A Day Later ... and a Brighter View

[greybeard]

Can't believe that I misssed the whole thing, the tournament that is, but was involved in a 10-day training. Was bummed when I heard that Duke lost. This thread really hit the spot. Terrific lead story Jumbo. Some terrific add ons as well. Go Duke!

[RepoMan]

Frankly, I think we have more good news than bad. The good:

Nelson is playing the best basketball of his career.

Paulus is playing the best basketball of his career.

Scheyer (at least arguably) is playing the best basketball of his career.

Zoubek is playing the best basketball of his career.

McClure is playing the best he has played this season.

Smith is rounding back into form and is trending upwards.

We have the best coach in the country.


The not so good news:

Thomas has disappeared, but, when combined with Zoubek's emergence, this is not particularly alarming for this season. After UNC 1, I thought Lance really had turned the corner, but, at this point, that has to be viewed as a bit of an aberration.

King can't get off the pine. I have to say that, while I am not in the King-fetish crowd, I can't quite understand why K hasn't tried giving him a few more minutes, especially during the tournament as he dipped into the bench. Sometimes the team seems to miss a spark, and King has both the personality and the game to provide a spark. Still, we are going 9 deep and King certainly has shown that he can play, so having him ride the pine doesn't seem to impact negatively post-season prospects.

The bad:

If Singler doesn't return to form (or heck, at least get back to 75% of the level at which he had been playing earlier), we could struggle as early as the second game. As Jumbo has pointed out all season, we play in such a way that Kyle constantly gets open looks. If he keeps missing almost ALL of them, its a real problem. Likewise, we need him to more aggressively attack the basket, as he has done at times. The only good thing here is that he has kept shooting, despite the lack of results. He has to take those open shots.

Henderson had been steadily improving and adjusting to the wrist injury. It took him about 2 weeks to start playing better after the injury first happened in UNC 1. We don't have 2 weeks to wait here. Gerald brings a unique dimension to our offense, and this team has too small a margin for error to lose that. Again, I think we could struggle as early as the second game if Gerald is back to his immediately-post-UNC 1 form.



In all though, we have enjoyed a great season that surpassed pre-season expectations. We have perhaps the best tournament coach of all time, and lots of talented, hard-working, players, all of whom are great representatives of the school. We are one of about 10 teams that have a chance at winning this thing, and, as with any team, with a little luck, we could be right there at the end, which, really, is all you can hope for. (Well, in '99 I hoped for a little more.)

[RockyMtDevil]

Jumbo,
Thanks for the insight and thanks for the personal message, I just got too involved in the Clemson loss. Move on, and let's see what this team can do.

What a great, great year for our boys. 27-5 with a great win at Chapel Hill and a championship in Maui. We're building a foundation for what could be a special year next year. We have great, great kids, the BEST coach in America and there's nothing like duke being the dark horse in the west.

Let's see what the next several days have in store. Cheering like Crazy in Colorado!