Originally Posted by
CenOhioDukeFan
For the last 3-4 years, Duke has gone to a 3 guard lineup. Every big game we're in, we're being outrebounded and killed inside (WVU 45 reb, Duke 19). K built his great teams in the 80's, 90's and early 00's with 6'6" - 6'9" athletic forwards that could rebound, run the court, and play the man-to-man defense. (Players like Alarie, Brickey, King, G. Hill, Lang, McCleod, Battier, Carrawell, Dunleavy, Jones and Deng. We've kind of gone away from recruiting those type of players and are settling for 3 guard lineups.
Also, the aggressive man-to-man defense K built his great tams with had great athletes at ever postition. While the last 3-4 year Duke teams had very skilled players, it's safe to say they, except for a couple players, aren't great athletes that can chase quicker players all over the court and stay with them or in front of them. Is it time to change some defensive schemes and play some zones and some junk defenses, just to help players like Zoubek, McClure, Paulus and Scheyer have better chances at stopping some teams penatration. Duke went into a 2-3 zone tyhe last 10 minutes of the Virginia game at Va. They held them to 5 pts over those 10 minutes and 0 pts for 6 1/2 minutes. Zoubek, Singler and Henderson also dominated the defensive glass. Yet Duke never went back to that defense and teams like Belmont and West Virginia drove on Duke all night and all day for easy baskets and kick out for wide open threes. When BELMONT has players beating you one on one, isn't it time to tweak some things and the way you play defense until to start getting those athletic recruits again!!!
Thoughts??