MOTM: Duke vs Virginia (Jan. 12, 2012)

[Bob Green]

Who was the Man-of-the-Match in Duke's 61-58 win over Virginia?

[basket1544]

I make my case for Miles because we are a better team with him on the court than without. He has a fire in his belly and seems to want the ball more than the other 9 players on the court. I wish he had better basketball instincts (he has to think about what to do whereas Mason does it like it's second nature), but he is a delight to watch. Clearly, he has to watch out for his "moving" screen, but he's got a good thing going on.

[magjayran]

I voted Mase. He's gotta hit those free throws though. If he could just hit 55-60% I'd feel a lot better.

[Ultrarunner]

Went with Andre though Miles was solid on defense and was really bringing it with attitude. His first rebound when he ripped it out of Scott's hands just tickled me and the slide on the floor for the loose ball was great.

Dre is finally starting to get it on defense similar to Miles last year - just seems to be doing a good job of playing within the d - and is moving better on offense. He might have been slumping the last couple of games but he's been making a consistent effort to drive.

Mason would get the vote if he could hit a darn free throw. So frustrating and must be worse for him......

[weezie]

I'm thinking it has to be K. This game was masterfully coached. K found the way to push the right buttons. Great balanced scoring because it had to be!

[ricks68]

I voted for Mason because of the way he fought through the pounding to put the ball in the basket. I even rewound(?) my recording to review his shots and verified that he is a very tough player that just will not be denied a basket even when the defender physically pounds on him. Maybe his propensity to miss foul shots has a silver lining after all, when you consider that he may be thinking that he better make the basket or he will have to try for the points at the foul line.

ricks

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I chose Andre tonight. He found his shot, especially when no one else could, and played, in K's words, the best defense he's play at Duke. Worthy of a MOTM choice tonight! :cool:

[-bdbd]

Really good balance tonight, and any of maybe five guys have legit arguments to be made. I voted for Seth, as I thought that, in addition to the points, he was involved in a lot of key plays on both end of the floor.

[Greg_Newton]

Absolutely no doubt in my mind it was Mason. He was the guy who decided we were going to win and stepped and played like a man in the second half, and gave us the separation that held the rest of the game; IMO, we need to feed him MUCH more often early on to let him set the tone, because he's our best, toughest player at this point.

The FTs sure hurt though...

[Kedsy]

I thought Ryan was our best player tonight, his two late TOs and two missed FTs notwithstanding. In the first half, he was by far our best player.

[OldPhiKap]

Tyler made the key spurt in the second half that gave us the margin we needed. Absolutely key.

I can't vote for Mase in any game he shoots less than 60% from the line, sorry. He is going to become a liability, as great as he is otherwise, if he does not correct this. Seriously.

Miles, Ryan, good games. Dre his some nice shots but was lost on defense a few times. Not sure why this is still happening.

Tough fight, on to the next.

[jv001]

It was a hard decision on to vote for in this game. Waited to see the box score and see how everyone performed outside the eye test. Mason with a very good game except for those free throws, Seth hit a couple of big shots in the 2nd half but was 1/5 on his 3s. Andre scored 10 pts but he really had some bad defensive mistakes and in 29 mins he had 1 rebound from the sf position. Seth with 4 and Tyler with 3 out rebounded him from the guard position. Tyler had a great drive and then a great dish to Miles. Quinn only played 12 minutes I imagine because of his defensive play or should I say lack of it. Austin played what I think was an average game for him. Not bad but not very good either. So I voted for Mason in spite of his terrible free throw shooting. I really am rooting for him each time he steps to the line. Next play! GoDuke!

[DukieInBrasil]

I thought about MP II for the MOTM, but couldn't give it to a guy who can't be relied on to come close to making a clutch FT. Thought about Kelly but his poor play late in the game cancelled that thought. Rivers played well enough but never seemed to be much of a force. I gave it to Curry, b/c he seemed to get a little tougher in the 2nd half as a response to poor team play earlier. He diversified his O a bit, by hitting some floaters and mid-range shots, something he needs to do more of. He also had a + a/to for the 1st time in a while.

[MCFinARL]

I thought about Mason and Andre, because both came up with big buckets when we really needed them. Though Mason ultimately might have been more central to the win, I went with Andre because I thought he took a step forward in terms of overall contribution, compared to recent games, and in a close game that bit of extra was crucial. I didn't really see the major defensive lapses that others here have mentioned (not saying he didn't get beat once or twice, but he is certainly not the only guy that did, and I thought his effort and focus were consistently high), and I guess K didn't see them either since he said it was Dawkins' best defensive game ever.

I also want to agree with the poster who praised Miles for his effort and energy. I too love watching Miles play as he always gives 100%, even when he is losing the ball out of bounds. But I didn't think he contributed as much overall to the outcome of this game as some other players.

[pamtar]

Great team effort overall. Had to go with Seth though. Smart plays, great d, and clutch/timely shots. To me he was the only person who played a complete game. As much as I loved Dre's game, he got burned on two backdoor cuts with his back to the ball. He was also late switching on numerous occasions. Hope K will retract his "best defense at duke" quote after watching the film...

[Chicago 1995]

The difference in our offense when we decided to run it through him and concentrated on getting him the ball in the block was obvious I thought. Our offense worked last night once we started getting him the ball in the block and it hadn't worked otherwise. UVA's D was stout, and getting points and opportunities for Mason are what gave us the margin to survive last night.

Be nice if he hit more FTs -- maybe it's time to break out the film of Rick Barry -- but he was still MOTM last night, and probably needs to have this role on the offense from the first minute of the game if we're going to justify being a top 10 team

[CDu]

Tough call when there were five guys scoring 9+ points and nobody topping 12. The vote could go lots of ways. I went with Mason because he really stepped up in the middle of the second half and fought for buckets, even though things weren't going well for him from the line.

[nocilla]

I voted for Seth because of his all around play. I wanted to vote Mason, but the free throws prevented me. But I did really like his intensity in the 2nd half. It was like he thought they couldn't stop him and that is what you want to see from your big man in the post. In particular, there was a play late where he caught the ball down low, used his strength to create some space and tried to dunk right over Sene. He was blocked and fouled, but I loved the attitude anyway. Maybe I should have voted Mason after all.

[Lid]

It was nicely-balanced game, I thought, but I voted for Andre. His improved defense allowed him to stay on the floor to make some key shots. (I hadn't realized until reading the front page article that each of his shots tied the game. Of course, that was probably true of 75% of the shots last night.) It meant we could keep a lineup of taller guards in the game, which I'm convinced helped us vs UVa's guards.