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View Full Version : MBB: Duke 74, Georgia St 63 Post-Game Thread



JBDuke
11-15-2019, 09:04 PM
Put your post-game thoughts here.

miramar
11-15-2019, 09:08 PM
Jones and Baker 6-13 from threes, rest of team 1-15.

Sounds like one of my intramural teams.

Saratoga2
11-15-2019, 09:11 PM
Jones and Baker 6-13 from threes, rest of team 1-15.

Sounds like one of my intramural teams.

Scoring from Tre and Vernon and solid rebounding. Defense was fair. Enough to win, but lots of room for self examination and improvement.

brlftz
11-15-2019, 09:12 PM
Hey, let's make like financial reporters overreacting to random market movements!

TKG
11-15-2019, 09:15 PM
Sloppy, listless and uninspired play by the Blue Devils. Take the win and get better. K has lots of raw material for practices.

NYBri
11-15-2019, 09:15 PM
Need to work on attacking the zone.

slower
11-15-2019, 09:25 PM
Hey, let's make like financial reporters overreacting to random market movements!

You mean like some people did before the game, thinking the spread was too low?

weezie
11-15-2019, 09:25 PM
Jeebus Murphy deliver me from Corey Alexander gibbering on and on and on. Mt Rushmore, what? Yap yap yap.

I muted it and pondered sending him one of those bathroom plug extension units that were advertised incessantly all night. Maybe his electric shaver would fall into the trash can and he'd knock himself out cold while trying to retrieve it.

Good lord, shut up!

Chard
11-15-2019, 09:30 PM
Idk what some of you are down about. Bad matchup against an experienced team. Vernon put up a double double. Many freshmen making freshmen mistakes. I thought it was a good, gritty win.

Baker earned some confidence, Stanley found another way to contribute (9 boards), Jones took his offense to another level.

My biggest gripe is the poor free throw %. Getting flashbacks to last year.

Good win.

miramar
11-15-2019, 10:02 PM
Jeebus Murphy deliver me from Corey Alexander gibbering on and on and on. Mt Rushmore, what? Yap yap yap.

I muted it and pondered sending him one of those bathroom plug extension units that were advertised incessantly all night. Maybe his electric shaver would fall into the trash can and he'd knock himself out cold while trying to retrieve it.

Good lord, shut up!

Like many color commentators, he doesn't realize that the broadcast would be far better if he cut back by a third to a half. It's the Jimmy Dykes syndrome.

Billy Dat
11-15-2019, 10:08 PM
This was an important game because it showed us All American, ACC POY caliber Tre Jones.

When we played a poor first half, he scored to help us keep a small lead and then keep pace, including 3 treys. In the decisive second half run when we took control of the game, he scored 10 of the next 11 points to break the 40-40 tie and was a one man fast breaking wrecking crew. Down the final 8 minutes, under K’s direction, he took the air out of the ball and used most of the shot clock on each possession. It was a masterly performance, perhaps the best of his Duke career, despite very tough D and pressure being applied to him.

We had way too many turnovers in the first half and, in K parlance, it felt like we let our offensive struggles impact our defense. Once we tightened up the D and turnovers during the aforementioned second half run, we cruised.

More positives...Vernon double double, Jack White rebounds, Cassius rebounds, Joey Baker 3s and big minutes.

More less than positives...Javin fouls and inability to finish around the rim, AOC poor play despite the start, Vernon missing dunks, K needing to continually scream for the team to “grab the ball”, fairly invisible game by Wendell and Hurt wasn’t much better, but he at least needs to be guarded around the 3 point line which creates space.

Georgia State played hard and well.

Still no real rotation, minutes are up for grabs every night.

SkyBrickey
11-15-2019, 10:11 PM
Joey Baker in at crunch time. 9.5 man rotation.

proelitedota
11-15-2019, 10:12 PM
Looking like our depth will be a crucial advantage this season.

DukieInBrasil
11-15-2019, 10:23 PM
Kinda brutal, not Kentucky vs Evansville brutal, but still. Super glad that Tre felt like setting career highs tonight, but also kinda sad that this team needed 40 minutes from Tre in a game like this. It's great that Carey figured out how to use his size and skill to be effective against their interior b/c we needed that too. Everything else was dog poo, except Jack's rebounding. Well, i guess J-Bake had a pretty solid game. Hopefully he continues to figure out how to earn more PT, b/c this team needs a shooter.
To whoever discovered that it was on YouTube, thanks, that was my first chance to watch the team this year. Bummer it had to be such a blah performance. I was unpleasantly surprised to see that GA State was consistently the team with more energy and a more active defense. Duke won simply b/c our players have a higher overall level of talent, not b/c of effort.
I guess it's good that the team got the win even on a night where they could have easily taken a loss. Hopefully this will wake the Fr. up to the realities of D1 ball.

Mak P
11-15-2019, 10:43 PM
Carey can shoot and make 3's

camion
11-15-2019, 11:00 PM
I liked this game. G State played us tough and exposed a good many things we need to work on. Tre and Vernon showed they could step up and carry the team for stretches.

There will be much dissection and discussion of game film/tape/video over the next several days.

And we won comfortably.

Bay Area Duke Fan
11-15-2019, 11:01 PM
Carey can shoot and make 3's

Not tonite.

richardjackson199
11-15-2019, 11:48 PM
Great early season game for our young team's development before conference play starts. We don't need to blow-out a cupcake and let #1 ranking go to our heads. We need to grow in November after a hard fought win. This game provided that.

I loved strong overall games from Baker and Tre. Moore, Stanley, Carey, and Hurt will just grow and get better. Freshman learning game for them. I like this team. They have to fight for whatever they get with defense. It feels like a K Duke team. They will learn and grow from this one.

Kedsy
11-15-2019, 11:54 PM
Other than offensive rebounding, our offensive numbers were dreadful. Fortunately our worst defensive performance of the season was still pretty good.

OFFENSE

Possessions: 74.0 (slowest game of the season, but still a nice pace)
oRtg: 1.00 (pretty bad against a team like Georgia State)
eFG%: 39.0% (horrible)
3pt%: 25.0% (bad)
2pt%: 40.0% (really bad)
%threes: 38.4% (way too high for this team)
FT rate: 39.7% (best game so far this season as far as getting to the line)
OR%: 55.6% (yowsa, especially considering how bad we were at offensive rebounding in our first three games)
TO%: 23.0% (really bad)
a/to: 0.76:1 (not good)
%assisted: 52.0% (acceptable)
fast break pts: 18 (24.3% of points; pretty good)

DEFENSE

dRtg: 0.85 (believe it or not, this is our worst dRtg of the season; and yet, still very good)
eFG%: 45.8% (not terrible but not great)
3pt%: 41.7% (bad)
2pt%: 41.7% (good)
%threes: 20.0% (the way they shot it from outside, good thing we kept them off the three-point line)
FT rate: 18.3% (our first decent performance of the season in this stat)
DR%: 77.8% (really good for the third straight game)
TO%: 23.0% (our worst TO% of the season, but still pretty good)
a/to: 0.71:1 (crazily enough, this is the highest any of our opponents this season have done in this stat; pretty cool)
%assisted: 48.0% (okay)
stl%: 13.5% (lowest of the season, but still pretty good)
blk%: 10.0% (12.5% of 2pt shots) (good)
fast break pts: 11 (17.5% of points; best of the season so far, but ideally we'd like to do better)


Going into this game, by far our worst categories were offensive rebounding and defensive free throw rate. And we really showed up in both those categories, our best performance in both by a large margin. Unfortunately, that improvement seem to come at the expense of almost everything else. I guess it's hard to argue when your worst defense of the season is 0.85 ppp (unadjusted), but if our offense is this bad against an even halfway decent team, we're almost certainly toast. I shudder to think how bad the O would have been tonight if we'd had our usual subpar offensive rebounding.

Neals384
11-15-2019, 11:56 PM
pitchforks to ACCN for pre-emptying the first half in order to show volleyball. Sure they moved Duke to ESPNNews, but that doesn’t help when you can’t get home until halftime and have ACCN recording. What a bush-league move.

duke96
11-16-2019, 12:06 AM
Didn’t see the full game but what are folks excited about that they saw from Baker? 2-5 from the three is not bad but is there more to it?

Steven43
11-16-2019, 12:36 AM
Didn’t see the full game but what are folks excited about that they saw from Baker? 2-5 from the three is not bad but is there more to it?

Well, the way the team has shot threes last season and the small sample size of this one, 2-5 looks pretty decent by comparison.

proelitedota
11-16-2019, 01:09 AM
We have more shooters this year that can go off.

AOC
Baker
Tre
Hurt
Cassius

Maybe Jack and Carey too!

Bay Area Duke Fan
11-16-2019, 01:59 AM
We have more shooters this year that can go off.

AOC
Baker
Tre
Hurt
Cassius

Maybe Jack and Carey too!

Mostly off tonite.

HereBeforeCoachK
11-16-2019, 07:30 AM
Didn’t see the full game but what are folks excited about that they saw from Baker? 2-5 from the three is not bad but is there more to it?

He had two of them in a pretty compressed time frame that helped Duke develop a margin. Big momentum building shots.

budwom
11-16-2019, 08:09 AM
pitchforks to ACCN for pre-emptying the first half in order to show volleyball. Sure they moved Duke to ESPNNews, but that doesn’t help when you can’t get home until halftime and have ACCN recording. What a bush-league move.

two losing teams playing in front of maybe 30 fans, LOL, just an insane choice.

budwom
11-16-2019, 08:10 AM
We have more shooters this year that can go off.

AOC
Baker
Tre
Hurt
Cassius

Maybe Jack and Carey too!

Too bad Joey Donuts didn't go off last year during his mini appearance...he obviously has a nice stroke.

DukieInBrasil
11-16-2019, 08:15 AM
Reading the coaches and players re the game, it confirmed my suspicion that they also thought GA St played harder than Duke. The final margin was only 11, but Duke really gave up in the last minute and a half, giving up consecutive turnovers and transition buckets. It would have taken a confluence of Jason Williams proportions to lose in that situation, but Duke sure seemed as willing as possible to make that happen. Fortunately, GA St just ran out of time.

To give some context to Duke96's question: Jack White and AOC were shooting so poorly (as was everyone not named Tre) from the wing that K wanted for someone to show they could hit a shot, and Joey did. He set a career high in pts too. Maybe this will be the type of game that Joey builds on and starts earning more time. Something you won't get from the stat sheet: Joey hit a bucket (i believe) and on the ensuing defensive possession did the trademark Duke floor slap. And got blown by off the dribble, but help defense corralled the dribbler who ended up passing back out to 3pt line from the paint, which got picked off by Duke for a fast-break steal. So Joey's enthusiasm helped spark a bit of defensive mojo for the team, even if he personally got smoked.

Duke now shooting 30.4% from 3, essentially identical to last year. Duke out-offensive rebounded GA St 30-8, but tied in turns at 17. Duke got a grand total of 2 points from our 3 upperclassmen, although they grabbed 18 rebounds with 5 assists. Javin collected fouls like Pokemon, he had to catch em all! with 4 fouls in 6 minutes, for an incendiary foul rate of 27 per 40 minutes!!!!!

Indoor66
11-16-2019, 08:17 AM
Like many color commentators, he doesn't realize that the broadcast would be far better if he cut back by a third to a half. It's the Jimmy Dykes syndrome.

Or Jay Bilas

camion
11-16-2019, 08:54 AM
pitchforks to ACCN for pre-emptying the first half in order to show volleyball. Sure they moved Duke to ESPNNews, but that doesn’t help when you can’t get home until halftime and have ACCN recording. What a bush-league move.

Yep, I was out at dinner until 8:00 PM and had recorded the game so I missed the first half too due to volleyball. I checked and saw that the game was being rebroadcast at 11:30 PM and Saturday at 7:30 AM so I re-recorced the 11:30 telecast. Upon review I note that the rebroadcast cuts off the vball when the basketball game starts.

I haven't had time yet to watch the first half. Other than Javin's impressive foul outburst is there a reason to?

jv001
11-16-2019, 09:14 AM
Georgia State played hard throughout the game, Duke not so much. GA State was well coached and will beat some good teams this season. Coach K said the team did not play match their hard work in the first half but did so in the second half.

Tre Jones gave us a glimpse of just how good he can be last night. Jack White gave another workmen like performance, Joey hit two big threes that helped extend the lead when the game was still in doubt. If you go by minutes, Jack was the 5th starter and Joey was the 6th man. I know it's not who starts but who gets the minutes. Well from what I saw, they deserved those minutes. Vernon with a 20-14 was our second best player. I just wish he could go to his right like he does to the left.

On the not so positive side, Javin with 4 fouls in the first half was as bad as it gets and he added to that with some uninspiring inside play on offense. He only saw 6 minutes. Cassius was due for a bad shooting night and he did not disappoint.(2-12) but he played good defense and rebounded well. Hurt and Alex were a combined 2-10 from the field but Matthew played a good overall game. He's pretty good on help defense for a freshman. Goldwire in 11 minutes had 1 rebound and 1 assist. Moore in 11 minutes had 2 points(1-5), 4 rebounds, and 2 turnovers. I'm hoping Wendell begins to hit some shots because he looks like he could really help the team when he becomes an offensive threat. He has a good handle and appears to be a strong young man.

Glad we escaped with a win and didn't fall into the same trap that Kentucky did. Duke is in line to be #1 in most polls come Monday but I don't think we are(yet).

GoDuke!

left_hook_lacey
11-16-2019, 09:23 AM
pitchforks to ACCN for pre-emptying the first half in order to show volleyball. Sure they moved Duke to ESPNNews, but that doesn’t help when you can’t get home until halftime and have ACCN recording. What a bush-league move.

Yeah my guide on Hulu was all screwed up.

It said Duke vs Georgia St. but was showing NC State vs Miami volley ball.

I heard UNC was struggling with Gardner Webb so I tried to tune back in for that. My guide said the UNC game didn't come on until 10pm, but it was half-time.

I had both of them set to record even though I was home. Went back to see what actually recorded and it was mostly volleyball. Glad it wasn't a huge game had I needed the recordings.

Also, Jesus Christ with the commercials on that channel.

arnie
11-16-2019, 09:25 AM
Georgia State played hard throughout the game, Duke not so much. GA State was well coached and will beat some good teams this season. Coach K said the team did not play match their hard work in the first half but did so in the second half.

Tre Jones gave us a glimpse of just how good he can be last night. Jack White gave another workmen like performance, Joey hit two big threes that helped extend the lead when the game was still in doubt. If you go by minutes, Jack was the 5th starter and Joey was the 6th man. I know it's not who starts but who gets the minutes. Well from what I saw, they deserved those minutes. Vernon with a 20-14 was our second best player. I just wish he could go to his right like he does to the left.

On the not so positive side, Javin with 4 fouls in the first half was as bad as it gets and he added to that with some uninspiring inside play on offense. He only saw 6 minutes. Cassius was due for a bad shooting night and he did not disappoint.(2-12) but he played good defense and rebounded well. Hurt and Alex were a combined 2-10 from the field but Matthew played a good overall game. He's pretty good on help defense for a freshman. Goldwire in 11 minutes had 1 rebound and 1 assist. Moore in 11 minutes had 2 points(1-5), 4 rebounds, and 2 turnovers. I'm hoping Wendell begins to hit some shots because he looks like he could really help the team when he becomes an offensive threat. He has a good handle and appears to be a strong young man.

Glad we escaped with a win and didn't fall into the same trap that Kentucky did. Duke is in line to be #1 in most polls come Monday but I don't think we are(yet).

GoDuke!

Didn’t get to watch the game, was forced to go see Ford Vs Ferrari😀. 4 fouls in 6 minutes is impressive- did Javin do that in 6 consecutive minutes?

jv001
11-16-2019, 09:26 AM
Yep, I was out at dinner until 8:00 PM and had recorded the game so I missed the first half too due to volleyball. I checked and saw that the game was being rebroadcast at 11:30 PM and Saturday at 7:30 AM so I re-recorced the 11:30 telecast. Upon review I note that the rebroadcast cuts off the vball when the basketball game starts.

I haven't had time yet to watch the first half. Other than Javin's impressive foul outburst is there a reason to?

I'm really beginning to hate the ACC Network. :mad: GoDuke!

uh_no
11-16-2019, 09:27 AM
Didn’t get to watch the game, was forced to go see Ford Vs Ferrari😀. 4 fouls in 6 minutes is impressive- did Javin do that in 6 consecutive minutes?

note: javin racked up those 4 fouls in 2 first half minutes. he played 4 in the second half foul free.

CDu
11-16-2019, 09:59 AM
This game didn’t instill a lot of faith that we will know what to do once teams start gameplanning better. Ga St did three things to really disrupt us: really packed things in against us in the halfcourt, really overplayed Jones whenever he didn’t have the ball, and attacked everyone’s dribble as soon as we crossed the 3pt line. It really illustrated some of the team’s limitations. Basically, aside from Jones, nobody is strong off the dribble against any sort of aggressive D. Stanley and O’Connell have the potential to do it, but they definitely struggled with it last night. And nobody else looked even competent at it. And we couldn’t shoot (not surprising of course).

Fortunately the defense was still very stout, and created enough transition baskets to provide the cushion. And we were able to hit enough shots to get the W.

Jones was absolutely fantastic. What a great start to the year he is having. He has really stepped up his aggressiveness offensively, yet so far it hasn’t cost him on defense. He is playing like a 1st Team All American. Let’s hope he stays healthy, because we can’t replace him and the team doesn’t have enough elsewhere to go a different route.

Carey once again looked dominant when he got it inside. His 20 and 14 are what you like to see, and it could easily have been 24 and 14 if he hadn’t missed those two dunks. Considering how they double and triple teamed him in the paint, it was an impressive performance.

Unfortunately, the other three guys capable of creating their own offense really struggled. O’Connell, Stanley, and Hurt were a combined 4-22 from the field. They all seemed to really struggle with Ga St’s quickness and aggressiveness. Given how limited the bench is offensively, having those three struggle so much will be problematic.

White did his usual Jack White things with hustle and toughness. But his shooting stroke and lack of confidence whenever he got the ball helped allow GSU to get away with overplaying others. Not saying I don’t want him on the floor for his other attributes, but I can see that being a problem against better teams moving forward. Especially if that is compounded by sharing the floor with Goldwire. When they both are in, it is likely going to be ugly basketball.

Wendell Moore had sort of the opposite problem as White in that he was at times too aggressive with the ball and driving into trouble. He has a lot of potential, but the game is moving too fast for him right now.

Baker showed a microcosm of his good and bad. He hit two open three and a step-in jumper. So the shooting touch was on display. But he got lost on defense and provided nothing else. He is almost the exact inverse of White: where White contributes all the little things but can’t shoot, Baker can shoot but doesn’t seem to do anything else. If you could meld them into one player, you would have a superstar. Alas...

Rough night for DeLaurier, but this was bound to be a bad matchup for him.

Goldwire continued his trend of struggling offensively and struggling with half-court defense. He is really feeling like a niche player at this point: bring him in to give Jones brief rests or when you need a frenetic full-court press. But in the halfcourt, he seems problematic.

Overall, I was thrilled with Jones and Carey. I am hopeful that this was one of those “progress is not linear” games for the other three starters. And mostly just happy we gutted out a win when we didn’t have our Agame going.

jv001
11-16-2019, 10:07 AM
This game didn’t instill a lot of faith that we will know what to do once teams start gameplanning better. Ga St did three things to really disrupt us: really packed things in against us in the halfcourt, really overplayed Jones whenever he didn’t have the ball, and attacked everyone’s dribble as soon as we crossed the 3pt line. It really illustrated some of the team’s limitations. Basically, aside from Jones, nobody is strong off the dribble against any sort of aggressive D. Stanley and O’Connell have the potential to do it, but they definitely struggled with it last night. And nobody else looked even competent at it. And we couldn’t shoot (not surprising of course).

Fortunately the defense was still very stout, and created enough transition baskets to provide the cushion. And we were able to hit enough shots to get the W.

Jones was absolutely fantastic. What a great start to the year he is having. He has really stepped up his aggressiveness offensively, yet so far it hasn’t cost him on defense. He is playing like a 1st Team All American. Let’s hope he stays healthy, because we can’t replace him and the team doesn’t have enough elsewhere to go a different route.

Carey once again looked dominant when he got it inside. His 20 and 14 are what you like to see, and it could easily have been 24 and 14 if he hadn’t missed those two dunks. Considering how they double and triple teamed him in the paint, it was an impressive performance.

Unfortunately, the other three guys capable of creating their own offense really struggled. O’Connell, Stanley, and Hurt were a combined 4-22 from the field. They all seemed to really struggle with Ga St’s quickness and aggressiveness. Given how limited the bench is offensively, having those three struggle so much will be problematic.

White did his usual Jack White things with hustle and toughness. But his shooting stroke and lack of confidence whenever he got the ball helped allow GSU to get away with overplaying others. Not saying I don’t want him on the floor for his other attributes, but I can see that being a problem against better teams moving forward. Especially if that is compounded by sharing the floor with Goldwire. When they both are in, it is likely going to be ugly basketball.

Wendell Moore had sort of the opposite problem as White in that he was at times too aggressive with the ball and driving into trouble. He has a lot of potential, but the game is moving too fast for him right now.

Baker showed a microcosm of his good and bad. He hit two open three and a step-in jumper. So the shooting touch was on display. But he got lost on defense and provided nothing else. He is almost the exact inverse of White: where White contributes all the little things but can’t shoot, Baker can shoot but doesn’t seem to do anything else. If you could meld them into one player, you would have a superstar. Alas...

Rough night for DeLaurier, but this was bound to be a bad matchup for him.

Goldwire continued his trend of struggling offensively and struggling with half-court defense. He is really feeling like a niche player at this point: bring him in to give Jones brief rests or when you need a frenetic full-court press. But in the halfcourt, he seems problematic.

Overall, I was thrilled with Jones and Carey. I am hopeful that this was one of those “progress is not linear” games for the other three starters. And mostly just happy we gutted out a win when we didn’t have our Agame going.

Good post that I agree with on all points. I will just add, if we have Jack, Goldwire and Javin on the court at the same time, we're in deep deep do-do. I thought Jack did a great job on the inside when Javin tried to set the record for most fouls per minute. Jack was able to give Carey needed rest. GoDuke!

SavDukeGrad
11-16-2019, 11:18 AM
This game didn’t instill a lot of faith that we will know what to do once teams start gameplanning better. Ga St did three things to really disrupt us: really packed things in against us in the halfcourt, really overplayed Jones whenever he didn’t have the ball, and attacked everyone’s dribble as soon as we crossed the 3pt line. It really illustrated some of the team’s limitations. Basically, aside from Jones, nobody is strong off the dribble against any sort of aggressive D. Stanley and O’Connell have the potential to do it, but they definitely struggled with it last night. And nobody else looked even competent at it. And we couldn’t shoot (not surprising of course).

Fortunately the defense was still very stout, and created enough transition baskets to provide the cushion. And we were able to hit enough shots to get the W.

Jones was absolutely fantastic. What a great start to the year he is having. He has really stepped up his aggressiveness offensively, yet so far it hasn’t cost him on defense. He is playing like a 1st Team All American. Let’s hope he stays healthy, because we can’t replace him and the team doesn’t have enough elsewhere to go a different route.

Carey once again looked dominant when he got it inside. His 20 and 14 are what you like to see, and it could easily have been 24 and 14 if he hadn’t missed those two dunks. Considering how they double and triple teamed him in the paint, it was an impressive performance.

Unfortunately, the other three guys capable of creating their own offense really struggled. O’Connell, Stanley, and Hurt were a combined 4-22 from the field. They all seemed to really struggle with Ga St’s quickness and aggressiveness. Given how limited the bench is offensively, having those three struggle so much will be problematic.

White did his usual Jack White things with hustle and toughness. But his shooting stroke and lack of confidence whenever he got the ball helped allow GSU to get away with overplaying others. Not saying I don’t want him on the floor for his other attributes, but I can see that being a problem against better teams moving forward. Especially if that is compounded by sharing the floor with Goldwire. When they both are in, it is likely going to be ugly basketball.

Wendell Moore had sort of the opposite problem as White in that he was at times too aggressive with the ball and driving into trouble. He has a lot of potential, but the game is moving too fast for him right now.

Baker showed a microcosm of his good and bad. He hit two open three and a step-in jumper. So the shooting touch was on display. But he got lost on defense and provided nothing else. He is almost the exact inverse of White: where White contributes all the little things but can’t shoot, Baker can shoot but doesn’t seem to do anything else. If you could meld them into one player, you would have a superstar. Alas...

Rough night for DeLaurier, but this was bound to be a bad matchup for him.

Goldwire continued his trend of struggling offensively and struggling with half-court defense. He is really feeling like a niche player at this point: bring him in to give Jones brief rests or when you need a frenetic full-court press. But in the halfcourt, he seems problematic.

Overall, I was thrilled with Jones and Carey. I am hopeful that this was one of those “progress is not linear” games for the other three starters. And mostly just happy we gutted out a win when we didn’t have our Agame going.

Great analysis as always, CDU.

In his press conference, Coach K praised 4 players. Tre and Vernon, obviously. And Joey for his two 3s at such an opportune time. He also praised Jack - said he gave us toughness out there, which we needed.

I also thought it was very interesting (and probably smart) that Ga St. switched back and forth between zone and man to man defense, depending on who we had on the floor. (Corey Alexander said they went zone if O’Connell and Hurt were out, but I’m not sure if that was exactly right) We really struggled in the first half when they went zone. I hope this team can figure out our shooting woes, because we may see a lot of zone this year.

Music man55
11-16-2019, 11:28 AM
Positives: Tre Jones and Vernon Carey were fantastic tonight I thought.Baker played some good minutes and defense really picked it up 2nd half.
Not so positives: Javin played like his freshman year and Moore seemed to take about 3 steps back. Not much offense from every one not named Jones and Carey. O'Connell dis-appeared and Stanley seemed off as well. Glad this team is making their identity on the defensive side. At least Jones showed he can offensively take over a game. I really hope Jones stays healthy because we need him to play as many minutes as he possibly can.

SkyBrickey
11-16-2019, 11:45 AM
A good learning experience to hopefully keep this team hungry and a little humble as they are elevated to #1.

My favorite attribute of this team is that no one takes a single play off on defense. Tre is always giving maximum effort because that's who he is. And if anyone else is not giving maximum effort, they know they take a seat for the next guy.

It really is a throwback to the early Coach K Duke teams in the 80s and 90s that led me to love Duke basketball. Unlike great offense, great defense can show up every single night.

dalmatians98
11-16-2019, 12:51 PM
Our Verizon FIOS subscription package does not include ESPN News which was carrying the basketball game until volleyball finished. When it was clear that volleyball wasn't going to end soon, we tried the ESPN feed on Roku.

Unfortunately, ESPN on Roku seemingly wouldn't allow us to watch the game. There was, however, an ESPN Spanish language option which for some reason we were allowed to view. Since neither my wife nor I have much Spanish, we ended up watching with the audio muted.

When volleyball ended during the half, we went back to ACCN for the second half in English -- and soon had the audio muted again.

Not terribly impressed with ACCN so far.

Rich
11-16-2019, 12:55 PM
Our Verizon FIOS subscription package does not include ESPN News which was carrying the basketball game until volleyball finished. When it was clear that volleyball wasn't going to end soon, we tried the ESPN feed on Roku.

Unfortunately, ESPN on Roku seemingly wouldn't allow us to watch the game. There was, however, an ESPN Spanish language option which for some reason we were allowed to view. Since neither my wife nor I have much Spanish, we ended up watching with the audio muted.

When volleyball ended during the half, we went back to ACCN for the second half in English -- and soon had the audio muted again.

Not terribly impressed with ACCN so far.

So I guess it's a good thing that ya'll work out the ACCN kinks while Comcast continues to blackball the network? :confused:

accfanfrom1970
11-16-2019, 12:58 PM
Tre carried the team, especially in the first half. Can he last having to play 40 minutes against the likes of Georgia State? He missed the front end of three 3! one-and-ones late in the game. Fatigue?

They turned us over as much as we turned them
over, and they pressed us full court more and better than we did to them.

I’m thinking the keys to us going far in the tournament is going to come down to free throw shooting an Jack being able to knock down some threes.

jimsumner
11-16-2019, 01:17 PM
Tre carried the team, especially in the first half. Can he last having to play 40 minutes against the likes of Georgia State? He missed the front end of three 3! one-and-ones late in the game. Fatigue?

They turned us over as much as we turned them
over, and they pressed us full court more and better than we did to them.

I’m thinking the keys to us going far in the tournament is going to come down to free throw shooting an Jack being able to knock down some threes.

Tre missed the first end of two 1-and-1s late. The other miss came in the first half.

But yes, he did play a lot of minutes.

And foul shooting is a big concern. 17-for-29 spells NCAA Tournament exit.

The post-game discussion last night focused on intangibles, like effort and intensity and focus, rather than on Xs and Os.

That said, I think Duke will spend a LOT of time working on attacking the zone.

I actually thought Stanley attacked the zone pretty well but just had some bad luck on his shots.

Moore and O'Connell had typical freshman deer-in-the-headlights look.

Unfortunately only one of those two is a freshman. I thought AOC took a big step back. He has a pronounced tendency to fret when things go badly and it's time for him to shake that off.

Baker had a weird game. If we think of him as a three-point specialist, last night confirmed that. His two second-half threes were huge and anyone would take eight points in 15 minutes.

But he literally had no other positive statistical contributions. Not one rebound, not one assist, not one steal, not one block. If he's going to be more than a situational specialist, he's got to bring more to the table.

Billy Dat
11-16-2019, 01:54 PM
Moore and O'Connell had typical freshman deer-in-the-headlights look. Unfortunately only one of those two is a freshman. I thought AOC took a big step back. He has a pronounced tendency to fret when things go badly and it's time for him to shake that off.

Good overall post, and on this specific point, when AOC got another chance in the last 7 minutes or so, when we were intentionally bleeding the clock down he got an offensive rebound on the baseline, about 10 feet out, and instead of pulling it out to bleed more clock, he jacked up a quick shot and got immediately yanked. Whether panic or just unsmart play, I agree he needs to shake it off quick.

jimsumner
11-16-2019, 01:58 PM
Good overall post, and on this specific point, when AOC got another chance in the last 7 minutes or so, when we were intentionally bleeding the clock down he got an offensive rebound on the baseline, about 10 feet out, and instead of pulling it out to bleed more clock, he jacked up a quick shot and got immediately yanked. Whether panic or just unsmart play, I agree he needs to shake it off quick.

Duke took a shot late in the shot clock, missed, AOC rebounded and jacked up that shot which looked like a shot one would take to beat the shot clock.

But the previous shot had hit the rim and the shot clock had reset to 20. I think O'Connell didn't realize that even though he was 10 feet away from the shot hitting the rim.

That's the kind of loss of focus that has plagued him for his career and simply shouldn't be happening to a junior.

rsvman
11-16-2019, 02:02 PM
I thought Baker was actually pretty bad on defense, but I agreed with playing him because we needed somebody to hit some shots.

Skydog
11-16-2019, 04:15 PM
The good takes from this game:

Best news: This team really needed Jones to improve his his outside shooting from last season. The first three games suggested he had improved his midrange shot but not his 3 pt shooting where he was 1 for 9. That was worrisome - another year of him not being a threat from outside would put a cap on what this team and what he personally could achieve this season. Well last night was just one game but it was a damn good one as he went 4 for 8 from behind the arc. This is a great sign. In fact it was only the 2nd time he made more than two threes in a game (he was 5/7 vs GT in NCAA's last season). There's hope guys/gals!

2nd best news: Vernon Carry has a real beast mode. 20 pts, 14 rebounds, his second double-double in a row.

3rd best news: The rest of the team (8 for 40) can't play worse than they did last night. It's only up from here!

dukelifer
11-16-2019, 07:40 PM
This team is going to be a work in progress. I agree that AOC has to be much better. He is experienced and should not be losing focus. I so wish Jack could shoot again- but the guy can rebound the basketball. Stanley had an off night but still kept is head up. Baker may not be ready but he has a sweet shot. Needs to fight a bit more. He does not seem anxious to mix it up. Combine his shot with Jacks fight and now you have something. Thank goodness for Tre.

rocketeli
11-16-2019, 07:56 PM
the board a lot less sassy, it seems, after this outing than the one before. Unlike Central Arkansas, Georgia State isn't terrible, and they had a very good game plan for Duke. I think winnable but challenging games do more good than the whole hutch full of bunnies that Duke also has lined up for the rest of 2019. (Along with some good opponents--Kansas,MSU and maybe Texas, and VT in the ACC.) Looks like the rotation will shake out to Carey backed with Delaurier, Jones backed with Goldwire, but Duke still ahs six guys battling for the other three majority minute getter roles. A reminder that "depth" is sometimes a polite way to say that no one's exceptional. That being said, Stanley is probably the closest to standing out from the pack at present.

jv001
11-16-2019, 08:08 PM
the board a lot less sassy, it seems, after this outing than the one before. Unlike Central Arkansas, Georgia State isn't terrible, and they had a very good game plan for Duke. I think winnable but challenging games do more good than the whole hutch full of bunnies that Duke also has lined up for the rest of 2019. (Along with some good opponents--Kansas,MSU and maybe Texas, and VT in the ACC.) Looks like the rotation will shake out to Carey backed with Delaurier, Jones backed with Goldwire, but Duke still ahs six guys battling for the other three majority minute getter roles. A reminder that "depth" is sometimes a polite way to say that no one's exceptional. That being said, Stanley is probably the closest to standing out from the pack at present.

From what I've seen so far this season, I agree with Javin backing up Carey and Goldwire backing up Tre but Wendell has been handling some of the ball handling when Tre needs a rest. Whether it's on the bench or off the ball. Moore seems to have a good handle except when in traffic. Then he's loose with the ball. It looks like preseason write ups on our incoming freshmen were correct in saying Moore wasn't an exceptional shooter. But he's very young and will get better. Last night it wasn't Javin backing up Carey but White and that was because Javin had 4 fouls in 2 minutes. That might be a record at Duke. I think Georgia State took it too Duke and speeded them up and they weren't ready for it. I think we had 10 turnovers in the first half. So, it seemed to work. In the 2nd half we worked harder than they did and it paid off.
GoDuke!

ShaneRyan
11-16-2019, 08:11 PM
Two quick thoughts:

1. I think Jack White needs to start attacking the hoop, even if it's just once or twice per half (or game). It's a big problem for this team that he's such a black hole on offense, because he's such a smart and important force on D. I think we're past the point where I can convince myself that he'll find his shooting touch, but it's frustrating to see him when he gets space begin to drive, and then pull up at the foul line desperate to pass because he's just so uncomfortable with the ball. We need to find a way to make him useful offensively, and right now I can't for the life of me foresee what that will be, but he at least has to try to do something different beyond being an open shooter who never makes his shots.

2. I want more touches for Hurt. I get that in more transition-based games like this one, he'll be less of a focal point on offense, but I still don't think it's wise to let him be so quiet when he's so talented. Even to post him up a few times when Carey's out, or let him create from the wing...anything to keep him involved. He's too good to forget about.

UrinalCake
11-16-2019, 08:48 PM
For anyone who wants to watch a replay - if you have access to ACCN you can see them through the ESPN app or through their website using a browser. Navigate to “Watch” and then click on the calendar icon to see a schedule. From there you can navigate to the appropriate day and filter by sport and/or network. Make sure you have selected “Replays” rather than live videos. They have the whole recording, not the first hour of volleyball.

CoachJ10
11-16-2019, 08:52 PM
Would one of our stats aficionados have NCAA wide stats on 3pt shooting so far this year compared to this time last year? I know we are rightly concerned about Duke’s shooting, but I’d really be curious to see how the new distance is affecting everyone.

Skydog
11-16-2019, 09:51 PM
Would one of our stats aficionados have NCAA wide stats on 3pt shooting so far this year compared to this time last year? I know we are rightly concerned about Duke’s shooting, but I’d really be curious to see how the new distance is affecting everyone.

Kenpom reports the D1 3pt averages as 35.0, 35.1 and 34.4% over the past three seasons. So far this season it is 32.5% but I don't know how that number compares to mid-November rates from prior seasons. I assume early season 3pt %'s tend to be a bit lower than year end averages, but I'm not sure about that.

uh_no
11-16-2019, 09:57 PM
Kenpom reports the D1 3pt averages as 35.0, 35.1 and 34.4% over the past three seasons. So far this season it is 32.5% but I don't know how that number compares to mid-November rates from prior seasons. I assume early season 3pt %'s tend to be a bit lower than year end averages, but I'm not sure about that.

+1

can't glean much from 4 games. especially the first 4.

jimsumner
11-16-2019, 10:01 PM
Combine his shot with Jacks fight and now you have something. Thank goodness for Tre.

You'd have Kyle Singler

DukieInBrasil
11-16-2019, 11:50 PM
Would one of our stats aficionados have NCAA wide stats on 3pt shooting so far this year compared to this time last year? I know we are rightly concerned about Duke’s shooting, but I’d really be curious to see how the new distance is affecting everyone.

i answered precisely this question earlier in this thread.
Currently we're shooting 30.4% from 3, which is almost precisely what we shot over all of last year.

kAzE
11-17-2019, 03:38 AM
I didn't get to see this game live, but I was able to watch the replay, and I agree with the somewhat mixed reaction thus far in this thread, there were some positives and negatives to this game, for sure.

First the huge positive is that Tre Jones is capable of this type of offensive performance. His defense is a constant, and we know he's a playmaker on that end, but the fact that he was able to carry the team on offense at all is a new development. He has not done this in his career until now, and this is a good sign, IMO. On a night when not many other guys were stepping up in terms of scoring, Tre was able to carry the load, and I honestly didn't think he had this type of performance in him, so kudos to him. I hope the 3 point accuracy was not a fluke, that's going to be big for him, if he can keep it going from deep.

Loved what saw from Carey. He really used his size and strength to his advantage in this one, and that is what we need from him.

Joey Baker got more minutes, at Alex O'Connell's expense. He's clearly one of the two best shooters we have, if not the best. I predicted that Alex would begin the year as a starter on this team, but I took a wild guess that Joey would eventually replace him, and this seemed like a step in that direction. However, I do think that at least in the short term, Alex will remain the "starter," and Coach K will go with the hot hand. Where this eventually goes, I have no idea. I will say that I thought Joey's defense was fine. I don't quite agree with some other posters' criticism of his effort on that end. Coach K clearly felt he was contributing enough to keep him out there for 15 minutes in this game.

Turns out Cassius Stanley is human, after all. However, I'm not worried. I think he is one of the few two way players on this team, and I strongly suspect he will start every game this season as long as he stays healthy. I think the ship has sailed on Wendell Moore taking his spot.

Speaking of Moore, I have optimism that he will eventually find his role on this team, but he has a long way to go. I think he needs to readjust his expectations of his own ability at this level. He's competing against athletes of his own caliber or better now, and it's only going to get harder. He needs to understand his limitations, especially on offense. He is a big and strong kid, but he is not extremely quick, and he is not the most explosive athlete.

I kept hearing about Javin's improvement from coaches and other players, but I haven't seen it thus far. He's still a foul machine (usually senior big men have learned how to avoid fouls) and has developed no new skills on the offensive end. I once thought he would become a more athletic Amile Jefferson, but I've been disappointed. He is still (on paper) our best defensive center, but I expect more from him.

roywhite
11-17-2019, 07:14 AM
I didn't get to see this game live, but I was able to watch the replay, and I agree with the somewhat mixed reaction thus far in this thread, there were some positives and negatives to this game, for sure.

First the huge positive is that Tre Jones is capable of this type of offensive performance. His defense is a constant, and we know he's a playmaker on that end, but the fact that he was able to carry the team on offense at all is a new development. He has not done this in his career until now, and this is a good sign, IMO. On a night when not many other guys were stepping up in terms of scoring, Tre was able to carry the load, and I honestly didn't think he had this type of performance in him, so kudos to him. I hope the 3 point accuracy was not a fluke, that's going to be big for him, if he can keep it going from deep.

Loved what saw from Carey. He really used his size and strength to his advantage in this one, and that is what we need from him.

Joey Baker got more minutes, at Alex O'Connell's expense. He's clearly one of the two best shooters we have, if not the best. I predicted that Alex would begin the year as a starter on this team, but I took a wild guess that Joey would eventually replace him, and this seemed like a step in that direction. However, I do think that at least in the short term, Alex will remain the "starter," and Coach K will go with the hot hand. Where this eventually goes, I have no idea. I will say that I thought Joey's defense was fine. I don't quite agree with some other posters' criticism of his effort on that end. Coach K clearly felt he was contributing enough to keep him out there for 15 minutes in this game.

Turns out Cassius Stanley is human, after all. However, I'm not worried. I think he is one of the few two way players on this team, and I strongly suspect he will start every game this season as long as he stays healthy. I think the ship has sailed on Wendell Moore taking his spot.

Speaking of Moore, I have optimism that he will eventually find his role on this team, but he has a long way to go. I think he needs to readjust his expectations of his own ability at this level. He's competing against athletes of his own caliber or better now, and it's only going to get harder. He needs to understand his limitations, especially on offense. He is a big and strong kid, but he is not extremely quick, and he is not the most explosive athlete.

I kept hearing about Javin's improvement from coaches and other players, but I haven't seen it thus far. He's still a foul machine (usually senior big men have learned how to avoid fouls) and has developed no new skills on the offensive end. I once thought he would become a more athletic Amile Jefferson, but I've been disappointed. He is still (on paper) our best defensive center, but I expect more from him.

You saw the same game I saw. I'm in agreement with your observations.

The performance of upperclassmen Alex and Javin was disappointing. With the younger players, we are more likely to see improvement; Wendell Moore, for one, has the ability to be a significant contributor with some adjustments and experience. Vernon Carey, Jr. looks to be a star in the making; he does need development, but he has the tools.

SkyBrickey
11-17-2019, 10:49 AM
I had predicted that Goldwire would settle in as just Tres occasional backup. I think that’s happening. And that Joey Baker might settle in as a designated zone buster. I know GA State was shifting defenses but that may have been what we witnessed. Those were two big 3s and I think we will continue to see Joey, but maybe not much against M2M defenses.

AtlDuke72
11-17-2019, 11:52 AM
Unfortunately, ESPN on Roku seemingly wouldn't allow us to watch the game. There was, however, an ESPN Spanish language option which for some reason we were allowed to view. Since neither my wife nor I have much Spanish, we ended up watching with the audio muted.

When volleyball ended during the half, we went back to ACCN for the second half in English -- and soon had the audio muted again.

Watching mute would be much better than listening to the non-stop jabbering of Alexander

JayZee
11-17-2019, 02:09 PM
You saw the same game I saw. I'm in agreement with your observations.

The performance of upperclassmen Alex and Javin was disappointing. With the younger players, we are more likely to see improvement; Wendell Moore, for one, has the ability to be a significant contributor with some adjustments and experience. Vernon Carey, Jr. looks to be a star in the making; he does need development, but he has the tools.

Some poster said that this team reminded him of the '87 team. I can totally see the parallels. The year following an iconic team. A lockdown D oriented point guard who has the ability to step up on offense. A bunch of interlocking parts that need coach to work his magic more aggressively than when he has transcendent talent. I'm looking forward to the growth of this team, for sure.

Skydog
11-17-2019, 03:09 PM
+1

can't glean much from 4 games. especially the first 4.

I know you understand this but to be crystal clear this season's 32.5% 3pt stat comes from approximately 1200-1300 games (353 teams x ~3.5 games per team). But yes the first 3 or 4 games are likely not representative of season long shooting ability. Hopefully players get better as the season progresses. Also weaker players get fewer minutes as league games come into play. OTOH for most teams the competition gets tougher in league play (is that true on average?) and that fact may hurt 3pt%.
In any case the comparison needed would be mid-November 3pt% rates for previous seasons. I guess I could try the waybackmachine...

Edit: I guess competition can't get tougher on average across the season since the same 353 teams are playing. But defense will get better later in the season, counteracting some of the improvement in shooting.

HereBeforeCoachK
11-17-2019, 03:11 PM
Some poster said that this team reminded him of the '87 team. I can totally see the parallels. The year following an iconic team. A lockdown D oriented point guard who has the ability to step up on offense. A bunch of interlocking parts that need coach to work his magic more aggressively than when he has transcendent talent. I'm looking forward to the growth of this team, for sure.

IIRC.....which is not a given....the 87 team was maybe the deepest rotation K used - at least for a good part of the year. It was maybe the most critical year of K's tenure, as it showed that the 86 team was not an outlier based on one recruiting class. That team was a pleasant surprise, getting to the Sweet 16.

Skydog
11-17-2019, 03:24 PM
i answered precisely this question earlier in this thread.
Currently we're shooting 30.4% from 3, which is almost precisely what we shot over all of last year.

CoachJ10 was asking about league wide shooting, not our team's shooting.

Kedsy
11-17-2019, 03:33 PM
IIRC...which is not a given...the 87 team was maybe the deepest rotation K used - at least for a good part of the year. It was maybe the most critical year of K's tenure, as it showed that the 86 team was not an outlier based on one recruiting class. That team was a pleasant surprise, getting to the Sweet 16.

Looking only at close (under 20 points) games after January 1, from the standpoint of how many guys played 10+ minutes in such games, the 1987 team played the 11th deepest rotation out of K's 39 seasons at Duke. So, not the deepest, not even top 10, but pretty deep (top third).

jimsumner
11-17-2019, 06:42 PM
That 1987 team.

https://www.dukebasketballreport.com/2019/5/28/18641119/jim-sumner-on-a-critical-but-overlooked-duke-team-mike-krzyzewski

And yes, I do see some similarities.

HereBeforeCoachK
11-17-2019, 06:58 PM
Looking only at close (under 20 points) games after January 1, from the standpoint of how many guys played 10+ minutes in such games, the 1987 team played the 11th deepest rotation out of K's 39 seasons at Duke. So, not the deepest, not even top 10, but pretty deep (top third).

Do you have access to the entire season......and maybe 6+ minutes, not ten? I would bet the 87 team is deeper under those parameters comparatively. They started the year very well, and very deep, so some of my memory is Nov and December......

jimsumner
11-17-2019, 07:04 PM
Do you have access to the entire season...and maybe 6+ minutes, not ten? I would bet the 87 team is deeper under those parameters comparatively. They started the year very well, and very deep, so some of my memory is Nov and December...

The '86-'87 team lost freshman Phil Henderson to academics pretty early in the season, leaving them with nine ACC-level players; Smith, Ferry, King, Amaker, Strickland, Snyder and Brickey played a lot, Nessley a little more than 10mpg, Abdelnaby played sparingly. King missed some games with a broken wrist, Strickland had some shoulder issues.

So, no, I never thought of this as an especially deep team.

Natty_B
11-18-2019, 10:08 AM
The '86-'87 team lost freshman Phil Henderson to academics pretty early in the season, leaving them with nine ACC-level players; Smith, Ferry, King, Amaker, Strickland, Snyder and Brickey played a lot, Nessley a little more than 10mpg, Abdelnaby played sparingly. King missed some games with a broken wrist, Strickland had some shoulder issues.

So, no, I never thought of this as an especially deep team.

that's a fun comparison. '87 team lost to the eventual National Champs in a close fought sweet 16 game.

Georgia State gave Georgetown fits yesterday until Hoyas rallied late.

House P
11-18-2019, 10:25 AM
Do you have access to the entire season...and maybe 6+ minutes, not ten? I would bet the 87 team is deeper under those parameters comparatively. They started the year very well, and very deep, so some of my memory is Nov and December...

Based on a 6+ mpg threshold, it looks like the 1987 team was one of the deeper Duke teams, although more so in Nov/Dec than for the entire season. The 86-87 team regularly played 9 guys in Nov/Dec and then regularly played 8 guys after Phil Henderson's last game on Dec 31.

Looking at Nov/Dec only
The 1986-87 team played 5 games in Nov/Dec which were decided by 20 points or less.

- Eight or more guys played 6+ minutes in 100% of these games (5 of 5). That has happened 9 other times between 1981-2019.
- Nine or more guys played 6+ minutes in 80% of these games (4 of 5). That is the second highest percentage between 1981-2019.
- An average of 18.2 mpg went to players outside the top 7. That is the 5th highest between 1981-2019.


Looking at the entire season
The 1986-87 team played 26 games decided by 20 points or less.

- Eight or more guys played 6+ minutes in 88% of these games (23 of 26). That is tied for the the 4th highest percentage between 1981-2019.
- Nine or more guys played 6+ minutes in 15% of these games (4 of 26). That is the 17th most between 1981-2019.
- An average of 11.8 mpg went to players outside the top 7. This is the 14th most between 1981-2019.


For what it is worth, the current Duke team is averaging 26.5 mpg to players outside the top 7 in "close" games. That is just barely behind the 2008 team, which is the all-time leader under Coach K for most mpg to players outside the top 7 in close Nov/Dec games (28.3 mpg). The most a Coach K team has averaged for an entire season is 18.3 (in the 1997 season).

jv001
11-18-2019, 10:28 AM
The '86-'87 team lost freshman Phil Henderson to academics pretty early in the season, leaving them with nine ACC-level players; Smith, Ferry, King, Amaker, Strickland, Snyder and Brickey played a lot, Nessley a little more than 10mpg, Abdelnaby played sparingly. King missed some games with a broken wrist, Strickland had some shoulder issues.

So, no, I never thought of this as an especially deep team.

If I remember correctly, Strickland played high school basketball for one of the Surry County teams here in NC. He and Smith were pleasant surprises. The beginning of some special seasons for Duke University. Thanks for your write up on that team. GoDuke!

jimsumner
11-18-2019, 11:49 AM
If I remember correctly, Strickland played high school basketball for one of the Surry County teams here in NC. He and Smith were pleasant surprises. The beginning of some special seasons for Duke University. Thanks for your write up on that team. GoDuke!

Strickland was a Parade All-America at Mount Airy but played his first two seasons behind Johnny Dawkins.

John Smith was a marginal top-100 prep player going into his senior season in Maryland. But he was academically ineligible most of the season and was pretty unheralded. He barely played as a freshman on a team that included seniors Mark Alarie and Jay Bilas and fellow freshman Danny Ferry.

So, when he started as a sophomore ahead of McDonald's All-Americans Marty Nessley and Alaa Abdelnaby, it was a stunner.

Smith ended his getting a doctorate at Maryland in, I believe mathematics, and went into higher education.

roywhite
11-18-2019, 01:54 PM
If I remember correctly, Strickland played high school basketball for one of the Surry County teams here in NC. He and Smith were pleasant surprises. The beginning of some special seasons for Duke University. Thanks for your write up on that team. GoDuke!

Yeah, Kevin played for North Surry HS, which has a Mount Airy (aka Mayberry) address but not the same as Mt. Airy HS. Other Northwest NC products who played for Duke include Kenny Dennard from South Stokes (King, NC) and Harry Giles from Winston-Salem who played for High Point Wesleyan and finished at Oak Hill in Virginia. And I guess we could include the Plumlees, originally from Indiana, but played high school ball at Christ School in Arden, NC.

jimsumner
11-18-2019, 05:50 PM
Yeah, Kevin played for North Surry HS, which has a Mount Airy (aka Mayberry) address but not the same as Mt. Airy HS. Other Northwest NC products who played for Duke include Kenny Dennard from South Stokes (King, NC) and Harry Giles from Winston-Salem who played for High Point Wesleyan and finished at Oak Hill in Virginia. And I guess we could include the Plumlees, originally from Indiana, but played high school ball at Christ School in Arden, NC.

Don't forget Bobby Joe Harris, the first Duke star from King, NC. And Carroll Youngkin from the Winston-Salem area. Both very good college players.

bigperm13
11-20-2019, 03:41 AM
Just finally watched the replay of this game after work and how much cocaine was Cory Alexander on? That dude chattered on and on the ENTIRE game. I'm not even sure there was another commentator.

Devilwin
11-20-2019, 04:48 AM
Just finally watched the replay of this game after work and how much cocaine was Cory Alexander on? That dude chattered on and on the ENTIRE game. I'm not even sure there was another commentator.

He runs his mouth like a chainsaw...:cool:

jimsumner
11-20-2019, 02:23 PM
Just finally watched the replay of this game after work and how much cocaine was Cory Alexander on? That dude chattered on and on the ENTIRE game. I'm not even sure there was another commentator.

And yet, somehow, the powers that be have decided that Alexander is a better option than Mike Gminski.

Grrr!!!