MOTM: Duke vs. St Johns (Jan 30, 2011)

[JBDuke]

Who was Man of the Match in Duke's 93-78 loss to St. Johns?

[CLW]

Tough call between Nolan and Kyle. I also though that Kelly played fairly well. In the end went with Nolan.

[LSanders]

Maybe we should add ... My Local Bartender

[Kfanarmy]

Gonna go with Casey. One of the few players that wasn't a liability in the 1st half when the game was lost.

[cakerace]

If I've ever needed a "paradigm of opTOEmism," today is the day...

[buddy]

How can there be a MOTM after such a thorough loss? If ANYONE had stood out in the first half, when it really counted, the result might have been different.

[duke74]

Who was Man of the Match in Duke's 93-78 loss to St. Johns?

Dwight Hardy or Justin Brownlee. NO ONE from Duke deserves it, despite the effort late in the game. Sorry.

[RoyalBlue08]

I thought during the first ten minutes of the game, the only guy that looked to me like he was giving 100% effort on the defensive end was Andre, so he gets my vote.

[Hancock 4 Duke]

Did anyone else notice that on the front page MOTM, Josh Hairston has NEGATIVE 1% Of the votes? Didn't think he did that bad..

[wilson]

I guess Kyle was the best player, but I'm abstaining this time. Nobody in blue (I mean black...UGH) earned this title today.

[Cameron]

If I were into the stuff, I'd nominate smack. As I am not (currently), however, my choice has to be Nolan Smith. He scored 27 points in the second half and is the primary reason we lost by 15 rather than 40. I guess that counts as a Man of the Match.

[CDu]

I went with Smith, but even that's a tough one. He was awesome in the second half (which is why he got my vote), but he was nonexistent in the first half when we lost the game. Unfortunately, nobody else was up to the challenge of filling his shoes.

[tele]

I voted for Tyler. He showed a lot of moxie and little, if any, back-down against a chippy st johns team. I don't know what his technical was for, they never showed it or said on the tv coverage, but it was a double T. If Kyrie wasn't likely coming back I think we'd be seeing more of the lineup with Tyler at the point and Singler at 4.

[loran16]

I'm confused about people voting for Kyle. No one was hitting 3s. But Nolan was the only one scoring for whole parts of the game, scored the most, and well, Kyle missed at least 3 open 3s in the first half and more in the 2nd.

20 points on 17 shots is not really efficient, and shouldn't get you MotM unless EVERYONE ELSE was dreadful. Nolan of course had 32 points on 19 shots. Ummm yeah. And Nolan heck had more BOARDS than Kyle. Seriously, there's NO justification for voting for Kyle today.

I can see voting for Tyler or Kelly for other various reasons. But there was nothing Kyle did that wasn't beaten by another player (In this case, Nolan).

I can see abstaining (This was a terrible game, how can there be a MotM). But Kyle, seriously? He's had games where he deserves it. This isn't one of them.

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(Incidentally, for those hating on my comments last week, see how I'm arguing for Nolan here? :-P)

[ncexnyc]

I know we're pretty bummed out about the loss, but Nolan still deserves credit for a very good game.

[davekay1971]

How can there be a MOTM after such a thorough loss? If ANYONE had stood out in the first half, when it really counted, the result might have been different.

The game was played for 40 minutes, and when many Duke fans had packed it in and called it quits, our players were still giving it their all and trying to scrape out a win. That's why I voted for Singler, because he kept bringing it with his usual intensity, and his tough 2nd half plays deserve our respect. Props to our non-PG-but-somehow-ACC-assist-leading-playmaking Nolan Smith, who was right there with Kyle busting his butt even when the outcome was no longer in doubt.

[jipops]

I'm going with Cameron's logic. Nolan kept this game from becoming a historical embarrassment, though I guess Kyle deserves credit for that as well.

[bluepenguin]

Nolan kept this game from becoming a historical embarrassment.
I think that game was a huge embarrassment. And just because Kyle and Nolan played better in the second half, imo doesn't justify a MOTM vote. It's MOTM not MOTH(half). I don't think anyone deserved a MOTM vote.

[PADukeMom]

You need to have "other" in there. My vote goes to Kyrie's toe doctor.

[Neals384]

I know Nolan had a great 2nd half, but when your leading scorere is MIA in the half when the game is decided, how can he be your MOTM? I voted for Kelly.

[mkline09]

In a loss that ugly no one gets it. And I'm sure no one would want it. Just learn and move on to the next play. Don't forget that feeling though.

[NSDukeFan]

I'm confused about people voting for Kyle. No one was hitting 3s. But Nolan was the only one scoring for whole parts of the game, scored the most, and well, Kyle missed at least 3 open 3s in the first half and more in the 2nd.

20 points on 17 shots is not really efficient, and shouldn't get you MotM unless EVERYONE ELSE was dreadful. Nolan of course had 32 points on 19 shots. Ummm yeah. And Nolan heck had more BOARDS than Kyle. Seriously, there's NO justification for voting for Kyle today.

I can see voting for Tyler or Kelly for other various reasons. But there was nothing Kyle did that wasn't beaten by another player (In this case, Nolan).

I can see abstaining (This was a terrible game, how can there be a MotM). But Kyle, seriously? He's had games where he deserves it. This isn't one of them.

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(Incidentally, for those hating on my comments last week, see how I'm arguing for Nolan here? :-P)

I realize you like stats and efficiency numbers, which I do as well, but I don't necessarily feel that everything in basketball can be reduced to efficiency and stats. I don't begrudge anyone who voted Nolan MOTM. There was another player who seemed to play with intensity for much of the game and scored more than Nolan when the team fell behind in the first half. His name is Kyle and though he didn't shoot well, he took the ball inside to get closer shots and had a few and-ones that looked like they had the potential to help the team get closer. You have made it quite clear what your opinion is of who should be MOTM of a match where nobody for Duke could be said to have had a great game. My opinion is that Kyle may have had the least bad game, especially when nobody else was scoring in the first half.

[Cameron]

I stated that Nolan probably was the MOTM more than anyone else because he helped revert what was heading toward a six-touchdown smack-down into a 15-point disrobing. That doesn't mean that I voted for him. Nobody deserved an MVP yesterday.

And, yes, I am aware of how strong and powerful I am for saying that. But the fact remains, we were undressed, as Verne Lunquist so bluntly put it, and that's a hard pill to swallow.

I don't see us having a worse game, ever, while Coach K is still in Durham. That says a lot about the kind of experience the St. John's game was.

[devildeac]

I stated that Nolan probably was the MOTM more than anyone else because he helped revert what was heading toward a six-touchdown smack-down into a 15-point disrobing. That doesn't mean that I voted for him. Nobody deserved an MVP yesterday.

And, yes, I am aware of how strong and powerful I am for saying that. But the fact remains, we were undressed, as Verne Lunquist so bluntly put it, and that's a hard pill to swallow.

I don't see us having a worse game, ever, while Coach K is still in Durham. That says a lot about the kind of experience the St. John's game was.

You may be right. It may not happen again but you might be forgetting this one from 2/4/09:

No. 4 Duke 21 26 47
No. 10 Clemson 33 41 74

Sorry to bring up a very, very bad memory but I'll never forget the TO K called near the end of that game.

[Cameron]

You may be right. It may not happen again but you might be forgetting this one from 2/4/09:

No. 4 Duke 21 26 47
No. 10 Clemson 33 41 74

Sorry to bring up a very, very bad memory but I'll never forget the TO K called near the end of that game.

I fully concur. I think I may have had tears after that one. Even though the final score wasn't as humiliating, I would also place the '09 Villanova game up there. I think we were playing a different sport that night. I was in a coma by half-time.

I should have been more explicit. Over the remainder of Coach K's tenure in Durham, we will never again experience such a stark beating as we did at MSG on Sunday afternoon.

[NSDukeFan]

I fully concur. I think I may have had tears after that one. Even though the final score wasn't as humiliating, I would also place the '09 Villanova game up there. I think we were playing a different sport that night. I was in a coma by half-time.

I should have been more explicit. Over the remainder of Coach K's tenure in Durham, we will never again experience such a stark beating as we did at MSG on Sunday afternoon.

I hope not, but I am quite certain that the bolded part of your statement will be false. This Duke team is one of the best teams in the country, led by two all-American candidate senior leaders, but the team still has a few games each year where they don't perform anywhere near as well as they can. This happens to every team, even though I would agree it happens less often that coach K's Duke teams have terrible games. By less often, I would say that Duke may have 2-4 terrible games a year vs. other teams that may have 5-7.

For Duke to never have a loss like this in coach K's tenure, he would need to every year have at least as good a team as this one (unlikely) with as good leadership from his players (I doubt this for next year and most years in this one-and-done environment) and not play a quality team playing one of their best games of the year when Duke is playing one of its worst games of the year (very unlikely with strong schedules and every team trying to knock off Duke.) I am hoping that coach K will be coaching for many more years and expect that it is very unlikely that at some point one of his teams doesn't experience another loss like this. I hope not though.

[CDu]

I hope not, but I am quite certain that the bolded part of your statement will be false. This Duke team is one of the best teams in the country, led by two all-American candidate senior leaders, but the team still has a few games each year where they don't perform anywhere near as well as they can. This happens to every team, even though I would agree it happens less often that coach K's Duke teams have terrible games. By less often, I would say that Duke may have 2-4 terrible games a year vs. other teams that may have 5-7.

For Duke to never have a loss like this in coach K's tenure, he would need to every year have at least as good a team as this one (unlikely) with as good leadership from his players (I doubt this for next year and most years in this one-and-done environment) and not play a quality team playing one of their best games of the year when Duke is playing one of its worst games of the year (very unlikely with strong schedules and every team trying to knock off Duke.) I am hoping that coach K will be coaching for many more years and expect that it is very unlikely that at some point one of his teams doesn't experience another loss like this. I hope not though.

Agreed. And this ignores the fact that we weren't playing some juggernaut of a program. SJU is a good team that has proven capable of beating other very good teams this year. But there are probably 30 better teams in the country than SJU. At some point again, we're likely to play a team that is just vastly superior that day, either due to the Duke team being not as good as this year's team or the opponent being awesome.

It's nice that the program is usually (a) good enough, (b) experienced enough, and (c) prepared enough that we don't lose by 15 very often. It happened only 3 times during the 2002-2010 seasons (in 2009 at Clemson and against Villanova and in 2003 at Maryland). There were several other 10-14 point losses, but not that many. It happened in the 1990s (including a 20+ point loss to UNC when we were a top-5 team in 1998). It doesn't happen often. But it has occasionally happened, and it'll happen again.