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Post your comments here.
Bob Green
So if we when the ACC tournment can we still get #1 in the east?
Sooooo angry about this game...
They "let them play," which only benefits a more physical team like UNC.
And man... if they hit a couple shots up 2, game's over.
Instead, they went into dribble-drive-turnover mode. ARRRRRRRRGGGGH.
And WTF was up with that non-call on the Scheyer 3?
That sucked.
Tough to win without scoring a single point over the last 5:40
I see where Tyler gets that "I'm gonna cry any second now" look...from his DAD!! They showed him on the ESPN feed, and MAN did he look EXACTLY the same. Speaking of Tyler, I thought we did a great job keeping him down most of the game.
I was really proud of the team for fighting so hard to get back in the game in the second half. I thought they just didn't have anything left in the tank that last five minutes.
Thanks, Demarcus, for a GREAT four years. There are few guys I've been more proud to call a BLUE DEVIL than you. The way you've fought through the injuries to become the player that you've become, and the way you've become the young man you've become, is, in a word, special. Thanks.
Oh I totally agree. See my earlier posts. I think they "let them play" which benefits the bigger, stronger team. I would have rather seen some fouls called and made it more of a finesse game than a power game. It was like watching Wisconsin-Michigan St. Boring and frustrating.
I totally agree with this sentiment. And it's not that UNC got all the calls, or anything like that. I think things were called, basically speaking, on an even keel. The problem is with the type of game that was called. Any time that over the backs are not called it's going to benefit UNC. That's just a fact of life at this point. We don't do "over the back/crash the boards by going through people" very well. They do. And if the refs let that one aspect of the game go physical, it benefits Carolina all day, every day. I can't ever remember when they haven't played that way. They are talented enough where they don't have to play that way to win. That's not what I'm saying. But when they are allowed to play that way they are generally going to beat us. It's just not our strong suit, especially this year.
I'm also in agreement with everyone that thinks emotions got the best of us last night (i.e. we were worn out at the end, in part, due to the emotions of "Senior Night"). Personally, I think DeMarcus kinda psyched himself out with all the talk about not wanting a repeat of JJ and Shel's senior night. That was a miscalculation on his part, IMHO. Even if he felt that way, I wouldn't have communicated it to anyone else. It just adds undue pressure to yourself and everyone around you. I say you have to posture yourself where you are the hunter and not the hunted. And when you talk about past defeats and not wanting that to happen again you kinda put yourself in a defensive position, mentally speaking. And that makes you more like the quarry that's trying to avoid being caught - again. I don't like that. But that's only my personal take on the issue.
Overall I still love our chances of a run in the NCAA's. This game did little to change my mind on this point. It's really going to come down to us hitting open shots. We will get them because Markie and Gerald and solid penetrators and they are able to kick out now (much better than at the beginning of the season). We will get our looks. It's just going to be about hitting a decent percentage. So I like our shot at a Final Four run. I really do. At least this year I'll feel like it's in our hands more so than in recent years. I don't fear any defense in the nation. Heck, UNC probably played the best D they have all year and we still could have won that game with just a shot here or there falling. I love our chances in the Big Dance. I say bring on the field.
Gary
Re stallball, I do think it hurt us on a couple of possessions. My concern wasn't that we went too early, but that we didn't have enough of a lead, up only two. K may have thought his guys needed a bit of a breather? But on one particular possession I remember just flat running out of shot clock altogether - I think there was maybe 1 second left when someone heaved up an ugly shot.
My overall take on the game is that the better team won. It took a furious rally with furious defense to get Duke back in the game, and at that point we had nothing left. UNC's better athletes were just too much for Duke to match up with on less than a perfect night for our guys.
I don't feel too bad after this loss because of what we showed! That game could have gone either way, and I agree with you in that Duke was just totally tired when K waved for some hold up. I don't think it stalled our momentum at all; we just had no gas and he could see it. We could all see it in our shots during that last four minutes or so.
We are going to be very strong in the ACC tourney and in the NCAAs. Keep tuned in Devils, the team needs all of us!
dth.
I'm always impressed with the Duke players post-game interviews. First, they're very gracious in defeat, and complimentary of the other team. After a huge loss, many would wallow in self pity and talk about how they played poorly, but they instead also give Carolina credit for playing well in addition to talking about the aspects that they could improve on. Second, they're very eloquent and articulate compared to the vast majority of other college basketball players.
Even watching the UNC post-game interviews, I felt, Duke comes off as having a much better media presence and more down-to-earth players, IMO. And UNC is certainly one of the classier programs in the nation in regards to the type of men they recruit.
Danny Green's huge chest tattoos are also interesting. Especially the "$GREEN$ TAKES THE WORLD" that goes around a picture of the globe on the right side of his chest. At least, I think it says "TAKES" but I couldn't quite make out that word. Can anybody make out the huge quote on his left side? Was just curious. I'm not saying having tattoos makes somebody unclassy (we have a few players with them), I just can't imagine Coach K recruiting a player who would have gotten a GREEN$$$$$ tattoo, but I could be wrong...
See http://wral.com/sports/ and the sports video playlist for the videos.
Gary, we've disagreed on enough matters elsewhere that I thought it worth saying how on target I think you are here. It's usually one of K's real strengths to be able to help the players frame these challenges mentally in the right way, but Markie probably put some extra pressure on himself here he didn't need.
On the stallball issue, I'm with Jumbo. I didn't second guess K at all because I could see the tired legs. And I was also thinking that since Carolina was pretty clearly the better team last night, shortening the end of the game as much as possible by eating clock would give Duke a better chance to win. Without, I hope, revisiting the bench question, I would suggest that K consider using his longer first half rotation in the second half as well, given how much energy and effort Duke typically expends. It would give the guys who are going to be in at the end another minute or two of rest, and it might elevate King's confidence to the point where the one or two shots he gets in tight games are more likely to go in.
Also, by way of second guessing, for a long time I've wondered what's up with K's standard end-of-the-first-half offensive play. Going back at least to Grant Hill, it has been, as far as I can remember, nothing but a clear out for the best one-on-one player, having him dribble around until nine seconds are left and then throw up a shot that has virtually no chance to go in. I'd wager that if someone went back and checked the percentages in these situations, he would find that Duke has been scoring less than 20 percent of the time for years. It seems like the main idea is to prevent a turnover, rather than score.
Of course, K seems very much to have settled into the NBA-like offensive philosophy of exploiting individual match-ups, rather than running the old-fashioned set plays. I think the Olympics is going to provide a very interesting test of the two approaches.
Didnt Butch say he wouldnt come to UNC because he didnt have enough "swagger"?
Perfect quote.
Thanks, dkbaseball. I think the Markie situation was pretty obvious. There just wasn't any need to insert more pressure into that moment, but that's what he did (unintended as I'm sure it was).
I absolutely agree with your comments about the 1st half rotation being used some in the 2nd half of games. 100% agree. That's been my one beef for most of the ACC season, because it's been really clear that we are willing to use the full 10 in the first half pretty much regardless of score or situation. But not so in the 2nd half. I'd like to see that tweaked just a tad so that we have fresher players come crunch time.
Gary
On a related note, go Hokies.
I had a feeling that when G missed that follow up that might loom huge. The no call over the back on Jon allowing them to tie didn't help much either. Still this game came down to how awful Duke played in the 1st half.
If we're a #2 what region we getting sent to?
Going into tonight, I thought Duke had to win out for the rest of the season to get the #1 seed in the East. At this point, we still have a shot at a #1 seed, but not in the east IMO.
The East #1 seed is UNC's to lose. Even if they do lose in the ACC Tournament (and we beat them), I think Tennessee or Memphis would get the East #1 over us.
That being said, as long as we make the quarterfinals of the ACC tourney, I think we're guaranteed a #2 seed. If we manage to win the whole thing, we could certainly sneak in the back door to a #1 seed, but we need help to get it.
"There can BE only one."
Well unless our bus driver forgets where the Bobcats Arena is we won't miss the Qtrs since we have all ready locked up that spot as the #2 seed . I agree with you though.
On the #1 seed topic who's to say that we even need that. Remember besides 86, 92, 01, and 04 *in K's time* we have been to the FF without being the #1 seed. 91 we won it as a #2 seed so who knows maybe we can do better this time out of that spot? Just trying to look at the bright side of things.