Offense...where is it?

[Dukie4Life]

I don't know about everyone else, but its really making me nervous for the Georgetown game Saturday. The number of baskets that were missed close to the basket the past two or three games seems to be outrageous. Zoubek missed a couple of easy put backs lastnight, Scheyer is not only struggeling from the floor but from the FT line too.

I can't say for sure, but I wonder if Nolan's back or knee is still bothering him to the point. He opted out of driving the lane against FSU and GT. Without Gerald and Kyle on offense, Gerald, Kyle and McClure on D its not a pretty game as a whole...

If its not for our defense we are 0-2 in the ACC right there with the Tarholes.

Thoughts?

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

I don't know about everyone else, but its really making me nervous for the Georgetown game Saturday. The number of baskets that were missed close to the basket the past two or three games seems to be outrageous. Zoubek missed a couple of easy put backs lastnight, Scheyer is not only struggeling from the floor but from the FT line too.

I can't say for sure, but I wonder if Nolan's back or knee is still bothering him to the point. He opted out of driving the lane against FSU and GT. Without Gerald and Kyle on offense, Gerald, Kyle and McClure on D its not a pretty game as a whole...

If its not for our defense we are 0-2 in the ACC right there with the Tarholes.

Thoughts?
Georgetown is not to be taken lightly under any circumstances this year.

I thought fatigue from the Florida State game might have influenced play last night against Georgia Tech. The Florida State game was extremely demanding from the standpoint of lots of tough physical contact. The environment there can also be a drain.

Perhaps a little rest while in the home routine will restore the level and consistency of play.

[Dukie4Life]

Lets hope! And don't get me wrong I am a strong believer in defense leads to offense...I'm just not seeing the finishes we've grown accustomed to over the years lately. Georgetown will exploit that no doubt.

[davekay1971]

We're a team that has trouble shooting the ball sometimes, plain and simple. Duke had plenty of open looks last night that we simply didn't knock down, especially in the first half. I think that will continue to happen from time to time, and could certainly be a problem in March. Our team plays consistently stellar defense, and G's comments post game tell me that the team identifies itself as primarily a defensive team. If we keep up that defensive identity, play good motion offense (rather than trying to create off the dribble, as Bilas correctly identified us doing last night) AND hit the open looks our motion offense creates, we'll blow people out of the water. If we play stagnant offense or just miss the looks we get, we'll struggle...but our defense will still win us a lot of games.

Bobby Knight had a nice snippet on Duke and our offensive spacing on the four letter this morning. He said that Duke utilized spacing as well as anyone in the country. If we keep to that, and keep the ball moving, we should get good shots. Hopefully they'll fall.

[Jumbo]

If its not for our defense we are 0-2 in the ACC right there with the Tarholes.

Thoughts?

That's like saying "if it weren't for the burger sitting on my plate, I wouldn't have any food right now."

[pfrduke]

That's like saying "if it weren't for the burger sitting on my plate, I wouldn't have any food right now."

It would also be impressive to be 0-2 after 3 conference games.

[BlueintheFace]

Where is the offense? In G's blood.

[rsvman]

We're a team that has trouble shooting the ball sometimes, plain and simple. Duke had plenty of open looks last night that we simply didn't knock down, especially in the first half....

Totally agree with this. At times during this game I found myself wondering why there is nobody on the team who can make a shot. Just crazy bad shooting.

I actually was looking at the 5 guys on the floor wondering who in the world was going to score for us, at one point in the game. Shortly thereafter, Paulus was put in, so it seemed that Coach K was thinking the same thing.

The defense has been great, thank goodness. The boys need some more shooting drills, shooting time, or a shrink or something. We won't be beating the really good teams by missing open shots.

[DukeCO2009]

People who think our offense is "gone" because we're missing open threes are missing the boat. Sure, that's part of the equation, but it's not the whole story. Over the past few games, I've noticed three trends in particular that I believe have contributed to our rather poor scoring efforts:

1. We've had little to not fast-break play. Steals at the top of the key are not the only opportunities to run the break. We have the speed to throw quick outlet passes after rebounds and start running, but I've noticed that we consistently pull the ball out and set up in the half-court even when we have numerical and/or positional advantages down the floor. We definitely have the personnel to run it: Kyle, Jon, Nolan, G, Elliot, Lance, Marty, and Dave are all quick. Additionally, we're deep enough and our defense is good enough that we don't have to worry about "running with" teams aside from maybe Carolina and Wake. Perhaps, as someone suggested in another thread, K is trying to save the team's collective legs for March--anyone's guess is as good as mine.

2. We're not driving to the hoop enough. Nolan, in particular, could really open up the offense if he tried getting to the rack a little more frequently. He's not as good a passer as Greg, to be sure, but if he can get deep into lane and draw an extra defender or two, he'll have easy passing options. G, IMO, is also a little too hesitant to take a defender off the dribble. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE the continued development of his mid-range pull-up game, but I've seen him pass up driving opportunities to settle for a contested J--or, simply, to pass the ball to a teammate--more than a handful of times. The more assertive Gerald is, the better we are as a team. I'd also like to see Kyle take advantage of mismatches against taller players on the perimeter. He is frequently matched up with much bigger, slower, and less coordinated defenders that he can very easily take off the dribble. I think Jon is our best driver right now, as well as our most aggressive player overall. Would be great if his assertiveness rubbed off on everyone else.

3. We've stopped running the ball through the post. Regretably, we've fallen into the trap of swinging the ball around the perimeter for 25+ seconds and shooting contested jumpers--it's excrutiating to watch. Yes, we're winning, but this type of offense isn't sustainable (see: '06-'07 season). If we get Lance/Z/Miles (who should get more PT, btw) more touches, the game changes. These guys don't need to play like Shelden, but if K could squeeze fifteen points combined out of our bigs the floor would open up considerably. Not saying we should dump it down to the post every possession, but if we can pass off whoever's playing the 5 as even a minor scoring threat, shots are suddenly more open, driving lanes suddenly more clear, and the floor suddenly more well-spaced.

[Billy Dat]

Taking the glass is half full approach for a second...

-Let's be happy that there is a significant area of our team's game where we haven't peaked in January! There is a lot of potential room for growth, for an extra gear that we haven't had in year's past. G's recent emergence is a part of that growth, and I think we'll see the shooting percentage go up.

-I would like to see us at least throw the ball into the post a little more, which we were doing more earlier in the season, to force some double teams and set up more "in rhythm" 3 pointers on kick-outs. Of course, that assumes Z or Lance would command a double down, smart teams might let them try and make a move. The counter would be to have Singler posting up, but I think we're more effective with him operating and orchestrating from the perimeter

-I, too, often tell myself I'd like Nolan to drive more, but we don't know what the consequence of unsuccessful drives might be - namely fast break baskets on the other end on guard run outs. I do think he should look for his drive more, but not a lot more.

I'd argue that we're in a better place then recent years past because our defense is ahead of our offense, because I think it's easier for the offense to improve, especially because % wise, the odds are that we will improve. I think the extra gear will show itself this year.

[BlueintheFace]

Well, in the first half last night we just didn't hit open jump shots that our offense is built to create. Such is life.

[rsvman]

People who think our offense is "gone" because we're missing open threes are missing the boat.

It's not just a matter of missing threes; they're missing 10-18-foot jumpers.

[jv001]

It's not just a matter of missing threes; they're missing 10-18-foot jumpers.

Well maybe since we're missing them now, we'll hit them come March. Go Duke!

[rsvman]

I certainly hope so.


Go Duke!

[dukelifer]

I don't know about everyone else, but its really making me nervous for the Georgetown game Saturday. The number of baskets that were missed close to the basket the past two or three games seems to be outrageous. Zoubek missed a couple of easy put backs lastnight, Scheyer is not only struggeling from the floor but from the FT line too.

I can't say for sure, but I wonder if Nolan's back or knee is still bothering him to the point. He opted out of driving the lane against FSU and GT. Without Gerald and Kyle on offense, Gerald, Kyle and McClure on D its not a pretty game as a whole...

If its not for our defense we are 0-2 in the ACC right there with the Tarholes.

Thoughts?

It is always amusing that folks try to extrapolate one game to another. This Duke team more than any other of recent memory seems to manage the game situations very well. They don't panic- they play hard defense and if they are behind they play even harder. They also seem to have 1 or 2 spurts of really good O. The object of the game is to win and so far- you do not get any extra points for looking good doing it. This team has developed a recipe to win. As a fan- i would love to see 20 assists per game and everyone hitting over 50% from the floor- but that is not going to happen every night. In fact, there were several games early last year- where Duke's O was outstanding and then later they could nothing on either side of the floor. What we have seen is that Duke can handle small teams and big teams. But they do rely on tuning over teams and we have not really played anyone with an elite guard. This team is also rebounding better than expected- well better than I expected. So we may not like the way in which Duke is winning- but they are winning and that is giving them confidence regardless of the game scenario. If their O is going to come together I would prefer it happens in March- for 6 straight games. Scheyer, Singler, Smith and Henderson are all capable of big games. If they all click together- no team can stay with them.

[roywhite]

From a coaching standpoint, our half-court offense is usually the last piece of the puzzle. Meaning that Coach K's priorities in the first parts of the season are developing the defense, working with different combinations, and defining roles as well as possible.

Based on the substitution patterns, I think Coach K is not satisfied with the way Nolan runs the offense; too much standing around and pounding the ball on the floor---not enough penetration or feeding the post. So he'll work with Nolan and/or spread the playmaking function around.

A little better shooting would help everything too.

[Uncle Drew]

This is kind of on the subject and off because like everyone the offense kind of worries me. But I have to say this team is playing better defense than I have seen a Duke team play since probably 2001. The weakside help is a lot better than last year and I have to say Smith / Henderson in particular seem to be able to stay in front of oposing guards better. In last nights game, particularly the second half it seemed the offense was there when we needed it to be. The GT guy who was 0-? from three hit one, Duke responded with one, he hit another and Duke responded again. It frustrates us when Duke makes a stop yet doesn't score, after all that's how leads are made. But it will be interesting to see against Georgetown how good a defensive team this really is. To be frank, if this team is clicking on defense AND offense in any given team there isn't a team in the country that can beat them. But we have seen entire games where the O or D was doing well and the other was less than stellar or it change from half to half.


Anyway, I was talking to a fellow Duke fan and he and I have noticed a trait over the last two and honestly last five or six seasons. Duke gets everyones best shot at home or on the road. But I often think the Duke teams of the last half decade often play to their opponents level. Against teams they could and probably should beat by 30 they win by 10 or 15. Like last night if the O had been working better it would have been a blow out. That would have given time for bench players to play and starters to rest. So many have pointed out how Duke gets tired at the end of the year and needs more quality depth. I think back to JJ and Sheldens senior year where they won so many games, but not by wide margins usually. I think from that time to now Duke has won most of the games they should win. But for whatever reasons it hasn't been the margins it probably should be. I for one hate seeing Duke slow the game up and take their foot off the gas when they get a big lead. I'd rather get five or ten minutes for some bench players to play at a normal pace than keep starters in an extra five or ten minutes and take a shot when the shotclock reaches 15 or 10 seconds. But hey, it's just opinion and I don't have one national title yet alone three.

[mkirsh]

1. We've had little to not fast-break play.

2. We're not driving to the hoop enough.

3. We've stopped running the ball through the post.

No doubt the offense has been fairly stagnant the past few games, and there are stretches where G, Nolan, and Paulus are all guilty of pounding the ball into the floor for too long. The question is, what changes can be made to get more flow? What you have above is a good start, and in addition I would guess that some point soon coach K may bring back the weave from a few seasons ago that forces opponents to switch the handoffs, creating mismatches for Singler, Henderson, Scheyer, and Smith to then drive. A few games ago (can't remember which game, might have been Davidson) we came out of half and seemed to throw it to Zoubek on the first 5 or 6 possessions, just to get the offense going inside out a little more, so might see some more of that in coming games. As much as we would all love to see more fast break, for some reason Coach K does not seem to be emphasizing the run much this year, so not sure if we will do more of that or not.

[MADevil30]

Against teams they could and probably should beat by 30 they win by 10 or 15.

I wont completely disagree with your point about us playing more poorly against the worse teams, but are we really going to complain about 15 point conference wins? Georgia Tech and FSU are obviously not the top competition out there but they are still ACC teams and 25+ point victories just don't happen often in a conference this good, no matter which team you are playing. Obviously the last couple of games have been sloppy, but I still consider a 14 point victory to be closer to a blow out than to a tight game.

[JimBD]

I love this Duke team. I think it has more talent and depth than Duke has had in years. But I was baffled by what I saw at Georgia Tech last night.

Duke seemed to run very little offense. There was very little off-the-ball motion, very little penetrating, very little passing, very little team offense. Mostly just standing around watching while a perimeter player waited for a screen to be set, then tried to go one-on-one and put up a contested shot or passed to another perimeter player who waited for a screen to be set and tried to go one-on-one, and so on until the shot clock was running out and a forced shot was taken.

This game had very little passion. The Tech fans are not excited by their team, the stands were only half full at the start of the game, and the Tech fans seemed to have to force themselves to make noise. Duke at Tech is normally a tough ticket, but tickets were easy to get this year. This is not a very good Georgia Tech team.

Duke won because of superior talent but this was not a game to be proud of. Neither team showed much passion.

I realize that Duke emphasizes defense and Coach K likes his players to react and improvise on offense. But please, Coach K, when they are not reacting and improvising, have them run some plays instead of just standing around and watching each other.

Duke can beat anybody if they play with passion. But if they show the same lack of effort and emotion that they showed at Georgia Tech, they can lose to just about anybody.

[Devils Rock]

This thread is hilarious. What I mean is not that it is utterly without merit, but I took a quick trip over to IC today and if you were to read the posts from the tarhole fans, you might not feel so disheartened by our sometimes suspect offensive prowess. Many of the 'holes are totally freaked out by how they are going to guard Duke. I saw post after post of holes fans who said things like "If Danny guards Gerald, then we've got no one available to guard Scheyer or Singler. I just don't think we have enough good defenders to handle all of Duke's weapons. Plus their D right now is brutal and they are probably going to shut us down. We're in trouble if we don't get Ginyard back soon!"

Bottom line is that we need to keep some perspective. I agree that this team has looked sketchy on offense at times. Even though the game was ugly as hell, I love the fact that we won on the road by 14 on a night when we couldn't hit the side of a barn. We also outrebounded a bigger team and that is something that would never have happened last year. And for everyone who says that this is the same team as the past two years there are two problems: 1) it's not and 2) even if it were, the players are older, stronger, in better health, more experienced and more savvy. I like this team and even when they've won ugly, they don't give me the heeby jeebies the way some of our past teams have. With the exception of the Michigan game, this team always feels like they know how to tough out a win and get the job done.

I am adding this addendum to the post b/c I just saw JimBD's post which beat mine to the press and I should acknowledge that his points about specific offensive issues are accurate in last night's game and I don't mean to imply that we could not benefit from better ball movement etc.

[RelativeWays]

I'm a little concerned on how we've looked offensively the last two games, granted FSU is a rough and tumble team, but GT sucks this year and there's no hiding that fact, only UVA is worse. Last night we looked suspiciously like another Duke team with a great defense but a terrible terrible offense that had a hard time finishing, the 06-07 team. We have a lot more talent than that team but it seems like we're still struggling to find a consistency when outside shots don't fall. We have time to work on it. Zoubs with 2 pts and LT with 0 is a bit disheartening though.

[pfrduke]

I think back to JJ and Sheldens senior year where they won so many games, but not by wide margins usually.

That team won 14 conference games. They won those games by an average of 11.8 points per game. 7 were by more than 10 points. In the non-conference season, they recorded victories by such margins as 53, 29, 31, 27, 33, and 34.

More to the point, there are very, very few matchups in conference play that we should expect to win by 20 or more. If we play UVA at home this year, that's one I would put in the 20+ category. It might be the only one. Expecting to win an ACC road game by 20 or more is silly. It can certainly happen (see Wake at BC), and it's great when it happens, but it really can't be expected.

[-jk]

I saw - I think on kenpom - that gatech was the lowest ranked team in the acc at 101. There's not a horrible team in the conference. Period.

Everyone in the acc is going to be tough this year. Especially a certain cellar-dweller down the road.

Cupcake season is over. Please accept it: it won't be easy from here. (Even if we've been handed a great break from that particular cellar dweller - heh!).

Enjoy the ride.

And get emotional; it's part of the fun. But please keep it constructive and friendly. Self-destruction is ugly. Fratricide is uglier. We don't like handing out citations or closing threads but we do have standards to maintain. And we will maintain them, come UNC or high water. (And just look at IC to get a feel for what shouldn't happen here.)

Thanks,

-jk

[norduck]

I'm a little concerned on how we've looked offensively the last two games, granted FSU is a rough and tumble team, but GT sucks this year and there's no hiding that fact, only UVA is worse. Last night we looked suspiciously like another Duke team with a great defense but a terrible terrible offense that had a hard time finishing, the 06-07 team. We have a lot more talent than that team but it seems like we're still struggling to find a consistency when outside shots don't fall. We have time to work on it. Zoubs with 2 pts and LT with 0 is a bit disheartening though.

Agree, and the free throws have started to clank again.

[Kedsy]

This thread is hilarious. What I mean is not that it is utterly without merit, but I took a quick trip over to IC today and if you were to read the posts from the tarhole fans, you might not feel so disheartened by our sometimes suspect offensive prowess. Many of the 'holes are totally freaked out by how they are going to guard Duke. I saw post after post of holes fans who said things like "If Danny guards Gerald, then we've got no one available to guard Scheyer or Singler. I just don't think we have enough good defenders to handle all of Duke's weapons. Plus their D right now is brutal and they are probably going to shut us down. We're in trouble if we don't get Ginyard back soon!"


It's good to hear they are as obsessed with us as we are with them.

Personally I think this thread (as well as several others) is hilarious because it's hard to imagine a fan base being so negative about a 15-1 team that is #2 in the country.

[DukeCO2009]

Hilarious is quite a condescending word given the context of the thread. Confused, IMO, would be much more appropriate. Anyway, symantics aside, I think you're a little off-base with your comments. While some in this thread have indeed posted "negative" messages, I think you'll find that the majority of posts are quite well thought-out and constructive. People aren't complaining about the team being 15-1 and #2/3 in the nation--it's quite the contrary, in fact. Instead, we feel lucky that we are where we are; we see teams like Pittsburgh, carolina, Wake, and others, and worry how well we would match up with them. This concern is based off the notion that our offense has been struggling and that our defense has been carrying us to victories as of late.

While it's certainly nice to have half of Duke's game be among the best in the nation, it's equally worrying when a team like Elon or the Citadel drops more points on Davidson than Duke does. Teams are prone to lapses at both ends of the court every now and then--this much is obvious. If we were to play a high-scoring team like, say, Wake, a lot of us around here simply wonder whether we could survive an off-night on defense with our offense playing the way it is now. Granted, we've played against some tough defenses ourselves recently, but the mistakes we've been making have been fairly fundamental. They've been outlined pretty well in this thread, so I'll let you read up rather than re-hash them myself.

Are some posters being alarmist? Without a doubt they are. Others, though, are not just reacting to the Tech game. We've played poorly on the offensive end for four straight games now. I don't think it's time to hit the panic button, but certainly the DBR can indulge in some collective analysis, can't it?

[norduck]

Hilarious is quite a condescending word given the context of the thread. Confused, IMO, would be much more appropriate. Anyway, symantics aside, I think you're a little off-base with your comments. While some in this thread have indeed posted "negative" messages, I think you'll find that the majority of posts are quite well thought-out and constructive. People aren't complaining about the team being 15-1 and #2/3 in the nation--it's quite the contrary, in fact. Instead, we feel lucky that we are where we are; we see teams like Pittsburgh, carolina, Wake, and others, and worry how well we would match up with them. This concern is based off the notion that our offense has been struggling and that our defense has been carrying us to victories as of late.

While it's certainly nice to have half of Duke's game be among the best in the nation, it's equally worrying when a team like Elon or the Citadel drops more points on Davidson than Duke does. Teams are prone to lapses at both ends of the court every now and then--this much is obvious. If we were to play a high-scoring team like, say, Wake, a lot of us around here simply wonder whether we could survive an off-night on defense with our offense playing the way it is now. Granted, we've played against some tough defenses ourselves recently, but the mistakes we've been making have been fairly fundamental. They've been outlined pretty well in this thread, so I'll let you read up rather than re-hash them myself.

Are some posters being alarmist? Without a doubt they are. Others, though, are not just reacting to the Tech game. We've played poorly on the offensive end for four straight games now. I don't think it's time to hit the panic button, but certainly the DBR can indulge in some collective analysis, can't it?

Not an alarmist here. But March does happen!

[Bob Green]

Zoubek missed a couple of easy put backs lastnight,

Zoubek was 1-2 from the field so I don't think he "missed a couple of easy putbacks." The one shot he missed was blocked by Gani Lawal after Zoubek secured an offensive rebound.

[pfrduke]

While it's certainly nice to have half of Duke's game be among the best in the nation, it's equally worrying when a team like Elon or the Citadel drops more points on Davidson than Duke does.

It's a good thing neither Elon nor Citadel has scored more against Davidson than Duke did. Only Oklahoma and Purdue have put up better offensive efficiency numbers against Davidson than Duke (and only Oklahoma and Chattanooga (in an 85 possession game) scored more points in raw terms).

Don't just rely on raw points when games vary greatly in pace.

[Uncle Drew]

That team won 14 conference games. They won those games by an average of 11.8 points per game. 7 were by more than 10 points. In the non-conference season, they recorded victories by such margins as 53, 29, 31, 27, 33, and 34.

More to the point, there are very, very few matchups in conference play that we should expect to win by 20 or more. If we play UVA at home this year, that's one I would put in the 20+ category. It might be the only one. Expecting to win an ACC road game by 20 or more is silly. It can certainly happen (see Wake at BC), and it's great when it happens, but it really can't be expected.

I truly appreciate you taking the time to look up how many victories and the margin of victory for the games that season. But 11.8 points is by no means a blow out I don't think in anyones book. Meaning the starters were in until fairly late in the game, I would assume with over two minutes left. I hear a lot of Duke fans screaming Coach K needs to develop the bench more this and every season. The easiest way is to play bench players in clean up roles. But two or less minutes per game is not a lot of valuable in game experience.

The non conference victories for the most part come very early in the season. I have no doubts many bench players got plenty of minutes in those games. But when the action gets really heated in January and lasts for two straight months I'd be willing to bet those bench players played a lot less in that stretch.

I am not even suggesting the Georgia Tech game should have been a blow out like a lot of people, I just happened to bring it up after that game. So I understand people automatically assuming I'm screaming the sky is falling based on one game. I'm not. The GT game was an ACC foe on the road. Anything can happen and any win is a good win. But I will say I can think back to many games over the last five, six and seven years where Duke got a big lead and for lack of a better tem did not put that team away. We have all seen Duke get up 20+ points with the starters in the game and Duke go to waiting until 10-15 seconds on the shot clock to start their offense. Now granted when you're winning and winning by a wide margin you want the clock to run down as fast as possible. Me personally I see the shotclock as your enemy any time it gets 15 seconds or bellow.

Perhaps its the wrong philosophy for me to think if you are winning the race don't take your foot off the accelerator. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems logical to me. But I will say WHEN you ARE up by a wide margin what harm would it do to sub a few players, keep going full speed and let those players get some experience in game at full speed? I'm sorry, I know someone is going to tell me I don't have three national titles and a ton of COY awards under my belt. But I have seen that slow up game bite Duke in the butt several times. In my opinion it cost the 1986 team the title and let Maryland break their ACC tourney winning streak.

At any rate I ddn't mean to hijack the thread. Frankly the offense doesn't worry me as much as most people. It just seems like when shots are not falling this team tightens up on the defense that much more and so far (minus the second Michigan game) has gotten it done. Honestly it seems when Duke is having a good offensive night they don't seem to play as well on the defensive end. But we will get a lot of answers one way or another against Georgetown about a lot of questions regarding this team. A win, by any margin would be great. But a loss might let the players, coaches and fans know this teams true strengths and weaknesses. Frankly I just want a win to let Mr Monroe know he chose poorly. But if he has a monster game I don't EVEN want to start reading the threads if that happens.

[DukeCO2009]

It's a good thing neither Elon nor Citadel has scored more against Davidson than Duke did. Only Oklahoma and Purdue have put up better offensive efficiency numbers against Davidson than Duke (and only Oklahoma and Chattanooga (in an 85 possession game) scored more points in raw terms).

Don't just rely on raw points when games vary greatly in pace.

My mistake--was looking at Davidson's column instead of the opposition's. I was in a rush to get my post written before I headed out the door. Thanks for calling me on that.

In any event, I think there's certainly reason to believe that our offense has been sputtering a bit these past few games. Hopefully we'll play better on Saturday. We tend to play up to good competition and down to suspect competition, and Georgetown is certainly a good, if not very good team.

A win is always a win, but if a coach fails to analyze his wins with as much scrutiny as his does his losses, he'll sooner find himself on the sidelines of a local YMCA than he will in the Final Four. As I've said before, I think some of the criticism and negativity in this thread has been ever-so-slightly over the top, but I certainly do not feel that the team should be above constructive criticism simply because it continues to win games.

Take carolina before the BC game, for instance. The team was undefeated, sure, but anyone who knew a damn thing about basketball knew that its defense was suspect at best. I'm 100% positive that no one here would have dismissed talk of roy & co's defensive woes simply because they had yet to lose a game. Without going through past threads, I would conjecture that, in fact, talk on the subject was encouraged: this was not baseless criticism, but discussion of a potentially fatal flaw. What happened next? I think it's safe to say that we all know.

The same goes for Duke. Much as carolina would be a nearly unstoppable force if roy could get his crew together on defense, so too would we be the odds-on favorite for the national title if we could perform more consistently on offense against solid competition. It's a fact that if we don't snap out of this funk, we're a fairly vulnerable team if our defense happens to lapse for a half. What's the problem with talking about this? So long as people are civil and thoughtful about things, I see no reason why discussing a four-game offensive skid should be off-limits or discouraged. Such behavior does not constitute being alarmist, nor does it show that someone is jumping to conclusions after one game. Four games, in my opinion, is a trend--a small trend, but a trend nonetheless.

[jv001]

While we do seem to dribble the paint off the floor at times. The offense is for the most part getting us good looks. We just aren't hitting the open shots. The only time that we seem not to get a good look is when we run the shot clock down and are forced to put up a contested shot. Even that doesn't happen when Jon has the ball in his hands. As long as our Big 3 continue to play well we will be ok. Jon will regain his shot and Gerald has really stepped up his play. I look for Greg to begin to hit his shots as well. The key is Zoubs and Thomas. If they can produce just a little offense we will be ok. Go Duke!

[MChambers]

we feel lucky that we are where we are; we see teams like Pittsburgh, carolina, Wake, and others, and worry how well we would match up with them.

If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it's not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.

http://www.dalailama.com/page.54.htm

I suggest that we all enjoy watching Coach K fix Duke's problems! I have confidence in him. Of course, even if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

[devildownunder]

This team does it with defense. There's nothing wrong with that. As we are constructed right now, we're one of the best teams in the country. If the offense comes around enough by the time March gets here, we may be THE BEST team and win it all. But even if that doesn't happen, let's not make the mistake of not appreciating this team. Not only for what it does, but also how it does it. Disruptive, destructive, suffocating defense that frustrates and wears down opponents.

That's a beautiful thing.

[Devilsfan]

Our defense is great. But sometimes our offense is down right offensive our fans. Where's JJ or Jwill when we need them. Maybe we can attract another great shooter soon?

[77devil]

Yeah. Honestly, this whole board needs to be shut down.

Maybe just a tad bit too much don't you think?

[DukeCO2009]

This team does it with defense. There's nothing wrong with that. As we are constructed right now, we're one of the best teams in the country. If the offense comes around enough by the time March gets here, we may be THE BEST team and win it all. But even if that doesn't happen, let's not make the mistake of not appreciating this team. Not only for what it does, but also how it does it. Disruptive, destructive, suffocating defense that frustrates and wears down opponents.

That's a beautiful thing.

This team does it with offense. There's nothing wrong with that. As we are constructed right now, we're one of the best teams in the country. If the defense comes around enough by the time March gets her, we may be THE BEST team and win it all. But even if that doesn't happen, let's not make the mistake of not appreciating this team. not only for what it does, but also for how it does it. Fast-paced, high-scoring, highlight reel offense that tires and wears down our opponents.

Signed,

Roy Williams and his Merry Men



Look, no one is failing to appreciate this team. We're just discussing as aspect of its play that could use a bit of improvement. Is our offense as bad as carolina's defense? No, but bashing the 'holes for playing on only one end of the floor while we're having our own struggles is akin to our entire fanbase sticking its collective head in the sand. Let's hope we play up to Georgetown in two minutes the same way we played up to Xavier a few weeks ago: let's turn defense into offense, rather than just playing stout D on its own. Go Duke!

PS: In case there's any confusion, I hate carolina with every bone in my body. I'm just trying to provide food for thought.
PPS: I have the damn flu, so it's TV for me this afternoon. FWIW, though, I've gotten a few texts from friends who have said it's absolutely rockin' in CIS today. Should be fun to watch.