moments.