Austin talks about his relationship with Coach K and his teammates.

[MHNOLADevil]

Interesting interview with Stephen Smith and Skip Bayless. Austin talks about Duke not being able to get out in transition last year, which stymied his game. Take a listen.http://www.nola.com/hornets/index.ssf/2012/08/new_orleans_hornets_guard_aust_2.html

[UrinalCake]

Great interview. Seemed like both of the interviewers were trying to set him up to rip on Duke, but he wouldn't take the bait and answered the questions very diplomatically. Best of luck to him.

[MHNOLADevil]

Great interview. Seemed like both of the interviewers were trying to set him up to rip on Duke, but he wouldn't take the bait and answered the questions very diplomatically. Best of luck to him.

I don't recall much conversation last year about Duke's inability to get out in transition. Was that due to our lack of the athletic wing? Will we be able to rekindle a transition game this year with an improved an healthy Quinn and the addition of Amile, Murphy and MP3?

[English]

Getting out in transition has a lot to do with getting defensive stops and turning the opponent over, as well as having one or more strong ballhandlers to push the pace. These were visible deficiencies of the Duke team last year. I think it could well be remedied this season if, as many hope/anticipate, Quinn improves and assumes the mantle of PG, and we improve on last year's subpar defense. Our established bigs certainly has shown an ability to get out and run (a la Kyrie-to-Mason dunks in transition), and the incoming guys, though not proven, have been touted for their athleticism.

[jv001]

With our defense being subpar last year, it was hard to get the basketball out of the net, take it out of bounds and begin a fast break. The times that Austin had the ball on the break, he didn't finish very well. He either got fouled(sometimes not called) or missed the shot. He was not a great passer on the break. But still was one of the best players in the country. GoDuke!

[phaedrus]

A little bit more from Austin and some other familiar faces.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/video/nba/2012/08/23/082312.nba-rookie-photo-shoot.SportsIllustrated/index.html

[UrinalCake]

Getting transition opportunities requires good defense, and we just didn't have that. We couldn't gamble for steals because we couldn't count on other guys to rotate properly, and opposing guards could beat ours so easily that it's not like we were in any position to get steals anyways. Mason could run the floor but was also our only real rebounding presence, so he couldn't really leak out on the break. By contrast, UNC has had multiple big guys who can both rebound and run, not to mention a point guard with amazing vision, which made them so devastating on the break.

Also, I hate to do this but I have to question Austin's assertion that he was a great transition player. I can think of numerous plays in which he had the ball on a fast break and chose to keep the ball himself rather than pass to a WIDE open teammate. If what he means is that he's good at uncontested layups, then sure, but he has a long way to go in terms of decision-making with the ball in transition. He did improve over the course of the season, and it's a reasonable complaint for him to make that he didn't get enough opportunities, but still, to criticize Duke and claim that the system held him back (which the commentators were doing, not Austin himself) is pretty unfair IMO.

[hq2]

Mason could run the floor but was also our only real rebounding presence, so he couldn't really leak out on the break. .

Miles wasn't that bad either, and he could run the floor too, but I think they both believed (justifiably) that if they ran the distance they would
not get the ball from the guards anyway, so that sort of discouraged them from doing it very much. Looking at Miles with the Pacers, we see
now what could have happened with a real PG to get him the ball on the break. Maybe this year with Mason and Quinn it will happen.

[Starter]

Good interview. I think Rivers does a great job of making Duke look good on his way out, while answering difficult questions from glorified trolls with candor and eloquence. My recollection is that Duke simply walked it up the vast majority of the time last season, even after defensive stops, and that the opportunity wasn't there to get out on the break, like Rivers said. The pace seemed demonstrably faster when Cook was in the game, so hopefully we see quite a bit more of that dynamic element next season.

Austin will be just fine. I think he'll have to bide his time while he gets used to not being the unquestioned star on a team, but he'll figure it out.

[gep]

Miles wasn't that bad either, and he could run the floor too, but I think they both believed (justifiably) that if they ran the distance they would
not get the ball from the guards anyway, so that sort of discouraged them from doing it very much. Looking at Miles with the Pacers, we see
now what could have happened with a real PG to get him the ball on the break. Maybe this year with Mason and Quinn it will happen.

While Quinn is not Kyrie... maybe Mason can make much of it happen with Quinn like what happened with Kyrie :cool: I really hope so... exciting times ahead.

[COYS]

Also, I hate to do this but I have to question Austin's assertion that he was a great transition player. I can think of numerous plays in which he had the ball on a fast break and chose to keep the ball himself rather than pass to a WIDE open teammate. If what he means is that he's good at uncontested layups, then sure, but he has a long way to go in terms of decision-making with the ball in transition. He did improve over the course of the season, and it's a reasonable complaint for him to make that he didn't get enough opportunities, but still, to criticize Duke and claim that the system held him back (which the commentators were doing, not Austin himself) is pretty unfair IMO.

I agree with this, for sure. I don't think Austin is a natural in transition. When he led the break it was often hit or miss with his decision-making. He also doesn't have super fast straight line speed, either (not that he's slow, just relative to many other top tier basketball players). Of course, neither does Seth, Tyler, or Andre, who all might be slower than Austin. It's hard to play out in transition when the team didn't make many defensive stops or get many steals and the guards have a hard time blowing by people in the open court. Add in the fact that Duke was not the best passing team last year, and it made it unlikely that a fast break would start after a great outlet pass followed by a push ahead pass.

I'm not saying it wouldn't have been better if Duke and Austin could have gotten some easy scores in transition. However, I don't really think any of the guards aside from Quinn excelled in transition, including Austin.

[OldPhiKap]

I agree with this, for sure. I don't think Austin is a natural in transition. When he led the break it was often hit or miss with his decision-making. He also doesn't have super fast straight line speed, either (not that he's slow, just relative to many other top tier basketball players). Of course, neither does Seth, Tyler, or Andre, who all might be slower than Austin. It's hard to play out in transition when the team didn't make many defensive stops or get many steals and the guards have a hard time blowing by people in the open court. Add in the fact that Duke was not the best passing team last year, and it made it unlikely that a fast break would start after a great outlet pass followed by a push ahead pass.

I'm not saying it wouldn't have been better if Duke and Austin could have gotten some easy scores in transition. However, I don't really think any of the guards aside from Quinn excelled in transition, including Austin.

Austin was exceptional at driving and getting to the rim.

Austin was pretty good at converting when he did it.

I don't recall a lot of passing to the wing once he got the ball.