MBB: Duke at Miami - Pre-Game and In-Game Thread (Wed 1930 EST, Espn2)

[duke09hms]

Loving Amile's effort to steal that ball away in the backcourt and finish with the layup.

[Selover]

Great hustle play the by Amile. Does anyone else feel like the refs have blown several calls that should have gone our way? For instance K calling timeout in front of the ref, Dre knocking the ball out to the inbounder not to mention several ticky tack fouls that they aren't calling our way..

[duke4ever19]

Jefferson is a heck of a player. Glad he's on our side.

[rhynelander]

love Amile's motor my godness is he playing like a man today!

[rsvman]

If Coach is going to expect them to continue this much intensity and chasing on defense, he's going to also have to continue a liberal substitution pattern. Otherwise, our guys are going to wear down.

[duke4ever19]

No Amile! No foot injuries.

[jwillfan]

Liking it all

[sporthenry]

Great hustle play the by Amile. Does anyone else feel like the refs have blown several calls that should have gone our way? For instance K calling timeout in front of the ref, Dre knocking the ball out to the inbounder not to mention several ticky tack fouls that they aren't calling our way..

Second time this year that refs missed a pretty crucial timeout that K was trying to call. Also agree with the ticky tack calls. I guess that is the benefits of Miami's zone but it seems impossible to play man to man defense now. Not sure how they expect people to play defense with every contact being a foul and the offense getting the benefit of the doubt.

[jwillfan]

No Amile! No foot injuries.

Relax. Just tying his shoe!

[rsvman]

Relax. Just tying his shoe!

No. He had a minor ankle sprain. Looks OK, though.

Hard to blame a Duke fan for being paranoid about foot injuries.

[Dukehky]

I thought we played really well that half. I wish that somebody on our team could make an entry pass. K wants Jabari to work on the block, which is hard work, and he never gets rewarded with the ball when he's open. When we got the ball to Jabari in good position (on the elbow) he knocked down a jump shot. I bet he can do that more than once if we get him the ball there. Sounds sour, but it's just a pet peeve of mine.

[SCMatt33]

Duke did a good job to pull away for this lead right now despite very poor zone offense for the most part. On most of their half court possessions, Duke really got lazy taking three or four passes around the perimeter before taking a mediocre 3. That's exactly what the zone wants you to do. I can only think of a few possessions where Duke in a half court set passed or drove the ball to the middle or behind the zone. Cook finding Hood on the baseline after dribbling to overload one side of the court and move the zone was a textbook example of good zone offense. Parker cutting to the elbow and making the mid-range jumper was another great example. These plays were unfortunately not the norm in that half. Of coarse, they more than offset this with the D earning some transition buckets and a great job on the offensive glass (another traditional way to attack the zone). This game will hopefully serve as a good warm up for Cuse, who plays a much more active zone and with the length to make the threes even tougher and take away some of the offensive rebounding.

[dairedevil]

I like the effort and intensity - grabbing rebounds, forcing turnovers. We've even made a few back-door cuts to break the zone. But, there has been quite a drop in scoring when the non-starting lineup has been in the game. Only 2 baskets (3 pts) made by Dawkins and Sulaimon. . If we don't get offensive production from that lineup, I'm afraid that the other crew will stay in more, and we won't be able to keep up the pressure, or will get fatigued.

[Bob Green]

We are 4-15 on 3-pointers and have a 12 point lead so I'm not complaining, but we need to shoot it better in the second stanza.

[arnie]

No. He had a minor ankle sprain. Looks OK, though.

Hard to blame a Duke fan for being paranoid about foot injuries.

No worries, we only get bad foot injuries at Cameron.

[NYBri]

That Jabari shot at the elbow is a shot that's open all night long. We should keep doing it until they stop it.

[NYBri]

Keep up the defensive intensity, and look for fast-break turnovers and I think we have this game.

[kmspeaks]

No worries, we only get bad foot injuries at Cameron.

Kyrie Irving might beg to differ

[NYBri]

Now that's the way to start the second half!

[duke09hms]

Amile is BEASTING. Loving his play!