WBB at Xavier

[Ggallagher]

The Duke women are playing ay the Cintas Center in Cincinnati Sunday. Just curious if anyone knows if there's anything like a Duke section for the game.
Since I'm in town - which is rare - I thought I'd catch the game. Thought it would be nice to avoid ending up right in the middle of the Xavier student section if possible.

[Ggallagher]

Just wanted to thank the women's team for an enlightening experience this afternoon - and pass along a compliment from the Xavier fans that were sitting right behind me.

I was startled to find that the ticket I bought on line was in the first row at dead center mid-court. So I got to see the game from a perspective that I haven't had since I was at Duke (about 40 years ago). Seeing the numerous plays where Elizabeth, Chelsea, Tricia or Haley imposed their will on the Xavier players was a real treat when seen sitting right at court side - and pretty intimidating. Actually everyone that played made great contributions, but there were just a lot of "daggers" that those four pitched at Xavier.

And as to the compliment - about four minutes into the second half, Coach P decided to pull out a full court press. That actually seemed a little cruel and it was called off pretty quickly. Xavier just had no way to get around Duke's press. But shortly into that period when it became REAL evident that Xavier had no chance to get back into the game, one of the Xavier fans sitting right behind me said, "You know I think I could really enjoy seeing these girls (Duke) play against a team that matched them more closely. They REALLY know how to play".

I had a nice chat with these fans after the game - as much as they are faithful to their Xavier team, they were thoroughly impressed by what Duke did this afternoon.

Thanks Duke - that was a fun Sunday afternoon.

[-bdbd]

Sounds like a great experience. This WBB team looks like they can do some serious post-season damage.
Can you say why Duke had 18 fouls to Xavier's just 7? From the write-up it sounds like THEY were the more aggressive ones, no?

If anyone is interested, here is the write-up and box:

http://espn.go.com/ncw/recap?gameId=323302752

..................... 1.... 2 ....T
#4 DUKE....... 44. 38. 82
XAV .............. 27. 32. 59

[Ggallagher]

Sounds like a great experience. This WBB team looks like they can do some serious post-season damage.
Can you say why Duke had 18 fouls to Xavier's just 7? From the write-up it sounds like THEY were the more aggressive ones, no?

Yeah, the referees were a little unpredictable. There were periods where they seemed to really "let them play", and other periods where the slightest touch seemed to draw a foul. Both coaches were trying to guide their teams as they saw the refs change their approaches. Since Duke was clearly the stronger faster team, I think we suffered more when the refs switched back into the mode of calling touch fouls.

Even the Xavier fans sitting right behind me complained and took Duke's side when we got called for "breathing on a Xavier player". That was the Xavier fan's interpretation. I don't know how the players were supposed to know what was OK and what wasn't.

Coach P came out and talked to the ref when Haley fouled out which happened at the end of a really bad swing when the refs had begun calling even the slightest touches. I think we had picked up three or four fouls in a pretty brief period when Haley got her fifth.

I'm not sure I can agree with the write up as to who was most aggressive -and that's only aggressive in a positive sense. Xavier had some players that were definitely hustling and doing whatever they could to try and win - even though it was clear they didn't have a chance. But there were just too many plays where especially Elizabeth, Tricia, Haley or Chelsea clearly dominated their defenders. I heard the very nice Xavier fans sitting behind me say NUMEROUS times, "There's really not anything we have that can deal with that kind of skill ".

And as far as aggressive and hustle go, I don't know how many times I heard the Xavier coach scream "Turn around, turn around". That happened quite often after Xavier scores (or misses) when Duke would rip the ball back into play and come up court before the Xavier players even started thinking about playing defense again. We got a lot of "easy" baskets that way. Of course they were easy because of the hustle at the defensive end of the court. The hard work had been done at the other end of the court.

[burnspbesq]

This Duke team has a chance to be really special once it gets fully healthy. X is not a bad team; they will do OK in the A-10, and they fought hard today. They were just physically overmatched against Duke, in size, speed, and strength.

Looking forward to seeing our team at the Galen Center just before Christmas.