MBB: Duke 93, UNC 81 Post-Game Thread

[MaxAMillion]

Sorry, not sharing in the optimism. Sure, we won and against a streaking UNC team but I saw bad defense, poor decision making late in the game, and shaky inbounding & ballhandling down the stretch.

Still seems like live by the 3/die by the 3 to me.

Otoh, awesome games from Hood & Parker and great FT shooting but I still am not seeing a championship team at the moment.

Who are the championship teams that you see:? Kansas? Arizona?

[azzefkram]

Great game by the good guys. Jabari was awesome tonight. Not just the stat stuff, very vocal and showed solid leadership. Rodney was great. Welcome back Quinn and Amile. We are going to need you guys over the next month. Thank you Josh, Tyler and Dre. I wish there was a way to get Josh in in the second half so he could get a proper send off.

[ChrisP]

We shot 8-23 from 3, which is below our season average. We got 69 points not from 3s, vs. 24 points from 3s. How was this a live by the 3 die by the 3 game?

Umm..because we had to shoot 60% from 3 in the 2nd half in order to win. Without the multiple threes in the second, that game would have been WAY tighter down the stretch.

Did we watch the same game?

[FerryFor50]

Umm..because we had to shoot 60% from 3 in the 2nd half in order to win. Without the multiple threes in the second, that game would have been WAY tighter down the stretch.

Did we watch the same game?

UNC shot 62% in the first half and Duke was 1-13 or so from three at that point. They still led by 3.

[Luther]

Did the guys have a chance to speak after the game? If so does anyone have a link?

[gofurman]

Lots of good -
- PARKER, what more can be said. WWWOOOWWW - How can an 18 year old (most Fr like Hansbrough are 19 and 20) be that good and strong??? unbelievable
- better play from Cook, even taking the Timeout instead of a turnover near halfcourt... in bball you get so many timeouts its fine to use one or two to avoid turnover
- Hood - great job by Hood and Parker to drive the ball as well as shoot the occasional J
- FT shooting, nice at 27-31. More important than we realize. If that is 20-31 (not horrible) that UNC run at the end is completely different and the game could have gone to UNC. Its that important
- glad to see the 3s in the 2nd half
- STELLAR rebounding, this was huge as it adds up to more shots for us

- a little bad
- Still have lapses on D .. I think Carolina was shooting over 50% at one point.
- Still the total shooting on 3s is not great. We cant seem to hit a 40% clip again like we did earlier in year. The announcers remarked how great the 3 shooting was in the second half but the total was still 35% which is slightly below average. Would love to see us hitting 40% again.
- Last few minutes we just don't seem to handle well, odd for a team that seems to have some ball handlers and lots of great FT shooters ! I mean, SURELY we aren't losing focus in wanting to beat Carolina on Senior Night. If you cant keep focus on that, what can you focus on.


- scary -------
Marcus Paige. Dude is absolutely a killer now. I mean SCARY Just scary. Every time he shot I was sure it was going in - bump him, he just makes a 4 point play.. drive, shoot the three, floater. whatever - I give credit where it is due. HE IS SCARY good. Anytime you have a PG that good you can win. No mystery to me why Carolina Is playing very well now.

[hurleyfor3]

Grumpy Cat is not impressed.

[BlueDevilBrowns]

To be fair, when we weren't hitting 3s (first half), this game was really close. When we were (second half), we blew them out.

This. I think that's maybe what the op meant, that hitting our 2nd half 3's gave us the separation we didn't have in the 1st half.

I agree, though, rebounding and FT shooting were just as, if not more, important.

[ChrisP]

Who are the championship teams that you see:? Kansas? Arizona?

Maybe Zona. Florida looks pretty good to me as well.

Duke won't win it (and I am referring to the ACC championship as well) with the kind of defense we played tonight. We might win 1 or 2 or 4 in a row, but you know that old saying about how defense wins championships? Yeah, that.

[pfrduke]

Umm..because we had to shoot 60% from 3 in the 2nd half in order to win. Without the multiple threes in the second, that game would have been WAY tighter down the stretch.

Did we watch the same game?

We shot below our season average from 3. We won by 12. You say we had to shoot 60% from 3 to make it a not-close game (against the #14 team in the country, on a 12-game winning streak), but you ignore that we shot 2-13 from 3 in the first half AND STILL LED at halftime. We scored inside, we got on the boards. Those are the things that won the game for us. It's not like we shot 50% from deep all game and won by 3.

[MaxAMillion]

When we give the ball to our two lottery picks, good things happen. When we go away from them, teams go on runs, tonight was no exception. What a really fun game to watch though. Not too often you see a team score in the 90s in college. Thank God Dre made a 3. Wouldn't have been right if, in his last game in Cameron, he went 0-fee from deep. Dre all mother f-in day.

When Cook plays well good things happen. The offense is good when all the players on the floor contribute and play well. When the guards struggle (which has happened in several of the losses) the offense and the team look ordinary.

[Gthoma2a]

I am thinking that we showed the recruits in attendance how to defend home court.

[FerryFor50]

This. I think that's maybe what the op meant, that hitting our 2nd half 3's gave us the separation we didn't have in the 1st half.

I agree, though, rebounding and FT shooting were just as, if not more, important.

Yea but dying by the three implies losing. They were never in danger of losing this game. I know this because I was never in danger of kicking my cat.

[NashvilleDevil]

Maybe Zona. Florida looks pretty good to me as well.

Duke won't win it (and I am referring to the ACC championship as well) with the kind of defense we played tonight. We might win 1 or 2 or 4 in a row, but you know that old saying about how defense wins championships? Yeah, that.

You mean the Arizona team that couldn't score the last 5 minutes of the game against Oregon? That is down a man and looks like a contender for first 1 seed beat?

[Billy Dat]

Great to win!

Amazing that it could be the final game in Cameron for the entire starting 5.

I loved Jabari's energy tonight, it seems like he is trying to really step up as a leader. Hood was nearly equally big in scoring.

It baffles me how much we can score with little to any offensive structure. The rebounding made up for our less than stellar D. It was great to hit free throws.

Paige is a beast!

The crowd seemed unbelievable tonight - well done fans! I loved the shots of our recruits standing with Tony Romo, especially Okafor who has the face of "The Brow" and the physique of Dwight Howard.

Great bounce back. I guess we'll be a 3 seed in the ACC. Regular Season in the books - time to fight or die!!!

[sagegrouse]

Yep, key stat; UNC actually shot a higher percentage from the field and from 3-pt; Duke had more shots due to the good work on the boards, and hit their foul shots late to sustain the lead.

According to ESPN's statistics, Duke got more offensive rebounds (15) than UNC got defensive rebounds (14).

[ChrisP]

We shot below our season average from 3. We won by 12. You say we had to shoot 60% from 3 to make it a not-close game (against the #14 team in the country, on a 12-game winning streak), but you ignore that we shot 2-13 from 3 in the first half AND STILL LED at halftime. We scored inside, we got on the boards. Those are the things that won the game for us. It's not like we shot 50% from deep all game and won by 3.

Yeah, that GIANT lead we had at half (3 pts) when JMM was on the bench for a lot of the first had me feeling super confident.

Look, clearly this team is capable of hitting a high % from 3 - and I hope they do because it makes us very tough to beat - but our defense is just bad and not that of a championship-level team, imho.

[FerryFor50]

You mean the Arizona team that couldn't score the last 5 minutes of the game against Oregon? That is down a man and looks like a contender for first 1 seed beat?

Plus everyone forgets that Zona plays in the PAC12. Not exactly a world beating power conference.

[NashvilleDevil]

Yeah, that GIANT lead we had at half (3 pts) when JMM was on the bench for a lot of the first had me feeling super confident.

Look, clearly this team is capable of hitting a high % from 3 - and I hope they do because it makes us very tough to beat - but our defense is just bad and not that of a championship-level team, imho.

It appears you're never super confident about Duke even after a win against Carolina. Give it a rest.

[Dukehky]

Great to win!

Amazing that it could be the final game in Cameron for the entire starting 5.

I loved Jabari's energy tonight, it seems like he is trying to really step up as a leader. Hood was nearly equally big in scoring.

It baffles me how much we can score with little to any offensive structure. The rebounding made up for our less than stellar D. It was great to hit free throws.

Paige is a beast!

The crowd seemed unbelievable tonight - well done fans! I loved the shots of our recruits standing with Tony Romo, especially Okafor who has the face of "The Brow" and the physique of Dwight Howard.

Great bounce back. I guess we'll be a 3 seed in the ACC. Regular Season in the books - time to fight or die!!!

Wow, he does not have the body of Dwight Howard. Way too much Caboose and not the shoulders of someone who does 100000000 shoulder shrugs a day.

I wish I could dislike Paige, but he is really incredible. I think Jabari made the ACC POY race a lot closer after tonight.