MBB: Duke-MD in ACCT Semi-finals pre-game and in-game thread

[banneheim]

E-Will has got to hit some open shots...But Smith does look great! He missed that layup, but he does seem a little more focused this game.

[_Gary]

One distinct point I noticed last night and again today that's bugging me about the Duke offense. No pushing of the ball up the court at all. Just a continued walk it up style that is allowing other teams to set their defense. I feel like we have enough ballhandlers and athletes on this team to push it more off turnovers, misses and even makes on occasion. I think we only did it once in the first half and it actually resulted in a nice layup for Gerald.

When we went to the lineup we have now I really thought we might have to sacrifice a little bit of the stifling defense we played in December/January for more offense. If this lineup can't average 75-80 points a game, minimum, then we aren't taking advantage of what we have on the court, IMHO.

[pfrduke]

Plus/minusing the first half:

Duke
Smith - +12 (30-18)
Paulus - +9 (20-11)
McClure - +5 (17-12)
Singler - +2 (32-30)
Zoubek - +2 (4-2)
Scheyer - -1 (22-23)
Henderson - -1 (27-28)
Thomas - -8 (6-14)
Williams - -10 (2-12)

Maryland
Tucker - +7 (10-3)
Neal - +4 (28-24)
Bowie - +1 (18-17)
Vasquez - +1 (30-29)
Burney - 0 (0-0)
Mosley - -4 (16-20)
Gregory - -5 (7-12)
Hayes - -6 (21-27)
Milbourne - -8 (20-28)

[jv001]

We are shooting 50% from behind the arc (6-12). I doubt we can maintain that pace so we are going to have to figure out how to breakdown Maryland's defense inside or get out in transition better. Paulus and Smith were very solid off the bench scoring eight points on 3-5 shooting.

I look for more offensive rebounds by the Devils in the 2nd half. We need to hit the boards. The only thing that worries me there is Lance is not a good rebounder. Maybe Dave can get us extra shots because like Bob says we will not hit 50% of our 3's in the 2nd half. I would love to see Elliot hit a 3 to make them play honest defense. We could use Elliiot and Nolan's defense. Maybe some offense off our defense. Go Duke!

[Bob Green]

Patrick is terrible, Vitale is almost as bad.

With this announcing crew, the remote control mute button is not optional but required. Announcers annoy me in general but Vitale & Patrick ruin the game.

[CBDUKE]

I'm too old for this. Please get a lead so I can relax a little.

[hudlow]

Funny how Vasquez gets called for traveling when he's doing the same thing Psycho (on the bus) T gets by with.

[MonitorMom]

As bad as Patrick and Vitale are, I'd rather hear their confusion and blathering than Elmore's anti-Duke bias.

[_Gary]

Elliot, Nolan, and Gerald are all guys that can be at their best in an uptempo game. They can slash and so can Kyle and even Jon. We need to push the ball more and quit walking it up every single time.

[rthomas]

As bad as Patrick and Vitale are, I'd rather hear their confusion and blathering than Elmore's anti-Duke bias.

I'd rather hear someone rip Duke a new one rather than Vitale.

[GADevilFan]

block out mosley

[Greg_Newton]

Plus/minusing the first half:
Duke
Smith - +12 (30-18)

........

Williams - -10 (2-12)

Thanks for the numbers. The top line is very encouraging, the bottom line is extremely alarming. Elliot had 0's all the way across the stat sheet in the first half, I sure hope he gets a couple to go. Nice look to Hendo there, too bad the layup missed.

This looks like one of those days were Scheyer is close to automatic. Let's get him some looks.

[FerryFor50]

Williams gets knocked down... no call. Then what?

JUMP BALL!

The ultimate bailout call for refs everywhere.

[_Gary]

Feels like we are close to being able to pull away, just like last night, but we can't quite get that one extra bucket or that one extra stop to really ignite a run. Very frustrating.

[Greg_Newton]

Nice to see Elliot get a few big rebounds, a putback, and showing some energy and confidence. I was worried about him in the first half. And as for Nolan, he continues to be HUGE boost. He looks like he's shaken off the cobwebs, settling into his new role and playing better than he has all year.

It's a lot of fun watching those two both playing at once... our backcourt gets SO quick and athletic. It's also great in that they can give G a breather with virtually no dropoff in overall play... if you notice the common theme between that stretch with them just now and the stretch in the first half yesterday, it is that the other team just does not score.

[Oriole Way]

So far, Gerald's having his worst game in a Duke uniform.

[freshmanjs]

seems like in the last few games, whenever we get the lead up to 5 or 7, we allow 4 or 5 quick points. can't maintain much momentum.

[_Gary]

Case in point, just now. We expand the lead to 7 and I turn to my daughter and say "We need one stop right here and we can go on a nice run." Instead, we let Vasquez get the easy 2 and then another turnover leads to 2 more for the Terps and that chance to really put the vise grips on goes by the way side. UGHHH...

[FerryFor50]

Maryland is playing pretty good D. It helps that they're letting a lot of contact go, particularly on the boards.

[_Gary]

Jon has to stop hoisting up these 3's. He's not in a groove. Now is not the time for them.