Thomas fills a gap

[wisteria]

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/story/929096.html

Don't know if this has been posted already. It's nice to see that Lance is being singled out and his progress is getting recognized. Also interesting to see that at least some are beginning to realize we are not THAT soft inside. With Lance and hopefully Brian improving, we are far from peaking yet.


"Lance has really built up his confidence, and that's helped him," Smith said. "Early on, Kyle was the one battling. Now, Lance has been playing so tough, and soon we'll have [Brian] Zoubek back.

"I don't know why people call us soft inside."

[wisteria]

"Giving up 32 pounds to Hansbrough, Thomas still worked to post up Hansbrough and the Devils still fed him for key buckets such as the one he scored with 11:09 left to put Duke up 60-53."

" "It says something about the confidence my teammates have in me now," Thomas said."

That's what trust and chemistry can do to help players develop. I hope they continue to do this and Lance continues to give us consistent help inside.

[Madrasdukie]

"Giving up 32 pounds to Hansbrough, Thomas still worked to post up Hansbrough and the Devils still fed him for key buckets such as the one he scored with 11:09 left to put Duke up 60-53."

" "It says something about the confidence my teammates have in me now," Thomas said."

That's what trust and chemistry can do to help players develop. I hope they continue to do this and Lance continues to give us consistent help inside.

Nice read. Thanks. I liked the way Smith seemed puzzled as to why people think we are soft inside.

[DevilCastDownfromDurham]

Great article on Lance, who has been a joy to watch develop. In term of the "soft" comment, Duke's 3 point defense has been outstanding while our 2 point defense is "only 113th in Division I."

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?id=3234009

This team is wonderful, and K has the team doing a great job of compensating for our lack of size. But we're still very vulnerable in terms of defending midrange and post players. That's no slam on the team, everybody has some weaknesses and that one is ours.

[Madrasdukie]

Great article on Lance, who has been a joy to watch develop. In term of the "soft" comment, Duke's 3 point defense has been outstanding while our 2 point defense is "only 113th in Division I."

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?id=3234009

This team is wonderful, and K has the team doing a great job of compensating for our lack of size. But we're still very vulnerable in terms of defending midrange and post players. That's no slam on the team, everybody has some weaknesses and that one is ours.

But ofcourse you're correct. Post defense and post play is our much publicised weakness. I interpreted Smith's statement as something on the lines of, we're not as weak as people may think, and we're only getting stronger.

[DevilCastDownfromDurham]

I agree completely that we're much better than many (myself definitely included) though we would be. Obviously Lance's strides have made a huge difference, and G's ability to be an amazing weak side shot blocker has also been really helpful. Hope that Z and Dave can get healthy and give us another level down low.