You know what's awesome?

[Jumbo]

Duke played its reserves considerably less tonight, yet no one is starting a panicked thread worrying about the team's "depth." Does this mean that people might be coming around to my way of thinking, that depth isn't a measure of how many guys you do play in a given game, but how many you can play? And that minutes should be distrubuted based on performance that night? Clearly, Smith was off his game. I'm pretty sure McClure hasn't been healthy all year and is gutting it out. Zoubek is still working his way back. King is struggling. But those guys all got at least one stint in the first half. K got 10 guys into the game in the first 20 minutes of a big matchup. In the second half, he went with the guys who were playing well, and they responded. So hopefully we've put this issue to bed this season. (Yeah, I probably just jinxed things.)

[mehmattski]

Not to mention that for most of this season, we've played some of the most effective stall ball I've ever seen. Tonight, Jon Scheyer spent 10 seconds teasing James Osby out of the low block and then drove right past him for an easy layup with 5 seconds left on the shot clock. Absolutely beautiful execution.

Depth? Check.
Stall-ball works? Check
Crazies at the top of their game? Check
Keeping up with/outrebounding bigger teams? Check
Taking plenty of mid-range shots? Check

What in the world will Duke fans complain about????

[OldPhiKap]

I haven't looked at the stat sheet, but McClure seemed to get a few key rebounds when he was in. Zoubek gave Lance a good rest and is still working himself into shape. Smith, IIRC, ran into some foul trouble. So it's not like these guys didn't get into the game or that they didn't play key roles. King was given some time to get his shot down, too -- if he had hit a few, i bet he'd have stayed in longer.

But, to jinx you, I'm gonna start a thread about how much better we would have played if Marty was available. (And in all honesty, I look forward to a healthy Marty contributing big-time next year).

[dukelifer]

Duke played its reserves considerably less tonight, yet no one is starting a panicked thread worrying about the team's "depth." Does this mean that people might be coming around to my way of thinking, that depth isn't a measure of how many guys you do play in a given game, but how many you can play? And that minutes should be distrubuted based on performance that night? Clearly, Smith was off his game. I'm pretty sure McClure hasn't been healthy all year and is gutting it out. Zoubek is still working his way back. King is struggling. But those guys all got at least one stint in the first half. K got 10 guys into the game in the first 20 minutes of a big matchup. In the second half, he went with the guys who were playing well, and they responded. So hopefully we've put this issue to bed this season. (Yeah, I probably just jinxed things.)

All is usually good when Duke is winning by double digits. Duke always seems to look fresher then their opponent in the last five minutes. I am not sure why that is- but given that Duke has SO many options, mentally- these guys are not wearing down. Tonight- they really played like a senior ladened team. Scheyer and Singler seem to always make the right play and with a dash of the spectacular drive/dunk by Henderson and Nelson - you have a very tough team to play in crunch time. The three-headed center is doing well and I expect King and Smith to get their second wind- but they have hit - dare I say- a bit of a wall.

[Channing]

Zoubek gave us exactly what we needed out of him - some good strong low post defense. He came in had an immediate impact on the defensive end. I watch him on offense, and while it isnt always pretty - it is obvious he has made strides. I dont think I have seen him called for a walk yet this year. It seems that the skill is there, it just needs to be brought out.

[TNTDevil]

Zoubek gave us exactly what we needed out of him - some good strong low post defense. He came in had an immediate impact on the defensive end. I watch him on offense, and while it isnt always pretty - it is obvious he has made strides. I dont think I have seen him called for a walk yet this year. It seems that the skill is there, it just needs to be brought out.

The aforehighlighted sentences should not be used consecutively.

Other than that, I agree completely.

[ice-9]

Oops, you might have -- I just posted in the GP thread that I was getting worried about NS' low minutes. I haven't checked but it seems like a trend the past few games...NS has not been playing much. Freshman wall?

[Truth]

Duke played its reserves considerably less tonight, yet no one is starting a panicked thread worrying about the team's "depth." Does this mean that people might be coming around to my way of thinking, that depth isn't a measure of how many guys you do play in a given game, but how many you can play? And that minutes should be distrubuted based on performance that night? Clearly, Smith was off his game. I'm pretty sure McClure hasn't been healthy all year and is gutting it out. Zoubek is still working his way back. King is struggling. But those guys all got at least one stint in the first half. K got 10 guys into the game in the first 20 minutes of a big matchup. In the second half, he went with the guys who were playing well, and they responded. So hopefully we've put this issue to bed this season. (Yeah, I probably just jinxed things.)

I hope you're right, but I think it's more of an issue that we're only 2.5 hours away from the game's conclusion. Let's see what tomorrow brings... By mid-tmw, I'm sure I'll be responding to friends' emails about why TK didn't get 2nd half PT...

[SlimSlowSlider]

TK was brutal. Hope your friends don't sent such emails. He will, however, snap out of this funk.

[snewman92]

I hope you're right, but I think it's more of an issue that we're only 2.5 hours away from the game's conclusion. Let's see what tomorrow brings... By mid-tmw, I'm sure I'll be responding to friends' emails about why TK didn't get 2nd half PT...

And your prophecy is confirmed! See the recent post by Tchoup in the post-game thread. Sorry, Jumbo. . .

[bluepenguin]

Duke played its reserves considerably less tonight, yet no one is starting a panicked thread worrying about the team's "depth." Does this mean that people might be coming around to my way of thinking, that depth isn't a measure of how many guys you do play in a given game, but how many you can play?

Just wishful thinking on your part.
You need to come around to everyone else's thinking, that K doesn't know how to use his bench. He's probably just getting lucky this year. It was bound to happen eventually.

[BigTedder]

Not to mention that for most of this season, we've played some of the most effective stall ball I've ever seen. Tonight, Jon Scheyer spent 10 seconds teasing James Osby out of the low block and then drove right past him for an easy layup with 5 seconds left on the shot clock. Absolutely beautiful execution.

Depth? Check.
Stall-ball works? Check
Crazies at the top of their game? Check
Keeping up with/outrebounding bigger teams? Check
Taking plenty of mid-range shots? Check

What in the world will Duke fans complain about????

Chapel Hill is still there...no good team is there anymore, but the city still remains...so we still got that...oh and we lost a game this year...30something - 1 aint too bad.

[Lulu]

If I'm being honest, I did have some nagging, negative thoughts about a 7-man rotation throughout this last game. That's just if I'm being honest, otherwise I didn't notice and I think we're going to roll through the tourney this year, well rested and only paring down the rotation if it's better suited for certain matchups, or mismatches.

[Lulu]

So long after my previous post I was looking at the box score...

Our top 5 did average 31.8 minutes tonight. I am not complaining, simply stating that I remember when we didn't have a single player playing as many minutes earlier this season. Thomas did play 22. The rest played 19.

Is this just a function of the way Maryland was playing us (giving up the 3, though that doesn't explain TK so well except that his shot has been off), OR, is this some kind of deliberate shift being imposed to start preparing us for the post -season? For reference, the numbers are below:
K. Singler, F 37
L. Thomas, F 22
G. Paulus, G 34
G. Hend, G-F 28
D. Nelson, G 35
N. Smith, G 6
D. McClure, F 7
T. King, F 2
J. Scheyer, G 25
B. Zoubek, C 4

Really, you can jump all over me all you want for posting this, but I guarantee every rival of ours is already talking about it.

[dukelifer]

So long after my previous post I was looking at the box score...

Our top 5 did average 31.8 minutes tonight. I am not complaining, simply stating that I remember when we didn't have a single player playing as many minutes earlier this season. Thomas did play 22. The rest played 19.

Is this just a function of the way Maryland was playing us (giving up the 3, though that doesn't explain TK so well except that his shot has been off), OR, is this some kind of deliberate shift being imposed to start preparing us for the post -season? For reference, the numbers are below:
K. Singler, F 37
L. Thomas, F 22
G. Paulus, G 34
G. Hend, G-F 28
D. Nelson, G 35
N. Smith, G 6
D. McClure, F 7
T. King, F 2
J. Scheyer, G 25
B. Zoubek, C 4

Really, you can jump all over me all you want for posting this, but I guarantee every rival of ours is already talking about it.

But here we have Smith playing 6 minutes- but we all know if called upon (due to foul trouble or situation) he can preform at a high level. This is also true of McClure, King and to some degree Zoubs in a few weeks after he gets his conditioning back. I think the key is that Smith and King are ready if needed and I also expect they will get their second wind. The next few weeks will be tough on all.

[MarkD83]

First, it is really hard to assess depth by the minutes played in one game so we probably should not over analyze this.

If you do look at minutes played you can see that the most effective players played the most minutes: Singler 37, Paulus 34. Since Md could not handle these two the only way to stop them would have been to put them on the bench.

To give you a comparison, I went to the UNC-UVA ame on Tuesday. Hansbrough had his normal game but Roy kept taking him out so that Stephenson and Thompson could get playing time. UVA loved it. Whenever, Hansbrough was out of the game UVA crept back in. The easiest way to stop someone is have him sit on the bench.

[weezie]

Seeing the Devils play that stall ball is like opening a hidden Christmas present tucked way, way under the tree in the back. It's surprising and giddy-making each and every time. And frankly, amazing!

[Troublemaker]

Our top 5 did average 31.8 minutes tonight. I am not complaining, simply stating that I remember when we didn't have a single player playing as many minutes earlier this season. Thomas did play 22. The rest played 19.

Is this just a function of the way Maryland was playing us

It's a function of Coach K's respect for Maryland. All coaches shorten their rotation for the big games, the most competitive games. The next time Duke plays a scrub team, the rotation will expand again.

Check almost any team's box scores, not just Duke, and they will shorten their rotation for the competitive games. This goes for the top teams as well.

Just in the past few days:

UCLA at WSU: http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/boxsco...d=200802070632

Kansas at Texas:
http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/boxsco...d=200802110585

I think if you start looking at other box scores instead of just Duke's, you will see that almost everyone does this. (And it's the right thing to do to play your best players the most minutes in your toughest games).

This season has done a good job weaning people off the "every player on the roster should play [roughly the same minutes]" notion. Now we just have to get everyone used to the fact that competitive games dictate shorter rotations.

[Troublemaker]

If I'm being honest, I did have some nagging, negative thoughts about a 7-man rotation throughout this last game. That's just if I'm being honest, otherwise I didn't notice and I think we're going to roll through the tourney this year, well rested and only paring down the rotation if it's better suited for certain matchups, or mismatches.

There are two things wrong with your thought process. Implicitly, you are stating that:

1) Depth controls how well Duke will fare in the tournament. But depth is only one small aspect of how well a basketball team functions. If this year's Duke team shot and passed and handled the ball like last year's Duke team did, then they could have an 11-man rotation and still struggle. Depth is just one small strength for this team among many strengths.

2) You are also implying that you will judge this team based on how well it fares in the tournament. Mathematically (probability-wise), it's a terrible way to judge. And I'm not picking on you because the vast majority of college basketball fans think that the single-elimination crapshoot-ish NCAA tournament is the best way to judge teams. If the NBA held a 1-game-series tournament instead of the 7-game-series tournament that they do, Jordan's Bulls would only have 2 rings instead of 6, Duncan would only have 1 ring instead of 4, Shaq would have 2 instead of 4, etc etc. The differences reflect how often those teams lost the first game of a series. Those teams still ended up winning championships under this method (single-elimination) but they won them at a much lower rate mostly due to the bad luck of matchups being 1 game series instead of 7.

[dukegirlinsc]

no complaints here!
i love this team...they could do cartwheels bringing the ball down the court, and i'm not sure i would care, as long as it worked.

fine with me.
keep it up boys.