MBB: Duke 75, Va Tech 73 (Sweet 16) Post-Game Thread

[JBDuke]

Put your post-game thoughts here.

[scottdude8]

Refs tried to give it to them. We didn’t let them. Survive and advance.

AOCs performance tonight should not be overlooked. Despite not shooting well he played his butt off on D despite some struggles and was big on the defensive glass.

[WHOneedsSOX]

Wow, wow, wow. These guys sure have some balls. What a game by the essentially 6 guys who played. I sure hope they have legs for Sunday. Tre Jones, what a freaking game.

[Tripping William]

Oh em effing gee!!!

[striker219]

9250

[ice-9]

My goodness. I love this team but this team gives me heart attacks.

Tre Jones. Thank you for not listening to the DBR experts. Take those shots with confidence young man! And please make those free throws.

Zion. Holy Zion.

RJ Barret. Facilitator in the first half, attacker in the second half. He led our surge.

Bolden played solid defense. But he needs to dunk, not try to lay-up with finesse.

AOC did his best to fill in for Cam. We needed it. Still missed Cam's defense though.

Javin did not come out favorably in his match-up against Blackshear. He needs to at least be stronger with boxing out and getting rebounds.

[Dukehk]

This tournament is really bad for my heart.

I expect more of the same in the next game too. We got michigan state and izzo will be itching to get one over us. They are tough too.

This team just has so much heart. We were without both Cam and Jack for the game, thats a combined 18 points and 10 rebounds per game with elite defence..

We STILL managed to beat a team that should be in the top 10 with justin robinson back. That was NOT a 4 seed. That was more like a 2 seed level team.

Im just enjoying the ride, but my heart feels like its going through a rollercoaster ride.

[WHOneedsSOX]

Refs tried to give it to them. We didn’t let them. Survive and advance.

AOCs performance tonight should not be overlooked. Despite not shooting well he played his butt off on D despite some struggles and was big on the defensive glass.

The 6 main guys who played all played really well. Maybe Javin less so but Bolden played good defense and made those 2 clutch free throws.

[J4Kop99]

What can you even say? Just win, baby. Survive and advance.

This team has some tough sob's lead by the toughest sob of them all at HC.

Onto msu.

[curtis325]

Three down. Three more.

MSU, Gonzaga, UVa. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.

Just win baby.

EOM

[WHOneedsSOX]

RJ and Tre second half was very needed. Zion looked tired in the first half. Don't know if he would've been able to carry Duke another 20.

[Dukehk]

The 6 main guys who played all played really well. Maybe Javin less so but Bolden played good defense and made those 2 clutch free throws.

Bolden was good in spells.

Javin was straight up disappointing. Just got manhandled in the post and couldn't grab any rebounds. Thats the first time I've seen us get killed on the glass like that.

We got to fix it before the next one. We need our bigs to play strong. Especially if Jack is still out.

[CoachJ10]

Refs tried to give it to them. We didn’t let them. Survive and advance.

AOCs performance tonight should not be overlooked. Despite not shooting well he played his butt off on D despite some struggles and was big on the defensive glass.

Those last 2 minutes were criminally bad by those refs.

RJ and Zion were absolutely gassed at the end. Warriors.

My heart is still pounding.

[ns7]

They rebounded 44% of their misses. Absolutely need to clean that up against MSU.

It's a 10 point win if we hold them below 30%.

[bbosbbos]

We had a good second half. It is hard to find words to describe Tre's performance. He was everywhere and he shot the 3s well.

Elite 8 baby, elite 8.

[jipops]

Welp, we needed somebody to go unconscious and Tre did it. Fantastic effort on D in the second half. Though we got reeeeeeal lucky on that last play.

[duke2x]

We had 3 ACC refs tonight. Kissinger did both VT games. I would prefer to have neutral refs even when we play an ACC team.

[CDu]

Thank God. That was intense. What a win!

[Tjenkins]

Maybe I'll say more when my stomach pains subside, but I'm with Zion savor this win tonight, worry about Cam & JW's statuses tomorrow.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Survive and advance! Again! LGD GTHc!

[downeastdad]

Sure glad we won. A loss would have taken all the fun out of the Auburn game.

[BlueDevil16]

Worried that they’ll be tired for Sunday. Need Cam and Jack back.

[subzero02]

I'm sorry about your bracket Jipops... Survive and advance

[DukieInKansas]

These close games are good for my step count. I do a lot of pacing during the last few minutes of the game.

[WHOneedsSOX]

I asked for a 10-0 run at halftime and got 9-0. I'll take it!

[Potato]

Man we really need Reddish on Sunday

[Dukehk]

Three down. Three more.

MSU, Gonzaga, UVa. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.

Just win baby.

EOM

Looking like it will be. What a guantlet..thats 3 of the top 5 teams in the country.

We need Cam back and healthy though. Jack too.

Honestly, I just pray to god that we can have a full deck next game. Thats all i'm asking. A fair shot to play our best team against any opponent int he country.

[DukieInBrasil]

amazing to escape with a win!!!!
2nd strait game where Duke wins in part due to a missed pt blank shot by the opponent. So proud of Tre Jones to hit shot after shot when he couldn't do anything like that last week!
What an amazing performance by Zion! I just want to point out what a sharp kid he is, when asked in the post-game interview about those two games and the way they ended and went Duke's way, and he pointed out "it's right there on the microphone, March Madness!" That's a really quick wit on display there.
RJ couldn't buy a 3 but he shot 7-10 on 2pt shots and was really good finding guys for good shots.

[brevity]

Postgame presser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J-tX9IOahI

Has not started as of this moment. Just an empty Duke table.

[J4Kop99]

RJ with one of the gutsiest games I've seen. He couldn't make a jump shot to save his life but man did he battle. Facilitated in the first and took over on offense in the second. He was sensational.

[subzero02]

Man we really need Reddish on Sunday

I agree. I am guessing that he got hurt in practice. Did Jack white record an official stat aside from minutes played? he clearly isn't ready to go either. Thank God bolden came back from his knee injury... we needed him tonight.

[Dukehk]

amazing to escape with a win!!!!
2nd strait game where Duke wins in part due to a missed pt blank shot by the opponent. So proud of Tre Jones to hit shot after shot when he couldn't do anything like that last week!
What an amazing performance by Zion! I just want to point out what a sharp kid he is, when asked in the post-game interview about those two games and the way they ended and went Duke's way, and he pointed out "it's right there on the microphone, March Madness!" That's a really quick wit on display there.
RJ couldn't buy a 3 but he shot 7-10 on 2pt shots and was really good finding guys for good shots.

Tre Jones was channelling Tyus Jones today.

In the postgame interview with Zion, RJ and Tre - RJ basically said with major affection that "Man, Tre Jones is a tough kid".

Sums it up. He has it in his DNA.

[duke96]

I hope someone takes the time to call out all the posts begging tre to stop shooting which aged horribly...

[The Gordog]

Three down. Three more.

MSU, Gonzaga, UVa. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.

Just win baby.

EOM

Auburn or Purdue will take out UVA.

Anyway, those 2 missed out of bounds calls just so infuriating. I honestly felt like the final shot would not go down just because they knew in their hearts they did not deserve to win.

[kAzE]

. . . . because Alex was not ready to play in this type of game. Hate to be negative at all after such a huge win, but we won that game despite Alex O'Connell.

Huge game for Tre, but that missed front end of a 1-and-1 at the end was almost very costly.

Very lucky to have Bolden back to reasonable health here. He still doesn't look quite back to 100%, but we needed his contributions badly. Great job on Blackshear for the most part, although defensive rebounding was tough.

This has been a very stressful tournament, but thankfully, we're still alive. Please be okay, Cam. We need you!

[curtis325]

Think back a few days. Who would you have predicted to be Duke's leading rebounder in this game?

Why AOC, of course.

[devildeac]

Refs tried to give it to them. We didn’t let them. Survive and advance.

AOCs performance tonight should not be overlooked. Despite not shooting well he played his butt off on D despite some struggles and was big on the defensive glass.

Led Duke with 7 boards!

[Stray Gator]

Sorry if this sounds unkind, but I find it to be especially sweet that the Va Tech player who blew the final layup was Hill, who was mouthing off and taunting our guys in the first half when he hit those early shots. The storyline will be that Duke survived another near-death experience, but I thought there were several questionable calls in the last minute or two that went against us, or Va Tech wouldn't have been able to make it a close finish. In any event, it's on to Sunday with a chance to hang another regional banner and punch our ticket to another Final Four. Go Duke!

[VA_BDevil]

Hats off to AOC for the effort tonight. To go from DNP-CD to starter must be a huge mental adjustment

[BlueDevil16]

Would have been nice for Houston to hold on

[CrazyNotCrazie]

I agree. I am guessing that he got hurt in practice. Did Jack white record an official stat aside from minutes played? he clearly isn't ready to go either. Thank God bolden came back from his knee injury... we needed him tonight.

I think Jack got a trillion

[devildeac]

My goodness. I love this team but this team gives me heart attacks.

Tre Jones. Thank you for not listening to the DBR experts. Take those shots with confidence young man! And please make those free throws.

Zion. Holy Zion.

RJ Barret. Facilitator in the first half, attacker in the second half. He led our surge.

Bolden played solid defense. But he needs to dunk, not try to lay-up with finesse.

AOC did his best to fill in for Cam. We needed it. Still missed Cam's defense though.

Javin did not come out favorably in his match-up against Blackshear. He needs to at least be stronger with boxing out and getting rebounds.

Helps when blackshear hooks/holds/shoves/shoulders on both ends of court and only gets called for 3 Tacko fouls :mad:.

[J4Kop99]

I'm a big believer in winning with class but man did the refs screw up the last 2 minutes. How do they not even review the blackshear out of bounds?

[UrinalCake]

Gutsy win, apparently K found out just moments before tipoff that Cam couldn’t play. Incredible job of adapting on the fly by the coaches and team. In a crazy way, I almost think that the experience of dealing with injuries during the season helped them, they were able to adapt immediately.

Tre basically made up for Cam’s scoring, and once Barrett got going we built our lead. Zion was Zion all game. As has been the case all season, we had to win with defense, not offense. Basically stopped them three times on that last possession (aided by the blown chippie on a beautifully designed play).

We didn’t do a great job defending Blackshear, kept switching Tre onto him. Javin leaving him to get back to his man, allowing Blackshear an open dunk, was baffling. It seemed clear that their guards were penetrating with the sole intent to pass out to shooters, they had zero notion of actually shooting. We needed to stay on the shooters instead of constantly helping off. Finally made the adjustment late and VT also just missed shots.

[uh_no]

I'm a big believer in winning with class but man did the refs screw up the last 2 minutes. How do they not even review the blackshear out of bounds?

it's not reviewable because play continued until he passed and someone else called timeout.

[devildeac]

We had 3 ACC refs tonight. Kissinger did both VT games. I would prefer to have neutral refs even when we play an ACC team.

No wonder the FT were 18 for VT and 10 for Duke. We shot 10 damn FT the entire game? SMH.

[gocanes0506]

Too close against VT.

Last 2 minutes in the last two games not inspiring a lot of confidence.

Better lucky than good two games in a row. Hopefully lady luck keeps signing.

Can we get some decent refs? Please?

[rsvman]

A lot of things went wrong in the last couple of minutes. Missed chippie by Bolden, charging call on Zion that I knew was coming even before he started his drive, missed front end of the one-and-one, Blackshear running down that loose ball and then getting possession even though he was out of bounds, etc.
The basketball gods were smiling upon us.

[Faison1]

i'm exhausted

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Cardiac Devils?

[J4Kop99]

it's not reviewable because play continued until he passed and someone else called timeout.

Thank you.

[WHOneedsSOX]

I'm a big believer in winning with class but man did the refs screw up the last 2 minutes. How do they not even review the blackshear out of bounds?
Nevermind. Already explained.

[JetpackJesus]

Too close against VT.

Last 2 minutes in the last two games not inspiring a lot of confidence.

Better lucky than good two games in a row. Hopefully lady luck keeps signing.

Can we get some decent refs? Please?
Remeber that Duke played yet again without one of its best players and still won against a very good basketball team.

I am very inspired.

[J4Kop99]

I can't watch the postgame presser right now so any updates on Cam (and Jack) are greatly appreciated

[ndkjr70]

This game felt like we were playing VT and the officiating, and somehow the neutral (“neutral”) opinion on Reddit is that Duke was handed this win, and Zion is allowed to do whatever he wants.

Sometimes reading the Internet makes me wonder if it’s truly fair that everyone’s vote counts the same.

[subzero02]

The announcer said they can't. It's not reviewable. Which is insane.

Yeah, in order to review that call, the player would have initially needed to have been ruled out of bounds

[g-money]

Sorry if this sounds unkind, but I find it to be especially sweet that the Va Tech player who blew the final layup was Hill, who was mouthing off and taunting our guys in the first half when he hit those early shots. !

Agreed - this, plus the horrible reffing at the end - is a combination of just desserts and BALL DON’T LIE.

On to the Elite 8 - where the basketball gods still owe us.

Let’s go Duke!

[Faison1]

. . . . because Alex was not ready to play in this type of game. Hate to be negative at all after such a huge win, but we won that game despite Alex O'Connell.

I actually think AOC made some big plays. Yes, his shot wasn't there, and he missed some defensive assignments, but he came up with some tough rebounds and steals when we needed them.

[gocanes0506]

Remeber that Duke played yet again without one of its best players and still won against a very good basketball team.

I am very inspired.

Its March, that doesn’t mean anything. Also being up 5+ in the last 2 and come a combined 2 inches from being out / playing another overtime isnt an injury problem.

[devildeac]

This game felt like we were playing VT and the officiating, and somehow the neutral (“neutral”) opinion on Reddit is that Duke was handed this win, and Zion is allowed to do whatever he wants.

Sometimes reading the Internet makes me wonder if it’s truly fair that everyone’s vote counts the same.

It doesn't-you've been outvoted, 8-5, maybe 9-5 if you count buzzard on the court 3/4 of the game. :mad:

[InSpades]

We won! Not sure how any of you can be negative after we advance to the Elite 8!!

Zion... was great but we need him to be more involved. If they are going to double him then he can find open shooters but we need the offense to go through him a little bit more I think.

Tre Jones... aside from that 1 free throw (which nearly killed me)... a hell of a game. So smart. Plays so hard. So many smart decisions.

RJ had a tremendous 2nd half. His 1st half wasn't bad but we needed him to score and he came out and did that in droves.

Bolden... had some good plays out there. I can't believe he tried a reverse layup. I had no faith he would drain those free throws and he was money.

AOC... has anyone ever gone from playing 0 minutes to playing a zillion minutes? I didn't look at the box score but it wouldn't surprise me if he played 30. Would be nice to get a little bit more out of him but he really competed hard out there and I'm proud of him for that!

Javin... teach Marques to dunk it when he gets it under the basket like you do.

Survive and advance... maybe survive by winning by a few more points next time cause my heart can't take it.

[TNTDevil]

~snip~
Javin did not come out favorably in his match-up against Blackshear. He needs to at least be stronger with boxing out and getting rebounds.Javin needs to understand that, if you're going to foul...get your money's worth. Make sure the man doesn't score.

[devildeac]

I actually think AOC made some big plays. Yes, his shot wasn't there, and he missed some defensive assignments, but he came up with some tough rebounds and steals when we needed them.

IIRC, 2 of his shots rattled in-n-out. So close..

[Duke79UNLV77]

Overall, played a very good game, except for rebounding. And AOC rebounded well, but bobbled a couple of balls, and his jumpers were in and out.

They said K learned just before game time that Cam had an issue but never said what happened. Any ideas? Anybody there see him tweak something in warmups? He is streaky on offense, but a weapon, and an excellent, long defender.

[Saratoga2]

How sweet it is. Duke wins without Cam available while UNC gets blitzed by Aurburn, which I had called in my bracket. we need Cam. Coach K said he was shocked to learn just before the game that Cam couldn't go. AOC wasn't a star, but he got a bunch of rebounds and a key steal late. Our team is resiliant. Jack really couldn't go and Cam totally out. Hope things improve for Sunday.

I did think the refs missed a couple of calls at the end that would have helped Duke but I guess it goes both ways.

[uh_no]

IIRC, 2 of his shots rattled in-n-out. So close..

yep. felt bad for him...especially since two of blackshears shots bounced to the moon before falling in.

[Lippl]

I’ve been on a plane so didn’t see the game but followed through the box score. Any reason why Goldwire didn’t play? Surprised at that.

[InSpades]

I’ve been on a plane so didn’t see the game but followed through the box score. Any reason why Goldwire didn’t play? Surprised at that.

He played... probably doesn't show up in the box score cause he didn't accumulate any stats. He did not play very much though... somewhere around 5 minutes I'd guess. AOC took his minutes.

[DangerDevil]

I’ve been on a plane so didn’t see the game but followed through the box score. Any reason why Goldwire didn’t play? Surprised at that.

In less I am still in shock he played, he must not have recorded a stat and therefore hasn’t shown up in the unofficial box score.

[dukelifer]

. . . . because Alex was not ready to play in this type of game. Hate to be negative at all after such a huge win, but we won that game despite Alex O'Connell.

Huge game for Tre, but that missed front end of a 1-and-1 at the end was almost very costly.

Very lucky to have Bolden back to reasonable health here. He still doesn't look quite back to 100%, but we needed his contributions badly. Great job on Blackshear for the most part, although defensive rebounding was tough.

This has been a very stressful tournament, but thankfully, we're still alive. Please be okay, Cam. We need you!
Not entirely true. AOC had some turnovers and missed his shot- but he led the team in rebounds and had 2 assists and a steal. That is pretty good work in a very physical game and not expecting to play that many minutes given Cam's injury. Tre was amazing. Everyone said that you beat Duke by making Tre shoot the ball. That was a fail tonight. Great effort by him. Zion was Zion and imposed his will. A great win against a really good and experienced team. Moving on.

[UrinalCake]

I thought Blackshear elbowed Javin in the face on two different occasions while driving at the basket, and got the benefit of a foul call both times. It’s a totally different game if those calls go the other way. But in fairness that foul call on the guy with the pigtails when Zion appeared to elbow him was also a bad call. All said, I am one happy fan tonight. Duke wins and CHeats get sent home.

[JetpackJesus]

Its March, that doesn’t mean anything. Also being up 5+ in the last 2 and come a combined 2 inches from being out / playing another overtime isnt an injury problem.

Yeah... I don't get this at all. Sorry. Especially when that player was expected to play until warmups.

Although you are correct about the 5+ points not being an injury issue. That was an officiating issue.

[Lippl]

He played... probably doesn't show up in the box score cause he didn't accumulate any stats. He did not play very much though... somewhere around 5 minutes I'd guess. AOC took his minutes.

Ah got it, thanks. He has been a real positive for us over the last month and given the injuries I was very puzzled.

[DukieInBrasil]

just wanted to point out Duke shot an astounding 69.4% from 2pt range tonight. Amazing.
Zion 10-12, RJ 7-10, AOC 2-2, Javin 2-2, Tre 3-7, Bolden 1-3.

[gocanes0506]

Yeah... I don't get this at all. Sorry. Especially when that player was expected to play until warmups.

Although you are correct about the 5+ points not being an injury issue. That was an officiating issue.

Some of it. The other end is missing free throws and turnovers. Got finish games outside of getting extremely fortunate the other team missed a layup

[Scorp4me]

This game felt like we were playing VT and the officiating, and somehow the neutral (“neutral”) opinion on Reddit is that Duke was handed this win, and Zion is allowed to do whatever he wants.

Sometimes reading the Internet makes me wonder if it’s truly fair that everyone’s vote counts the same.

You forgot that VA Tech is trash and that Duke got the easiest region too.

Edit: their thoughts, not mine

[devildeac]

I thought Blackshear elbowed Javin in the face on two different occasions while driving at the basket, and got the benefit of a foul call both times. It’s a totally different game if those calls go the other way. But in fairness that foul call on the guy with the pigtails when Zion appeared to elbow him was also a bad call. All said, I am one happy fan tonight. Duke wins and CHeats get sent home.

And, who hit RJ in the face with no call?

[heyman25]

Refs tried to give it to them. We didn’t let them. Survive and advance.

AOCs performance tonight should not be overlooked. Despite not shooting well he played his butt off on D despite some struggles and was big on the defensive glass.
Why does Duke keep getting reamed by these gd Da#* Refs. I was as mad as I have ever been watching a Duke game.Blackshear gets away with elbows. I can't stand Va Tech, their fans and Buzz Williams. I was actually sick of the laughing Grant Hill and Bill Rafferty. Wish we have Hubie Brown and Dan Shulman announcing for the next game.Tre Jones was fabulous. I am glad we advanced. We have a will to win,which is great. We still have not had a truly great game in this tournament. Williamson and Barrett and Jones may will us to the Championship. Reddish injury is just weird. Hope he can return Sunday. O'Connell,Bolden and DeLaurier played hard, but have to play better to beat Michigan State. Reddish maybe we will not see him again in a Duke jersey. Everone not named Williamson,Barrett and Jones really need to give this team more.

I usually am extremely happy after a tough win,but the refereeing was really abysmal and all to keep giving the Hokies more chances.

[Scorp4me]

Ah got it, thanks. He has been a real positive for us over the last month and given the injuries I was very puzzled.

Disappointed he didn't play more tonight, not sure why.

[TNTDevil]

Think back a few days. Who would you have predicted to be Duke's leading rebounder in this game?

Why AOC, of course.
But...but...I've "heard" (a lotta pee-pul are saying) that he's not ready?

So confusing.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

I know everyone is complaining about the refs, but the foul called against Hill where he caught Zion's elbow to the grill was horrible too.

Refs through this tournament have been, well, bad.

[JetpackJesus]

Some of it. The other end is missing free throws and turnovers. Got finish games outside of getting extremely fortunate the other team missed a layup
And they're fortunate Tre missed front of a one-and-one. Also that Duke wasn't in the Bonus+ because it should have been.

If Cam plays, these types of plays aren't being discussed.

[duke4ever19]

Does anyone know where/if you can re-watch the full game?

[ns7]

I know everyone is complaining about the refs, but the foul called against Hill where he caught Zion's elbow to the grill was horrible too.

Refs through this tournament have been, well, bad.

They called that foul on Hill before the arm bar from Zion

[wsb3]

I can't watch the postgame presser right now so any updates on Cam (and Jack) are greatly appreciated

Coach K was asked about Cam's availability for Sunday and he said he did not know. Day to Day:rolleyes:

[J4Kop99]

Does anyone know where/if you can re-watch the full game?

I wouldn't suggest doing that to yourself. For health reasons.

[rsvman]

They called that foul on Hill before the arm bar from Zion

Yes, but in the replay I didn't see any foul before the arm bar.

[simplyluvin]

Tre was Stones II today. Phenomenal and made up for Cam’s absence. Our defense was excellent. Gotta rebound better the next three games. We didn’t play tired tonight, which is just amazing given our 6 man rotation in the second half. What heart and grit. Great win.

[UrinalCake]

And, who hit RJ in the face with no call?

I’m ok with that one being a no-call. It looked like Bolden actually knocked the VT player’s arm into RJ’s face while coming down for a rebound.

(Not trying to be argumentative with you, I just want to be objective when it comes to foul calls.)

[rsvman]

We rebound better, we win by double digits.

[ns7]

Yes, but in the replay I didn't see any foul before the arm bar.

I didn't see one either. That was the one call in our favor and probably our only real offensive foul. The ones against RJ and Zion (late) were clear blocking fouls.

[gocanes0506]

And they're fortunate Tre missed front of a one-and-one. Also that Duke wasn't in the Bonus+ because it should have been

That is Duke not controlling the finish of the game.

[rsvman]

I didn't see one either. That was the one call in our favor and probably our only real offensive foul. The ones against RJ and Zion (late) were clear blocking fouls.

Agree. The Zion charge call was particularly egregious. I knew it was coming, though.

[ChrisP]

I know everyone is complaining about the refs, but the foul called against Hill where he caught Zion's elbow to the grill was horrible too.

Refs through this tournament have been, well, bad.

You may be right that it was a ticky-tack foul on Hill but you know what? I'll take it after all the non-calls on VT. It really did look like Hill grabbed and/or pushed Zion (or at least tried to) on his drive. I thought it was pretty clearly a foul there.

[ns7]

We rebound better, we win by double digits.

I didn't understand why it was so bad. AOC and Reddish have very similar rebounding rates.

[TNTDevil]

Sorry if this sounds unkind, but I find it to be especially sweet that the Va Tech player who blew the final layup was Hill, who was mouthing off and taunting our guys in the first half when he hit those early shots. The storyline will be that Duke survived another near-death experience, but I thought there were several questionable calls in the last minute or two that went against us, or Va Tech wouldn't have been able to make it a close finish. In any event, it's on to Sunday with a chance to hang another regional banner and punch our ticket to another Final Four. Go Duke!Great call, Stray.

My daughter and I were texting and she was beginning to freak because VaTech appeared in control, in the first half. I responded: "Lot's of time. VT will wear down. Burning a lot of energy with all this pointless celebrating. FG% can't stay this high."

Those late missed calls. And even Zion's (3rd?) foul, which should have been a held ball. Inexcusable

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

You may be right that it was a ticky-tack foul on Hill but you know what? I'll take it after all the non-calls on VT. It really did look like Hill grabbed and/or pushed Zion (or at least tried to) on his drive. I thought it was pretty clearly a foul there.

I'm not defending anything. Just pointing out that reffing is plain bad this year.

[duke4ever19]

I wouldn't suggest doing that to yourself. For health reasons.

Hahahah Oh I'm not going to re-watch it, but I'm raising a young Blue Devil at home and he couldn't keep his eyes open for the game, so I'm trying to figure out where a replay can be found.

[CDu]

I didn't understand why it was so bad. AOC and Reddish have very similar rebounding rates.

Got spread out, and Va Tech has athletes.

[FerryFor50]

They called that foul on Hill before the arm bar from Zion

Also, one bad call against VT doesn’t really outweigh the numerous bad calls against Duke.

VT was another example of a team that was allowed to be physical without much penalty, while Duke had 3 players with 4 fouls down the stretch.

I do wish refs would stop falling for flops. But I also wish RJ and Zion would learn to start pulling up more.

People will say Duke was lucky to win after that missed lob at the buzzer, but in reality, VT was lucky to even be in that position with the fortunate offensive board, the missed out of bounds on Blackshear and what I thought might have been a good save by RJ on a ball that didn’t look like it hit the baseline, plus being somehow gifted .5 seconds on the clock.

I’ll echo the others who said they were glad Hill missed the game winner after woofing the entire game.

[ns7]

Got spread out, and Va Tech has athletes.

Then why didn't they do that against us in the first matchup without Zion?

[DukieInBrasil]

Can we also celebrate Tre's 8:0 a:to performance tonight? I mean, 5-7 from 3 is di-no-mite, but having a PG who can control the game like that is...this is beautiful, what is that, velvet?!?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-eb61BLIWw

[devildeac]

I’m ok with that one being a no-call. It looked like Bolden actually knocked the VT player’s arm into RJ’s face while coming down for a rebound.

(Not trying to be argumentative with you, I just want to be objective when it comes to foul calls.)

Fair enough. I didn't re-watch.

[uh_no]

Then why didn't they do that against us in the first matchup without Zion?

because they, like us, had different personnel in the first matchup?

[killerleft]

. . . . because Alex was not ready to play in this type of game. Hate to be negative at all after such a huge win, but we won that game despite Alex O'Connell.

Huge game for Tre, but that missed front end of a 1-and-1 at the end was almost very costly.

Very lucky to have Bolden back to reasonable health here. He still doesn't look quite back to 100%, but we needed his contributions badly. Great job on Blackshear for the most part, although defensive rebounding was tough.

This has been a very stressful tournament, but thankfully, we're still alive. Please be okay, Cam. We need you!

We certainly could use some Cam. But what game were you watching? AOC filled in quite well, led us in rebounds, played some tough defense most of the game. If he hadn't been ready to play this type of game? We lose.

[ChrisP]

Zion shot 1 dadgum free throw tonight - ONE! Are you freaking kidding me?

[ns7]

because they, like us, had different personnel in the first matchup?

They rebounded 22% against Liberty and 17% against Saint Louis. And then 40%+ against us?

[devildeac]

Also, one bad call against VT doesn’t really outweigh the numerous bad calls against Duke.

VT was another example of a team that was allowed to be physical without much penalty, while Duke had 3 players with 4 fouls down the stretch.

I do wish refs would stop falling for flops. But I also wish RJ and Zion would learn to start pulling up more.

People will say Duke was lucky to win after that missed lob at the buzzer, but in reality, VT was lucky to even be in that position with the fortunate offensive board, the missed out of bounds on Blackshear and what I thought might have been a good save by RJ on a ball that didn’t look like it hit the baseline, plus being somehow gifted .5 seconds on the clock.

I’ll echo the others who said they were glad Hill missed the game winner after woofing the entire game.

Blackshear shot 11 FT, despite playing with 10 Tacko Falls, err, fouls. Duke shot 10. How in the hell does that happen? Never, mind, I know. We get all the calls.

[moonpie23]

I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this. buzz, and I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this. VA Tech....

[DukieInBrasil]

People will say Duke was lucky to win after that missed lob at the buzzer, but in reality, VT was lucky to even be in that position with the fortunate offensive board, the missed out of bounds on Blackshear and what I thought might have been a good save by RJ on a ball that didn’t look like it hit the baseline, plus being somehow gifted .5 seconds on the clock.

I’ll echo the others who said they were glad Hill missed the game winner after woofing the entire game.

i agree with everything except the bold part. The ball pretty clearly hit RJ and then hit the baseline, i think they got that call right. Funny how a team can actually be benefited by a horribly off 3pt shot, b/c it usually comes off so hard that nobody can react properly. In that case it was an airball that RJ wasn't anticipating.

[WHOneedsSOX]

Blackshear shot 11 FT, despite playing with 10 Tacko Falls, err, fouls. Duke shot 10. How in the hell does that happen? Never, mind, I know. We get all the calls.

Cause all Duke does is shoot 3's. You can't get free throws when you shoot only 3's. Wait, Duke doesn't shoot 3's anymore??

[fathippo]

Yes, but in the replay I didn't see any foul before the arm bar.

It was not obvious from the replay, but Hill had his hand on Zion's hip when he started to drive. So it was technically a foul. I was just surprised they called it.

[kAzE]

We certainly could use some Cam. But what game were you watching? AOC filled in quite well, led us in rebounds, played some tough defense most of the game. If he hadn't been ready to play this type of game? We lose.

Strongly disagree . . . I could go back to the film and point out at least 10+ plays where our defense breaks down directly because of Alex.

There's a reason he doesn't play when Cam is healthy.

[brlftz]

Bolden was good in spells.

Javin was straight up disappointing. Just got manhandled in the post and couldn't grab any rebounds. Thats the first time I've seen us get killed on the glass like that.

We got to fix it before the next one. We need our bigs to play strong. Especially if Jack is still out.

Fortunately we don't have a game coming up against a team known for toughness and rebounding :(

[ns7]

Our drtg was 114 and adjusted drtg was 100. Officially concerned about the defense now.

Offense was awesome again though.

[Dukehk]

refs let blackshear molest us in the post and on the boards for 40 minutes.

Incredible that guy didnt foul out.

Incredible that Zion only got 1 freethrow all game.

Not complaining, just find it bewildering.

They say calls even out during the course of a season, well lets hope we get some against msu.

[FerryFor50]

I didn't understand why it was so bad. AOC and Reddish have very similar rebounding rates.

VT was more physical on the rebounds and got some lucky bounces. I saw Blackshear moving even Zion out of the way with his body.

One rebound in particular Duke was unable to get was where Horne hooked and held Barrett with no call in the first half.

[Saratoga2]

. . . . because Alex was not ready to play in this type of game. Hate to be negative at all after such a huge win, but we won that game despite Alex O'Connell.

Huge game for Tre, but that missed front end of a 1-and-1 at the end was almost very costly.

Very lucky to have Bolden back to reasonable health here. He still doesn't look quite back to 100%, but we needed his contributions badly. Great job on Blackshear for the most part, although defensive rebounding was tough.

This has been a very stressful tournament, but thankfully, we're still alive. Please be okay, Cam. We need you!

I disagree with your assessment of AOC. He led the team in defensive rebounds, scored four points, made a critical steal late and did a decent job of filling in. While he isn't Cam defensively, I thought he did a nice job of filling in. Better than Goldwire on this night.

[WHOneedsSOX]

Fortunately we don't have a game coming up against a team known for toughness and rebounding :(

Ward might be out for them. Landed straight on his wrist and was declared day to day.

[TNTDevil]

yep. felt bad for him...especially since two of blackshears shots bounced to the moon before falling in.LMAO. I said the exact same thing to my lovely wife when he missed that shot. "I thought he'd hit that, given he's hit two just like that."

[WHOneedsSOX]

I disagree with your assessment of AOC. He led the team in defensive rebounds, scored four points, made a critical steal late and did a decent job of filling in. While he isn't Cam defensively, I thought he did a nice job of filling in. Better than Goldwire on this night.

I think he did fine. Luckily they hardly ever attacked him when he was on defense.

[WHOneedsSOX]

5 eastern time start Sunday.

[subzero02]

Can we also celebrate Tre's 8:0 a:to performance tonight? I mean, 5-7 from 3 is di-no-mite, but having a PG who can control the game like that is...this is beautiful, what is that, velvet?!?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-eb61BLIWw

I've got to count missing the front end of that one and one a half turnover(it probably should be an asterisk full one)... i'll give him an 8:.5 a:to . He played a great game tonight though.

[TampaDuke]

Also, one bad call against VT doesn’t really outweigh the numerous bad calls against Duke.

VT was another example of a team that was allowed to be physical without much penalty, while Duke had 3 players with 4 fouls down the stretch.

I do wish refs would stop falling for flops. But I also wish RJ and Zion would learn to start pulling up more.

People will say Duke was lucky to win after that missed lob at the buzzer, but in reality, VT was lucky to even be in that position with the fortunate offensive board, the missed out of bounds on Blackshear and what I thought might have been a good save by RJ on a ball that didn’t look like it hit the baseline, plus being somehow gifted .5 seconds on the clock.

I’ll echo the others who said they were glad Hill missed the game winner after woofing the entire game.

Not to mention that VT got a free time out at the end, enabling them to draw up the play that almost tied it up. Not sure they would have executed that nearly as well had they not been given a free timeout. NCAA needs to review these constant reviews in the last minute of every single game.

[uh_no]

Strongly disagree . . . I could go back to the film and point out at least 10+ plays where our defense breaks down directly because of Alex.

There's a reason he doesn't play when Cam is healthy.

I was glad someone else said it as I didn't want to rain on it so much.

He had some good plays, yes. But he was also routinely beaten by his man. His simply not fast enough to be a strong component of the defense, and this lead to several issues

-can't hedge down low nearly as well as cam can while still being able to effectively cover his man...this was extremely apparent early
-everyone else has to pay more attention to his guy, since he's far more likely to be beaten
-he is largely going to be ineffective on the switch to a big. fortuntaely VT doesn't have much size and didn't try to switch him there much

I don't mean to take away from the fact that he had great boards and a few other nice plays...He accomplished what he needed, I suppose, given the team won, but it was still a very large downgrade from Cam on both ends of the floor.

Edit: The raw efficiency was 114, and adjusted was 100. Not awful numbers, but not good. I suspect the lack of Cam made a significant part of that difference, but it's hard to be certain given this is our second sub-par performance in a row.

[devildeac]

Cause all Duke does is shoot 3's. You can't get free throws when you shoot only 3's. Wait, Duke doesn't shoot 3's anymore??

I think my sarcasm meter is still well-tuned, even at this time of the day, but I will point out that VT shot 26 3s and we *only* shot 20.

;)

[WHOneedsSOX]

Not to mention that VT got a free time out at the end, enabling them to draw up the play that almost tied it up. Not sure they would have executed that nearly as well had they not been given a free timeout. NCAA needs to review these constant reviews in the last minute of every single game.

They got TWO. They reviewed it for about 30 seconds which gave them a timeout and then everyone got set up and then Buzz wanted them to review it again which they did and gave them an extra half second as well as a second timeout. I think I would've rather had Zion guarding the out of bounds guy. He has freakish timing and leaping ability.


I think my sarcasm meter is still well-tuned, even at this time of the day, but I will point out that VT shot 26 3s and we *only* shot 20.

;)

Yeah, I was being sarcastic lol It's the excuse people used to always give years ago when Duke would get outshot from the free throw line.

[FerryFor50]

Strongly disagree . . . I could go back to the film and point out at least 10+ plays where our defense breaks down directly because of Alex.

There's a reason he doesn't play when Cam is healthy.

AOC wasn’t the only player causing breakdowns.

Tre gambled for steals a few times and left his man open.

Zion tries to go for too many highlight blocks at times and overcommits and either gives up a drive or open threes.

Goldwire helped off his man once or twice too far off ball and gave up open threes.

Bolden and Javin committed some bad fouls. Javin was fairly bad on the boards.

RJ wasn’t great on defense either.

AOC played fine most of yue game. He had a few bad plays, but so did the rest of the team.

[Steven43]

I hope someone takes the time to call out all the posts begging tre to stop shooting which aged horribly...

Prior to tonight Tre Jones had shot roughly 20% for his Duke career on largely open 3’s, and he missed 7 straight at one point against UCF. So you want to ridicule every poster who suggested during that game that Tre should consider driving to the basket more and taking more pull-up jumpers rather than shooting additional 3’s? Please explain what about that seemed like poor advice from the aforementioned “DBR experts” during the UCF game. I don’t think anyone was saying it during tonight’s game. So why bring up comments made during previous games?

[TNTDevil]

Zion shot 1 dadgum free throw tonight - ONE! Are you freaking kidding me?Zion can only foul. He can not be fouled.

Look it up. It's in the Geneva Convention!

[subzero02]

I am so glad that we won but I still can't get the image of Javin leaving Tre by himself in the paint when the offensive guy had the ball with inside position. Talk about mental lapses

[roywhite]

Sorry if this sounds unkind, but I find it to be especially sweet that the Va Tech player who blew the final layup was Hill, who was mouthing off and taunting our guys in the first half when he hit those early shots. The storyline will be that Duke survived another near-death experience, but I thought there were several questionable calls in the last minute or two that went against us, or Va Tech wouldn't have been able to make it a close finish. In any event, it's on to Sunday with a chance to hang another regional banner and punch our ticket to another Final Four. Go Duke!


Great call, Stray.

My daughter and I were texting and she was beginning to freak because VaTech appeared in control, in the first half. I responded: "Lot's of time. VT will wear down. Burning a lot of energy with all this pointless celebrating. FG% can't stay this high."

Those late missed calls. And even Zion's (3rd?) foul, which should have been a held ball. Inexcusable

Yeah, didn't mind seeing Hill miss the final shot. And he missed it badly. Much less scary than Aubrey Dawkins' game-ending miss on a tap.

[FerryFor50]

Tre Jones has shot roughly 20% for his Duke career on largely open 3’s, and he missed 7 straight at one point against UCF. So you want to ridicule every poster who suggested during that game that Tre should consider driving to the basket more and taking more pull-up jumpers rather than shooting additional 3’s? Please explain what about that seemed like poor advice from the aforementioned “DBR experts”.

It’s bad advice because you don’t want a guy out there that no one guards because he won’t even take the shot. And tonight’s game was the perfect example of that - VT gambled by focusing all their defensive energy on RJ and Zion and Tre made them pay for it.

If Tre takes most of DVR’s advice, they lose this game.

[WHOneedsSOX]

I am so glad that we won but I still can't get the image of Javin leaving Tre by himself in the paint when the offensive guy had the ball with inside position. Talk about mental lapses

His basketball IQ isn't the greatest. Coach K at halftime told them to stay on shooters and not help. Javin's man, through switching, was a guard and 3 point shooter. Halfway to helping he remembered what Coach K said and ran back to the shooter.

[g-money]

Prior to tonight Tre Jones had shot roughly 20% for his Duke career on largely open 3’s, and he missed 7 straight at one point against UCF. So you want to ridicule every poster who suggested during that game that Tre should consider driving to the basket more and taking more pull-up jumpers rather than shooting additional 3’s? Please explain what about that seemed like poor advice during the UCF game from the aforementioned “DBR experts”.

Instead, let’s just say, “TRE JONES!!”

Or, dare I say, Tre Stones?

The kid has the heart of a champion. From here on out, opponents who dare him to shoot are gonna pay.

[MrPoon]

Not to mention that VT got a free time out at the end, enabling them to draw up the play that almost tied it up. Not sure they would have executed that nearly as well had they not been given a free timeout. NCAA needs to review these constant reviews in the last minute of every single game.

This had me yelling perhaps the most of the game. I don’t understand this at all. Keep the players on the floor for reviews. It should not be free TOs. Especially with all the late game stops the NCAA seems to love doing.

[WHOneedsSOX]

This had me yelling perhaps the most of the game. I don’t understand this at all. Keep the players on the floor for reviews. It should not be free TOs. Especially with all the late game stops the NCAA seems to love doing.

I agree, how difficult is that to implement a rule where every player has to stay away from the bench?

[ndkjr70]

A couple of comments after the post game presser:

1. I hope someone throws a bucket of money at Buzz this offseason. He’s an insanely good coach and I don’t want to face him 2+ times a year, period.

2. J-Rob is going to be successful wherever he goes. The second he sat down at the presser he fielded questions directed at his two teammates that butchered his perfect passes. He intercepted the question to say that he’s to blame, neither pass was perfect, the second pass should have been more squared up, etc. The way he spoke, composed himself, dissected the game, and protected his teammates in that presser was nothing short of incredible.

3. Early in the game when Med was waving his fingers in our guys faces, doing the overused “I’m amazing” scowl and just generally overcelebrating every single bucket I told my wife “he better hope he comes through in the clutch.” I never like seeing a Senior go out like that; I think of Grayson last year and how much my heart broke for him. But I would lie if I didn’t get a twinge of joy seeing it was Med who missed the shot.

4. Tre Jones was incredible. Since we won, I’ll forget his free throws. But if that rattled in and we lost in overtime, I can’t imagine being able to look back and think about his performance without that glaring error. Please, fellas, make ya free throws.

5. AOC played his tush off and I’m so happy for him, but if he doesn’t see another minute this season that’s good news. He’s an absolute zero on offense (closer to negative). You saw it in the ACCT and you saw it tonight; he doesn’t want the ball when it matters. That’s a skill he will develop I am SURE, but as of right now.... he airballed a wide open three by like two feet. Not good. His rebounding made up for it.

6. About rebounding. AOC was our team’s leading rebounder. If that stat holds true on Sunday, we don’t have a chance. Grab the balls, guys. Please. Please?

7. Go Duke. Survive and advance.

[Steven43]

It’s bad advice because you don’t want a guy out there that no one guards because he won’t even take the shot. And tonight’s game was the perfect example of that - VT gambled by focusing all their defensive energy on RJ and Zion and Tre made them pay for it.

If Tre takes most of DVR’s advice, they lose this game.

I understand what you’re saying and I somewhat agree with it. But no one was telling Tre to stop shooting. From what I recall most were suggesting that he should just move in a bit closer and take a more reliable shot. I’m not sure how that is bad advice. If a team is giving you wide-open 3’s because you miss them roughly 80% of the time and you keep missing and missing and missing, I don’t see how one can say that it’s wise to just keep doing that same thing.

[Kedsy]

ADVANCED STATS

Possessions: 64.2 (Just a tad higher than Va Tech's adjusted season average; the bad guys won the battle of the pace)

OFFENSE

oRtg: 1.17 (adjusted, that's 1.28, which is very good)
eFG%: 60.7% (also very good)
3pt%: 30.0% (pretty close to our season average (30.7%))
2pt%: 69.4% (excellent)
%threes: 35.7% (much more reasonable than the 42% we had against VaTech the first time)
FT rate: 17.9% (terrible, for the second straight game; subpar for the 5th time in 7 games)
OR%: 29.6% (pretty bad)
TO%: 17.1% (not good but not terrible)
a/to: 2:1
%assisted: 71.0%
fast break pts: 16 (21.3% of our points; excellent, after a couple clunkers in the first two rounds of this tourney)


DEFENSE

dRtg: 1.14 (adjusted that's 1.01, better than against UCF, but disappointing nonetheless; clearly we missed Cam's D in this one)
eFG%: 47.6% (not bad)
3pt%: 34.6% (okay)
2pt%: 44.4% (good)
%threes: 41.9% (we gave up a lot of threes, and they shot them adequately; certainly one of our defensive issues tonight)
FT rate: 29.0% (not awful, but not good)
DR%: 56.4% (absolutely dreadful)
TO%: 17.1% (not good but not terrible)
a/to: 1.72:1
%assisted: 76.0% (VaTech passed well tonight)
fast break pts: 7 (9.6% of their points; third straight good performance here)
block%: 9.7%; 16.7% of 2-point shots (excellent)
steal%: 7.8% (feh)


Turning our relatively few turnovers into points may have won this game for us tonight. Even so (and I haven't read this thread yet), anyone who is complaining about our offense wasn't watching the game properly. Really good effort on O, pretty subpar on D. Any Cam-plainers out there take note: we need his defense.

[Billy Dat]

I lnow there is legit griping about the refs, but that really was an extremely exciting and well played game, especially the second half. Save for the final 3 minutes I thought we played great in the second half.

I am elated to survive and advance. We are playing on Sunday, that is amazing and all that matters.

In a very weird way, we are deep. We are not deep in the traditional sense but we are able to use very odd 6-7 man rotations each game that differ after our primary 3 guys. Cam being a extremely late scratch was huge, but we rolled on. The never would have pegged AOC over Goldwire for this game but they had to respect Alex from 3 which they would not have done with Goldwire and we needed every extra foot of space that his presence afforded us. We are so talented in Zion and RJ, and Tre tonight on both ends, that we can play these different line-ups from game to game...it’s extremly unique and odd but it works I guess.

We live to play again. Every time this very fun, exciting and historically media/casual fan buzzworthy group takes the floor may be the last time. In a tournament where there is no tomorrow, we are playing again. Two more days to hope, dream, pace and soak it in. Enjoy it everyone, revel in it. We are still in the fight! The dream is alive!!!!

[FerryFor50]

I understand what you’re saying and I somewhat agree with it. But no one was telling Tre to stop shooting. From what I recall most were suggesting that he should just move in a bit closer and take a more reliable shot. I’m not sure how that is bad advice. If a team is giving you wide-open 3’s because you miss them roughly 80% of the time and you keep missing and missing and missing, I don’t see how one can say that it’s wise to just keep doing that same thing.

People were definitely telling him never to take another three. It was silly.

[KandG]

I was glad someone else said it as I didn't want to rain on it so much.

He had some good plays, yes. But he was also routinely beaten by his man. His simply not fast enough to be a strong component of the defense, and this lead to several issues

-can't hedge down low nearly as well as cam can while still being able to effectively cover his man...this was extremely apparent early
-everyone else has to pay more attention to his guy, since he's far more likely to be beaten
-he is largely going to be ineffective on the switch to a big. fortuntaely VT doesn't have much size and didn't try to switch him there much

I don't mean to take away from the fact that he had great boards and a few other nice plays...He accomplished what he needed, I suppose, given the team won, but it was still a very large downgrade from Cam on both ends of the floor.



I agree with all this, while noting that the team didn't even know Cam wasn't playing until *right before the game*. So I'm going to give Alex a lot of credit for not melting down when thrown into the fire the way he was. Also have to credit his teammates, especially RJ, who were clearly supportive even when Alex's body language wasn't great after his first turnover.

This is where Jack White's injury clearly hurt us. The version of Jack that played in the last Virginia Tech game was fantastically active on both ends. If he showed up tonight, we would have gotten more rebounds and broken up more of Tech's passing, and wouldn't have been punished so much on switches. But Jack was a non-factor with that gimpy hamstring, and I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't get minutes in our next game.

I'm not feeling great about our chances on Sunday if Cam and Jack continue to be out (and all indications are that's going to be the case), and I suspect MSU will attack AOC much more ruthlessly if he plays the minutes he did vs Tech.

As far as Goldwire, he really wasn't going to do much against the way Tech defends and the way they run offense -- kudos to K for making the call that we needed more shooting on the floor. Buzz felt that the team that got the most shots up was going to win, and he coached his team that way -- made it a point to clamp down on our two highest volume shooters, and we were further hampered with Cam's absence. Thank goodness for Tre Jones.

[TNTDevil]

Re-watching the last play. Great execution by VaTech on that in-bounds and, just like last week, Hill choked at the rim. Initially attempted to cry foul then realized he'd just gacked it up.

Best thing about the replay...the CBS crew member Grant Hill emphatically says: Duke escapes again! Guaranteed to drive Tar Heel Fan nuts. Love it.

[sagegrouse]

This game felt like we were playing VT and the officiating, and somehow the neutral (“neutral”) opinion on Reddit is that Duke was handed this win, and Zion is allowed to do whatever he wants.

Sometimes reading the Internet makes me wonder if it’s truly fair that everyone’s vote counts the same.

That's the political economy view where serious dollars are involved. The networks and the NCAA wants Zion and, to a lesser extent, Duke to keep on playing on, churning out record ratings at every stage. Ia m nearly certain there are no direct orders to officials, but they read the tea leaves...

[FerryFor50]

That's the political economy view where serious dollars are involved. The networks and the NCAA wants Zion and, to a lesser extent, Duke to keep on playing on, churning out record ratings at every stage. Ia m nearly certain there are no direct orders to officials, but they read the tea leaves...

If that were based in any reality, Zion shoots more than 1 FT.

[fan345678]

I know everyone is complaining about the refs, but the foul called against Hill where he caught Zion's elbow to the grill was horrible too.

Refs through this tournament have been, well, bad.

Hill grabbed Zion's hip before Zion reached back.

[Kedsy]

I was glad someone else said it as I didn't want to rain on it so much.

He had some good plays, yes. But he was also routinely beaten by his man. His simply not fast enough to be a strong component of the defense, and this lead to several issues

-can't hedge down low nearly as well as cam can while still being able to effectively cover his man...this was extremely apparent early
-everyone else has to pay more attention to his guy, since he's far more likely to be beaten
-he is largely going to be ineffective on the switch to a big. fortuntaely VT doesn't have much size and didn't try to switch him there much

I don't mean to take away from the fact that he had great boards and a few other nice plays...He accomplished what he needed, I suppose, given the team won, but it was still a very large downgrade from Cam on both ends of the floor.

Edit: The raw efficiency was 114, and adjusted was 100. Not awful numbers, but not good. I suspect the lack of Cam made a significant part of that difference, but it's hard to be certain given this is our second sub-par performance in a row.

Yeah, I agree. It's nice that Alex got all those rebounds, but his overall defense was light-years behind what Cam gives us. If Cam can't go in the next game, we have to figure out a way to step up our D, whether that includes AOC or not.

[brlftz]

Its March, that doesn’t mean anything. Also being up 5+ in the last 2 and come a combined 2 inches from being out / playing another overtime isnt an injury problem.

yeah, and his shot looks fine, just in and out. he played hard i thought

[DangerDevil]

Ward might be out for them. Landed straight on his wrist and was declared day to day.

Ward’s injury is apparently a deep bone bruise to the wrist/hand he had surgery on earlier this season. After the game he said he would be ready to go on Sunday. I can’t link from my phone but there was an article in the Detroit Free Press.

[richardjackson199]

Also, one bad call against VT doesn’t really outweigh the numerous bad calls against Duke.

VT was another example of a team that was allowed to be physical without much penalty, while Duke had 3 players with 4 fouls down the stretch.

I do wish refs would stop falling for flops. But I also wish RJ and Zion would learn to start pulling up more.

People will say Duke was lucky to win after that missed lob at the buzzer, but in reality, VT was lucky to even be in that position with the fortunate offensive board, the missed out of bounds on Blackshear and what I thought might have been a good save by RJ on a ball that didn’t look like it hit the baseline, plus being somehow gifted .5 seconds on the clock.

I’ll echo the others who said they were glad Hill missed the game winner after woofing the entire game.

I was in disbelief at the officiating in the final 2 minutes. RJ did save that ball in and the game should have been over right there.

[Steven43]

Instead, let’s just say, “TRE JONES!!”

Or, dare I say, Tre Stones?

The kid has the heart of a champion. From here on out, opponents who dare him to shoot are gonna pay.
Hey, I’m a HUGE fan of Tre Jones and from the very beginning I’ve loved his defense, passing, ball-handling, decision-making, toughness, and attitude. The only thing I have seen as a weakness in his game is his 3-point shooting. And tonight he turned that weakness into a strength when it was needed the most.

I don’t recall ever seeing anything quite like it, particularly in a game this big. How he goes from shooting the three-pointer so poorly these past few months to what he did tonight is almost unimaginable. The guy really showed the heart of a champion. Prior to this game I had thought Tre might not be considered a first round pick any longer and was perhaps going to return to Duke for his sophomore season. He’s definitely not coming back now. Tre was The Man tonight.

[ndkjr70]

That's the political economy view where serious dollars are involved. The networks and the NCAA wants Zion and, to a lesser extent, Duke to keep on playing on, churning out record ratings at every stage. Ia m nearly certain there are no direct orders to officials, but they read the tea leaves...

Is this tongue in cheek? Zion took nearly 20 shots in the paint today and shot one single free throw.

If they’re reading the tea leaves they sure stink at understanding the content.

[TNTDevil]

Yeah, didn't mind seeing Hill miss the final shot. And he missed it badly. Much less scary than Aubrey Dawkins' game-ending miss on a tap.Just watched again on the DVR. Worst case of T-Rex Arms I've seen in all my years of practice*.


*imnotanactualdoctorbutiplayoneonedbr**

**You have to say this at 180wpm

[FerryFor50]

Just watched again on the DVR. Worst case of T-Rex Arms I've seen in all my years of practice*.


*imnotanactualdoctorbutiplayoneonedbr**

**You have to say this at 180wpm

Looked to me like he misjudged the angle. He was fading away and to the side but tried to lay it in as if he was right at the rim.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

[ndkjr70]

Hey, I’m a HUGE fan of Tre Jones and from the very beginning I’ve loved his defense, passing, ball-handling, decision-making, toughness, and attitude. The only thing I have seen as a weakness in his game is his 3-point shooting. And tonight he turned that weakness into a strength when it was needed the most.

I don’t recall ever seeing anything quite like it, particularly in a game this big. How he goes from shooting the three-pointer so poorly these past few months to what he did tonight is almost unimaginable. The guy really showed the heart of a champion. Prior to this game I had thought Tre might not be considered a first round pick any longer and was perhaps going to return to Duke for his sophomore season. He’s definitely not coming back now. Tre was The Man tonight.

I would still be surprised if he’s a one-and-doner. Maybe if he follows his brother and wins MOP; in which case I will pack his bags for him if I can guarantee that result.

He’s not a good shooter; one hot night doesn’t change that. There’s no way he’s a 1st round pick and he saw that his significantly more NBA-ready brother took years in the D-league to get his chance.

[RollDevils]

I was in disbelief at the officiating in the final 2 minutes. RJ did save that ball in and the game should have been over right there.

I am not completely sure it was still in-bounds, but it was close enough to review.

[Saratoga2]

I had to laugh when watching Andy Katz going on about how UNC was the best team left in the tounament and most likely to win it all. They just got sent home, so Andy, your assessment was incorrect.

[proelitedota]

Not sure how our opponents shot 2x the FTs we do when we have RJ and Zion. :rolleyes:

We'll have to beat the refs and the other team going forward.

[kAzE]

Can we not tempt fate by piling on Ahmed Hill or even UNC? . . . We're unbelievably lucky to still be alive in this tournament.

I just want Cam Reddish's knee to be fine, and this team to have enough left in the tank to beat Michigan State on Sunday . . .

[Steven43]

People were definitely telling him never to take another three. It was silly.

Oh, well, in that case you are absolutely right. That was/is silly.

[DukieInBrasil]

I would still be surprised if he’s a one-and-doner. Maybe if he follows his brother and wins MOP; in which case I will pack his bags for him if I can guarantee that result.

He’s not a good shooter; one hot night doesn’t change that. There’s no way he’s a 1st round pick and he saw that his significantly more NBA-ready brother took years in the D-league to get his chance.

Tyus Jones didn't spend a second in the D-League. He has been a career back-up PG making occasional spot starts, but he never played in the D-league.
Perhaps you're thinking of Seth Curry or Quinn Cook, who played in D-league ball for a year or 2 each, but not Tyus.

[KandG]

There’s no way he’s a 1st round pick and he saw that his significantly more NBA-ready brother took years in the D-league to get his chance.

Not really sure about Tyus taking "years in the D-League" to get his chance. He played six games for the Idaho Stampede his rookie year, did very well in his time there and was recalled to the Timberwolves. In his rookie year, he did get a lot of DNPs, but he was on the Wolves for most of the season.

Since then, Tyus has played 60 games as a second year player, all 82 games in his third year, and 60 so far this year, with no D-League/G-League stints. He had a solid year last season. He's not tearing up the league, but he's a good backup.

What Tre will do as a pro is more open to question, I agree.

[kako]

6 thoughts:

1. Anyone who says that they expected Jones to be a 3 point machine tonight, raise their hand. I held my breath on each one, but they just kept draining. We needed them all. He says he always has confidence, but I like the confidence more when it results in buckets. MOTM, even without considering his 8:0 TO ratio.

2. A punch in the gut at tip off with no Reddish. I see the back and forth on this board about AOC. Count me semi-positive. His D and ball-handling are suspect, sure. And I wish he hunted his shot more. But to become the starter with almost no notice, play major minutes, grab those boards and provide some points in a S16 nail biter? I'd say thanks for tonight. Reddish can be hot and cold with his game, but I want him back simply because his ceiling is higher than AOC. But if he's not back, then K has 2 days to figure out how best to use AOC against MSU.

3. A lot of complaining about the refs here (as usual). In the end, a team has to play through whatever calls are there. Sure, there were some head-scratchers... but bad calls will *always* happen at some point. The team fought through them, and that's what counts.

4. I'm really tired of teams taking advantage of each and every time the refs go to the monitors to review something. I think it should be like boxing - when there is video review, teams go to neutral corners, on the other side of the court diagonally from their benches. And no one from the bench can approach them. VaTech getting that freebie at the end when they had no time outs was unfair.

5. I wish there were more set plays run to get Zion the ball in the paint. His drives can result in charges for a smart defender, like at the end today (and could have been called on that last drive versus UCF). But just get him the ball within 10 feet, and with 2 super steps it usually results in a lay in. There should be a couple of crunch time plays to Zion inside.

6. Carolina - hahahahaha! Love winning in March when they lose.

9F

[TNTDevil]

Good watch about 4ish minutes. Coach K and Z, RJ and Tre.
https://youtu.be/S-5eo_hSyUA

[fathippo]

I am not completely sure it was still in-bounds, but it was close enough to review.

One replay angle from above showed the ball clearly bounced in-bounds. I do not think they could review it. They could only review who touched it last.

[KandG]

Looked to me like he misjudged the angle. He was fading away and to the side but tried to lay it in as if he was right at the rim.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

Hill also did what many players do in a last second situation like that -- he was fighting the clock as a defender as much as his own man. I actually thought his angle on attacking the lob was OK. But if he had realized how long 1.1 seconds was, he might not have rushed and short-armed it.

He played volleyball with it because he was afraid he wasn't going to beat the buzzer if he let it rest in his hands/fingertips for a split second too long.

[subzero02]

Tyus Jones didn't spend a second in the D-League. He has been a career back-up PG making occasional spot starts, but he never played in the D-league.
Perhaps you're thinking of Seth Curry or Quinn Cook, who played in D-league ball for a year or 2 each, but not Tyus.

Tyus played/started 6 games in the d-league during his rookie season. It is now the g league but was the d league then.

[ncexnyc]

Tough crowd. AOC gets thrown into the fire at the last minute and people want to bellyache that he didn't play a perfect game. Maybe they should listen to Coach K's presser where he singled AOC out for his rebounding.

Tre had a fantastic game and I can't believe some people on this forum have the nerve to say he picked up Cam's slack. Sorry, but he did a heck of a lot more than pick up Cam's slack.

In the days leading up to the game all the talking heads wanted to do was point out this team's weaknesses, but at the end of the day the only thing that matters is that we've got Zion and the other teams don't. There isn't a player in college ball who can do what this kid does on both ends of the floor. And Batman's buddy Robin isn't bad either. RJ took a beating from a lot of people on this forum throughout the year, but his game has definitely improved over the course of the season.

Our centers had bad plays, but also came up with a few crucial plays down the stretch. Bolden has been very clutch at the free throw line and not just in today's game.

I'm going to enjoy the win and not dwell on that elusive perfection some of you seem to be hung-up on.

[alteran]

I'm a big believer in winning with class but man did the refs screw up the last 2 minutes. How do they not even review the blackshear out of bounds?

The same way they didn’t review RJ getting raked in the face. They just... didn’t.

[TNTDevil]

I wish Kennedy hadn't been assassinated.

I wish we could have seen the folly that would be Vietnam.

I wish we never recruited Josh McRob...err...nevermind.

I wish...I wish...I wish.

Meanwhile, on the earth without Unicorns that fart glitter, Duke won.

You'd never know it from reading this thread.

Duke= ACC Tournament Champs. Elite Eight participants.
UNC= Neither

Perfect season. House kay$h from here on out.

[weezie]

... Duke won.

You'd never know it from reading this thread.

Duke= ACC Tournament Champs. Elite Eight participants.
UNC= Neither ...

I can't bring myself to read it.

Husband and I were there behind vtech band.

I'm drawing a complete blank on the end of the game. Just nearly, truly passed out when that ball didn't go in for the turkey. Have to watch the dvr tomorrow. I freaked completely out. Total vapors.

Not an ounce of quit in this team. Wow, do they play every second, every minute. Just wow.

[Troublemaker]

6 thoughts:
1. Anyone who says that they expected Jones to be a 3 point machine tonight, raise their hand. I held my breath on each one, but they just kept draining. We needed them all. He says he always has confidence, but I like the confidence more when it results in buckets. MOTM, even without considering his 8:0 TO ratio.


**raises hand halfway**

I definitely wrote somewhere on here that the next time a team left Tre wide open from three, I wouldn't be surprised if he went 6-for-8. Turns out he went 5-for-7 instead.


Prior to tonight Tre Jones had shot roughly 20% for his Duke career on largely open 3’s, and he missed 7 straight at one point against UCF. So you want to ridicule every poster who suggested during that game that Tre should consider driving to the basket more and taking more pull-up jumpers rather than shooting additional 3’s? Please explain what about that seemed like poor advice from the aforementioned “DBR experts” during the UCF game. I don’t think anyone was saying it during tonight’s game. So why bring up comments made during previous games?

It was just silly for anyone to think that Tre, who demonstrates touch when he shot 80% on FTs in high school and is 76% on FTs currently at Duke, couldn't make wide-open threes. The UCF game was a fluke. I called it and I was right. As Shaq once free-style rapped about Kobe, "Tell me how my..."

[duke96]

Oh, well, in that case you are absolutely right. That was/is silly.

Exactly. Which is why it’s so odd that you got so energized about the original comment saying the same thing. Anyhow, next play...

[El_Diablo]

I think Jack got a trillion

He had a turnover and is thus not a trillionaire.

[TNTDevil]

**raises hand halfway**

I definitely wrote somewhere on here that the next time a team left Tre wide open from three, I wouldn't be surprised if he went 6-for-8. Turns out he went 5-for-7 instead.
Well, clearly you're an idiot. I mean, missing it by that much...sheesh.

Get a new calculator brah.

[weezie]

Beautiful stillness over on ickhole carowhina tonight.

Quiet, soft sadness. Much gnashing of those three or four teeth they share....

:D:D:D

[Steven43]

I wish Kennedy hadn't been assassinated.

I wish we could have seen the folly that would be Vietnam.

I wish we never recruited Josh McRob...err...nevermind.

I wish...I wish...I wish.

Meanwhile, on the earth without Unicorns that fart glitter, Duke won.

You'd never know it from reading this thread.

Duke= ACC Tournament Champs. Elite Eight participants.
UNC= Neither

Perfect season. House kay$h from here on out.
The reason you’re not seeing DBR posters truly reveling in this win is because it is the second straight game Duke could so very easily have lost, and both were against lower-seeded teams. The competition only gets tougher from here and there is one day off, ONE, before having to face Michigan State to see who goes to the Final Four. There is no time to truly relax and enjoy it.

As for everything from here on out being gravy, I have to disagree. I don’t think most Duke fans were satisfied with getting to the regional final last year, and It would be the same result this year if Duke loses on Sunday. This has been a really fun and exciting season with a slew of great wins and many memories that will live on. But I’m not satisfied and I doubt the players and coaches are either. They deserve the opportunity to show what they can do on college basketball’s biggest stage — the Final Four. I think they’re destined to get there.

[Troublemaker]

Welp, we needed somebody to go unconscious and Tre did it.

Even with Tre's hot shooting, Duke was only 6-20 overall on threes. Let's face it, you were wrong pregame about Duke's halfcourt offense, as we executed fantastically to the tune of making 69% of 2-pters, and we shot 36 twos to only 20 threes. If Cam had played, Duke's defense would've been better and Duke would've won comfortably, imo.

What was clicking on offense? Duke's familiarity with VaTech led us to know that the Hokies would never "ice" RJ on a side ball screen, i.e. VaTech would never force him away from the screen like Duke often does to our opponents. Thus, Duke kept setting up RJ on the right side of the court for a ball screen, and he would always be able to use the ball screen to go left. RJ going left is death for defenses. Going left, he racked up a ton of assists and eventually got his buckets, too, in the second half. Zion was amazing as always on his inside touches. And Tre was aggressive when given an opening to either shoot wide-open or to attack a closeout.

Great college basketball game. Proud of the players and coaches to overcome Cam's injury to still win.

I do think we'll need at least one of Cam or Jack back to win on Sunday, though.

[Oriole Way]

One replay angle from above showed the ball clearly bounced in-bounds. I do not think they could review it. They could only review who touched it last.

Nope. They should have reviewed it, just like the refs also failed to review the out of bounds play right before that. We got hosed by the refs on both of those out of bounds plays.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9259772/ncaa-basketball-rules-committee-approves-more-replays-bounds-shot-clock-violations

[JetpackJesus]

The reason you’re not seeing DBR posters truly reveling in this win is because it is the second straight game Duke could so very easily have lost, and both were against lower-seeded teams. The competition only gets tougher from here and there is one day off, ONE, before having to face Michigan State to see who goes to the Final Four. There is no time to truly relax and enjoy it.

As for everything from here on out being gravy, I have to disagree. I don’t think most Duke fans were satisfied with getting to the regional final last year, and It would be the same result this year if Duke loses on Sunday. This has been a really fun and exciting season with a slew of great wins and many memories that will live on. But I’m not satisfied and I doubt the players and coaches are either. They deserve the opportunity to show what they can do on college basketball’s biggest stage — the Final Four. I think they’re destined to get there.
Duke can play only lower seeds. If Duke wins, it will have beaten lower seeds. If it loses, it will have lost to a lower seed. That's just the nature of being the best team in the country.

Duke just beat a very good team playing without one of its best players.

I'm very proud of this team.

[ncexnyc]

There is no time to truly relax and enjoy it.
Yet somehow there seems to be plenty of time to cry about the team's play. I'm sure the folks over at IC would appreciate your negative view of our chances of moving on. I'm also sure they wish they had our luck.

After we won it all in 2010, all I heard from Cheat fans was how easy we had it and while I admit things did fall our way at the end of the day we beat everyone we played and that's all that really matters.

[devildeac]

WRT some believing that RJ wasn't held so VT could get off that last play. Nope. Nothing to see here. Move along.


https://s3media.247sports.com/Uploads/Assets/479/147/9147479.png

:rolleyes::mad:

[TNTDevil]

Looked to me like he misjudged the angle. He was fading away and to the side but tried to lay it in as if he was right at the rim.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.


Hill also did what many players do in a last second situation like that -- he was fighting the clock as a defender as much as his own man. I actually thought his angle on attacking the lob was OK. But if he had realized how long 1.1 seconds was, he might not have rushed and short-armed it.

He played volleyball with it because he was afraid he wasn't going to beat the buzzer if he let it rest in his hands/fingertips for a split second too long.I wasn't going to reply to FF50 initially because our differences were so small, so I let his interpretation stand.

However, with KandG's response, I'll speak in support. I've watched a lot of women's volleyball. I've seen that happen +/- one quintillion times. Alligator/T-Rex arms. Pure and simple.

Then he begged a foul, neglecting the fact, he missed the shot untouched.

In honesty, I almost feel bad for him, having to end his career in that manner. Having to go through the rest of his life, always remembering how be completely blew that shot.

But, then I was all WANKERWORD THAT...Karma is a boomerang. HAHAHAHAHA

See my post up-thread. Any fool can lead contest at the start.

The finish goes in the books.

[TNTDevil]

WRT some believing that RJ wasn't held so VT could get off that last play. Nope. Nothing to see here. Move along.


https://s3media.247sports.com/Uploads/Assets/479/147/9147479.png

:rolleyes::mad:A brotherly hug. What's your beef?

All we need is love, my child. Let go of your anger and embrace your neighbor.

Duke gets all the calls. DontChaKnow?

[JetpackJesus]

WRT some believing that RJ wasn't held so VT could get off that last play. Nope. Nothing to see here. Move along.


https://s3media.247sports.com/Uploads/Assets/479/147/9147479.png

:rolleyes::mad:
Are you sure that's from the last play. That's his standard screen form (after being in the paint the entire possession) so i can't really tell the difference.

[Steven43]

Duke can play only lower seeds. If Duke wins, it will have beaten lower seeds. If it loses, it will have lost to a lower seed. That's just the nature of being the best team in the country.

Duke just beat a very good team playing without one of its best players.

I'm very proud of this team.

What I meant was Duke was the fairly heavy favorite in both games so to just barely survive by the skin of our teeth twice in a row led to an uneasy feeling for Duke fans the entirety of both contests. Extremely exciting and highly-watchable games to be sure, but without the chance to relax for even 30 secomds because there was no let up until the final whistle.

I can’t remember back-to-back NCAA tournament games like this for Duke in my lifetime of watching basketball. I think that’s why the feeling is just a little bit short of total jubilation. That and the fact that you know there is an even bigger and more difficult game looming in just one day.

These do-or-die tournaments are tough to take. Two games in a row I was watching the final seconds thinking “Please don’t let this be the last time we see Zion, Tre, RJ, et al in a Duke uniform.” I selfishly want to keep watching these guys for three more games. They are a big part of my life.

[Steven43]

There is no time to truly relax and enjoy it.


Yet somehow there seems to be plenty of time to cry about the team's play. I'm sure the folks over at IC would appreciate your negative view of our chances of moving on.

What the heck are you talking about???? I’m not crying about the team’s play and I do not have a negative view of our chances of moving on. Your interpretation of what I posted is just flat-out wrong. If you’re going to try to commit character assassination against a fellow poster at least do it with accuracy.

[Skydog]

**raises hand halfway**


It was just silly for anyone to think that Tre, who demonstrates touch when he shot 80% on FTs in high school and is 76% on FTs currently at Duke, couldn't make wide-open threes. The UCF game was a fluke. I called it and I was right. As Shaq once free-style rapped about Kobe, "Tell me how my..."

How was it silly to question Tre taking eight 3’s against UCF when he was 22 for 95 (23%) prior to this game?! Ninety-five attempts isn’t a big sample but it isn’t meaningless either. Nor is the fact that in the 30 consecutive games prior to UCF he made either 0 or 1 from behind the arc. His season record was 2 makes, which he did twice - against Army & San Diego State.

And UCF wasn’t a fluke - when he took at least five 3’s he went 1-7, 1-6, 1-7, 1-5 and 1-5 prior to that game. Tre going 5-7 appears to be the ‘fluke’ this season.

I don’t have a problem with someone arguing he should take open threes. But for you to imply that it’s obvious he’s a good long range shooter just doesn’t fit the data. And to call it silly for some to be questioning the strategy of him launching 8 of them against UCF is silly in its own right. We aren’t all psychic and expect a season long 23% shooter to suddenly shoot over 60% the next game.

All that being said I hope Tre is the first NCAA player ever to suddenly raise his long range shooting by 40 percentage points over the last four games of the NCAA tourney.

PS - I love Tre, he’s my favorite player this season. Zion is most exciting, but Tre is one of the smartest floor leaders we ever had. He and his brother.

[accfanfrom1970]

They made 3 more 3’s than us. +9.
They out scored us from the free throw line by 7.
They out rebounded us.
Alex and RJ shot 0-11 from 3.
Cam doesn’t play and Jack barely does.
But we win. I’m happy.

[subzero02]

His basketball IQ isn't the greatest. Coach K at halftime told them to stay on shooters and not help. Javin's man, through switching, was a guard and 3 point shooter. Halfway to helping he remembered what Coach K said and ran back to the shooter.

His thought process might have been that and most likely was that but that's a middle school mistake at best and I don't think I would've made that mistake after the age of 10 or 11. it's like he forget where the basket was. That said, he did have some very nice plays and his play overall was good; without him, we probably wouldn't have advanced.

[bigperm13]

Too close against VT.

Last 2 minutes in the last two games not inspiring a lot of confidence.

Better lucky than good two games in a row. Hopefully lady luck keeps signing.

Can we get some decent refs? Please?

Not inspiring confidence in you? No offense but so the wanker what, it matters none how confident you are.

[Dukehk]

With only a days turnaround, it actually might favor us a bit more because michigan state won’t have a lot of time to practice any junk defenses against us.

They probably will try to adopt more of the same “crowd the low post” type defence but I think with little time to practice or game plan against Zion it might actually favor us more. I hope!

[subzero02]

With only a days turnaround, it actually might favor us a bit more because michigan state won’t have a lot of time to practice any junk defenses against us.

They probably will try to adopt more of the same “crowd the low post” type defence but I think with little time to practice or game plan against Zion it might actually favor us more. I hope!

I promise you that Izzo already had a defensive scheme for Zion before MSU arrived in DC. I think that we benefited the most from last night and not because of the quick turnover. It's because we now have a better appreciation for the value of staying with 3 point shooters after dribble penetration(winston), especially vs. a team that is highly efficient at finding the open man on the perimeter( anyone on their roster). The lessons we learned tonight can be applied tomorrow night. Also, box out every play; put a body on somebody.

[Dukehk]

I promise you that Izzo already had a defensive scheme for Zion before MSU arrived in DC. I think that we benefited the most from last night and not because of the quick turnover. It's because we now have a better appreciation for the value of staying with 3 point shooters after dribble penetration(winston), especially vs. a team that is highly efficient at finding the open man on the perimeter( anyone on their roster). The lessons we learned tonight can be applied tomorrow night. Also, box out every play; put a body on somebody.

Maybe so, but I believe they still had to prep for lsu. Felt that vtech really put in a good game plan to try to limit Zion with 2-3 guys just cheating in the paint and leaving AOC/Tre wide open on the other side.

Not familiar with michigan state, but are they as good of 3 point shooters as tech? I know that winston is a star and Tre will have his hands full guarding him. JG might be more of a factor tomorrow in that sense. What I'm really hoping is that Bolden and Javin realize they played pretty horribly today, and step it up against the msu bigs. We just need them to rebound and keep them off the glass. That's half the battle won.

[ice-9]

I understand what you’re saying and I somewhat agree with it. But no one was telling Tre to stop shooting. From what I recall most were suggesting that he should just move in a bit closer and take a more reliable shot. I’m not sure how that is bad advice. If a team is giving you wide-open 3’s because you miss them roughly 80% of the time and you keep missing and missing and missing, I don’t see how one can say that it’s wise to just keep doing that same thing.

And yet that’s what happened and that won us the game. Maybe that Coach K guy really does know something.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

I had to laugh when watching Andy Katz going on about how UNC was the best team left in the tounament and most likely to win it all. They just got sent home, so Andy, your assessment was incorrect.

Be careful. I am sure several folks are saying the same thing about a much more alluring shade of blue today.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

With only a days turnaround, it actually might favor us a bit more because michigan state won’t have a lot of time to practice any junk defenses against us.

They probably will try to adopt more of the same “crowd the low post” type defence but I think with little time to practice or game plan against Zion it might actually favor us more. I hope!

I'm not sure MSU needs a "junk defense." They are a dang good team and I would not be surprised if they at least start straight up against us.

We will have our hands full tomorrow. Hope I can get some more sleep between now and then.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Beautiful stillness over on ickhole Carolina tonight.

Quiet, soft sadness. Much gnashing of those three or four teeth they share...

:D:D:D

So unfair that I cannot spork you...

[devildeac]

Are you sure that's from the last play. That's his standard screen form (after being in the paint the entire possession) so i can't really tell the difference.

Those are good points/observations. My "source" claimed it was from espn highlights of the last possession. :rolleyes:

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Nope. They should have reviewed it, just like the refs also failed to review the out of bounds play right before that. We got hosed by the refs on both of those out of bounds plays.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9259772/ncaa-basketball-rules-committee-approves-more-replays-bounds-shot-clock-violations

I hope someone can explain to me why the Blackshear out of bounds with five seconds to go was not review able but the OOB at FSU that did go our way was, in fact, reviewable. Is it because we n the FSU game, the ball was rules out of bounds and they could go to the monitor to see who touched it last, but last night there was no initial call to review? Sort of like how they can review to look for a flagrant foul, but can't overturn the initial call?

Some of these nuances are pants-on-head stupid.

[uh_no]

And yet that’s what happened and that won us the game. Maybe that Coach K guy really does know something.

given that his propensity for shooting threes was a major factor in a should have been loss, I'm not ready to pretend like it's some savant ability.

tre started the year 5-7.

you can't claim credit for rolling snake eyes at the roulette table.

[uh_no]

I hope someone can explain to me why the Blackshear out of bounds with five seconds to go was not review able but the OOB at FSU that did go our way was, in fact, reviewable. Is it because we n the FSU game, the ball was rules out of bounds and they could go to the monitor to see who touched it last, but last night there was no initial call to review? Sort of like how they can review to look for a flagrant foul, but can't overturn the initial call?

Some of these nuances are pants-on-head stupid.

you can review who caused a ball to go out of bounds, but not whether it actually did, and certainly in this case, not when play had already continued past that.

[devilnfla]

Those last 2 minutes were criminally bad by those refs.

RJ and Zion were absolutely gassed at the end. Warriors.

My heart is still pounding.

I'm confused how they missed Blackshears foot touching the out of bounds line on that last offensive rebound. Why is that not reviewable?

[Lurkingdukedog]

WRT some believing that RJ wasn't held so VT could get off that last play. Nope. Nothing to see here. Move along.


https://s3media.247sports.com/Uploads/Assets/479/147/9147479.png

:rolleyes::mad:

Great picture. Spot on comment

[devilnfla]

Yeah, in order to review that call, the player would have initially needed to have been ruled out of bounds

That's a stupid rule. They go back and review 3pt shots (foot on line or not) even when play continues.

[uh_no]

That's a stupid rule. They go back and review 3pt shots (foot on line or not) even when play continues.

yes, but that only changes the score by one point...and doesn't erase arbitrary amounts of play which might have occurred after the missed non-stoppage. What if 10 seconds had gone further? what if 30 seconds and 2 scores? What if there was a subsequent foul? It's not as easy as it would be in, say, football.

I'm not saying it can't be done, but that it's not as trivially fixable as the things that are currently explicitly reviewable.

[EKUD]

Everyone seemed out of character last night, specifically in the 1st half. If your pre-game prediction was Tre going 5-7 3pt while the rest of the team goes 1-13, Javin lost on defense and AOC air-balling a wide open corner three — I would of told you to go have another beer. RJ was miserable to watch before halftime but he really put together some great work in the 2nd half. I love AOC’s stroke and seeing him enter the game always gets me excited but his poor defensive IQ was blasted on display. Nothing is going to change that over-night this year but if it’s a strong off-season focus, he will be a valuable rotational (if not starter) next year. He gambles the passing lane way too heavily and leaks off his defender more than desired. Can’t be leaving perimeter threats naked outside the line to run into the paint on a penetrating player. There’s such thing as bad help defense and he lays out the example.

I’m happy for Tre specifically, but I’m not buying into a 1-game performance hinting the narrative that he’s suddenly a reliable perimeter shooter. He has fired off some questionable 3s this year as a poor shooter, I’m hoping last night’s game doesn’t give him a mental green light to rapid-fire from here on out. I don’t see any issue with him taking the open looks, but we can’t afford to take senseless shots. His first three that he took was a terrible shot selection, I’m glad it went in but I don’t want to see that out of him unless it’s situation-forced. He’s had a solid little elbow distance middie all year though. We run a lot of P&R on the wings with RJ and Zion as ball-handlers... I’d really like to see what that would look like between Tre and Zion. Tre is a great floor general and I think we’d suction the D heavily on Zion’s roll. Possibly leaving RJ (or anyone) with room to shoot on the wing/corner. If not, Tre’s middie game is nice or a lob to Zion. I 100% trust RJ and Zion trying to isolate and attack the basket, but I think we’d really benefit with Tre penetrating and trusting him to make a smart pass or shot. Not suggesting this needs to be our half-court offense but I think it would be a nice asset to toss in for variety.

In conclusion to rattling off my game thoughts, I don’t like bringing up the refs. Human judgement is part of basketball..... But we really got the short end of the stick in this game. Blackshear got away with a lot offensively all game, but so be it. My biggest issue was the late-game charge on Zion. JRob was shuffling his feet milliseconds before impact and had a blatant lean in to absorb the contact. If that was correctly whistled as a block, we wouldn’t of suffered through the late game dramatics. Of course, Blackshear was clearly out of bounds. Should of been our possession. But we survived and are advancing to Saturday and that’s the only part of the outcome that matters.

[DukieInKansas]

There is no time to truly relax and enjoy it.


What the heck are you talking about???? I’m not crying about the team’s play and I do not have a negative view of our chances of moving on. Your interpretation of what I posted is just flat-out wrong. If you’re going to try to commit character assassination against a fellow poster at least do it with accuracy.

I'm guessing he was talking about the board in general and not you specifically.

[devilnfla]

yes, but that only changes the score by one point...and doesn't erase arbitrary amounts of play which might have occurred after the missed non-stoppage. What if 10 seconds had gone further? what if 30 seconds and 2 scores? What if there was a subsequent foul? It's not as easy as it would be in, say, football.

I'm not saying it can't be done, but that it's not as trivially fixable as the things that are currently explicitly reviewable.

I feel the adjustment in points is just as crucial as the adjustment in time. In this case you're talking about seconds....which they go back and adjust all the time, especially when the shot clock is incorrectly reset.

[fuse]

Special team, lucky win.

I have to admit inside I have all the nerves and butterflies.

I’d really rather see a bit more sunny side up here, although its your privilege to be sour if you prefer.

Wasn’t it Coach K who said, just be you. You is enough.

Certainly Alex was enough, and Tre was (K’s words) magnificent.

Whether it is Sunday, next Saturday, or next Monday, the season is almost over.

I keep trying to recapture the shock and joy over beating Kentucky, Auburn, Texas Tech from earlier in the season.

I want to see this team keep going, and realize the potential we know they have.

Let’s Go Duke!!! 🔵😈

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Great picture. Spot on comment

How the hell do they miss that? Not like there's no contrast between Blackshears's arm and RJ's jersey.

[Bob Green]

Ward’s injury is apparently a deep bone bruise to the wrist/hand he had surgery on earlier this season. After the game he said he would be ready to go on Sunday. I can’t link from my phone but there was an article in the Detroit Free Press.

Here is the link:

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/michigan-state/spartans/2019/03/30/michigan-state-basketball-ncaa-tournament-nick-ward-duke/3318469002/


Ward said it was deemed a deep bruise on his fifth metacarpal bone, and MSU’s medical staff did not want him to go back in the game. He said he expects to be ready to play Sunday against No. 1 seed Duke and Zion Williamson in the Elite Eight (5:05 p.m., CBS).

[devilnfla]

Speaking of ref inconsistencies against Duke vs VT, how about that horrible illegal screen call against Bolden in the 1st half? I thought it was a bad call as Bolden never looked to even set a screen. IMO he was running into the Lane to establish post position when he was whistled for that. Nearly every uncontested layup VT got in the halfcourt had Blackshear setting a much more egregious looking illegal screen.

[Tooold]

With all the missed/bad calls in the final few minutes, I expected to turn on ESPN and see them dissecting the calls over and over, pointing out how those calls unfairly favored VaTech. Oh wait....they only do that when they think a missed call benefits Duke.

[TKG]

They rebounded 22% against Liberty and 17% against Saint Louis. And then 40%+ against us?

This. Michigan State will be just as tough/er on the glass. We need to be better in this area on Sunday.

[CajunDevil]

Alex takes a lot of criticism for his D, but his contest (without fouling) of Outlaw’s three with 3 seconds left was excellent.

Zion’s recover to block Robinson’s layup attempt off of the backboard was the most amazing play of the game for me. The quickness, explosion and ability to recover were LeBronesque. Also, Hill heard Zion’s footsteps in that final inbounds lob. Hill had to get rid of it quickly bc he knew Zion was going to swat it if he didn’t. The earlier blocks certainly pay mental dividends later in games.

[moonpie23]

Blackshear, Blackshear, Blackshear, .......is that the kid that's going home?

[uh_no]

I feel the adjustment in points is just as crucial as the adjustment in time. In this case you're talking about seconds...which they go back and adjust all the time, especially when the shot clock is incorrectly reset.

good point

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Alex takes a lot of criticism for his D, but his contest (without fouling) of Outlaw’s three with 3 seconds left was excellent.

Zion’s recover to block Robinson’s layup attempt off of the backboard was the most amazing play of the game for me. The quickness, explosion and ability to recover were LeBronesque. Also, Hill heard Zion’s footsteps in that final inbounds lob. Hill had to get rid of it quickly bc he knew Zion was going to swat it if he didn’t. The earlier blocks certainly pay mental dividends later in games.

3 excellent points, and I thought the same 3 things as they unfolded last night. I also think Hill kind of flunked the Christian "I have plenty of time" Laettner test... Then again, most people do.

[TeacherTom]

Alex takes a lot of criticism for his D, but his contest (without fouling) of Outlaw’s three with 3 seconds left was excellent.

Zion’s recover to block Robinson’s layup attempt off of the backboard was the most amazing play of the game for me. The quickness, explosion and ability to recover were LeBronesque. Also, Hill heard Zion’s footsteps in that final inbounds lob. Hill had to get rid of it quickly bc he knew Zion was going to swat it if he didn’t. The earlier blocks certainly pay mental dividends later in games.

I think Alex jumped higher than I have ever seen him leap to cause that shot to go off target.

[robed deity]

I think Alex jumped higher than I have ever seen him leap to cause that shot to go off target.

It was a good contest, but actually Alex is impressively springy in general.

[weezie]

Speaking of ref inconsistencies against Duke vs VT, how about that horrible illegal screen call against Bolden in the 1st half? I thought it was a bad call as Bolden never looked to even set a screen. IMO he was running into the Lane to establish post position when he was whistled for that. Nearly every uncontested layup VT got in the halfcourt had Blackshear setting a much more egregious looking illegal screen.

The whole moving screen call is baloney. It's probably wrong most times it's called. Just like allowing Buzzy to traipse onto the court at will, refs have their quirks.

And another thing: the atmosphere around the Cap One Center was weird. First of all, it's filthy. This is a premium sporting event, how about washing the sidewalks and streets and emptying trash cans? The miasma of loud tinny rap music featuring a six or seven year old child screaming his lungs out surrounded by adults enveloped in pot smoke was nauseating.

Sure, sure, I know it's legal but for cripes sake, come on DC. Show a little class. Establish some boundaries where there will likely be big crowds including young children. Traffic leaving after the game was brutal, road closures due to night construction and general idiocy of drivers, no police to ease traffic along.

Thoroughly disgusting.

[jv001]

Are you sure that's from the last play. That's his standard screen form (after being in the paint the entire possession) so i can't really tell the difference.

It was indeed the last play. CBS showed the same shot from above but none of the TV guys mentioned the hold. I'm glad the big mouth hokie missed the shot because that would have been a terrible way to lose the game. I know it would have been OT but with RJ, Zion and Marques having 4 fouls each(I think) our chances would have been low. GoDuke!

[FerryFor50]

Alex takes a lot of criticism for his D, but his contest (without fouling) of Outlaw’s three with 3 seconds left was excellent.



Alex’s contest on the shot was great, but what on earth is VT doing there? Why were they playing for the win and not OT when they had 3 Duke players with 4 fouls - including RJ.

For all the talk of Buzz being a coaching genius, the last 30 seconds for VT were dumb.

[oldbailey]

All I wanted for my birthday was a Blue Devil win. And I got . . .a very nice email from the DBR Boards wishing me a happy birthday and a Blue Devil win! Thank you Boards and Devils.

Have to say as the Heels train wreck was happening I started getting visions of Black Sunday redoux. Really glad we didn’t go there. Not to the same level, but at the end this felt like the ‘91 Final Four — they lose and a couple hours later we win. 9F

So impressed with the fight of this team and how K and they keep reinventing with the pieces available.

[DU82]

I feel the adjustment in points is just as crucial as the adjustment in time. In this case you're talking about seconds...which they go back and adjust all the time, especially when the shot clock is incorrectly reset.

Clock errors are reviewable. Who knocked a ball out of bounds (in the last two minutes) is reviewable. Whether or not a foot is out of bounds is not. Those are the rules. Add more reviewable plays, and the two teams might still be playing.

[uh_no]

All I wanted for my birthday was a Blue Devil win. And I got . . .a very nice email from the DBR Boards wishing me a happy birthday and a Blue Devil win! Thank you Boards and Devils.

Have to say as the Heels train wreck was happening I started getting visions of Black Sunday redoux. Really glad we didn’t go there. Not to the same level, but at the end this felt like the ‘91 Final Four — they lose and a couple hours later we win. 9F

So impressed with the fight of this team and how K and they keep reinventing with the pieces available.

one of the things that's been so incredible about these particular freshman is their ability to effectively execute in hand adjustments. one of the reasons we're a second half team.

[FerryFor50]

Clock errors are reviewable. Who knocked a ball out of bounds (in the last two minutes) is reviewable. Whether or not a foot is out of bounds is not. Those are the rules. Add more reviewable plays, and the two teams might still be playing.

I feel like all out of bounds plays should be reviewable in the final minutes of games. They’re too critical to outcomes to throw your hands up and say “human error is part if the game!”

[MChambers]

Alex’s contest on the shot was great, but what on earth is VT doing there? Why were they playing for the win and not OT when they had 3 Duke players with 4 fouls - including RJ.

For all the talk of Buzz being a coaching genius, the last 30 seconds for VT were dumb.

VT had two key players with four fouls, too, so that may have factored into Williams's thinking.

[DukieInKansas]

Alex’s contest on the shot was great, but what on earth is VT doing there? Why were they playing for the win and not OT when they had 3 Duke players with 4 fouls - including RJ.

For all the talk of Buzz being a coaching genius, the last 30 seconds for VT were dumb.

Didn't they have 2 players with 4 and another with 3? That might have played a factor in the try for the win over OT. Or you try for the win and hope for the put back 2 to tie if the 3 misses.

eta - didn't see MChambers post. Great minds? ;-)

[jv001]

Tre: 40 mins. 22 points on 8/14, 5/7 threes, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, 0 turnovers, while guarding Robinson for the entire game. For sure my ,MOTM.
Bolden: 20 mins, 4 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 steal.
Javin: 20 mins, 4 points, 2 rebounds, 1 block, 1 steal.
Not bad for the center position(I know we don't have positions).
Team turnovers: 11 (J=5 and Zion= 3).

With what RJ and Zion bring to the table, I can live with the turnovers. Some caused by less than desirable officials.

I'm hoping Cam and/or Jack is ready to go tomorrow. We'll need them against a very good MSU team. I'm sure Izzo is wanting to beat Duke and Coach K.

GoDuke!

[Furniture]

Yeah, didn't mind seeing Hill miss the final shot. And he missed it badly. Much less scary than Aubrey Dawkins' game-ending miss on a tap.

Did you see his face on the replay? There was a look of joy as he went up to grab the ball and then a change to an ‘o dear I missed’ look.
Well deserved for all the woofing...

[curtis325]

Clock errors are reviewable. Who knocked a ball out of bounds (in the last two minutes) is reviewable. Whether or not a foot is out of bounds is not. Those are the rules. Add more reviewable plays, and the two teams might still be playing.

I get that it is not reviewable, but what the heck were the refs looking at in real time? The ball was heading out of bounds and a player is rushing over to try and save it. He grabs the ball and stops. Shouldn't the refs eyes go immediately to the foot to see if it is OOB? Really bad job--maybe they were all screened, but the foot stayed there for at least a second before he passed the ball.

[Saratoga2]

Buzz Williams to Texas A&M. Thats the buzz now!

[jv001]

Buzz Williams to Texas A&M. Thats the buzz now!

I hope he goes. He's a creepy jerk. Always trying to draw attention to himself. GoDuke!

Don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you, Buzz. GoDuke!

[bluenorth]

I hope he goes. He's a creepy jerk. Always trying to draw attention to himself. GoDuke!

I noticed that in the handshake line Coach K barely paused when he came to Buzz. K usually will stop for a few words with the opposing head coach. That tells you something right there.

[Kfanarmy]

Welp, we needed somebody to go unconscious and Tre did it. Fantastic effort on D in the second half. Though we got reeeeeeal lucky on that last play.

Tech player was moving really fast laterally trying to stay away from Zion. That made it much more difficult.

[sagegrouse]

The whole moving screen call is baloney. It's probably wrong most times it's called. Just like allowing Buzzy to traipse onto the court at will, refs have their quirks.

And another thing: the atmosphere around the Cap One Center was weird. First of all, it's filthy. This is a premium sporting event, how about washing the sidewalks and streets and emptying trash cans? The miasma of loud tinny rap music featuring a six or seven year old child screaming his lungs out surrounded by adults enveloped in pot smoke was nauseating.

Sure, sure, I know it's legal but for cripes sake, come on DC. Show a little class. Establish some boundaries where there will likely be big crowds including young children. Traffic leaving after the game was brutal, road closures due to night construction and general idiocy of drivers, no police to ease traffic along.

Thoroughly disgusting.

Five letters, Weezie: M-E-T-R-O

[OldPhiKap]

Buzz Williams looks like he should sing for the Decemberists.

[bluenorth]

I get that it is not reviewable, but what the heck were the refs looking at in real time? The ball was heading out of bounds and a player is rushing over to try and save it. He grabs the ball and stops. Shouldn't the refs eyes go immediately to the foot to see if it is OOB? Really bad job--maybe they were all screened, but the foot stayed there for at least a second before he passed the ball.

Two things would affect the non-call there. The first is that it appears the ref was watching up high to see if the ball was touched, by whom, etc. so didn't see the foot touch the line. The second is that IMO the ref was too close to the play to see the whole picture. He should have been further up the sideline, ie. part-way to mid court, so that he would have a better view of the entire action.

I still don't understand how Blackshear did not foul out. As other posters have noted, these were ACC refs, so they had to be familiar with the players' tendencies. Blackshear is what used to be called a crafty player, meaning he does lots of little things to gain an advantage. But in this age of everything being recorded and reviewed, there are no secrets about what he does. When he gains an advantage illegally it should be called.

[jv001]

Two things would affect the non-call there. The first is that it appears the ref was watching up high to see if the ball was touched, by whom, etc. so didn't see the foot touch the line. The second is that IMO the ref was too close to the play to see the whole picture. He should have been further up the sideline, ie. part-way to mid court, so that he would have a better view of the entire action.

I still don't understand how Blackshear did not foul out. As other posters have noted, these were ACC refs, so they had to be familiar with the players' tendencies. Blackshear is what used to be called a crafty player, meaning he does lots of little things to gain an advantage. But in this age of everything being recorded and reviewed, there are no secrets about what he does. When he gains an advantage illegally it should be called.

How long before Blackshear draws his first social security check? He's been playing sooooooo long. :cool:GoDuke!

[BLPOG]

I haven't read through all 13 pages yet, so forgive me if it's already been posted, but here is the GoDuke link to the presser (http://www.goduke.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?clip=5911682&cid=901&db_oem_id=4200).

As usual, K and the players have a particularly jocular attitude at the table (e.g. "Jones?"). It's a fun watch.

[MChambers]

I noticed that in the handshake line Coach K barely paused when he came to Buzz. K usually will stop for a few words with the opposing head coach. That tells you something right there.

But K went out of his way to say nice things about Buzz to John Feinstein. Maybe he just doesn't know Buzz well. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/wherever-buzz-williams-might-be-going-hes-going-to-win/2019/03/28/eda3fbf6-518f-11e9-88a1-ed346f0ec94f_story.html?utm_term=.e9fcb5f8ea61

[MChambers]

Five letters, Weezie: M-E-T-R-O

Yep, we took the Yellow/Green line from and to Fort Totten and were home quickly. Metro service has deteriorated a lot in recent years, but it's far better than driving in the middle of a big city.

[DU82]

Buzz Williams to Texas A&M. Thats the buzz now!

That was the assumption of the very nice and complementary VT fans after the game. (Don’t know about the opinions of the rude and drunk Turkeys.)

[bluenorth]

But K went out of his way to say nice things about Buzz to John Feinstein. Maybe he just doesn't know Buzz well. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/wherever-buzz-williams-might-be-going-hes-going-to-win/2019/03/28/eda3fbf6-518f-11e9-88a1-ed346f0ec94f_story.html?utm_term=.e9fcb5f8ea61

Thanks for the read. Nice story.

[devildeac]

It was indeed the last play. CBS showed the same shot from above but none of the TV guys mentioned the hold. I'm glad the big mouth hokie missed the shot because that would have been a terrible way to lose the game. I know it would have been OT but with RJ, Zion and Marques having 4 fouls each(I think) our chances would have been low. GoDuke!

Duke fouls (from espn box score):

Javin-3
RJ-4
Zion-3
Bolden-4

[devildeac]

Blackshear, Blackshear, Blackshear, ...is that the kid that's going home?

He and his 11 FT are going home.

[jv001]

Duke fouls (from espn box score):

Javin-3
RJ-4
Zion-3
Bolden-4

Thanks devildeac, I'm going to have to find a better way of keeping up with fouls during the game. The announcers don't always disclose who the foul was called on and my brain-computer sometimes can't keep up with those fouls. For some reason, I thought Zion had four fouls. GoDuke!