Notes on the women

[jimsumner]

Some notes from women's hoops media day.

4438 season tickets sold; slightly more than all of last year.

Duke has a closed scrimmage this weekend against South Carolina. No fans, no media, score not kept; stats not kept.

The team is working on quickening the tempo. Duke wants to run more.

More players playing different positions. Duke will have some Chante Black-Krystal Thomas twin towers lineups. Black has been working on her perimeter game and made 7-7 on 3s in a recent practice.

We will also see some Black-Gay-Cheek frontlines, with Cheek playing the 3 on offense and Gay playing the 3 on defense.

Keturah Jackson (1,2,3), Shay Selby (1,2,3), and Kathleen Scheer (2,3,4) are working at 3 positions. KJ has worked hard on improving her ball skills.

Abby is an exception. McCallie wants to keep her at the 2. Had high praise for Waner, saying she is better in every way than last season.

Krystal Thomas is about 70 percent after knee surgery and heading in the right direction.

McCallie thinks depth is a strength. Lots of options.

Says she and her team are much more familiar with each other and practices have been much smoother and much more efficient than last season.

Defense is behind offense at this point. Communication needs to improve.

Karima Christmas is the strongest player on the team and may be the most improved. Look for her to split time at the 3 and the 4.

McCallie hopes to use man-to-man 90% -95 of the time, with matchup zones when advantageous.

Everybody seemed happy and eager for the season to begin.

[devildeac]

Some notes from women's hoops media day.

4438 season tickets sold; slightly more than all of last year.

Duke has a closed scrimmage this weekend against South Carolina. No fans, no media, score not kept; stats not kept.

The team is working on quickening the tempo. Duke wants to run more.

More players playing different positions. Duke will have some Chante Black-Krystal Thomas twin towers lineups. Black has been working on her perimeter game and made 7-7 on 3s in a recent practice.

We will also see some Black-Gay-Cheek frontlines, with Cheek playing the 3 on offense and Gay playing the 3 on defense.

Keturah Jackson (1,2,3), Shay Selby (1,2,3), and Kathleen Scheer (2,3,4) are working at 3 positions. KJ has worked hard on improving her ball skills.

Abby is an exception. McCallie wants to keep her at the 2. Had high praise for Waner, saying she is better in every way than last season.

Krystal Thomas is about 70 percent after knee surgery and heading in the right direction.

McCallie thinks depth is a strength. Lots of options.

Says she and her team are much more familiar with each other and practices have been much smoother and much more efficient than last season.

Defense is behind offense at this point. Communication needs to improve.

Karima Christmas is the strongest player on the team and may be the most improved. Look for her to split time at the 3 and the 4.

McCallie hopes to use man-to-man 90% -95 of the time, with matchup zones when advantageous.

Everybody seemed happy and eager for the season to begin.

All of the above is very encouraging and exciting to hear. Thanks again, Mr. Sumner.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Looking forward to seeing the women play this year. I was down on McCallie in her first year, and I believe I had reason to be down. I'm looking forward to seeing this team with her after a full season, I'm hoping for good things. Also good to hear her comments about Abby, all though her shooting stats scare me from the Blue-White.

[miramar]

I was intrigued by the comment that the defense is behind the offense. As anyone who saw a game last year knows, there was no offensive cohesion whatsoever, so I assume this means that the situation has improved dramatically. I can't say I liked what I saw last year, in fact it was often painful to watch, but I certainly hope that things will improve this season and that Abby Waner will have an outstanding senior year. She certainly deserves to go out on a high note.

[concrete]

it's a bit discouraging that with the talent we have on the team that we never had a very good offense. Quickening the tempo hides that (easy fast break baskets) so I'm still a bit discouraged that we may not have any efficient half court sets.

[jimsumner]

"I was intrigued by the comment that the defense is behind the offense"

Let me expound on this a bit. McCallie wasn't suggesting that the offense was inherently better than the defense. But the team has spent a lot more practice time working on the offense. So, the D is behind.

Draw your own conclusions but I'm pretty sure the practice-time imbalance will be rectified by the time the season begins.

[cbfx3]

I for one am not looking foward to Black launching 3's... unless they are landing of course!

[CameronBornAndBred]

Duke is # 8 in the polls, UNC is #6. (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/rankings)That is higher for us than I thought we would start.

[gadzooks]

Duke is # 8 in the polls, UNC is #6. (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/rankings)That is higher for us than I thought we would start.Indeed. And Mechelle Voepel, one of my favorite sportswriters, said in her blog (http://voepel.wordpress.com/2008/11/02/how-do-you-rank-rankings/) that she voted Duke #4, which I found very interesting (and Carolina at 9--I love you, Mechelle!). I agree with your earlier post, I was also very discouraged by last year, but ready to move on to this season, and feeling hopeful. Go Devils!

[BD80]

Duke is # 8 in the polls, UNC is #6. (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/rankings)That is higher for us than I thought we would start.

Just noticed how high we were ranked. This has me pumped up. Looks like the ladies might be able to come in under the radar.

UCon almost a unanimous #1 even after losing the #1 recruit in the nation? Doesn't seem fair.

Oh yeah, Gino is an arse.

[jimsumner]

If you look at all the polls, the Duke women are ranked about the same as the Duke men. Interesting.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I find it interesting that in the Coaches poll, even though Tennessee is not in the top 5 this year (6th), they still got one first place vote. Would love to know who voted for that one. (Top 2 guesses Geno and Pat).
Duke is 8th in the Coaches poll, so there is some uniformity to their placement across the board. Ordering my UNC tix this week. I would love to make the OU game, but I don't think it's going to happen.

[GrayHare]

"Duke University women’s basketball seniors Carrem Gay and Abby Waner will make a live appearance on the 850 The Buzz morning radio show on Friday, Nov. 7, which is hosted by Adam Gold and Joe Ovies. The Blue Devil duo will be live in the studio from 9:00 - 10:00 a.m."

Article on goduke.com (http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=22760&SPID=1846&DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=1619056)

[heyman25]

Carolina is out recruiting us. We have signed a 6'5 player from France and are not really getting top tier prospects. Hope Abby gets another Final 4 appearance. That OT loss to MD still stings.

[zingit]

ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/preview2008/news/story?id=3681401) puts the Duke women at #4.

[CameronBornAndBred]

ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/preview2008/news/story?id=3681401) puts the Duke women at #4.

Interesting. One of them had us at 3, one had us at 9, vs. 4 and 9 for UNC. One of them also thinks Md. should be 2cnd. Our schedule is tough and we will find out early how we stack up (vs. Oklahoma State (20th) and Stanford (2cnd)) Iowa and Oklahoma were NCAA tourney teams last year. McCallie sure didn't load us up with a bunch of easy wins, hopefully that translates into real experience to rely on come tourney time.

[gadzooks]

Not specific to Duke, but pertinent to the poll discussion: an interesting look at preseason polls from Graham Hays. (http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3685001&name=ncwexperts&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fesp n%2fblog%2findex%3fentryID%3d3685001%26name%3dncwe xperts)