MBB: Duke 81, Mich St 71 Post-Game Thread

[JBDuke]

Put your post-game thoughts here.

[hurleyfor3]

Please tell me we're wearing those unis all year.

[gurufrisbee]

I am definitely enjoying how tough MOTM calls are with this year's group. Even in a tighter game against a top opponent, you still get at least four legit cases out there. I like it.

[OldPhiKap]

Tyus Cook rocks as a backcourt.

[NSDukeFan]

Well, that was fun. Nice to see these guys play well against a very solid opponent. These guys are so fun to watch. I don't know if there is anyone on the team I like watching more than Winslow, though. He can do everything.

[MCFinARL]

Tyus Cook rocks as a backcourt.

Sure, but not all by himself. Quinn Jones is pretty good too.

[duke4ever19]

Tyus Cook rocks as a backcourt.

Yeah, they really work well together. Both guys really carried us when Okafor went down with 4 fouls.

[hurleyfor3]

Sure, but not all by himself. Quinn Jones is pretty good too.

Yeah, but without Greg Zoubek we're not getting to the Final Four.

[fuse]

What a fun game to watch.
Quinn has showed he has bought in and integrated with the new look of the team well.
Sheed still has to figure it out.

Minor nit, but we had many opportunities to develop or demonstrate killer instinct.
I'd really like to see us step on the gas and not look back.

When was the last time Duke had a big man where the key concern seems to be offensive fouls?
Wow, Jahlil was unbelievable, Tyus had a great game and amazing second half.
Winslow just has that quiet confidence of a gamer that wants the ball in his hands.

This team is just plain exciting!

[mgtr]

I was surprised that Grayson didn't play more, and that Matt Jones played so much. M. Jones is good on defense, but he ought to get the word not to shoot.

[OldSchool]

One could say we won this at the 3-pt line.

Had both teams shot 40% from 3, Michigan State wins, everything else the same.

[Karl Beem]

I was surprised that Grayson didn't play more, and that Matt Jones played so much. M. Jones is good on defense, but he ought to get the word not to shoot.

K complimented Matt in his interview.

[kAzE]

Well, Okafor Carried us early, Winslow in the middle of the game, and Tyus Jones turned on the jets late. Cook was steady throughout the game, he SHOULD be the MOTM, but I think Tyus's 2nd half was amazing. He was quite passive early, trying to get everyone involved, but when the game was on the line when Okafor picked up his 4th, Tyus just took over the game, making plays on both ends.

- Seemed like Jefferson and Sulaimon sat for much of this game. Don't really know what to take from that, but I think we can very clearly say the best 4 guys on the team are Okafor, Winslow, Tyus Jones and Quinn Cook. Whoever compliments those 4 the best will be the 5th guy on the floor in crunch time. In this game, it seems like it was Matt Jones. I still believe Amile will have his chance to shine and be that guy.

- Matt Jones is pretty clearly ahead of Grayson Allen on the depth chart. His feistiness on D was good. Just wish he could hit a few of those open jumpers . . .

- Play of the game: When Winslow made a defensive stop right under the rim on defense, grabbed the rebound, and took it 94 feet, shedding a defender at midcourt with a nasty crossover, and finishing through a defender at the rim with a tough floater. That was a grown man playing against boys.

- This may be the most facial hair we've ever had on a duke team, and the 3 freshmen starters are the biggest contributors. Winslow and Tyus Jones have got some GREAT beards, especially for 18 year olds.





. . . I have a giant man-crush on Justise Winslow. He's the sexiest Duke player ever.

[OldSchool]

Our end-of-game lineup protecting a lead was Amile + Justise + three guards. I wonder if that is going to be our normal close-out lineup this season.

[lotusland]

I was surprised that Grayson didn't play more, and that Matt Jones played so much. M. Jones is good on defense, but he ought to get the word not to shoot.

The minutes distribution was flawed. The coaching staff should consult DBR as soon as we reach a consensus on the optimal distribution.

[dukelifer]

A good test for this team. T Jones stepped up in a big way when Duke needed it. He showed that he can compete and make plays. Cook also showed maturity throughout. He ran the team well. That was a good sign. Winslow is going to get better and better. Did not hit a great percentage but showed that he can get to the hoop or the line. Some areas of concern. Okafor needs to watch the fouls. Three were very silly. Duke got killed on the boards and MSU took advantage. That needs to be a point of emphasis. Rasheed was absent- not sure why. He usually plays his best against the better teams. Still- it is early and Duke played with some game pressure and did not fold. Overall a good game.

[mr. synellinden]

7 points from the bench. So much for being 10 deep and line changes.

Our freshmen are all playing like All-Americans. It is a little reminiscent of 2012 Kentucky. So is our senior. It's amazing how often seniors at Duke seem to smooth out the kinks in their game when they become seniors. Maybe it's going to take Rasheed until he's a senior to realize his potential - he still looks lost.

I think we need to learn how to get the ball to Okafor more. Coach K commented on that in his post-game interview - saying that we'll learn how to play with Jah better.

[nyesq83]

K just said Sheed was really sick, didn't eat, was throwing up, today.

K also said we are not as deep as people think because of the youth of the team.

He also said the freshmen were not used to the hype of a real game against seasoned veterans (I paraphrased), hence they got tired.

K also said that he liked the combo they had without Amile, so they rode that for a while.

[roywhite]

Tyus Cook rocks as a backcourt.

The combined stats (from ESPN box, not official) are very impressive:
36 points
11-17 FG
5-7 3 PT
9-9 FT
10 assists
3 steals
0 Turnovers

[Duvall]

Sulaimon was sick, apparently. Hope something won't be going around the team this week.

[Saratoga2]

MSU played excellent defense and rebounded well (better than us). They had set plays that were working and at least two of their guys shot fairly well but we wonn by 10.

I was particularly impressed by Tyus who not only ran the point very well but also can score in quite a number of ways. Good shooting form, quick first step and good from the foul line. Quinn is a scorer and showed that again tonight both with his shooting and with his drives. I don't like him sitting on the ball but that is kind of his style. Jahlil is a phenomenal player. What moves and strength. Coach K said he was tired and that may have resulted in some of his fouls so this was a good learning experience for him. Justise is also a very good player and is capable of scoring and defending against anyone. Amile is a very good inside player. Matt and Marshall filled in well.

Thinking that this team is very young and inexperienced and will only get better as they understand how to stop that that little dish off inside which MSU used effectively against them. No one stepped in to stop that pass as we ususally haad two players behind the open player inside. Duke did however stop penetration quite well.

Excellent first meaningful game and a great learning experience. Guys like Semi and Grayson will get more time and will learn to play with a little more control. Scoring over 80 against the strong defense of MSU speaks volumes about our offense this year.

[Dev11]

The minutes distribution was flawed. The coaching staff should consult DBR as soon as we reach a consensus on the optimal distribution.

We should be done soon figuring out the optimal lineup for 2007.

[rsvman]

I was surprised that Grayson didn't play more, and that Matt Jones played so much. M. Jones is good on defense, but he ought to get the word not to shoot.

Grayson was pulled after he made the type of boneheaded play that Coach K really despises. He drove into the middle of the lane, among a crowd of defenders, and forced up a shot that could only be called a prayer if we are being generous.
This led to an easy break layup on the other end.

That's what got Grayson the shepherd's crook. He probably would have gotten more time had that not happened.

Good win for the team. I enjoyed watching a competitive game tonight.

[weezie]

Let us give thanks and praise for the sighting of a healthy defense.

[dukelifer]

K just said Sheed was really sick, didn't eat, was throwing up, today.

K also said we are not as deep as people think because of the youth of the team.

He also said the freshmen were not used to the hype of a real game against seasoned veterans (I paraphrased), hence they got tired.

That would explain Sheed's absence.

[Duvall]

7 points from the bench. So much for being 10 deep and line changes.

If Sulaimon doesn't get sick today it's probably the exact eight-man rotation everyone expected before the season, if Ojeleye and Allen are there if Duke needs them.

[rifraf]

Shortly before Winslow took it all the way down the court through a bunch of Spartans, I was lamenting to my wife that I'd gotten used to Duke having a player who could just break people down (Parker, Irving) and it didn't seem like this team had that. I said that I hoped Winslow could become that, as a couple of times he had the ball in his hand on the wing and looked like he was almost coiled and ready to strike, and opted to play within the system.

Then that happened. She immediately responded: "He reminds me of Gerald" which is really high praise as she has loved Gerald like no other Duke player ever.

[TheDuckStore]

We went away from it pretty early... will be interesting to see if that is a trend or if K thinks we were unable to execute effectively this early in the season.

[NYBri]

Grayson will get his minutes, but crunch time belongs to tough D and slashers who can hit free throws.

Jah is so frickin' smooth.

We aren't going to go on those long dry spells this year. Too many weapons.

How fun is this team?

[OldSchool]

I think we need to learn how to get the ball to Okafor more. Coach K commented on that in his post-game interview - saying that we'll learn how to play with Jah better.

Mostly we're just trying to have Jahlil seal his man near the post and get him an entry pass. A couple of times we hit him with a pocket pass. MSU did a good job not letting Jahlil seal his man for the pass in the second half.

We're going to need to work on ball reversal and screening for Jahlil on timing passes to get him open. Also, I would love to see Jahlil used more in the pick-and-roll and getting the ball to him moving to the basket.

Once he gets the ball down low, he's money.

[Kfanarmy]

The combined stats (from ESPN box, not official) are very impressive:
36 points
11-17 FG
5-7 3 PT
9-9 FT
10 assists
3 steals
0 Turnovers

I could have sworn Cook dribbled into a triple team with about 6 minutes to go, and turned the ball over. He might have jacked up a shot, so maybe it didn't register as a turnover. Cook was really impressive for long stretches, but I thought he had some "hero ball" moments in the last 5 or 6 minutes that brought MSt back to within 10...Did I see it wrong?

[weezie]

Our coach is thinner than these two ky ks bozos

[NSDukeFan]

We should be done soon figuring out the optimal lineup for 2007.

Shouldn't Pocius play more?

[OZ]

Tyus Cook rocks as a backcourt.


Nice to have guards who can handle defensive pressure.

[Newton_14]

More later, but same ol Sparty. Tough, hard nosed defense, quick, and live and die by jumpshots with just as many 2 point jumpshots as 3 pointers. Against us they always hit a lot of them, against unc they stroke them at about a 28% rate and get smoked from tip to finish.

Nice methodical beat down by our Devils. Rotation was strange and so different from prior games I thought it through our guys out of synch and confused them. All in all though, a good performance in their first real test against a top 20 team away from Cameron. Very pleased with the outcome. On to New York!

[NSDukeFan]

Nice to have guards who can handle defensive pressure.

And a 3 man (if Duke had positions)

[BD80]

Amile had an awful game, he was getting beat badly on the boards and getting beat down the floor. So much for the young Dennis Rodman comparisons.

This is a really fun team to watch, but there is plenty of room to grow, particularly on defense and in defensive rebounding

[cspan37421]

Sulaimon was sick, apparently.

Wait, I thought being sick was a good thing! :confused:

Oh you young kids and all your confusing lingo... ;)

[oakvillebluedevil]

Whoever compliments those 4 the best will be the 5th guy on the floor in crunch time. In this game, it seems like it was Matt Jones. I still believe Amile will have his chance to shine and be that guy.

Matt exhibited both a wide variety of niceties and an uncanny sense of knowing when to use them. Interesting to see how that will play out :) - sorry Kaze, couldn't help myself

Happy we were able to win tonight - couple of thoughts
- Those first few minutes were great offensively. Tons of great movement, heads up, great passing. The first bucket was a really well executed play. After the first few minutes I felt that fell off a bit and we devolved into more freestyling (at least by my amateur eye). I'm excited to see what happens as we begin to develop a bit further into an offensive system

- Got pounded on the boards. Much better first shot defense tonight vs. last year IMO, but need to finish a bit better. Okafor seemed tired (believe K mentioned as much in postgame interview)

- I just felt like this game was much easier than a lot of games last year. Tough to describe exactly - feel like we generally had easier shots while forcing them into contested 3s and midrange jumpers (which it felt like they hit a ton of).

Good first 'big game' showing for these guys. Can't wait to watch them grow

[azzefkram]

A good win against a tough, hard nosed opponent. Our D was good but not great. I think we missed Sheed on that end of the court. Not our best rebounding effort, but we only played Amile for a half. The O is really good. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by the Quinn hate, but it amazes me that our senior co-captain can put up 19/3/6/0 with a steal and people mention "hero ball." That is a meme that can't die quick enough.

[jipops]

I'm sold on Tyus. He looked like our most poised player out there.

I think we have a pretty good idea on what the rotation is going to be- Sheed, M Jones, and Plumlee off the bench. Semi may see a little spot duty but that's about it.

Okafor was of course impressive and very efficient, but I would expect better results from him on the boards. Still, at this point I probably shouldn't be quibbling with his play. Though it does seem glaring that we were handled on the boards tonight.

If we are in fact better defensively, it remains to be seen how much better. Marginally? Substantially? Exponentially? There is certainly some nice potential.

I really like the offense with the Cook/Jones back court. Both get us up in our half court sets quickly.

[TheDuckStore]

Grayson was pulled after he made the type of boneheaded play that Coach K really despises. He drove into the middle of the lane, among a crowd of defenders, and forced up a shot that could only be called a prayer if we are being generous.
This led to an easy break layup on the other end.

That's what got Grayson the shepherd's crook. He probably would have gotten more time had that not happened.

Good win for the team. I enjoyed watching a competitive game tonight.

Agree that that move likely limited his time, but it is telling that Grayson played so little when Sheed was so sick. Matt, Tyus and Quinn ate all those minutes up.

[J4Kop99]

All things considered, that was a very good win against a well-coached and talented team.


The 3 freshmen starters were great and it was a breath of fresh air to see Quinn buying in to his role. He was very good tonight. I think playing alongside Tyus, who is both a great ball handler and incredibly poised, lets Quinn slow down and see the game, ultimately making him more efficient and under control.

As for the things I did not like/think we should work on: How to handle high p&r's, defensive rebounding (we are switching A LOT which makes it difficult to find someone to box out), and finding a killer instinct. All three will most likely take time, with the third taking the longest, but those were definitely the negatives that stood out to me.

It will be nice to see a balanced attack on offense once we get everything rolling. The offense was stagnant at times but that is obviously to be expected in their first game.

--Oh yeah, and Jahlil's offensive game is as good as the top tier NBA big men. He is well on his way to becoming a very special player.

[tux]

Couple thoughts:

- I didn't think Rasheed played enough for me to say he looked "lost" etc. He hit a nice 3, and I saw some very excellent ball pressure. He did get yanked after an ill-advised shot led to a run out by MSU. It's a fine line: K wants guys to be aggressive and attack on offense, but that aggressiveness can sometimes lead to bad results. Grayson's shot was similar -- if he picks up the foul, it's a decent play, but instead it led to an MSU fast break. (Honestly, Sheed didn't look sick to me, and I would have expected a different substitution pattern early if he'd been throwing up before the game. Not calling K out, but I think he's not interested in having a long conversation with the media about Rasheed.)

- MSU did a nice job of taking away the wing entry pass to Okafor after our fast start. I think Duke would like to run everything through Jah, but when they don't it's not necessarily because they've forgotten him -- sometimes the opposing defense takes away your options.

- MSU also ran some nice offensive sets that had us chasing the ball quite a bit. They got a lot of open looks --- some of those open 3's looked like shots past Duke teams would have gotten. Duke has historically been great at defending the 3 and also shooting the 3. In short, I think defensively Duke has all the parts needed to be great; but it's still a work in progress.

- Quinn continues to shoot the ball very well. I wonder what the offense would look like if we tried to get Quinn open like a traditional SG. I.e., get Quinn moving w/o the ball more and stagger screens to get looks from outside. His stroke looks very solid right now, but he's mostly getting shots off of simple drive and kicks, etc.

[ACCBBallFan]

YTD +/- Leaders are the Jones boys and MP3.

YTD Minutes Played leaders are Quinn and then 3 frosh

Sheed would have played more had he not been sick tonight

YTD min YTD +/-

77 65 Jones, T

54 64 Jones, M

39 62 MP3

88 59 Quinn

80 56 Jah

48 55 Sheed

32 54 Grayson

77 47 Justise

61 45 Amile

32 42 Semi

[tbyers11]

I could have sworn Cook dribbled into a triple team with about 6 minutes to go, and turned the ball over. He might have jacked up a shot, so maybe it didn't register as a turnover. Cook was really impressive for long stretches, but I thought he had some "hero ball" moments in the last 5 or 6 minutes that brought MSt back to within 10...Did I see it wrong?

I believe in the play you are describing with about 5 min left Cook was credited with a shot. That was a poor decision as he over-penetrated early in the shot clock. However, that was the only poor decision. He had several good drives or dishes in the last 5 minutes. I thought he played very well down the stretch.

[Henderson]

I couldn't get a live video feed, so I listened to Bob Harris. After the game, K told Harris that T. Jones made the transition from freshman to winner today. The audio made it sound as though he had a really good game, and the stats seem to bear that out. K also commented to Harris about the 25-35 rebounding disadvantage, pointing out that MSU has strong experienced players.

In the past 3 weeks, I've gone from knowing that Okafor would be gone after this year to feeling pretty sure Winslow will be gone. Now I think maybe Tyus will be gone too. Way too early to tell, of course, but we could easily lose 4 starters. The good news is that means we have very good players this year. Next year we'll add Obi, Kennard, and Jeter (and maybe one more top 20 recruit), but at this point I'd say it would be a net loss even if we get Ingram.

This could be a year in which FF business needs to be taken care of.

[FireOgilvie]

Couple thoughts:

- I didn't think Rasheed played enough for me to say he looked "lost" etc. He hit a nice 3, and I saw some very excellent ball pressure. He did get yanked after an ill-advised shot led to a run out by MSU. It's a fine line: K wants guys to be aggressive and attack on offense, but that aggressiveness can sometimes lead to bad results. Grayson's shot was similar -- if he picks up the foul, it's a decent play, but instead it led to an MSU fast break. (Honestly, Sheed didn't look sick to me, and I would have expected a different substitution pattern early if he'd been throwing up before the game. Not calling K out, but I think he's not interested in having a long conversation with the media about Rasheed.)

- MSU did a nice job of taking away the wing entry pass to Okafor after our fast start. I think Duke would like to run everything through Jah, but when they don't it's not necessarily because they've forgotten him -- sometimes the opposing defense takes away your options.

- MSU also ran some nice offensive sets that had us chasing the ball quite a bit. They got a lot of open looks --- some of those open 3's looked like shots past Duke teams would have gotten. Duke has historically been great at defending the 3 and also shooting the 3. In short, I think defensively Duke has all the parts needed to be great; but it's still a work in progress.

- Quinn continues to shoot the ball very well. I wonder what the offense would look like if we tried to get Quinn open like a traditional SG. I.e., get Quinn moving w/o the ball more and stagger screens to get looks from outside. His stroke looks very solid right now, but he's mostly getting shots off of simple drive and kicks, etc.

K isn't the type to lie or make excuses for players. That's a pretty ridiculous accusation.

[UrinalCake]

Tyus's ability to score really surprised me, he and Oak are the real deal. Was pleased to see Quinn play with such poise and give us scoring when we needed it while also running point for long stretches. Defensively we're still a work in progress, as you'd expect for a team that relies so heavily on freshmen. We had a lot of missed assignments but fortunately our individual size and talent often made up for it, which didn't happen last year.

MSU kept fighting, they never went away and our guys responded well every time they made a late push. Overall the team played well but also has a lot of room for improvement. Should be a great season.

[Kedsy]

If Sulaimon doesn't get sick today it's probably the exact eight-man rotation everyone expected before the season, if Ojeleye and Allen are there if Duke needs them.

We did play the exact eight-man rotation everyone expected. Our eighth man, Marshall, played nine minutes. Our 9th and 10th men, despite calls on this board for them to get legitimate playing time, combined for three minutes.

If Rasheed wasn't sick, his minutes probably would have been higher than 12 and Matt's probably would have been lower than 22. Maybe they would have been reversed, or close to it.


Grayson will get his minutes, but crunch time belongs to tough D and slashers who can hit free throws.

Grayson will get his minutes in garbage time this season, and more consistently next season. As the 9th man, he is unlikely to "get his minutes" in a close game against a decent opponent.

[FireOgilvie]

SportsCenter had a really great statistic: Duke scored 1.38 points/possession when Okafor got a touch (16 possessions) and only 0.95 when he didn't (21 possessions). In addition we shot 71% compared to only 38% when he didn't get a touch. Pretty amazing.

[Potato Head]

I really like the Tyus/Quinn dynamic. Tyus having Quinn relieves the pressure of being a highly-touted Freshman and needing to run a top 5 team by himself into the ACC and the NCAA's. Quinn having Tyus takes some responsibility away that he's proven that he can't always handle by himself, and has let him just be what he is: a solid/experienced player. Maybe not your traditional elite backcourt, but I think it can work at this level, and they look great so far.

As for the game: we were supposed to win, and we did. Still haven't really seen them face adversity yet, but I'm super excited about this team. Maybe the most balanced Duke team since 09-10?

[ice-9]

That was an amazing game. Obviously, there's room for improvement, but this was a great showing by our team.

Okafor lives up to his billing. The first quarter of the game was a clinic -- we looked unstoppable on offense, and it all centered around Okafor. We should have been up by even more had Michigan State not made some difficult step back jumpers. How good is this guy??

The Spartans adjusted and started pushing Okafor out, selectively crowding him, and Okafor didn't do as good of a job re-establishing position for the rest of the game and we got out of making a concerted effort to feed him. Still, he made himself felt and it's just a matter of maturing and adjusting.

This is my first time watching this team, and Winslow surprised me. What a player! I couldn't take my eyes off the guy; he was all over the court making things happen.

Tyus was a leader in the last quarter of the game and is a better shooter than I expected.

Those three freshmen really, really impressed me.

The best part though was that Michigan State did not back down, despite the obvious talent differential. They fought with a lot of passion, energy and hustle; any lesser team would have wilted after the initial outburst of our unbelievable offense. The Spartans played like champions, yet each time they made a run this team met it with another. It was punch, counter-punch, all game long. That's an extraordinarily good sign from such a young team. Especially in contrast to last year's team, which couldn't stand up to comebacks.

A lot of it this game had to do with Quinn's and Tyus' calming leadership. Kudos to our two guards.

Our defense looks better. We made it tough for the Spartans to execute their sets, but we still had a few breakdowns. I expect us to get better on defense over the season.

Wow, this team can be scary good by the time March rolls round. I'm getting visions of 1998 - 2002.

[mr. synellinden]

SportsCenter had a really great statistic: Duke scored 1.38 points/possession when Okafor got a touch (16 possessions) and only 0.95 when he didn't (21 possessions). In addition we shot 71% compared to only 38% when he didn't get a touch. Pretty amazing.

Those are great stats. I'll repeat what I wrote earlier in the thread - we have to get the ball to Okafor more. The goal should be for him to get the ball on as many possessions as possible and as early in the possession as possible. With his post moves and passing ability he is as nearly impossible to defend as I've seen in college.

I'm sure the coaching staff will be preaching this and working on it a lot in the coming days and weeks.

[FireOgilvie]

I really like the Tyus/Quinn dynamic. Tyus having Quinn relieves the pressure of being a highly-touted Freshman and needing to run a top 5 team by himself into the ACC and the NCAA's. Quinn having Tyus takes some responsibility away that he's proven that he can't always handle by himself, and has let him just be what he is: a solid/experienced player. Maybe not your traditional elite backcourt, but I think it can work at this level, and they look great so far.

As for the game: we were supposed to win, and we did. Still haven't really seen them face adversity yet, but I'm super excited about this team. Maybe the most balanced Duke team since 09-10?

Totally agree about Tyus and Quinn. I'm normally not crazy about dual PGs because you can sometimes give up size or shooting, but Quinn is a very good 3 point shooter and does a surprisingly good job rebounding, which makes it much easier. It's nice because both of them can pass and drive to the basket.

I'm very excited about this team. The only things that I'm particularly worried about are interior defense and defensive rebounding, particularly when we play some of the teams with a ton of size and more than one good big man (obviously UK and Wisconsin, probably Louisville, UNC, etc.).

I also wanted to note Amile's fantastic blocked shot today. That was awesome.

[Edouble]

I'm sold on Tyus. He looked like our most poised player out there.

I think we have a pretty good idea on what the rotation is going to be- Sheed, M Jones, and Plumlee off the bench. Semi may see a little spot duty but that's about it.

Okafor was of course impressive and very efficient, but I would expect better results from him on the boards. Still, at this point I probably shouldn't be quibbling with his play. Though it does seem glaring that we were handled on the boards tonight.

If we are in fact better defensively, it remains to be seen how much better. Marginally? Substantially? Exponentially? There is certainly some nice potential.

I really like the offense with the Cook/Jones back court. Both get us up in our half court sets quickly.

I dunno... that's the strength that Michigan State is gonna bring to the table every night. Kind of like saying "We won, but it seems glaring that Kentucky's bench outscored us." or "We won, but it seems glaring that Carolina had more transition points than we did."

Despite our outstanding front court, we did play a bit of small ball there in the second half. Not that that was the only reason for the rebounding disparity.

So... out with the:


Deep bench
Full Court Pressure
Zone Defense


I knew it was all a ruse.

Perhaps we'll revisit some of the above in some of the weaker December games?

Okafor is the real deal. I would like to see if he would have finished with 25-26 if not for those late fouls. As Coach K mentioned, the guy needs as many touches as possible. When he went out at the 8:00 mark, I thought Michigan State seemed like they were on their heels. Tyus smelled blood in the water.

Quinn is having a Nolan-, Duhon-, Cwell-, etc. -like senior year it seems. If his leadership and game approach his ceiling, the stable of freshman will be all the more dangerous.

Seriously, what was Grayson thinking with that shot? Not worried about his minutes or Semi's going by the wayside, but if 'Sheed could somehow get on board for this ride, we could really be looking at a legendary Duke team. I think we're gonna need his lockdown defense in late game NCAA tourney situations. Like if Aaron Harrison gets hot. Let's hope 'Sheed doesn't get sick again.

[MChambers]

I could have sworn Cook dribbled into a triple team with about 6 minutes to go, and turned the ball over. He might have jacked up a shot, so maybe it didn't register as a turnover. Cook was really impressive for long stretches, but I thought he had some "hero ball" moments in the last 5 or 6 minutes that brought MSt back to within 10...Did I see it wrong?
He threw up a terrible shot that led to a fast break for MSU.

He didn't do a great job being patient in the half court offense. Put it that way. I thought the whole team had that problem in the second half.

He did have some big buckets, thouth.

[roywhite]

I thought K made an interesting point in his post-game comments. Said the freshmen were so keyed up for the game, that they expended plenty of energy and became fatigued; it showed up in rebounding and second chance points for the Spartans.

In home games, the young Duke players can rely on the crowd pumping them up; against a good team on the road or at a neutral site, they'll learn better how to approach the game and maintain their energy.

[MChambers]

Duke looked great for the first 8 or so minutes. After that, there was a lot of inconsistency. Some very impatient half court offense. In particular, I thought Cook and Winslow were too quick to go one-one-one and the team as a whole couldn't get it to Okafor, for reasons that weren't clear to me. Yes, the MSU bigs did a good job of fronting Okafor, but can't you throw a lob pass over the defender? The weak side help was a long ways away.

I love the way T. Jones and Winslow push the ball. Wish Cook would get that mentality. He seems to like walking the ball up.

The defense took away the three, but didn't turn MSU over all that much. Of course, MSU has a very experienced backcourt, and a great coach, so that might have been part of it.

On the rotation, looks like Kedsy got it right yet again. Sage, waiting to hear from you on whether you still think K is going 10 deep this year!

[budwom]

K just said Sheed was really sick, didn't eat, was throwing up, today.

K also said we are not as deep as people think because of the youth of the team.

He also said the freshmen were not used to the hype of a real game against seasoned veterans (I paraphrased), hence they got tired.

K also said that he liked the combo they had without Amile, so they rode that for a while.

All good stuff, though it should be noted that among the people touting Duke's depth has been K himself, repeatedly.

[davekay1971]

We should be done soon figuring out the optimal lineup for 2007.

Parks should have gotten more minutes in 92 to better prepare him for 93. K really screwed that one up.

[brevity]

...Though it does seem glaring that we were handled on the boards tonight...


I dunno... that's the strength that Michigan State is gonna bring to the table every night. Kind of like saying "We won, but it seems glaring that Kentucky's bench outscored us." or "We won, but it seems glaring that Carolina had more questionable grades than we did."

Fixed it for you.

[JBDuke]

Parks should have gotten more minutes in 92 to better prepare him for 93. K really screwed that one up.

Actually, I've always thought the big rotation mistake in '92 was playing Erik Meek at all. He was recovering from being hit by a car while jogging, and ended up only playing 143 mop-up minutes all year. If he'd redshirted, he would have been available for the '96 team, which really could have used his size to help Greg Newton in the post.

[77devil]

He threw up a terrible shot that led to a fast break for MSU.

So did Winslow, Sheed, and Allen.


He didn't do a great job being patient in the half court offense. Put it that way. I thought the whole team had that problem in the second half.

He did have some big buckets, thouth.

## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
02 Quinn Cook... 7-12 3-4 2-2 1 2 3 2 19 6 0 0 1 36

Only on DBR would a player with a stat. line like this be subject to a mostly critical post. You and I watched a different game.

[slower]

So did Winslow, Sheed, and Allen.



## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
02 Quinn Cook... 7-12 3-4 2-2 1 2 3 2 19 6 0 0 1 36

Only on DBR would a player with a stat. line like this be subject to a mostly critical post. You and I watched a different game.

Yep. Gotta give Quinn his props. He's been great so far.

[flyingdutchdevil]

a) Will Coach K platoon? My gut tells me no, and my head tells hell no. But I'd be pleasantly surprised if Coach K goes 10 deep against MSU. My guess? He goes 9 deep, with Semi being the odd man out.

Not surprising. We can say goodbye to the platoon system against quality competition (Wisconsin, ACC, NCAA Tourney). Great way to keep guys fresh against mediocre competition, but Coach K will play the key players (Cook, Winslow, Okafor if he can stay out of foul trouble, Tyus) as much as possible. You can't teach an old dog extended rotations.


b) Can we hit 3s against a solid team? It's been forecasted that Duke will struggle with the 3 this year, and that just hasn't happened. If anything, the 3 looks to be an asset. But that is against borderline DII competition. Cook (proven), Sulaimon (proven last year), Winslow (where did that shot come from), M Jones (ugly but effective), Semi (his offensive repertoire is his 3), Tyus (really surprised me with that shot), and Grayson (good shooter coming into Duke) are all decent-to-great shooters (I consider Cook to be great, especially given that he'll be shooting off the ball a lot, where he excels better than with the ball).


We only shot 14 3s. And we made 7. Wonderful. Between the drives, the post moves, and the 3s, I love our offensive arsenal.


c) Can our backcourt defend? Our backcourt D is looking good. But, again, this is against DII/III competition. Sulaimon looks incredibly active, Cook is applying great pressure, and Tyus has the quickest hands. But against elite competition? Can we still apply full-court pressure? Can we stop penetration (even if MSU isn't a penetrating team)? I love our front court D, with the Oak (very competent), AJ (great 4 defender), and Winslow (Mr Swiss Army Knife), but I still have to see about our backcourt D.

Color me surprised. I think Duke did a great job with this. Trice got his points, but MSU settled for a lot of mid-range jumpshots and 3 pointers (and they hit their midrangers! Great defensive strategy by Coach K, but MSU can make those 15-20 footers).


d) Does this team have a killer instinct? We were so good offensively last year that we would always build a first half lead. But he could never break the will of the opponent. I want to see if we can do that this year. I am confident that we will build an early lead. But the second half - especially in the middle 10 minutes - are so crucial. Will we get lazy and allow MSU to come back?

Tyus does. And that's enough for me at this point in time. Tyus...wow. Welcome to the national scene.

[Saratoga2]

Duke looked great for the first 8 or so minutes. After that, there was a lot of inconsistency. Some very impatient half court offense. In particular, I thought Cook and Winslow were too quick to go one-one-one and the team as a whole couldn't get it to Okafor, for reasons that weren't clear to me. Yes, the MSU bigs did a good job of fronting Okafor, but can't you throw a lob pass over the defender? The weak side help was a long ways away.

I love the way T. Jones and Winslow push the ball. Wish Cook would get that mentality. He seems to like walking the ball up.

The defense took away the three, but didn't turn MSU over all that much. Of course, MSU has a very experienced backcourt, and a great coach, so that might have been part of it.

On the rotation, looks like Kedsy got it right yet again. Sage, waiting to hear from you on whether you still think K is going 10 deep this year!

Quinn had a very good game, but I too don't care for his handling of the PG duties because he slows down the offense and tends to sit on the ball (dribble at the half court line for 5 to 10 seconds it seems) while others just stop moving. It is good to have Tyus handle as much as possible and perhaps Sheed can take more of those duties when Tyus is out so we don't become static.

[Rich]

Those are great stats. I'll repeat what I wrote earlier in the thread - we have to get the ball to Okafor more. The goal should be for him to get the ball on as many possessions as possible and as early in the possession as possible. With his post moves and passing ability he is as nearly impossible to defend as I've seen in college.

I'm sure the coaching staff will be preaching this and working on it a lot in the coming days and weeks.

On several occasions it looked like Ja was open in the post for a split second before the defender recovered. It's that second in which the entry pass has got to be made. I think that's a big area of improvement that needs to be worked on.

[UrinalCake]

Couple thoughts:
- MSU did a nice job of taking away the wing entry pass to Okafor after our fast start. I think Duke would like to run everything through Jah, but when they don't it's not necessarily because they've forgotten him -- sometimes the opposing defense takes away your options.

We definitely had trouble getting the ball into Oak in the second half, but I didn't feel like MSU was doing anything special. They weren't fronting the post or double-teaming off the ball or anything. I would expect this to be a point of emphasis in practice this week - the other team isn't going to just sit back and let us make the post entry pass uninhibited, so if it's not there then swing the ball around and find another way to get it in, but don't just give up.

[tux]

Duke looked great for the first 8 or so minutes. After that, there was a lot of inconsistency. Some very impatient half court offense. In particular, I thought Cook and Winslow were too quick to go one-one-one and the team as a whole couldn't get it to Okafor, for reasons that weren't clear to me. Yes, the MSU bigs did a good job of fronting Okafor, but can't you throw a lob pass over the defender? The weak side help was a long ways away.

I love the way T. Jones and Winslow push the ball. Wish Cook would get that mentality. He seems to like walking the ball up.

The defense took away the three, but didn't turn MSU over all that much. Of course, MSU has a very experienced backcourt, and a great coach, so that might have been part of it.

On the rotation, looks like Kedsy got it right yet again. Sage, waiting to hear from you on whether you still think K is going 10 deep this year!

I saw the defense differently. MSU shot 20 threes, but made only 5. As someone else noted, they took a lot of long 2's as well, and hit some tough ones. I didn't think they had too many contested shots --- those 20 threes were pretty good looks, they just shot poorly. I thought MSU's offense had us chasing the ball around (i.e., getting us out of position) quite a bit. The biggest difference is that Duke now is playing a true center, so we have better rim protection. We had 5 blocks to their 0. A better back line can really make up for mistakes on the perimeter.

In terms of execution (offense and defense), I thought MSU played a little better than Duke. A lot of that is having a more experienced team who didn't have to start from the beginning, so to speak, on the first day of practice. The fact that Duke still won by 10 (and was never in any real trouble) just shows how high the ceiling is for this team. We have all the pieces to be great. We need to have some more secondary action in the offense to get Okafor the ball in good spots IMO.

---

To quickly address an earlier post that upset some (maybe all) of you. I didn't feel like I was accusing K of lying about Rasheed; maybe I implied that, so I apologize if I offended folks. I believe K to be very honest. But coaches do occasionally "stretch" the truth to protect their players. Again, not saying K did this, as I don't know and my earlier post could have been worded much better. What I saw was Rasheed playing his normal minutes until a quick shot led to a MSU run out (and a Duke foul) after the first substitution of the 2nd half. Up to that point, Rasheed looked like his normal self and I saw some great ball pressure from him in the first half --- again, he could have been sick and just playing through it. (K's basically saying that Sheed played only 12 minutes b/c he was sick --- surely I'm not the only one who was surprised by that?) Anyway, I'm probably just digging the hole deeper here, so I'll shut up...

[Billy Dat]

Mostly we're just trying to have Jahlil seal his man near the post and get him an entry pass. A couple of times we hit him with a pocket pass. MSU did a good job not letting Jahlil seal his man for the pass in the second half. We're going to need to work on ball reversal and screening for Jahlil on timing passes to get him open. Also, I would love to see Jahlil used more in the pick-and-roll and getting the ball to him moving to the basket.
Once he gets the ball down low, he's money.



MSU did a nice job of taking away the wing entry pass to Okafor after our fast start. I think Duke would like to run everything through Jah, but when they don't it's not necessarily because they've forgotten him -- sometimes the opposing defense takes away your options.



Those are great stats. I'll repeat what I wrote earlier in the thread - we have to get the ball to Okafor more. The goal should be for him to get the ball on as many possessions as possible and as early in the possession as possible. With his post moves and passing ability he is as nearly impossible to defend as I've seen in college.


Note the recurring theme, one that I agree with. Okafor is a ridiculously gifted offensive force who needs the ball as much as we can get it to him. But, as tux said, MSU focused on denying him the ball where he wanted it, as I am sure every team will make their #1 defensive priority. As OldSchool said, we need to develop dozens of ways to get him the ball, and he needs to be an active participant in that process. But, there were many times last night where he caught the ball in single coverage and was too slow in making a move. He can basically abuse anyone one-on-one and needs to exploit those advantages (be quick but don't hurry). At the same time, the rest of the guys need to optimize how they react to Jah's gravitational pull. We are ok at cutting into the open space, and Cook/Jones/Winslow need to be aggressive about putting it on the deck and forcing the defense to react. I also noticed something that drove me crazy last year, we often take way too long to both initiate the offense and reset it when it is stagnant. This is definitely a squad that should be pushing pace and going for high possession games. But, the trend in our number of assisted baskets is great, we really share the ball. We haven't had an offensive center like Jah in so long, if ever, that I am desperate for the team to maximize its offensive potential.



Tyus does. And that's enough for me at this point in time. Tyus...wow. Welcome to the national scene.

Yeah.

Heading into the game, I felt like Okafor, Winslow, Cook, Amile, Rasheed and Marshall were fairly known quantities. We know what our veterans can do, and the two freshmen (Jah and Justise) have been awesome so far. Jones hadn't quite yet revealed himself. But, with the game in the balance, he basically took over and look mighty confident and comfortable doing so. A friend of mine drew a comparison to the preternatural poise of Syracuse's Tyler Ennis last year and I agree that Jones showed that same kind of silent assassin look last night.


Our D was good but not great. I think we missed Sheed on that end of the court. Not our best rebounding effort, but we only played Amile for a half.

I felt this way about our defense, too, but I didn't re-watch any of the game so I can't really put my finger on it. I didn't think our transition D was particularly good, we seemed to give up a lot of buckets that way. They also seemed to get a lot of good open looks from 3. I also thought, from a rebounding perspective, that they got some lucky bounces, but they also outfought/outhustled us for some. Still, to my eye, we have looked much better on that end than last year. That should continue to evolve and hopefully improve.

I echo all praise of Quinn Cook. He did a great job balancing attacking the rim and hunting his 3. Based on all the talk about his leadership and the impact it has on the freshmen, I think he's, perhaps, the biggest surprise of the early season.

I close with a few words about Mr. Winslow. He's 3 games into his freshman year and I am treating a 15 point, 6 rebound, 3 assist, 9 foul shot attempt game as something I expect from him. All of the above delivered with nary a change in facial expression. When the game was in hand during the last few minutes, we were shooting foul shots and he was standing near the MSU bench and Izzo went up and said something to him, and while I couldn't read his lips, it was some kind of praise. Justise's expression never changed, he didn't immediately react, but as the shooter was putting up the second shot, he shot back a quick, "Thanks coach" to Izzo and got back into the defensive half. He's terrifying. I love him.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

To quickly address an earlier post that upset some (maybe all) of you. I didn't feel like I was accusing K of lying about Rasheed; maybe I implied that, so I apologize if I offended folks. I believe K to be very honest. But coaches do occasionally "stretch" the truth to protect their players. Again, not saying K did this, as I don't know and my earlier post could have been worded much better. What I saw was Rasheed playing his normal minutes until a quick shot led to a MSU run out (and a Duke foul) after the first substitution of the 2nd half. Up to that point, Rasheed looked like his normal self and I saw some great ball pressure from him in the first half --- again, he could have been sick and just playing through it. (K's basically saying that Sheed played only 12 minutes b/c he was sick --- surely I'm not the only one who was surprised by that?) Anyway, I'm probably just digging the hole deeper here, so I'll shut up...

In my mind, if K says he was sick, that is the end of the story. Historically, I can't recall K ever "covering" for a player's mishaps. If he is pissed, he is quiet in public.

Sheed was in the doghouse last year and K didn't make excuses for him. If I remember correctly, it came via staff that his conditioning and practice weren't up to snuff. No one pulled out any soft excuses.

[Kfanarmy]

Several have mentioned that Okafor should get the ball as much as possible. I'm all for balance, especially with the offensieve talent on this team. We've all seen what happens when the only one or two "scorers" on the team have an off night....and a team with a lot of size, like UK, may reek havoc on one ubertalented post player, unless there is some serious fire power on the perimeter.

[duke4ever19]

Stephen A Smith and Skip Bayless are already bowing before Okafor. Yeah, they are paid to sensationalize and be controversial, but it's nice to have the hype surrounding the big fella and I think he will handle it well.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPhgvAGZU6w

[CDu]

My thoughts on the game are as follows:

1. First and foremost, it was nice to see us get a fairly comfortable win against a BCS school with a long history of playing well. Even if that team was overmatched (the difference in talent on the floor was palpable). Even when we were clearly not on all cylinders. It's nice that "not quite our best" is enough to beat a quality opponent on a neutral floor with room to spare.

2. Okafor is just a joke. Unless you are a REALLY good big man, he's just so much better that it is hard to fathom. Granted, MSU's bigs are not very good, but he made them all look silly on the blocks. It's just a different game for him out there.

3. I do not get the folks that are criticizing Cook's performance. He was terrific. Was he absolutely perfect? No. But he had 19 points on only 12 shots (and shot 7-12 from the field and 3-4 from 3) and added 6 assists and 1 steal compared to no turnovers. That's ridiculously good. And on the defensive end, he and Tyus Jones held MSU's guards to just one point per FGA. Folks, that's getting it done. Cook played about as well as I've seen him play against a quality opponent. Hopefully it continues into March this year rather than being relegated to Nov-Jan Cook only.

4. Tyus Jones was just beastly in the second half. Again, part of that was the matchup: MSU's guards were, as mentioned pre-game, not very stout defensively. But Jones just abused them repeatedly in the second half. 17 points on 5 FGA? 4 assists and 2 steals to no turnovers? That's right: our two PG combined for 36 points on 11-17 shooting, 10 assists, 3 steals, and ZERO turnovers. Just awesome performances by both guys.

5. Winslow did just a little bit of everything, but two plays really stood out for me by him. One was the coast-to-coast layup he got in which he crossed over one defender mid-court and blew by another defender for the layup. The other was a driving layup he got against the teeth of the defense with the clock winding down. MSU had really stifled us on a possession for about 30 seconds. Winslow got the ball on the wing and took it right by his man and right into the lane and scored easily. It was like a hot knife through butter. That had to be demoralizing for MSU to play such good defense for so long and then give up the basket so easily. We have several guys capable of doing that to a team this year.

6. So it didn't take long for the "Duke will play deeper this year" crowd to be quieted. Despite foul trouble for Okafor and ineffectiveness for Jefferson, Ojeleye saw just 2 minutes. And despite illness for Sulaimon and ineffectiveness of Matt Jones, Allen just played 1 minute. Granted it is just one game, but this game screamed opportunity to play more depth and yet Coach K still went to his old rotational preference. So I think that unless we are blowing teams out, we're not going to see a lot of PT for Ojeleye and Allen.

7. The one concern for me coming out of this game was that we were outrebounded dramatically by MSU. Most years I'd not be concerned at all by this. But MSU is REALLY small this year. Costello and Schilling are tweener PF/C and not very good. Valentine is 6'5". Dawson and Clark played PF at 6'6". They even played a 6'7" walk-on at C for 6 minutes. Those guys combined to outrebound our bigs 24-17 in spite of our size advantage at each spot. Thankfully MSU was very talent-deprived (only three guys who I'd consider BCS-level players). But it is something to keep an eye on against better teams.

8. The only other concern was that I don't think we did terribly well with the pick-and-roll defense. Trice managed 8 assists almost exclusively off the pick and roll, and Valentine and Nairns got theirs mostly in that setting as well. That and rebounding are my only concerns with our defense. Otherwise, we looked really good on that end.

9. I don't think we need to worry too much about having capable 3pt shooters. I'm not expecting us to shoot 50% from deep, but I think we'll be good enough from 3 to keep teams honest.

[tux]

Several have mentioned that Okafor should get the ball as much as possible. I'm all for balance, especially with the offensieve talent on this team. We've all seen what happens when the only one or two "scorers" on the team have an off night....and a team with a lot of size, like UK, may reek havoc on one ubertalented post player, unless there is some serious fire power on the perimeter.

Agree, but I think the point folks are making is to run the offense through Okafor as much as possible, to take advantage of how that makes the opposing defense react (double teams, rotations, etc.) --- not that Okafor would shoot every time he touches the ball, just that good things tend to happen when he does. I.e., would expect the efficiency of the other players to go up as well. So, balance via Okafor.

[COYS]

I saw the defense differently. MSU shot 20 threes, but made only 5. As someone else noted, they took a lot of long 2's as well, and hit some tough ones. I didn't think they had too many contested shots --- those 20 threes were pretty good looks, they just shot poorly. I thought MSU's offense had us chasing the ball around (i.e., getting us out of position) quite a bit. The biggest difference is that Duke now is playing a true center, so we have better rim protection. We had 5 blocks to their 0. A better back line can really make up for mistakes on the perimeter.



To my eyes, most of the mistakes on the perimeter were the result of our defense getting used to icing screens. There were times when we did a great job forcing the ball handler away from the screener. The secondary defender usually did a good job containing in those situations. However, there were other times when the primary defender failed to prevent the ball-handler from using the screen, leaving the secondary defender stuck between containing and switching. In many instances the primary and secondary defender switched onto the same offensive player for a second, leaving whichever of the two players was unguarded wide open. This led to a few open jumpers, or, if the two defenders converged on the ball handler, open cuts to the basket. In addition, our guards were switching on most screens set a few feet or more above the three point line but then trying to ice on ball screens at the three point line or closer. Sometimes it seems like they got used to switching on a screen that probably should have been iced.

While the defense wasn't perfect, I'm already preferring our attempt to ice screens to last year's (and most years') hedge and recover strategy. Even when the defense breaks down, our defenders are closer to the basket and therefore able to recover quickly, especially with our athleticism. Just as you mentioned, some of those 5 blocks were the result of a quick recovery by the defenders. Michigan State wasn't breaking us down off the dribble, too much, but they did screen relentlessly. If we can improve our ability to ice some of those screens, I think we'll see fewer open looks at the rim. Long twos, even open long twos (although I'd like to limit them), I can live with.

[Kedsy]

Maybe the most balanced Duke team since 09-10?

Was the 2009-10 team particularly balanced? Three players did pretty much all the scoring. We didn't have a traditional PG, we lacked exceptional quickness, had no post game to speak of, didn't do all that much in transition, didn't force many turnovers, and shot a ton of threes.

Obviously it was a really good team, but I'd say it was one of the least balanced Duke teams in the Coach K era.


Not our best rebounding effort, but we only played Amile for a half.

Not just rebounding, but we missed Amile's defense, too, when he wasn't in the game. I think people are underestimating how important he is on D. I think we look like a very good defensive team when Justise and Amile and Jahlil are all in there, and an OK defensive team when one of them is on the bench.


To my eyes, most of the mistakes on the perimeter were the result of our defense getting used to icing screens. There were times when we did a great job forcing the ball handler away from the screener. The secondary defender usually did a good job containing in those situations. However, there were other times when the primary defender failed to prevent the ball-handler from using the screen, leaving the secondary defender stuck between containing and switching. In many instances the primary and secondary defender switched onto the same offensive player for a second, leaving whichever of the two players was unguarded wide open. This led to a few open jumpers, or, if the two defenders converged on the ball handler, open cuts to the basket. In addition, our guards were switching on most screens set a few feet or more above the three point line but then trying to ice on ball screens at the three point line or closer. Sometimes it seems like they got used to switching on a screen that probably should have been iced.

While the defense wasn't perfect, I'm already preferring our attempt to ice screens to last year's (and most years') hedge and recover strategy. Even when the defense breaks down, our defenders are closer to the basket and therefore able to recover quickly, especially with our athleticism. Just as you mentioned, some of those 5 blocks were the result of a quick recovery by the defenders. Michigan State wasn't breaking us down off the dribble, too much, but they did screen relentlessly. If we can improve our ability to ice some of those screens, I think we'll see fewer open looks at the rim. Long twos, even open long twos (although I'd like to limit them), I can live with.

This is a great point. On several of MSU's successful screen-and-roll plays I said to myself, "How come we didn't ICE that screen?" I imagine it's harder to do against better teams, and we hadn't really played against better teams before, so hopefully we'll get better at that aspect.

[CDu]

This is a great point. On several of MSU's successful screen-and-roll plays I said to myself, "How come we didn't ICE that screen?" I imagine it's harder to do against better teams, and we hadn't really played against better teams before, so hopefully we'll get better at that aspect.

Icing screens puts a lot of responsibility on the guard to recognize the screen and funnel it on time. It takes work to do it well. It is why Thibs will play Hinrich - who is an offensive liability - because he is so good at reading offenses. Jones and Cook are definitely facing a learning curve.

[duke96]

Tangential to the topic, but Jah now has an 83.3% shooting percentage from the floor over 3 games. Apologies if this was raised explicitly elsewhere and I missed it, but this is pretty insane. Out of curiosity, any of the stats gurus know what is the highest a Duke player has achieved over the course of a full season (with a reasonable minimum number of shots)?

[roywhite]

Tangential to the topic, but Jah now has an 83.3% shooting percentage from the floor over 3 games. Apologies if this was raised explicitly elsewhere and I missed it, but this is pretty insane. Out of curiosity, any of the stats gurus know what is the highest a Duke player has achieved over the course of a full season (with a reasonable minimum number of shots)?

Just looked it up.

Christian Laettner had the highest FG% for a season (minimum 100 FGs) with 72.3% accuracy in his freshman year

For comparison, some career stats:
Carlos Boozer 63.1% (leader)
Elton Brand 61.2%
Christian Laettner 57.4%
Mason Plumlee 57.4%

[flyingdutchdevil]

Just looked it up.

Christian Laettner had the highest FG% for a season (minimum 100 FGs) with 72.3% accuracy in his freshman year

For comparison, some career stats:
Carlos Boozer 63.1% (leader)
Elton Brand 61.2%
Christian Laettner 57.4%
Mason Plumlee 57.4%

Wow. Boozer had 63%? Insane.

The Oak's numbers look amazing because a) he's really good, b) opposing coaches have no idea how to guard him cus he's a freshman with minimal games under his belt, c) he is incredibly fresh.

As the season progresses, I expect Jah's numbers to come down to earth (65%+ ;)). But I wouldn't be surprised if the percentage stayed really high. Jah is sooooo smart with the ball, which is something you rarely see from a freshman. A lot of great freshman players (Parker, Rivers, Randle, Wiggins) take a lot of dumb shots. In three games, I've seen Jahlil take 1 bad shot (maybe 2). That is so incredibly rare.

I expect Jah to continue being smart with the ball. I also expect him to have a few close triple-double games. There will absolutely be games where the coach's gameplan is to double-team Jah every time he touches the ball. Against MSU, they didn't double that much. But once Jah has a few monster games, some coach will implement the "double at all times" strategy, leading to plenty of kick outs to open 3pt bombers and cutters.

[superdave]

We went away from it pretty early... will be interesting to see if that is a trend or if K thinks we were unable to execute effectively this early in the season.

Agreed. I would like to see us use our depth (even if it just for short stretches) to really apply pressure full court, force turnovers and speed the other team up. We have the guard depth to do this very well.

Perhaps vs. Sparty Coach K did not think this would work for long. But part of the fun of a full court press is throwing it at the other team during the middle of a half and forcing them to adjust. It compares nicely to an onsides kick and can buy you an extra possession while making the other team tighten up.

[superdave]

I could have sworn Cook dribbled into a triple team with about 6 minutes to go, and turned the ball over. He might have jacked up a shot, so maybe it didn't register as a turnover. Cook was really impressive for long stretches, but I thought he had some "hero ball" moments in the last 5 or 6 minutes that brought MSt back to within 10...Did I see it wrong?

I can recall two very forced shots and one really lazy perimeter pass from Quinn. Other than that he played exceptionally well. His ability to knock down a spot up 3 and get into the lane when the defense breaks down is important for this team. I even thought he maintained his defensive focus pretty well. He played 36 minutes which is an awful lot on this deep of a team. But I suspect he soaked up some of Rasheed's minutes last night and that 36 will be closer to 30 going forward.

[Duke3517]

My takeaway from yesterday... Okafor, T Jones, Winslow, Alexander, Lyles, K Towns, and Harrison twins...too advanced for the college game. They are way too good...

Thank God three of them play for Duke!

[pfrduke]

Wow. Boozer had 63%? Insane.

Boozer's 2002 season was really excellent. He made 230 of 346 shots from the floor, good for his highest season shooting percentage (66.5%) in his highest volume shooting season. He added in 178 of 236 from the free thrown line, again his highest season FT shooting percentage in his highest volume FT shooting season. Given the volume of shots, I view Boozer's performance as more impressive than Laettner's freshman performance (in which he made 115 of 159 shots). Individual preferences, of course, may vary.

[superdave]

SportsCenter had a really great statistic: Duke scored 1.38 points/possession when Okafor got a touch (16 possessions) and only 0.95 when he didn't (21 possessions). In addition we shot 71% compared to only 38% when he didn't get a touch. Pretty amazing.

Thank you for sharing this stat. After the first handful of possessions, Sparty made adjustments to send a second defender down (pinching, sagging?) to prevent an entry pass to Jah. It worked well enough for Okafor to have to work much harder to get the ball. But it also worked well enough for Duke's perimeter players to temporarily forget that their sole existence in basketball life is to feed Jah in the post. Wake Forest used to forget about Eric Williams after the defense clamped down. If it works great, find a way to keep it working.

Duke ran a play for Kyle and occassionaly for Mason where they set a weak side screen, got their defender caught in traffic, then flashed to the ball-side block for an entry pass. It's like the big man version of a back door cut and really helps keep defenses honest. We should look for that opportunity with Okafor, Jefferson and Winslow.

Okafor is shooting 25-30 on the season. He has shot 10 times in each of our three games. That's .833 from the field. He needs a lot more shots with that kind of efficiency. He has also only been to thee free throw line 7 times through three games. Part of that is that his first move is so quick and he converts. But he should be saddling opponents with a lot more fouls. Feed the beast.

[jimsumner]

Boozer's 2002 season was really excellent. He made 230 of 346 shots from the floor, good for his highest season shooting percentage (66.5%) in his highest volume shooting season. He added in 178 of 236 from the free thrown line, again his highest season FT shooting percentage in his highest volume FT shooting season. Given the volume of shots, I view Boozer's performance as more impressive than Laettner's freshman performance (in which he made 115 of 159 shots). Individual preferences, of course, may vary.

Boozer did benefit from playing with some pretty good passers. But he also had a pretty good sense of what he could and should be doing and what he couldn't and shouldn't be doing. He was a low-post player and he embraced the challenge of being the best darn low-post player he could be. He rarely took a bad shot.

So far, I'm seeing that from Okafor, who also plays with some pretty good passers. Obviously, his shooting percentage isn't going to stay anywhere near where it is now. But something in the 60s from the field for the season seems quite doable.

[devildeac]

Wow. Boozer had 63%? Insane.

The Oak's numbers look amazing because a) he's really good, b) opposing coaches have no idea how to guard him cus he's a freshman with minimal games under his belt, c) he is incredibly fresh.

As the season progresses, I expect Jah's numbers to come down to earth (65%+ ;)). But I wouldn't be surprised if the percentage stayed really high. Jah is sooooo smart with the ball, which is something you rarely see from a freshman. A lot of great freshman players (Parker, Rivers, Randle, Wiggins) take a lot of dumb shots. In three games, I've seen Jahlil take 1 bad shot (maybe 2). That is so incredibly rare.

I expect Jah to continue being smart with the ball. I also expect him to have a few close triple-double games. There will absolutely be games where the coach's gameplan is to double-team Jah every time he touches the ball. Against MSU, they didn't double that much. But once Jah has a few monster games, some coach will implement the "double at all times" strategy, leading to plenty of kick outs to open 3pt bombers and cutters.

I suspect another strategy will also be to hack-a-Jah and see how many/what fouls the refs will actually call. Not that anything like that has ever been done before (cough, Jabari, cough):rolleyes::mad:.

[MChambers]

I suspect another strategy will also be to hack-a-Jah and see how many/what fouls the refs will actually call. Not that anything like that has ever been done before (cough, Jabari, cough):rolleyes::mad:.
It's going to be interesting to see how college refs handle defenders on Jahlil. I remember that in the late 1970s we used to joke that one of the unwritten rules of the NBA was that anyone could foul Abdul-Jabbar and not get called for it. Jahlil is so big and so dominant that I worry this could happen to him, at least in college.

Also, he may get called for a lot of offensive fouls, just because of his size and strength. I wasn't so sure about the offensive fouls called on him last night. Seemed like they could have gone either way, for the most part, but maybe it is my Duke blue glasses that made me see it that way.

I did like his reaction, however. He didn't get upset or overreact in any way. Seems amazingly mature. I think he'll make whatever adjustments are necessary.

[Troublemaker]

Overall, I was pleased. The most pleasing aspect was all the plays we made down the stretch to keep MSU at bay. It doesn't get mentioned as often, but last season's "fourth quarter" performance was 1B to the 1A of defense as to why Duke had a relatively poor season. As bad as last season's defense was, in many of our losses we hit the 10-minute mark of the 2nd half with either the lead or an "anybody's game" deficit. Then we collapsed. But that didn't happen last night.
That said, I think Duke is better, even this early in the season, than how we played last night. When the non-conference slate is done, I wonder if we'll look back upon this game as being one of our least impressive performances. Our energy and demeanor seemed off, and MSU appeared to be much looser in the pregame. I think this contributed to us not playing a clean game defensively, not rebounding well, and not pushing enough in transition.
Coach K said that the freshmen were too jacked up for their first big game of the season and couldn't ration energy properly. That dovetails with how MSU more or less played evenly with Duke after the first 6-7 minutes of the game. Still, there's something to be said for never giving up the lead and the aforementioned very good crunch-time play.
Jahlil seems to prefer posting at the right block rather than the left block. Most right-handed players prefer the left block so they can set up going to middle for a jump hook or running hook with their strong hand. But I think Jahlil prefers the right block because his go-to or favorite move is the spin to the baseline and lay it off the glass with his strong hand.
We ran more pick-and-roll with Jahlil in this game than we had shown in the previous four games. I think this will continue to be the case against good teams where post entry is a bit tougher. A couple of times the pocket pass to Jahlil didn't take him all the way to the hoop for a score but served as a de facto entry pass.
Justise continues to impress. He's a much better ball-handler/creator than I expected. And Justise is not blind. He sees the floor well and makes the right pass on his drives, and we run pick and roll for him.
I wonder if we will see Justise play this much PF against other good teams, though. He could do it against MSU; Dawson and Justise are both listed as 6'6" 225 lbs. But soon the opposing PF will either outweigh or out-height him (and usually both). How will he fare against the likes of Nigel Hayes, Monrezl Harrell, Brice Johnson, and Anthony Gill? Maybe great, we'll see.
We have to board better (and the poor boarding was already happening when we played the normal big lineup with Amile at PF). This team should be a strong rebounding team, so when going against another strong rebounding team, the totals should be more even. Not grabbing enough defensive boards (especially the first 30 minutes of the game) also served to neuter what should be Duke's dangerous transition game. MSU did get some lucky bounces on offensive boards, though.
Giving MSU credit, they were tough and refused to go away. They savaged us in transition and hit their long 2s, and Trice and Valentine are good playmakers who found some holes in our defense to set up teammates.
Duke really respected Trice and Valentine's ability to hit a pull-up. When Duke iced the ball screen in this game, our bigs came out farther than usual to take away the pull-up 3. But playing up like this may have led to some mistakes as well.
During icing, Trice snuck past Jahlil a couple of times on the baseline, which shouldn't happen and gave MSU good opportunities. Especially on sideline ice, you're basically bracketing the ball-handler with two defenders. If the ball-handler can escape on either side of that bracket -- either past the guard to the middle of the floor or past the big man to the baseline -- it will expose the defense and get it scrambling.
Will we continue to abandon the full court press against good teams, or was this specific to MSU, meaning we scouted them to be good press-breakers (very good transition team, likes to run = good press-breakers?)? If we press more in future games against good teams, the rotation will naturally deepen. If not, this traditional rotation will remain.

[grossbus]

"K complimented Matt in his interview."

For what???

Would rather see more Grayson and less Matt. Hard to believe Matt came in with a shooter's rep. Never makes a shot when it matters. His D doesn't seem all that great to me. Maybe I am just missing it.

[Bluegrassdevil1]

It's going to be interesting to see how college refs handle defenders on Jahlil. I remember that in the late 1970s we used to joke that one of the unwritten rules of the NBA was that anyone could foul Abdul-Jabbar and not get called for it. Jahlil is so big and so dominant that I worry this could happen to him, at least in college.

Also, he may get called for a lot of offensive fouls, just because of his size and strength. I wasn't so sure about the offensive fouls called on him last night. Seemed like they could have gone either way, for the most part, but maybe it is my Duke blue glasses that made me see it that way.

I did like his reaction, however. He didn't get upset or overreact in any way. Seems amazingly mature. I think he'll make whatever adjustments are necessary.

Your observation regarding Okafor's non-reaction to foul calls is brilliant. It is my hope that if Okafor gains a "next play" reputation, then 50/50 calls begin to shift his way. I think that officials are cognizant of being involved in big games, with big players, and when a big time player does not try to show anyone up, then said player begins to get the benefit of the doubt, and if Okafor continues to move on without drawing attention to himself, then the combination of Coach K "expressing his displeasure", with Okafor's demeanor, will lead to positive results.

[tux]

Overall, I was pleased. The most pleasing aspect was all the plays we made down the stretch to keep MSU at bay. It doesn't get mentioned as often, but last season's "fourth quarter" performance was 1B to the 1A of defense as to why Duke had a relatively poor season. As bad as last season's defense was, in many of our losses we hit the 10-minute mark of the 2nd half with either the lead or an "anybody's game" deficit. Then we collapsed. But that didn't happen last night.
That said, I think Duke is better, even this early in the season, than how we played last night. When the non-conference slate is done, I wonder if we'll look back upon this game as being one of our least impressive performances. Our energy and demeanor seemed off, and MSU appeared to be much looser in the pregame. I think this contributed to us not playing a clean game defensively, not rebounding well, and not pushing enough in transition.
Coach K said that the freshmen were too jacked up for their first big game of the season and couldn't ration energy properly. That dovetails with how MSU more or less played evenly with Duke after the first 6-7 minutes of the game. Still, there's something to be said for never giving up the lead and the aforementioned very good crunch-time play.
Jahlil seems to prefer posting at the right block rather than the left block. Most right-handed players prefer the left block so they can set up going to middle for a jump hook or running hook with their strong hand. But I think Jahlil prefers the right block because his go-to or favorite move is the spin to the baseline and lay it off the glass with his strong hand.
We ran more pick-and-roll with Jahlil in this game than we had shown in the previous four games. I think this will continue to be the case against good teams where post entry is a bit tougher. A couple of times the pocket pass to Jahlil didn't take him all the way to the hoop for a score but served as a de facto entry pass.
Justise continues to impress. He's a much better ball-handler/creator than I expected. And Justise is not blind. He sees the floor well and makes the right pass on his drives, and we run pick and roll for him.
I wonder if we will see Justise play this much PF against other good teams, though. He could do it against MSU; Dawson and Justise are both listed as 6'6" 225 lbs. But soon the opposing PF will either outweigh or out-height him (and usually both). How will he fare against the likes of Nigel Hayes, Monrezl Harrell, Brice Johnson, and Anthony Gill? Maybe great, we'll see.
We have to board better (and the poor boarding was already happening when we played the normal big lineup with Amile at PF). This team should be a strong rebounding team, so when going against another strong rebounding team, the totals should be more even. Not grabbing enough defensive boards (especially the first 30 minutes of the game) also served to neuter what should be Duke's dangerous transition game. MSU did get some lucky bounces on offensive boards, though.
Giving MSU credit, they were tough and refused to go away. They savaged us in transition and hit their long 2s, and Trice and Valentine are good playmakers who found some holes in our defense to set up teammates.
Duke really respected Trice and Valentine's ability to hit a pull-up. When Duke iced the ball screen in this game, our bigs came out farther than usual to take away the pull-up 3. But playing up like this may have led to some mistakes as well.
During icing, Trice snuck past Jahlil a couple of times on the baseline, which shouldn't happen and gave MSU good opportunities. Especially on sideline ice, you're basically bracketing the ball-handler with two defenders. If the ball-handler can escape on either side of that bracket -- either past the guard to the middle of the floor or past the big man to the baseline -- it will expose the defense and get it scrambling.
Will we continue to abandon the full court press against good teams, or was this specific to MSU, meaning we scouted them to be good press-breakers (very good transition team, likes to run = good press-breakers?)? If we press more in future games against good teams, the rotation will naturally deepen. If not, this traditional rotation will remain.



Great stuff.

Apropos to nothing really: Although NBA teams have been "icing" sideline pick and rolls for many years, we seem to have reached the golden age of the term. I blame Grantland. Whether you hedge or ice, it still requires all 5 defenders to be in the right position and working together to prevent a breakdown. The guy guarding the ball still needs to recover quickly (or another defender needs to rotate) or you're left with your big guarding a ball handler in space. (Don't get me wrong. I love that K and the staff are trying new things. But I worry that "icing" is now seen as some sort of defensive panacea for Duke.)

[JohnGalt]

"K complimented Matt in his interview."

For what???

Would rather see more Grayson and less Matt. Hard to believe Matt came in with a shooter's rep. Never makes a shot when it matters. His D doesn't seem all that great to me. Maybe I am just missing it.

K commented how poised he was on defense. He's bigger/longer than I remembered and did a good job of disrupting some of MSU's passing flows. I think it might have gone differently had Rasheed been fully healthy, but that doesn't take away from Matt's performance. He did a very solid job when asked to fill-in...yet another positive to take away from the game.

I totally agree about the jerseys. Those babies were SHARP.

[AncientPsychicT]

I totally agree about the jerseys. Those babies were SHARP.

They're the all-white fauxbacks that I was lauding before the season. I believe they were supposed to be our special, one-time jerseys that Nike provided for last year's "show off a new Nike jersey" game (I believe they debuted vs Maryland, not 100% sure about that though), but the team loved them so much that they wound up wearing them several more times over the course of the year. I'm so glad they decided to bring them back this year, can't wait to see them in Cameron.

[TheDuckStore]

3. I do not get the folks that are criticizing Cook's performance. He was terrific. Was he absolutely perfect? No. But he had 19 points on only 12 shots (and shot 7-12 from the field and 3-4 from 3) and added 6 assists and 1 steal compared to no turnovers. That's ridiculously good. And on the defensive end, he and Tyus Jones held MSU's guards to just one point per FGA. Folks, that's getting it done. Cook played about as well as I've seen him play against a quality opponent. Hopefully it continues into March this year rather than being relegated to Nov-Jan Cook only.


I couldn't agree more. Cook had an excellent game (better than what can be expected on a night-in/night-out basis). It is clear he has the green light because he went after his offensive opportunities with an aggression I would not associate with his game in prior years. But you also point out the other side of the coin... will Cook be consistent and fight through the inevitable "down" games that will occur over the course of the season? He has such an important role on this team as a scorer we'll need him to be locked in and confident.

[roywhite]

Top Plays from DukeBluePlanet; Duke 81 Michigan State 71 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f13LinMidY8&feature=youtu.be)

our young guns showing their stuff on a big stage

[BD80]

Tangential to the topic, but Jah now has an 83.3% shooting percentage from the floor over 3 games. ...

Might want to slow your roll, curb your enthusiasm. Jah is already trending down . Only shot 80% from the field once we played a top 20 team.


I suspect another strategy will also be to hack-a-Jah and see how many/what fouls the refs will actually call. ...

We'd have to call it Jab-a-Jah or Poke-the-Oak


... Would rather see more Grayson and less Matt. Hard to believe Matt came in with a shooter's rep. Never makes a shot when it matters. His D doesn't seem all that great to me. Maybe I am just missing it.

Yep

[flyingdutchdevil]

I couldn't agree more. Cook had an excellent game (better than what can be expected on a night-in/night-out basis). It is clear he has the green light because he went after his offensive opportunities with an aggression I would not associate with his game in prior years. But you also point out the other side of the coin... will Cook be consistent and fight through the inevitable "down" games that will occur over the course of the season? He has such an important role on this team as a scorer we'll need him to be locked in and confident.

People were complaining about Cook? Are you serious? DBR...come on! Cook had a fantastic game.

And I'm willing to bet that Cook is a part of the reason that the freshman are doing so well. His leadership has been praised by the coaching staff and you can see the players - especially the freshman - responding positively to Cook.

He's really turned over a new leaf. I've always liked Cook, but I'm starting to love him now.

Bromance!

[Skitzle]

"K complimented Matt in his interview."

For what???

Would rather see more Grayson and less Matt. Hard to believe Matt came in with a shooter's rep. Never makes a shot when it matters. His D doesn't seem all that great to me. Maybe I am just missing it.

I'd say and so it begins, but it began like 4 months ago.

Want to know what makes Grayson the same as a Pocius, Alex Murphy, Gbinije? He will ride the pine all year barring injury.
Want to know what makes Grayson different, he's light years better as a freshman than any of the guys above were in their first year.

Number 1 plus Number 2 will mean that this year posters on this board will clamor more than ever for the guy on the bench to get more playing time, especially after losses.

Going to be fun. Anyone want to start a count?

[oldnavy]

In my mind, if K says he was sick, that is the end of the story. Historically, I can't recall K ever "covering" for a player's mishaps. If he is pissed, he is quiet in public.

Sheed was in the doghouse last year and K didn't make excuses for him. If I remember correctly, it came via staff that his conditioning and practice weren't up to snuff. No one pulled out any soft excuses.

There was a point in the game when they panned to Okafor and the Duke bench and they all looked sort of "sick" to me... There was none of the usual energy or enthusiasm that we normally see on the Duke bench... and I had this thought during the game before K's comments.

Maybe there is a mild virus running through the team??? This the season...

[duke96]

Might want to slow your roll, curb your enthusiasm. Jah is already trending down . Only shot 80% from the field once we played a top 20 team.

Good point ;) Its funny he also made that hook early in the game coming across the lane when he got called for the O foul. that was actually one of his tougher shots of the night and was nothing but net! And no stat because of the foul. He is very smooth...

[GGLC]

"K complimented Matt in his interview."

For what???

Would rather see more Grayson and less Matt. Hard to believe Matt came in with a shooter's rep. Never makes a shot when it matters. His D doesn't seem all that great to me. Maybe I am just missing it.

Yes, you're just missing it.

His unstinting defense, focus, and energy are all fantastic; I truly believe that he's one of the most important pieces on this team.

[Monmouth77]

Yes, you're just missing it.

His unstinting defense, focus, and energy are all fantastic; I truly believe that he's one of the most important pieces on this team.

I agree with this, and also thought Matt's defense was outstanding. And the way we are able to mix and match lineups at the wing positions this year, we don't *need* him to be a prolific scorer. But it sure would be nice to see his corner 3-pointer fall into the basket consistently.

One of the things that had me feeling so excited as I watched the exhibition games and first two regular season matchups was the fact that our most disruptive defenders (M. Jones and Winslow) also seemed to be able to score the ball. Contrast that with our best defensive lineup from last season where Josh and Tyler were a bit offensively challenged. Obviously, Winslow will be a scorer. And Matt doesn't necessarily have to be. But our team is just that much tougher to defend if Matt is a legitimate threat to hit threes or drive the ball effectively.

[COYS]

And the way we are able to mix and match lineups at the wing positions this year, we don't *need* him to be a prolific scorer. But it sure would be nice to see his corner 3-pointer fall into the basket consistently.


I totally agree. I think this is a really key part of this year's team, along with Rasheed getting everything working. Matt is an exceptionally strong shooting guard. He's pretty quick laterally, has great size at 6-5, and has good defensive instincts. All this gives him a lot of value on the defensive end. However, he fits into more lineup combinations if he hits that corner three (or any kick-out threes, in general). Matt's not even useless off the dribble. He's shown a knack for getting into the lane and drawing fouls, although he's probably not our number 1, 2, 3, or even 4th best option here so we won't see too much of it. But it's in his back pocket. However, his value sky-rockets if he just hits those threes.

[Kedsy]

Hard to believe Matt came in with a shooter's rep. Never makes a shot when it matters.


But it sure would be nice to see his corner 3-pointer fall into the basket consistently.


However, his value sky-rockets if he just hits those threes.

I feel obligated to point out that Matt is currently shooting 50% from three-point range so far for the season (3 for 6), after shooting 50% from three in the two exhibition games (6 for 12).

How much better or more consistent does he need to be?

[Edouble]

I agree with this, and also thought Matt's defense was outstanding. And the way we are able to mix and match lineups at the wing positions this year, we don't *need* him to be a prolific scorer. But it sure would be nice to see his corner 3-pointer fall into the basket consistently.

One of the things that had me feeling so excited as I watched the exhibition games and first two regular season matchups was the fact that our most disruptive defenders (M. Jones and Winslow) also seemed to be able to score the ball. Contrast that with our best defensive lineup from last season where Josh and Tyler were a bit offensively challenged. Obviously, Winslow will be a scorer. And Matt doesn't necessarily have to be. But our team is just that much tougher to defend if Matt is a legitimate threat to hit threes or drive the ball effectively.

You think Matt is a better defender than Rasheed? Matt's good, but Rasheed is a great lockdown defender. Doris Burke mentioned during the Fairfield game that she thinks that's why Rasheed will be an effective pro. Not that Doris Burke knows anything, but at the time I agreed with her.

Or do you mean "our most disruptive defenders" just in those games that you are mentioning?

For all the talk about Kentucky in the other thread, it sure would be nice to have Rasheed at the ready to lock down the Harrison twins (or one of them anyway), if we end up meeting the Cats. They played really well in the NCAAs last season.

[azzefkram]

I feel obligated to point out that Matt is currently shooting 50% from three-point range so far for the season (3 for 6), after shooting 50% from three in the two exhibition games (6 for 12).

How much better or more consistent does he need to be?

Yeah but he missed his last 2 and we all know that that's what matters most.;)

I plan on not looking for nits to pick and enjoying what can potentially be a really special team.

[COYS]

I feel obligated to point out that Matt is currently shooting 50% from three-point range so far for the season (3 for 6), after shooting 50% from three in the two exhibition games (6 for 12).

How much better or more consistent does he need to be?

I feel compelled to clarify my post. I wasn't implying that Matt won't or will prove to be a good shooter this year. I'm just saying that if he is, he becomes an extremely valuable weapon.

[Henderson]

Not that Doris Burke knows anything, but at the time I agreed with her.


I know she has her critics here, but I like Doris Burke. She seems to do her homework and provides the sort of insightful color commentary that I like. Maybe not for everyone, but I like her.

[flyingdutchdevil]

I know she has her critics here, but I like Doris Burke. She seems to do her homework and provides the sort of insightful color commentary that I like. Maybe not for everyone, but I like her.

Welcome to DBR, where our hatred to commentators runs deep (and we cannot believe that the Duke commentators don't have bias towards Duke)! In all seriousness, I too really like Doris Burke. Very smart, positive, and doesn't make jokes.

I'd like to think that I'm one of the rare guys who doesn't mind (and even likes) most commentators not named Dickie V. I can't do Vitale...I just can't.

[Monmouth77]

I feel obligated to point out that Matt is currently shooting 50% from three-point range so far for the season (3 for 6), after shooting 50% from three in the two exhibition games (6 for 12).

How much better or more consistent does he need to be?

I think we would all agree that if Matt keeps up this season's shooting percentage, he will be a plus contributor on both sides of the floor -- which is exactly the point I was making in my post. It's an exciting prospect-- and not a nit pick.

As for small sample sizes and short attention spans, I guess I'd point out that he shot the ball at a 14% clip last year, and is shooting 22% for his career.

So, again, it's an exciting thought that we could have our best defensive lineup on the floor and lose almost nothing on the offensive end. Which is what I think will happen if Matt's hits his threes.

[Monmouth77]

You think Matt is a better defender than Rasheed? Matt's good, but Rasheed is a great lockdown defender. Doris Burke mentioned during the Fairfield game that she thinks that's why Rasheed will be an effective pro. Not that Doris Burke knows anything, but at the time I agreed with her.

Or do you mean "our most disruptive defenders" just in those games that you are mentioning?

For all the talk about Kentucky in the other thread, it sure would be nice to have Rasheed at the ready to lock down the Harrison twins (or one of them anyway), if we end up meeting the Cats. They played really well in the NCAAs last season.

Rasheed is a good defender too, just different from Matt. He seems to do well matched up on the other team's primary ball handler where he often has a size advantage and is quick enough to stay in front of his man. We have a lot of depth and talent at the guard/wing positions.