MBB: Notre Dame 77, Duke 73 Post-Game Thread

[hurleyfor3]

Reality check folks...turn on CNN now and watch "Voices of Auschwitz".

Or "My 600lb Life" on TLC.

[Dukehky]

One of these days, Okafor is going to start getting some of the and 1 calls he deserves. If I were him, I couldn't wait to get the NBA if for no other reason than he will be rewarded when he gets beat to hell every night.

[FerryFor50]

Very frustrating game. Too many mistakes and lack of execution at the end. This Duke team has talent but they are not ready for prime time. The goal now is to make the tourney and hope that they can make a run. Lots of learning left to do. Played like an inexperienced team tonight.

Were they ready for prime time against Louisville? Or clawing back against St. Johns?

I think they'll be fine. They played well overall.

[Karl Beem]

K, so you're a troll and probably need to go.

Also, only the 3rd loss of the year and this is the first game we actually blew. I'd rather blow a game in January than March.

Also, whoever said this type of performance leads to early upsets in March, that is ridiculous. There is no way a 15/14/13 seed can beat us with our line up. This is a way better team than last year. Look at who we've beaten. Justise tried to guard Grant tonight and did a good job early in the 2nd half but I really don't think he's healthy. Healthy Winslow masks a lot of things on defense

Troll!?! I've been on this board since Juliovision - and haven't posted anonymously

[Duvall]

I am looking forward to Duke not losing a game in February, though.

[6th Man]

As great as Okafor is he is a liability down the stretch. Other teams would be insane not to foul him. I have visions of that killing us in the tourney. It's ridiculous this team is 4-3 in the ACC looking at 4-4 if they don't win at UVA. Too much talent for that regardless of our tough conference schedule.

[KandG]

When it was a 10 point game, you figured ND would come back. But the key was when Duke got in the bonus early, and proceeded to blow nearly every FT going into the double bonus. In a tight road game against an intelligent opponent, that's fatal.

Even after ND tied it, Duke still had a chance to pull it out with sounder play, but overall the last 10 minutes featured largely impotent offense and bad breaks all the way around.

Don't have much hope for Saturday, other than a good effort and a sign of greater composure in situations like this versus good teams (i.e. not St. John's).

[jipops]

The free throws from our front court is worrisome and brings back memories of Jason Williams.

When was he a front court player?

[pfrduke]

Matt left his man to cover the cutter. If he didn't, Grant passes to him for an easy layup.

Grant got away with a lot of passes in mid air tonight. Not sure why Duke couldn't get turnovers after he got caught jumping.

Yeah, if anyone slipped on the play it was Tyus, who got caught ball watching Grant and let Jackson cut by him. Matt helped to stop the cutter, as he should, and no one was able to close to Vasturia fast enough.

[Kjeffrey]

Missed free throws and gimmes for sure and poor defense down low. Okafor is going to have to embrace defensive play.

His defense can be a liability for this team at times. I felt the same way about Hood and Parker last year. It appears poor defense by some players is overlooked by the coaching staff. We all know what happen when others, such as Sulaimon, play poor defense.

[CDu]

One of these days, Okafor is going to start getting some of the and 1 calls he deserves. If I were him, I couldn't wait to get the NBA if for no other reason than he will be rewarded when he gets beat to hell every night.

To be fair, he also bails defenders out by going with slinky finesse moves that avoid fouls. Sometimes it works, but he missed multiple of those.

And also, he was terrible from the line, so I am not sure it would have helped to get another call or two.

[FerryFor50]

This echoes my feeling, that our offensive choices when up 10 were suspect. First off, when we built the lead, Brey did a good job combining timeouts with TV timeouts to deflate our momentum. I'd have to go back and watch the tape, but we seemed to be unbalanced on the court so that missed shots led to run-outs and high percentage looks, I think about the 3 Quinn took from the corner on a break, Justise airmailed that cross court pass 5 rows into the stands, etc. I felt like there was too much time left with us up big and we lost focus.

By contrast, they make a run and suddenly we are on our heels and the clock isn't our friend. It seemed like they erased the lead quickly, but, boom, there's only 5 minutes left and there's game pressure.

But, if we hit some free throws and if Jah makes a few of those close ones where he was single guarded...

Coulda shoulda woulda.

That one hurts.

What happened to stall ball when you need it?

[duke09hms]

It's a concern, but I think with (healthy) Winslow and Sulaimon, we will have the players to clamp down on opposing guards in March.

The free throws from our front court is worrisome and brings back memories of Jason Williams.

That's not gonna help if we keep playing Quinn and Tyus at the SAME time. We could get it so they both get 35 mins, and only 15 mins sees them playing at the same time. Together they're a defensive liability.

[azzefkram]

Wow. We sort of snatched defeat from the jaws of victory there. Very disappointing.

[dyedwab]

I really wish that basketball had a statistic like tennis does - "unforced errors"

It wasn't just the missed FTs. In the first half we had a number of just sloppy plays(Jahlil running the break, Marshall's silly pass) that cost us...

UND played really, really well.

But we gave them the game...

[ScreechTDX1847]

I think everyone needs to temper their expectations for this team. First off, no shame in losing on the road to a top 10 team. The truth is that even though it felt like we outplayed them - not scoring more than 10 points in the last 8 minutes against that defense and that horrendous FT shooting means that we didn't.

I still have yet to see this team play angry or play match the toughness of their opponents. We are very talented but lack the mentality and killer instinct of an elite team. I want to see someone take their defensive assignment personally. Regardless of what K does I'm not sure this team is going completely change it's personality. It feels like we have to just have a hot shooting night to win games and we are losing anytime it is a grind it out ugly game. Good teams win those games!!!

I hope I'm wrong but looking at out schedule I see an 11-7 ACC record looming. We lose this Saturday and this team is going to have to do some soul searching and start taking these losses personally.

[tbyers11]

Oh, and

Matt jones leaving the three point shooter.

I still don't get his defensive cred.

That was Matt's man but Tyus was the one who screwed up on the play. Tyus turned his head, his man cut back door and if Matt hadn't come off his man to help on Tyus' man Grant could have passed to the guy cutting for a layup

[CDu]

Yeah, if anyone slipped on the play it was Tyus, who got caught ball watching Grant and let Jackson cut by him. Matt helped to stop the cutter, as he should, and no one was able to close to Vasturia fast enough.

Yeah it was definitely Tyus Jones, who was standing aimlessly guarding no one. Also, gotta ding Tyus for bailing on the previous bucket after he half-stripped Grant. You can't allow Grant to get around you and get the ball. Jones seemed to start to break upcourt a step rather than securing the ball. Freshman mistakes.

[Edouble]

Very frustrating game. Too many mistakes and lack of execution at the end. This Duke team has talent but they are not ready for prime time. The goal now is to make the tourney and hope that they can make a run. Lots of learning left to do. Played like an inexperienced team tonight.

I'd go so far as to say alot of talent. I agree that we're not ready yet, but don't sell the team so short. A more experienced team would have won tonight. We're a young basketball team, and still a work in progress.

An ACC Championship and a #1 seed are still obtainable. It's still (barely) January. I doubt that Coach K is thinking that making the the tourney and hoping the chips fall favorably is the new goal.

There's a lot of talent in the Duke refrigerator. We've just got to figure out what goes in the soup. I trust in Coach K.

[dukelifer]

Were they ready for prime time against Louisville? Or clawing back against St. Johns?

I think they'll be fine. They played well overall.

For a team learning - they played well- but for a team attempting to get a top seed- they did not. They let this one get away from lack of execution. This team is not one of the elite teams right now- but they will get better. Hopefully they have enough runway left to take off.