MBB: Duke 64, UNC 54 Post-Game Thread

[pfrduke]

Exhale, and post here.

[lpd1982]

I smell the benches 1,000 miles away

[Neals384]

Just another workmanlike win on the road against the 11th place team in the conference.:cool:

[grossbus]

what a relief. i just put away the bottle of pepcid.

we were even missing foul shots tonight.

so very glad we won! mason stepped up tonight!

[dball]

Duke wins, Carolina loses. Life is good.

[karmacoma]

Experience and competence showed at the end, both ends of the floor. Wish we hadn't let them stick around as long as they did, but fortunately, it didn't hurt us down the stretch. Hoping the best for Lance. Where are folks getting info on the extent of his injury?

[Wildling]

Very,very,very happy to see Mason get a lot of burn tonight.

Shooting so poorly, away from home, at UNC, and come out with a win? Happy doesn't describe how I feel.

Go Duke!

[DevilHorns]

so proud of our guys. we lost our premier defender in lance thomas, but still took the win. that says something about this team. mason played like a veteran tonight. jon. what can i say about jon. the man can take the whole team on his back at any time.

take that heels! its time for the rivalry to swing back to durham!

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

This is a very important win. It breaks the drought in Chapel Hill. It's a conference win on the road in a tough season. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

[flyingdutchdevil]

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee e!!!

[roywhite]

Reason we won tonight was the solid play of Kyle Singler. Other than that, we should be very alarmed with the lack of shooting ability from Duke as well as the potential season ending injury of Lance Thomas. We couldn't hit layups, we shot horribly, and if we played a team other than UNC (13-11), we probably get blown out by 15+. This is another awful shooting display from us and we have NO inside game. This team will be done by the second weekend in the NCAA Tournament. Good effort and win, but let's be honest, we can't shoot, we were lucky to be playing a terrible team in one of their worst seasons ever, and we are thinner now than we have ever been with losing Thomas. These last 6 ACC games, I think we're lucky to go 2-4. I think we go 1-5.

I'm hoping this is a parody post or you're just a troll.

[Newton_14]

Reason we won tonight was the solid play of Kyle Singler. Other than that, we should be very alarmed with the lack of shooting ability from Duke as well as the potential season ending injury of Lance Thomas. We couldn't hit layups, we shot horribly, and if we played a team other than UNC (13-11), we probably get blown out by 15+. This is another awful shooting display from us and we have NO inside game. This team will be done by the second weekend in the NCAA Tournament. Good effort and win, but let's be honest, we can't shoot, we were lucky to be playing a terrible team in one of their worst seasons ever, and we are thinner now than we have ever been with losing Thomas. These last 6 ACC games, I think we're lucky to go 2-4. I think we go 1-5.

In any other game I worry with you, but this game does that to teams. Look how many shots unc missed in close as well. I would not judge the rest of the year on this game. There is no way this team goes 1 and 5 down the stretch. No way. I am very worried however about LT. That looked bad..

[GoingFor#5]

We missed a lot of easy shots tonight. Should have been a 20 point win. Seems like our guys were rushing shots in traffic, especially early on, some 1 on 1 play in the first half. I think the guys need to keep in mind they are a great offensive system, but are not great individual offensive players outside of the system (not saying the 3 S's aren't great offensive players, but they are 10x better when we get ball movement).

[OldSchool]

I thought we could have built a working margin in the first half if our bigs had finished around the rim.

I think it was basically nerves on their part. Even though UNC is at the bottom of the league, this game is always a gut check. And UNC has a lot of length with Davis, Henson and Thompson.

Our three S-men were cool and tough.

Congratulations, team.

[dukelion]

the victory rum and coke...yum.....heart rate is lowering.

[ChrisP]

Reason we won tonight was the solid play of Kyle Singler. Other than that, we should be very alarmed with the lack of shooting ability from Duke as well as the potential season ending injury of Lance Thomas. We couldn't hit layups, we shot horribly, and if we played a team other than UNC (13-11), we probably get blown out by 15+. This is another awful shooting display from us and we have NO inside game. This team will be done by the second weekend in the NCAA Tournament. Good effort and win, but let's be honest, we can't shoot, we were lucky to be playing a terrible team in one of their worst seasons ever, and we are thinner now than we have ever been with losing Thomas. These last 6 ACC games, I think we're lucky to go 2-4. I think we go 1-5.

Wow. Are you available to give a pep talk to the team before the MD game?

[DevilHorns]

Reason we won tonight was the solid play of Kyle Singler. Other than that, we should be very alarmed with the lack of shooting ability from Duke as well as the potential season ending injury of Lance Thomas. We couldn't hit layups, we shot horribly, and if we played a team other than UNC (13-11), we probably get blown out by 15+. This is another awful shooting display from us and we have NO inside game. This team will be done by the second weekend in the NCAA Tournament. Good effort and win, but let's be honest, we can't shoot, we were lucky to be playing a terrible team in one of their worst seasons ever, and we are thinner now than we have ever been with losing Thomas. These last 6 ACC games, I think we're lucky to go 2-4. I think we go 1-5.

realize this is a rivalry game. all stats go out the window. we dont get any foul calls. and i man we get NO foul calls. did you watch this game? probably the worst officiating game I have seen this year.

[BlueintheFace]

Mason is the most infuriating player on our team, but he had flashes tonight. That reverse dunk was monstrous. On the other hand, he got some silly fouls per usual and tried to get even more by swiping on rebounds (his preferred method of getting fouls).

If I were K, I would compile a mix of his reach-ins after missing on rebounds and show it to him, then say "NEVER AGAIN MASON"

Zoubek came up HUUUUGE (literally at times)

[grossbus]

i'm guessing lance has a bruised knee. i didn't see the knee give in any direction on the contact.

hoping is so.

thought mason really stepped up tonight.

[HateCarolina]

The bottom line is that we beat the Holes in the Dud Dome so life is good. We did not shoot that well, but at least thirteen of those misses were due to Crapolina blocks....

Now we have Maryland this weekend in Durham and hopefully we can abuse them to finish off what could be a great week of Duke basketball!!!

[Cockabeau]

1)Let it become close for awhile so that Holes think they win then take it away at the end.
2)Our win puts the nail in for UNC's NCAA bid.
3)Spoiled Hanbourough ceremony
4)All the sudden Ginyard stfu....

[RoyalBlue08]

Hard fought win. Gotta hand it to Carolina, they gave us their best shot. If they played that hard every game, they would be near the top of the conference, not the bottom. Obviously there are some things we could have done better in this game, but we went on the road and beat a talented team that was putting their whole season on the line. I am proud of our guys.

[Sir Stealth]

Reason we won tonight was the solid play of Kyle Singler. Other than that, we should be very alarmed with the lack of shooting ability from Duke as well as the potential season ending injury of Lance Thomas. We couldn't hit layups, we shot horribly, and if we played a team other than UNC (13-11), we probably get blown out by 15+. This is another awful shooting display from us and we have NO inside game. This team will be done by the second weekend in the NCAA Tournament. Good effort and win, but let's be honest, we can't shoot, we were lucky to be playing a terrible team in one of their worst seasons ever, and we are thinner now than we have ever been with losing Thomas. These last 6 ACC games, I think we're lucky to go 2-4. I think we go 1-5.

This, hopefully, is the worst excuse for sarcasm I have ever seen in my entire life. Who would immediately go on the internet after a win over UNC and write this? Duke-Carolina is not like any other game. You do everything you can to win, and then you celebrate. Nothing else from this game matters, it's the best winning a regular season victory can get, and even Lance's injury should wait til tomorrow. Thank God we won - and we won on guts and the things that, all things being equal, make one team come out on top in college basketball. I personally feel fantastic.

[RockLobster]

We played much better positional defense in the second half, which keyed the win.

Our shooters obviously came through in the end, but kudos to the defense for getting it together. There was a 5+ minute run near the end of the game in which Chapel Hill hit 0 FG's, thanks to us tightening up on D.

GO TO HELL C*ROLINA!!!!

WE ARE DUKE!! WE ARE DUKE!! WE ARE DUKE!!

OH HELL YES!!

[grossbus]

"If I were K, I would compile a mix of his reach-ins after missing on rebounds and show it to him, then say "NEVER AGAIN MASON""

might want to have miles watch, too. :)

[DownEastDevil]

I know those guys have to be worn out, because I did nothing and I'm an emotional wreck. I won't be able to sleep all night. I won't have a problem going to work tomorrow though!

[mike88]

Reason we won tonight was the solid play of Kyle Singler. Other than that, we should be very alarmed with the lack of shooting ability from Duke as well as the potential season ending injury of Lance Thomas. We couldn't hit layups, we shot horribly, and if we played a team other than UNC (13-11), we probably get blown out by 15+. This is another awful shooting display from us and we have NO inside game. This team will be done by the second weekend in the NCAA Tournament. Good effort and win, but let's be honest, we can't shoot, we were lucky to be playing a terrible team in one of their worst seasons ever, and we are thinner now than we have ever been with losing Thomas. These last 6 ACC games, I think we're lucky to go 2-4. I think we go 1-5.

Apart from the concern about Lance, which I share, I would offer a different interpretation:

1) we have plenty enough offense to win games just as we are right now- look at our offensive efficiency overall
2) if we play defense, rebound, and limit turnovers we can beat anyone
3) Mason stepping up will give us even more options and will help our depth; hopefully, Lance's injury is not serious

[UrinalCake]

A gritty, tough win. We took their best shot and never let up.

On offense I felt that the ball "stopped" a lot. A guy would get the ball and he would stand there, look around, maybe fake a move, and then pass it to someone else who would stand for a few seconds before doing something. I don't know if this was intentional, a result of UNC's defense, or what. Would have liked to see more ball movement. Nevertheless we got it done in a situation where we could have easily faltered.

UNC has nothing to be ashamed of, they played well for most of the game. It must make it all the more frustrating for their fans to see glimpses of this kind of play.

[CameronDuke]

I'm hoping this is a parody post or you're just a troll.

No troll here, bud. Good win, better than losing, but if you honestly think that kind of effort is a good game by us, you know nothing about basketball. That was poor. The first half, we shot 23% and were up 1 still. That should tell you how bad UNC really is. If we continue to shoot this poorly, and do this in an NCAA Tournament game, we will lose by 15+. We have no inside game, in terms of big men with go to moves in the post, and when we shoot partially open layups, we miss them.

Good win, again, but the overall execution was atrocious. Ugly wins are better than pretty losses, but that was absolutely ugly by Duke.

[Duvall]

If I were K, I would compile a mix of his reach-ins after missing on rebounds and show it to him, then say "NEVER AGAIN MASON"

That really does call for a Hurley-tape.


Zoubek came up HUUUUGE (literally at times)

That rebound at the end when about five guys went for the ball, and Zoubek emerged from the crowd? That was awesome.

[superdave]

I think this one was big psychologically for us. We needed to get over this particular hump. And we did it while only playing 15 minutes of good basketball.

We really took over with 7:00 left. We made a few important stops and gutted out a few buckets. Kyle got into the lane for some nice stick-backs and Jon had two big 3-balls. I thought Nolan really manned up in the 2nd half too.

But the free throws down the stretch were not good, and end of game execution (vs. press, trap) was not good.

unc really sucks. They have no clue how to win. We stepped on their throats tonight. Their season is done. Good riddance, goats, you are no longer relevant in 2010. Glad Barnes got to see that.

[Troublemaker]

The way we won was much more satisfying than a blowout win. The game was up for grabs down the stretch and Duke just made all the tough plays. It wasn't aesthetically pleasing, but it wasy VERY satisfying.

[DukeBlood]

Reason we won tonight was the solid play of Kyle Singler. Other than that, we should be very alarmed with the lack of shooting ability from Duke as well as the potential season ending injury of Lance Thomas. We couldn't hit layups, we shot horribly, and if we played a team other than UNC (13-11), we probably get blown out by 15+. This is another awful shooting display from us and we have NO inside game. This team will be done by the second weekend in the NCAA Tournament. Good effort and win, but let's be honest, we can't shoot, we were lucky to be playing a terrible team in one of their worst seasons ever, and we are thinner now than we have ever been with losing Thomas. These last 6 ACC games, I think we're lucky to go 2-4. I think we go 1-5.

Way to stay positive! You didnt take into the account UNC NEEDED this game more then Duke? Or that it is a a rivalry game? Or it was a road game? Or any of the other reasons? Probably not, Your post is negative and blatantly so. Why even post that?

On to the game..

Singler and Scheyer played great! Mason Plumlee showed more glimpses of why people expected him to be great, Great effort from the big guy. With Lances injury Mason is the guy who needs to step it up. Nolan missed a few shots but played fairly well otherwise.

Just really happy to get out of there with a win! It wasn't the prettiest win, but its a WIN! Is this team going to win a title? Probably not, but that doesn't take away from the fact that they are a very good team.

[Jumbo]

YES! YES! YES!!!
That is all.

[jv001]

Reason we won tonight was the solid play of Kyle Singler. Other than that, we should be very alarmed with the lack of shooting ability from Duke as well as the potential season ending injury of Lance Thomas. We couldn't hit layups, we shot horribly, and if we played a team other than UNC (13-11), we probably get blown out by 15+. This is another awful shooting display from us and we have NO inside game. This team will be done by the second weekend in the NCAA Tournament. Good effort and win, but let's be honest, we can't shoot, we were lucky to be playing a terrible team in one of their worst seasons ever, and we are thinner now than we have ever been with losing Thomas. These last 6 ACC games, I think we're lucky to go 2-4. I think we go 1-5.

man I was bummed with our play as well, but I saw some good things from
Duke tonight. Mason played very well. Jon and Kyle played good games as well. Great shot by Jon with the shot clock winding down. Big Big shot. Dre got some mins and that must mean he's playing better in practice. After Nolan slowed down in the 2nd half he played well. Now I'm not saying we didn't look bad for 3/4 of the game, but we beat the evil empire so all is not bad. Go Duke!

[Cockabeau]

Mason infuriates me also sometimes...

He is never where he should be on the court.

He over commits when he should not and he doesn't hustle sometimes either...I don't get it with this kid.

[moonpie23]

i apologize for my lack of faith...i have had to take a lot of crap from business "associates" the last four years and i just had a really bad feeling about the game tonight...

for those of you that say it looked awful, you are forgetting the history of this rivalry......BOTH TEAMS have pushed each other in the mud puddle on the way to a better ranking or post season altitudes...

for THIS team, with THIS history against UNC, it was a HUGE win....and it showed that they would NOT be denied no matter what mental demons were hanging around...

congrats guys.....thank you for banishing that monkey.....

now let;s REALLY give them a beat-down at cameron... !!

[DevilHorns]

i'm guessing lance has a bruised knee. i didn't see the knee give in any direction on the contact.

hoping is so.

thought mason really stepped up tonight.

hard to say. i hope it was dead on the patella, not at the edges where the ligaments live.

[dball]

This is a very important win. It breaks the drought in Chapel Hill. It's a conference win on the road in a tough season. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Short drought. Didn't we win there in 2008. Unfortunately, the lack of victory is much longer at Cameron.

[HateCarolina]

realize this is a rivalry game. all stats go out the window. we dont get any foul calls. and i man we get NO foul calls. did you watch this game? probably the worst officiating game I have seen this year.

The officiating was interesting, but they let them bang under the basket on both ends and you know what there was not the same "chippy" play you see from the bigs at Wake, Clemson and some of the other thuggy players that look to beat the opposing team's bigs down on to the court...

With that said the officiating was pretty piss poor on some other fronts...re: Scheyer's shot blocked by Henson on the way down.

[6th Man]

Thought the key play was Mason's reverse jam. Seemed to pump the team up. Scheyer was clutch at the end and Kyle played a great game.

Really really happy to beat UNC. No matter what kind of season they are having it was BIG for Duke to win that game. Still not convinced we will make a deep March run, but things could be worse. I am taking one game at a time and am just happy to win.

Best wishes to Lance. I don't feel like that is just a bumped knee.

[grossbus]

"YES! YES! YES!!!
That is all."

excellent capsule review.

[Saratoga2]

First of all, we should all be concerned about the health of Lance. I hope his knee is just bruised and not torn. The team is quite different without him available.

Good:
Good overall effort. They played hard and the defense and rebounding were strong points, especially considering having to play less experienced big men for a long stretch.

Mason really did well out there with rebounding and scoring in close. He is really the only big man who can put the ball in the basket with any consistency.

Jon had another excellent game and Nolan came back from the nether world to score 10 in the second half. Singler played tough and well throughout.

Zoubek did what he can do in reboundng, clogging the middle, screening and made a really nice pass to Singler in the crunch.

Bad:
Looks like we were rattled. Second straight drop off in free throw shooting.
Very poor shooting percentage inside and overall. Against a better team it would have cost us the game.

We really have very little inside offensive game

[FireOgilvie]

These last 6 ACC games, I think we're lucky to go 2-4. I think we go 1-5.

LUCKY to go 2-4? I think you are confused; you do the WINS first and then the losses.

[roywhite]

No troll here, bud. Good win, better than losing, but if you honestly think that kind of effort is a good game by us, you know nothing about basketball. That was poor. The first half, we shot 23% and were up 1 still. That should tell you how bad UNC really is. If we continue to shoot this poorly, and do this in an NCAA Tournament game, we will lose by 15+. We have no inside game, in terms of big men with go to moves in the post, and when we shoot partially open layups, we miss them.

Good win, again, but the overall execution was atrocious. Ugly wins are better than pretty losses, but that was absolutely ugly by Duke.

You've said your piece here. You're not in step with most of the posters who come here, who are very happy with a Duke win over Carolina.

[Jumbo]

Reason we won tonight was the solid play of Kyle Singler. Other than that, we should be very alarmed with the lack of shooting ability from Duke as well as the potential season ending injury of Lance Thomas. We couldn't hit layups, we shot horribly, and if we played a team other than UNC (13-11), we probably get blown out by 15+. This is another awful shooting display from us and we have NO inside game. This team will be done by the second weekend in the NCAA Tournament. Good effort and win, but let's be honest, we can't shoot, we were lucky to be playing a terrible team in one of their worst seasons ever, and we are thinner now than we have ever been with losing Thomas. These last 6 ACC games, I think we're lucky to go 2-4. I think we go 1-5.

I'm alarmed that anyone could post something like this after any win at UNC. Not even worth picking apart whatever ounce of logic is contained in that post. And I'm sure everyone else agrees with me. Rubbish.

[Wildling]

Mason infuriates me also sometimes...

He is never where he should be on the court.

He over commits when he should not and he doesn't hustle sometimes either...I don't get it with this kid.

He's a freshman, give him time.

[Duvall]

These last 6 ACC games, I think we're lucky to go 2-4. I think we go 1-5.

You're kidding, right?

Duke won by ten. The line was seven. Sagarin Predictor has Duke as the second-best team in the country, and predicted an eight point win tonight. Pomeroy's rating also has Duke as the second-best team in the country, and predicted an eleven-point win.

Conference road wins are hard, even against bad teams, and especially against desperate teams.

[arnie]

First of all, we should all be concerned about the health of Lance. I hope his knee is just bruised and not torn. The team is quite different without him available.

Good:
Good overall effort. They played hard and the defense and rebounding were strong points, especially considering having to play less experienced big men for a long stretch.

Mason really did well out there with rebounding and scoring in close. He is really the only big man who can put the ball in the basket with any consistency.

Jon had another excellent game and Nolan came back from the nether world to score 10 in the second half. Singler played tough and well throughout.

Zoubek did what he can do in reboundng, clogging the middle, screening and made a really nice pass to Singler in the crunch.

Bad:
Looks like we were rattled. Second straight drop off in free throw shooting.
Very poor shooting percentage inside and overall. Against a better team it would have cost us the game.

We really have very little inside offensive game

I agree, but in the short run we won the game - no matter that the heels are absolutely awful (first game of theirs I've watched in entirety).

[grossbus]

"Rubbish."

another excellent capsule review!

[Wildling]

I'm alarmed that anyone could post something like this after any win at UNC. Not even worth picking apart whatever ounce of logic is contained in that post. And I'm sure everyone else agrees with me. Rubbish.

ditto

[mike88]

The officiating was interesting, but they let them bang under the basket on both ends and you know what there was not the same "chippy" play you see from the bigs at Wake, Clemson and some of the other thuggy players that look to beat the opposing team's bigs down on to the court...

With that said the officiating was pretty piss poor on some other fronts...re: Scheyer's shot blocked by Henson on the way down.

I LOVE the way this game was refereed - they let the teams play yet kept the physicality under control- one of the best of the year in that regard

I am so impressed with our poise and toughness down the stretch!

[GoingFor#5]

Not kidding on my part. Good win, but take off the Duke shaded glasses and look at how we played. Honestly, we played absolutely awful and still won. UNC is evidently terrible. Hey, I just checked the standings and they are second from dead last in the league. If we play like this again, we will get blown out. Write it down that I said that.

Figure out what the game would look like if we shot even 40% from 2-point range. It was an off-shooting night and we still win by 10. I was much more concerned with the NCSU game and that turned out to be an aberration so I doubt we should be that concerned with a bad shooting night against our rival on the road.

[mgtr]

To shoot so poorly and win by ten -- awesome, baby!!!

[Duvall]

Not kidding on my part. Good win, but take off the Duke shaded glasses and look at how we played. Honestly, we played absolutely awful and still won. UNC is evidently terrible. Hey, I just checked the standings and they are second from dead last in the league. If we play like this again, we will get blown out. Write it down that I said that.

Did you notice Carolina, like, not scoring?

There are two ends of the floor. Duke may have struggled offensively, but that was a DOMINANT defensive performance. They got NOTHING in the halfcourt.

[jipops]

Not kidding on my part. Good win, but take off the Duke shaded glasses and look at how we played. Honestly, we played absolutely awful and still won. UNC is evidently terrible. Hey, I just checked the standings and they are second from dead last in the league. If we play like this again, we will get blown out. Write it down that I said that.

Sigh. Your perspective has to be as clear as Roy's.

At the 8:00 mark it was winning time and we delivered, BIG TIME. In that stretch Mason was huge, Scheyer was huge, Nolan was huge, and Singler was huge. What more could you possibly want? Who cares what UNC's record is, they still put a plethora of high level talent on the floor and in case you've never noticed, it's kind of a rivalry. They were amped for this game and it showed on the defensive end.

I love how we gutted this one out. Teams that advance in the tournament win games like this.

[TNDukeFan]

Thought the key play was Mason's reverse jam. Seemed to pump the team up.

I agree.

[BlueintheFace]

I am VERY worried about Lance. If he is out for the season we might need an "It's Over" thread because I don't see us making the Final Four without him. ;)

[devildownunder]

Nice win against the hated heels. It's always fun to send those durn Smurfs packin' -- especially in their building. And I even got to see a little bit of it live. All in all a fine night.

Get well Lance.

[Cockabeau]

Guy this game is not a reliable indictator.

If we hit our jumpshots....we can beat anyone in the country.
If we don't hit jumpshots.... we are able to grind out ugly wins.

Points from inside isn't the be all and end all. We play physical and with depth to wear down our opponent.

[A-Tex Devil]

Honestly, we played absolutely awful and still won.

I'll take it. One game at a time, my friend. We will be fine. Will we run into a better team in the NCAA tourney and get taken out? Likely. I am not a homer. Ask the mods that have given me penalty points in the past. But I like this team, and we can beat anyone on a given night. Can we lose to anyone? Well, yes. But NC State game aside, this is the steadiest team I remember since 2004. And I like that.

[bird]

Man, this week is what's it all about. Duke women blow out UNC, and Duke men definitively show UNC who has the better team at the Dean Dome - in front of Hans.

On the men's side, I'm hoping for another triple crown season, among other things. But a triple crown, or even a sweep, would be high up on my list of desireable team accomplishments.

[Billy Dat]

This was a really exciting game for several reasons:

1. We beat UNC for the first time in 2 years, on the road no less.
2. Despite really sucking on offense for 3/4 of the game, we were fairly sublime for the final 7 minutes.
3. The injury to Lance forced K to give Mason extended minutes and the kid responded. Forget everything he did in the first half, he played GREAT in the second half. You didn't notice him on defense because he was playing great and not fouling, plus protecting the rim. He was a menace on the offensive boards.
4. Even Miles played pretty well in the second half. How about that frisky mid range jumper off the glass...where did that come from? And that was during a tense part of the game.
5. Our defense was great in the second half.
6. Nolan decided to take off the warm-ups in the second half and do what he does.
7. Jon and Kyle..nuff said

Bottom line, aside from the hugeness of the win vs UNC, we played really well that last 7 minutes...save that part of the tape and destroy the rest.

[dukebluelemur]

Really proud of the guys down the stretch... When lance went out I know some in the chat were expecting a collapse, but the guys really gutted it out. Not to diminish lance's impact, but it was really encouraging to see us pull away with him out.

Any game we shoot 32% from the field and 62% from the line, I'm just happy to leave with a win.

[roywhite]

Nothing quite like watching the Devils close one out in a quiet Dean Dome.

[UrinalCake]

Thought the key play was Mason's reverse jam. Seemed to pump the team up.

I agree that that was a key play, and I saw a lot more energy out of Mason after that play. What I found interesting is that it was almost an identical play to the one in the Wake Forest game - a reverse slam, pulling up on the rim a little, then slapping the backboard. He was fortunate to not get a technical in both games, and I hope he can learn to channel his aggressiveness without getting out of control.

Scheyer's three to put us up by 9 was an absolute dagger!

[Exiled_Devil]

Post Game - Coach K just said that Lance doesn't have an ACL injury, but is hurt and hte next 24 hours will tell

Edit: Also, if Lance is out, Kyle may see the 4 more

[flyingdutchdevil]

Great defensive performance by Duke. We gave UNC nothing.

It was an important and defining win, but it was an ugly win. Our offense was suspect, especially in the first half. We were 3-28 in the first half and 13-51 for the game on 2s. Basically, we shot our 3s twice as well as our 2s (50% vs. 25%).

[BlueintheFace]

"It's serious"

"I don't think it's his ACL, but it's his knee"

- K

(grooooan)

[Andre Buckner Fan]

I desperately want to get footage of Hansbrough's face right after Mason Plumlee's reverse jam. That play set the tone for us, and allowed us to get our offensive mojo back.

(That was a very key rebound by Dawkins as well, it kicked off our run.)

We completely ruined Hansbrough's banner raising night and I couldn't be happier!

[jipops]

I am VERY worried about Lance. If he is out for the season we might need an "It's Over" thread because I don't see us making the Final Four without him. ;)

I have no info but based on the contact that occurred I would bet anything he just bruised his knee. He'll probably be out vs. Maryland but my money is on him being back soon. He'll be fine, we'll be fine.

[tecumseh]

I thought Duke looked tight and with that had a bad shooting night especially in the first half. These things happen. BUT Duke shot 20 some percent in the first half and was ahead? Barely over 30 and won by double digits.

This is a very weak UNC team who needed this win to turn it around They still have at Ga Tech, at BC, at Wake, and at Duke. Yikes.

[A-Tex Devil]

This was a really exciting game for several reasons:

1. We beat UNC for the first time in 2 years, on the road no less.
2. Despite really sucking on offense for 3/4 of the game, we were fairly sublime for the final 7 minutes.
3. The injury to Lance forced K to give Mason extended minutes and the kid responded. Forget everything he did in the first half, he played GREAT in the second half. You didn't notice him on defense because he was playing great and not fouling, plus protecting the rim. He was a menace on the offensive boards.
4. Even Miles played pretty well in the second half. How about that frisky mid range jumper off the glass...where did that come from? And that was during a tense part of the game.
5. Our defense was great in the second half.
6. Nolan decided to take off the warm-ups in the second half and do what he does.
7. Jon and Kyle..nuff said

Bottom line, aside from the hugeness of the win vs UNC, we played really well that last 7 minutes...save that part of the tape and destroy the rest.

This

[jv001]

Mason infuriates me also sometimes...

He is never where he should be on the court.

He over commits when he should not and he doesn't hustle sometimes either...I don't get it with this kid.

I take it you're kidding because I thought Mason stepped up pretty well after Lance went down. Maybe I was looking at someone else and thought it was Mason. Go Duke!

[duke111]

Obviously the Thomas injury is an area of concern, but I was very impressed by the play of Duke. This is Duke and UNC people. UNC was going to give it everything they had. Granted, Duke doesn't play very well on the road, but they responded when they needed to and made huge plays down the stretch. You could tell Scheyer wanted that three pointer towards the end and drained it like a man. I was also very impressed with Masons play. He stepped up both offensively and defensively with Thomas hurt.

Overall, I think we could have played better obviously, but a very, very strong performance by Duke.

[JonnyWonder]

I was getting really riled up with our missed shots midway through the second half, then I had a quasi-epiphany. I love this team. I need to check some of my expectations at the door, and once I do, they are a blast to watch. Not so much the missed shots or tough time finishing tonight, but the diving on the floor, beating UNC on the hustle plays, and Scheyer's dagger 3 near the end. Classic Duke. I love it.

I am often one of the people who can't even enjoy the wins if we play pretty bad, but this is Duke-UNC. The rankings go out the door, and at the end of the day, we gutted out the win. Whatever happens next, this is a nice one to have under the belt.

[DU82]

Man, this week is what's it all about. Duke women blow out UNC, and Duke men definitively show UNC who has the better team at the Dean Dome - in front of Hans.

On the men's side, I'm hoping for another triple crown season, among other things. But a triple crown, or even a sweep, would be high up on my list of desireable team accomplishments.

What makes you think they'll get to play us three times this year? :-)

[Exiled_Devil]

Coach K said 'I am coaching this game like one of my teams form the eighties. the mid-eighties." Does anyone know what that means?

Also, this was the 100th victory for the senior class. Wohoo!

[ChrisP]

Figure out what the game would look like if we shot even 40% from 2-point range. It was an off-shooting night and we still win by 10. I was much more concerned with the NCSU game and that turned out to be an aberration so I doubt we should be that concerned with a bad shooting night against our rival on the road.

Heck, I would have taken 35% :D

Dadgummit!

[trinity92]

Awesome effort against a carolina team that gave it everything it had. If we hit our free-throws at our usual rate and Graves wasn't borderline unconscious, we win by 15+. We destroyed unc on the glass. Utterly manhandled them. We did an amazing job neutralizing Davis with double teams, our guards stayed in front of Drew and especially Strickland better than I thought they could. Mason played his guttiest game yet and dropped a reverse jam all over them 'holes.

Aside from a couple unc goaltends that didn't get called, I thought the game was pretty well officiated, allowing the teams to play tough but clean. Believe me, we benefitted from the loose calling more than carolina-- we're a lot tougher than they are, and our bigs didn't get in foul trouble in the simple act of setting screens. Refs were for the most part consistent-- on back to back possessions, singler and possibly davis both got mugged in the lane with no calls.

At home, we'll beat them by 20+ and get to heckle them mercilessly about missing the NIT. I got to see carolina players with a dazed look as their weaka** fans filed out before the final buzzer. I will never have to see hansblow's father ever again. The universe is in balance. I will sleep well tonight.

GO DEVILS!

[jv001]

I desperately want to get footage of Hansbrough's face right after Mason Plumlee's reverse jam. That play set the tone for us, and allowed us to get our offensive mojo back.

(That was a very key rebound by Dawkins as well, it kicked off our run.)

We completely ruined Hansbrough's banner raising night and I couldn't be happier!

Yeh and it was in front of hb as well. Good win at a great time. Now let's get em in CIS. But first take care of the twerps and get a 2 game lead in the conference standings. Go Duke!

[DevilHorns]

Im so happy right now. We ruined Tylers banner night.

and btw, Ginyard does have head issues. He needs to just let loose like Graves... its kind of sad.

[Wildling]

"It's serious"

"I don't think it's his ACL, but it's his knee"

- K

(grooooan)

It looked like he hyper extended it from the replay I saw.

[roywhite]

I thought Duke looked tight and with that had a bad shooting night especially in the first half. These things happen. BUT Duke shot 20 some percent in the first half and was ahead? Barely over 30 and won by double digits.

This is a very weak UNC team who needed this win to turn it around They still have at Ga Tech, at BC, at Wake, and at Duke. Yikes.

UNC played with great intensity for most of the game and played with a desperate pride. Their team doesn't fit together very well, but they wouldn't be 13-11 if they played this hard all the time.

Duke showed its poise and toughness down the stretch. Key shots and key stops in the last 7 minutes...that was winning time.

A road win over UNC...a good thing, very good.

[Coballs]

My biggest concern about LT is the possibility of a fractured patella kneecap given the direct way in which he knee was struck.

[dukeman28428]

Be happy for our players and fans. A win at the Dean Dome with Hansborough m(jersey retirement) and family and others rooting against you and Duke comes away with a victory is a good night. As far as Mason is concerned, I like his "meanness" and he is going to be a great player. I am very proud of Duke and may not sleep all night savoring the victory. GO DUKE

[flyingdutchdevil]

Awesome effort against a carolina team that gave it everything it had.[GO DEVILS!

I know we won, and that our defense was amazing, but if that is all Carolina has, then they are a bad team. Period. Their record not included, if an opposing team shoots 25% from 2 (which we did today) and the home team still loses, then they must be really bad.

Important win for Duke, but UNC is plain awful.

[chainsaw89]

... and will tip to the Dark Side on Mar 6th.

[Exiled_Devil]

We held UNC to their season low in points. Huh.

Also, I know it's been mentioned already, but let me add that I look forward to many more reverse dunks by Plumlee. Methinks the young man has a signature move.


Edit: I think people are making waaaaaay too much about Duke's shooting percentage. That 25% includes blocked shots. We need to give UNC some credit for the amazing number of blocks they had tonight. Also, credit to the refs for ignoring goaltending. but seriously, someone needs to look at the stats on shooting percentage without blocks.

Edit 2: We were 13 for 51 from 2 (according to ESPN and some beer) They blocked at least 10 shots. Discounting blocks, that makes 13 for 41, which is 31% from 2. That's still well below our season average (46%) but not as bad.

So its not that we were terrible. We were okay, and they went nuts blocking shots.

They do count blocked shots in FG%, don't they?

[BlueintheFace]

Andre and Ryan, in to the fire you go...

[sagegrouse]

Reason we won tonight was the solid play of Kyle Singler. Other than that, we should be very alarmed with the lack of shooting ability from Duke as well as the potential season ending injury of Lance Thomas. We couldn't hit layups, we shot horribly, and if we played a team other than UNC (13-11), we probably get blown out by 15+. This is another awful shooting display from us and we have NO inside game. This team will be done by the second weekend in the NCAA Tournament. Good effort and win, but let's be honest, we can't shoot, we were lucky to be playing a terrible team in one of their worst seasons ever, and we are thinner now than we have ever been with losing Thomas. These last 6 ACC games, I think we're lucky to go 2-4. I think we go 1-5.

Gee, what do you say if we lose????? And BTW, why don't you change your post name?

sagegrouse

[Dukeface88]

Thought the key play was Mason's reverse jam. Seemed to pump the team up.

It wasn't just the team. There was a watch party in Cameron. Before the dunk, everyone was sitting down, watching the game like a normal game on TV (well, normal for a bunch of Duke fans). Afterwards, everyone stood up and started cheering like it was a home game - chants, jumping up and down, the whole nine yards. That was right when the big run started. I'd like to think the team could hear us in the Nose Dome :D. It was pretty awesome.

Anyway, thoughts on the game. Yes, we shot poorly, partly because of North Carolina's "shot blocking", and partly from nerves. However, I thought the team showed good hustle on the boards and D (and really, this game wouldn't have even been close without those ridiculous 20 foot from the arc 3's).

If I was going to make a criticism, it would be with the off ball movement and passing. This really seems to me to be the root of our road problems. When we away, the team falls into the habit of standing around while one guy goes one-on-one (or one-on-two, or one-on-three...), which leads to contested shots and low shooting %. When we're at home, we move better off the ball, and we move the ball around more.

Still, a very good win. This was The Game Records Don't Matter, and the good guys got it done.

Edit: Any word on Lance?

[superdave]

If we can get 7 and 9 out of Mason every game, including 3 offensive rebounds converted to 3 baskets, we'll round out very nicely as a team.

Zoubek had 2 assists and no turnovers. His A:TO ratio is infinity.

Miles had some nice rebounds too. And a nice Duncan-esque bank shot.

I look forward to hearing LT just needs a brief break and some ice!

[roywhite]

Andre and Ryan, in to the fire you go...

Remember a Boozer injury right around this time in February, 2001 that brought about some improvisation and crucial development by some bench players.

I hope Lance doesn't miss much time, but others can do the job and lead to an even better team when Lance returns.

[CLW]

LT's injury along with Miles' almost if not in fact regressing is VERY concerning. This team is going to go as far as the bigs will take us. We need a low post scoring option. It almost seemed like the Carolina bigs didnt even bother guarding our 4 and 5 (unless Singler was at the 4) and just roamed the paint and blocked are guards shots in the lane repeatedly.

[weezie]

If we can get 7 and 9 out of Mason every game, including 3 offensive rebounds converted to 3 baskets, we'll round out very nicely as a team.


Mason with the GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Just love his 'tude. And I think he and MIles will be very good together. Man, we sure put some beef out there when they play together. They see each other.

[CDu]

Wow. I was sweating bullets until about 4 minutes to go in the game. What an awesome finish to a very stressful first 30+ minutes.

UNC's size really gave us problems inside. We kept going in tentatively, and they kept swatting shots away. You have to go up strong against a shotblocking team, and we didn't do it early. We did figure it out later in the second half thankfully.

Scheyer took a couple of HUGE threes late in the second half. When he took them, I didn't feel like they were great shots. But he was feeling it apparently, and they went in. I thought the 3 to answer Graves's 3 and push the lead back to 4 was monstrous. Then we had our one fast break bucket, and then the Singler layup. And then Scheyer sealed the game with that second big three.

Obviously Mason has had his share of struggles in 2010, but I thought he took a step forward tonight. We really needed him to give us minutes at the 4 in the second half when Thomas went down (I really hope he's okay), and he did a pretty good job of staying on the floor. It looks like he played a career-high 27 minutes. Also, he did a good job of making himself present on the boards tonight - especially the offensive boards. His offensive game is still raw, but if he can make the hustle plays and pound the boards (without fouling) he can be an impact player for us. Hopefully he can build off this performance when we REALLY needed him.

Tough first half for Smith, but he really stepped up in the second half. It seems like Coach K told him to get it going, because he came out looking to score right away.

I realize UNC is down this year, but they're still talented and they really wanted this game. To go on the road and have as tough an offensive night as we had and still come out with a double-digit win is huge. We survived one of the worst collective FG efforts from our big 3 this year (18-52 from the field, only 1.02 points per shot) and still got the win, which says "kudos to the defense" to me.

And I really hope Thomas's injury is "just" a knee bruise and that he's only out for at most a game or two.

[CDu]

Andre and Ryan, in to the fire you go...

I think it'll be Mason getting the majority of Thomas's minutes (if he can stay out of foul trouble), although Dawkins and Kelly will certainly see added minutes.

I did like that Coach K went "small" with Singler at the 4 for stretches of that second half.

But hopefully Thomas is not out for any length of time.

[roywhite]

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=22724&SPID=1845&DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=204885088

Official boxscore.

Duke was more efficient on offense in the second half, shooting 44.9%.

Duke out-rebounded UNC by 51 to 42; not often that happens.

[greybeard]

Very frustrating being in DC and not getting it on cable. Tried for first time to find it on on-line radio. Yeah right.

This would have been a season-maker for Carolina. They are never easy or pretty. Congrats to the entire team.

BTW, very excellent, Jumbo. Just the right touch; made me laugh.

[The Gordog]

Coach K said 'I am coaching this game like one of my teams form the eighties. the mid-eighties." Does anyone know what that means?

Also, this was the 100th victory for the senior class. Wohoo!

I'll have to sleep on that one. But I remember thinking in the first half that this was just like some big games in 1985 when Johnny and Alarie were the only ones scoring. Eventually the others would get just enough on track to gut out an ugly win. Could he be referring to something like that?

[BD80]

Just another workmanlike win on the road against the 11th place team in the conference.:cool:

Looks like the heels are going to need some wins in the post-season tournies (ACC and NIT) to get to 20 wins this year.

Hopefully, the coaches can convince the MPs that with the extra PT they will now be getting, we REALLY can't afford for them to get reach in fouls. They will have plenty of time to make plays within the flow of our offense and defense.

[gwwilburn]

I was shaking for the first 7/8ths of this game, especially when LT went down. However, it turned out all right now, and hopefully it will turn out fine with Lance.

Scheyer was ice cold (except at the line), so props to him. Nice game from Kyle, and nice second halves from Mason and Nolan.
However, no one has mentioned Zoubek's block in the first half, which I declare should henceforth be known as the ZouBlock.

[BleedsP287]

Reason we won tonight was the solid play of Kyle Singler. Other than that, we should be very alarmed with the lack of shooting ability from Duke as well as the potential season ending injury of Lance Thomas. We couldn't hit layups, we shot horribly, and if we played a team other than UNC (13-11), we probably get blown out by 15+. This is another awful shooting display from us and we have NO inside game. This team will be done by the second weekend in the NCAA Tournament. Good effort and win, but let's be honest, we can't shoot, we were lucky to be playing a terrible team in one of their worst seasons ever, and we are thinner now than we have ever been with losing Thomas. These last 6 ACC games, I think we're lucky to go 2-4. I think we go 1-5.
I think we'll do pretty well down the stretch. In fact if I had to pick tonight I'd say Duke wins the ACC regular season (assuming LT is back). One of our biggest problems tonight was simply not getting back on defense fast enough. Take away all those easy transition baskets and this game isn't nearly as close. That's an error we can correct, and did in the last 8 minutes or so. We also shot poorly from the stripe, that isn't likely to continue. Granted we're still not playing well on the road. And we need more of an inside game for sure. But the officiating tonight didn't help...I saw several "blocks" that looked a lot like goaltending to me.

All in all a scrappy game. Credit UNC for playing pretty good defense and bringing a lot more emotion than they had been. We figured that would happen so I'm just glad to get out of there with a win. I think we beat them by 15+ at Cameron.

Nice to see Mason have some success. Prayers for Lance. GTHC.

[-jk]

Very frustrating being in DC and not getting it on cable. Tried for first time to find it on on-line radio. Yeah right.

This would have been a season-maker for Carolina. They are never easy or pretty. Congrats to the entire team.

BTW, very excellent, Jumbo. Just the right touch; made me laugh.

It was on DC 20 locally.

-jk

[SCMatt33]

First of all, it is a great day whenever Duke beats UNC. GTHC!!!!

Now, there were several positives and negatives about the game tonight, Lance's injury notwithstanding.

Positives:

1) Up by 1 with 6:00 left, Scheyer drains a huge 3 and UNC didn't make another bucket until there was less than a minute left and Duke was up 11. Over the weekend, Duke was able to hang on against BC, tonight we were able to win going away.

2) Interior D. This has been a big problem at times, but Lance before he got hurt, Z and Mason did a pretty darn good job forcing tough shots, getting a couple of blocks, and pulling in boards.

3) Speaking of boards, great job on the offensive glass. When your opponents go for blocks like carolina did, that generally leaves someone open on the boards. We took advantage of it.

4) Shooting. 9-18 from 3. Hopefully this is the first step toward getting rid of the "we can't shoot outside of Cameron" thing.

5) I think one of the biggest moves of the game down the stretch was putting Singler on Graves after he hit the three to close within one. Graves only got off one more three after that on a screen and scheyer was right there to contest it. It reminded me a lot of the Jimmy Baron game when Kyle had to shut him down at the very end.

Negatives:

1) Getting blocked. I give UNC a lot of credit here. Davis and Henson are long and athletic. You can complain about us being weak going to the net, but not a lot of teams will have two shot blockers like that on the court. We were able to exploit their aggressiveness in other areas to compensate.

A corollary to this is getting to the foul line. I feel like this game was being called similarly to what you might see in a tournament situation. A lot of body contact was let go and most stuff with the hands was called. Singler and Scheyer both seek out contact going to the rim and it can be hard to adjust when those types of fouls aren't being called.

Duke adjusted well to both of these in the second half getting blocked less and getting more layups in.

2) FT shooting. Just a bad night. I'm not worried about it right now.

[superdave]

Drew, Ginyard and Dexter were a combined 8-29 from field and 2-13 from 3, 6 assists and 5 TOs.


Thompson and Davis (their leading scorers) only took 11 shots.

[CDu]

Drew, Ginyard and Dexter were a combined 8-29 from field and 2-13 from 3, 6 assists and 5 TOs.


Thompson and Davis (their leading scorers) only took 11 shots.

This has been the problem for UNC all season. Their two best players are Davis and Thompson, and yet the team hasn't found a way to get those two guys the ball in good scoring position on any kind of consistent basis.

I'm just thankful that they didn't figure it out tonight. Such an important win for us, to bury a team on the road when they were matching our intensity for so much of the game.

[watzone]

Here is the post game press conference with Coach K - http://bluedevilnation.net/2010/02/bdn-duke-locker-room-report-coach-k-audio-from-press-conference/

[dukebluelemur]

Is it just me or is 7 team rebounds rather high? Ultimately stats don't matter, but getting credit for your work in a box score has to help a persons confidence...

[greybeard]

It was on DC 20 locally.

-jk

Oops :o

[devildownunder]

7 points and 9 rebounds for Mason. Not enormous numbers but he got 27 minutes in THE game and we won. That should help build his confidence a little.

Did he and Lance play together much or was this mostly after lance got hurt? Sorry, I didn't get to see much of the game.

[InSpades]

1st off... any night that involves Duke beating UNC is a good night! Thanks boys, I needed one of those!

Jon Scheyer... what more can you say? I know Mason's reverse dunk was big but Jon's "response" 3 after Graves cut the lead to 1 and then his "dagger" 3 to stretch it to 9 were ridiculous.

I'm curious as to how many of UNC's blocks led to UNC actually getting the ball. It seemed like Duke got atleast half of them (maybe even a couple more than half). As bad as Duke shot the ball... they managed to score 64 points in something like 58 possessions which isn't awful.

Let's hope Lance is okay... we can get by a few games without him but we'll need him before all is said and done.

[Exiled_Devil]

I just checked the game tracker, and the Mason reverse dunk (+backboard slap - he needs to drop that part) was the beginning of the 15-5 run that sealed the game for us.

Following the dunk? Scheyer asssited by Smith, Scheyer 3; Smith assisted by Scheyer; Singler assisted by Zoo ;Scheyer 3.


Its great to have three solid scorers.

I expect some are very excited to see Plumlee and Plumlee in the game. I am interested in seeing how Scheyer-Smith-Singler-Plumlee-Plumlee did in the plus/minus. It seemed like a good foreshadow of last year, minus Scheyer.

[jv001]

For anyone interested in this sort of thing:
ldrewII..11pts..4/15fgs, 1/8 threes, 4 rebs, 4 assist, 2 to's, in 33 mins.

Jon Scheyer..24 pts, 7/20 fgs, 5/9 threes, 5 rebs, 4 assist, 1 to, 1 blk, 2 stls, in 40 mins..

I'd say that Jon won the battle of the point guards. Go Duke!

[BD80]

Really enjoyed this game.

Seeing Hans at the end with those weepy puppy dog eyes make this a very special game.

Golly roy, you couldn't even fire up the team to win one for the traveler?

[JayBean]

I spent most of the game just trying to figure out if Nolan was hurt and swearing at the tv. Once he got going somewhat, I relaxed just a bit...

Concerned about Lance, but I am glad Mason stepped up.

[elvis14]

Any win over the Holes is a great game and a great win. ACC road wins are tough to come by. I'm so happy. GTHC GTH! I love that we beat the Holes on the night Hanscheater had his jersey retired. GTH Hansblahblah GTH.


i apologize for my lack of faith...i have had to take a lot of crap from business "associates" the last four years and i just had a really bad feeling about the game tonight....

I admit that I also had a bad feeling. UNC was playing at home with their back against the wall, Hansputz's jersey being retired, etc.


The officiating was interesting, but they let them bang under the basket on both ends and you know what there was not the same "chippy" play you see from the bigs at Wake, Clemson and some of the other thuggy players that look to beat the opposing team's bigs down on to the court...

With that said the officiating was pretty piss poor on some other fronts...re: Scheyer's shot blocked by Henson on the way down.


I LOVE the way this game was refereed - they let the teams play yet kept the physicality under control- one of the best of the year in that regard

I HATE the way this game was refereed - they let the Holes play and took away our advantage as the better team. They needed to foul and they did (it wasn't called). We didn't need to foul. By ignoring the rules the refs evened the playing field in the Holes favor yet we overcame and kicked their sorry butts! With 10 minutes left, we had taken 3 free throws. Until they started killing the clock UNC had only 5 team fouls.


This was a really exciting game for several reasons:
4. Even Miles played pretty well in the second half. How about that frisky mid range jumper off the glass...where did that come from? And that was during a tense part of the game.

Every now and then Miles takes an entry pass and scores off the glass like it was nothing. He did it tonight, made it look easy. I'd love to see him figure out that it really is that easy and make more of these.

On another front, the local announcers and editing was annoying. Every decent UNC play was shown as a reply. The announcers were pro-UNC and made excuses for them. When they weren't scoring they didn't give our D credit. When Jon was shooting so so they repeatedly mentioned how good a job Ginyard was doing. Oh well, I'll take a win with annoying anouncers than a loss any day of the week.

9F
9F' - Go to Hell Hansbeaker Go to Hell

[arydolphin]

Apparently Nolan wasn't satisfied with how he played tonight, this is what he just posted on Twitter: "About to get in the gym! Get some shots up!! ASAP!!"

[moonpie23]

Apparently Nolan wasn't satisfied with how he played tonight, this is what he just posted on Twitter: "About to get in the gym! Get some shots up!! ASAP!!"

now THAT's what i wanna hear from him.... !!! GO NOLAN

[superdave]

Maryland at 1pm Saturday. It's officially time to look ahead. We played Greivis pretty well last year.

[COYS]

For anyone interested in this sort of thing:
ldrewII..11pts..4/15fgs, 1/8 threes, 4 rebs, 4 assist, 2 to's, in 33 mins.

Jon Scheyer..24 pts, 7/20 fgs, 5/9 threes, 5 rebs, 4 assist, 1 to, 1 blk, 2 stls, in 40 mins..

I'd say that Jon won the battle of the point guards. Go Duke!

Another telling stat is that Drew Too took 15 shots . . . more than anyone else on the team. We shut down all of UNC's primary options on offense, never allowed entry passes, never allowed their bigs to get good position, and forced Drew into a ton of tough shots. Excellent defensive game planning. If we reduced the three or four times that we got caught with three guys trying to strip the UNC player getting a defensive rebound we probably stop three more transition buckets and this win becomes even more impressive.

[HateCarolina]

I was getting really riled up with our missed shots midway through the second half, then I had a quasi-epiphany. I love this team. I need to check some of my expectations at the door, and once I do, they are a blast to watch. Not so much the missed shots or tough time finishing tonight, but the diving on the floor, beating UNC on the hustle plays, and Scheyer's dagger 3 near the end. Classic Duke. I love it.

I am often one of the people who can't even enjoy the wins if we play pretty bad, but this is Duke-UNC. The rankings go out the door, and at the end of the day, we gutted out the win. Whatever happens next, this is a nice one to have under the belt.

Very well said!!

[DevilHorns]

This win feels incredibly good. It is incredibly satisfying. Scheyer said something to the tune of not getting this win earlier in the season. I agree. This team is a mature team. This team is experienced. As K said, this team isn't great, but it is very very good. Ill take that.

[ricks68]

Oops :o

My nephew called from Atlanta during the game and said it was blacked out both on the local ESPN channnel and ESPN360.com. I referred him to JustinTV.com, and it was on there. If all else fails, give that a try next time.

ricks

[Andre Buckner Fan]

UNC may not even make the 2,000 wins mark this year. They have several tough road games down the stretch. They need three wins, and with their schedule remaining, that's no gimme.

I would love to see Kansas get 2,000 before UNC. Kansas needs seven more wins.

This could be the season that destroys Ol' Roy's dadgum, precious winning percentage.

I love it!

[HateCarolina]

I know we won, and that our defense was amazing, but if that is all Carolina has, then they are a bad team. Period. Their record not included, if an opposing team shoots 25% from 2 (which we did today) and the home team still loses, then they must be really bad.

Important win for Duke, but UNC is plain awful.

And them being "just plain awful" is a bad thing!!! I'm loving it all the way to the office to tell my UNC grad cohorts what a beautiful game it was.

To make it even greater it was the first time my baby daughter was able to be decked out in her Duke regalia and sit in my lap for her first Duke/UNC ritual!!

[HateCarolina]

My nephew called from Atlanta during the game and said it was blacked out both on the local ESPN channnel and ESPN360.com. I referred him to JustinTV.com, and it was on there. If all else fails, give that a try next time.

ricks

It was on Raycom down here in atlanta. Its 13 or 813 (HD) on Comcast.

[dukejim1]

K at the end of the game pointing into the crowd. Don't know whether he was acknowledging a Duke person or responding to a Carolina fan. Maybe somebody that went to the game had a better view than TV.

[-bdbd]

:D
LT's injury along with Miles' almost if not in fact regressing is VERY concerning. This team is going to go as far as the bigs will take us. We need a low post scoring option. It almost seemed like the Carolina bigs didnt even bother guarding our 4 and 5 (unless Singler was at the 4) and just roamed the paint and blocked are guards shots in the lane repeatedly.

In the post-game presser K volunteered that he thought LT's knee injury was "serious." MRI coming soon. I just hope that we can get him back before season's end (his senior/last season). We will miss him, as he clearly delivers a lot of the intangibles - usually great interior D, smart plays (such as stepping into passing lanes), he's our fastest "big," and great intensity/focus (leads by example). We'll be seeing more of Mason Plumlee and Andre Dawkins (with Kyle at the 4) in coming games -- K was complimentary of their play tonight. Really could have used him vs MD.

Though we should have adapted better, the style of calls from these refs - as one poster noted, calling hand contact but not calling physical body contact, played much to NC's advantage. We're much better when games are called tighter than this. Many of those blocks were not actual blocks (2 goal-tends, at least three GT's folowed serious body contact, and the reulting tentativeness of our bigs going up led to several MORE blocks). The TV announcer did at least point out that the blocks don't help you if you don't recover the ball, and it helped us get several more offensive rebounds (I just wish our guys would, when seeing the interior double team/blocker coming on, just lob it up near the rim as we usually had an open body there waiting...)

Great gut-it-out win for the still-growing Duke squad. Now time for Dre and Mason to kick it up into a higher gear -- we'll need them.


:D :D :D (Life is good.)

[DUKIE V(A)]

As many have pointed out, any win against Carolina is a great win especially at their place. It made it sweeter that they were within striking distance at the end and our guys played masterfully at both ends of the court down the stretch to get it done.

I have to give Carolina credit for playing much better D than I had seen them play in a while. I incorrectly felt we would be able to expose their D and score a ton. We definitely missed some shots we normally make, but sometimes that is a function of your opponents. I agree with the assessments of many that there were some bad non-calls on the goaltends (I think this is happening more and more in college hoops) and that this had a big impact on our shooting. However, the refs were consistently letting the Big Men play on both ends and again Carolina did a nice job of forcing us into tough shots down low. Ultimately, our guys made some nice adjustments, including taking it stronger to the basket and two beautiful pump fakes by Mason.

Credit to the whole team and coaching staff for coming up big tonight. I am already looking forward to getting those guys in Cameron. We can only hope a .500 record and their NIT bid is up for grabs.

I wish LT the best. I hope his injury is not too serious. Hopefully, he can come back sooner rather than later. I expect that Mason, Miles, Ryan, and Andre will make the most of their opportunity.

[Pernell]

I'm hoping this is a parody post or you're just a troll.

Okay, so Cameron has some pointed opinions on the team. And while seemingly negative, I can't say I didn't think the same thing during a majority of the 1st half and parts of the 2nd half.

Sure UNC was amped for this game, and they were playing inspired ball for their season, Hansborough, and whoever, but still we played poorly. Scheyer's fg percentage was pretty poor, but I don't fault him. He was trying to make things happen to keep us in the game. I really love this kid and his heart. I'm not into on-line voting, but I'll definitely vote a few times for this kid regarding the Cousy Award.

But I was really disappointed with Nolan. Sure he came back and made some shots in the 2nd half but his energy and aggressiveness was just off. I decided to watch him for most of the 1st half. He wasn't aggressive when he had the ball and he wasn't aggressively trying to get the ball. He seemed to just be watching Jon create on his own and hope that he'd save the day. At times, I was curious if maybe he was hurt. Because this is a huge game you'd think he'd be a little more passionate. But I guess clearly something was said during halftime as he was more aggressive. But still this is UNC....

Yes Cameron is right, we did--particularly our bigs--miss a ton of layups. I don't really count the ones Lance missed, because I accept Lance for his limitations and don't expect him to make some of these shots. But some of the ones Zoubek missed, he should've just slammed them home. Yet, I'm not too concerned by this as much as I am about Nolan's lack of aggressiveness.

I think down the road Mason and Andre need more quality minutes--for other conference games but also for the NCAAs. They need to be battle tested and the way Dre was playing in the beginning of the year, surely warrants him to have a longer leash while he's out there.

At the end of the day, yes, I am happy that we beat Carolina and spoiled Hansborough's big night. But like Cameron, but maybe not as emphatic, I do think that this game should be instructive in helping us improve for a deeper run in the NCAAs.

[gumbomoop]

Allow me again to refer to MarkD83's important point [from No Depth thread]: "....the difference between this year and the past 2-3 years is that Duke still plays only 7-8 players but does not have one player that other teams can key on. The three S's have not all had a great game together, but they have all had great games. Therefore, it will be difficult for opposing teams to design a game plan that works."

While it's true that a very-good-not-great Duke was unable to dominate a strangely disorganized UNC team, and that Duke still has trouble with quick guards, it's also true that opposing teams have to hope that 3-S aren't hitting their 3s, because this team is tough to shut down for an entire game.

True that various commentators - and a fair # of posters on DBR - are firmly convinced that our short rotation will limit our season, but in this very tense and intense game, 3-S sure didn't look tired: NS came alive in 2d half, KS never stopped moving on either O or D, and JS..... ummmm...... hit some real nice shots late.

No guaranteed wins [incl @Miami], but if our guys have some maddening flaws, they're not easy to defend, and not so easy to score on, either. I am mostly puzzled by UNC's lack of leadership, or heart, or whatever. But Duke lacks neither leadership, nor heart, nor fierce, take-no-plays-off intensity. Save for idiot Duke-haters, bball watchers acknowledge that "Duke plays every play." They know they have to, and so they do.

[Greg_Newton]

The universe is in balance. I will sleep well tonight.

This is a good summary of my feelings right now. I had to mute the game so I wouldn't have a heart attack, but boy, what a relief.

IMO, this was a HUGE win for us, on a lot of levels. Player development and everything else we debate be damned, this feels great. UNC has owned Duke for as long as any of our current players have been around, and they've been well aware of this... this is an enormous monkey to get off our back. Our guys can confidently say they're back in the driver's seat on 15-501, which is something they haven't been able to do for a while. Should be fun to burst their NIT bubble at Cameron in a month.

Nolan was off today, but he had a couple of huge buckets for us early in the 2nd half when UNC was really getting some momentum and the crowd was really getting into it. He can really quiet a crowd. I will say that I would like to see him get a few minutes of rest each game - Drew was getting to the rim at will against him late, when he was straightening up and breaking his stance a lot. Usually a sign of fatigue, and I've noticed it before with Nolan.

I thought Mason played within himself much better today, and he really brought it for a game game. His body language was a lot better than BC (he was really listening to his elders when they spoke), and he really didn't make that many mistakes for playing 27 minutes. One of the few times he did lose his man on D resulted in one of my favorite plays of the game - an open Henson going up for a dunk, encountering a wall of Plumlees, getting rejected, and getting knocked back on his butt.

(Side note: Mason vs. Henson is going to be an great matchup in years to come if they hang around. They both so long and play so much higher above the rim than anyone else on the court, it's fun to watch them go at each other.)

I love the Z-to-cutting-Kyle connection. I wish Z wouldn't be so scared to put a shot up though. He gets great position, makes a strong move and... stops, turns around, and kicks it out. Don't be shy, big fella!

One thing I'm wondering about - we've been worrying about our lack of reliable inside scoring, and why? Security in the event that our guards are missing. However, I don't think it's coincidence that the bursts of O-rebounding and points from our bigs come when our guards are missing a lot of their shots. They seem to clean up the glass pretty well and produce when they need to, so is it really a problem they're not scoring on iso drop steps? It would be nice, but may not be as crucial as we think.

Sure hope LT's okay.

[1999ballboy]

Another telling stat is that Drew Too took 15 shots . . . more than anyone else on the team. We shut down all of UNC's primary options on offense, never allowed entry passes, never allowed their bigs to get good position, and forced Drew into a ton of tough shots.
Partly this, and partly Drew just hurled a bunch of shots because he didn't bother looking for their primary options. He really seemed to panic a lot during Duke's late run.

[Wildling]

K at the end of the game pointing into the crowd. Don't know whether he was acknowledging a Duke person or responding to a Carolina fan. Maybe somebody that went to the game had a better view than TV.

I was wondering who he was pointing too myself.

[flyingdutchdevil]

I was wondering who he was pointing too myself.

According to Seth Davis, he was pointing to Hansblahblah. Classy move by coach.

[Saratoga2]

They were missing a key ingredient, which will be back in future games. I think UNC has trouble with the physicality of play in the ACC this year. No Hansbrough to pick things up. Our bigs may not be all that effective offensively, but they are big and physical. UNC will find Wake a problem in that regard and probably suffer in a number of games. NIT?

I have noticed that the Plumlees play well when in together. Could it be a brotherly competition. My brother and I are way over the hill and playing in a softball league in Florida. I swear the friendly competition between us makes us better and I guess the same thing is going on between Miles and Mason. Bring on all the Plumlees you can find.

[MChambers]

Very frustrating being in DC and not getting it on cable. Tried for first time to find it on on-line radio. Yeah right.

This would have been a season-maker for Carolina. They are never easy or pretty. Congrats to the entire team.

BTW, very excellent, Jumbo. Just the right touch; made me laugh.

Here in DC, channel 20 carried it, with Tim Brando and Dan Bonner.

[tbyers11]

According to Seth Davis, he was pointing to Hansblahblah. Classy move by coach.

Coach K was pointing and acknowledging Hansbrough immediately after the game last night. I rewound and watched on the DVR to make sure. Twas a nice move by Coach K.

[slower]

The bottom line is that we beat the Holes in the Dud Dome so life is good. We did not shoot that well, but at least thirteen of those misses were due to Crapolina blocks....

I quit watching at 39-43, so maybe you can thank me for the reverse karma!

I make no apologies (well, okay, SOME apologies) for my frustrated venting last night. Up to the point I stopped watching, it was a weak showing. Glad they turned it around - looking forward to watching the end on DV-R.

Not sure what you mean by "at least 13 of those misses were due to Crapolina blocks", as if that somehow makes it better. That just means they repeatedly kept putting up ill-advised shots against Davis and Henson.

Obviously, we'll all take the W.

[DukieInBrasil]

despite the terrible 2pt shooting and mediocre FT shooting there are some positives to take out of this win:
3pt shooting was very good (50%)
Rebounding was good, and offensive rebounding was great
Mason Plumlee had a very nice game; 9 rebs and 7 pts with 2 assists

Let's all hope that LT gets back on the court ASAP

[flyingdutchdevil]

Anyone catch that Zoubs-to-Singler move towards the end of the game? That has been used an average of once per game since ACC play started. It's a great move that has worked every time.

I know that I've been really really critical and, at times, negative towards Zoubs. However, I am really warming up to him as a 6-7th man. He is really an asset to this team, and I have only been seeing it recently. He has some of the best hands in college ball. If his feet were as good as his hands, he would be one of the best post presences in the country!

[sdotbarbee]

Okay, so Cameron has some pointed opinions on the team. And while seemingly negative, I can't say I didn't think the same thing during a majority of the 1st half and parts of the 2nd half.

Sure UNC was amped for this game, and they were playing inspired ball for their season, Hansborough, and whoever, but still we played poorly. Scheyer's fg percentage was pretty poor, but I don't fault him. He was trying to make things happen to keep us in the game. I really love this kid and his heart. I'm not into on-line voting, but I'll definitely vote a few times for this kid regarding the Cousy Award.

But I was really disappointed with Nolan. Sure he came back and made some shots in the 2nd half but his energy and aggressiveness was just off. I decided to watch him for most of the 1st half. He wasn't aggressive when he had the ball and he wasn't aggressively trying to get the ball. He seemed to just be watching Jon create on his own and hope that he'd save the day. At times, I was curious if maybe he was hurt. Because this is a huge game you'd think he'd be a little more passionate. But I guess clearly something was said during halftime as he was more aggressive. But still this is UNC....

Yes Cameron is right, we did--particularly our bigs--miss a ton of layups. I don't really count the ones Lance missed, because I accept Lance for his limitations and don't expect him to make some of these shots. But some of the ones Zoubek missed, he should've just slammed them home. Yet, I'm not too concerned by this as much as I am about Nolan's lack of aggressiveness.

I think down the road Mason and Andre need more quality minutes--for other conference games but also for the NCAAs. They need to be battle tested and the way Dre was playing in the beginning of the year, surely warrants him to have a longer leash while he's out there.

At the end of the day, yes, I am happy that we beat Carolina and spoiled Hansborough's big night. But like Cameron, but maybe not as emphatic, I do think that this game should be instructive in helping us improve for a deeper run in the NCAAs.

Well at least you can take solace in after the game Nolan and Dre went to the K center to work on their game. The kid is a hard worker and that is what I respect about his game. I agree he looked a little tentative in the first half. He rushed some shots and took some bad ones also, but the second half he took what the defense gave him and made some nice moves.

[RelativeWays]

I'm just glad we won, despite the ugly play in a hostile environment. I definetly hope LT gets better but this could help us in some ways. The Plumlees, Kelly and Dawkins (if he spots the 3 for Kyle in the 4) will have to step up. None of these kids are busts, they know how to play, they will get some time for the next couple of weeks. If we are able to beat UMD this weekend, its going to be because at least one of the Plumlees and Kelly/Dawkins stepped up and made plays.

Also, we beat the sheep with Barnes and Beaker in the house. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!

[BD80]

Coach K was pointing and acknowledging Hansbrough immediately after the game last night. I rewound and watched on the DVR to make sure. Twas a nice move by Coach K.

Coach K is a really good person. A much better man than I.

Actually, I would have done much the same thing, I just would have used a different finger.

Just as I start feeling bad about ruining Hans' big night, I think about Hans ruining Redick's senior night, or his silly arm-swinging dance/strut/run after beating Duke that they show ad nauseam. 9F

9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F

[NYDukie]

Overall I was happy with the end result thought at times, this Duke team likes to give me high blood pressure when they play on the road. I don't know what it is but they seem to be truly two teams at home and on the road. A few points:

1. Toughed out a real tough road test, similar to the Clemson match. I was a bit nervous after the BC game as I didn't put as much stock in that road win as some had as that was a game the team should have dominated as BC is not good.

2. Took care of business on the boards. Even though UNC's # of blocks get the highlights, Duke's dominance of the boards, specifically on the offensive end helped offset a bad shooting night.

3. Put the clamps down defensively. Everything contested as the team played very good individual and team defense. A few minor hiccups but you can't be perfect all game long.

4. Three point shooting has improved tremdously more of late.

5. A silver lining to LT's injury, and I'm hoping he is not out long, is that it will force Mason to play upwards of 20-25 minutes a game if LT is out any amount of time. We all see the talent. It's like that hyper pup with all that energy and ability to play all day long. It just needs to be harnessed a bit and now may be the perfect time.

6. Still concerned about the team's overall play on the road. I know the ACC and NCAA tourney's are neutral sites but they ARE NOT Cameron and that worries me a bit as this team is very Jekyl and Hyde while playing at home and then on the road.

7. Would like others to step up a bit to provide some additional offensive support. I'm not looking for someone to put up 15 pts each night but it would be nice to have someone put up some consistent extra points. When I watch the games it just seems everyone looks for the Three S's to score or do there thing. To much watching and deferring on the others part too often. As I pointed out above, maybe this is where Mason steps in.

Again, big win and a tough game upcomign. Now we will see if this team has even more moxie coming off a tough win at UNC with the possible loss of LT against a Maryland team that always gives us a tough time and looking to avenge embarrassing losses last year.

[detule]

I thought you might enjoy this shot I took inside the Dean Dome, in the last minute of play last night.

Just before the photo was taken a portion of the student section started chanting to the departing Rams Club members "It's not over!" :)

[devildeac]

I thought you might enjoy this shot I took inside the Dean Dome, in the last minute of play last night.

Just before the photo was taken a portion of the student section started chanting to the departing Rams Club members "It's not over!" :)

They shoulda been chanting: "drive home safely." BWAHAHAHA

[detule]

Coach K is a really good person. A much better man than I.

Actually, I would have done much the same thing, I just would have used a different finger.

Just as I start feeling bad about ruining Hans' big night, I think about Hans ruining Redick's senior night, or his silly arm-swinging dance/strut/run after beating Duke that they show ad nauseam. 9F

9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F,9F

I stood and clapped pretty hard for the guy at half-time. In addition, he gave the shortest acceptance speech ever, always a plus in my book.

[superdave]

They shoulda been chanting: "drive home safely." BWAHAHAHA

The students should have handed a petition to Baddour to have the old people's lazyboys moved to the upper deck.

[Indoor66]

The students should have handed a petition to Baddour to have the old people's lazyboys moved to the upper deck.

Your day will come...if you are lucky. :)

[hq2]

Carolina's big problem is their guard play. They can't shoot, they don't deliver the ball to their bigs, and they're not quick enough on the perimeter to defend the 3.

Our 2 pt FG percentage was low due to all the blocked shots. Didn't matter, we just got the ball back and shot again. Zoubs again showed why his passing out of the low post is a big plus, especially to cutters. Mason with a big game; the reverse jam was the play of the game. It was not a showboat move; in that position with shot blockers nearby, he needed to go up strong, get leverage on it, and ram it home. Carolina wasn't gonna block that.

Nice to get even with 'ol Tyler for ruining J.J. and Shelden's senior day a few years ago. Sweet.

"Nothing could be finer than to BEAT Carolina in the moooorrning!"

[sagegrouse]

It is a cold and snowy day here, and all is right with the world.:) Duke has beaten UNC by outscoring the Heels 25-11 over the last eight minutes. And, because I am putting on my skis in another hour or so, the snow is just fine with me.

Being in a really good mood, I have read some of the angst-ridden posts here with a serene detachment. I just remember that "the perfect is the enemy of the good:" it is the final score that counts and really just the team with the most points.

Here are my positives:

1. Three-point shooting. 50% is a real accomplishment in a hostile environment and under huge pressure. This bodes well for games later this season.

2. After UNC's adrenaline wore off, I thought we did a good job of slicing and dicing those guys on the offensive end. The last few minutes were a thing of beauty.

3. Jon and Kyle rose to the occasion and showed a gritty determination throughout the game, as well as deadeye accuracy from outside.

4. I thought each of the bigs was effective. None of the interior players for UNC had much of an offensive game. And although it was frustrating not to finish on inside moves, UNC is not chopped liver, and Davis, Henson, and Thompson were focused totally on blocking shots and not on blocking out.

5. Nolan's three key baskets in the opening minutes of the 2nd half really made a difference, and his play in the last three minutes was flawless. His defense against Drew II was a key factor in the outcome.

6. The rebounding edge against a team as big, long and mobile as UNC is impressive. I remember all those years when we seemed to lose the rebounding stats almost every game.

7. UNC was held to under 35% shooting, a stat that would be much lower if you excluded the dunks. The cold outside shooting (25%) is also a tribute to Duke's defense.

Can we play better? Sure. With a normal shooting percentage in the first half (45% vs. 10% from two point land but a lower percentage from outside), we would have had a 15-point lead at the half.

Will we miss Lance, if he is out for a considerable period? Of course. He is out best interior defender. Looks like Mason is going to have to step up against mobile interior players.

Will this emotional victory detract from our home game against the well-rested Terps? I hope not -- but it might.

Go Duke!

sagegrouse

[DurhamMatt]

Because i'm still not quite sure. Yes, awesome to get the win and end the drought, felt good, really good. Yes, It was a rivalry game so stats shouldn't mean that much, Right? Wrong..... We lose that game against most opponents, we lose that game in the NCAA's. What gets me the most is the way our bigs take the ball to the rim 90% of the time, WEAK! That is our reputation. I can't be the only one yelling at the TV for them to toughen up under the basket, am I?

[Devil07]

A lot has already been said on this game, so I'll try not to repeat (other than the general sentiment that it's ALWAYS great to beat UNC no matter how ugly the game).

I thought this quote from Coach K really summed up to me a huge key in the game:

"I thought it was a gritty performance," Krzyzewski said. "The ball was not going in and they blocked a lot of shots. ... For us to keep up our defense and rebounding when the ball wasn't going in the basket was a big thing."
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=300410153

I was extremely frustrated watching the game, so I can only imagine what the players were feeling. However, the defensive intensity and the work on the offensive glass were constant throughout the game. I think this game showed the value of leadership and experience because it really is easy for players who are struggling on offense to lose their focus in other areas out of frustration. The lack of offensive production did not have a negative impact on the other areas of the game and to me that is a very encouraging sign. There will certainly be games going forward where the offense is not there, but if we can maintain defensive focus I think this team should be able to hang around long enough in a game for some shots to start (hopefully) falling.

Also, I was very pleased to see Mason play the last few minutes of the game with 4 fouls. I want to say he picked up his 4th around the 4 minute mark but was able to stay in there. Playing with fouls is such a hard thing for young guys to learn (Shelden definitely struggled with this early in his career) and so I'm hopeful that Mason is starting to develop that skill. It certainly didn't hurt his chances that a lot of inside contact wasn't being called, but I'm still taking that as a positive out of this game.

[jipops]

I think more emphasis has to be put on how we completely shut down the heels that last 8 minutes of the game. As a whole it wasn't a pretty performance offensively, but the last 8 minutes were beautiful. Mason's offensive board-up and under reverse, Nolan's score on a break, Jon's pull ups off the bounce, Kyle on the give and go. Those were huge plays made on the road in a rival's home gym. This was a terrific performance during the crucial stretch. Down 4 we could have easily folded but our guys believed they could take control and they did.

[MChambers]

Also, I was very pleased to see Mason play the last few minutes of the game with 4 fouls. I want to say he picked up his 4th around the 4 minute mark but was able to stay in there. Playing with fouls is such a hard thing for young guys to learn (Shelden definitely struggled with this early in his career) and so I'm hopeful that Mason is starting to develop that skill. It certainly didn't hurt his chances that a lot of inside contact wasn't being called, but I'm still taking that as a positive out of this game.

Yes, but he still flirted with disaster, like the time with a minute left when he flicked the ball out of a UNC big man's hands, after a Duke miss at the line. He didn't get called on it, but a lot of refs will make that call, rightly or wrongly.

Obviously, it's a correctable problem. It's not like he has bad hands.

[ChicagoHeel]

Congrats on the win. It's a big win for Duke- principally because a loss would have been devastating.

Scheyer was clutch, but that was hardly unexpected. Plumlee's reverse dunk was crushing and symbolic of the greater toughness Duke showed inside vis-a-vis our big men. I have not seen a replay, but my memory is that the rebound itself was as impressive as the dunk- he ripped the ball away from a better-positioned Davis. The weakness of our guard play is obvious and it negatively affects our big men in a lot of ways, but the softness of our inside game hurt as much as anything. Graves had almost as many rebounds as Davis and Thompson combined. Six blocks aside, Davis was really M.I.A. for most of the game and at the start of the year he's the one that I thought would tear Duke up. Henson's numbers were better and he's clearly a work in progress.

[CDu]

Also, I was very pleased to see Mason play the last few minutes of the game with 4 fouls. I want to say he picked up his 4th around the 4 minute mark but was able to stay in there. Playing with fouls is such a hard thing for young guys to learn (Shelden definitely struggled with this early in his career) and so I'm hopeful that Mason is starting to develop that skill. It certainly didn't hurt his chances that a lot of inside contact wasn't being called, but I'm still taking that as a positive out of this game.

Agreed. Not only that, but he was able to log a career-high 27 minutes in a game in which we REALLY needed him to give us those minutes. He still tried the old "slap after a rebound" approach a few times in the game, and he was fortunate to not foul out with about 1:30 or so left when he did it again (80 feet from the basket). But he did a great job of playing within the game and not making as many of the mental mistakes that have cost him this year.

Hopefully he can build on this performance. He's now played 18+ minutes in each of the last three games (20+ in the last two). Hopefully this means that he's beginning to figure out what he needs to do to stay on the floor.

I'm not counting on him to become a huge offensive presence this year (though that would be great, too). But if he can come in and give us 20-25 minutes, 6-8 points, and 6-8 rebounds per game consistently, that'd be a big step forward for the team.

[InSpades]

One more comment I want to make about this game...

Obviously this was not Nolan's best game. That being said... the shots he hit in the 2nd half were very very big. Just when it looked like the game might start slipping away and Scheyer wasn't scoring like he did in the 1st half... Smith hit a few big ones.

Much more importantly however... I thought he played great defense on Drew II. I realize Drew II is no Lawson when it comes to driving the lane and dishing but I thought Nolan shutting down Drew II was a big key to the game. I think his perimeter defense was a key to them getting so very little in the half-court set. There were numerous times that Drew got into the lane and Nolan recovered and forced them to kick the ball out and restart the offense.

[CameronBlue]

I thought you might enjoy this shot I took inside the Dean Dome, in the last minute of play last night.

Just before the photo was taken a portion of the student section started chanting to the departing Rams Club members "It's not over!" :)


Never fails. Everyone heads for the exits late during UNC home games with such regularity it should be called the "Metamucil Power Dump Play of the Game."

[BlueDevilCorvette!]

I'm not going to focus on any negatives...I'll focus on the main positive thing and that is DUKE won and all the Tarheel Fans are quiet as a church mouse today in the office. I'm having mercy on them, I've not said a word...my Blue Devil neck tie and royal blue Duke coat I'm wearing today says it all!!!

[GoingFor#5]

At least Carolina fans are respectful. I do give it to them that they generally cheer with class. I was thinking this after they applauded Lance Thomas when he got hurt. I was thinking that if this was at Maryland, they probably would have been taunting him.

[CDu]

Much more importantly however... I thought he played great defense on Drew II. I realize Drew II is no Lawson when it comes to driving the lane and dishing but I thought Nolan shutting down Drew II was a big key to the game. I think his perimeter defense was a key to them getting so very little in the half-court set. There were numerous times that Drew got into the lane and Nolan recovered and forced them to kick the ball out and restart the offense.

I actually didn't feel that great about Smith's performance against Drew. I felt like Drew did a pretty good job of beating Smith to get into the lane. I felt that Drew's problems were more in his decisionmaking once he got into the lane rather than Smith's defense.

There were a few occasions in which Smith was able to recover and force the reset. But there were also numerous occasions in which Smith got bailed out by poor decisions made by Drew after beating Smith. I certainly wouldn't have called it a shutdown performance by Smith, but rather evidence of how Drew isn't a polished playmaker yet. That, and good help defense by our bigs.

[jv001]

Congrats on the win. It's a big win for Duke- principally because a loss would have been devastating.

Scheyer was clutch, but that was hardly unexpected. Plumlee's reverse dunk was crushing and symbolic of the greater toughness Duke showed inside vis-a-vis our big men. I have not seen a replay, but my memory is that the rebound itself was as impressive as the dunk- he ripped the ball away from a better-positioned Davis. The weakness of our guard play is obvious and it negatively affects our big men in a lot of ways, but the softness of our inside game hurt as much as anything. Graves had almost as many rebounds as Davis and Thompson combined. Six blocks aside, Davis was really M.I.A. for most of the game and at the start of the year he's the one that I thought would tear Duke up. Henson's numbers were better and he's clearly a work in progress.

I have to admit that Graves is a much better player than I thought. A very good spot up shooter from 3. Agree that unc's guard play is not very good. Also the wing play is missing. Not a good mixture for success this year. Have a great day and God Bless. Go Duke!

[Devil07]

Yes, but he still flirted with disaster, like the time with a minute left when he flicked the ball out of a UNC big man's hands, after a Duke miss at the line. He didn't get called on it, but a lot of refs will make that call, rightly or wrongly.

Obviously, it's a correctable problem. It's not like he has bad hands.

He definitely was lucky not to get called on that and I think the fact that he went for it still shows the maturation that he needs in order to be a consistent presence. Still, I thought he did a better job of minimizing his over-aggressive, freshmen mistakes last night. We've been looking for progress from Mason and just the fact that he played 27 minutes was a good sign in my book. Mason still needs to learn to pick his battles (with that move at the end a perfect example), but as CDu said, he did a better job last night of playing within the game. With Lance potentially out for a while we really need Mason to be able to give us solid minutes. Hopefully, last night was an important learning moment in the process of figuring out how to play smart but aggressive basketball.

[InSpades]

I actually didn't feel that great about Smith's performance against Drew. I felt like Drew did a pretty good job of beating Smith to get into the lane. I felt that Drew's problems were more in his decisionmaking once he got into the lane rather than Smith's defense.

There were a few occasions in which Smith was able to recover and force the reset. But there were also numerous occasions in which Smith got bailed out by poor decisions made by Drew after beating Smith. I certainly wouldn't have called it a shutdown performance by Smith, but rather evidence of how Drew isn't a polished playmaker yet. That, and good help defense by our bigs.

Drew had 4 assists. 2 were on the fast break (which I don't think you can fault Nolan for) and 2 were on dishes to Graves who shot a 3 (also not Nolan's fault). Obviously Drew made some bad decisions (as he is apt to do) but some of that is forced by the defense. He also had a terrible shooting performance as well.

[COYS]

I have to admit that Graves is a much better player than I thought. A very good spot up shooter from 3. Agree that unc's guard play is not very good. Also the wing play is missing. Not a good mixture for success this year. Have a great day and God Bless. Go Duke!

I gotta say, I disagree here. All he is is a spot up shooter. I see why Wheat and the other UNC posters on this board were concerned when he cracked the starting lineup. He has zero court vision, a bad handle, and definitely appears to be too heavy and out of shape. He is a great shooter, which is nice, but it is all he offers on the court. If one of the other goat guards could step up and take his starting spot, Graves would be devastating as a shooter off the bench. However, as a starter Graves is a very limited player.

[CDu]

I have to admit that Graves is a much better player than I thought. A very good spot up shooter from 3. Agree that unc's guard play is not very good. Also the wing play is missing. Not a good mixture for success this year. Have a great day and God Bless. Go Duke!

Graves is basically just a good 3point shooter. When he's shooting well, he's a very dangerous player because of his size and high release point. Last night was one of his good shooting games. But it's important to remember that he's shooting only 38% from the field for the season, and he's actually worse from 2pt range than 3pt range (39% 3pt). He's just as likely throw out a 2-12 (Syracuse), 2-11 (Clemson), 1-7 (VT), or 5-15 (UVa) as he is to shoot really well.

If the UNC guards were better, UNC has some weapons (Thompson and Davis inside, Graves from 3). They just keep making such bad decisions.

[jv001]

I gotta say, I disagree here. All he is is a spot up shooter. I see why Wheat and the other UNC posters on this board were concerned when he cracked the starting lineup. He has zero court vision, a bad handle, and definitely appears to be too heavy and out of shape. He is a great shooter, which is nice, but it is all he offers on the court. If one of the other goat guards could step up and take his starting spot, Graves would be devastating as a shooter off the bench. However, as a starter Graves is a very limited player.

I didn't say graves was all-acc. I said he's better than I thought he was. I really thought he was no better than spot player who could spell the other guards. For him to be their best shows how bad the unc guards are this year. Go Duke!

[CDu]

I'm just glad we didn't have to face Wear, Wear, Henson, Strickland, and Watts last night. That'd have really been a tough matchup for us. :)

[gumbomoop]

The weakness of our guard play is obvious and it negatively affects our big men in a lot of ways, but the softness of our inside game hurt as much as anything. Graves had almost as many rebounds as Davis and Thompson combined. Six blocks aside, Davis was really M.I.A. for most of the game and at the start of the year he's the one that I thought would tear Duke up. Henson's numbers were better and he's clearly a work in progress.

Good analysis. Some elaboration:

1. Weak guards - It is obvious, though I still don't think "Drew sucks." He's so inconsistent, but he's got a good handle, can sometimes get into lane, can hit some 3s. Just awful decision-making at times. And I think Roy finally acknowledged postgame that maybe he's got them playing too fast for their talent/experience. As minor sidebars, I do expect McDonald either to redshirt or transfer. And I don't assume Marshall will push Drew aside at first.
2. Soft inside - I didn't expect this, but in part that's because no one really knew how Deon would handle the absence of Hans. Not so well, it turns out. Injuries have messed up the Heels' interior: Zeller is good on O, and it looks like Davis is hurt more than just a little.
3. Davis - Seemed that K told his guys to double on Davis, presumably because K believes that Davis lacks smoothness on O, and couldn't find open man when doubled. He couldn't, and seemed really flustered. [Or maybe his teammates didn't move enough.]
4. Henson - overrated, given roughness of college compared to hs ball, but he's coming. It will be interesting to see whether he gets lots of PT rest of season, especially since Zeller isn't likely to play big minutes at first, whenever he returns; and since Davis apparently isn't 100% just now.

[MChambers]

Plumlee's reverse dunk was crushing and symbolic of the greater toughness Duke showed inside vis-a-vis our big men. I have not seen a replay, but my memory is that the rebound itself was as impressive as the dunk- he ripped the ball away from a better-positioned Davis. The weakness of our guard play is obvious and it negatively affects our big men in a lot of ways, but the softness of our inside game hurt as much as anything. Graves had almost as many rebounds as Davis and Thompson combined. Six blocks aside, Davis was really M.I.A. for most of the game and at the start of the year he's the one that I thought would tear Duke up. Henson's numbers were better and he's clearly a work in progress.

Do you remember the play a few minutes later when UNC messed up a pass inside, and the ball was free between Singler and Davis (I think)? Kyle ripped it away with both hands.

Henson is pretty comfortable at the 4. Ol' Roy's been playing him out of position all year. He just isn't ready to contribute meaningfully on the perimeter. Don't get me wrong: he's got weaknesses at the 4, especially in drafty arenas, where he can get blown off the court, but he's much better down low.

[Mal]

I agree with those who have said that Nolan finding his range early in the 2nd half saved this game for us. We had fallen behind, Scheyer's shot looked off, and everyone was looking like their shoes were nailed to floor on offense if they didn't have the ball in their hands. We called a timeout to stanch the momentum, but had we not adjusted something we were well on our way to being down 7 or 8 points and fueling massive confidence for Carolina.

My first thought during that TO was that if I were Coach K I'd begin the conversation in the huddle with "Has anyone seen Nolan Smith? Nolan, where are you? Are you here?" He seemed to take a wiser tack, however, which was to draw up a play to get Smith the ball off the inbounds and run a couple screens for him to get a 15 footer off the dribble, one of his best shots. If everyone else is going to stand around on offense when someone puts it on the floor, you may as well have the guy who has the most impact off the dribble with the ball in his hands. Sure enough, he cashed it, got in the scoring column, seemed to regain some sense of where the game was and how he could impact it instead of just letting it happen to him, and was a different player from there on out. I think this Krzyzewski guy just might pan out for us.

Anyway, 2 conference road wins in a row, whether ugly or not, and whether against subpar teams or not, is 2 conference road wins in a row. Something to build on, and something that adds confidence.

Not to get all weauxy here, but I'd predict we beat them down by 20+ at Cameron.

[moonpie23]

i think henson has a huge upside for the tarholes....he reminds me of a player that i erroneously predicted would FLOP in the NBA - Tayshaun Prince...

[loldevilz]

Anyone catch that Zoubs-to-Singler move towards the end of the game? That has been used an average of once per game since ACC play started. It's a great move that has worked every time.

I know that I've been really really critical and, at times, negative towards Zoubs. However, I am really warming up to him as a 6-7th man. He is really an asset to this team, and I have only been seeing it recently. He has some of the best hands in college ball. If his feet were as good as his hands, he would be one of the best post presences in the country!

I totally agree. I would also mention that Zoubs had that ridiculus block early on. What impresses me most is that he has stepped up his energy. His offensive skill set is obviously limited, but his rebounding skills almost compensate. If he can become that kind of play maker I could see him as a starter...especially if lance thomas is out.

[BleedsP287]

http://www.highschoolhoop.com/recruiting-news/2010/02/duke-and-unc-recruits-handicap-the-big-game/

Just an observation that Austin Rivers had the most accurate prediction of the folks interviewed in this article. He had Duke by 11, though he predicted a bit more offense on both sides than we saw. I like his instincts. Funny, all the UNC recruits were way off, they didn't even call the winner. Go figure.

[77devil]

I agree with those who have said that Nolan finding his range early in the 2nd half saved this game for us. We had fallen behind, Scheyer's shot looked off, and everyone was looking like their shoes were nailed to floor on offense if they didn't have the ball in their hands. We called a timeout to stanch the momentum, but had we not adjusted something we were well on our way to being down 7 or 8 points and fueling massive confidence for Carolina.

My first thought during that TO was that if I were Coach K I'd begin the conversation in the huddle with "Has anyone seen Nolan Smith? Nolan, where are you? Are you here?" He seemed to take a wiser tack, however, which was to draw up a play to get Smith the ball off the inbounds and run a couple screens for him to get a 15 footer off the dribble, one of his best shots. If everyone else is going to stand around on offense when someone puts it on the floor, you may as well have the guy who has the most impact off the dribble with the ball in his hands. Sure enough, he cashed it, got in the scoring column, seemed to regain some sense of where the game was and how he could impact it instead of just letting it happen to him, and was a different player from there on out. I think this Krzyzewski guy just might pan out for us.

Anyway, 2 conference road wins in a row, whether ugly or not, and whether against subpar teams or not, is 2 conference road wins in a row. Something to build on, and something that adds confidence.

Not to get all weauxy here, but I'd predict we beat them down by 20+ at Cameron.

Last night showed again why Coach K is so superior to Roy as a bench coach. How many times have we seen Duke come back from a TO and make a big play off a drawn up set. I thought Roy's substitutions last night were poor, particularly pulling Graves in the 1st half when he was hot; and coming out of the timeouts Roy called down the stretch to set the O usually resulted in a busted play and a misguided 3.

In addition, UNC has plenty of talent and I am confident that if Coach K were guiding this team it would be performing at a much higher level. Roy's recruiting prowess is indisputable, but he has shown no willingness or ability to adapt, and his motivational skills in tough times are awful. It can't be stated often enough how fortunate Duke is to have Coach K. Coach long and prosper.

[duke4life32182]

We have won 3 road games now. Starting to look better. We shot poorly last night, but you have to love how we hit the boards. Coach K is the man and hope LT is OK.

[CDu]

Drew had 4 assists. 2 were on the fast break (which I don't think you can fault Nolan for) and 2 were on dishes to Graves who shot a 3 (also not Nolan's fault). Obviously Drew made some bad decisions (as he is apt to do) but some of that is forced by the defense. He also had a terrible shooting performance as well.

I don't fault Smith for fast break assists. And I didn't say that the results weren't good for us. I just said that I felt the results on Drew were less a function of Smith's defense and more a function of poor decisionmaking by Drew.

Drew beat Smith a number of times off the dribble, but made bad decisions (and didn't take good shots). I think the opportunities were there, but between turnovers, bad shooting, and good help defense we were able to limit him. We were somewhat fortunate that he's not a better decisionmaker/shooter, because I didn't think Smith did all that good a job of staying in front of him.

I think we played very very good team defense. My point was that I don't think that Smith stood out individually defensively.

[ChicagoHeel]

I gotta say, I disagree here. All he is is a spot up shooter. I see why Wheat and the other UNC posters on this board were concerned when he cracked the starting lineup. He has zero court vision, a bad handle, and definitely appears to be too heavy and out of shape. He is a great shooter, which is nice, but it is all he offers on the court. If one of the other goat guards could step up and take his starting spot, Graves would be devastating as a shooter off the bench. However, as a starter Graves is a very limited player.

Graves, like most of UNC's team, is a very solid role player. On a better team he could be a critical component of a deep post-season run, but he cannot provide a huge lift on his own. Really, he's a Danny Green that doesn't have the benefit of a Lawson and Hansbrough. Here's a comparison of their junior years (although Graves was suspended most of his sophomore year so has less on-court experience than a typical third year).

Minutes, Pts, Rebounds, Assist/ TO, FG%, 3P%

Graves: 22.2, 9.6, 4.8, 1.18, .38, .39
Green: 22.3, 11.5,4.9, 1.04, .47, .37

[slower]

Graves, like most of UNC's team, is a very solid role player. On a better team he could be a critical component of a deep post-season run, but he cannot provide a huge lift on his own. Really, he's a Danny Green that doesn't have the benefit of a Lawson and Hansbrough. Here's a comparison of their junior years (although Graves was suspended most of his sophomore year so has less on-court experience than a typical third year).

Minutes, Pts, Rebounds, Assist/ TO, FG%, 3P%

Graves: 22.2, 9.6, 4.8, 1.18, .38, .39
Green: 22.3, 11.5,4.9, 1.04, .47, .37

I will NOT be tricked into defending Danny Green. ;)

[oldnavy]

Graves, like most of UNC's team, is a very solid role player. On a better team he could be a critical component of a deep post-season run, but he cannot provide a huge lift on his own. Really, he's a Danny Green that doesn't have the benefit of a Lawson and Hansbrough. Here's a comparison of their junior years (although Graves was suspended most of his sophomore year so has less on-court experience than a typical third year).

Minutes, Pts, Rebounds, Assist/ TO, FG%, 3P%

Graves: 22.2, 9.6, 4.8, 1.18, .38, .39
Green: 22.3, 11.5,4.9, 1.04, .47, .37

Very rational assessment Chicagoheel. I am glad to hear someone from the other side comment on UNC's frontline being soft. I have been saying that UNC's frontline was weak for sometime now, but most of my fellow Duke brothers and sisters disagree. Glad to hear that I am not the only one out here that thinks the frontline was and is overrated.

[jpfrizzle]

Duke beat the Tarholes
...even without Lance

[CDu]

Very rational assessment Chicagoheel. I am glad to hear someone from the other side comment on UNC's frontline being soft. I have been saying that UNC's frontline was weak for sometime now, but most of my fellow Duke brothers and sisters disagree. Glad to hear that I am not the only one out here that thinks the frontline was and is overrated.

Again, I have to disagree. Their frontline is pretty good. The problem is that their backcourt is pretty bad. That makes it very difficult for their front line to be great.

Their frontline aren't world beaters. They have limitations. They can't carry the team to victory. But their front line is better than you are giving it credit for. Put Lawson and Ellington in place of Drew and Strickland, and that frontcourt looks really good.

[loldevilz]

Very rational assessment Chicagoheel. I am glad to hear someone from the other side comment on UNC's frontline being soft. I have been saying that UNC's frontline was weak for sometime now, but most of my fellow Duke brothers and sisters disagree. Glad to hear that I am not the only one out here that thinks the frontline was and is overrated.

They were supposed to be the best frontline in the COUNTRY...remember?

[jv001]

Again, I have to disagree. Their frontline is pretty good. The problem is that their backcourt is pretty bad. That makes it very difficult for their front line to be great.

Their frontline aren't world beaters. They have limitations. They can't carry the team to victory. But their front line is better than you are giving it credit for. Put Lawson and Ellington in place of Drew and Strickland, and that frontcourt looks really good.

Scott Van Pelt just said on his show that unc just doesn't have good players. The other guy(?) said they have all these Mickeyddds and Scott responded saying yeh, but they don't know how to play basketball. He then said that Duke has a team of players that does know how to play basketball. He also said UConn was a bigger disappointment than unc, because they have better players. Only negative from his comments was that Duke is not an elite team. But I guess that could be said about a lot of teams this year. Go Duke!

[Durhamrocks68]

works best with a couple of reliable three-point shooters and a highly-skilled penetrating PG. They had that in spades last year, plus a good-to-great front-line. This year, not so much. Drew isn't terrible at all, but not dominating. Graves is the closet thing to a reliable shooter and I would call him streaky. Their post play would look a lot better with these pieces being stronger. Good news is that I don't see this rapidly improving next year either. Their recruits will help, but I don't think it will be Lawson/Ellington/Green good. This could be a turn towards Duke in the rivalry for a bit (Cameron game and next year's match-ups), especially if Kyle and Nolan stay and Kyrie is as good as advertised!

[MChambers]

Graves, like most of UNC's team, is a very solid role player. On a better team he could be a critical component of a deep post-season run, but he cannot provide a huge lift on his own. Really, he's a Danny Green that doesn't have the benefit of a Lawson and Hansbrough. Here's a comparison of their junior years (although Graves was suspended most of his sophomore year so has less on-court experience than a typical third year).

Minutes, Pts, Rebounds, Assist/ TO, FG%, 3P%

Graves: 22.2, 9.6, 4.8, 1.18, .38, .39
Green: 22.3, 11.5,4.9, 1.04, .47, .37

Graves is at best a weak defender; Green was not.

[CDu]

works best with a couple of reliable three-point shooters and a highly-skilled penetrating PG. They had that in spades last year, plus a good-to-great front-line. This year, not so much. Drew isn't terrible at all, but not dominating. Graves is the closet thing to a reliable shooter and I would call him streaky. Their post play would look a lot better with these pieces being stronger. Good news is that I don't see this rapidly improving next year either. Their recruits will help, but I don't think it will be Lawson/Ellington/Green good. This could be a turn towards Duke in the rivalry for a bit (Cameron game and next year's match-ups), especially if Kyle and Nolan stay and Kyrie is as good as advertised!

Agreed. I think the key problems are (in no particular order):
1. their guards aren't very consistent/good,
2. their bigs aren't "carry the team" players offensively,
3. the system Williams runs needs very good guards, and
4. Williams hasn't done a good job of adjusting his system to mask those problems.

[mapei]

Yeah, if their bigs are so bad why was it that we basically could get hardly anything inside and managed to get blocked 12 or 13 times? We did outrebound them, which saved us, but in general I thought we were the less impressive team inside. Strong, yes, in snatching away contested balls and such. But compare our shooting % around the rim to our % from 3 and you'll see how effective we were down low.

I honestly thought UNC was rising to the occasion and we were playing poorly, but for Kyle, for most of the game. In the end, we made more plays than they did because they just aren't that good this year, particularly at scoring. Their D was better than their O, but that's about it.

I generally subscribe to the view that road wins are going to be ugly more often than not, so that's what to expect. We got the W and that's what matters most, assuming Lance can make a full recovery. But it's not really a day for gloating IMO. As for someone suggesting that the guy who has won two of the last five national championships, with two completely different teams, is not a very good coach, I'll just let that speak for itself.

We can be passionate fans without putting the blinders on.

[Wander]

I'm just glad we didn't have to face Wear, Wear, Henson, Strickland, and Watts last night. That'd have really been a tough matchup for us. :)

Man, that Wheat comment has to go in some kind of Hall of Fame for the most wrong statement ever.

[mapei]

And BTW, let's kick the crap out of Maryland this weekend. Probably because of where I live, it's between the Terps and WVU for the team whose fans I hate the most.

[CDu]

Man, that Wheat comment has to go in some kind of Hall of Fame for the most wrong statement ever.

It was not Wheat's finest work, that's for sure.

[Durhamrocks68]

CDu,
I totally agree with all of that, especially the coaching part. When Roy is forced to coach a complete game and not rely on amazing talent, we see what we're seeing this year, which is, for lack of a better word, a melt-down. He has recruited magnificently for the last 4 years, but I think it's cooling off some. Yeah, Barnes was a huge get, but I sense a change in the air. Given some average to good talent, he's coaching ability has to be questioned some. I would be very interested to see how other elite college coaches would have done with this year's UNC team. Plus, he's killing himself on the PR side. Truly shocking. If he loses his grip on the recruiting wheel, even for a little bit, I think this type of season could repeat itself!

[Duvall]

Man, that Wheat comment has to go in some kind of Hall of Fame for the most wrong statement ever.

http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/schools/unc/sports/m-baskbl/98-99action/a-bersticker-012199.jpg

[sagegrouse]

Minutes, Pts, Rebounds, Assist/ TO, FG%, 3P%

Graves: 22.2, 9.6, 4.8, 1.18, .38, .39
Green: 22.3, 11.5,4.9, 1.04, .47, .37



Try this format.

I am not sure what it means to insert *[*c*o*d*e*]* before a table followed by the same thing at the end with a "/" inserted. But it seems to help most data presentations on DBR.

sagegrouse
'One of these I'll figure out what formats are what on this Board'

[oldnavy]

They were supposed to be the best frontline in the COUNTRY...remember?

This is my point. They have to be considered as underachievers. I don't disagree that with an AA point guard they would be much better, but even last year with the exception of Hansblah, they were good but not great.
Lawson would make a lot of frontlines look good. I hope that with Irving next year we will be discussing our frontline as one of the best in the nation.
But a PG has nothing to do with their rebounding and defense play. Yes, they did block a load of shots last night, but overall I feel like our guys out played them. We had a large rebounding margin that we would not have had if Davis, Thompson, Wear, Henson were that strong underneath.
I will leave it alone now and agree that we disagree. It is just an opinion I have anyway and certainly open to debate.

[CDu]

This is my point. They have to be considered as underachievers. I don't disagree that with an AA point guard they would be much better, but even last year with the exception of Hansblah, they were good but not great.
Lawson would make a lot of frontlines look good. I hope that with Irving next year we will be discussing our frontline as one of the best in the nation.
But a PG has nothing to do with their rebounding and defense play. Yes, they did block a load of shots last night, but overall I feel like our guys out played them. We had a large rebounding margin that we would not have had if Davis, Thompson, Wear, Henson were that strong underneath.
I will leave it alone now and agree that we disagree. It is just an opinion I have anyway and certainly open to debate.

I don't know if "underachievers" is fair. They are what they are - very good players, but not "carry the team" players. It's not their fault that people's expectations were probably too high. They aren't the dominating offensive frontcourt that UNC has had with Hansbrough, which is what I think people expected to develop. But that doesn't make them underachievers.

Davis is averaging nearly 9 rebounds, 2+ blocks, and double-figure points per game in ACC play. His stats are even better out of conference. And this is despite despite playing without a playmaker to get him points. That's pretty solid production if you ask me.

Are they the best frontcourt in the nation? Absolutely not. Do they "suck?" In my opinion, no way.

[jipops]

Scott Van Pelt just said on his show that unc just doesn't have good players.

I disagree with Van Pelt's statement. There are only a handful of teams out there that have as much or more overall talent combined with experience than UNC. Just saying they don't have good players offers no analysis to what is really going on but is pretty much the kind of depth you would expect from someone at espn.

I don't know what goes on at UNC's practices obviously, but it appears to me that having been accustomed to having a dominant pg control the ball on every offensive possession has left this year's offense a little spoiled and feeling a void. Putting the entire onus of initiating the offense on Drew (who I still believe to be a solid player) has not worked out well. Maybe a unc person can chime in but has Roy tried using Drew, Ginyard and Strickland out on the floor together? I know that hurts the backcourt depth a little but it seems as though it would assist UNC in controlling and valuing the ball a little more.

[Troublemaker]

It was an excellent win last night because I feel like it was a catalyst type of win. I've noticed over the years that basketball teams can utilize one or two close wins that they've gutted out to really propel themselves into periods of playing great basketball. I think Duke is capable of going on a nice run here in which we play our best basketball of the season in these final 7 games (and hopefully beyond). I think psychologically it helps that the UNC monkey is off the back a bit. I mean, that gigantic sigh of relief that we fans breathed following the win is probably minuscule compared to what the players felt. I think our guys will start to play with a bit more confidence and swagger and as a result, shots will start to go in the basket at a higher rate than they have been.

If nothing else, I think it's immensely helpful that the players were able to add positive experiences in close games to their memory banks against UNC and BC. Let's say Duke is going down the stretch of a tight Sweet 16 game next month. Scheyer can now draw upon his experience of hitting huge threes down the stretch in Chapel Hill to seal a win for Duke. He will know he can hit clutch shots in a tight, very pressurized situation because he will have done it before.

I think teams just grow more in the crucible of a close, pressure-filled game than they do in a blowout. This was just a really huge win, as ugly as it was.

[blueprofessor]

Read SanDiegoJayhawk1985's critique of Roy Williams on the IC (ward).:D

http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=78&f=1410&t=5603829

Best--Blueprofessor:)

[tbyers11]

http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/schools/unc/sports/m-baskbl/98-99action/a-bersticker-012199.jpg

Good call on Wheat's adoration of Brian Bersticker. You had me laughing out loud at that picture. I wonder if that is the only picture of Brian Bersticker dunking still in existence?

[JStuart]

I don't know if "underachievers" is fair. They are what they are - very good players, but not "carry the team" players. It's not their fault that people's expectations were probably too high. They aren't the dominating offensive frontcourt that UNC has had with Hansbrough, which is what I think people expected to develop. But that doesn't make them underachievers.

Davis is averaging nearly 9 rebounds, 2+ blocks, and double-figure points per game in ACC play. His stats are even better out of conference. And this is despite despite playing without a playmaker to get him points. That's pretty solid production if you ask me.

Are they the best frontcourt in the nation? Absolutely not. Do they "suck?" In my opinion, no way.

What has been percolating in my mind over the past few weeks is/are the following question(s):
If Ol' Roy is such a super recruiter, why are his recruits playing this poorly?
If these recruits are playing this poorly, were the last few recruiting classes really as good as everyone claimed?
Would these classes be better if coached differently?
I'm not smart enough to figure out the logic, or lack thereof in the previous statements, but something doesn't quite add up.

[blueprofessor]

What has been percolating in my mind over the past few weeks is/are the following question(s):
If Ol' Roy is such a super recruiter, why are his recruits playing this poorly?
If these recruits are playing this poorly, were the last few recruiting classes really as good as everyone claimed?
Would these classes be better if coached differently?
I'm not smart enough to figure out the logic, or lack thereof in the previous statements, but something doesn't quite add up.

Excerpts may speak to your questions:

"Here's what you get with Coach Williams{ according to SanDiegoJayhawk1985}:

1. Fantastic recruiting. He's going to do way better at UNC even than he did for us (unless he damages his reputation with several, not just a couple, seasons like this one). For you, at least, this means more National Championship opportunities as each recruiting class ripens. He wasted a lot of talent at Kansas, but my sense is he's over some kind of hump at UNC in attracting guys who can get the job done.

2. Disastrous in-game coaching when the opposing coach is "on" to him and has the talented players needed to carry out a plausible strategy. If Coach Williams' PLAN works out—the one he formulated before he got to the game that day—you'll win. If it doesn't, you still might win on talent. But particularly in the tournament, where lesser teams are willing to throw the dice—or the opposing Coach is just flat-out good--Coach Williams is often lost. But more than that is the problem that he's colossally stubborn. He frequently gets angry at the players for not executing on his "foolproof" plan. His recent, demoralizing disrespect of UNC players at press conferences is totally in keeping with this. He has a public persona of humility, but I'm convinced he won't—or can't—ask for advice from his assistants. All the dadgum Deppity Dawg toe in the dirt stuff is, in my opinion, a cover for a titanic and yet easily bruised ego. (Pardon that last bit, I know it is a something of a rant born out of 15 years of frustration.)

At the end of the day, living under Coach Williams was too much for me. Yes, I get it that you should support your team in good times and bad. But as many of you have pointed out, that doesn't mean you can't legitimately criticize what appear to me to be permanently fixed aspects of Coach Williams' coaching style. Just because you're a patriot, it doesn't mean you have to support a dictator or an ineffective leader. And my frustration during the Williams years was precisely due to the fact that I love KU basketball so much.

My sense is that UNC fans will keep him on a much shorter leash than we were able to. Coach Williams was beloved in Kansas. In fact if you read KU boards you'll see that a lot of people still aren't over his departure. Maybe the fact that his whole life was about getting the UNC job will give you some leverage over him. I hope so for your sake. And if this one season of frustration is the "price" you have to pay for 2 NCs in 5 great years, well then I think just about anyone would make that deal."

Best regards--Blue Prof:)

[OldSchool]

What has been percolating in my mind over the past few weeks is/are the following question(s):
If Ol' Roy is such a super recruiter, why are his recruits playing this poorly?
If these recruits are playing this poorly, were the last few recruiting classes really as good as everyone claimed?
Would these classes be better if coached differently?
I'm not smart enough to figure out the logic, or lack thereof in the previous statements, but something doesn't quite add up.

I think you've hit the nail on the head when you ask whether these classes would be better if coached differently.

Roy's got loads of talent on that team. People say well, he just mis-recruited, those guys weren't as good as everyone thought they were.

Actually, yes they are that good. These days, with all the attention on the high school games, the AAU games, the all-star games, the summer camps, these guys really are who they are. Some will improve more rapidly than others, that's true; there will be injuries, attitude problems, and what have you. But Roy's guys have talent.

Davis, Thompson and Zeller will be solid NBA players. I don't think anyone will be an all-star, but there is a remote chance with Davis.

The problem is that Roy is just not very flexible in changing the style of play to match his players.

With talented, athletic players who can run, his system should win lots of games. And in theory, the players he now has should be winning lots more games with his system.

But they are not. Roy could adjust his offensive scheme to take better advantage of his talent.

Davis could be used far more effectively. He, Thompson and Henson are so talented and athletic that they could be very effective in schemes that play off of each other, and without relying so much on the guards to get the offense into scoring position.

Herb Sendek would have this team near the top of the ACC.

[sdotbarbee]

I disagree with Van Pelt's statement. There are only a handful of teams out there that have as much or more overall talent combined with experience than UNC. Just saying they don't have good players offers no analysis to what is really going on but is pretty much the kind of depth you would expect from someone at espn.

I don't know what goes on at UNC's practices obviously, but it appears to me that having been accustomed to having a dominant pg control the ball on every offensive possession has left this year's offense a little spoiled and feeling a void. Putting the entire onus of initiating the offense on Drew (who I still believe to be a solid player) has not worked out well. Maybe a unc person can chime in but has Roy tried using Drew, Ginyard and Strickland out on the floor together? I know that hurts the backcourt depth a little but it seems as though it would assist UNC in controlling and valuing the ball a little more.

Ol Roy has 7 burger boys so to use the excuse that the players are just not that good is insane. He has five players 6'10 or taller and 1 that has a 7'4" wingspan. The guards are turnover prone but part of that is because they try to run too much. Roy just refuses to play to the strength of his players, he wants to run and gun all game and this group can't do it. The defense they played last night was outstanding and where has that been all year?

[DevilHorns]

Davis, Thompson and Zeller will be solid NBA players. I don't think anyone will be an all-star, but there is a remote chance with Davis.


Davis, yes.

Zeller and Thompson, eh, I kind of doubt it.

ps- I think Henson has huge upside for the league.

[Duvall]

Davis, yes.

Zeller and Thompson, eh, I kind of doubt it.

Zeller, really? He's a legitimate 7-footer with good hands and mobility. He's been productive, despite not yet having played one full season of college ball. Why wouldn't he be an NBA prospect?

[OldSchool]

Davis, yes.

Zeller and Thompson, eh, I kind of doubt it.

ps- I think Henson has huge upside for the league.

Zeller and Thompson will sit on some NBA bench somewhere.

With respect to Henson, it's just too early to tell.

He's no Kevin Durant. He's shown no ability to consistently hit an outside jump shot this year.

And he's just far too skinny and weak to make it as an NBA post player.

But he could get stronger and bulk up through hard work.

So he is either going to have to develop an outside game or get a lot stronger. Could well happen.

[DevilHorns]

Zeller, really? He's a legitimate 7-footer with good hands and mobility. He's been productive, despite not yet having played one full season of college ball. Why wouldn't he be an NBA prospect?

I think he has the potential to be an NBA player talent-wise, but he hasn't impressed me when he has played (admittedly I've watched him play maybe 3 games total), plus, he's been so injury-prone that he's a liability to draft at this point (unless he stays healthy here on out and absolutely tears it up). I wouldn't call him a solid NBA prospect by any means, I would say he has a chance to make an NBA team and ride the pine if his story unfolds as I expect it, but who knows, a lot can happen.

[DevilHorns]

Zeller and Thompson will sit on some NBA bench somewhere.

With respect to Henson, it's just too early to tell.

He's no Kevin Durant. He's shown no ability to consistently hit an outside jump shot this year.

And he's just far too skinny and weak to make it as an NBA post player.

But he could get stronger and bulk up through hard work.

So he is either going to have to develop an outside game or get a lot stronger. Could well happen.

Exactly. If he can bulk up, he becomes incredibly scary. I think he can tie his shoelaces standing up. Insane. The potential is clearly there.