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grossbus
03-18-2012, 09:03 AM
featherston nails it.

captures everything i was feeling and thinking.

miramar
03-18-2012, 10:10 AM
featherston nails it.

captures everything i was feeling and thinking.

That is exactly where we stand at this point. All we need is an update from him once the we know who is staying and who is coming aboard.

SoCalDukeFan
03-18-2012, 11:21 AM
I think that the article, linked to from the home page, is excellent, as most of his are. If you have not read it, you should.

However the article does raise an interesting question.

In summary, Duke lost two players at the end of the season - Kelly to injury and Dawkins to poor performance. So the question is "what happened to Dawkins?"

SoCal

Bluealum
03-18-2012, 12:21 PM
I think that the article, linked to from the home page, is excellent, as most of his are. If you have not read it, you should.

However the article does raise an interesting question.

In summary, Duke lost two players at the end of the season - Kelly to injury and Dawkins to poor performance. So the question is "what happened to Dawkins?"

SoCal

The article, for me was the recap and look forward that I was searching for, thanks Al! Better than reading the boards for snippets to settle the uncomfortable feeling of a loss that felt premature. I agree largely with the points made in the article. In most years, Duke teams seem to be greater than the sum of their parts, which is an amazing thing even if we take that for granted at times. This year, not so much.

The China trip that allowed our team to gel in front of others allowed us to beat teams earlier in their development like MSU, Michigan, and Kansas. A notably weak ACC allowed coaching brilliance to overcome a lack of chemistry and fluidity in our team. But as the season wound down and other teams continued to develop, the margin became ever thinner. The absence of Kelly reduced it further, but the issues were all there as K pointed out in the presser.

Dawkins disappearance likely has at least something to do with defenses playing close to him and daring him to drive (which he rarely did effectively). Seth, Ryan, Tyler, and Andre all seemed the least effective against top tier competition. While Mason, Austin, and I would argue, less convincingly, Cook and Miles seemed less affected by the other team then their own good and bad decisions. The latter is fixable with great coaching, the former is tougher (but not impossible) to mask.

Next year is a real question and will no doubt result in a summer full of board discussion. We will be an unusually 'old' team, particularly if Mason returns. When have we had 4 double digit minute seniors returning? Mason, Kelly, Andre, and Seth are all core rotation players and only Mason is an elite athlete. Our juniors are also steady players with less raw athleticism than some of our younger players. This leaves the staff with uncomfortable choices. Play younger, more "talented" (whatever that means) players through mistakes and losses of focus, or play the veterans who are steadier and better against most teams but are most affected by elite opponents? The same choices as this year, but perhaps with even more implications as the veterans know that this is their final year to make a mark.

Obviously the draft can affect all this, but in fact may make things worse. If Mason and/or Austin leave, that means we have upperclassmen with lots of experience and savvy, but limited athleticism versus a young but talented group who (perhaps) is more athletic but far less predictable. It will take a master to mix and match appropriately. This year the magic did not work at the end of the season, hopefully the master will find the right formula next year as he usually does.

ricks68
03-18-2012, 12:22 PM
While I think that this is another of Al Featherston's usually outstanding great articles, the comment that Andre was "useless" at times may have stepped over the line. Methinks a possible edit would be appropriate.:o Flame me or not, but I think this needed to be said in defense of a young man that has contributed a lot to our team. Without his stellar performance in the Baylor game, there would have been no National Championship in 2010. Granted, Andre has seemingly disappeared for long stretches at a time this season, but "useless", I don't think is an appropriate comment.

(Mods, if Al's article is edited, I think that this post should then be deleted, also.)

ricks

tele
03-18-2012, 01:42 PM
I think that the article, linked to from the home page, is excellent, as most of his are. If you have not read it, you should.

However the article does raise an interesting question.

In summary, Duke lost two players at the end of the season - Kelly to injury and Dawkins to poor performance. So the question is "what happened to Dawkins?"

SoCal

Interesting question. During the season, Andre was the one who wound up giving up his starting spot and having to take on the role of sixth man because of the difficulties Duke was having at point guard. When he did come into the games he was often the "third" scoring guard with Curry and Rivers. It may not seem like much, but being asked to take a seat on the bench for the sake of the team and then when you do get to play you have to try and contribute without the benefit of playing with a true point guard is not easy. When he did well, like int he FSU game he was being fed by Thornton, not Curry, and not Rivers. Being the third scoring guard on the floor while being asked to guard the other teams small forward presents it's own challenges. I thought Andre may have shown at times by his expression some of the frustrations of trying to play the role he was assigned, but I don't believe he was ever the source of any chemistry problem the team may have had. If one of the other scoring guards had been willing or able to play the point more effectively Andre's role wouldn't have been so difficult and maybe he would have appeared more visible to people. Besides sometimes invisible is better than visibly bad.

CoachJ10
03-18-2012, 03:22 PM
I wonder if that young writer who asked Al if the game had passed K by remembers that just last season Duke was one Kyrie injury away from having as good a chance as any team of winning back to back titles. Prior to his injury last season...Duke was the best team in the country and only getting better. The innocence of youth is a good thing...the ignorance, well that is something else...

SmartDevil
03-18-2012, 05:59 PM
Great piece, Al. I think this one might have a place in some annual anthology of great sportswriting.

msdukie
03-18-2012, 11:23 PM
I wonder if that young writer who asked Al if the game had passed K by remembers that just last season Duke was one Kyrie injury away from having as good a chance as any team of winning back to back titles. Prior to his injury last season...Duke was the best team in the country and only getting better. The innocence of youth is a good thing...the ignorance, well that is something else...

Actually, Duke was the only team with any chance of winning back to back titles last year.

uh_no
03-18-2012, 11:26 PM
Actually, Duke was the only team with any chance of winning back to back titles last year.

I think he was implying the best chance of any defending champion in any year to win the title again....

SoCalDukeFan
03-19-2012, 02:14 PM
While I think that this is another of Al Featherston's usually outstanding great articles, the comment that Andre was "useless" at times may have stepped over the line. Methinks a possible edit would be appropriate.:o Flame me or not, but I think this needed to be said in defense of a young man that has contributed a lot to our team. Without his stellar performance in the Baylor game, there would have been no National Championship in 2010. Granted, Andre has seemingly disappeared for long stretches at a time this season, but "useless", I don't think is an appropriate comment.

(Mods, if Al's article is edited, I think that this post should then be deleted, also.)

ricks

I think "useless" is a pretty accurate description of Andre at the end of season. He is not saying that Andre is a bad person or anything like that.

Andre's value is as a shooter. When he can not hit his shot then he has very little value. What Featherson does not do is speculate as to what caused his problem. While any athlete can have a slump or a bad game, his problems were of a longer duration than most. Whatever it is, I hope it is fixed for next year. As you say he has made outstanding contributions in the past and I am sure is quite capable of a great senior season.

SoCal

NSDukeFan
03-20-2012, 03:26 PM
I think "useless" is a pretty accurate description of Andre at the end of season. He is not saying that Andre is a bad person or anything like that.

Andre's value is as a shooter. When he can not hit his shot then he has very little value. What Featherson does not do is speculate as to what caused his problem. While any athlete can have a slump or a bad game, his problems were of a longer duration than most. Whatever it is, I hope it is fixed for next year. As you say he has made outstanding contributions in the past and I am sure is quite capable of a great senior season.

SoCal

I always very much enjoy Al's articles and agree this was another very good one. I agree that "useless" is a bit harsh in describing Andre's play at the end of the year, as he did seem to make more of an effort on the defensive end at the end of the year and he always caused the defense to have someone focused on him, which should have opened things up for his teammates.

I have been thinking about the team's offense since the loss the other night and have been wondering if the final offense was the team's best one. I am partial to lots of motion, passing and using the high post when you have good passers at the 4 and 5 positions and thought this was what the team was going to use this year. I believe this is how the team started out and I believe I thought that was a good way to get good play from the various offensive weapons the team had. At some point, the team went to a greater focus on the screen and roll play from the wings, with less of a focus on getting the ball inside to our post players and less focus on ball movement to generate scoring options. I expect the coaching staff felt that getting the ball in Austin and Seth's hands on the wing with a screen set for them was the most efficient offensive play for the team and they were probably right, though the last three teams defended that play very well. I expect not having Ryan as a weapon when screening made that play easier to defend. I wonder if the coaching staff felt a ball movement offense was less efficient when Tyler needed to play major minutes to help the team's defense.

It will be interesting to see what kind of offensive and defensive schemes the coaching staff comes up with for next year's team. I am hoping to see more passing, better ball movement and some use of Ryan (and hopefully Mason) as a high post passer, but I would prefer winning over any particular style of play, so will defer to the excellent coaching staff that will hopefully find the magic for next year's team.

I certainly enjoyed watching this team, as unpredictable as it may have been at times. I always enjoy watching the players grow into roles and improve year to year and during the year and certainly saw that this year. I hope the team has as good a season next year with hopefully a better finish.

InSpades
03-20-2012, 04:24 PM
I will echo the statements above... great article. I think it very appropriately summed up the season and the outlook for next.

This team definitely over-achieved through much of the regular season. If you look at the roster as a whole... most of the players have not lived up to their billing coming out of high school. Of course... this is not uncommon. But it seems like Duke has been hit by a rash of it of late. Generally it works both ways... you get a hyped player who comes in and underperforms while a less hyped player turns out to be a diamond in the rough (not that Duke digs too far into the rough for recruits). This Duke team had some big holes on defense and really needed an offense that could make up for the deficiencies. At times it worked great but then the slumps hit and it just didn't happen. I'm pretty sure if Kyrie came back for his sophomore year that everything would have been different but it's pointless to look at "what-ifs".

I'm a little less optimistic than everyone else seems to be on next year... A lot of things have to go wrong for Duke to lose to Lehigh and people rightfully say "the better team won" after it's over. I love how hard Tyler plays but for Duke to be a great team he needs to be a role player and not a starting point guard. He could still play 20 minutes and contribute a bunch but I think his lack of offense really hurts the team at times. That's not to say the team can't be good next year... Austin and Miles were arguably the 2 best players on the team last year and if they both come back it will be a huge boon. Hopefully Alex and Marshall are ready to go next year and learned a lot from their redshirt year. If next year's starting lineup is Tyler - Seth - Andre - Josh - Ryan then I think it will be a very long year. If the lineup is Quinn - Seth - Austin - Ryan - Mason then there's a lot of potential there (or sub Alex for Quinn).

All things considered though... when your down year is a #2 seed in the NCAAs then things are pretty good. We all wish we went a little further in the big dance but it won't happen every year and this was certainly not going to be Duke's year barring a string of miracles.

Rich
03-20-2012, 04:55 PM
Austin and Miles were arguably the 2 best players on the team last year and if they both come back it will be a huge boon.

I can predict with 100% certainty that Miles will NOT be back in a Duke uniform next year.

InSpades
03-20-2012, 07:24 PM
I can predict with 100% certainty that Miles will NOT be back in a Duke uniform next year.

Slip of the tongue :). I obviously meant Mason. Too many 'M' names.

stixof96
03-20-2012, 11:45 PM
Interesting question. During the season, Andre was the one who wound up giving up his starting spot and having to take on the role of sixth man because of the difficulties Duke was having at point guard. When he did come into the games he was often the "third" scoring guard with Curry and Rivers. It may not seem like much, but being asked to take a seat on the bench for the sake of the team and then when you do get to play you have to try and contribute without the benefit of playing with a true point guard is not easy. When he did well, like int he FSU game he was being fed by Thornton, not Curry, and not Rivers. Being the third scoring guard on the floor while being asked to guard the other teams small forward presents it's own challenges. I thought Andre may have shown at times by his expression some of the frustrations of trying to play the role he was assigned, but I don't believe he was ever the source of any chemistry problem the team may have had. If one of the other scoring guards had been willing or able to play the point more effectively Andre's role wouldn't have been so difficult and maybe he would have appeared more visible to people. Besides sometimes invisible is better than visibly bad.

i agree.........i thought before the tournament that the most important person on the team was Dawkins. Dawkins got his mojo shot to pieces somehow. I have an opinion, but, i'll hold it. I think Duke learned that the #1 weapon they could,n win without was Dawkins. Not one of the Plumlees, not Curry or Rivers........Dawkins....

Don't forget the tragedy Dawkins is dealing with either. Unfortunately my family suffered the same tradegy. My son's brothers and sisters, for about the first 4 years, went through horrific times of grief that just paralyzed them. In my opinion, the 2 most important players to next year's team are Mason Plumlee and Dawkins. If those 2 are firing on all cylinders, the other 3 can be filled in a host of ways. As far as driving the lane and creating goes,let Dawkins be "melting it" from behind the arc and see what opens up.

My prediction........Dawkins is going to light it up next year. I think he will be phenomenal at the end of the season, and crazy good all year long. When Dawkins is firing, he is the most lethal player on Duke's team. When Dawkins is hot, it creates alot of other things. Ill say this........when he is red hot, he is the most dangerous player in the NCAA. If Dawkins is red hot and you are playing Duke, you are going to lose. Don't give up on him.

Kedsy
03-20-2012, 11:58 PM
If you look at the roster as a whole... most of the players have not lived up to their billing coming out of high school. Of course... this is not uncommon. But it seems like Duke has been hit by a rash of it of late.

I'm looking at the roster as a whole. Which players have not lived up to their billing?

stixof96
03-21-2012, 01:05 AM
I'm looking at the roster as a whole. Which players have not lived up to their billing?

Duke lost in the first round.........i don't think that was the plan...........

tommy
03-21-2012, 01:31 AM
I'm looking at the roster as a whole. Which players have not lived up to their billing?


Duke lost in the first round.........i don't think that was the plan...........

Objection, your honor. Nonresponsive.

Matches
03-21-2012, 09:08 AM
My prediction........Dawkins is going to light it up next year. I think he will be phenomenal at the end of the season, and crazy good all year long. When Dawkins is firing, he is the most lethal player on Duke's team. When Dawkins is hot, it creates alot of other things. Ill say this........when he is red hot, he is the most dangerous player in the NCAA. If Dawkins is red hot and you are playing Duke, you are going to lose. Don't give up on him.

I hope you're right. Personally, I've seen enough. He does one thing well, and he doesn't do *that* well on a consistent basis. I can forgive inconsistent effort from a freshman or even a sophomore (particularly one who is a year younger than his peers), but after three years in the system, the coaches shouldn't have to be coaching effort.

We have to be able to rely on our rotation players for, if not consistent results, at MINIMUM consistent effort. Doesn't seem to be there with Dre for whatever reason. Maybe he figures it out this summer; certainly I hope so. But if he doesn't, I see a dramatically reduced role for him next year.

stixof96
03-21-2012, 02:28 PM
I hope you're right. Personally, I've seen enough. He does one thing well, and he doesn't do *that* well on a consistent basis. I can forgive inconsistent effort from a freshman or even a sophomore (particularly one who is a year younger than his peers), but after three years in the system, the coaches shouldn't have to be coaching effort.

We have to be able to rely on our rotation players for, if not consistent results, at MINIMUM consistent effort. Doesn't seem to be there with Dre for whatever reason. Maybe he figures it out this summer; certainly I hope so. But if he doesn't, I see a dramatically reduced role for him next year.

His emotions are very fragile.........that i am sure of.............and, i could see where he may feel a little betrayed........put those 2 together and it will change a kid's performance, even if he doesn't want it to.........

Newton_14
03-21-2012, 08:01 PM
i agree.........i thought before the tournament that the most important person on the team was Dawkins. Dawkins got his mojo shot to pieces somehow. I have an opinion, but, i'll hold it. I think Duke learned that the #1 weapon they could,n win without was Dawkins. Not one of the Plumlees, not Curry or Rivers........Dawkins....

Don't forget the tragedy Dawkins is dealing with either. Unfortunately my family suffered the same tradegy. My son's brothers and sisters, for about the first 4 years, went through horrific times of grief that just paralyzed them. In my opinion, the 2 most important players to next year's team are Mason Plumlee and Dawkins. If those 2 are firing on all cylinders, the other 3 can be filled in a host of ways. As far as driving the lane and creating goes,let Dawkins be "melting it" from behind the arc and see what opens up.

My prediction........Dawkins is going to light it up next year. I think he will be phenomenal at the end of the season, and crazy good all year long. When Dawkins is firing, he is the most lethal player on Duke's team. When Dawkins is hot, it creates alot of other things. Ill say this........when he is red hot, he is the most dangerous player in the NCAA. If Dawkins is red hot and you are playing Duke, you are going to lose. Don't give up on him.

Umm, I think the last 3 games of the season clearly revealed that Ryan Kelly was the one player Duke could not live without...

stixof96
03-22-2012, 08:35 AM
Umm, I think the last 3 games of the season clearly revealed that Ryan Kelly was the one player Duke could not live without...

i think the season would be over with either way.........

wavedukefan70s
03-22-2012, 11:23 AM
I give dawkins a pass.i hope he can find a way to get his mojo consistent.i believe that maybe the losses of his loved ones may be lingering.
everyone handles that differently .he is young im double his age and i have triggers daily that make me think of my mother passing in 09.my father passed just before the season started this year.i had a hard time watching duke play.its been thirty years we at least talked if not watched every duke game together.it may be the same scenario with him.i cant imagine having to play with that popping up in your head from time to time.i may be wrong.thats my reason for whatever good minutes the young man plays ill enjoy.