Who is this Boateng fellow you speak of?
Tough crowd... I thought the drive he had in the first half where he missed the shot but Singler got the rebound and scored was a good play. It was hardly an example flailing the ball up.
I'd also argue the question that Scheyer is a better shooter. Pocius for his career is about a 30% shooter from three but he's also played much of his time at Duke injured. This season he's shooting 4-5 on threes while Scheyer, who is obviously not shooting his best at the moment, is 2-11. Small sample size sure... but it's still worth consideration.
I like Pocius' skills and I hope that he gets a chance to get more into the flow this year. He is an athlete.
This play was incredible. I immediately remarked that it was the kind of play that Kobe Bryant makes. I think that the first picture that Jason Evans posted in this thread is G finishing on this particular play. Note that Gerald is tomahawking with his left hand... he's right handed, right?
Anyone find a video clip of this play anywhere?
Singler looks like he fits the term "missing link" better than any player I can remember for Duke--or any other school. Granted, we've only played two games, but there's just an energy about him that permeates throughout the rest of the team whenever he's on the floor. His superior basketball instincts and fundamentals are exactly what McRoberts lacked.
"I'd also argue the question that Scheyer is a better shooter. Pocius for his career is about a 30% shooter from three but he's also played much of his time at Duke injured. This season he's shooting 4-5 on threes while Scheyer, who is obviously not shooting his best at the moment, is 2-11. Small sample size sure... but it's still worth consideration."
careful carlos, you be getting very close to the corner i am in.
risking yet another comment...i think two point shooting percentage is as revealing as three point shooting percentage when measuring "shooting."
hey jumbo, at least i know how to spell the player's names.
Some additional points. I think Marty is looking pretty good. He's made some nice passes, seems more under control than last season, and seems to be a part of the rotation, rather than an afterthought.
McClure hasn't practiced much yet. K admitted after the game that McClure probably shouldn't have played at all. It still might be some time before he's 100 percent.
The uptempo game does seem to be affecting the three-point shooting. Duke is running so hard they are having troubling getting set on threes when they come to a stop. This is a technical issue and the coaches are working on it.
At times Nelson's defense last night bordered on jaw-dropping. He had six steals and several of these came when he simply willed himself to take away the ball.
I'm repeating from the Shaw game but it bears repeating. Duke's committment to the running game is palpable. Every single time, every single player, ever rebound, every inbounds pass, every steal or loose ball, the player with the ball looks ahead for someone to pass to. Not once in a while, not most of the time, every time. Push, push, push. They are going to break some pretty good teams playing this way.
Didn't see the game, but I've read everything I could find on it (including this thread).
Lots of talk about Big Z.
Thoughts: The guy's never gonna be our top option on the team this year. With G, Singler, and Nelson, even a very good big guy at Duke won't be getting 12-15 shots a game. If he ended up getting 12-15 shots a game it would be in a "JDub to Boozer fashion", aka Boozer holds up hands, gets ball from a driving JDub, dunks it home. Zoubek is not in top form and it's great that he's making it onto the floor at all. I'm sure that a focus for the offense was not "Let Zoubek get the ball for some post moves" A) because it proves nothing if a 7 footer can hit a shot over a 6'7" guy from a DII school B) because, as already stated, Zoubek is not the core of our offense. Therefor, I'm not sure if any creedence can be put into the dude's stat line in exhibition hoops.
In a bigger picture though... when was the last time we even had a 7 footer? I think Sanders was listed at 6'11". Haywood was 7 feet and had a triple double, but I would never want the guy on my team. Aside from his personality issues, having a Haywood or a Zwikker doesn't help a team play at the breakneck pace that this year's team wants to operate at, nor does it help a team win tournament games. If the following three things happen:
1. Nelson has a typical Duke senior year
2. Henderson is Henderson
3. Singler is Singler
...we should win the ACC and be a competative team come March. Seriously, Zoubek's status and PT are not the matters that this team's success hinges on. I think everyone on this thread is a Duke fanatic and knows that although Coach K's teams are always stylistically different depending on personel, rarely are they dependant on frontcourt beef.
grossbus - the only problem with 2 pt. % vs. 3 pt. % when measuring shooting is that there's no way to measure the difficulty of the 2 pt. shot in a box score. A guy who goes 5-5 on fast break layups hasn't really shown what kind of shooter he is.
One additional point, no pun intended.
K indicated after the game last night that he did not expect to play Paulus and Smith together except during end-of-game-situations, when ball-handling is at a premium.
"grossbus - the only problem with 2 pt. % vs. 3 pt. % when measuring shooting is that there's no way to measure the difficulty of the 2 pt. shot in a box score. A guy who goes 5-5 on fast break layups hasn't really shown what kind of shooter he is."
abolutely true.
however, if he is shooting less than 30% from 2...well.
Um, according to the box score, Marty was 2-3 from 3-point range. These weren't good shots?
Also, you say that you "saw him drive to the basket many times and flail the ball up". Given that Marty was 2-5 for the game, and he was 2-3 from 3-range, that means that he only had two other shot attempts. Either you have a funny definition of "many", or you're allowing prejudices based on previous years to creep into your observations.
Please keep an open mind and give Marty a chance to show us what he can do when healthy. So far, I've been encouraged that he can be an exciting and important contributor to the Duke rotation.
JBDuke
Andre Dawkins: “People ask me if I can still shoot, and I ask them if they can still breathe. That’s kind of the same thing.”
"Please keep an open mind and give Marty a chance to show us what he can do when healthy"
amen!
I didn't think it was a "nasty" comment He said scheyer is not really a shooter, but a scorer and that he can be a little streaky with his jumper.
uh, no its not. anyone can hit a couple shots. 5 shots mean zilch. its worth no consideration.
potd!
Last edited by JBDuke; 11-04-2007 at 09:14 PM. Reason: removed comment about moderation