Duke MBB vs. Illinois Post-Game Thread

[JBDuke]

Post your thoughts on the Maui Invitational semi-final win over Illinois here.

[Karl Beem]

Great game for Zoubek!

[monkey]

Great job by the team tonight. Lot of hustle. Nice zone too.

Also - tonight I finally became a Gerald Henderson fan.

Not so much the dunk (which was awesome) - or the career high in points ...

It was the fade away jumper with about 5 to play. Follow that up with the sky-high deflection/near-two handed catch with about 30 seconds left. Just awesome.

[Lord Ash]

Gerald got compared to A) Kobe and B) Grant during this game. Pretty tough company, tho I have to admit, I DID see a lot of Kobe in his game.

The team played very well. Didn't fall apart, kept it going. The sheer number of fouls was disheartening, as well as the fact that we got dominated on the O-boards, but overall I felt we did well. Zoubs didn't foul out right away, and Thomas would have stuck longer if he hadn't fouled so early. Scheyer is just more and more my favorite player on the team; he has SUCH a nose for the ball in a scrum, more than any other player I can recall recently. Paulus was solid solid solid. Demarcus was STRONG as heck, really fluid and just aggressive; he looked SO confident. No Taylor King was interesting (or very little Taylor) and no Marty or Dave at all. Singler looked REAL good, although he had some trouble penetrating with such a good defender on him. Nolan also looked solid in his role as an athletic backup who could defend. We really are SUPER athletic this year.

A lot of fun to watch. I anticipate HAMMERING Marquette to make a point. What fun!

[monkey]

Gerald got compared to A) Kobe and B) Grant during this game. Pretty tough company, tho I have to admit, I DID see a lot of Kobe in his game.

The team played very well. Didn't fall apart, kept it going. The sheer number of fouls was disheartening, as well as the fact that we got dominated on the O-boards, but overall I felt we did well. Zoubs didn't foul out right away, and Thomas would have stuck longer if he hadn't fouled so early. Scheyer is just more and more my favorite player on the team; he has SUCH a nose for the ball in a scrum, more than any other player I can recall recently. Paulus was solid solid solid. Demarcus was STRONG as heck, really fluid and just aggressive; he looked SO confident. No Taylor King was interesting (or very little Taylor) and no Marty or Dave at all. Singler looked REAL good, although he had some trouble penetrating with such a good defender on him. Nolan also looked solid in his role as an athletic backup who could defend. We really are SUPER athletic this year.

A lot of fun to watch. I anticipate HAMMERING Marquette to make a point. What fun!

If we play this well tomorrow, Marquette is going to have trouble on its hands. Should be a good game.

Wonder especially why no TK ... guess we'll find out ...

BTW, for a walk-on and only a few minutes play time, Jeff Jordan is a pretty good player. Nice defense and very quick.

[dukelifer]

First of all- welcome Mr. Henderson. I heard last year about this smooth, athletic forward who could score from all over the floor. I saw glimpses of him last year- but today we got a complete game. G dominated tonight. He hit all the huge shots to keep Duke ahead. Nelson played a very good game as well. Scheyer did a lot of little things. He is one heady player. Most of what he does is so subtle it i shard to notice but he is always somewhere near the ball. Singler had a tough defender on him and made a few silly fouls- but still managed to contribute. The layup he hit of the full run was a thing of beauty. He also showed his feisty side. Zoubek helped a ton tonight. While not a clinic by any means- he got some big boards - altered a few shots and hit a few shots on follows. This is what he can do and that may be enough. Smith still looks a bit lost out there- but he will get his confidence in time. K did not go as deep as he has been going in this game- not sure how that will affect the game tomorrow. Marquette is a tough, tough team who won pretty easily.

The biggest question mark on this Duke team is their rebounding and they need to do a much better job blocking out than they did tonight. Illinois is not a good shooting team. If Duke plays a big team that can shoot- if could be a long night. Not exactly sure what they can do other than work on fundamentals- but this needs to get much better.

Good win- on to Marquette.

[wisteria]

I know that we had a pretty OK lead most of the game, but I still had a minor heart attack.

Gerald Henderson!!! WOW!!! He literally carried us through especially after Singler/Thomas/Nelson all went down with 4 fouls. Great job, Gerry! (Although the very selfish part of me inside was worried that we are going to lose Gerald to NBA soon. )

Has anyone noticed that we had different MVPs during the last couple of games? Schyer/Paulus for the NMSU game, Singler for the Princeton game, and Henderson/Nelson for Illi game. It's good to be deep. Keep it up, guys!

And does it concern anyone that our scores have declined game by game?

Next, Revenge, Sweet revenge!

[dukestheheat]

markie played his best game (or, the one i'd call the best) tonight; he finished so very well at the hoop and time and again, solidly turned the corner on his defender. i can see how his off-season work is paying off for him!

and then henderson! he's probably going to get the nod for Man of the Match but it's a close call betwixt Henderson and Markie, imo, tonight.

GO DUKE!

Man, this is fun. It's like the good old days all over again. Deja vu, today.

dth.

[heath_harshman4]

Overall, a good win. It looked in the beginning as though we were gonna have trouble with their bigs, but the break and pressure finally got to Illinois. Zoubek...GREAT GAME, while he had some MORE dumb fouls, I think he had a good overall offensive and defensive game. Hendo, great job. Demarcus, Great Job. The only people I was dissapointed in was Singler and King. Singler because he played okay, but not what I saw last night, and King because I didnt see him at all. I think he shouldve got a little bit of time when Thomas and Singler both had 4 fouls, but Thomas did a good job of playing with those 4 fouls and really showed some composure.

As for Marquette, I think it will be a very very close game. While we almost took them last year with a much less athletic and deep team, something about Dominic James and Jerel McNeal and that other 3 point guy who's name escapes me, kinda scares me. But I think Duke's bigs, will play the biggest role in Duke winning tomorrow night. They showed me something tonight and I think will have a great night tomorrow celebrating.

Duke-84
Marquette-75

[Sixthman]

This was a very good win. Illinois did not have the guards we will see tomorrow night, but were still a good test. Demarcus played tough and was a major factor throughout the game while today was a coming out party for Gerald will be soon talked about as one of the elite players nationally if he continues to play at this level (if my memory serves me, as recently as three weeks ago, the Raleigh News and Observer, whose sports writers cover Duke as accurately as anyone, did not include Henderson in their top 25 players in the ACC). The other thing we saw from this team is that we could win a game against a real team with our front line collectively having a fairly weak night. Great teams have to win even when not all is going well. I thought that for so early in the season, we valued the ball well tonight. I don't know how many turnovers we had, but there weren't many bad ones. It is a little discouraging to see Coach K concentrating the minutes in fewer players so soon (no Marty, no King in the second half, not much Nolan Smith). Let's watch to see if that was because of particular match ups or will be a trend against better teams.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Henderson was outstanding - that dunk was phenomenal! Zoubek played his best game since the B/W game last year! Nelson was powerfully excellent (another fantastic dunk here), and Paulus had a very good floor game. Smith got very little time tonight, and was shaky when he was in (guess those two facts go hand in hand, don't they). Where did Lance get that move to the basket? Wish he would do it more often. Singler's catch and shoot on the break was first rate.

We didn't see much of Taylor King tonight, and saw nothing of Marty and Dave. Wonder if there are some health issues there on the last two, especially when Lance, Brian and Kyle were in all foul trouble. Dave's long arms would have come in handy in the last few minutes.

[Duke09]

And does it concern anyone that our scores have declined game by game?

Not at all. The competition has gotten better each game. Its natural. We won't score the same against NCCU as Illinois. Bet most of the games against good teams we will score 80-90

[ArtVandelay]

I suspect that King and Marty will continue to be the first two guys to get their minutes chopped against superior competition. Although it may have been a matchup issue with King. But yeah - I think it was surprising how drastic the dropoff was for King (Gasp! Talking about not using all our players! Forbidden topic!). As for Dave, I think it will just take some time to get the rust off and get back in playing form.

[DavidBenAkiva]

My eyes are wide open. I had a thought that DeMarcus and Gerald would have good games tonights. Illinois is thin in the gaurd department. What, they had three guys who played most of the game, right? That was very impressive to see Gerlad show fadeaways, threes, and attack the basket. Excellent game and incredible hops. I think that the comparisons to Kobe and Hill were a little too hyperbolic, but what the hey!

My one concern about him heading into tonight's matchup was that he hadn't shown much in the way of handling the ball in traffic or breaking down his man, relying more on his overall explosive first step. I think that he just moves laterally so smoothly that it doesn't seem like he's got the same type of handle as I'm used to seeing. Does anybody else get that sense or was I just out to lunch?

Time flies like an arrow
Fruit flies like a banana

[Troublemaker]

Not at all. The competition has gotten better each game. Its natural. We won't score the same against NCCU as Illinois. Bet most of the games against good teams we will score 80-90

Yep. Also, on a per-possession basis, this was an excellent offensive game by Duke. Heck, we shot 57% from the field.

I was pleased that we did not have to rely on turnovers for points. We were able to drive on them for finishes at the basket, mid-rangers, and open kickouts.

[Bob Green]

I watched the entire first half, but none of the second half due to work (I have the game taped). I was really impressed with the zone defense during the 24-7 run. DeMarcus looked great. Gerald looked great. Kyle had his hands full being guarded by Randle. Zoubek made solid contributions and I'm anxious to watch his development through the season. He needs to get stronger holding on to the ball, but I'm convinced he is going to be a monster in the middle next year. After his performance today, he could be a monster by tournament time this year. Today was a great team effort and tomorrow we play for the championship!

[Troublemaker]

On the other hand, I was displeased that Illinois did not need to rely on penetration to get their offensive rebounds. They really just outsized / outmuscled us at times, and this problem will likely continue against huge teams like this.

[wisteria]

On the other hand, I was displeased that Illinois did not need to rely on penetration to get their offensive rebounds. They really just outsized / outmuscled us at times, and this problem will likely continue against huge teams like this.

Right, whenever there's a rebound, I could just see a cloud of orange in the paint, and the next second they got the rebound.

By the way, I dislike the black uniforms. When are we going to be the BLUE devils?

[Sir Stealth]

I think that the reason this was such a nice game for Zoubek is that people were starting to worry that he was going to have another year where he couldn't yet really make a significant contribution. He still has a lot of room for improvement, but he played a sizeable role in this game and really helped out. At over 7 feet, just being competent can make a big impact (especially on a team that lacks size). Hopefully, he'll continue to rapidly improve.

To me, believing that a freshman point guard could come in to this type of program and earn a starting spot over a point guard with 2 years experience in the bank was always somewhat naive. Paulus also can still improve a lot, but he is completely capable of leading this team to great places. I don't think that this game will be the only time that we see him nail a 3 at just the right time to swing momentum for Duke.

More than anything, this game was about Gerald Henderson demonstrating that he really can be the dominant player that everyone has hoped he could be. He was incredible to watch.

[delfrio]

I'm just glad we have such a large golf shirt budget.