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View Full Version : Charting Duke vs. North Carolina II (March 6)



Jumbo
03-10-2010, 12:57 AM
Better late than never, right? Besides, now we have yet another reason to keep talking about the Carolina game! A few things really stand out. First of all, quite a performance by the senors. Scheyer led the team with a +34 mark, Zoubek was +29 and Thomas was +26 in only 16 minutes, which is ridiculous. Secondly, the disparity between the starting 4/5 combo of Thomas/Zoubek and the Mason/Miles combo was staggering -- the two young guys continue to struggle to provide anywhere close to the same level of defense as the veterans. But, finally, it was another nice game for a different young guy -- Andre Dawkins played well, and continues a slow climb back into a meaningful place on the team after a rough stretch. And, clearly, it was just a heck of a performance all around.

Anyway, on to the numbers ...

Individuals
Jon Scheyer 80-46 (+34)
Brian Zoubek 49-20 (+29)
Kyle Singler 76-48 (+28)
Nolan Smith 75-47 (+28)
Lance Thomas 42-16 (+26)
Andre Dawkins 23-13 (+10)
Mason Plumlee 28-24 (+4)
Miles Plumlee 33-30 (+3)
Jordan Davidson 2-1 (+1)
Casey Peters 0-0 (+0)
Steve Johnson 0-1 (-1)
Ryan Kelly 2-4 (-2)

Per 40 Minutes
Lance Thomas +65
Brian Zoubek +58
Jon Scheyer +37.8
Andre Dawkins +36.4
Nolan Smith +32
Kyle Singler +30.3
Jordan Davidson +13.3
Mason Plumlee +10
Miles Plumlee +6.3
Casey Peters +0
Ryan Kelly -16
Steve Johnson -40

Lineups
Scheyer-Smith-Singler-Thomas-Zoubek (x5) 31-10 (+21)
Scheyer-Dawkins-Singler-Mason-Miles 7-2 (+5)
Scheyer-Smith-Dawkins-Thomas-Zoubek 4-1 (+3)
Scheyer-Smith-Singler-Thomas-Miles (x2) 7-5 (+2)
Scheyer-Smith-Singler-Mason-Zoubek (x2) 4-2 (+2)
Scheyer-Smith-Dawkins-Singler-Miles 2-0 (+2)
Scheyer-Smith-Dawkins-Kelly-Zoubek 2-0 (+2)
Davidson-Smith-Singler-Mason-Miles 2-0 (+2)
Scheyer-Smith-Dawkins-Singler-Zoubek (x2) 8-7 (+1)
Scheyer-Dawkins-Singler-Kelly-Zoubek 0-0 (+0)
Davidson-Peters-Johnson-Kelly-Mason 0-0 (+0)
Davidson-Johnson-Kelly-Mason-Miles 0-1 (-1)
Smith-Dawkins-Singler-Kelly-Miles 0-3 (-3)
Scheyer-Smith-Singler-Mason-Miles (x5) 15-19 (-4)

ice-9
03-10-2010, 03:19 AM
Wow...I'm enjoying this season immensely, but numbers like the above make me a bit worried about next year.

Scheyer, Lance and Zoubek will be gone. There's a chance Singler might also go. That's a lot of experience that we won't have next year -- can Miles and Mason grow up enough to replace what our senior big men brought to the court?

Bob Green
03-10-2010, 06:42 AM
Wow...I'm enjoying this season immensely, but numbers like the above make me a bit worried about next year.

Carpe diem quam minime credula postero.

Jarhead
03-10-2010, 11:22 AM
Carpe diem quam minime credula postero.
Good line, Bob. You can't take care of today by worrying about the future.

CDu
03-10-2010, 11:58 AM
Wow...I'm enjoying this season immensely, but numbers like the above make me a bit worried about next year.

Scheyer, Lance and Zoubek will be gone. There's a chance Singler might also go. That's a lot of experience that we won't have next year -- can Miles and Mason grow up enough to replace what our senior big men brought to the court?

We'll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it. Many (including myself) speculated that this year's team would have a lot of trouble rebounding from the losses of Henderson and Williams and (albeit maybe to a lesser degree) Paulus and McClure. We've seemed to manage fairly well thus far (not saying I wouldn't love to have Williams and/or Henderson as well, but that's a different discussion). Guys like Scheyer, Smith, Zoubek, and Thomas have played beyond expectations. While it's possible that this won't repeat itself next year with our returning players, there's no reason that it can't.

Next year's team will have lots of new faces and lots of older faces in new roles. There's plenty of time for that team to figure out its identity and develop into a great team. There will still be an All-ACC player (at least), and lots of talented players along side him.

deedee55
03-10-2010, 12:58 PM
i totally agree about not looking forward to next year - it's march, after all, the best month of the year. but since the can of worms is open and the damn things are crawling all over this thread, i would like to reiterate that even if he does not always have the ideal mix of talent/players to work with, k does indeed go to war with the army he has. and although his teams sometimes run out of 55 gallon drums of whoopass, coach k, unlike the coach of a team 8 miles down the road that shall deservedly remain nameless, makes sure duke comes ready to play.

so let's finish out this season, which has been a total blast. then we can start the speculation and second guessing and dissecting and hair splitting of next year's season, which i have a hunch will also be a blast.

SCMatt33
03-10-2010, 01:42 PM
This Plumlees vs. Thomas/Zoubek thing is worrying me a little bit. Duke's biggest asset this year compared to the recent past is defense and rebounding. A large part of that improvement has stemmed from our front court depth allowing us to be very aggressive on the offensive boards and in the post on defense.

With the poor play by the Plumlees (no alliteration intended), any foul trouble by Zoubek and Lance becomes a bigger issue. I think we saw some of this against Maryland. With 11 minutes left in the game, both Plumlees came out and never saw the court again. When Lance picked up his 4th foul at 8:33 left, Coach K decided to go with a small lineup by putting Dawkins in, rather than one of the Plumlees. I think that move tells you what you need to know about how comfortable Coach K is with both the Plumlees and Dawkins. Granted, Maryland is a small team so that lineup was possible, but it is still a lineup that has been used only sparingly this year, even against small teams.

Even more interesting is how Maryland took advantage of that lineup. After Lance came out, Jordan Williams missed a layup and Duke scored a layup, putting us up 2. Maryland proceeded to score on 6 of their next 7 possessions for 13 points. During this same time, including that first layup, Duke was 5 for 7 for 11 points, keeping us within two.

The defense was poor enough that Coach K called a timeout with 3:52 left preempting the final media timeout just to get Lance back on the floor. At that point, Maryland still scored on 3 of 4 possessions, which came on a Hayes jumper, a put-back by Williams and that ridiculous bank shot by Vasquez. Maryland clearly had to work harder to score, but made the tough shots down the stretch as opposed some easier scores from earlier.

This is obviously a very small sample size, and impossible to actually draw long term conclusions from, but it shows that foul trouble could have a bigger impact than we ever could have imagined with our lineup.

An interesting corollary to this foul trouble thing is how much Zoubek has been able to cut down on his fouls with his play getting better. I think it has a lot to do with him being more decisive with his moves and getting more respect from the officials because of it. He no longer "looks" like he fouls on every play anymore.