MBB: Syracuse 91, Duke 89 Postgame Thread

[pfrduke]

So proud. What a game. Post your thoughts here.

[WakeDevil]

How many people need to foul out before the coach changes defenses?

[Les Grossman]

and horribly officiated, all one way

[plimnko]

8 on 5 and we only lose by 2. i'm proud of our team!!!!

[Gthoma2a]

Proud of our boys, but we got hosed. Hood was fouled and nothing was called. All of our guys get everything that was even questionable called against them.

[arnie]

So proud. What a game. Post your thoughts here.

Great game- curious if idiot pollsters drop us in polls.

[Dukehky]

Really proud of the team, but I'm not at the point where this is okay right now. I thought the officiating was horrendous. We win if Jabari and Amile don't go out. They were the reason Syracuse won, hands down.

[Neals384]

Fabulous Effort By Our Guys. Most exciting game in a long time (except for the ending).

[Ichabod Drain]

Best game of the season.Proud of our guys. I think this shows we are one of the best teams in the nation.

[miramar]

We have a great new rivalry in the ACC. Congrats to Syracuse but I am really proud of and impressed by our team. A classic.

[_Gary]

Two words - The refs.

Two more words - our heart!

What really bugs me is that in OT (thanks to the bad calls late in regulation) Syracuse never had to do anything other than dunk the ball or shoot free throws. But props to our guys for playing through one of the worst officiated games I've seen in years.

[arnie]

Great game- curious if idiot pollsters drop us in polls.

As bad a missed call on Hoods dunk as I've seen recently

[GGLC]

LOL

Just lol

[hudlow]

Looking forward to 3 weeks from tonight.

Congratulations to the Orange.

go Duke!

[gwlaw99]

I have never blamed the loss on the refs in my life, but the ref was two feet away when hood clearly got fouled on the dunk attempt. It wasn't even a close call.

[kAzE]

Unbelievable game, but two phantom calls to foul out Jefferson and Parker thanks to 2 Oscar-caliber performances from Christmas and the atrocious missed call on the Hood dunk ruined it for me. Very frustrating. Great performance from Syracuse, fouling out our starting 2 bigs made offense for Syracuse easy down the stretch. Not a big deal though, in my opinion, we are the better team when we have everyone on the court, and I think we proved that tonight. This Duke team has got some fight and really played all out tonight. Loved the effort from everyone. No one should hang their head over this loss. Looking forward to getting revenge back home.

[gurufrisbee]

It took career best games from Grant and Fair, playing at home, pretty good games from the rest of their starters, and completely lopsided officiating for the undefeated #2 team in the nation to hold us off in overtime. We are national title legit again. Very curious why Coach K went away from the starters and rotation patterns that he had mostly been using the past five games, but nothing but pride for that performance.

[Waynne]

Game for the ages. Hate it we lost, but very proud of our team. Let's see what happens in 3 weeks at Cameron.

[Dev11]

I hate Christmas.

[Edouble]

We got hosed. Refs screw us by fouling out Amile and Jabari. Sheed saves us, so refs screw us again with a no call on Hood.

I am excited to see how well we can shoot in a Dome and I think we are gonna be an incredibly tough out in March. I hate that we lost but I love our team!

[ChrisP]

Not big on moral victories but wow, I will take that result with all the adversity (cough crappy refs cough) we faced in this one. Tyler was amazing - Dunleavy like, even!!!

[Troublemaker]

Great college basketball game. Sad it didn't end in a win for our guys, but I enjoyed the heck out of watching it.

[DukeGrad]

What a fantastic effort. Given the circumstances (8 vs 5, limited or no Parker/Amile for the last 15 minutes), I don't think any team could have done better. I'm a little angry and sick at my stomach, but at the same time I'm really, really proud of the team.

[NSDukeFan]

So proud. What a game. Post your thoughts here.


Fabulous Effort By Our Guys. Most exciting game in a long time (except for the ending).


Best game of the season.Proud of our guys. I think this shows we are one of the best teams in the nation.


We have a great new rivalry in the ACC. Congrats to Syracuse but I am really proud of and impressed by our team. A classic.


It took career best games from Grant and Fair, playing at home, pretty good games from the rest of their starters, and completely lopsided officiating for the undefeated #2 team in the nation to hold us off in overtime. We are national title legit again. Very curious why Coach K went away from the starters and rotation patterns that he had mostly been using the past five games, but nothing but pride for that performance.

Epic game. Fabulous effort by our guys. This is a very good Duke team and a very good Syracuse team.

[RaiderDevil]

Refs were brutal. Syracuse just waited for the eventual foul call in the second half, cause they knew it was coming. OT should have been a blowout. Reminded me a lot of UConn in 04

[Dukehky]

3 words: Cameron Indoor Stadium. I cannot wait because we are going to massacre them. Take away like 4 or 5 3's that we made and sub in like 10 free throws and we'll score about the same. 4 key players won't foul out and Fair and Christmas won't score 20 apiece. We are better than them, and if I saw that game as another team, I'd be crapping my pants praying that Duke isn't in my part of the bracket.

[mapei]

Great, great game. We got no breaks from the refs and still almost won a classic. Proud.

[DesertDevil]

Great effort! Proud of the guys!

I know the officiating was horrible, but let's rise above it. We're not UNC.

[_Gary]

And I'm still maintaining Fair went Bootsy on us. :)

[Troublemaker]

Tyler was amazing - Dunleavy like, even!!!

His threes fueled the comeback. I do wish he had tried the reverse layup instead of doing one more pass to Dre at the end of regulation, though. (Unfortunately, I suspect he probably expected to get blocked not realizing the Syracuse bigs had run into each other.)

[gurufrisbee]

Refs were brutal. Syracuse just waited for the eventual foul call in the second half, cause they knew it was coming. OT should have been a blowout. Reminded me a lot of UConn in 04

YES! I said the same thing during the game.

[dukebluelemur]

I would never advocate hurting a player, but I wouldn't mind if we got our money's worth out of Christmas when he comes to Cameron...

And *** **** Karl Hess.

[FerryFor50]

I have to say how impressed I am at Duke even getting to OT despite losing Parker and Jefferson to fouls in the 2nd half. Thornton was clutch. Sheed was clutch. Dawkins was clutch.

What hurt Duke down the stretch (other than some dubious officiating) was:

1) Not having anyone to play the high post once Parker and Jefferson fouled out

That killed offensive sets and ball movement. When Sheed couldn't penetrate, Duke got no good looks.

2) Not having anyone to guard the low post

Christmas and Grant had their way underneath with Duke's small lineup

3) Not hitting FTs

Sheed missed some crucial FTs down the stretch, as did Hood. Need to hit those, especially considering how few opportunities Duke got from the line. Gotta make em count.

4) Turnovers

Several head scratchers down the stretch.

5) Cook

He's not 100% and it hurts Duke's chances. Hopefully he gets better before the next Cuse matchup.

Not happy with the result, but pleased with the effort.

[DukeDiva]

Incredible game, we were undermanned due to fouls and still took it to the wire in overtime. Go Duke!

[DukeWarhead]

Puts a huge ding in any ACC conf title hopes, but perhaps that's not important at this point. Give me Syracuse on a neutral court come March and see what happens.

[Edouble]

His threes fueled the comeback. I do wish he had tried the reverse layup instead of doing one more pass to Dre at the end of regulation, though. (Unfortunately, I suspect he probably expected to get blocked not realizing the Syracuse bigs had run into each other.)

Yeah. It was a wise decision, just frustrating in hindsight.

[KandG]

What. A. Game. So much heart from this team to stay in the game with all the foul trouble, being physically overmatched inside, and dealing with CJ Fair.

One quibble (apart from the officiating). To win games like this against elite opposition, the point guard matchup can't be this lopsided. Quinn Cook did a very poor job of attacking the zone, with way too much horizontal passing and/or poor shooting over the top of the zone. Sheed's high level play (he knew how to attack the zone) and Thornton's shooting negated this to some degree, but QC has to be better in big games.

Very, very proud of this group. Good week, let's take this level of effort and play and carry it forward to the rest of the season.

[ice-9]

First of all, what a great game. An instant classic.

I had this feeling that I sorta couldn't believe we were in a position to win -- if you looked at the way we struggled on defense, and the way we seemed to struggle to get every score, really Syracuse should've easily won this game. If not, of course, for Thornton with 3 clutch 3-pointers, and later on Rasheed's buzzer beating 3 to send the game into overtime.

So in some respects, we did well despite playing poor(ish) defense.

In another respect, we were just plain ROBBED on Hood's no-call fouled dunk. How could the refs not see that?! Rodney would have hopefully made both free throws, we would have been up one, and it would have been a totally different ball game.

Fouling was just a major problem all night long; no calls for us whenever our bigs went to the post, and what seemed like touch fouls on us that got three key players with 5 each.

Given that Duke tends to be on the positive side of foul shooting disparity, we shouldn't call zebra on this, but man oh man!

In the first half, we used Plumlee and Jefferson to flash the middle, and we got some good looks outside because for some reason Syracuse immediately tried to collapse on them. In the second half, they stopped doing that (why bother right, it's not as if Plumlee and Jefferson will score from the free throw line). The only nitpick I have with Coach K's strategy is...why not use Parker or Hood for that instead? And have Jefferson on the baseline waiting for the dump off? The three or four times we did that it seemed like we always got a bucket.

Anyway.

This was a fantastic game. My mind and eyes say we did well to stay so close; yet in my heart I felt we should have won this game.

(Especially if the ref didn't blow that one call.)

[downeastdad]

Doesn't seem like anyone else thinks that the Orange could possibly won by themselves, either. Great effort by our guys, across the board. Fair is a load, but other than him, we're way better man for man. Welcome to Cameron in a couple of weeks, Jim Boeheim.

[Troublemaker]

I don't really feel like complaining about the refs, honestly. I know there were some questionable calls, but that stuff happens sometimes. (Reasonable minds can certainly disagree and proceed with venting, though. Not judging.)

[pfrduke]

Great college basketball game. Sad it didn't end in a win for our guys, but I enjoyed the heck out of watching it.

That has to be the best college game of the season (at least so far). So many people executed on such a high level, and everything played within a 10-point window. As you say, it stinks to be on the losing end of it, but that was as much fun as I've had watching a game this season. Can't wait to run it back in 3 weeks (and then again 3 weeks later, if it all rolls the right way).

[NSDukeFan]

Now I see why Devildeac and arnie is still king hate Christmas. I hope Rakeem is ok after the brutal hammerings he took to have fouled out Parker (I assumed that was him) and Jefferson. I hope he will be able to recover from the violence he incurred on those plays.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Amazing game. Proud. Get em in Cameron.

[Clay Feet POF]

All Heart

[freshmanjs]

Given that Duke tends to be on the positive side of foul shooting disparity, we shouldn't call zebra on this, but man oh man!



Again, foul shooting disparity does not tell you whether the refs were fair. Duke tends to be on the positive side of that stat because Duke tends to be better and more aggressive than the opponent, leading to more free throw attempts.

[nyesq83]

Hurtin for certin, one of the best games Duke has ever lost since 1979.

[NSDukeFan]

That has to be the best college game of the season (at least so far). So many people executed on such a high level, and everything played within a 10-point window. As you say, it stinks to be on the losing end of it, but that was as much fun as I've had watching a game this season. Can't wait to run it back in 3 weeks (and then again 3 weeks later, if it all rolls the right way).

I agree that was my favorite game that I have watched in a losing effort that I can remember.

[kAzE]

I think a BIG plus from this game is that our guys are going to unbelievably hungry over the coming stretch. I'm imagine the focus and drive that you'll see from these guys in the coming weeks will be second to none. Another huge positive is that Sulaimon is really getting his confidence back. You can tell just by his body language how focused and engaged he is. In my opinion, he deserves to be the starting PG over Cook right now. Cook has been really off as far as his offense is concerned lately, and perhaps another game coming off the bench can light a fire under him. We need him to start scoring at a high level if we're going to reach our potential, which, unbelievably, I don't think we've hit quite yet. The ceiling for this team is absolutely absurd. I honestly think it could become the best offense team Duke has ever put on the court.

[CDu]

I guess it is only terping if other teams' fans do it, huh?

Great basketball game. I am proud of our team. We played very well in the second half. Just couldn't close the deal. Yes, the no-call on Hood stunk, but there were tons of missed calls both ways. That one just happened at a very memorable juncture.

A 2-pt OT loss on the road to an undefeated team in February. I like where we are headed.

I would have liked to have seen us try an offense /defense sub pattern with Hairston and Dawkins once Jefferson fouled out and Dawkins had 4 fouls. We just gave Grant too many free dunks.

Oh well. I am pleased with where we are going. The loss stinks, but in the grand scheme of things it isn't too bad.

[weezie]

Well, wanker, wanker, wanker, wanker.

That's my considered opinion of how the refs handcuffed us and I do not give a wanker what anyone else thinks.

So wanker on that.:mad::mad::mad:

[BobbyFan]

Sensational and riveting game. One of the better games I've seen in recent years.

We were hurt by some bad calls at critical moments, as will be highlighted in this thread, but getting invested in officiating is a pointless exercise for me.

[nyesq83]

K so emotional in post game interview. Love this man.

[Bob Green]

I'm really, really proud of our team right now! Some things didn't go our way, but we never backed down and fought hard to the end. I'm already looking forward to the rematch in Cameron.

[pfrduke]

I would have liked to have seen us try an offense /defense sub pattern with Hairston and Dawkins once Jefferson fouled out and Dawkins had 4 fouls. We just gave Grant too many free dunks.

They ultimately did that with Plumlee and Dawkins - the problem from the outset of overtime is that you can't count on whistles to make the switch (and we only had one time out). Stick in Hairston for defense and odds are he's in the game for a 2-3 minute stretch.

[Dukeblue91]

Great game and I'm so proud of this team.
I do wonder why it took 3 made baskets by Christmas before MP3 came in on D.
The refs sucked bad and did not do us any favors to say the least.
I have never blamed a loss on the refs but this game is making it very hard.
We are the better team and considering what we went through and almost came away with a win anyway says allot to me.

[DukieInBrasil]

Complaining about the refs won't get you far, but Hood was clearly foul. Swallowing the whistle there probably cost Duke the game.
Super impressed with Dawkins, Thornton, Hood and Sulaimon. Not impressed with Jabari or Cook.
Jabari continues to be a terrible interior defender, and his shot selection continues to be questionable.
Great game, minus the ref. On that one call.

[Faison1]

That's about as upset as I've been for a regular season game in a while.

Having said that, I am impressed with SU's fans. I watched them applaud our guys as they left the court. It seems they have a true appreciation for good hoops.....as opposed to those boneheads from Maryland, who seem to only have an appreciation of moving screens and cheap shots.

Adding Cuse and ditching Maryland is a major, major improvement for the conference.

[_Gary]

I guess it is only terping if other teams' fans do it, huh?.

You didn't think it was really, really bad and incredibly one-sided? Especially late in regulation and OT?

[NashvilleDevil]

Complaining about the refs won't get you far, but Hood was clearly foul. Swallowing the whistle there probably cost Duke the game.
Super impressed with Dawkins, Thornton, Hood and Sulaimon. Not impressed with Jabari or Cook.
Jabari continues to be a terrible interior defender, and his shot selection continues to be questionable.
Great game, minus the ref. On that one call.

Jabari was money in the 2nd half on offense. Tough to do anything on defense when you're getting called for fouls every trip. Quinn also sprained his ankle against Pitt so he may not be 100%.

[FerryFor50]

While Hood was (likely) fouled on that dunk attempt... I still like how aggressively he attacked the rim. I don't think I've seen him go that hard at the rim before. Didn't think he had it in him.

[dairedevil]

I am really proud that this team never gave up - forcing overtime, and only losing by two. I had assumed that Duke would lose, they have always had trouble with zone defenses, playing at Syracuse for the first time, and dealing with all the foul troubles. Nothing for them to hang their heads over. I'm really glad that there will be a rematch in Durham in a couple of weeks. It is really fun watching this team grow up.

[eddiehaskell]

The missed foul with 15 seconds to go was terrible. There was no traffic in the lane so it should've been easy to see. The refs must have been ball watching.

[wsb3]

Our team has come a long way since conference play began. Tough loss, some tough calls, but I am ever so proud of this team & the fight through all the adversity.

We all know Hood got fouled but let's not act like Carolina fans. We lost. Next play & fouls or not we had our chances to win.

[lotusland]

Tough coming up short in such a great game but Cuse is really good. Ennis is ice, Fair is fantastic and they can really protect the rim. I thought the only really bad call was the no call at the end on Hood. Parker's 5th was legit. Even considering the acting job there was contact. I thought Duke played good and a lot of guys stepped up. Obviously a great game and clutch play by Sheed. Would like to have gotten a bit more from Quinn but his shot just wasn't falling tonight. We also missed some clutch free throws towards the end and they made theirs. Considering the crowd and the foul situation Duke played valiantly. Can't wait for the rematch in Cameron.

[BobbyFan]

I would have liked to have seen us try an offense /defense sub pattern with Hairston and Dawkins once Jefferson fouled out and Dawkins had 4 fouls. We just gave Grant too many free dunks.

Exactly what I was thinking. There were opportunities earlier during stoppages in which we could have started these substitutions. Although a short while after I thought this, Andre hit his second 3 in OT and I can't remember if there was a stoppage that would have gotten him back in the game had he been substituted out. Also agree in going with Hairston in such a situation.

[Gthoma2a]

To any Cuse fans, don't let my prior post about the officiating fool you. I respect the hell out of your team, your coach and your program. If this turns into a rivalry, it is one that I feel much more respect and admiration in. I think we are all better off for having been party to the greatest game I have seen in quite some time.

[COYS]

The last time that Duke lost and I really didn't worry about it one bit was the 2010 loss at Maryland in the game before 82-50. At that point, Duke was playing at an insanely high level and it took a truly heroic effort from Vasquez for an underrated Maryland team to beat Duke on a day when Duke put in a B+ performance. Despite the loss, it was clear that Duke was on the way up.

I ALMOST feel that way about this game. It hurts a little more to lose this one. The situations are vastly different, of course. It's early February, not early March and it remains to be seen if Duke will look this good come March. This team hasn't quite shown the consistency of that 2010 squad after the starting lineup of Kyle, Jon, Nolan, Lance, and Zoubs took over. And I'm certainly not claiming that we're the best in the land after this game like I was in 2010.

Still, at the end of the day, this game came down to a coin flip on the Orange's home floor when they had everything working for them. Parker and Jefferson in foul trouble along with Hood and Dawkins. Fair lighting it up. Grant putting up career numbers. The crowd. (I hate to terp, but the refs too). Everything was in their favor and it came down to a coin flip and a questionable no call. Syracuse is a great team and were deserving of the win. However, to me it seemed that Duke was equally deserving of the win and also looked like a great team.

It was a loss, but I hope it was another confidence builder for the guys. They played their hearts out and woulda, coulda, shoulda had it. Coach is pushing all the right buttons. The team is playing great. For my money, Duke comes out of this big three game stretch looking like they are solidly back in the discussion for the Final Four.

[ice-9]

Again, foul shooting disparity does not tell you whether the refs were fair. Duke tends to be on the positive side of that stat because Duke tends to be better and more aggressive than the opponent, leading to more free throw attempts.

I'm in complete agreement about that, but do think it'll come across as whiny for a Duke fan to complain about refs.

But man oh man oh man do I feel like being whiny...LOL!

Guess what we should focus on is the heart that this team brought, and not factors beyond our control. So proud of our guys. We're heading in the right direction and going to be a scary team by the end of the season. We already are.

[roywhite]

I hate Christmas.


wouldn't mind if we got our money's worth out of Christmas when he comes to Cameron...

And *** **** Carl Hess.


Now I see why Devildeac and arnie is still king hate Christmas. I hope Rakeem is ok after the brutal hammerings he took to have fouled out Parker (I assumed that was him) and Jefferson. I hope he will be able to recover from the violence he incurred on those plays.

Count me in. I'm not in the dadgum Christmas spirit either.

[weezie]

We were hurt by some bad calls at critical moments, as will be highlighted in this thread, but getting invested in officiating is a pointless exercise for me.


Well yay! I'll be happy to take any heat for the horrific 11-1, two players fouling out, three with 3 what 2 w/four on the floor.
No prob.
Refs unassailable. Perfect, saintly, awesome exactitude.

[ajaxthewonderdog]

Too many great performances and a great, gutty game by the entire team. (And yes, Hood was fouled.)


We got hosed. Refs screw us by fouling out Amile and Jabari. Sheed saves us, so refs screw us again with a no call on Hood.

I am excited to see how well we can shoot in a Dome and I think we are gonna be an incredibly tough out in March. I hate that we lost but I love our team!

[DukeBlueHeart4]

This is one of those games that no one deserves to lose. What a game! This game was by far the best/most fun game I've seen all year...maybe in a couple of years....

What a way to welcome 'Cuse to the ACC! I am so proud of our guys. We may not have won but the guys I saw out there are title contenders. I hope the talking heads realize that, even though this was a loss, this was a testament to Duke's improvement over the past few weeks. We are a top 10 team again.

[rsvman]

Outstanding effort. They had to shoot free throws like JJ Redick to come away with a two-point overtime win. At their house.

Oh, and they're undefeated.

So, overall I'd have to say that I'm really proud of our team.

[Wheat/"/"/"]

You guys almost beat the best team in the country at their place in a game that was played at the highest level of any game played this season, no need to be that disappointed, it's not the tournament.

The biggest positive for Duke to me is the emergence of Jefferson inside. The kid played strong tonight and is bringing that inside threat along with Parker to score that's going to help down the road.

I liked that coach K saved Parker at the high post until the second half, looked to me his plan was to use him on the baseline to keep it close first half and put him up top second half to turn and score or open the wings. It almost worked...If he hadn't gotten into foul trouble from trying to guard Syracuse's aggressive attacks at the rim.

Syracuse is just good. Very balanced with smart, talented, strong players at every position. They are a problem for everyone.

[FerryFor50]

Tough coming up short in such a great game but Cuse is really good. Ennis is ice, Fair is fantastic and they can really protect the rim. I thought the only really bad call was the no call at the end on Hood. Parker's 5th was legit. Even considering the acting job there was contact. I thought Duke played good and a lot of guys stepped up. Obviously a great game and clutch play by Sheed. Would like to have gotten a bit more from Quinn but his shot just wasn't falling tonight. We also missed some clutch free throws towards the end and they made theirs. Considering the crowd and the foul situation Duke played valiantly. Can't wait for the rematch in Cameron.

There was contact, but nothing you don't normally see. He didn't lower a shoulder. He didn't hook. Christmas was moving to where Parker went, so it wasn't a charge. How was it a legit call?

Amile's 5th was suspect, too, because Christmas locked Jefferson's arm and then flailed as if Jefferson grabbed him. His 4th was suspect also, as the Cuse post player initiated the contact. And again, where was that call in the post against Duke's bigs in the post?

I mean, there's irrational complaining about officiating sometimes, but there's also irrationality in thinking bad officiating was somehow not that bad. :)

[CameronDuke]

Check out the twitter page of Jay Williams. He thinks the defender got "all ball" on Hood's dunk attempt near the end of OT. All ball with a lot of arm mixed in Jay! That's almost treason, Jay!

His twitter handle is @RealJayWilliams.

[NSDukeFan]

Complaining about the refs won't get you far, but Hood was clearly foul. Swallowing the whistle there probably cost Duke the game.
Super impressed with Dawkins, Thornton, Hood and Sulaimon. Not impressed with Jabari or Cook.
Jabari continues to be a terrible interior defender, and his shot selection continues to be questionable.
Great game, minus the ref. On that one call.


Jabari was money in the 2nd half on offense. Tough to do anything on defense when you're getting called for fouls every trip. Quinn also sprained his ankle against Pitt so he may not be 100%.
I don't have any complaints about Parker as well. He got blocked a few times, but he was dialed in, ready to play and aggressive attacking on the baseline and the middle. I would have loved to have had him available for another few minutes. Cook didn't shoot well, but I don't think he played poorly. I thought he defended well and moved the ball around well enough and didn't turn it over. Great overall effort by the team.

While Hood was (likely) fouled on that dunk attempt... I still like how aggressively he attacked the rim. I don't think I've seen him go that hard at the rim before. Didn't think he had it in him.

That was such a great take by Hood that unfortunately did not get rewarded.

[ChrisP]

Questionable reffing aside, the zebras didn't allow the 'Cuse to shoot nearly 60% for the game (uh, yeah, yikes!) and cause us to miss key FT's down the stretch.

I certainly am not going to single out anyone after such a tremendous team effort, but I just knew that when we called that TO at the end of regulation, we'd end up doing something dumb and not even getting a shot off. Maybe I just tend to remember the bad stuff, but Duke just rarely seems (to me) to get much good off of "set" plays in situations like that. But of course, we HAD to called TO there; it just sucks that we didn't even get a shot up to the rim! Double ugh!!!! :mad:

[kAzE]

Jabari was money in the 2nd half on offense. Tough to do anything on defense when you're getting called for fouls every trip. Quinn also sprained his ankle against Pitt so he may not be 100%.

I agree, Parker was great tonight. He was a rebound away from his 4th or 5th straight double double. He's been a monster lately on the glass. Much of our bad defense in the 2nd half was due to guys not wanting to pick up a 4th or 5th foul, which can't be helped. Disagree on Cook though, bum ankle or not, he's got to start shooting the ball better. I love the 5 assist to 0 turnovers, but 1-8 from 3 isn't going to get it done. He did a serviceable job limiting Ennis for the most part, but still allowed enough penetration on D to get our bigs in foul trouble. I'll give him a slight pass on D if his ankle is indeed bothering him, but the bad shooting needs to stop, especially shots like the NBA range three at the beginning of the shot clock in the first half. Of all the guys on the team, I think Cook has the most room for improvement right now. He's just not playing as well as he's capable of.

[DukieInKansas]

Great game! Not so great outcome.

Really proud of how the team played.

[weezie]

You guys almost beat the best team in the country at their place.... They are a problem for everyone.

I dunno...I think Arizona still beats them in complete team ability.

[wgl1228]

Anyone got any post game comments from K? Or where to watch it?

[burnspbesq]

Too bad Karl Hess wasn't watching it.

[roywhite]

After catching my breath here a bit, my take is that Syracuse played about as well as they are capable of playing. And had a big boost from their home crowd, and IMO got the better end of the officiating.

Yet....still, Duke took them to overtime and that in spite of key players fouling out. Overall, I'm greatly encouraged by what I saw from Duke tonight, and I think Duke wins the rematch in Durham, and perhaps in Greensboro, too. Great effort by our guys.

[BobbyFan]

Well yay! I'll be happy to take any heat for the horrific 11-1, two players fouling out, three with 3 what 2 w/four on the floor.
No prob.
Refs unassailable. Perfect, saintly, awesome exactitude.

Right. Because that's what I said.

[Wahoo2000]

Our team has come a long way since conference play began. Tough loss, some tough calls, but I am ever so proud of this team & the fight through all the adversity.

We all know Hood got fouled but let's not act like Carolina fans. We lost. Next play & fouls or not we had our chances to win.

Good for you guys - and very mature. There's a lot to complain about, but I'm sure you guys will win your fair share going forward.

One thing that would bother me - why not use Parker/Hood more in the high post in the 1st half? Duke kept putting Jefferson in the middle of the 'Cuse zone. When he'd make the catch and turn, he was ALWAYS wide open, but wouldn't/couldn't hit the easy look. After he fouled out, and you guys were forced to put an offensive threat in that spot, I felt like you were doing almost whatever you wanted offensively.

I think that's really the key to beating the 'Cuse zone - have a couple bigs that can score from the high post. (of course, you could also beat them by nailing long 3s repeatedly like Duke did late, but that's not a viable strategy for 95% of teams out there...)

[Gthoma2a]

Questionable reffing aside, the zebras didn't allow the 'Cuse to shoot nearly 60% for the game (uh, yeah, yikes!) and cause us to miss key FT's down the stretch.

I certainly am not going to single out anyone after such a tremendous team effort, but I just knew that when we called that TO at the end of regulation, we'd end up doing something dumb and not even getting a shot off. Maybe I just tend to remember the bad stuff, but Duke just rarely seems (to me) to get much good off of "set" plays in situations like that. But of course, we HAD to called TO there; it just sucks that we didn't even get a shot up to the rim! Double ugh!!!! :mad:

They did help by removing, and placing in foul trouble for questionable reasons, better defensive options, but Syracuse definitely deserves credit. They did hit the shots with who we had in front of them.

On the play where he passed up a shot to Dawkins, Thornton needs to just work on throwing up a quick lay-up in the coming days. That one should haunt him a little. Wide open, directly under the basket and he throws it to a guy who is falling out of bounds. Still, without his threes, we wouldn't have been in position for that shot to matter.

[mattmcbreen]

Honestly I feel great after this game. Parker and Cook didn't play well, most of our best players fought foul trouble the whole game, and Syracuse played their best overall game this season. Throw in the home court advantage and the questionable officiating and that's a game we would normally lose by double digits. But this team has a lot of heart, they took a lot of gut punches today and kept hanging on. We may have lost but this game makes me feel so much better about the team going forward

[porkpa]

What a courageous bunch of young men.

[Dukehky]

Anyone got any post game comments from K? Or where to watch it?

Somebody please post the post-game if they know where to find it, also, anyone who wants it, Laura Keeley normally has a link to it on her twitter page, so keep an eye out there.

This is the first game we've ever lost were Dre goes for more than 10. That's the saddest part about tonight. I love Jabari Parker and anyone who questions his shot selection is silly, even if they're not. We need to get him the ball way more.

[CoachJ10]

Outstanding effort. They had to shoot free throws like JJ Redick to come away with a two-point overtime win. At their house.

Oh, and they're undefeated.

So, overall I'd have to say that I'm really proud of our team.

Not only did they hit free throws like JJ, but they hit a very high percentage of difficult shots.

Basically...Syracuse played the best they could play...and needed just atrociously bad reffing to win at home by 2.

I think we proved we are the best team in the ACC tonight. Playing this zone for the first time...our players learned from this. It won't have the same affect going forward.

[_Gary]

Check out the twitter page of Jay Williams. He thinks the defender got "all ball" on Hood's dunk attempt near the end of OT. All ball with a lot of arm mixed in Jay! That's almost treason, Jay!

Well, he does work with another Jay that has been known to do the same. LOL, just kidding (kinda).

In all seriousness, while I do believe the officiating was atrocious late in the game and somewhat in OT, that's not the place to lay all the blame. Frankly, I'm not ready to lay any blame anywhere (with the possible exception of Quinn, who did have a terrible game). Syracuse is a great team, who had a great night shooting the ball, and had a great crowd. That we were anywhere near striking distance is a testament to how far this team has come.

I think this one propels us toward a great February and March.

[pfrduke]

This is the first game we've ever lost were Dre goes for more than 10.

Close, but not quite. We're now 39-3 when he hits double digits.

[CoachJ10]

Too bad Karl Hess wasn't watching it.

Oh, he was watching it...played out just like he planned.

[Dukehky]

Well, he does work with another Jay that has been known to do the same. LOL, just kidding (kinda).

In all seriousness, while I do believe the officiating was atrocious late in the game and somewhat in OT, that's not the place to lay all the blame. Frankly, I'm not ready to lay any blame anywhere (with the possible exception of Quinn, who did have a terrible game). Syracuse is a great team, who had a great night shooting the ball, and had a great crowd. That we were anywhere near striking distance is a testament to how far this team has come.

I think this one propels us toward a great February and March.

Jay tries so hard to not look like a homer that he discredits himself frequently. Bilas is good enough at his job and confident enough that he only does that a little bit but Jay wants to not look like a Duke fan sooooo badly and it's really annoying.

[Highlander]

I agree with the posters that the two games this reminded me of were 2010 MD #2 and 2004 UConn. The first for the way we fought and never gave up and just came up short. The second for the way the officiating changed the complexion of the game to give one team a distinct advantage.

Thornton's 3's brought us back from the dead. Clutch, clutch, clutch.

Jefferson's and Parker's 5th fouls were absolute and total BS. Syracuse player (Christmas) both times nodded his head like he'd been elbowed there and the refs bought it like a cheap parlor trick. Not sure how you can even call Parker for an offensive foul when his man is standing inside the no charge circle also. Just an incredibly poor call. Calling Jefferson for a foul in a tie game 30' from the basket off the ball was no less egregious. But Sheed was clutch yet again. It looked like we might win IN SPITE of everything working against us. I knew going into OT that we'd have to outscore them to win because we weren't likely to stop them on defense with no strong rebounders. We did get one stop.

I'm impressed we played such a tough game with everything against us, bummed that we lost, and annoyed that the officiating was so slanted in their favor. I would have loved to see Parker and Jefferson on the floor at the end of the game.

[Saratoga2]

Fair, Ennis and Grant are really good and we were unable to defend them very well during the entire game, plus they hit their free throws and we missed several critical ones. I haven't seen the numbers, but they must have shot better than 50%. Tough to win if defense is that weak.

That said, our team played a heck of a game and scratched and clawed despite being handicapped with fouls. We had a bad play early on to pass to Amile in a tough position where he was called for a legitimate charging foul. Andre was open in the corner at that time and wasn't seen. We got a lot out of Amile, Jabari, Rasheed and Andre and Hood had a decent game. Tyler hit some key shots and played with heart but Quinn seems better handling the ball and it is tough to have them both in together on the defensive side.

Marshall is a help in there although cannot go out and play defense one on one on their wings. He has to play a significant amount of minutes just to keep the fouls down on Jabari and Amile. I also think it would have been beneficial to have Matt get more minutes to keep the others fresh and keep the fouls down ( Andre even fouled out in the end Matt is a quality defender and can put pressure on the 1 or 2 when needed.

Great game for both teams. We could have won it with a single break near the end.

[Wheat/"/"/"]

Check out the twitter page of Jay Williams. He thinks the defender got "all ball" on Hood's dunk attempt near the end of OT. All ball with a lot of arm mixed in Jay! That's almost treason, Jay!

His twitter handle is @RealJayWilliams.

That's the way I saw it too. It was all ball, and the arm contact looked to be from the momentum of Hoods aggression. It could have been called either way, but I wouldn't say it was a bad call.

[CameronDuke]

Well, he does work with another Jay that has been known to do the same. LOL, just kidding (kinda).

In all seriousness, while I do believe the officiating was atrocious late in the game and somewhat in OT, that's not the place to lay all the blame. Frankly, I'm not ready to lay any blame anywhere (with the possible exception of Quinn, who did have a terrible game). Syracuse is a great team, who had a great night shooting the ball, and had a great crowd. That we were anywhere near striking distance is a testament to how far this team has come.

I think this one propels us toward a great February and March.

I'm in no way taking away from Cuse and their effort tonight. Fair was a beast. They were shooting something like 57% for most of the game. We had no answer for Fair, frankly. But the calls that fouled out JP and AJ were a joke. And Hood clearly was hacked on the dunk attempt. Those are tough to overcome on the road against the #2 team in the nation. Trying to guard Grant with Dawkins and MP3 is different than trying to guard him with JP or AJ. He put his armpits almost squarely into the rim on us in OT and there was not much we could do about it. I want to play Cuse again so badly because although they're great, I believe with everything in me that we are the better team. I still believe in Duke.

[CR9]

Was I the only one not overly impressed by Ennis? The way they talked him up all week, all season, really. He wasn't anything more than meh, for me.

Sheed really locked Fair up in OT. I feel like that jumper Fair made over the top of him in the first half kinda scared K away from that match up but he was up to the task.

Was disappointed by Jabari, again. I'm certain that he was getting hammered on most of his inside misses but his shot selection and feel for the game is bad. He never knows when the double team is coming and he still doesn't quite know when to pass and when to go alone. Frosh is frosh, whatever.

[devildeac]

Now I see why Devildeac and arnie is still king hate Christmas. I hope Rakeem is ok after the brutal hammerings he took to have fouled out Parker (I assumed that was him) and Jefferson. I hope he will be able to recover from the violence he incurred on those plays.

Imagine how hateful I'd be if they had guys named Puppies or Children.

[Bob Green]

(with the possible exception of Quinn, who did have a terrible game)



I would not go as far as saying Cook had a terrible game seeing as he had 5 assist and 0 turnovers. However, his 1-8 on 3 PT FGs is disappointing. Cook needs to learn that Dawkins is the designated shooter. Yo Quinn, pass the ball!

[roywhite]

That's the way I saw it too. It was all ball, and the arm contact looked to be from the momentum of Hoods aggression. It could have been called either way, but I wouldn't say it was a bad call.

Really? I'll go along with Dan Shulman, Dick Vitale, and nearly everyone else who saw the play and the replay; it was a foul; it was an important foul, and it was way more contact than very important calls that went against Jabari Parker and Amile Jefferson.

And still Duke almost won the game.

[tendev]

I loved this game. That is what ACC games are supposed to be like. Close, nail-biters that ebb and flow. I haven't screamed as much in a regular season game or tourney game (other than Kerlina) in a long time. The guys showed heart and toughness. I think the quality of any Duke team is measured by how they perform on the road. We performed well in front of 35,000 of their fans and came incredibly close to winning. That is what good teams do. This game shows what we can do if we play with passion and energy. It is hard to do that every game but if we do that for the rest of the season, I will be a happy fan.

[NashvilleDevil]

Was I the only one not overly impressed by Ennis? The way they talked him up all week, all season, really. He wasn't anything more than meh, for me.

Sheed really locked Fair up in OT. I feel like that jumper Fair made over the top of him in the first half kinda scared K away from that match up but he was up to the task.

Was disappointed by Jabari, again. I'm certain that he was getting hammered on most of his inside misses but his shot selection and feel for the game is bad. He never knows when the double team is coming and he still doesn't quite know when to pass and when to go alone. Frosh is frosh, whatever.

Jabari played really well in the 2nd half and he does not get the Tyler Hansbrough treatment when he drives. Really don't know who you're watching when you make this type of statement.

[FerryFor50]

Some nice statistical anomalies, as teams seem to love to do that against Duke.

- Syracuse shoots 69% from the line on the year. Tonight they shot 81% (26-32)
- Jerami Grant shoots 66% from the line; tonight, he went 10-10
- Syracuse shoots 45.5% from the field; tonight, they shot 57% (and they've played some defenses worse than Duke's)
- CJ Fair, a VERY good player, scores his career high against Duke
- Rakeem Christmas averages 1.5 blocks and 2.9 fouls per game. Tonight: 6 blocks, 2 fouls...
- Trevor Cooney was 14-56 (25%) from three in ACC play; so naturally, he goes 2-2 tonight
- Syracuse gets to the line 23 times per game; tonight, they got to the line 32 times
- Syracuse averages 71 ppg; tonight, they had 78 in regulation

[DevilYouthCoach]

Yes, as far as I am concerned this was a Duke victory! Clearly after Rasheed tied the game up to go into overtime, Duke had nearly NO CHANCE to win -- with our two most productive players fouled out. And yet, again, as far as I'm concerned, we won that game! Hood was fouled big time when going for an easy dunk and would have made the free throw. The ref was clearly too intimidated by the crowd and the moment to make what was an easy call. It was so easy to call that the TV guys sounded sort of embarrassed. I'm glad that the Syracuse fans have a phony victory to cheer good about, but we won the actual game. Proud of all our guys! They played very, very well in an impossible arena. We are definitely the real deal! Onwards!

[DukeDiva]

How many people need to foul out before the coach changes defenses?

Is this a failed attempt at humor? The boys played their hearts out and coaching was not the issue in this game. The refs were atrocious, and it sadly limited our defensive ability and Cuse took advantage.

[JNort]

What. A. Game. So much heart from this team to stay in the game with all the foul trouble, being physically overmatched inside, and dealing with CJ Fair.

One quibble (apart from the officiating). To win games like this against elite opposition, the point guard matchup can't be this lopsided. Quinn Cook did a very poor job of attacking the zone, with way too much horizontal passing and/or poor shooting over the top of the zone. Sheed's high level play (he knew how to attack the zone) and Thornton's shooting negated this to some degree, but QC has to be better in big games.

Very, very proud of this group. Good week, let's take this level of effort and play and carry it forward to the rest of the season.

I think I disagree with the statement that the pg battle was lopsided. Cook held Ennis in check for the most part and he is considered the best pg in the country. Cook also had 0 turnovers, his shot just wasn't falling tonight. Yeah he passed horizontally but that seemed to be much of the gameplan (swing passes for 3s and high post passes). Cook hits two or 3 of those 10 misses and we would be singing high praises.

[FerryFor50]

Was I the only one not overly impressed by Ennis? The way they talked him up all week, all season, really. He wasn't anything more than meh, for me.

Sheed really locked Fair up in OT. I feel like that jumper Fair made over the top of him in the first half kinda scared K away from that match up but he was up to the task.

Was disappointed by Jabari, again. I'm certain that he was getting hammered on most of his inside misses but his shot selection and feel for the game is bad. He never knows when the double team is coming and he still doesn't quite know when to pass and when to go alone. Frosh is frosh, whatever.

You were unimpressed by Ennis because Duke did a pretty good job on him defensively. Watch some of the Syracuse games outside of the one vs. Duke. Ennis can play.

[CoachJ10]

That's the way I saw it too. It was all ball, and the arm contact looked to be from the momentum of Hoods aggression. It could have been called either way, but I wouldn't say it was a bad call.

In the spirit of Keyshawn Johnson..."Come on, Man". You lose credibility when you can't admit the obvious, sir. That was a foul.

Next play.

[brevity]

For poll voters, the headline of the game is that Syracuse shot extremely well, and Duke got into foul trouble, but still managed to take the game to overtime before losing. They'll be ranked.


Unbelievable game, but two phantom calls to foul out Jefferson and Parker thanks to 2 Oscar-caliber performances from Christmas and the atrocious missed call on the Hood dunk ruined it for me.

Sorry, but I disagree. That was some bad acting. Effective, but bad.

"Incredible! One of the worst performances of my career, and they never doubted it for a second."

[devilnfla]

That's the way I saw it too. It was all ball, and the arm contact looked to be from the momentum of Hoods aggression. It could have been called either way, but I wouldn't say it was a bad call.

Tonight if the jerseys were reversed that would have been a defensive foul on the team in blue.

[CLW]

Gutty effort but the lack of post defense (144.9 for the Orange) was just too much to overcome we had MULTIPLE opportunities to steal one but just didn't make the plays needed to pull out a W.

[DU82]

Is this a failed attempt at humor? The boys played their hearts out and coaching was not the issue in this game. The refs were atrocious, and it sadly limited our defensive ability and Cuse took advantage.

Actually, we went zone once (of course the announcers missed it.) We were in it after we got into foul trouble for about five seconds when Boeheim called a timeout to re-set his offense. After the TO, we went back to man.

[_Gary]

Some nice statistical anomalies, as teams seem to love to do that against Duke.

- Syracuse shoots 69% from the line on the year. Tonight they shot 81% (26-32)
- Jerami Grant shoots 66% from the line; tonight, he went 10-10
- Syracuse shoots 45.5% from the field; tonight, they shot 57% (and they've played some defenses worse than Duke's)
- CJ Fair, a VERY good player, scores his career high against Duke
- Rakeem Christmas averages 1.5 blocks and 2.9 fouls per game. Tonight: 6 blocks, 2 fouls...
- Trevor Cooney was 14-56 (25%) from three in ACC play; so naturally, he goes 2-2 tonight
- Syracuse gets to the line 23 times per game; tonight, they got to the line 32 times
- Syracuse averages 71 ppg; tonight, they had 78 in regulation

Tried to spork you, but wasn't allowed. Great stats that prove out what my eyes were telling me across the board tonight. Thanks!

[Bob Green]

That's the way I saw it too. It was all ball, and the arm contact looked to be from the momentum of Hoods aggression. It could have been called either way, but I wouldn't say it was a bad call.

I went over to IC to get a "fair and balanced" assessment of the refs:


The refs were bad but they were not making calls (or non calls) against duke. Duke still got away with a lot.

So we've heard from two equally neutral sources, Wheat and IC, the Refs didn't screw us.

[jv001]

That's the way I saw it too. It was all ball, and the arm contact looked to be from the momentum of Hoods aggression. It could have been called either way, but I wouldn't say it was a bad call.

Yeh, I'd like to see what you would say if it happened to the cheating tarholes. Even the announcers admitted it was a terrible call. I knew the refs would swallow their whistles if Duke was on the negative end of the call. I have gotten to where I hate to see or hear Jay Williams. That no call was one of the worse calls I've seen in a long time. GoDuke!

[RoyalBlue08]

That was the best college basketball game this season as far as I can tell. I am very proud of the fight in Duke tonight. I don't think the calls necessarily went our way, but I also don't think it paints Duke fans in a very good light to be complaining about them. (I would take a cue from the players themselves, who refused to be baited into talk of the calls after the game.) Unlike many, I am a bit worried how this game and all the emotion spent will affect the team going forward, especially for Tuesday night. I hope the guys can shake this one off and keep up this effort for the rest of the season, because if they can I think we could be headed for great things this year.

PS- If you don't feel like taking the high road, Laura Keeley has a very interesting still shot of the Hood dunk attempt on her timeline.

[CoachJ10]

Jabari played really well in the 2nd half and he does not get the Tyler Hansbrough treatment when he drives. Really don't know who you're watching when you make this type of statement.

I have been saying this all season...Jabari has gotten no love from the refs this season. He has absorbed a tremendous amount of contact in the paint on a consistent basis...w/ minimal trips to the line to reward that.

[El_Diablo]

Really? I'll go along with Dan Shulman, Dick Vitale, and nearly everyone else who saw the play and the replay; it was a foul; it was an important foul, and it was way more contact than very important calls that went against Jabari Parker and Amile Jefferson.

And still Duke almost won the game.

Don't even bother. If someone can't bother to read or understand the rule book, this type of conversation will go absolutely nowhere.

[Atlanta Duke]

Boeheim says best game ever in Dome.

[DevilYouthCoach]

I would not go as far as saying Cook had a terrible game seeing as he had 5 assist and 0 turnovers. However, his 1-8 on 3 PT FGs is disappointing. Cook needs to learn that Dawkins is the designated shooter. Yo Quinn, pass the ball!


Coach K urges Quinn to shoot the ball because he is a good shooter. When a good shooter is open, he is supposed to take the shot. Good shooters are supposed to keep shooting, even when they're cold. But everybody has an off night, especially in a dome. Luckily we have a lot of good shooters on this team.

[devildeac]

That's the way I saw it too. It was all ball, and the arm contact looked to be from the momentum of Hoods aggression. It could have been called either way, but I wouldn't say it was a bad call.


And why am I not surprised you'd see it that way? :)

Laughable. "Arm contact?" "Hood's aggression?" I don't think the arm is part of the ball when someone is shooting:confused::rolleyes: .

[FerryFor50]

That was the best college basketball game this season as far as I can tell. I am very proud of the fight in Duke tonight. I don't think the calls necessarily went our way, but I also don't think it paints Duke fans in a very good light to be complaining about them. (I would take a cue from the players themselves, who refused to be baited into talk of the calls after the game.) Unlike many, I am a bit worried how this game and all the emotion spent will affect the team going forward, especially for Tuesday night. I hope the guys can shake this one off and keep up this effort for the rest of the season, because if they can I think we could be headed for great things this year.

PS- If you don't feel like taking the high road, Laura Keeley has a very interesting still shot of the Hood dunk attempt on her timeline.

Obviously, the elbow is part of the ball....

3853

[NSDukeFan]

Laughable. "Arm contact?" "Hood's aggression?" I don't think the arm is part of the ball when someone is shooting:confused::rolleyes: .

It was on one play, unfortunately.

[dhillbluedevil]

25 fouls to 15
no call on the dunk attempt
We still had a chance to win...

can't wait until they come to Cameron...

[azzefkram]

Not the outcome I was looking for but a great game none the less. Big threes by TT and Sheed. Amile is playing really well right now. I thought our interior D took a bit of a step back today but Cuse also made a bunch of tough shots (especially Fair). I am proud of how our guys answered every Cuse run.

[Wheat/"/"/"]

Another note: There was a lot of defensive pressure out there tonight and both teams took really good care of the ball, especially 2nd half.

In that atmosphere, it was impressive from both teams to have that composure.

[UrinalCake]

I was wondering early on why we didn't have Jabari in the middle of the zone, rather than Amile. It seemed like Jabari's job was to stand on the baseline and receive passes when his man switched off, which he did well three times... but after Amile fouled out and we did put Jabari in the middle, he was able to do so much more by attacking the basket. Hindsight being 20/20.

We deserved to win this game, unfortunately it still counts as an L and will make it tough to win the ACC or grab a 1 seed.

[dukelifer]

Some nice statistical anomalies, as teams seem to love to do that against Duke.

- Syracuse shoots 69% from the line on the year. Tonight they shot 81% (26-32)
- Jerami Grant shoots 66% from the line; tonight, he went 10-10
- Syracuse shoots 45.5% from the field; tonight, they shot 57% (and they've played some defenses worse than Duke's)
- CJ Fair, a VERY good player, scores his career high against Duke
- Rakeem Christmas averages 1.5 blocks and 2.9 fouls per game. Tonight: 6 blocks, 2 fouls...
- Trevor Cooney was 14-56 (25%) from three in ACC play; so naturally, he goes 2-2 tonight
- Syracuse gets to the line 23 times per game; tonight, they got to the line 32 times
- Syracuse averages 71 ppg; tonight, they had 78 in regulation
Cuse played a bit out if their heads. Duke will bring that out of some teams. Duke played well- but hampered big time by fouls. Would have been nice to send their fans home sad but not in the cards tonight. This is an improved Duke team but they have lots of work to do to get a decent seed. They can not have any slip ups in the next couple of weeks.

[Newton_14]

Very proud of our Devils. They took the absolute best shot Syracuse had in them to give. Role players making shots and free throws they had not made all year, loose balls falling in their hands, and a home friendly set of refs (the two calls in OT, phantom foul for MP3 on Ennis, and the no call on Hood's missed dunk sealed it for them), our two frontline guys foul out early considering it was an OT game, Andre fouling out, and everything goes perfect for Cuse all night, and after all of that combined, the need a stop on the final possession in OT to squeak out a 2 point win.

And to be honest, we really did not play all that well for the first 24 minutes of the game. I am fully confident we beat them in Cameron and beat them again in Greensboro. This Duke team has grabbed another gear and they have one or two more to grab I think.

Very stoked about the rest of the season. With Amile, Rasheed, and Andre playing consistently good game over game now, to go with Hood and Jabari, and the bench players providing solid minutes, this team has become really strong. Was a little surprised Matt and Josh did not get more burn, but we never know when minor ailments or illness are factors when things like that happen.

Also thought that K should have went with a little more O for D for O subbing in the OT with MP3 and Andre to make it more difficult for Cuse to score, but duing that time we were matching them bucket for bucket with a smalll lead, so K road it. Can't really fault him much for the decision.

Finally, as expected, our guys handled all the hoopla and atmosphere great. There was never a doubt in my mind they would anyway. Shout out to Tyler for the three 3 bombs that kept us in it down the stretch in OT. Dude was ice.

Bring on the rematch with them having to come and handle Native and crew in our environment. Interested to see how their role players handle it when everything isn't going perfect for them.

Go Duke!

[dairedevil]

Jabari played really well in the 2nd half and he does not get the Tyler Hansbrough treatment when he drives. Really don't know who you're watching when you make this type of statement.

Parker definitely doesn't get TH treatment - see his fifth foul. I remember hansbrough clearing out the entire "paint" with his backside, and always getting the call in his favor.

Funny, I was thinking about this earlier today - why Duke hasn't "gotten all the calls" lately. When I think of the players who have seemed to get favorable treatment, it is frequently a star who has played for several years. Think Redick, Laettner, Battier, Ferry...and others. Obviously, TH for unc. I don't think that the refs have seen enough of the freshmen/ first year players to give them that respect or benefit of the doubt. Just a thought.

[devildeac]

Obviously, the elbow is part of the ball....

3853

Great photo. I had that call all wrong. It was clearly on Hood as he is hitting the 'Cuse player on the arm when he has the ball.





:mad:

[Bob Green]

Coach K urges Quinn to shoot the ball because he is a good shooter. When a good shooter is open, he is supposed to take the shot. Good shooters are supposed to keep shooting, even when they're cold. But everybody has an off night, especially in a dome. Luckily we have a lot of good shooters on this team.

Well we can agree to disagree. Dawkins and Hood make 10% more of their 3 PT FG attempts than QC does. Cook needs to distribute the basketball to open shooters seeing as that is the PGs responsibility.

[FerryFor50]

Well we can agree to disagree. Dawkins and Hood make 10% more of their 3 PT FG attempts than QC does. Cook needs to distribute the basketball to open shooters seeing as that is the PGs responsibility.

Agreed. And when you are 1-5, you don't take 3 more threes. You start to find other guys having better shooting nights.

[Wheat/"/"/"]

Laughable. "Arm contact?" "Hood's aggression?" I don't think the arm is part of the ball when someone is shooting:confused::rolleyes: .

Doc, it looked to me that contact came after the clean block on the ball. Sometimes it goes the other way and they'll call that play a foul, sometimes not. Just saying it was not a slam dunk foul, could have gone either way and this time it didn't work out for Duke.

[FerryFor50]

Great photo. I had that call all wrong. It was clearly on Hood as he is hitting the 'Cuse player on the arm when he has the ball.





:mad:

I'm just glad Rodney didn't get called for a flagrant 1 there.

[BD80]

You guys almost beat the best team in the country at their place in a game that was played at the highest level of any game played this season, no need to be that disappointed, it's not the tournament....

I liked that coach K saved Parker at the high post until the second half, looked to me his plan was to use him on the baseline to keep it close first half and put him up top second half to turn and score or open the wings. It almost worked...If he hadn't gotten into foul trouble from trying to guard Syracuse's aggressive attacks at the rim.

Syracuse is just good. Very balanced with smart, talented, strong players at every position. They are a problem for everyone.

I don't think 'Cuse can play at that level consistently. This was Duke getting an opponent's best shot amped up several notches. Great game. And Duke played very well, and could play better. I do wish we could have run Jabari (and/or Rodney) at the high post more - it was working well.

Fun game to watch the rest of the regular season may pale in comparison.

Duke will probably get the better of the whistles in the rematch. It happens.

Cuse is an instant rival, albeit not the rival. As the "Christmas show" proved, unlike our "storied" rival, Syracuse players actually go to drama class.

[FerryFor50]

Doc, it looked to me that contact came after the clean block on the ball. Sometimes it goes the other way and they'll call that play a foul, sometimes not. Just saying it was not a slam dunk foul, could have gone either way and this time it didn't work out for Duke.

Oh, so you're allowed to contact the arm after you touch the ball? Looked to me like Hood still had the ball when his arm got hit, so hitting the arm definitely affected the play.

Also, he was being hit with the body prior to the "block."

[_Gary]

I'm just glad Rodney didn't get called for a flagrant 1 there.

LOL. Very well played!

[NashvilleDevil]

Duke has 3 losses to teams in the top 10, the losses to Clemson and Notre Dame are really going to hurt seeding. Amazing to me that Kentucky has 5 losses and is probably going to be top 10 when polls come out this week. I think Duke puts together a nice winning streak this month.

[davekay1971]

I can't remember ever feeling this good after a Duke loss. Our guys played with incredible heart and great composure. They went into a tough opposing arena, played in front of an incredibly amped crowd, took everything the number 2 team in the country could throw at them, and they had the ball in hand at the end with a chance to win.

I can't vote for a MOTM. Jefferson, with all those offensive boards to keep us in it? Dawkins, Sheed, Thornton, with their clutch 3s? Hood, our everything player? Parker, for what was turning into a monster 2nd half before Hess proved he can shut down anybody on the court?

This team, early in the season, lacked intensity and heart. Since the Clemson loss, they corrected all that, and then some.

Duke is a team, right now, that can compete for an NCAA Tournament championship. What more can you ask for?

[eddiehaskell]

Obviously, the elbow is part of the ball....

3853Looks like body, elbow and forearm contact. I think the refs were in fan mode looking at what was potentially an epic game winning dunk.

Also very ticky tack fouls called on Jabari and Amile. If those were fouls than Hood was murdered.

[roywhite]

Doc, it looked to me that contact came after the clean block on the ball. Sometimes it goes the other way and they'll call that play a foul, sometimes not. Just saying it was not a slam dunk foul, could have gone either way and this time it didn't work out for Duke.

Gotta say, I can't see any good reason for you to continue on about that call, or lack of a call.

Most people here seriously disagree with you, and the announcers of the game disagreed with you. It makes you look partisan and petty to go on about it.

[FerryFor50]

Gotta say, I can't see any good reason for you to continue on about that call, or lack of a call.

Most people here seriously disagree with you, and the announcers of the game disagreed with you. It makes you look partisan and petty to go on about it.

Oh come on, he's a UNC fan with no dog in this fight... ;)

[tbyers11]

Doc, it looked to me that contact came after the clean block on the ball. Sometimes it goes the other way and they'll call that play a foul, sometimes not. Just saying it was not a slam dunk foul, could have gone either way and this time it didn't work out for Duke.

Doesn't matter if the contact came after the clean block. Rodney's arm was still in the shooting motion and Chirstmas hitting with his arm on the follow through after the block is still a foul. Same thing as if you cleanly block the ball on a 3 pt shot but hit the shooter's arm with your follow through.

[jv001]

I would not go as far as saying Cook had a terrible game seeing as he had 5 assist and 0 turnovers. However, his 1-8 on 3 PT FGs is disappointing. Cook needs to learn that Dawkins is the designated shooter. Yo Quinn, pass the ball!

I thought the same thing Bob and I picked Quinn to lead us to victory tonight. I really thought he was due for a very good game. He did play a good game on defense but his shooting was terrible. I'm pretty sure he's lost confidence in his shot. There have been many hero ball shots at the end of the shot clock. Most of them have been misses. I'm beginning to think Rasheed more at the point would help our offense. Let Quinn rest his injured ankles for a while. GoDuke!

[NashvilleDevil]

Doesn't matter if the contact came after the clean block. Rodney's arm was still in the shooting motion and Chirstmas hitting with his arm on the follow through after the block is still a foul. Same thing as if you cleanly block the ball on a 3 pt shot but hit the shooter's arm with your follow through.

On Rasheed's potential 4 point play this is exactly what happened.

[devildeac]

I can't remember ever feeling this good after a Duke loss. Our guys played with incredible heart and great composure. They went into a tough opposing arena, played in front of an incredibly amped crowd, took everything the number 2 team in the country could throw at them, and they had the ball in hand at the end with a chance to win.

I can't vote for a MOTM. Jefferson, with all those offensive boards to keep us in it? Dawkins, Sheed, Thornton, with their clutch 3s? Hood, our everything player? Parker, for what was turning into a monster 2nd half before Hess proved he can shut down anybody on the court?

This team, early in the season, lacked intensity and heart. Since the Clemson loss, they corrected all that, and then some.

Duke is a team, right now, that can compete for an NCAA Tournament championship. What more can you ask for?

Your crack about h*ss reminds me of the old joke when someone was asked who was the only person that could hold m*chael j*rdan under 20 points and the answer was Dean Smith:rolleyes: .

[gcashwell]

I would like to have seen K use Plumlee to start OT. Didn't need to give up those dunks.

This game should keep Duke VERY hungry. Everybody else needs to watch out.

[chaosmage]

And I'll try to keep them sanitized.

Wheat, I normally respect that you come here and post, and you are usually very fair-minded. On that note, I "will respectfully disagree with the spirit of that opinion." Hood got blasted on that dunk. Hansbrough would've been called for it. You know it. Stop trolling.

Here's the upside; if it wasn't for ALL of our players, including Tyler "freaking" Thornton (who should change his middle name to that) and Rasheed "How did he make that?!" Sulaimon, Hood wouldn't have been there in the first place. We play like we played tonight, and things only get better. The whole TEAM still mattered, still played, and played very well. Way I see it, we'll silence a lot of critics, because most people didn't have us winning anyway, or it being that close. It took overtime, the benefit of some questionable refereeing, and a sellout crowd to beat us, along with beating a weakened team thanks to the aforementioned fouls. And we almost won without our two leading rebounders.

Syracuse still has to come to our house. It took Duke coming into town to sell out the Dome. Cameron is different. Cameron is special. Bring it.

And as far as the "haters (I hate this word)" about 8 miles away - Wait till 12 Feb. We got you.

Go Duke and go to hell Carolina.

[meowmix911]

Feels like every year Quinn Cook starts fading around this time... Is it happening again? The answer to breaking down the zone came from kickouts in the center, or penetration by Rasheed. Quinn doesn't seem to have the aggression or skills to make the middle collapse. Does anyone else feel my sentiment here?

Also, the 1-8 from 3 point land (several wide open ones) didn't help our cause either... We already had to try to overcome really bad refs, and a great Syracuse team. We needed QC tonight. This team has improved so much early on in the season. To be honest we played very well, but we don't have answers in the paint against the big teams. It was a little scary watching Dawk try to defend the post in OT...

[FerryFor50]

Feels like every year Quinn Cook starts fading around this time... Is it happening again? The answer to breaking down the zone came from kickouts in the center, or penetration by Rasheed. Quinn doesn't seem to have the aggression or skills to make the middle collapse. Does anyone else feel my sentiment here?

Also, the 1-8 from 3 point land (several wide open ones) didn't help our cause either... We already had to try to overcome really bad refs, and a great Syracuse team. We needed QC tonight. This team has improved so much early on in the season. To be honest we played very well, but we don't have answers in the paint against the big teams. It was a little scary watching Dawk try to defend the post in OT...

He has two sprained ankles, so that might be why he's fading a bit.

[Billy Dat]

We lost, but we won...these guys are ready to bring the pain the rest of the way. Let's crush the rest of this regular season and get some serious momentum headed into March. Forget the refs, we had lots of chances to win. No excuses. These guys are on the right path!!!!!!

[killerleft]

All I want to stress is that the unfortunate foul situation laid bare for all to see what a gutsy team we have. This loss could be the catalyst for some excellent basketball the rest of the year. Wow. We played better than I've seen a Duke team play in ages. Syracuse should count themselves extremely lucky tonight, because they were certainly not the better team.

As usual, Coach K orchestrated with the skill and feel we've come to expect from him. What a guy.:) Thumbs up to virtually everybody involved, including Syracuse players and fans, but excluding Dickie V.

[UrinalCake]

Obviously we got hosed by the refs on Amile's 4th and 5th foul calls, Parker's 4th and 5th, and the Hood dunk... but my coping mechanism is to ask what we could have done differently to win the game. I've come up with:

- FREE THROWS - several misses late and in OT really hurt us. Granted, hitting free throws on the road late in the game isn't something you can ever really practice, so you can't necessarily assign blame here
- Hairston didn't play at all, even when foul trouble started mounting, and even in the OT when we played five guards. Our only chance was to hit a three every time down, because they were going to get a dunk pretty much every time with Hood playing center and Dawkins playing the 4. I understand the decision not to play Plumlee since he's a liability at the free throw line and Syracuse would have just fouled him. But I thought Hairston could have given us some interior D.
- Lack of timeouts - we had zero by the end of regulation and I believe we got one to use in OT, but because of this we weren't able to do any offense-for-defense substitution until the very end when we were fouling. Having a couple timeouts would have allowed us to put Plumlee in on D


Still, despite all of that we were right there. So proud of the team and optimistic for the rest of the season.

[OldSchool]

I was wondering early on why we didn't have Jabari in the middle of the zone, rather than Amile. It seemed like Jabari's job was to stand on the baseline and receive passes when his man switched off, which he did well three times... but after Amile fouled out and we did put Jabari in the middle, he was able to do so much more by attacking the basket. Hindsight being 20/20.

I'd bet the thinking was they had him there because Jabari finishes better than Amile. They were probably imagining more instances of getting the zone out of position and feeding Jabari on the baseline for a finishing move to the rim. The problem is Jabari is getting the occasional freshman-big-man treatment by the officials in conference play. Maybe the refs are encouraging him to stay another year so that he will then get the benefit of true foul calls.

I'm wondering if the refs had the mindset early on that they were not inclined to foul out Syracuse's bigs for contact in the post because Syracuse has a short bench. If so, they should have used the same standard on the other end and not call every bump on a Duke big.

[75Crazie]

That's the way I saw it too. It was all ball, and the arm contact looked to be from the momentum of Hoods aggression. It could have been called either way, but I wouldn't say it was a bad call.
Motion of the shooting arm during the course of taking a shot can be considered an act of "aggression" and an offensive foul? Are you serious? You usually seem to be pretty sensible when it comes to dissecting game action, but that statement is just plain nuts.

I'm not with the crowd that is blaming the loss on the refs. If we ran into a little home cooking, well we can't claim any unusual consideration. I have seen games in Cameron where the officiating in favor of Duke was painful to me. Yes, in this game, there appeared to be bias in favor of the home team ... not exactly earth-shaking news. We lost, we looked damn good in losing, I feel fairly good about that. I am definitely looking forward to the rematch.

However, the day as a whole sucks. The two evil empires won (three, if you include Notre Dame, although it's hard to hate them in basketball) and Duke lost.

[jv001]

Doc, it looked to me that contact came after the clean block on the ball. Sometimes it goes the other way and they'll call that play a foul, sometimes not. Just saying it was not a slam dunk foul, could have gone either way and this time it didn't work out for Duke.

The only slam dunk foul calls are the ones hanstravel received as he traveled through the lane looking like a bull in a china closet. If you can't see that was a foul against Hood, then you are looking through some ugly colored tarheel glasses. GoDuke!

[devildeac]

Damned proud of the way our guys hung in there.

[jv001]

Obviously we got hosed by the refs on Amile's 4th and 5th foul calls, Parker's 4th and 5th, and the Hood dunk... but my coping mechanism is to ask what we could have done differently to win the game. I've come up with:

- FREE THROWS - several misses late and in OT really hurt us. Granted, hitting free throws on the road late in the game isn't something you can ever really practice, so you can't necessarily assign blame here
- Hairston didn't play at all, even when foul trouble started mounting, and even in the OT when we played five guards. Our only chance was to hit a three every time down, because they were going to get a dunk pretty much every time with Hood playing center and Dawkins playing the 4. I understand the decision not to play Plumlee since he's a liability at the free throw line and Syracuse would have just fouled him. But I thought Hairston could have given us some interior D.
- Lack of timeouts - we had zero by the end of regulation and I believe we got one to use in OT, but because of this we weren't able to do any offense-for-defense substitution until the very end when we were fouling. Having a couple timeouts would have allowed us to put Plumlee in on D


Still, despite all of that we were right there. So proud of the team and optimistic for the rest of the season.

The timeout we had to take because we couldn't get the ball in hurt and we missed 5 foul shots toward the end of the game. That also hurt our cause. I'm still proud of our guys for never ever giving up. Next Play! GoDuke!

[Troublemaker]

Was a little surprised Matt and Josh did not get more burn, but we never know when minor ailments or illness are factors when things like that happen.

Oh, I think they were healthy. You were right about Coach K shortening his rotation against 'Cuse. I'm sure there were tactical reasons behind his decision. Matt unfortunately has struggled with his shot this year. Josh - against 'Cuse, I'm not sure I'm comfortable with him at either the high post or the baseline slot, and he turned the ball over in his very limited time on the court. But regardless, the rotation was shortened in this one. I hope against non-'Cuse opponents, we see them back in the rotation.

[Dukehky]

The only slam dunk foul calls are the ones hanstravel received as he traveled through the lane looking like a bull in a china closet. If you can't see that was a foul against Hood, then you are looking through some ugly colored tarheel glasses. GoDuke!

That's why you gotta make sure you really foul him and make sure he doesn't get the shot up. Hey Gerald!!!!!

Did anyone else think Amile missed the dunk at the end of the first half? Because I thought he missed it originally. I almost forget he can dunk sometimes, but he is the heart of this team IMO

[CameronDuke]

Anyone have a link to the Coach K post game presser?

[PSurprise]

Damned proud of the way our guys hung in there.

Agreed. I didn't give our guys any chance to win it in OT with all of our foul issues, but they just kept playing hard and making big shots until the end. I think a lot of guys "grew up" tonight which will help us significantly for the rest of the regular season and into the tournament.

[roywhite]

Would have been nice to have a couple more timeouts in the bank both late in regulation and in overtime.

Gotta improve our inbounds against full court pressure and not burn timeouts.

[Bob Green]

The Syracuse fans get a huge shout out from me as they were giving our guys applause as they left the court and proceeded to the locker room.

[dyedwab]

Playing as well as we did with Jabari and Amile having the foul trouble we did was just something special.

I will not the Amile was *angry* when fouled out. I think that is good. This team, this good, with a little bit of a chip on its shoulder is a really good thing.

Though I don't think it will happen, tonight was the first time I thought that this team can win out. This team has shown a lot a guts, a lot a heart, and has a lot more weapons then anyone else we are gonna play.

Now, we just need some acting classes....

[jipops]

Yes the 5th foul calls on Amile and Jabari were flops. And the no-call on Hood's dunk attempt was terrible. But Duke ultimately lost this game because the orange got the ball in the paint at will. Our defense wasn't very good at all in the 2nd half, part of that I guess could have been foul trouble.

I'm still very impressed with Amile. He looked like one of the better interior guys out there. Marshall on the other hand looked way in over his head and was largely ineffective.

[Neals384]

Puts a huge ding in any ACC conf title hopes, but perhaps that's not important at this point. Give me Syracuse on a neutral court come March and see what happens.

Conference title goes to the conference tournament winner.

[devildeac]

Would have been nice to have a couple more timeouts in the bank both late in regulation and in overtime.

Gotta improve our inbounds against full court pressure and not burn timeouts.

K: Regis, I'd like to phone a friend.
Regis: Who would you like to call?
K: I'd like to call roy williams. I understand he has a lot of extra timeouts and think he could really help me here.

:rolleyes:

[Troublemaker]

Anyone have a link to the Coach K post game presser?

We might be out of luck on this one. The Syracuse official site posted it on youtube but the audio was bad. They have since removed the video. Unless they fix and re-post, we might be out of luck. Only other option would be if some enterprising media person in the room had recorded the presser on their phone and posts to the internet.

I'll keep digging.

[luburch]

I don't even care about the result right now, that was one hell of a basketball game. So much fun to watch.

[CameronDuke]

We might be out of luck on this one. The Syracuse official site posted it on youtube but the audio was bad. They have since removed the video. Unless they fix and re-post, we might be out of luck. Only other option would be if some enterprising media person in the room had recorded the presser on their phone and posts to the internet.

I'll keep digging.

That's a real bummer. I read earlier that Coach K was emotional in his post game presser and regardless, I really wanted to hear his thoughts on tonight's battle for the ages. Thanks for your effort.

[Troublemaker]

The Syracuse fans get a huge shout out from me as they were giving our guys applause as they left the court and proceeded to the locker room.

Great point, Bob. Very classy of the 'Cuse fans! Apparently the applauded loudly for Coaches K and Boeheim's pre-game handshake as well.

[luburch]

Also, I hate to be that guy, but does anyone have the video of K's presser?

[CR9]

Jabari played really well in the 2nd half and he does not get the Tyler Hansbrough treatment when he drives. Really don't know who you're watching when you make this type of statement.
He definitely played better in the second half, no question, but he wasn't as impressive as I would've hoped.

You were unimpressed by Ennis because Duke did a pretty good job on him defensively. Watch some of the Syracuse games outside of the one vs. Duke. Ennis can play.

I know he can play. I've seen him play a few times this season. But with the hype he got and the performances he's had, I was expecting more than 3-5 from the field. Obviously the quieter the better, but just sayin'.

[graybead]

3855

I don't like to harp on officials and I prefer when they just let them play, but if you can't watch that game and then look at the stats and not admit that it was lopsided, then I live in a different world. 25 fouls called on Duke to 15 on Syracuse. Three Duke players foul out and one has 4 fouls. NOBODY on Syracuse had more than 3 fouls. Duke got called for many tic-tac calls and Syracuse did not receive the same treatment. I still wasn't yelling about it until Hood got nailed on the dunk attempt and now people want to say that it was questionable? If that was questionable, I just don't understand fouls and I guess I need to stop watching. I know officials can't see everything and my attitude has gotten a lot better. I just expect teams to be treated fairly. This was WAY too lopsided and I hate it because Duke deserved to win. Sometimes it just doesn't matter. Tonight, they cost Duke the game and Duke still almost pulled it off. DUKE WAS AMAZING!

[NashvilleDevil]

He definitely played better in the second half, no question, but he wasn't as impressive as I would've hoped.


I know he can play. I've seen him play a few times this season. But with the hype he got and the performances he's had, I was expecting more than 3-5 from the field. Obviously the quieter the better, but just sayin'.

Jabari does need to adjust to not getting calls but he was impressive in the 2nd half and I liked that he didn't attempt a step back 3.

[DavidBenAkiva]

1) Hell of a game.
2) Duke did not do itself any favors with some of its decisions late in OT. When Thornton got the ball and immediately passed it to Dawkins, that was a missed opportunity and loomed large on the final outcome. That play and the lack of a good look at the rim at the end of the game had just as much to do with the final outcome as the Hood no-call.
3) Syracuse is a hell of a team. I wonder, though, how they will hold up in 3-5 weeks. All five starters played at least 35 minutes in that one and they only played their bench for like 35 minutes total (out of 145 or something like that). Will they be able to shift so quickly in the zone with tired legs late in the season and in the tournament?
4) Duke's defense was not so good, and I'm not talking about the end-of-game situation where Hood was our only forward. The D had been very good the past few games, but not tonight.
5) I am really impressed by Duke and have to think this is one of the better losses I've seen in a long time. They still have some growth to make but clearly can play with anyone.

Go Duke!

[Troublemaker]

Also, I hate to be that guy, but does anyone have the video of K's presser?

You didn't spork me when I posted them previously, so no presser for you!

[FerryFor50]

He definitely played better in the second half, no question, but he wasn't as impressive as I would've hoped.


I know he can play. I've seen him play a few times this season. But with the hype he got and the performances he's had, I was expecting more than 3-5 from the field. Obviously the quieter the better, but just sayin'.

With CJ Fair shooting like he was, you just pass him the ball and get out of the way. Ennis had 9 assists, 2 turnovers and went 3-5 (note he only took 5 shots, while our PG went 2-12).

Plus, Ennis hit some big late shots and was perfect at the line. They didn't need Ennis to be better than he was...

[Dukehky]

Jabari does need to adjust to not getting calls but he was impressive in the 2nd half and I liked that he didn't attempt a step back 3.

Jabari doesn't take bad shots. If he shoots a shot that I don't think is going in, then it's a bad shot, too bad I haven't thought that yet.

This is obviously facetious but he needs to get the ball more and shoot more unless the best play is pass out for a 3. If we can get him the ball in good positions, he's unstoppable. I really don't understand why he doesn't get calls down low. I just don't get it. Again maybe since he's pretty much in the NBA the refs are trying to prepare by calling "verticality" even if it's slightly more horizontal than what Tyson Chandler does.

[Furniture]

Great game. What a team. It just went syracuse's way in many things tonight. Many have mentioned fouls but they shot very well, everything either straight in or rolled in. They could of also rolled out. If a couple more of our shots roll in instead of rolling out. Different story..
That's basketball. In my opinion Duke deserve to win. I think we jump up in the polls Monday...

[NashvilleDevil]

I really don't understand why he doesn't get calls down low. I just don't get it. Again maybe since he's pretty much in the NBA the refs are trying to prepare by calling "verticality" even if it's slightly more horizontal than what Tyson Chandler does.

To go back to Hansbrough and all the calls he got, I think he was so awkward when he made his moves it looked like a foul and Jabari doesn't have that. Maybe he should just try to dunk it every time and make the refs call it.

[Furniture]

I wonder if Matt had played a few minutes and MP3 a few more mins would Jabari and Amile have ended up in foul trouble?

[kmspeaks]

Is Tommy still doing his defensive break downs? I know the numbers look ugly on defense tonight but watching live it felt like there were a lot of possessions where Syracuse hit some tough shots against good defense. Was our D really that bad (the end of the game where Dawkins played the 4 excluded) or did Syracuse, particularly Christmas and Fair, just play absolutely out of their minds on offense tonight?

[greybeard]

The first half, Parker had enough catches for dunks to have scored a dozen or more. I wish they had replayed some of the no calls. Parker kept coming and brought the spectacular, showed incredible moves and the ability to give everything, and frankly became unstoppable, given the resources B deployed to stop him. Amile played terrifically but, to be fair, Parker took the entire interior defense with him. B's game plan, stop Parker at all costs. They didn't.

You do have to wonder why did not bring Parker high earlier. Maybe K knew that B had an answer that would have taken away the catch, or any room to move afterwards. Maybe, bringing Parker high became available once it became clear that out front guys would be unmoved when ball came to the post. Then, if Parker catches, no one to disrupt putting the ball on the floor. Maybe also figured that, by then, making B's guys try a new flex might have caused hesitation,; players had to be mentally and physically tired, mistakes more likely. I just try to figure K out, never think I could have done it better. Ref choked on the Hood play, or worse. You can't stand the heat, stay home. Agree about the acting; given what they were letting go inside, hard to think that they make those calls against Syracuse. Poor show.

I think Duke wins but for the blocked dunks in the first half, coupled understandable difficulty 3-shooters had with surprising quickness of long arms closing big space and made them rush on what seemed like open 3s. Thought Andre ultimately got it, the first time from the right corner in second half when he went baseline on the closer and then kicked to Cook who I think made. The second on the left top, took a bounce past the closer and then stepped back as guy closed in the other direction and shot in rhythm. Hood and Sheed did a great job on 3s, I thought, and there was great penetration kick all game. Sheed is much more a point now when he needs to be. To me, more and more is showing a Jordan-like quality.

Syracuse played spectacular defense, especially first half. Duke had a spectacular game plan and played spectacularly. After Tyler hit 2, I just started smiling and chuckling and was relaxed the rest of the game.

Couldn't believe what I was seeing from Duke. Memorable.

[jipops]

Poor Wake

[richardjackson199]

We showed miraculous heart with Jabari and Amile gone, and still hitting all those miracle 3's. This was a devastating loss and paralleled in some ways the NCAA tourney loss to Indiana in 2002. We could hit the miracle 3's but not the free throws on the and-one. Tonight there is no nice way to say it - we got absolutely hosed by the refs. It's not like there were just some bad calls. To foul out our best player, Jabari Parker, on his great offensive move was devastating. You're really going to call his 5th foul there? Yet we're still making miracle 3 after miracle 3, so the ref's screw us again on Hood's dunk. We had so many key guys with 4-5 fouls and their starters are out there with nobody even close to foul trouble.

This shows barring a miracle, you almost can't win giving up dunks and having to hit 3's for basically 15 minutes. (We almost did,) but it re-emphasizes to me the importance of recruiting Myles Turner. Regardless of who we have next year, some key game some team will use the flop-fest on Okafor and Jefferson and we'll find ourselves in horrific foul trouble. Depth at the rim-protecting 4 spot protects us from that. It's also nice if we're the ones getting the open dunks due to our size and athleticism inside. The Heels will be very deep inside again next year with more experience. I like to beat Carolina and hope we are deep inside too with better players.

Our coaching staff needs to be careful. This could be a devastating loss for our team because we played so hard and deserved to win. Syracuse played very well too - nothing against them. But I have never seen Duke that hot from 3 at the end of a game and still lose. Our players are kids, they are human, and they're going to take this loss hard. The key difference has to be emphasized here - this is not an NCAA tourney loss to Indiana. This loss doesn't have to hurt us at all... if we use it as a stepping stone to keep getting better! We got better again tonight. Keep it up. The refs can't screw us every game with so many key players fouling out or playing with 4 fouls. In the grand scheme, for us this loss means close to nothing if we keep improving. We are light years ahead of where we were 3 weeks ago. Keep coming out with that same attitude and beat the crap out of everybody else we play. Stay hungry to win some championships and keep getting better every day. If we keep this level of play up and keep improving upon it, we will be the ones celebrating when it counts in March and April.
Let's go Duke - I love what I'm seeing and keep it up!

[DBFAN]

Just saw this on twitter and it made me smile. Hopefully I can sleep now

@TobaccoRdMayor: RT @BlueDevilFans1 Breaking: Jahlil Okafor has just fouled out of next years game against Syracuse

[devildeac]

Just saw this on twitter and it made me smile. Hopefully I can sleep now

@TobaccoRdMayor: RT @BlueDevilFans1 Breaking: Jahlil Okafor has just fouled out of next years game against Syracuse

That's funny because I posted during chat that we had 3 guys foul out, another with 4 PF and Okafor already had 2 fouls, 6-7 months before he even enrolled at Duke/showed up on campus.

[DBFAN]

That's funny because I posted during chat that we had 3 guys foul out, another with 4 PF and Okafor already had 2 fouls, 6-7 months before he even enrolled at Duke/showed up on campus.

Well Done, well done indeed

[FerryFor50]

That's funny because I posted during chat that we had 3 guys foul out, another with 4 PF and Okafor already had 2 fouls, 6-7 months before he even enrolled at Duke/showed up on campus.

One of the team managers fouled out when he tried to give Rakeem Christmas a towel and Christmas fell down.

[devildeac]

Well Done, well done indeed


One of the team managers fouled out when he tried to give Rakeem Christmas a towel and Christmas fell down.

Rubbing more salt in my already painful, inflamed, open wound.

And I really didn't hate Christmas (or puppies or children) before tonight. I may reconsider.

[Cameron]

Not big on moral victories but wow, I will take that result with all the adversity (cough crappy refs cough) we faced in this one. Tyler was amazing - Dunleavy like, even!!!

Yes. Had we pulled this one out, that set of threes by Tyler would've gone down as one of the all-time great scoring spurts in Duke history. Those were as big of shots as anyone has hit on this team all year, staving off the Syracuse momentum after Jabari and Amile were seated due to foul trouble and ultimately propelling us into overtime. The kid has solidified his place as one of the most clutch Blue Devils ever. As timely a shooter as we've had over the past decade, especially with respect to his station on this team. He's not an overly skilled scorer, by any means. But Tyler understands when to choose his spots and, when he does, he typically delivers. After tonight's effort, he is now 17-of-30 from three-point land on the season.

Hell of an effort tonight. It was a statement performance, alerting the nation that Duke is still Duke. While we were forced into a difficult situation tonight and essentially set up to fail, we walked away from that contest the real winner tonight. I don't care what the scoreboard said. The Orange had every advantage in that game and managed to beat us by a mere two points in overtime. We outplayed them with our two best players on this night sitting on the bench for almost the final 10 minutes of regulation plus all of overtime and had a shot to take the game at the buzzer.

I hope Jim is ready for what's in store at The Indoor. And I hope we kick his team's ---.

[devildeac]

3855

I don't like to harp on officials and I prefer when they just let them play, but if you can't watch that game and then look at the stats and not admit that it was lopsided, then I live in a different world. 25 fouls called on Duke to 15 on Syracuse. Three Duke players foul out and one has 4 fouls. NOBODY on Syracuse had more than 3 fouls. Duke got called for many tic-tac calls and Syracuse did not receive the same treatment. I still wasn't yelling about it until Hood got nailed on the dunk attempt and now people want to say that it was questionable? If that was questionable, I just don't understand fouls and I guess I need to stop watching. I know officials can't see everything and my attitude has gotten a lot better. I just expect teams to be treated fairly. This was WAY too lopsided and I hate it because Duke deserved to win. Sometimes it just doesn't matter. Tonight, they cost Duke the game and Duke still almost pulled it off. DUKE WAS AMAZING!

I'm not convinced now it would have made any difference. Even if Hood goes to the line and he makes 2 FT, I'm convinced 'Cuse would have come down and dunked against our depleted defense, or there would have been yet another (possibly) phantom foul called against us and Hood or Dre (whether he was on the court at the time or not:rolleyes:) would have probably fouled out.

[NYBri]

Damn! So close! GO Devils!!!

[Scorp4me]

The no call on Hood is an easy one, but the refs were generally pretty bad all night. I liked the foul they called for Jabari's 5th. Dude hit himself with his own hand and they called the foul on Jabari haha. But it didn't determine the game.

You know those games where you just know you're gonna lose and it won't even be your fault? Those games where everything they throw up goes in and you can't seem to buy a bucket. It was strange because while we were hitting our shots ok, they simply couldn't miss. I had accepted it when things changed on 4 shots. Tyler's three 3's in a row and then Fair finally missed a shot. And what do you know, we were right back in it. I thought this might be the first time where we won that game that you just can't win...but alas it was not to be.

Thought everyone played great. It's a shame anyone had to lose. Heck of a game.

[LBF]

Great game by two solid teams. I didn't think our defense was that bad. Cuse shooting was just incredible. Late second half and overtime we were obviously in a tough spot with our foul situation so our defense was necessarily softer.

The bad: Quinn played really tentatively again, ankles or no ankles. He is hesitating too much almost every time he gets the ball. Parker is the man but he is forcing a lot of bad shots. Lastly, for Sheed or Hood not to drive all the way to the rim at the end of regulation is a very big mistake. We had the Orange in a very tough spot even though we were down by 1. Shot clock was off and the last time out is called. We start probing on the perimeter. Good so far. Then, Sheed gets Inpatient with ten seconds to go and forces the pass into TT and eventually miss an important opportunity. We have to stay patient and disciplined in these pressured situations. Executing the plan of driving to the basket is a must here and not all that difficult. We shouldve been able to draw a foul or finish or both with very little time left. We need to manage our game! I think this is much more important than the Hood no call in OT.

The Good: Jefferson, rebounding, three point shooting, and amazing heart. Proud to be a dukie on nights like tonight. Freaking gamers on this club.

Go Duke. Keep building!

[Dukehky]

The sentiment has definitely been issued on the board, and maybe somebody put it just like this, but after some reflection, this is my take on the game.

We could not ask for anything more from our guys. Everybody played their hearts out and I think that everybody played well except maybe QC who was hobbled. Sometimes things like officiating doesn't necessarily go your way, but life's tough, it happens. I wouldn't want to go to war with anybody else because with this team now, when we play a game, we are going to war and we are going to win these wars from now on.

I am not afraid of the Wake game as a trap game at all. We are going to wipe Coach K Court with the Deacs.

[gofurman]

Enough about refs etc.

Objectively, what this team needed was A). one more big guy- ala Plumlee. We REALLY REALLY needed Plumlee to present as at least a moderate offensive threat when he caught the ball at the free throw line area. Surprised he never tried to move towards he basket once or twice just to feign a threat? It was like the early days of Lance Thomas - when Plumlee was in their and caught the ball he was a passer only ... We were playing 4 on 5!!! Can't do that.

B) as well as Amile played, (and he is improving so fast as a rebounder and inside scorer!), he too was given huge room to operate 10 feet from the basket - just one dribble or two and its a 3 foot shot. Have to be able to make them pay for giving that much room. Again we were playing 4 on 5. Well Plumlee or Amle were passing conduits but not threats from the ACC area of the floor

C) DEENSE DEFENSE. Even before all the fouls and loss of Parker and Amile .. Syracuse was hitting at about a fifty percent clip on O. Really really hard to overcome that. Have to keep them in the mid 40s shooting percent. I know they are great and athletic but to shoot 50 percent is just phenomenal. And that's before we lost Amile and Parker. Then they finished at 57 pct. I can let the last part go bc of the foul outs. Ennis killed us w penetration

D). Where was our FT line defense - lol. :). Give credit to Syracuse on that. Stellar FT shooting.

[SoCalDukeFan]

Obviously very proud of the team.

I think that generally the officials do not determine the outcome of the game. They are human and make mistakes but usually the mistakes even out.

In my opinion, not so today. Parker was hammered repeatedly and nothing gets called but phantom fouls are called on him. Just unfair. Then not calling the foul on Hood was huge. I really thought that Syracuse got almost all the calls.

Duke could have done a better job on free throws. I also like the ball going in to Parker or Hood rather than Jefferson as the way to break the zone.

The coaches have a big job of keeping the players spirits up after a tough loss.

The game at Cameron should be fun.

SoCal

[gofurman]

Obviously very proud of the team.

I think that generally the officials do not determine the outcome of the game. They are human and make mistakes but usually the mistakes even out.

In my opinion, not so today. Parker was hammered repeatedly and nothing gets called but phantom fouls are called on him. Just unfair. Then not calling the foul on Hood was huge. I really thought that Syracuse got almost all the calls.

Duke could have done a better job on free throws. I also like the ball going in to Parker or Hood rather than Jefferson as the way to break the zone.

The coaches have a big job of keeping the players spirits up after a tough loss.

The game at Cameron should be fun.

SoCal

Agree SoCal - when Hood or Parker got the ball at the Ft line you had better respect it. Parker made some great moves from there for and1 plays. One weakness of that zone is giving the guy at the FT line a lot of room to operate. Parker and Hood can kill that imho

[Kfanarmy]

That was a lot of fun to watch, for the most part. What a fight between two teams. At this point, I'd argue Syracuse is a bit better TEAM, while Duke has more long-range shooters.

Syracuse was uncharacteristically hitting everything for long stretches...they are good and lucky.
They were also shooting over Duke in the paint. Duke still has some tinkering to do on interior Defense, and at this point in the season, I'm not sure if it gets fixed by adjusting minutes or guys just continuing to grow.


I wonder if Matt had played a few minutes and MP3 a few more mins would Jabari and Amile have ended up in foul trouble?

I thought this could have been key to overcoming the foul situation and to shoring up the D a bit. Duke was beaten once again on the interior badly enough that good three point shooting couldn't make up the difference.

I think Duke has got to turn MP3 lose a bit. Maybe I'm overly focused on him. I know he's a big guy out there so when he gets beat on D everyone sees it. Aside from Amile however, the other guys are still not quite getting it done defensively in the interior. So Duke has to continue to tinker with the D while not destroying the offense.

MP3s limitation on the offensive end is a bit bizarre. Maybe he hasn't caught up to the speed of the game on offense yet, but I have to believe the guy can score if he's allowed to. It appears he's now been turned into another big man screener/passer for the rest of the offense.

I know Duke's offense continued to work well in the second half, but as good as the O was, they could never overcome their own Defense. Protecting Amile and JP by sitting them while MP3 played a couple of more minutes would have hurt the O, but it couldn’t have hurt the D.

I think against the Cuse zone, JP or RH need to be at the top of the key more and MP3 needs to spend a bit more time beating down the center of Syracuse's back 3 so that he can contribute on both ends of the floor.

Again, good game, but they have a ways to go on D yet.

[InSpades]

I don't like to harp on officials and I prefer when they just let them play, but if you can't watch that game and then look at the stats and not admit that it was lopsided, then I live in a different world. 25 fouls called on Duke to 15 on Syracuse. Three Duke players foul out and one has 4 fouls. NOBODY on Syracuse had more than 3 fouls. Duke got called for many tic-tac calls and Syracuse did not receive the same treatment. I still wasn't yelling about it until Hood got nailed on the dunk attempt and now people want to say that it was questionable? If that was questionable, I just don't understand fouls and I guess I need to stop watching. I know officials can't see everything and my attitude has gotten a lot better. I just expect teams to be treated fairly. This was WAY too lopsided and I hate it because Duke deserved to win. Sometimes it just doesn't matter. Tonight, they cost Duke the game and Duke still almost pulled it off. DUKE WAS AMAZING!

The vine is a much better view of the play: https://vine.co/v/MzD2UqOpi55

What's interesting to me is that on the initial attempt to block the ball the defender actually misses completely. Yet somehow manages to maintain his hand in front of the basket. If he had hit the ball on the 1st attempt I could see not calling the foul, but seeing as he missed and only touched the ball as Rodney went to dunk it so forcibly, I definitely think it's a foul. There's way too much contact there.

The worst part is that they called so many ticky-tacky fouls all game long. There's no way that many of our guys foul out w/out them calling things very closely. And then to not call that? I don't get it either.

Still a great game played by both teams. Would have been nice to have less referee influence on it. The rematch at Cameron should be awesome, and hopefully another in the ACC tournament final.

[jipops]

The sentiment has definitely been issued on the board, and maybe somebody put it just like this, but after some reflection, this is my take on the game.

We could not ask for anything more from our guys. Everybody played their hearts out and I think that everybody played well except maybe QC who was hobbled. Sometimes things like officiating doesn't necessarily go your way, but life's tough, it happens. I wouldn't want to go to war with anybody else because with this team now, when we play a game, we are going to war and we are going to win these wars from now on.

I am not afraid of the Wake game as a trap game at all. We are going to wipe Coach K Court with the Deacs.

I think there could be a bit of an emotional hangover going into the Wake game. I'm betting this one will be closer than we're comfortable with. But who here doesn't like the outlook for this team for the rest of the season? We're in terrific shape going down the stretch and playing far better than we were in December and with more room to improve.

[Mabdul Doobakus]

I watched the first half of this game at the Philadelphia airport and then the last ten minutes of the second half and overtime at Dulles airport. Thanks, WatchESPN! I'm guessing there were a lot of people in both airports who thought I was a crazy person, but that's ok because I am a Crazy person.

It was a riveting game, even on my Samsung Galaxy S3's screen. I hate to lose, but if ever there was a loss where you come away feeling pretty good...

So impressed that we were able to keep pace even with Jabari and Amile in serious foul trouble. With them out, there was just no one to match up with Syracuse's interior players. We tried Marshall a little bit late in the game, but there was no way he wasn't going to get a foul called on him if anyone came within 3 feet of him.

I hate to talk about the referees, but I think you have to acknowledge that this was one of those games where a raucous home crowd put the refs on tilt just a little bit. It happens all the time, and it happens at Cameron all the time, so I don't necessarily want to complain about it. I just want to acknowledge it. I don't think there's any question that on a neutral court we win tonight's game.

[NashvilleDevil]

That was a lot of fun to watch, for the most part. What a fight between two teams. At this point, I'd argue Syracuse is a bit better TEAM, while Duke has more long-range shooters.

Syracuse was uncharacteristically hitting everything for long stretches...they are good and lucky.
They were also shooting over Duke in the paint. Duke still has some tinkering to do on interior Defense, and at this point in the season, I'm not sure if it gets fixed by adjusting minutes or guys just continuing to grow.



I thought this could have been key to overcoming the foul situation and to shoring up the D a bit. Duke was beaten once again on the interior badly enough that good three point shooting couldn't make up the difference.

I think Duke has got to turn MP3 lose a bit. Maybe I'm overly focused on him. I know he's a big guy out there so when he gets beat on D everyone sees it. Aside from Amile however, the other guys are still not quite getting it done defensively in the interior. So Duke has to continue to tinker with the D while not destroying the offense.

MP3s limitation on the offensive end is a bit bizarre. Maybe he hasn't caught up to the speed of the game on offense yet, but I have to believe the guy can score if he's allowed to. It appears he's now been turned into another big man screener/passer for the rest of the offense.

I know Duke's offense continued to work well in the second half, but as good as the O was, they could never overcome their own Defense. Protecting Amile and JP by sitting them while MP3 played a couple of more minutes would have hurt the O, but it couldn’t have hurt the D.

I think against the Cuse zone, JP or RH need to be at the top of the key more and MP3 needs to spend a bit more time beating down the center of Syracuse's back 3 so that he can contribute on both ends of the floor.

Again, good game, but they have a ways to go on D yet.

You happen to see the 2nd half play when Marshall was guarding Fair and Fair blew by him for a dunk? I love what Marshall brings as an energy guy but his minutes are pretty solid now and tonight showed why he is an energy guy and has not received more minutes.

[luburch]

Alright, now that I've had some time to decompress I'll post my thoughts.

Obviously I'm upset that Duke lost, but what a game. Syracuse was firing on all cylinders tonight, and Duke played pretty well (barring some defensive lapses). It was just a great game for any fan of basketball.

I will not remotely blame the officials for a loss. Ever. Sure the foul count may have been uneven and a call didn't go Duke's way, but that stuff tends to even itself out over the course of the season. It's part of the game.

I really enjoy watching this Duke team grow and it's exciting to know they haven't reached their potential. Jabari played good but not great and Quinn obviously isn't healthy. This team is going to be a joy to watch come March.

Duke took Syracuse's best shot tonight. They may have lost the battle, but I have a feeling they will win the war.

[ncexnyc]

So we closeout our toughest stretch of the season 2-1. I thought everyone would have been happy, but it seems some people are a tad disappointed. I've seen Syracuse play two other times this year and believe me, they were playing out of their minds tonight.

Let's be honest, any time a game goes down to the final possession, you're going to have several plays where you're going to be unhappy about the way they were called. While everyone here is discussing the Hood no call, what do you think the conversation would be like on the Syracuse board if we had managed to hit a 3 at the end? I'm sure they'd be complaining about Tyler's foul at the end and how it wasn't called intentional and that he wasn't making a play on the ball. I'm also positive they would have been screaming that Jabari's final foul should have been a Flagrant 1 as well.

I'm not really pleased with the player bashing that is going on tonight. All of the players had several nice moments and each had at least one head scratching moment. In a hotly contested game such as this one, you'd expect that. To be honest, despite the high octane nature of this game there were very few mistakes made by the players and that goes for both teams.

I love the way this team is coming together and I believe our ceiling is extremely high. It will be interesting to see how we play in our next game. Will there be an emotional letdown or will they come out with a chip on their shoulder knowing they went down to the wire with an undefeated team and barely lost?

[Kfanarmy]

You happen to see the 2nd half play when Marshall was guarding Fair and Fair blew by him for a dunk? I love what Marshall brings as an energy guy but his minutes are pretty solid now and tonight showed why he is an energy guy and has not received more minutes. Oh..MP3 missed on a couple of assignments, but when he's there, the opposing O has a bit more of a challenge on the inside.
I know he's a big guy out there so when he gets beat on D everyone sees it. Aside from Amile however, the other guys are still not quite getting it done defensively in the interior.

[bbosbbos]

I want to say, win all the remaining games. Win ACCT. I know you can cut down the net in April.

I love you and support you, my Blue Devils.

[ScreechTDX1847]

That's the way I saw it too. It was all ball, and the arm contact looked to be from the momentum of Hoods aggression. It could have been called either way, but I wouldn't say it was a bad call.

I'm not boiling the whole game down to one call - because that isn't fair to either team. But, there is a reason that play in being shown on a loop on ESPN for the last 3 hours.

[DBFAN]

Do all of the teams have crappy home vs away schedules like we do. After tonight we come back for a home game and then back on the road for 2 games. I don't know just seems like we get very little stretches of back to back home games

[Kedsy]

I do wonder why it took 3 made baskets by Christmas before MP3 came in on D.

Because it didn't. Christmas only made 2 baskets the entire game, and both were in the first half.


Amazing to me that Kentucky has 5 losses and is probably going to be top 10 when polls come out this week.

Kentucky was ranked #11 and they lost to an unranked team this week. No way they go up in the polls.


Feels like every year Quinn Cook starts fading around this time... Is it happening again? The answer to breaking down the zone came from kickouts in the center, or penetration by Rasheed. Quinn doesn't seem to have the aggression or skills to make the middle collapse. Does anyone else feel my sentiment here?

No, or at least no one should. As for his fading "every year...around this time," this is only his third year, but it sure didn't happen at this time last year. A year ago this weekend, Quinn hit 4 of 6 threes for 18 points, 6 assists (only 1 TO) and 5 rebounds in a big win on the road at Florida State. It was his third straight game scoring in double figures, which would become 6 double-figure scoring games out of 7 (and 9 points in the 7th game), including 4 games out of 5 scoring 18 or more. No fading whatsoever.


Our defense wasn't very good at all in the 2nd half, part of that I guess could have been foul trouble.

It was clearly foul trouble. Once Jabari, Amile, Rodney, and Andre had 4 fouls, they couldn't challenge Syracuse on D. And those fourth fouls started happening before the midway point of the 2nd half.


I wonder if Matt had played a few minutes and MP3 a few more mins would Jabari and Amile have ended up in foul trouble?

My guess is yes. I don't think it would have affected our foul troubles at all.


Executing the plan of driving to the basket is a must here and not all that difficult.

Not all that difficult? Really? It looked pretty difficult to me.

[Edouble]

We deserved to win this game, unfortunately it still counts as an L and will make it tough to win the ACC or grab a 1 seed.

I think we have a great shot to win the ACC. We are still in good position to get one of the coveted bye spots in Greensboro!

This is as "up" as I've been after a loss in quite a while.

Immediately after this game, my thoughts went to 1997 regular season finale (UNC at Duke), where despite losing to Duke, Dean Smith was smiling at the post game handshake and at the presser, knowing what a good team he had on his hands. The loss for UNC that night was similar to tonight's loss for Duke. After that game in Cameron, Carolina went on to win the ACC Tournament and then made it to the Final Four.

Tonight's match game may go in the "L" column, but I'm left with the feeling that we are a talented and dangerous team, one who an opponent can only hope to defeat by bringing their A++ game.

[brevity]

Note to mods: the DBR chat page is still open.

I was just reading through it. It's a nice little time capsule of tonight's roller coaster game, and it contains many choice references to farm animal waste.

[hurleyfor3]

Just got back home. Watched the game on the plane. We pulled back 45 minutes late so the flight crew made teevee free. After it was over, my first thought was, "I hope DBR isn't melting down over a couple of missed opportunities at the end of OT, because I am incredibly proud of how we played." (The one other Duke game I have watched on a plane was the Lehigh game. Night and day.)

So nice to see the board pretty much came to the same conclusion, and I'm not just speaking as a mod. If it weren't too much effort, I'd pitchfork everyone who has posted in this thread.

[Acymetric]

To people that keep asking about not doing more offense-defense substitutions with MP3 in overtime:

This has already been answered in this thread, but here goes again for anyone who isn't reading all the way through. We couldn't do offense-defense substitutions because we didn't have the timeouts for it and couldn't count on clock stoppages to get the subs in. Putting in MP3 clearly takes a better scorerer off the floor, and he's not such a lock down post defender that putting him in for multiple consecutive possessions would have been a lock to keep 'Cuse from scoring. With the personnel we had left we felt the best chance was basically to try and play defense undermanned as best we could and outscore them with a small lineup full of offensive firepower. It very nearly worked (some might say that it really did work if not for _____).

[greybeard]

Clear to me that MPIII told not to go; same basically with Amile. I thought that strategy very solid. Venus Fly Trap for either to take it into the thick of it. Parker had more than enough chances in good position down lowc to say that the strategy worked really well, the blocks are what they were, and they cost, but K got exactly what he was after, which was exactly what anyone could ask for. The 3-ball was there. Duke makes a couple or 3 more, and a few of the blocks aren't, Duke is looking very, very good going into the second half.

If someone told you going in, Hood gets to a foot over the rim at full steam with how many seconds to go and the lead in the balance, you take it, right. With all that went against them, Duke is oh so there throughout. K did good, you ask me.

[heyman25]

Alright, now that I've had some time to decompress I'll post my thoughts.

Obviously I'm upset that Duke lost, but what a game. Syracuse was firing on all cylinders tonight, and Duke played pretty well (barring some defensive lapses). It was just a great game for any fan of basketball.

I will not remotely blame the officials for a loss. Ever. Sure the foul count may have been uneven and a call didn't go Duke's way, but that stuff tends to even itself out over the course of the season. It's part of the game.

I really enjoy watching this Duke team grow and it's exciting to know they haven't reached their potential. Jabari played good but not great and Quinn obviously isn't healthy. This team is going to be a joy to watch come March.

Duke took Syracuse's best shot tonight. They may have lost the battle, but I have a feeling they will win the war.
I was not that upset with the loss. That was a spectacular college game.
I put it up there with Elvin Hayes Houston Lew Alcindor UCLA at the Astrodome. Even UCLA- NCSU Walton vs David Thompson in Greensboro and finally MD - NCSU in 74 in ACC Tournament Finals. (Elmore,Lucas McMillen vs Thompson, Burleson Stoddard Towe Rivers)

[JNort]

Check out the twitter page of Jay Williams. He thinks the defender got "all ball" on Hood's dunk attempt near the end of OT. All ball with a lot of arm mixed in Jay! That's almost treason, Jay!

His twitter handle is @RealJayWilliams.

After watching the replay on espn I'd say Jay is fairly accurate. The defender got all ball at first and barely ended up nicking the arm after. Still think the fouls shoulda been called though.

[Acymetric]

After watching the replay on espn I'd say Jay is fairly accurate. The defender got all ball at first and barely ended up nicking the arm after. Still think the fouls shoulda been called though.

You've got it backwards. The defender nicked the ball and then hit the arm. If not for the arm contact Hood would have finished the dunk, the ball was still in his hand after the defender's hand had passed by the ball based on all the screenshots I've seen posted here and elsewhere. Not to mention the body contact. Much better case to be made here if the defender had been planted in that position (i.e. set to draw a charge and such) but that was absolutely not the case. But even though that was the most visible, it was not the worst call of the game or the deciding factor.

[DBFAN]

Check out the twitter page of Jay Williams. He thinks the defender got "all ball" on Hood's dunk attempt near the end of OT. All ball with a lot of arm mixed in Jay! That's almost treason, Jay!

His twitter handle is @RealJayWilliams.

Yeah he seems to have gotten weird when the whole Jabari Parker and the Jersey Number happened. At least I think it was Jabari. Jay goes out of his way on Twitter to never compliment Duke. As far as I can see he was one of the few not to Congratulate K on winning 900. I loved him as a player but he really comes off like a used car salesman on Twitter, more concerned about selling the product than to ever express any genuine emotions.

If I recall he said that Duke can't expect to get that call @Cuse. Why is that, if it is fair game for those flops which ended Jeffersons and Parker's night, then that has to be called. So what if he got the ball. He didn't get ️enough to dis lodge it. The shot continued, and the player clearly got the arm, and all of that is moot because he got him with the hip as well. Saying that because he got some of the ball that it's not a foul is like saying someone got a fingernail on one of Dres shots so they can knock him down afterwards. This isn't football where interference is negated because the ball was tipped.

[Mudge]

Did anyone else think that the officials at Syracuse were unfair to Duke or at least missed some calls?

[Acymetric]

Check out the twitter page of Jay Williams. He thinks the defender got "all ball" on Hood's dunk attempt near the end of OT. All ball with a lot of arm mixed in Jay! That's almost treason, Jay!

His twitter handle is @RealJayWilliams.

Yeah he seems to have gotten weird when the whole Jabari Parker and the Jersey Number happened. At least I think it was Jabari. Jay goes out of his way on Twitter to never compliment Duke. As far as I can see he was one of the few not to Congratulate K on winning 900. I loved him as a player but he really comes off like a used car salesman on Twitter, more concerned about selling the product than to ever express any genuine emotions.

If I recall he said that Duke can't expect to get that call @Cuse. Why is that, if it is fair game for those flops which ended Jeffersons and Parker's night, then that has to be called. So what if he got the ball. He didn't get ️e ought to dis lodge it. The shot continued, and the player clearly got the arm, and all of that is moot because he got him with the hip as well. Saying that because he got some of the ball that it's not a foul is like saying someone got a fingernail on one of Dres shots so they can knock him down afterwards. This isn't football where interference is negated because the ball was tipped.

Jay has always spoken very highly of K and their relationship, especially with respect to his recovery physically and mentally from his accident. May want to tread a little more lightly and not just speak off the cuff on stuff like this when you clearly haven't been paying attention to the whole story. I don't especially enjoy Jay as a commentator when he is working Duke games and I don't think he is really comfortable with how he should report and comment on Duke yet. If you don't like his tweet that's fine, I certainly disagree with him on the foul there and don't know why he felt the need to say what he said about it, but you are going way overboard here. Lets not forget that beyond the connection that he and coach K have post-accident he is a celebrated former player who helped us win a championship. A little respect and benefit of the doubt is deserved and expected.

One might even say lead us to a championship. I mean really the guy's jersey is in the damn rafters. Just come on.

[Acymetric]

Did anyone else think that the officials at Syracuse were unfair to Duke or at least missed some calls?

Think you might be the only one ;)

[tommy]

Is this a failed attempt at humor? The boys played their hearts out and coaching was not the issue in this game. The refs were atrocious, and it sadly limited our defensive ability and Cuse took advantage.

The refs were atrocious, but I'm not sure I agree that coaching was not an issue. I had two issues with it. It's hard to criticize our offense given how many points we scored and our overall efficiency against such an outstanding defense as Syracuse's. But why did it take so long to realize that the man catching the pass at the free throw line has to be a threat from that spot? Some of us have been talking about that for weeks on these boards. Amile's lack of a FT line J hinders us against this type of zone. Syracuse took longer than they should have to learn to not react to his catching in that spot, and to learn to just stick close to their men on the perimeter, but eventually they caught on. But you knew they would. It just has seemed pretty obvious for some time now that the man in the middle has to be Jabari or Rodney. Why didn't we make that move much, much earlier than we did?

Secondly, I don't think it should've taken 4 straight possessions of Jerami Grant dunking on Andre Dawkins' head (actually it was 3 dunks and one missed chippie) before we made a change in overtime. We had to go to either Marshall or Josh defensively. Either try to switch out offense/defense, or if there aren't going to be enough whistles for that, just put the bigger guy in there. I guess at that point K was still thinking we could just outscore them, but how do you do that when the other team is getting a dunk every time down? Can you really count on making two and three point jumpers every time down? No way. Finally, he made the move, but in the meantime we had given up a bushel of free points to Syracuse, and that really hurt us.

Big picture, though, I agree with what pretty much everyone is saying. The guys played a fantastic game in very difficult circumstances, and were in position to win against a top, top opponent on their floor, an unfamiliar environment, first time playing against this zone, shorthanded for much of the game, and on and on. Win or lose, the team is showing vast improvement over what we saw earlier in ACC play, and when we play this way, like I said after the Pitt game, we are championship timber.

[DBFAN]

Jay has always spoken very highly of K and their relationship, especially with respect to his recovery physically and mentally from his accident. May want to tread a little more lightly and not just speak off the cuff on stuff like this when you clearly haven't been paying attention to the whole story. I don't especially enjoy Jay as a commentator when he is working Duke games and I don't think he is really comfortable with how he should report and comment on Duke yet. If you don't like his tweet that's fine, I certainly disagree with him on the foul there and don't know why he felt the need to say what he said about it, but you are going way overboard here. Lets not forget that beyond the connection that he and coach K have post-accident he is a celebrated former player who helped us win a championship. A little respect and benefit of the doubt is deserved and expected.

One might even say lead us to a championship. I mean really the guy's jersey is in the damn rafters. Just come on.
Well it's prob best if you not read any emotion or sarcasm in my text. All I offered was when I thought he started to act strangely on Twitter. Never really said a thing about ESPN. It's very easy though to see what he does on Twitter, he goes out of his way to compliment other teams and is extremely extremely absent when giving compliments to us. I also said I loved him as a player, which to me means I will always cherish what he did for us. Just hate having to see him play by the rules that ESPN or his marketing people give him.

I don't dislike the guy, how could I, i don't know him. That is just my perception of him on Twitter. Trust me when I say this, I am not even close to being the only one on Twitter who feels this way. And your need to curse at me on this is slightly childish. I was unaware I was supposed to love everything about every player that has come through Duke

[Acymetric]

The refs were atrocious, but I'm not sure I agree that coaching was not an issue. I had two issues with it. It's hard to criticize our offense given how many points we scored and our overall efficiency against such an outstanding defense as Syracuse's. But why did it take so long to realize that the man catching the pass at the free throw line has to be a threat from that spot? Some of us have been talking about that for weeks on these boards. Amile's lack of a FT line J hinders us against this type of zone. Syracuse took longer than they should have to learn to not react to his catching in that spot, and to learn to just stick close to their men on the perimeter, but eventually they caught on. But you knew they would. It just has seemed pretty obvious for some time now that the man in the middle has to be Jabari or Rodney. Why didn't we make that move much, much earlier than we did?

Secondly, I don't think it should've taken 4 straight possessions of Jerami Grant dunking on Andre Dawkins' head (actually it was 3 dunks and one missed chippie) before we made a change in overtime. We had to go to either Marshall or Josh defensively. Either try to switch out offense/defense, or if there aren't going to be enough whistles for that, just put the bigger guy in there. I guess at that point K was still thinking we could just outscore them, but how do you do that when the other team is getting a dunk every time down? Can you really count on making two and three point jumpers every time down? No way. Finally, he made the move, but in the meantime we had given up a bushel of free points to Syracuse, and that really hurt us.

Big picture, though, I agree with what pretty much everyone is saying. The guys played a fantastic game in very difficult circumstances, and were in position to win against a top, top opponent on their floor, an unfamiliar environment, first time playing against this zone, shorthanded for much of the game, and on and on. Win or lose, the team is showing vast improvement over what we saw earlier in ACC play, and when we play this way, like I said after the Pitt game, we are championship timber.

You're assuming that MP3 would have been enough to stop 'Cuse from scoring without the presence of Parker or Amile to help down low. That may or may not have turned out to be true and we'll never know but at the time I think the strategy of trying to stop them with a small lineup packing huge offensive firepower was just as valid as plugging in Marshall for the majority of overtime. Turned out we couldn't slow them down at all and MP3 was put in, but Coach K has pretty much always been a play your best players guy, he did that in overtime, and we were in a position to win which was pretty much completely unexpected at the start of OT for many considering the personnel issues we had.

[DBFAN]

I was unaware that the Kid from Arizona broke his foot until a few mins ago. That really stinks for them

[mph]

Wow. I Just finished watching the last 15 minutes of regulation and overtime and I don't have much to add to what other posters have already said.

What a great game. Syracuse played at a very high level and their coach and fans were great. Our guys played their hearts out and showed incredible toughness in the face of adversity. Three weeks ago we would have folded when Jabari and Amile fouled out. While there's still room for alot of improvement, especially on the defensive end, I am very encouraged by the poise we showed tonight. Our game management in the last 10 minutes was much better than it was in close games earlier in the season.

I also want to share a brief version of what was, for me, a new game experience. I feel sure it was bad for my health, so I don't recommend it.

I was traveling on business and had to board a flight in Charlotte at 7:55pm. I was trying to keep up with the game on ESPN mobile until my brother started started texting me play by play updates that were easily outpacing GameCast. It became clear that they were getting ready to close the cabin door about the time my brother texted that Tyler had just nailed his 3rd consecutive 3 to bring us to within 68-70. I'm flipping out. About that time I remembered that my iPhone's airplane mode was broken :D so I told my brother to keep the play by play going until the game ended. I pocket my phone at 8:25 and it buzzes about once every 30 seconds until the plane takes off at 8:54. I pull out the phone and read 42 texts which include such gems as "Silliman for 3 and foul!!!!!!!!!" and "Sulaimon just made game tying 3 at buzzer...i have no idea what's going on!!!!!" Immediately followed by "This is insane!!!!"

Overtime included "Dawkins makes a booooomb!!!!!" followed by "Grant looks like NBA Jamz down low...like a video game." The last text I received was 8:54 with Grant on the line after he was fouled by MP3: "Made first. Tied."

I put the phone back in my pocket thinking I'll have to contemplate last 31 seconds for another hour when my phone starts vibrating like an electric razor. A signal at 5,000 feet! I'm saved! Nope. I pull my phone back out and find 9 more texts culminating with Fair at the line and "5.5 seconds. Misses first." I've taken that 1 hour flight 40 times the last two years and it has never seemed so long.


One of the team managers fouled out when he tried to give Rakeem Christmas a towel and Christmas fell down.


Maybe Christmas attended the AK47 skills academy and picked up a defensive move or two.

3859

[DBFAN]

Maybe some truth to this lol


3860

[left_hook_lacey]

Great great basketball game. It's about time. I was really worried about the state of college basketball, but this game showed that the game can still be played at a high level.

We played great, they played great...but for about 3 more plays than us. The end. Wasn't the refs, wasn't lack of effort, the ball just bounced their way a couple more times.


Please don't take away from the effort both teams gave to give the cop-out "it was the refs" excuse. Calls were missed both ways, always are. That's the human element. But over the course of a game, it evens out. They have to come to Cameron now. Take solace in that.

And as far as the Hood play, since that seems to be the one that everyone is the most upset about, I thought it was a good defensive play. Could they have called a foul? Sure. Seen plenty of fouls called for less. But the defender hit ball first, then arm. Good strip in my opinion. We live and die by strips like that. Do we really want those called every time? We got away with several no calls on 50-50 calls when their bigs were going up for shots and we were stripping at the ball. You get some calls, some, you do not.

Great, great game overall. Felt and looked like a final four game. And a good showcase for Duke basketball. Great stage. Gotta think this game helped with recruiting. Lots of eyes on this one.

[kAzE]

I was unaware that the Kid from Arizona broke his foot until a few mins ago. That really stinks for them

That's a huge bummer for Arizona . . . I hope he's gonna be okay.

Though we've got 5 losses on our resume, we've been blessed to have all of our guys mostly healthy to this point. *knock on wood* I hope it stays that way, because this team has a real shot at a national title if we keep playing this way.

So I've had plenty of time to let the game sink in. You can call me a sore loser, but I'm still a little pissed off. Not at the Hood no-call, but the ticky tack call that got Jefferson his 4th, and the super flops that DQ'ed Jefferson and Parker. ESPECIALLY the Parker one, because not only was that his 5th foul, it negated a basket in the low post. He had scored on that play, but Christmas acted like he got elbowed in the face . . . I hope that guy catches hell when he comes to Cameron. I hope we blow them out.

Those other guys, Grant, Fair, Ennis, Cooney, they played great, but we should have won that game.

[DukeAlumBS]

Who were the refs?

I am happy with what this team did. They played a team very well into overtime. This team (Syracuse) played their greatest game. We will see a different game at Durham, and in the tourney. The foul mix was not equal at all. And we had 4 of our great players out with fouls. For a big game like this. Just call it right, or let go. But be equal with both teams. And the foul mix was not that.
Our team, has never been in foul trouble at all the entire year. On top of a hot Syracuse team shooting the lights out, a loud crowd. And the officials that called this game. I feel we will win going forward.
I felt for Soulamon, in his eyes he knew, and wanted to win!
Great game I guess. Proud of this team.Go Duke

[BlueDevilBrowns]

Random post-game thoughts:

Rakeem Christmas should change his name to Rakeem Aprilfoolsday.

Awesome effort tonight as a team. We played together without the crazy one-on-one "mess" that hurt us in the Az and KU games after we lost momentum.

When Syracuse went up 7, we kept passing the ball and TT came up huge with 3 Dunleavy 3's.

This was, in defeat, a great lesson for Jabari to trust his teammates, while sitting on the bench for the last 7 minutes, knowing now that "hey, they're pretty good, too."

Our 2nd half D looked awful because 4/5ths of our starting lineup were in foul trouble, so the aggressiveness was gone by necessity. I doubt this will happen much again.

All things considered, I'm happy, though still hungry, as I guess our team is as well.

Go Duke!

P.S. We'll need to win out, most likely, to grab a #1 seed in the NCAAT.

We could probably lose 2 more and still get a 2 seed if we win the ACCT, but it's still way too early to tell I suppose.

So forget what I just wrote - I need to go back to sleep!!!

[bedeviled]

Today, I think our team has become winners. I feel like I won simply because I got to root for them and watch a remarkable game.
I am particularly pleased that Parker and Hood have found the secret red button that finishes plays.

[El_Diablo]

Interesting stat: Out of Duke's 89 points, 0 came from mid-range.

45 from the three-point line, 32 points in the paint, and 12 from free throws.

[freshmanjs]

I think there could be a bit of an emotional hangover going into the Wake game. I'm betting this one will be closer than we're comfortable with. But who here doesn't like the outlook for this team for the rest of the season? We're in terrific shape going down the stretch and playing far better than we were in December and with more room to improve.

well...on the one hand, our team is getting better and playing at a high level right now. that is exciting.

on the other hand, we are in such a hole with more losses than any other ranked team and a very thin tournament resume, that seeding is going to be a real problem. we are now in a spot where we really HAVE to win out in order to get a decent seed and that would most likely be a 3. it seems very unlikely that any of arizona, syracuse, florida, wichita, san diego st, kansas will fall below us in seeding even if we win out. we've put ourselves in a real jam. most likely outcome is a 4-6 seed. at that point, we face a tough first round game and playing a higher seed in the 2nd round.

so, i see the loss last night as pretty devastating for us. it was the last chance to get in position for a power seed. the home game against syracuse is an absolute must win if we want to get anything better than a 4 seed. other than that game, we don't play any more good teams. so, its all downside risk the rest of the way. no real upside potential in ranking/seeding.

[BlueDevilBrowns]

Interesting stat: Out of Duke's 89 points, 0 came from mid-range.

45 from the three-point line, 32 points in the paint, and 12 from free throws.

Well there ya go, the answer is simple.

More Hairston 19 ft jumpers!

[roywhite]

I was not that upset with the loss. That was a spectacular college game.
I put it up there with Elvin Hayes Houston Lew Alcindor UCLA at the Astrodome.

Thank you. I knew this reminded me of another epic game, and that was it.

A game with major build-up; played in a dome in front of a huge crowd; great, great performance by home team Houston (Elvin Hayes playing the C.J. Fair role), the traditional "villain" power UCLA a bit hampered (in this case Alcindor/Jabbar had an eye injury) and STILL a close game that Houston barely won.

Boxscore; Syracuse 91 -- Duke 89 (http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=22724&SPID=1845&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=209392353)

And, this morning, I see just how well Syracuse played:
57.4% FG
3-4 from 3-pt
81.3% FT
only 8 turnovers
9 blocked shots

Really, can Syracuse play much better than that? And STILL Duke almost won the game.

I'm a bit comforted in recalling that UCLA blew them away in the rematch in the NCAA Tournament. Despite that first loss, they were the better team.

And I love our chances to beat this Syracuse team when we meet again, in Durham, in Greensboro, and perhaps beyond.

[freshmanjs]

And, this morning, I see just how well Syracuse played:
57.4% FG
3-4 from 3-pt
81.3% FT
only 8 turnovers
9 blocked shots

Really, can Syracuse play much better than that? And STILL Duke almost won the game.



3 of those stats are directly related to poor defense by Duke. so, yes, i think if we play poor defense again, Syracuse can put up stats like that again (except maybe the free throws)

[oldnavy]

This game was a final four level game played on the opponents home court and we played up to the challenge.

A great Duke team would have found a way to win this game despite all the things that didn't break our way. So, I don't think this is a great Duke team... yet.

We have a very, VERY, good team right now and we seem to be getting better, much better over the past month or so.

Despite not winning this game (I can't say we lost this game), I cannot help but feel encouraged.

Syracuse won the game, but I have a feeling that we placed just a wee bit of concern in the back of their collective minds... they know, the rest of the country knows.... Duke was every bit as good as they were, perhaps even a little better....

[bedeviled]

Here's K's post-game interview (http://www.localsyr.com/video/watch/d/video/raw-video-coach-ks-suduke-post-game-news-conferenc/4912668).

I had to switch browsers to view it, and couldn't figure out how to embed it. Soooo, I typed it up in case other people have similar problems.
------------------------------
Preliminary comments: That was a great game. I mean, uh, I think both teams were deserving of winning. And, uh, [shakes head in disbelief]...not sure, like x's and o's, you know, both teams played with so much heart. And, uh, we were scrambling a lot because of our foul trouble [for those interested in stoking fires, this was said in a simple matter-of-fact manner]. And, our kids scrambled well. I mean, they scrambled well enough to put us in a position to win. I mean, the last minute, we, in overtime, we, we...we had an open 3 and, uh, we had a rim dunk. You know, that, uh [small smile.....pleased, not sarcastic] I can't fault our guys. And, it's just a tough loss. Any questions?

Q: Exactly how much of a disadvantage did it create when you lost your top two high-post options?
A: Well, I mean,....how would you measure? What scale do you want me to measure it on? Is it like pain threshold, 1-10? Uh, it's a 10. You know, I mean, you'd rather have your best players in there. So...

Q: Something about "you played here in the NCAAs, but this is a different experience..."
A: I mean, it's a great atmosphere. Our guys love being here. I thought they handled everything well. You know, the crowd was terrific and it should be - they have a terrific team, they have a great program, and it's a great city, and....[shakes head while smiling] what they're doing it what they should be doing. In a lot of places, they don't do it, but they do it really well here. And, it's a credit to Jim and the program he's established.

Q: Something about "finish the thought about the dunk at the rim"
A: Yeah, well, we were hoping that there'd be contact and, uh, and, and then you hope that you finish it. It's a hell of play. I mean, it's, it's a big time play, and it's, it's very disappointing, you know, 'cause it's such a big time play.

Q: Something like "And your disappoint..."
A: I don't know. I don't know, and I'm not going to go into that. I don't want that to be...this game was too good to talk about just one play. You know. And, please, I'm not going there at all; that you're going there. I'm not going there. Uh, it would've been nice if he finished the dunk [nodding head with small smile in a simple fashion]. It would have been nice if we hit a 3 [still smiling]. They still would have had a chance to score, so, but, um, it's a better position to be in.

Q: Something about "Fair had a layup inside"
A: Well Fair and Grant were sensational, not good. They were sensational. I mean, Fair is a top pro pick. You know, he's a [draws breath], he's a great player. And, Grant is going to be a pro [exhales a chuckle]. I mean, they played...I thought they played really well. I don't know how Jim felt about. I thought they played really well, and I thought we played our hearts out. I mean, geez, I can't ask my team to play any harder than they way they played tonight [this whole answer, he has been shaking his head with eye brows raised and pleased smile on his face].

Q: Jabari kept going up and got stopped...and back down...
A: You know, I think as he continues to learn....they're one of the best shot-blocking teams and what you hope is, when they're there, you use a shot fake or whatever and you get to the foul line. And, uh. But, they block shots. That's something they do every game. And, um. And then if, when it's over and over, then you have to look for a kick 'cause the kicks are open...and offensive rebounds...and you might get an open 3. But, you know, Jabari - it's a good, growing experience for him...and..and, um...it's a good growing experience for him, because he played...we played against a heck of a team tonight.

Q: Can you talk about what it's like, personally, to coach against Jim
A: You know, it's nothing. And, he'd say the same thing. We have our responsibilities. We're old guys. This is our duty. We're coaching for our teams and schools, and, there's not like a twinge. You know [laughs]. He wasn't twinging and I wasn't twinging. You know..... We did both what we were supposed to do. We coached our butts off, and our teams played hard. And,...and...then we're both still obviously very, very good friends.

Q: Timeouts in regulation....were you able to get a play out to the guys at that freethrow or did they just take it on their own
A: Yeah, well, we had a play before that where we kind of missed. We had it open right underneath, and we missed. And, then, at the end, it's just a matter of you push it down, and Rasheed, Rasheed made a play. You know, because he can bring it down faster than anybody on our team. And he made a big time shot. I mean, it's, I mean, it's a heck of a shot -just a heck of a shot

Q: Experience for the whole team
A: I mean, you play in games like this; it's great. You can only grow from it. I mean, how many people are in games like this? You know, hardly anybody. And, uh, so you hope that you mature as a team, and then you got a, you know we have a quick turn-around. We play at home on Tuesday, and we've got to play well on Tuesday.

Q: End of regulation and overtime, you played with a group that doesn't practice together very much, as far as the 5 that were out there. How did you get them to do what they needed to do?
Well, we felt in the overtime, it's going to be our 3's and their 2's. And, overall, it's a pretty good wash. You know, I mean,..I..you know. And, that's about the only way we're gonna win. And, you know, our guys did and we, we had the lead and then we had that open 3 that would have put us up by 4, I think. And, um, then you're down by 1 and you get.... They excuted really well and Rodney made a heck of a play. You know, we just, big time play. The operation was a success, but it didn't end up exactly well.

Q: Calibre of this game portend well for the rivalry
A: Yeah, well, I think it's great for our conference. I said it before, you know, before the game. You get two programs like this playing against one another. You know, uh. Rivalry doesn't have to be hatred. A great rivalry is built on respect. And a great rivalry is built on the respect of excellence of your opponent, you know. That's why we've had a great rivalry with North Carolina, 'cause they have such a high level of excellence in their program [he didn't even crack a smile!], and, obviously, Syracuse does, and we do. So, um, those are great games. I mean, I love the way they built up the game. It wasn't one player against another player. And even, it wasn't one coach against another coach. It's the way college sports should be; it was Syracuse and Duke, Duke and Syracuse. And, that's still, you know, the...[draws breath with pause] it's still the thing that separates us - the traditions of those programs, playing at that time. And, uh, we have to always remember that as we, as we go forward. And, I'm sure when Jim and I are no longer coaching, you know, that the fact that we built good programs and..it'll produce some fantastic games, and it'll conjure up memories of past great performances by individuals and teams in those contests.

Q: Duke students want revenge in Cameron
A: You know, I'm not..we're not even...we gotta beat Wake Forest on Tuesday. I mean, our team, we're not a great team. We're a good team, and we're getting better and we gotta lot of heart. And, we just gotta take care of our own business. And, uh, you know, and these, these games, you can only, you, you have to play one game at a time [smiling]. Win or lose, you have to play one game at a time. And, so, we gotta get ready for Wake.

[MChambers]

well...on the one hand, our team is getting better and playing at a high level right now. that is exciting.

on the other hand, we are in such a hole with more losses than any other ranked team and a very thin tournament resume, that seeding is going to be a real problem. we are now in a spot where we really HAVE to win out in order to get a decent seed and that would most likely be a 3. it seems very unlikely that any of arizona, syracuse, florida, wichita, san diego st, kansas will fall below us in seeding even if we win out. we've put ourselves in a real jam. most likely outcome is a 4-6 seed. at that point, we face a tough first round game and playing a higher seed in the 2nd round.

so, i see the loss last night as pretty devastating for us. it was the last chance to get in position for a power seed. the home game against syracuse is an absolute must win if we want to get anything better than a 4 seed. other than that game, we don't play any more good teams. so, its all downside risk the rest of the way. no real upside potential in ranking/seeding.
There's no way this team gets a lower seed than a 2 seed if it wins out. We've played a very difficult schedule.

[dukelifer]

well...on the one hand, our team is getting better and playing at a high level right now. that is exciting.

on the other hand, we are in such a hole with more losses than any other ranked team and a very thin tournament resume, that seeding is going to be a real problem. we are now in a spot where we really HAVE to win out in order to get a decent seed and that would most likely be a 3. it seems very unlikely that any of arizona, syracuse, florida, wichita, san diego st, kansas will fall below us in seeding even if we win out. we've put ourselves in a real jam. most likely outcome is a 4-6 seed. at that point, we face a tough first round game and playing a higher seed in the 2nd round.

so, i see the loss last night as pretty devastating for us. it was the last chance to get in position for a power seed. the home game against syracuse is an absolute must win if we want to get anything better than a 4 seed. other than that game, we don't play any more good teams. so, its all downside risk the rest of the way. no real upside potential in ranking/seeding.

I am not sure how you can say this was the last chance. Duke may be a 4 or 5 seed in the end but they have a chance to be a 2 or maybe a 1 if they win out- including the ACC tourney. The likelihood is small but there is a chance.

[NashvilleDevil]

3 of those stats are directly related to poor defense by Duke. so, yes, i think if we play poor defense again, Syracuse can put up stats like that again (except maybe the free throws)

Defense was poor because of foul trouble. Hard to ask guys to defend with 4 fouls when there is still 15 minutes left in the game. Also if Duke wins out they will be a 2 seed at worse. 3 losses to top 10 teams and some of the teams ahead of Duke will lose.