Blue-White postgame

[Jumbo]

Use this thread for analysis of the Blue/White game. And I know that given this was the first time anyone has seen Duke since March, people will be a) excited and b) ready to jump to conclusions. For perspective, here is last year's Blue/White boxscore (with points in red):

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.db...&ATCLID=660385

                      TOT-FG   3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name         FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
02 Josh McRoberts... 5-8    0-1    1-4   0  5   5  5  11 4 0  2   4 30
05 Martynas Pocius.... 1-8    1-4    0-0   0  1   1  6   3 3 1  0   1 30
12 Jordan Davidson.... 1-1    0-0    0-0   0  1   1  1   2 0 3  0   0 10
13 Nick Sutton..... 0-1    0-0    0-0   0  0   0  2   0 3 4  0   0 18
14 Dave McClure.... 4-9    0-0    0-1   2  5   7  0   8 1 2  2   3 30
15 Gerald Henderson... 6-10   0-1    2-2   2  2   4  0  14 3 2  0   1 30
21 DeMarcus Nelson.... 3-12   2-5    1-4   0  6   6  1   9 2 3  0   0 30
30 Jon Scheyer..... 2-9    0-5    1-1   1  2   3  4   5 5 2  0   3 27
34 Jamal Boykin.... 3-7    0-0    2-3   7  4  11  4   8 0 2  0   2 30
42 Lance Thomas.... 6-12   0-0    3-3   2  1   3  0  15 0 3  0   1 30
51 Steve Johnson.... 0-0    0-0    0-0   0  1   1  1   0 0 0  0   0  6
55 Brian Zoubek.... 11-15  0-0    5-8   2  8  10  4  27 1 4  3   1 30

(edit: to create tables you can read like this, see the Stats section of this post.)

[trinity92]

CAVEAT: All conclusions based on blue/white only:

The Bad News:
a. Zoubek is basically the same Zoubek
b. Lance is basically the same Lance
c. Paulus on a healthy foot is pretty much the same as Paulus on a bad foot, at least on offense, against a quick guard.


The Good News:

a. Gerald has an outside shot, and looks smoother than ever, with hints of Grant Hill in his game. I was impressed.
b. Taylor King is a sick shooter, and can play D
c. Singler is pretty much as good as advertised
d. Nolan Smith has the potential to be SICK.
e. Paulus showed improved ability to defend a quick PG.

Conclusions:

1. The lack of off-season development in our bigs means that losing out on Monroe was a disaster after all.

2. Nolan Smith should start or at very least get a LOT of minutes at point.

3. Based on one game, the bad outweighs the good and this will be a tough year.

[feldspar]

b) ready to jump to conclusions.

Big Z's taking us to a National Championship.

Mark it down.

[mgtr]

Zoubek is not as clumsy as last year. Paulus is better than last year. Henderson is much better than last year. The three freshmen are terrific. Other than that, not much to report!

[DBFAN]

Will anyone be able to put the Blue White on youtube, I know sometimes people know how to make that happen, just wondering?

[Wander]

Very hard to pick starters other than Singler, Nelson, Paulus (although Smith looked very, very good). I think we will have an interesting season!

It's not hard at all to see Henderson is a starter.

[Jumbo]

Please direct all post-game analysis to the Blue-White thread. Thanks.

[merry]

Zoubek is not as clumsy as last year. Paulus is better than last year. Henderson is much better than last year. The three freshmen are terrific. Other than that, not much to report!

That sums it up pretty well.

The teams were chosen by the student honorary coaches who were winners of a contest during the Game Day event. They selected players in a draft, and the first player selected was Kyle Singler for the white team. The blue team coach then got two picks and took Nelson and Henderson.

It looked like the blue team was going to blow out the white team for a while but the white team slowly caught up, partly because King cooled off a little in teh second half at the same time that Smith and Singler heated up in terms of scoring.

Also, Henderson had some major athletic moments incuding a block of an alley oop.

All and all it was a lot of fun to watch.

[Wander]

Henderson' alley-oop block was awesome, as is his overall game.

Paulus had a lot of good entry passes that won't show up on the stats because Zoubek fumbled the ball. Nolan was impressive but he's going to get into foul trouble with his agressive defense.

[throatybeard]

Shav's jersey will be retired.

[Bob Green]

The scrimmage was two 15 minutes halves so the final score of 69-64 converts to 92-85 in a 40 minute game.

[Wander]

Really? In your pictures, it looks like there was a fair amount of switching -- Thomas and Nelson were definitely on white at one point, Scheyer was definitely on blue at one point, etc.

There was some switching around at some points but it's very clear the first team was Paulus/Nelson/Henderson/Singler/Thomas.

[Cameron]

You can point to Zoubek's great Blue-White game last season as an example to try and down play King's great first half performance (I'm not directing this towards you Jumbo, just to everyone in general), but I think he's going to be a great force for us this season, both offensively (for his outstanding range and height, of course) and defensively (for his ability to rebound and defend the interior). I think he'll see plenty of minutes.

With that said, King's lack of production in the second half of tonight's game certainly proves that he'll be a hot or cold guy, which I think many fans probably expected, anyway. Some games he'll play 25 minutes a night and score 15 points on great long range shooting and others he'll probably play 11 or 12 minutes with very little production. However, I think he'll be somewhere more in the middle most games, say, 7 or 8 points a night in 18 minutes of action.

Whatever the case, I think King Taylor proves a lot of doubters wrong and plays significantly for Coach K. There is no doubt that K loves his game. And, as I have said on here a thousand times previous, King's height and range in Duke's offense is a perfect marriage. He will be a great surprise for many fans across the nation. His lightning quick release is going to be a nightmare for opposing traditional bigs. A nightmare.

[jimsumner]

Yes, Duke ran. A lot.

Paulus really worked hard to get the ball to Zoubek in scoring position and Zoubek appears to have lost some of last season's hesitation with the ball. But he didn't always finish. I suspect conditioning was a factor. In fact, GP really didn't shoot that much.

Paulus and Smith really went after and both had their good moments. Smith very disruptive on defense, no just against GP but all over the court. Too much one-on-one down the stretch. Singler was his team's best offensive weapon and he didn't see the ball in the last few minutes.

King. 17 points in 1st half, 5 threes, several from 30 foot range. 2 points in second half, missed badly on his 3s. He seemed tired in the second half.

Thomas very disruptive on D, ran floor well, hit a mid-range jumper. But he has no go-to move down low. I think his offense will be targets of opportunity.

Nelson was guarded by a walk-on most of the night and didn't take advantage of it. I suspect this may have been by design. How does it help Duke to have Nelson taking Davidson inside and dunking over him?

Scheyer seemed tentative early but made some big plays down the stretch, including a four-point play.

Singler and Henderson very, very impressive. Singler seems very mature for a freshman, very much in control, and very versatile. At one point King had outscored him something like 14-2 and Singler ended up with a 23-19 edge, IIRC. Doesn't force things. Maybe he should.

Henderson. Tremendous improvement in conditioning over last season. All over the court, much better decision making, hit some 3s. Needs to make those freebies.

McClure and Pocius were in street clothes but neither appeared to be hobbling or impaired in any way.

[-jk]

Box from tonight:

VISITORS: Duke Blue 0-0
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
15 Gerald Henderson... f  9-15   3-3    0-2    3  4  7   2  21  4  3  2  2  30
20 Taylor King..... f  7-15   5-12   0-0    1  5  6   4  19  0  2  0  2  30
55 Brian Zoubek.... c  5-8    0-0    1-2    4  6 10   6  11  0  3  4  0  30
03 Greg Paulus..... g  3-4    2-3    0-0    0  4  4   3   8  5  4  0  1  30
21 DeMarcus Nelson.... g  5-10   0-1    0-0    2  3  5   1  10  4  3  1  0  30
   TEAM........                         1     1
   Totals.......   29-52  10-19   1-4   11 22 33  16  69 13 15  7  5 150

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 17-24 70.8%   2nd Half: 12-28 42.9%   Game: 55.8%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  7-10 70.0%   2nd Half:  3-9  33.3%   Game: 52.6%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  0-2   0.0%   2nd Half:  1-2  50.0%   Game: 25.0%    2

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOME TEAM: Duke White 0-0
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
12 Kyle Singler.... f  9-17   0-3    5-7    6  3  9   4  23  2  2  0  0  30
42 Lance Thomas.... f  3-8    0-0    3-6    3  0  3   1   9  0  1  1  1  29
51 Steve Johnson.... c  0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   1   0  0  0  0  0   6
02 Nolan Smith..... g  7-18   1-4    4-4    1  2  3   3  19  1  4  0  5  30
30 Jon Scheyer..... g  2-8    1-2    3-3    2  5  7   0   8  5  1  0  4  30
41 Jordan Davidson....    2-6    1-4    0-0    0  1  1   0   5  3  1  0  0  25
   TEAM........                         3  2  5
   Totals.......   23-57   3-13  15-20  15 13 28   9  64 11  9  1 10 150


TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-31 38.7%   2nd Half: 11-26 42.3%   Game: 40.4%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  1-6  16.7%   2nd Half:  2-7  28.6%   Game: 23.1%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  4-7  57.1%   2nd Half: 11-13 84.6%   Game: 75.0%    2

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Officials:
Technical fouls: Duke Blue-None. Duke White-None.
Attendance: 9314
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
Duke Blue..........   41   28  -   69
Duke White.........   29   35  -   64

[Boston Dukie]

It seems the consensus from the group was that Singler and Nolan are the real deal and Henderson made great strides since last year, which is fantastic.

I thought by the end of last year, he was Duke's best offensive player as he could create his own shot in so many ways. Seems like the Scheyer vs. Henderson starting debate might end quickly.

Still seems like King is an open question, let's just hope he hasn't just pulled a Zoubek from lasy year and fooled everyone.

I was hoping to hear that Lance is a completely different player. Did anyone see signs of this?

[Wander]

Seems like the Scheyer vs. Henderson starting debate might end quickly.

It's over.

I was hoping to hear that Lance is a completely different player. Did anyone see signs of this?

Hard to tell anything about Lance. Paulus had good entry passes but a guy inside who couldn't take advantage. Opposite with Nolan/Lance - Nolan scored and defended well but didn't get the ball inside effectively overall.

[Jumbo]

It's over.

Is that the old DBR joke? If not, it's absolutely ridiculous to decide that based on the Blue/White game. That's exactly why I posted last year's box score.

[Wander]

Is that the old DBR joke? If not, it's absolutely ridiculous to decide that based on the Blue/White game. That's exactly why I posted last year's box score.

It's not a joke and it's also not based on the Blue/White game.

[Jumbo]

It's not a joke and it's also not based on the Blue/White game.

Then please tell us what else it's based upon.

(To explain the joke thing -- in 2001, after Boozer got hurt, someone posted a thread called "It's Over." As we all know, Duke didn't lose again the rest of the year. So, that phrase has become a sarcastic one on the DBR.)