Duke MBB at Wake Forest post-game thread

[throatybeard]

No Baptist ministers were harmed in the making of this thread.

[FireOgilvie]

Worst game I've seen us play in several years at Duke.

[calltheobvious]

There are 100 teams whose best game could beat the best 3 teams' worst.

I know that seems like a back-handed compliment to Wake, but I don't mean it to be. They were simply tremendous tonight, the lackluster Duke effort notwithstanding.

Next play.

[Karl Beem]

There are 100 teams whose absolute best game could beat the best 3 teams' absolute worst.

I know that seems like a back-handed compliment to Wake, but I don't mean it to be. They were simply tremendous tonight, the lackluster Duke effort notwithstanding.

Next play.

Balls. They were given the game. They'll lose by 40 at Carolina.

[feldspar]

Balls. They were given the game. They'll lose by 40 at Carolina.

Way to keep it classy, Karl.

[Duvall]

Way to keep it classy, Karl.

They will lose by 40 at Carolina, though.

[godukerocks]

They will lose by 40 at Carolina, though.

They probably will.

But I hope they don't.

[Duvall]

Yo, feldspar - a question re the over-and-back call with ~2:00 minutes left. Was that good or bad? Can you gain possession by tipping a loose ball?

[hurleyfor3]

This game doesn't bother me. If we're going to have Just One Of Those Off Nights, there are worse teams to have it against than Wake.

BTW, Wake, the world of dance music thinks it's funny your official song is a track that's NINE years old now.

[feldspar]

BTW, Wake, the world of dance music thinks it's funny your official song is a track that's NINE years old now.

Tell it to Pepsi.

[luigi90]

I am not blaming the refs for this loss, however, I am wondering if anyone can recall a game when all of the starters fouled out? I don't think I have ever seen this before.

closest thing i recall was the 2004 final four game against UCONN when that crew fouled out our entire front line

[Highlander]

Had to watch the game on a delay, so I started already knowing we lost. I've read a lot of the comments here about the officiating and the shooting in the last 10 minutes, so I thought it was odd that with 11:15 to go in the game:

• Duke has shot more Free Throws than Wake. Wake has hit one more.
• Duke shot 55% from the floor in the first half.
• Duke shot 46% from the floor in the first 9:45 of the second.
• Duke has 1 person with 4 fouls (Thomas) and a couple with 3. Pretty typical for this point in the game IMO.
• Duke has 15 turnovers, which is about 4-5 above their average for this point in the game.

Other than the 15 or so turnovers, at this point this is a typical Duke game.

Then the bottom drops out.

We finished the game at 39%, which is amazing considering our %ages to this point in the game. It's also amazing that Duke would have 5 guys foul out when at this point only one is in serious foul trouble (and 2 others in moderate trouble).

I'll go watch the last 11 minutes now, with a bottle of pepto handy. This is going to be ugly...

[sandinmyshoes]

As that game rolled along I was remind of a comment DBR used in one of their game recaps, I think it was the UNC game. Speed kills. It killed us tonight.

But, that's ACC basketball. Earlier in the year UNC was rolling and we were struggling. Then all of a sudden, we're rolling and they struggle. Now they destroy VT and we get handled by Wake. Throw in nice run Maryland is putting together after a rough start, and it's so typical ACC that I wonder why I'm surprised by it every year.

[GatorBait15]

Sorry that it just couldnt happen guys

[pamtar]

We beat the holes.

Keep that in mind in times like these.

[RelativeWays]

We beat the holes.

Keep that in mind in times like these.

Sorry but "WE BEAT UNC" doesn't count for crap when losing to Wake, and lets remember that the holes have a return engagement as well.

[Oriole Way]

The refs didn't matter that much, we had little chance to win based on how we played all night. The fact we dug ourselves into a huge hole with 4+ minutes left led to the typical flurry of fouls which are called when the losing team is scrambling to make a comeback. Lots of Wake/Duke games at Joel have been called tightly.

Missing free throws like crazy, getting outrebounded and outhustled, and WAY too many turnovers are what killed us tonight.

A few things alarm me, in order of concern:

1. Henderson's wrist seems to be a serious problem. He's just not the same player since he injured it. I'd like to see him sit out a few games to try and let it heal; if that won't do it, our team is much less dynamic and I don't think we can make a deep run in March.

2. The free throws. This will start and end with DeMarcus. He just takes so many free throws that he can single-handedly determine how well Duke shoots from the line as a team. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, but he's a senior and he's elevated every other aspect of his game this year. It's not a coincidence that both of our losses featured piss poor free throw shooting.

3. For being such a smart player, Kyle Singler makes some of the dumbest fouls you'll ever see. Fouls 50 and 60 feet away from the basket he's defending. Fouling guys in transition he's not even guarding. It has to stop so he can stay on the floor, and it's not a hard thing to do.

There's a few other pressing concerns, but nothing that can't be remedied. Loved how Nolan Smith played tonight. Scheyer's last few games have been depressing, he needs to step up.

[OldSchool]

The starters looked exhausted after 30 minutes.

Demarcus tried to put the team on his back when Wake started pulling away, but he just seemed too worn out. He would work tremendously hard to drive to the basket and then miss the layin.

Officiating was inconsistent. After the call on McFarland, the three-man team seemed unable to get a consistent approach to foul-calling which worked to our disadvantage.

Nolan looked great down the stretch.

[Ben63]

Wow. That was absolutley pathetic. No Hustle, no effort, no desire, no emotion. The NBA All-Stars put more effort into their game than this Duke team did. You can't have much of a chance when 5 starters foul out, but it was just ugly.

Wake played great basketball all night.

[mehmattski]

39: Field Goal Percentage (Duke's worst of the season)
31: Fouls Committed (including one technical)
21: Turnovers
12: Missed Free Throws
4.5: Minutes without a FG in the second half... five different Blue Devils missed a 3 pointer in this stretch.

That, folks, is recipe for disaster.

Let's not forget the contribution from Nolan Smith today. While most of the Deacon's defense was focused on the 3, Smith showed up to keep the score close in the second half.