Sprained ankle in practice. Doubtful for Monday. No word on MSG.
The T word? As in torn? Hmmm...I don't follow.
The question is who becomes our fifth starter? Jon Scheyer? Brian Zoubek? Taylor King? David McClure? I believe a case could be made for (and against) each.
Bob Green
Transfer would have invoked something more along the lines of
Interesting speculation ...
I like Scheyer as the sixth man ... plus as much as I like the small lineup, I hate to start with it.
Not sure McClure is ready to start.
That leaves Zoubek and King. I really don't know ... I might like to see King get the start ... if Thomas continues to struggle (he did have three poor games before the injury), King might be better to prepare as a long-term starter because I think Zoubek will contiunue to be a spot starter.
Yeah, a transfer would have surprised me. He knows he is going to get minutes and has shown progress this year.
Albany has only one guy on the roster over 6'8", Brett Gifford at 6'11", averaging 12 minutes a game. So height won't be a significant issue for the Albany game. Their two 6'8" guys play significant minutes.
You could make an argument for starting any one of Scheyer, King, Smith or Zoubek. If McClure has been coming on in practice, he might get the start. But it really doesn't matter, they all should see a lot of minutes.
Any guesses on how many point favorites we will be for this game?
I'm basically with you that mcclure just isn't ready yet, but were he 100% I think he would make the most sense considering the smaller lineup we will face. I'm also with you on the fact that I don't think we would start with 4 guards...we just haven't played that lineup that much this year. so it comes down to zoubs and king, and I think considering that this is a smaller team and taylor has been playing so well, that King will start.
On the other hand, considering that albany is not that good and are small, I wouldn't be surprised if K goes with the 4 guard lineup to test it out a little. I think we all expected to see more of it so far this season, maybe this will be the game. I think it would be very krzyzewski-esque to start scheyer in this situation.
It doesn't matter who starts against Albany, but against Pitt I'd go with Zoubek (and because of that, then I guess start him on Monday, too). I think it is key, especially against a team like Pitt that rebounds well and has some bulk inside, for Duke to do whatever it can to limit the opponent's ability to establish any kind of inside offense early in the game. With Zoubek in there I think it will make it tougher on Pitt.
I've seen Pitt play once (season opener vs. St. Louis) and even though I wasn't impressed with its overall performance in that one I was really impressed with the freshman Blair. He is a handful; athletic for a big guy, very strong, gets a lot of boards. I just don't like the idea of him being guarded by Kyle or Taylor right off the bat. It isn't that I don't think either one could handle Blair, but I don't want them drawing early fouls. Plus, Blair is a true inside guy with more strength, so unlike Zoubek, Kyle/Taylor don't have anything (other than being good, intelligent ballplayers) that would necessarily make it too difficult for Blair to score. Zoubek is 7'1". I'd rather he pick up early fouls than Kyle or Taylor.
I have a feeling Dave might see some more PT against Pitt now that Lance might be out. At the same time, Lance could very well be fine in a week. I'm sure I'm not the only one here that sprained an ankle and played a game right afterward (be it baseball, basketball, football, soccer, table tennis, or darts).
FWIW, Blair isn't some great, back-to-the-basket interior player yet, but he will pose some matchup problems. I'm worried about fouls more than anything just because Pitt will crash the boards. Limit their inside scoring ability early and the Devils have a chance to blow the game open with their offense.
Forget Albany. We should just start whoever would be best to start against Pitt. My guess would be King.
Looking ahead to the Pittsburgh game, they are a pretty small bunch as well. They only have 1 guy over 6'7' that plays substantial minutes and he is 6'10' and only averages 6.2 ppg.
Here's what I found:
Young 6'6' 27.9 mpg 18.1 ppg
Blair 6'7' 20.9 mpg 10.9 ppg
Cook 6'4' 24.8 mpg 10.8 ppg
Fields 5'10' 27.9 mpg 10.2 ppg
Ramon 6'1' 24.3 mpg 7.4 ppg
Biggs 6'10' 20.7 mpg 6.2 ppg
Size wise they are similar to us but have not been putting up big numbers. They beat Washington at their place by a point after a buzzer beater was waived off after review.
"The future ain't what it used to be."
playing Zoubek means we're trying to match up to them. I much prefer to make THEM try to match up with US, which is much more difficult if King starts (or Lance if he gets healthy by then). Instead of countering size with size, lets counter it with ball pressure.
Maybe everyone missed my earlier post:
PITT IS NOT A LARGE TEAM
"The future ain't what it used to be."