MBB: Duke vs. Michigan St (Tue, 11/14, 7pm, ESPN) Pre-Game and In-Game Thread

[JBDuke]

Duke travels to Chicago to take on Michigan State in the Champions Classic next Tuesday. Broadcast is on ESPN at 7 pm ET. A nice early test for these young Blue Devils.

[MChambers]

MSU is, like Kentucky, about as big as Duke is. Like Duke, MSU doesn’t have very good perimeter depth. Bridges is playing the three, but he’s really a college four. Unlike Duke, MSU has a fair amount of experience to mix with its freshman.

Should be a very inter game.

[mgtr]

MY concern is fouls on the big guys. With Bolden being ill, he falls down below DeLaurier in ability. And then there is Vrank, who can fill in but will likely not make huge contributions. We have several competent outside players, so I am less concerned about that than the bigs. Backwards from what I thought before I saw them play
Well, lets see what happens on Tuesday, I think many things will become more.

[JBDuke]

Back to the top for this thread. Big game Tuesday night! These are the top two teams in both polls.

[TKG]

Izzo's team are, typically, physical. I am interested in how the young fellas react to physical play.

[OldPhiKap]

Izzo's team are, typically, physical. I am interested in how the young fellas react to physical play.

Yup. Although K seems to own Izzo as much as I love Tom.

Frankly, really just want the freshman to get experience playing at this level. Result is secondary.

[Troublemaker]

Don't overreact either way.

The 2015 team won at Wisconsin -- probably the best win of any team in the non-conference season -- and then proceeded to struggle mightily when ACC play began, losing to NCSU and then Miami at home. (Before obviously recovering to go on and win it all).

The 2010 team looked bad losing at Wisconsin in early December and eventually clicked in February and went on to win the ACC regular season, ACC tournament, and finally the national championship.

Unless it's an epic blowout either way, I would take the result of the Duke-MSU game in stride.

Don't get me wrong. This is a huge game, and I want to win badly. But what really matters is how we develop the rest of the season and manage the peaks and valleys to come.

[ElSid]

Bridges gets all the hype, but MSU's biggest strength might be front court depth and skill. Jaren Jackson and Nick Ward et al will be fascinating matchups for our fearsome foursome of Bagley, Carter, Bolden and DeLaurier.

I wonder who guards Bridges when we're in man to man. I guess Trent? We might go big and have Bagley guard him at times. Could be a good opportunity for Javin, too.

Izzo teams are notoriously late blooming, but expectations are incredibly high this year, and I predict they'll play at a high level early and throughout the year. Only a 20 win team last season, so basically everyone is banking on an enormous improvement.

[dukefan_828]

Having 4 wisdom's yanked in the morning so no class for two days, plan on studying fim then taking my pain meds (as perscribed ofcourse) to hibernate until around 6pm tuesday


Grayson explodes for 27 on the big stage

Can't wait to see how bags and carter look against top tier competition.

Need Duval to continue to be the floor general he has thus far. Hoping for a 12pt 10ast 3to type game from him w/o foul trouble, would be huge!!

May need Javin "Baby Rodman" D to play extended minutes trading shooting for lock down D if Trent struggles to hang w Bridges

Also wish we where in the prime time 9:30 spot love the late games plus i dont want to be sulking while watching the BBN be brought to reality as i expect KU to dissect and dismantle this over ranked group if somehow our devils dont come out on top!!

Also wonder how much burn my personal fav project Bolden get's due to his untimely illness. Hope he is ready to go and has a breakout performance in atleast 15 min of play. I know the beast is in there he just lacks confidence & a nice performance on the big stage might be just the thing to do so.

Is there any way we red shirt V rank of is it not worth taking up a scholarship in the future at this point? Also don't see Jack White ever getting many minutes here could he be the next transfer??

LETS GO DUKE!!!!

[COYS]

Don't overreact either way.

The 2015 team won at Wisconsin -- probably the best win of any team in the non-conference season -- and then proceeded to struggle mightily when ACC play began, losing to NCSU and then Miami at home. (Before obviously recovering to go on and win it all).

The 2010 team looked bad losing at Wisconsin in early December and eventually clicked in February and went on to win the ACC regular season, ACC tournament, and finally the national championship.

Unless it's an epic blowout either way, I would take the result of the Duke-MSU game in stride.

Don't get me wrong. This is a huge game, and I want to win badly. But what really matters is how we develop the rest of the season and manage the peaks and valleys to come.

Totally agree. I’d add that the 2010 team got blown out by Georgetown in late January in addition to losing to Wisconsin. They failed both of their high profile OOC tests.

[ElSid]

Totally agree. I’d add that the 2010 team got blown out by Georgetown in late January in addition to losing to Wisconsin. They failed both of their high profile OOC tests.

Pretty sure we also looked alarmingly unathletic in 2010 against ASU. I remember getting extremely pessimistic after that game. Then we won the most satisfying and surprising championship.

By the way, did Doug Gottlieb get fired for his recent idiotic comments? I hope. Do not like that man.

[LasVegas]

One thing I really like about this team is that they seem to have a badass attitude. Just a really tough and never back down look to them. I would say confident but it’s just more than that. It’s like a “ you come at me and I’ll go twice as hard back at you attitude”. I love it and I think it will be a battle on Tuesday. Win or lose, I would bet that this team doesn’t go down without a big fight.

[Olympic Fan]

Is there any way we red shirt V rank of is it not worth taking up a scholarship in the future at this point?

There is absolutely, positively no chance that Vrank redshirts this year -- he's already played in a game.

Now, it's possible he suffers an injury and earns a hardship ruling, but that's not a redshirt.

BTW: The 2010 team did lose at Wisconsin and at Georgetown, but it did not lose all its high profile non-conference games. They beat No. 13 UConn (pretty much the same team that would win the 2011 national title) and No. 15 Gonzaga -- both in Madison Square Garden.

[uh_no]

There is absolutely, positively no chance that Vrank redshirts this year -- he's already played in a game.

Now, it's possible he suffers an injury and earns a hardship ruling, but that's not a redshirt.

BTW: The 2010 team did lose at Wisconsin and at Georgetown, but it did not lose all its high profile non-conference games. They beat No. 13 UConn (pretty much the same team that would win the 2011 national title) and No. 15 Gonzaga -- both in Madison Square Garden.

you mean the 2011 uconn team that started 3 freshman (lamb, smith, oleander) and whose 6th man was also a freshman (napier)?

the 2010 team was still rockin' jerome dyson (whose injury arguably derailed the 2009 squad), sticks robinson, and gavin edwards.

so more changed than stayed the same.

still a great win for duke, of course, given how unathletic they were....just not sure I'd use the 2011 uconn team as a barometer for that particular win.

[UrinalCake]

Like others I'm not worrying too much about this game in the big picture. Similar to last year when we narrowly lost to Kansas so early in the season, but without the injury component. We know there's a long way to go and this team has a lot of room for improvement.

With that said, if MSU beats us pretty handily and it's due to all of the things we feared coming into the season - lack of outside shooting, foul trouble exposing our lack of guard depth, poor spacing - then I might start to think we have somewhat of a lower ceiling and have just been beating up on bad teams. OTOH if we win then we'll be flying high, and it wouldn't be crazy to think that given our schedule we could run it all the way up to 17-0 leading into our game at Miami. I know that's getting way ahead of ourselves, but Indiana looks bad after losing to Indiana State so our only non-awful opponents would be in the PKI.

[dukefan_828]

There is absolutely, positively no chance that Vrank redshirts this year -- he's already played in a game

Thanks for reply and input. But There is a rule where you can still redshirt as long as you havn't played in a certain amount of games. the cut off is at somepoint in december, i believe. But im positive that his limited play in one game would not affect his ability to redshirt.

[jv001]

Thanks for reply and input. But There is a rule where you can still redshirt as long as you havn't played in a certain amount of games. the cut off is at somepoint in december, i believe. But im positive that his limited play in one game would not affect his ability to redshirt.

You my be right but I'm with OLY on this one. I believe the # of games played comes into play if a player is injured. I don't know what that number is, but I'm pretty sure we had this discussion last season. OTH you may be correct. GoDuke!

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

You my be right but I'm with OLY on this one. I believe the # of games played comes into play if a player is injured. I don't know what that number is, but I'm pretty sure we had this discussion last season. OTH you may be correct. GoDuke!

98% sure you are spot on. Amile Jefferson was a different story because of injury. Once you step on the court for a game, eligibility is used.

[fraggler]

Thanks for reply and input. But There is a rule where you can still redshirt as long as you havn't played in a certain amount of games. the cut off is at somepoint in december, i believe. But im positive that his limited play in one game would not affect his ability to redshirt.

Unfortunately, you are not correct in reference to a standard redshirt.

From NCAA.org (bolded for my emphasis):
"Redshirt: In Divisions I or II, redshirting refers to someone who is enrolled full-time at a school, but does not play for an entire academic year for the sole purpose of saving a season of competition. A redshirt does not play in any college games or scrimmage in a given sport for an entire academic year, even though that student is otherwise eligible. If you do not play in a sport the entire academic year, you have not used a season of competition. However, if you play in even one second of a game as a college student-athlete, you are not a redshirt."

You are thinking of the Medical Hardship Waiver (or medical redshirt) rules, which does have a maximum number of games allowed (30%) before it cannot be granted.

[budwom]

There are injuries, and there are "injuries," though I don't see Vrank sitting out at all this season...