MOTM vs. Princeton (11/14/2010)

[airowe]

I'm on my Blackberry or I'd start it. A little rusty around here, no?

[camion]

Kyle gets the nod over Nolan. The tiebreaker was the swan dive into the crowd. Ya gotta love it.

[_TheFakeJWill_]

Kyrie. A freshman coming in w more hype than any freshman in 10 years and was one assist away from a double double. Gotta be Kyrie.

[Lord Ash]

Yikes!

Jumbo has to work, and we fall apart:) I'll put it up.

[JBDuke]

Yikes!

Jumbo has to work, and we fall apart:) I'll put it up.

Beat you to it.

[Lord Ash]

*laugh* I was in midpost:) Feel free to wipe mine out:) Check the format though, usually includes date of the game in the title.

[JBDuke]

*laugh* I was in midpost:) Feel free to wipe mine out:) Check the format though, usually includes date of the game in the title.

Yep, did that, too.

[Lord Ash]

*laugh* Excellent!

I went with Nolan.

Kyle was great, but did pick up some fouls and had to sit a bit. Plus, his assist and rebound numbers were not amazing.

Kyrie had an AMAZING statline, but did shoot under 50 percent for 2. He also had a foul. For shame!

Nolan had the most points, tied for most rebounds. Shot a solid 66%. The 4 TO was his only downer.


Hah. That is an awesome game, to have to compare a TOTALLY dominant Kyle Singler who was unstoppable, a freshman who in his first game had a 9:1 A to TO ratio and shot 50 percent from 3 and while also being tied for first in rebounds, and Nolan Smith's 66% shooting and 22 points, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists. And I didn't even consider Seth Curry who had 14 points and 3 rebounds while shooting 60% from three.

[Bob Green]

I voted for Kyrie Irving because of his nine assists and only one turnover performance. Singler and Smith are going to be the heart and soul of this year's team, and they will earn my MOTM vote many times, but Coach Krzyzewski changed the way we play because of the skills Irving displayed today so my initial 2010-11 MOTM goes to Irving.

[PumpkinFunk]

Kyle gets the nod over Nolan. The tiebreaker was the swan dive into the crowd. Ya gotta love it.

The swandive into me (pretty much - I was the band member right at the end) was a bit terrifying. Looked worse on TV, for sure. Definitely gets my vote.

[OldPhiKap]

Nolan led this team. He brought it up a fair bit even when Kyrie was in; ran the team when Kyle was out; and had the best drive of the night.

The kid's a winner, and a great example. As Len Elmore noted, he is there for Kyrie and will be a steady force to help shape and guide him. Great game.

[jipops]

I voted for Kyle. Nolan and Kyrie were of course great but Kyle looked like the best player on the floor and had two terrific plays on the defensive end where he batted the ball away on back cuts. Those were senior star type plays and were made before Duke finally pulled away.

[rotogod00]

A/T ratio of 9 plus a FTA/FGA of .6 nets Irving my vote

[cptnflash]

After 1 game as a Blue Devil, Kyrie as a 9 to 1 assist to turnover ratio. I'm just sayin'...

[timmy c]

Lots of good choices in this game.

I go with Kyle. He hit some big shots in the first half when the rest of the team was strung to tight. His on the court leadership allowed the team time to find their stroke.

[peterjswift]

Kyrie gets my vote - not only the 9:1 A:TO ratio, but shooting well....in his first game. The steal/breakaway with the layup against two defenders was solid. Normally I would want him to pass in that situation, but I think he actually made a really intelligent move by going straight to the hoop without getting touched.

[uh_no]

Kyle gets the nod over Nolan. The tiebreaker was the swan dive into the crowd. Ya gotta love it.

i've had the honor of catching both scheyer and kyle in games now!

[SilkyJ]

I think we have a "new" big three. Gave nolan the nod just barely over Kyrie...kyle was of course great as always.

[Cockabeau]

Nolan Smith. He looked unstoppable out there.

[COYS]

Kyrie was outstanding, Nolan was great, but Kyle was completely locked in, minus the fouls. For a stretch, he WAS our halfcourt offense. If Kyle is able to knock down looks like he did tonight, we're going to score a lot of points.

[uh_no]

Nolan Smith. He looked unstoppable out there.

some of his moves were incredible....in my opinion he is phenomenally better than he was last year at this time....now we didn't see kyle the whole game and kyle and nolan were trading baskets for a while, but if nolan keeps playing like this, he could supplant kyle as NPOY leader

[gep]

I went with Kyle. First game of the season, all the hype for both him and Duke, and he came out fully focused and, I think, set the tone as a senior leader along with Nolan. But with all of the other MOTM possibilities in this game, and in future games (I hope), I may not get to vote for Kyle again... so I had to go with Kyle for this one.

Kinda like JJ's senior year. I remember reading comments like "MOTMOTJJ" (man of the match other than JJ) since it was obviously JJ for many games... I expect Kyle will have many more MOTM-type games...

[billyj]

Is Andre Dawkins a member of this forum? :D

[hedevil]

I barely got back from little get together that my friend threw for the game. This is a close poll, and rightfully so. I feel guilty voting for either of Kyle, Nolan, or Kyrie over the other two. I guess I'll have to go with Kyrie on this one. I could easily make a case for any of them, but I really love his distribution in this game. On any given night, what Kyrie lacks in scoring, he can more than make up for with assists and ball protection. I was really impressed with how controlled his game was. With Scheyer gone, one of the big question marks for this team is going to be turnovers/ball protection at the point. Kyrie is off to a great start so far.

[ice-9]

Hard to pick -- all three were so good. Kyrie's 9 assists to 1 turnover is phenomenal and Kyle seemed unstoppable and seemed like a key cog in demolishing Princeton's zone.

I vote Nolan in the end because he was able to lead the second unit (IIRC Tyler, Seth, Hairston and Kelly) with no let down at all, i.e. we kept extending our lead. That shows to me that Nolan is ready to not only score and handle the ball, but also to be that leader of the team.

[theAlaskanBear]

I voted for Nolan because he had a better game than Kyle. He looks like he can score anytime he wants when he is on the floor.

I was tempted to give it to Kyrie, especially because of his steals and that block...but I'll make him really earn his first one. Seniority and all.

[JBDuke]

I voted for Kyle, because when our guards (other than Nolan) were showing some first-game-of-the-season jitters, he was a rock. At one point in the first half, Kyrie, Andre, and Seth were a combined 2-12, IIRC, and Kyle was 6-6. Nolan was doing almost as well (I think he was 3-4 at the time.), but Kyle was just unstoppable. Foul trouble limited him somewhat later on, but we didn't really need him at that point.

[OldPhiKap]

Is Andre Dawkins a member of this forum? :D

It might have been a vote from Coach K. In his press conference, he made a point of pointing out what a great game he had and how he had raised his game.

[tele]

Kyle, when the offense in the first half wasn't settled or was rushing a bit they started to get the ball to Kyle and he delivered. Plus he did decide to come back for another season at Duke so he gets my vote.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Nolan got my vote. He was Mr. inside and Me. outside tonight, especially early before we out it away and everyone started to play well.

[Duke: A Dynasty]

KI got my vote because he was a freshmen doing it not a 4 year senior. Loved the way Kyle and Nolan played as well. But if I had another vote it would be a tie for Andre and Seth. Those two IMO were the difference. They stretched the D with the 3 (not that Nolan and Kyle don't) and showed they can come in and provide quick points while the starters rest.

[superdave]

Is it too early to start an A/TO watch for Kyrie? We had one going for Jon last year after about 5 minutes of the season.

Scheyer was 2.98 last year and Wojo at 3.03 in 1997.

[Kedsy]

Is it too early to start an A/TO watch for Kyrie? We had one going for Jon last year after about 5 minutes of the season.

Scheyer was 2.98 last year and Wojo at 3.03 in 1997.

Yes, it's too early.

[JBDuke]

Is it too early to start an A/TO watch for Kyrie? We had one going for Jon last year after about 5 minutes of the season.

Scheyer was 2.98 last year and Wojo at 3.03 in 1997.

The reason we started tracking Jon's A/TO so early was that he started with no turnovers for the first few games. It was a remarkable stretch, and his ratio remained extraordinarily high for the first couple of months. As your post indicates, he came back to a merely excellent ratio for mortals by the end of the year.

Kyrie certainly had an excellent start, but he's already committed a turnover, (Shock!) so he's behind Jon at this point. :-) If he keeps up a 9:1 ratio over a couple more games, then I'd say it's time to start tracking his progress.

[ncexnyc]

I gave my vote to Nolan. He appeared to be able to slice and dice the Princeton defense whenever he felt like it.

[4decadedukie]

Last night's Princeton game provided many excellent alternatives with solid rationales. However, I opted for Captain Singler, principally because his "gut factor" -- difficult to define and to quantify, but (as we saw last season) frequently a critical victory catalyst -- has not been reduced during the off season. Diving into the crowd in an attempt to achieve possession, in the season opener, against a team we were essentially certain to defeat solidly not only (again) demonstrates his character and will-to-win, but it is also an excellent leadership-by-example lesson for his teammates. GO KYLE, GO DUKE!!!

[bjornolf]

I went with Kyrie. 9:1 assist to turnover ratio in his first "real" game? Sick.

So far, including the exhibitions, he's at 5.25:1. I realize there's NO way to keep that up for a career, but if he did... salivating just thinking about it. :cool:

[CLW]

Went with Nolan although a case can be made for any of KI, Singler and Smith.

I was also impressed with Dawkins and Curry as well. Curry looked to be a little too amped at 1st but played much better in the 2nd Half.

[devildeac]

The swandive into me (pretty much - I was the band member right at the end) was a bit terrifying. Looked worse on TV, for sure. Definitely gets my vote.

Yea, I thought the fans in the 2 rows of chairs did a lousy job of trying to catch Kyle. I'll bet if Z was seated at that end instead of near the Duke bench, he would have corralled that loose rebound, err, player.

[Jderf]

I think we have a "new" big three. Gave nolan the nod just barely over Kyrie...kyle was of course great as always.

Big Three? How about a Big Five? Last year, Nolan, Kyle and Jon made up the big three because there was such a heavy drop-off in scoring from our 3rd to 4th scorer. However, in last night's game there was no drop-off: 22, 17, 16, 14, 13. If that holds up throughout the course of the season, our perimeter offense is just going to be too balanced to stop. I imagine opposing coaches crying alone in the locker room the night before they play us.

[COYS]

Big Three? How about a Big Five? Last year, Nolan, Kyle and Jon made up the big three because there was such a heavy drop-off in scoring from our 3rd to 4th scorer. However, in last night's game there was no drop-off: 22, 17, 16, 14, 13. If that holds up throughout the course of the season, our perimeter offense is just going to be too balanced to stop. I imagine opposing coaches crying alone in the locker room the night before they play us.

Agree. One thing that I think will help keep the team grounded, as well, though is that we have two undisputed go-to guys in Kyle and Nolan. In late game situations, we will look to them for the big bucket. We're just so fortunate that if they can't get a good look we've got three other strong options surrounding them in Dre, Seth, and Kyrie.

[Jderf]

We're just so fortunate that if they can't get a good look we've got three other strong options surrounding them in Dre, Seth, and Kyrie.

Are you implying that in a trailing-in-the-final-seconds situation, K will field a line-up of Kyle, Nolan, Kyrie, Dre, and Seth? :D

[COYS]

Are you implying that in a trailing-in-the-final-seconds situation, K will field a line-up of Kyle, Nolan, Kyrie, Dre, and Seth? :D

Haha, certainly not likely but it is possible in an offense/defense situation. 2007-2008 didn't end the way we wanted it, but there were certainly stretches where the Nelson, Scheyer, Paulus, Henderson, Singler lineup was extremely effective. The above mentioned lineup could be similarly effective in the right situation against the right team for a short amount of time.