Duke at Miami post-game thread

[dbd4ever]

Like I said after Wake, better to hit bumps in the regular season than in the tourney. I think the main objective is to get the No.1 seed for Raleigh. With a young team it will be necessary to play as close to home during the tourney as possible. But even our great teams had times during the season they didn't look so great. Time to get ready for St. Johns!! Go Devils!!!!!!

[Jumbo]

Did Nolan not play many minutes - looking at the boxscore here? If so, why not?

Turnovers. Lots and lots of turnovers.

[godukerocks]

Did Nolan not play many minutes - looking at the boxscore here? If so, why not?

Turnovers.

[FerryFor50]

Did Nolan not play many minutes - looking at the boxscore here? If so, why not?

Not sure. He looked a little perplexed by the matchup zone.

[Bluedog]

After hitting what I would consider the season low-point at about the 10 minute mark of the second half, down by 20, all I wanted was some quality play from the team. And they showed what they're made of at the end of this game. A loss is a loss and never particularly fun, but I'm surprisingly satisfied right now. I think the team fought their way back admirably and have maybe rediscovered what they do well. Drive and dish.

We're tied for first place and in complete control of our own destiny. Next play.

Wow, you are being much more positive than I am. I'm not saying the season is over or anything, but that was such uninspired play for the first 30 minutes. And we played no D throughout and gave up 55 pts in the second half. That just cannot happen. Too many sloppy turnovers. Hopefully, we'll turn it around and see the Duke we saw earlier in the season and in the last 10 minutes. I have confidence that we will.

[shadowfax336]

Because Nolan had one of those "clueless freshman PG", "deer in the headlights" type games when he was in
he was a mess tonight

[KandG]

Did Nolan not play many minutes - looking at the boxscore here? If so, why not?

Nolan was one of the worst culprits in terms of attacking the zone with zero basketball sense...and that's saying a lot, given how helpless we looked against the zone the entire game.

You could sort of see this coming, given that we were pretty shaky against the zone when we played Miami at Cameron...but no way could anyone have anticipated how atrociously we would "attack" it in this game. Our guys looked like my daughter's sixth grade team playing against a zone for the first time -- dribbling right into it and taking horrible shots or making horrible passes.

[Bluedog]

Nelson pulled a Chris-Duhon-against-UConn-2004.

Yes, very true. Unfortunately, this three didn't cover the spread so those who bet on Duke lost this time as opposed to before...

[The1Bluedevil]

I know nobody is enjoying this past week much, but how upset can one be? I highly doubt too many fans pictured Duke being 22-3 and in first place in the ACC fighting for a #1 seed.


Win, Lose or Draw I'm proud to say I cheer for Duke

[jipops]

Positives:

- Free throw shooting was MUCH improved
- Zoubek played well
- Lance Thomas showed some fire and intensity and played well
- Scheyer played out of his mind
- Great show of moxie coming back from 20 down

Negatives:

- killed again inside - we make anyone over 6'9" look like Shaq
- killed off the drives
- didn't handle the physical play too well
- bad decisions, bad shot selection
- Paulus, Nelson played awful
- Billy Packer

Seriously, do we have to have comment about the announcers after every single game? It's annoying. They have absolutely no bearing on the game being played on the floor. Sure, yell and snipe at their constant invalid commentary while you're watching the game on the tube, I sure as heck do, but do we have to treat them in post game threads like they were actually part of the game? It just seems like we treat these guys like they have something to do with the outcome. Comes across as a bit Roy Williams-ish (whiny) and kind of embarrassing.

[lmb]

Thank goodness for the comeback, or I would be thoroughly depressed. The turnovers were pretty mindboggling.

Can someone explain K's demeanor on the bench. He seemed pretty passive. In the Wake game, I thought it was a calculated move on his part. Of course, most of his actions are calculated. I just expected some more fire this time around.

Good game for Lance.

Didn't Packer notice that Gerald's wrist was wrapped?!? I nearly punched the screen when he said, for the 20th time, that Gerald needed to get his shot going.

[yancem]

That really sucked but at least we were able to show some toughness and make a comeback. The first 35 minutes was very disheartening. That is the second game in a row that we were out hustled. We made up for it for the most part in the last 5 minutes but we have to learn to play the full 40 minutes.

On the plus side, Thomas and Zoubek I think had solid games and if they can contribute at those levels from here on out, that would be huge. Scheyer also had a very strong game and seems to have found his shooting rhythm. He was still a little hesitant to shoot a couple of times but all in all a great game. Paulus didn't shoot well but 6 assists to 1 turnover is quite nice. If only the rest of the team had valued the ball at all.

I'm really concerned about Henderson. If his wrist continues to prevent him from contributing on offense, it is really going to wear on Nelson. Defenses can focus on him way to much since Henderson is being reduced to a cheerleader when we have the ball. It might be best to sit him for a game or two and see what Smith can do with the extra minutes.

Lastly it was nice to see King get some minutes. He still needs to work on his defense (he rarely seems to be in the right spot) and also needs to be more patient with his shot but he is a great weapon if he can learn to pick his spots better.

[FerryFor50]

Seriously, do we have to have comment about the announcers after every single game? It's annoying. They have absolutely no bearing on the game being played on the floor. Sure, yell and snipe at their constant invalid commentary while you're watching the game on the tube, I sure as heck do, but do we have to treat them in post game threads like they were actually part of the game? It just seems like we treat these guys like they have something to do with the outcome. Comes across as a bit Roy Williams-ish (whiny) and kind of embarrassing.

Did I say Packer had anything to do with Duke losing?

No, Packer had to do with my overall enjoyment watching the game with his snide comments, snickering and lack of preparation for the game.

Don't see why asking for some impartial and insightful broadcasting is "whiny."

[jipops]

I know nobody is enjoying this past week much, but how upset can one be? I highly doubt to many fans pictured Duke being 22-3 and in first place in the ACC fighting for a #1 seed.


Win, Lose or Draw I'm proud to say I cheer for Duke

True, at the beginning of the season I predicted a 10-6 conference record, I believe. Unfortunately, the way we're playing defense we may finish with that record.

[mkirsh]

What has happened to the D the last 2 games? The Duke signature ball pressure seems to be missing - is it bad match ups the past 2 games vs quick guards, fatigue, lack of focus, other? Whatever is wrong, it needs to be fixed as other teams are running their offenses with too much ease right now. Not going to win many games giving up 90 points.

On the other end, I was really surprised how inneffective our offense was against the match-up zone, and why no adjustments were made. Particularly, if we were having so much trouble why were we not pushing tempo and trying to score before they got set? Obvisouly one key to the running game is getting steals and rebounds which we didn't do a lot of tonight, but earlier in the year we were running a lot more off of made baskets, and did not do that for the first 30 minutes tonight (or for the past few games at all for that matter) when I think it would have really helped. The last 8-10 minutes when we played with more urgency, we got better shots as Miami didn't get to set up their D.

[DukePA]

I'm sad, but not devastated. The comeback made me feel a little better. I'm just really glad that I never said a word to the hole fans at work when they lost. Hopefully they'll continue to be decent especially since they aren't guaranteed to win all of their remaining games.

I still love this team. GO DUKE!!

[jzp5079]

Like it or not - deserve the game or not - Paulus doesn't take that horrendous shot at the end - and we had a much much better shot at actually pulling off a 20 from behind victory.

Still a team effort in the loss - but that shot erased some hard work (in a way).

[jipops]

Did I say Packer had anything to do with Duke losing?

No, Packer had to do with my overall enjoyment watching the game with his snide comments, snickering and lack of preparation for the game.

Don't see why asking for some impartial and insightful broadcasting is "whiny."

It's a recurring theme now on these post game threads. Why do we feel like we have to somehow grade the announcers the same way we grade the team?

So Packer affected your overall enjoyment of watching the game. This is a new development!??

[mehmattski]

Well, no one can complain about the lack of bench play tonight- Nolan got his usual minutes until he proved he can't beat the matchup zone... and otherwise Duke went 9 deep the whole game. Coach K was trying everything to get a lineup that worked, and it briefly did with Zoubek but the big guy is still recovering and can't play 25 minutes.

In the end it was the full-court press that turned the game around for Duke. Maybe if we go to it earlier, this game could have turned out differently. Or maybe this is one of those games you have to pin on the players for not stepping it up early enough. Poor effort from the beginning, too many turnovers, uncontrolled pace for the first 30 minutes...

[Madrasdukie]

Coming back from 20, despite the loss, and to lose by 1, for all intents and purposes should be a good segue for the next game...that does provide a sense of catharsis in a strange way.