Duke vs. UVA Post-Game Thread

[DoubleDuke Dad]

Without looking it up, who do you think is currently the best 3 point shooter percentagewise on the Duke team?

[Jfrosh]

I thought it was one of our best games offensively. So many of our parts were just clicking. Of course it helps when you hit your shots, but has been mentioned before, the extra pass was consistenly made for easy buckets.
The man to man defense was disappointing. As is a recurring theme we just could not stop the dribble penetration. At the start of the game it seemed Singletary would go off for 35 points. I am proud of Coach for switching to the zone. In past years we likely would have lost that game with the inability to stop them from scoring.

[whereinthehellami]

Without looking it up, who do you think is currently the best 3 point shooter percentagewise on the Duke team?

Look at the number of shots attempted by said person though. This person is much more selective. The person in second place (my guess) has attmepted around twice as many threes while still putting up an amazing percentage.

[DoubleDuke Dad]

Look at the number of shots attempted by said person though. This person is much more selective. The person in second place (my guess) has attmepted around twice as many threes while still putting up an amazing percentage.

whereinthehellami,

I was not trying to make any larger point. I just thought it was interesting that he is shooting such a high percentage. Clearly, that makes him a much more effective player.

[2535Miles]

There are too many posters I agree with to name individually in this thread. All around this was a great game for us and, for the most part, I was really impressed with defensive execution. A few things:

1. It seems like Duke gives up too many easy drives to the basket. I haven't been able to sit down and watch the game again and get times (darn work) but there were moments when UVA seemed to get easy cuts to the basket. They didn't seem like aggressive slasher moves, or the results of mismatches. Instead it seemed like Duke just sat back on let them have the basket. I hope we can correct this before Saturday. Anyone else seeing this?

2. I'm really impressed with Zoubek's progression in the last few games, especially his court awareness when he's in the post. While he may not give Duke the typical big man presence down low, I've seen him make some really great passes to teammates that drive the lane once he gets the ball. If he can get Psycho-T's attention, perhaps Hendo or Nelson can get an easy layup/dunk.

3. Welcome back Hendo!!!

4. I can't wait for Saturday!!!

GTHC GTH!!!

[should_be_working]

Anyone notice coach K yelling at Greg last night? Its been a while since I've seen K go after a player like that. Looked as if he did so with a slew of curse words as well, which was obviously caught on camera. It surprised me to see such anger from K at a stretch where we were playing quite well. Still not sure what Greg did to deserve the bashing.

Anyway, great game. We looked like we were back to old form knocking down 3s and playing a little better defense. The only thing i would have liked to see was king get some more minutes and knock down some shots - getting him on target could be a huge advantage. I didn't like how long the starters stayed in at the end though, i thought they could have come out earlier and got some more rest.

[rsvman]

Without looking it up, who do you think is currently the best 3 point shooter percentagewise on the Duke team?

I'm going to guess Nolan Smith or DeMarcus Nelson. Second would probably be Paulus.

[OldPhiKap]

Anyone notice coach K yelling at Greg last night? Its been a while since I've seen K go after a player like that. Looked as if he did so with a slew of curse words as well, which was obviously caught on camera. It surprised me to see such anger from K at a stretch where we were playing quite well. Still not sure what Greg did to deserve the bashing.

I saw that, too, and thought it was funny that Dan Patrick was saying "Coach Krzyzewski must be happy with what he sees" as they went to the commercial (we had a rebound on the defensive end and a basket on the offensive end). I time-slipped the game and did not see any obvious defensive lapse or offensive mistake by GP during that exchange. But K took a quick time out in an odd place, so he obviously saw or heard something that was not to his liking.

I'm glad you brought this up b/c it was a curious event and I had kind of forgotten about it. Wonder what was said and what the issue was.

[DoubleDuke Dad]

I'm going to guess Nolan Smith or DeMarcus Nelson. Second would probably be Paulus.

It is DeMarcus. His shooting percentage is .442. Paulus is second on the team at .430. However he has taken almost twice as many 3s as DeMarcus. By the way, Nolan Smith has really raised his shooting percentage lately. Not too long ago he was at around .250. He is now shooting .388. Of course he has not taken many 3s.

[MonitorMom]

this year Coach K does most of his yelling when we are winning. When the chips are down he appears to be detached until the guys can figure out the game plan, then he'll get back involved.

[dukechem]

I was at the game last night and was very impressed with JPJA. Even from up in the nosebleed section (Row X), I felt I could see the action very well (except when people were coming and going in front of me during the game.)

I did feel that the arena, although not the atmosphere, was very professional-like. The amount of advertising was almost oppressive. The scoreboard seemed like it constantly had some ad playing. The display under the upperdeck also had frequent ads, and there were many advertising gimmicks during timeouts and at half-time. There was even a bank logo on the floor. I know, someone has to pay the bills, but I feel that it detracts from the college game to have so much commercialism on display.

The use of the scoreboard to get the crowd to stand up or make noise also seems more like what is done at professional games.

I don't go to games very often, so all this is probably standard operating procedure these days, especially in the new mega-arenas. It's just not the college atmosphere I remember from the 60s.

[pfrduke]

Anyone notice coach K yelling at Greg last night? Its been a while since I've seen K go after a player like that. Looked as if he did so with a slew of curse words as well, which was obviously caught on camera. It surprised me to see such anger from K at a stretch where we were playing quite well. Still not sure what Greg did to deserve the bashing.

I'm not sure it was 100% directed at Paulus. My layman's lipreading of Coach K looked like "what the f-bomb are we doing on defense!?!?" Paulus just happened to be (in)conveniently right in front of him. Just my two cents on it.

[should_be_working]

I'm not sure it was 100% directed at Paulus. My layman's lipreading of Coach K looked like "what the f-bomb are we doing on defense!?!?" Paulus just happened to be (in)conveniently right in front of him. Just my two cents on it.

Yeah i haven't heard/seen K drop the f-bomb before. Either I've just missed it, or he was really upset. I've never been to a game so I'm not familiar with his words of choice

[DangerDevil]

Yeah i haven't heard/seen K drop the f-bomb before. Either I've just missed it, or he was really upset. I've never been to a game so I'm not familiar with his words of choice

You've just missed it. Especially during timeouts, Coach K can get pretty intense and isn't afraid to let the guys know what he is thinking. One of my favorite spots to sit in Cameron was behind the Duke bench and watch Coach K throughout the game, definitely able to see/hear things that the camera didn't catch.

[pfrduke]

Yeah i haven't heard/seen K drop the f-bomb before. Either I've just missed it, or he was really upset. I've never been to a game so I'm not familiar with his words of choice

Coach K's sideline language is pretty notorious. I think he's decent with the refs, but with the team, he's pretty much a sailor out there. Ditto for practice.

[Chitowndevil]

This is kind of a random thought, wasn't sure where to post it. But while we're on the subject of coaching, check out this quote from Dave Leitao after the game:

"I thought coming in that when you play not a good, but an excellent, team that you have to play virtually possession for possession and mistake free."

Contrast that with, if you saw it, the pregame speech Dino Gaudio gave to his players that was televised during the Duke/Wake game. As I remember it, he said "we don't have to play perfect, because they're not going to play perfect. What we need to do is play hard, and play together."

Quite a contrast between a guy I think may well win ACC COY and a guy I think will be out of a job in another year or two.

[summerwind03]

Yeah i haven't heard/seen K drop the f-bomb before. Either I've just missed it, or he was really upset. I've never been to a game so I'm not familiar with his words of choice

Ha ha ha ha ha!! You really need to work on your lip-reading skills!! He definitely curses like a sailor. Hope you get to a game to see it in person.

[ugadevil]

This is kind of a random thought, wasn't sure where to post it. But while we're on the subject of coaching, check out this quote from Dave Leitao after the game:

"I thought coming in that when you play not a good, but an excellent, team that you have to play virtually possession for possession and mistake free."

Contrast that with, if you saw it, the pregame speech Dino Gaudio gave to his players that was televised during the Duke/Wake game. As I remember it, he said "we don't have to play perfect, because they're not going to play perfect. What we need to do is play hard, and play together."

Quite a contrast between a guy I think may well win ACC COY and a guy I think will be out of a job in another year or two.

It definitely is an interesting perspective that both coaches seems to take towards playing Duke. For Gaudio, it seems like it would give his players confidence by sending the message that his players have enough talent/skill to beat Duke without worrying about making mistakes. For Leitao, it's like he's sending the message that his players aren't good enough to make mistakes but still be able to play with Duke.

[DukieInBrasil]

This was the type of win that we were rolling up pretty regularly during the 1st half of the ACC, double digits but not a blow-out even though we were in control the whole 2nd half. What was also reminiscent of that by-gone era was the exceptional balance of scoring, rebounding and assisting.

The Gerald might be a better player now that he has hurt his wrist (his FT and 3pt shooting have both improved since then) since he is passing better and his rebounding is as good as ever. Maybe he's realizing he doesn't have to score a lot to be an efficient player, which has had the reciprocal effect of helping him score more points.

I really like what I'm seeing from Paulus lately. He may not be a superior athlete in quickness but he is a superior athlete in skill and competitive fire. He's been pretty steady this year, but he too saw a dip in his production for a few games but is playing pretty close to his peak productivity now as he has regained his 3ball stroke.

Scheyer continues to play great-if-at-times-understated basketball, double-digit pts, couple of rebs, a steal and a 4/1 a/to. Scheyer is such a good ball handler now that Nolan can fit into the offense at more of his natural spot, 2G. Speaking of which, the upsurge in Smith's 3pt shooting has been awesome, he is now equal with King in 3pt%. Does anyone remember thinking earlier "hey, I bet Nolan will shoot the 3ball as well as King"?

The Captain had a very nice game, scoring 16 pts on 10 shots despite a 2-5 FT night. Not quite as good as the 19 pts on 7 shots from the State game, but hey. As noted previously, The Captain seems to have a big game followed by a quiet game. It seems lately though that the "up" games (19 vNCSU) are just slightly less up than previously but the "down" games (16 vUVA) are much better, guess that's another way of saying that DN is getting more consistent. The more reliable The Captain, the better Duke is as a team.

The new Devils we're seeing now have something they didn't have before, some interior presence. It is still a very modest presence, but Z's triumphant return has totally proven me wrong. I thought he would come back completely ineffective and do pretty much nothing else of note this year. One double-double and several strait games of efficient ball have made Z a valuable part of our 10-man rotation, you read that right, K is using a 10-man rotation, though King and McClure seldom get very much PT. Alongside Z, LT has begun playing better ball too, rebounding consistently even if the scoring is erratic. These 2 however, shot 1-4 FTs, frikin' poor.
Singler may be the only player to be slumping, despite leading the team in rebounding and scoring 18. His scoring and rebounding have been fine, even above his average, but his FG% is in steady and serious decline.

[kydevil]

By the way, Nolan Smith has really raised his shooting percentage lately. Not too long ago he was at around .250. He is now shooting .388. Of course he has not taken many 3s.

It seems like Nolan shoots better than that, he's always knocking down a big "3"