MBB: Duke 83, Bradley 48 Post-Game Thread

[JBDuke]

Put your post-game thoughts here.

[Duke: A Dynasty]

All day Dre! Thats what I will now refer to him as! I think he not only scored a lot but provided the spark for others like Curry and Singler to get going.

[RoyalBlue08]

Here's a hypothetical question for y'all: How many more performances like that one would Andre need to be our starting shooting guard when Kyrie comes back?

Or to ask it a different way: Does Nolan's career accomplishments earn him an automatic starting spot for the rest of the season, regardless of how good Andre might be playing?

[CLW]

Andre continued his excellent play. IMHO, he's earned a starting spot even when/if Kyrie is able to return.

Miles also played perhaps his best game of the season.

Nolan struggled with his shot but I thought he was more than adequate as a replacement at the point with 10 assists and only 2 turnovers.

[Bluedevil114]

Andre Dawkins was just pure tonight. Every shot looked like it was going in and he deserved the start tonight. He has been our most consistent shooter this season and sure does resemble a guy named JJ. Glad to finally see Curry get going in the second half. Nolan was off and Kyle finally got going in the second half also.

Kelly was consistent all game long. He is really playing solid this season.

[jv001]

It took a half of basketball to get our offense in a good flow, but when we did, wow! Andre was fantastic, Miles solid and Curry got it going in the 2nd half. Still things to work on and I certainly hope Kyrie gets some good news from the doctors regarding his injury. GoDuke!

[Duke: A Dynasty]

Here's a hypothetical question for y'all: How many more performances like that one would Andre need to be our starting shooting guard when Kyrie comes back?

Or to ask it a different way: Does Nolan's career accomplishments earn him an automatic starting spot for the rest of the season, regardless of how good Andre might be playing?

He will only start if:
a) injuries come into play
or
b) we go to a diff. lineup ala: Mason, Kyle, Andre, Nolan, Kyrie

[Bluedevil114]

Or to ask it a different way: Does Nolan's career accomplishments earn him an automatic starting spot for the rest of the season, regardless of how good Andre might be playing?

Yes. Nolan will get his game going again. Nolan is a senior and a captain along with a huge reason Duke has four National Championships. Nolan does not come off the bench. If Dawkins starts it is because Kyle goes to the 4.

[superdave]

Here's a hypothetical question for y'all: How many more performances like that one would Andre need to be our starting shooting guard when Kyrie comes back?

Or to ask it a different way: Does Nolan's career accomplishments earn him an automatic starting spot for the rest of the season, regardless of how good Andre might be playing?

Does not matter if Andre starts or not. His minutes will be the same. Recall Scheyer from his sophmore season.

[jv001]

Here's a hypothetical question for y'all: How many more performances like that one would Andre need to be our starting shooting guard when Kyrie comes back?

Or to ask it a different way: Does Nolan's career accomplishments earn him an automatic starting spot for the rest of the season, regardless of how good Andre might be playing?

does Coach K bench his senior captain, Nolan Smith and start Andre. I would think K would go small with Andre at the 3 and Kyle at the 4 before he would do that. Andre's defense has improved, but he cannot play on the ball defense like Nolan. Go Duke!

[CLW]

He will only start if:
a) injuries come into play
or
b) we go to a diff. lineup ala: Mason, Kyle, Andre, Nolan, Kyrie

I think that lineup could/should be our best come March.

[Bob Green]

Here's a hypothetical question for y'all: How many more performances like that one would Andre need to be our starting shooting guard when Kyrie comes back?

Dawkins starting on the wing with Singler moving to the power forward slot is a more realistic possibility. Even though I was a major proponent of the "both Plumlees will start" philosophy, it is becoming increasingly obvious our best line-up includes Dawkins so Singler moving to PF allows us to put our best five players on the court: Irving, Smith, Dawkins, Singler, Plumlee (pick one).

[Duvall]

Here's a hypothetical question for y'all: How many more performances like that one would Andre need to be our starting shooting guard when Kyrie comes back?

Or to ask it a different way: Does Nolan's career accomplishments earn him an automatic starting spot for the rest of the season, regardless of how good Andre might be playing?

Starting spots are not awarded based on career accomplishments. But I don't understand the question - at no time this season has Nolan not been one of Duke's five best players.

[Les Grossman]

Watching Dawk blossom this season has been a blast. He'd start on many teams.
Miles played better, which is encouraging; ditto Seth.
Duke's biggest challenge this year may be finding the time to allow all of these tremendous young players to develop.:D

[Duke: A Dynasty]

So it seems like tonight was Andres "coming out game" and I hope this leads to a more aggresive Andre.

[Les Grossman]

but lets not get carried away. Nolan has proved it in the biggest games. And he can get his own shot, which Dawk needs to work on. Dawk right now is a spot up shooter.

Did Dawk grow a couple of inches over the summer? Is he working out? Sure looks bigger.

[COYS]

Starting spots are not awarded based on career accomplishments. But I don't understand the question - at no time this season has Nolan not been one of Duke's five best players.

What is even more perplexing is that Nolan played an excellent game against Bradley. His scoring was off but he ran the offense far better than he has at any point this season, especially in the second half. He had 10 assists to 2 turnovers after many on the board have been lamenting his propensity to turn the ball over this season. Andre doesn't score 28 points if Nolan isn't getting him the ball. Another interesting stat is that the game slowed way down to 65 possessions for Duke according to SCACChoops (http://www.scacchoops.com/ViewHDGame.asp?hSchedule=6928&bView=0). I felt that Nolan did a great job controlling tempo and only pushing when we had clear-cut opportunities in transition whereas I felt that many of his turnovers in past games were due to his pushing the ball when it may have been better to slow it down and set up the offense. The offense WAS a little disjointed in the first half, but that's not too surprising given that we've had precious little time to redesign an offense that previously featured Kyrie's abilities. All in all, I was very happy with Nolan's play and his low point total should not take away from the fact that this just might have been the best job he's ever done leading the offense.

[basket1544]

Loved Andre's performance. It was great! Stop the talk about benching the senior captain that ran the show tonight though right now. Nolan had 10 assists and only 2 turnovers! We have an amazing team and all of our guards could start at other colleges, only a couple get to start here. Nolan isn't going to look to score as long as he is playing the point. He's going to look to feed it to Dre and everyone else instead.
Also, Miles' game was great. I think he may be staying in the starting lineup for a while now.

[Duke: A Dynasty]

Loved Andre's performance. It was great! Stop the talk about benching the senior captain that ran the show tonight though right now. Nolan had 10 assists and only 2 turnovers! We have an amazing team and all of our guards could start at other colleges, only a couple get to start here. Nolan isn't going to look to score as long as he is playing the point. He's going to look to feed it to Dre and everyone else instead.
Also, Miles' game was great. I think he may be staying in the starting lineup for a while now.

I wouldnt be so sure of that if I were you. Kelly has been consistently good just has Miles to a lesser degree. But with the way Andre played we may consider the 3 guard lineup with Kyle at the 4 more often

[FireOgilvie]

Kyrie didn't even play but he's now leading the team in points/game.

[KShip21]

Splash is what a few friends and I have been calling him since last year. This year he"s not only splashing jumpers, but with a little more recognition on the national scene as well. Good for him after some rough times the past year

[roywhite]

Splash is what a few friends and I have been calling him since last year. This year he"s not only splashing jumpers, but with a little more recognition on the national scene as well. Good for him after some rough times the past year

Great to see Andre play so well; I like the "Splash" nickname. That is a beautiful high-arcing shot that he has.

National recognition?....heck, yeah; there aren't many guys in the country that can shoot like he can.

[CameronBornAndBred]

What I didn't like...
1. The first half. Hard to argue that, but I was surprised to see us come out as lost looking as we did. Kyrie might not have been on the floor for the game, but I'm assuming he hadn't been there for practice either. We looked like this was completely new to us. I won't pick on anyone in particular because it was pretty much a team wide experience.

What I did like....
1. Andre Dawkins. Hard to argue that too.
2. Mason. He never quits, I'm thinking he will always be in the discussion after any victory. If he has a bad game, he will most likely be in the discussion after a loss. He's huge for us.
3. Nolan. I thought he did well moving the ball and directing the offense. I was surprised he missed as many (easy looking) shots as he did, but Andre doesn't get his points tonight without Nolan making the opportunities happen.

Honorable mention to Ryan Kelly and Seth Curry. Hits and misses throughout the game, but both made an impact. If Kelly gets more consistent on both ends of the court he will be vital.

This was a great game for us to learn from. I was surprised by how we started, honestly it seemed as if we weren't prepared, and under K I doubt that was the case. Second half was a joy to watch, so whatever K "reminded" them of at halftime jogged their memories pretty well. Now lets see them use this stepping stone and put together two solid Kyrie-free halves together on Saturday.

[gep]

Regarding Nolan and Dre...

Coach K has said on more than one occasion that going undefeated requires an "old" team... that is, junior/senior players/leadership. Also, Coach K has always valued "senior leadership". For these reasons, I think Nolan and Kyle *will* be main-stays in the starting lineup, and be on the court most of the time. *Especially* since Nolan and Kyle already had the experience of an NC season. I think Nolan continues to start, continues to be a leader. Dre will have his "time" as situations permit.

[mr shadow 008]

Hey, does anybody know if the game will be replayed anywhere? I did not get to watch because i was out. Thanks.

[gep]

Hey, does anybody know if the game will be replayed anywhere? I did not get to watch because i was out. Thanks.

If you have it... it is on www.espn3.com That's my plan for watching tonight... missed it live...

[mr shadow 008]

I do have it but its not showing up as a replay. I don't know if something is wrong with mine or if it just hasn't been put up yet?



Nvm. Its showing up now. Thanks though.

[watzone]

BDN Post game - hear Coach K's post game comments via audio where he speaks of KI's injury and more.

[airowe]

BDN Post game - hear Coach K's post game comments via audio where he speaks of KI's injury and more.

Mark, do you have a link to that?

[Kedsy]

I knew Miles was going to have a big game 11 seconds into the first half when he successfully converted the alley-oop dunk. But even I did not expect him to go 7 for 7 from the field. The team should always try to get both Miles and Mason an alley-oop in the first few minutes because it almost always bodes well for the rest of the game.

We've played nine games and have had six different players be our leading scorer for at least one game. That's pretty amazing, if you think about it.

Nolan Smith is now first in the ACC in assists this season. By a fair amount.

Free throw defense continues to be one of Duke's strength this season. Bradley shot 50% from the free throw line tonight, bringing our opponents aggregate free throw percentage down to 54.7%. Eight of our nine opponents have shot below their season average from the line.

Bradley outrebounded us 39 to 38 (counting dead ball rebounds), but I never would have guessed that from watching the game.

I thought Ryan Kelly was outstanding tonight. He does all the little things and quite a few of the big ones. I'm happy Seth got it going in the second half. Josh played pretty well, too, although he made a couple of defensive mistakes.

I noticed this in person at the Butler game and again on TV tonight, but Josh looks taller than Kyle when they stand next to each other.

[juise]

Mark, do you have a link to that?

Here's a link (http://bluedevilnation.net/2010/12/5085/).

[juise]

One thing I liked a lot: Twice as many assists as the Butler game on nearly the same point total (83 Saturday, 82 tonight). Some of that is due to less points coming on free throws tonight, but overall I thought the offense flowed better.

It was good to see Seth having some fun tonight. He had a really nice steal where he came from nowhere and filled a passing lane.

Obviously, this was an outstanding game for Andre and Miles.

[Kedsy]

I wonder why K decided to start Miles tonight? Obviously it was a winning strategy, but Ryan had been playing well (and played well tonight, too). Is it as simple as Miles played best in practice this week? Or is it related to Andre stepping into the starting lineup?

For the past several games, Miles and Andre have been subbing in around the same time, either for Mason and Ryan or for Ryan and a guard. Is it possible K wanted them to both start because they've played together so much? Or am I overthinking this?

[juise]

We've played nine games and have had six different players be our leading scorer for at least one game. That's pretty amazing, if you think about it.

It is. I did a check on last year's box scores and found that in 40 games last year, Duke only had a total 3.5 leading scorer's. I'm counting Andre's co-leading effort against Radford as a half (his previous career high of 20, which Nolan had as well in that game). Looking through those box scores, I saw a lot of Kyle/Jon/Nolan carrying 75%+ of the scoring. The additional weapons will be valuable this year, for sure.

[Saratoga2]

Clearly our offense was a little ragged in the first half and our defense in the second half (we gave up 30 in a slow paced game). With coach K having the luxury of playing a lot of lineups in the second half, there was at least some excuse why Bradley was able to get by our guards and wing and into the paint for relatively easy scores.

Andre showed us again that he is a sweet shooting guard with deadly accuracy from the three and also a mid range game that he can develop as the season goes on. His defense and rebounding are also good enough to earn starter minutes. I would like to see the team run him off of screens to get his shot, since better opponents will not give him as many open looks while standing in the corner.

Ryan is also quietly showing that he is capable of hitting the three ansd presumably that could translate to a mid range capability. He would be effective at the high post since he can hit the shot and is also can make good passes inside. Since both Plumlees appear most effective inside, I would think Kelly is best suited to play a high post role.

Rebounding last night was not all that great. We had a size and athleticism advantage, but were outrebounded. Our guards seemed to do their share, so I am wondering what else we could do to improve in this area. Is it because we shoot so many 3's or are we just not as forceful as other teams.

Nolan did a good job of running the point. That responsibility is bound to take away from his scoring, but I doubt if there will be another game where he is unable to hit a single bucket from the field.

[lotusland]

Andre showed us again that he is a sweet shooting guard with deadly accuracy from the three and also a mid range game that he can develop as the season goes on. His defense and rebounding are also good enough to earn starter minutes. I would like to see the team run him off of screens to get his shot, since better opponents will not give him as many open looks while standing in the corner.



Agree that Duke could maybe set an occasional screen for Dre if other shooters are struggling and we need a basket but Duke is dangerous at every position and different players will get hot on a given night. I don't think teams are going to put their defensive "stopper" on Dre so he will get plenty of opportunities when Kyle, Nolan, Mason, Kyrie and Seth draw help defense. Andre needs to keep improving his offense inside the 3-point line. If he's being guarded that tightly or when guys are running out at him, he needs to get better at getting to the hoop, pulling up for a jumper or finding an open shooter. He has the ability and we've seen flashes but just like Nolan developed the floater Dre needs to work on penetrating to be a more complete player. He's improved tremendously since last year so he just needs to keep working. He doesn't need to carry Duke by any means this year.

[flyingdutchdevil]

Great to see Andre play so well; I like the "Splash" nickname. That is a beautiful high-arcing shot that he has.

National recognition?....heck, yeah; there aren't many guys in the country that can shoot like he can.

Gotta go with "Iceman," as per Greg Newton's suggestion (with Seth being Maverick).

As they're both sophomores (athletically, not academically), they will be around together for a while. That's why the duel nicknames are even more fitting.

[RoyalBlue08]

Regarding Nolan and Dre...

Coach K has said on more than one occasion that going undefeated requires an "old" team... that is, junior/senior players/leadership. Also, Coach K has always valued "senior leadership". For these reasons, I think Nolan and Kyle *will* be main-stays in the starting lineup, and be on the court most of the time. *Especially* since Nolan and Kyle already had the experience of an NC season. I think Nolan continues to start, continues to be a leader. Dre will have his "time" as situations permit.

Just for the record, I agree with this sentiment. I think Nolan could go 0 for the season and remain a starter, as he is a real leader for the team. I was just throwing it out there to see if there were other opinions.

[weezie]

I wonder why K decided to start Miles tonight? ... Or am I overthinking this?

No one would ever question your thought process Kedsy, you're Mr. Pitchfork here, but maybe K likes the look of our longer guys out there, kind of a "forest for the trees" line-up. I sure do and would love to see the three of them stifle some big team like.....ohio st? kansas is starting to make me nervous, too.

[COYS]

I wonder why K decided to start Miles tonight? Obviously it was a winning strategy, but Ryan had been playing well (and played well tonight, too). Is it as simple as Miles played best in practice this week? Or is it related to Andre stepping into the starting lineup?

For the past several games, Miles and Andre have been subbing in around the same time, either for Mason and Ryan or for Ryan and a guard. Is it possible K wanted them to both start because they've played together so much? Or am I overthinking this?

If I may offer an answer, despite the fact that Andre has improved his defense dramatically, he is still not the most proficient on the ball defender away from the basket. His defense on the wing has been superb for the most part, but he can still be taken off the dribble from the top of the key. Since we're switching all screens right now, an Andre/Nolan backcourt is almost certain to lead to many situations where Andre is guarding the opposing team's point guard at the top of the key. I think Coach K (and definitely Bob Green!) see Miles as our best post defender in terms of rotations and positioning. I think that by having Miles in with Andre, Miles can serve as a mistake eraser if Andre is beaten off the dribble.

[Rudy]

I said this just over a year ago on an old thread about Andre:


Here's hoping

Hmmm. A gunner from Virginia comes in as a freshman and shows great promise as a 3 pt shooter, needs work on defense and needs to develop a driving game to complement his outside shot. Sounds a little familiar. Let's hope his career arc continues the similarity.

Can't say he's the second coming based on one game but wow it was raining threes. Thrilling.

[devildeac]

What I didn't like...
1. The first half. Hard to argue that, but I was surprised to see us come out as lost looking as we did. Kyrie might not have been on the floor for the game, but I'm assuming he hadn't been there for practice either. We looked like this was completely new to us. I won't pick on anyone in particular because it was pretty much a team wide experience.

What I did like....
1. Andre Dawkins. Hard to argue that too.
2. Mason. He never quits, I'm thinking he will always be in the discussion after any victory. If he has a bad game, he will most likely be in the discussion after a loss. He's huge for us.
3. Nolan. I thought he did well moving the ball and directing the offense. I was surprised he missed as many (easy looking) shots as he did, but Andre doesn't get his points tonight without Nolan making the opportunities happen.

Honorable mention to Ryan Kelly and Seth Curry. Hits and misses throughout the game, but both made an impact. If Kelly gets more consistent on both ends of the court he will be vital.

This was a great game for us to learn from. I was surprised by how we started, honestly it seemed as if we weren't prepared, and under K I doubt that was the case. Second half was a joy to watch, so whatever K "reminded" them of at halftime jogged their memories pretty well. Now lets see them use this stepping stone and put together two solid Kyrie-free halves together on Saturday.

K was pretty pleased with Nolan in his post game comments on the radio. I'm sure he would have liked another FT to have swished, a 3 to have found "bottoms" and a couple 2 point shots to have fallen, but with 10 A and 2 TO for the PG, K seemed to be quite satisfied.

[Dev11]

Since we're switching all screens right now, an Andre/Nolan backcourt is almost certain to lead to many situations where Andre is guarding the opposing team's point guard at the top of the key.

Did anybody else notice that Kyle actually spent a fair bit of time guarding Bradley's point guard? Sometimes it was because of switching but there were definitely a handful of possessions where Kyle waited at the top of the key for him. Does anybody have a thought on that?

Also, speaking of defense, Tyler got whistled for those two fouls early, but he definitely got in the Bradley PG's head, so I was at least happy with the intensity.

[airowe]

I wonder why K decided to start Miles tonight? Obviously it was a winning strategy, but Ryan had been playing well (and played well tonight, too). Is it as simple as Miles played best in practice this week? Or is it related to Andre stepping into the starting lineup?

For the past several games, Miles and Andre have been subbing in around the same time, either for Mason and Ryan or for Ryan and a guard. Is it possible K wanted them to both start because they've played together so much? Or am I overthinking this?

I'm guessing here, but maybe the coaching staff feels that Miles plays better in the halfcourt set and Ryan's skills are better featured in transition. Since there was a likelihood this game would turn more into a halfcourt, possession-style game, Miles got the start.

[CDu]

Well, we looked a little disjointed on offense, but the defense was again very good and the game was not really ever in doubt. I thought a big difference between the first and second half was that a lot of the shots we took that missed in the first half went in in the second half. I think we were something like 4-17 in the first half on threes, which would mean we were 11-16 from three in the second half. That additional 7 makes in a similar number of attempts explains a lot of the difference in scoring.

The offense looked better on paper in the second half, but my immediate impression was that it was basically the same as the first half (just with more shots falling). I'm hopeful that, over the next few weeks, we figure this thing out. Obviously, we have fantastic options from 3 point range, but I think it does bear watching whether or not we are able to keep the Plumlees involved offensively (and not just on the occasional alley-oop attempt).

Aside from that, it was a fabulous shooting effort by Dawkins, and a very solid game by Miles Plumlee as well. I would like to see us rebound better on both ends of the floor. Against such a small team, I feel like we shouldn't be basically matching their rebound rates. But, that's a smaller nitpick given that we won by 30+.

It's probably going to be a work in progress for a while as we adjust to not having Irving. Hopefully, the adjustments go smoothly. And it's nice to be able to call any 30+ point win a work in progress.

Here's hoping that the team continues to make strides in Irving's absence, and that when Irving does return his return is relatively seamless.

[Kedsy]

If I may offer an answer, despite the fact that Andre has improved his defense dramatically, he is still not the most proficient on the ball defender away from the basket. His defense on the wing has been superb for the most part, but he can still be taken off the dribble from the top of the key. Since we're switching all screens right now, an Andre/Nolan backcourt is almost certain to lead to many situations where Andre is guarding the opposing team's point guard at the top of the key. I think Coach K (and definitely Bob Green!) see Miles as our best post defender in terms of rotations and positioning. I think that by having Miles in with Andre, Miles can serve as a mistake eraser if Andre is beaten off the dribble.

Well, I think he's our best post defender, too, and I have assumed that's why Miles usually subbed in with Andre (and hence why Ryan was starting). If you're right (and I don't doubt that you are) that would mean Miles will not only be starting but will be picking up a good portion of Kyrie's minutes and will be on the floor a lot more than he was when Kyrie was in the lineup. So either Ryan's minutes will drop or we'll be playing the big lineup more than we were before the injury. I have to wait for the plus/minus before my "official" big vs. small comparison, but I believe we only used the small lineup for 5 minutes against Bradley.


No one would ever question your thought process Kedsy, you're Mr. Pitchfork here, but maybe K likes the look of our longer guys out there, kind of a "forest for the trees" line-up. I sure do and would love to see the three of them stifle some big team like.....ohio st? kansas is starting to make me nervous, too.

Well, I think you're right in that I think we only played the small lineup for 5 minutes against Bradley when we were using it for 16+ minutes in our first 8 games. But that wouldn't explain why Miles started over Ryan, who is actually an inch taller than Miles.

[Kedsy]

I'm guessing here, but maybe the coaching staff feels that Miles plays better in the halfcourt set and Ryan's skills are better featured in transition. Since there was a likelihood this game would turn more into a halfcourt, possession-style game, Miles got the start.

That's an interesting observation, airowe. I've always thought Ryan was built for the halfcourt game and Miles would be best served in the running game.

I thought they both excelled yesterday. What I liked best about Miles is on at least four of his baskets he signaled to the guard to throw him the ball then went up and grabbed it and finished. I really liked him aggressively taking control like that; it's not something we've seen very much from him this year.

[devildeac]

I'm guessing here, but maybe the coaching staff feels that Miles plays better in the halfcourt set and Ryan's skills are better featured in transition. Since there was a likelihood this game would turn more into a halfcourt, possession-style game, Miles got the start.

That certainly may be true. A reliable source I talked to this weekend said Miles practices great but there have been "game performance" concerns. Whatever the reason/s, he had a really fine game last PM and I hope he continues to perform in a similar manner the remainder of the season.

[hq2]

If I may offer an answer, despite the fact that Andre has improved his defense dramatically, he is still not the most proficient on the ball defender away from the basket. His defense on the wing has been superb for the most part, but he can still be taken off the dribble from the top of the key.

Yes, but remember, he's a swingman. Once Kyrie comes back (still a ways off) he'll be playing D at 3 again (on the wing); and probably still starting (how does he not if he keeps playing like this?). This performance confirms what I've been saying about Andre all along; he's a scoring explosion waiting to happen, and this time he detonated. It was against a bad team, but if they run the plays for him, he could do it against just about anybody. Look for him to up his average to at least 15, maybe more, in the coming weeks. And, if he keeps improving like this, look for the NBA to start watching some time next year.

[mkirsh]

I'm guessing here, but maybe the coaching staff feels that Miles plays better in the halfcourt set and Ryan's skills are better featured in transition. Since there was a likelihood this game would turn more into a halfcourt, possession-style game, Miles got the start.

Just speculation, but another theory would be that Ryan complements Kyrie better than Miles, in that he can drift to the perimeter and leave the lane open for Kyrie to drive. Without Kyrie we might look to more of a traditional 2-post look on offense with Miles starting.

[Devilsfan]

Did anyone notice how amused "Asian Guy" was with the crazie towel guy?

[kmspeaks]

What is even more perplexing is that Nolan played an excellent game against Bradley. His scoring was off but he ran the offense far better than he has at any point this season, especially in the second half. He had 10 assists to 2 turnovers after many on the board have been lamenting his propensity to turn the ball over this season. Andre doesn't score 28 points if Nolan isn't getting him the ball. Another interesting stat is that the game slowed way down to 65 possessions for Duke according to SCACChoops (http://www.scacchoops.com/ViewHDGame.asp?hSchedule=6928&bView=0). I felt that Nolan did a great job controlling tempo and only pushing when we had clear-cut opportunities in transition whereas I felt that many of his turnovers in past games were due to his pushing the ball when it may have been better to slow it down and set up the offense. The offense WAS a little disjointed in the first half, but that's not too surprising given that we've had precious little time to redesign an offense that previously featured Kyrie's abilities. All in all, I was very happy with Nolan's play and his low point total should not take away from the fact that this just might have been the best job he's ever done leading the offense.

So you think the Chronicle should hold off on the "Bench Nolan Smith" article? ;)

[Saratoga2]

This team without Kyrie is similar to last years team with the loss of Scheyer, Yhomas and Zoubek counterbalanced by the improved play of Dawkins, the addition of Curry and improvements in the Plumlees and Kelly. Yes, we also have more depth but Tyler and Josh have not played major minutes as yet. Is this a better team than last year? I don't think the answer is a clear cut yes.

All we can say at this point it is a very good team. I am hoping for Kyrie's early return. He puts Nolan in a position when he is most effective while addting a great scoring punch.