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jimsumner
11-18-2007, 06:18 PM
Duke defeated UNC-Greensboro 84-39 in the first official home game of the McCallie era today. By comparison, NC State beat UNCG 74-29 a week ago. UNCG graduated three starters from last season and lost a fourth to injury, so any observations have to be tempered with the realization that the opposition was badly overmatched.

Duke started Chante Black, Carrem Gay, Bridgette Mitchell, Brittany Mitch, and Keturah Jackson. It was Jackson's first career start and she played a lot of guard. All ten players --more on that later--played between 15 and 25 minutes, and all scored.

The game was intense but sloppy. Duke committed 20 turnovers but forced 38! And most of those were forced. Duke had a school-record 28 steals. Lots of full-court pressure, some m2m, some zone, and people going to the floor with abandon.

Mitch had arguably her best game at Duke. 11 points, 7 steals, a couple of assists. Black and Krystal Thomas dominated inside. UNCG played zone the whole way but Duke still forced the ball inside. McCallie said after the game that "you attack a zone from the inside out." Good interior passing, lots of second shots. Black had 17 points, 5 boards, Thomas 20 points, 10 rebounds.
They did play together some and I love this Twin Towers look. How many
teams can match two skilled, athletic 6'5" players?

Careem Gay didn't shoot much (2 points) but had great hustle stats, 5 steals, 7 rebounds, numerous floor burns. BTW, I don't think they keep stats on this but there were more held balls than almost any game I've ever seen.

Emily Waner had a pair of threes and led everybody with 7 assists. Joy Cheek made 5-6 fgs, including a three, and grabbed 5 rebounds to go with her 11 points. Duke outrebounded UNCG 44-30, although the visitors had a slight edge after intermission.

Some words on the freshman. Christmas is very athletic and did some nice things but seems to be a bit behind her classmates.

Krystal Thomas had a nervous start. Three turnovers in her first 90 seconds. But then she turned it on. UNCG did have some height, a 6'4" and a 6'3" but neither matched Duke's athleticism and skills. KT loves to play big and seems comfortable staying on the blocks. She's a keeper.

Jasmine Thomas? She hasn't figured it all out yet and her perimeter shooting is shaky--1-12 on 3s so far--but she has serious jets. She just blows by defenders. She doesn't alway finish. She missed two layups after putting away the folks trying to guard her but she'll learn how to finish a lot better than defenders will learn how to keep up with her.

Duke didn't shoot all that well, 34-73 overall, 5-19 on 3s.

But keep in mind, that was without arguably their two best players. Abby Waner suffered a high-ankle sprain in practice. Non-contact injury. She just landed wrong. She did not dress out.

Wanisha Smith hurt her right wrist in the USF game. Apparently a small break on a small bone that will not require surgery. She dressed out but never came close to coming in. McCallie says both are day-to-day and will be a game-time decision. I would expect to see Smith before Waner but it's not like I'm a trained health-care professional.

This looks like a fun team. Lots of depth, lots of hustle, up-tempo on both offense and defense. FWIW, UNCG Coach Agee said after the game that she wouldn't be surprised to see Duke in the Final Four. I don't think anyone is going to forget Gail Goestenkors anytime soon but it looks to me like Duke isn't going to show any significant decline under the new boss.

Bluedawg
11-18-2007, 06:27 PM
Great job. I got home from the game, fired this up and found this wonderful review

What were Coach P's comments after the game.

jimsumner
11-18-2007, 06:43 PM
Coach P was level-headed but pleased. She acknowledged the lower caliber of competition but was pleased with how Duke maintained its intensity for 40 minutes over an over-matched opponent. She was very complimentary of Chante's leadership and maturity in coming back from her injury.

She thinks that Duke's depth will come in handy in the Virgin Islands, playing three games in four days and thinks that her familiarity with Purdue might be useful. She emphasized her desire to go inside at every opportunity. She's going to use Duke's size as much as possible.

She thought that Duke started a bit tentatively but got into the swing of things pretty quickly. She wants to dictate tempo.

She thought that playing 40 minutes against a zone was good practice and would help down the road.

Coach Agee, fwiw, complimented Duke's "size, quickness, and great athleticism" but was pleased that her team didn't back down from Duke. She seemed real anxious to stop playing ACC teams.

merry
11-19-2007, 12:02 PM
Nice write up, thanks!

I'm pretty sure this wasn't KJ's first start - I think she started the game in Tampa as well. Regardless, it's great to see her getting her chance after never really bouncing back from her redshirt year. She showed a lot of hustle yesterday, I thought.

I haven't looked at the box score to check attendance but it was a VERY well attended game for this time of year. It was strange to not have the band there at all, but I know that was due to the football game.

Bluedawg
11-19-2007, 12:12 PM
Nice write up, thanks!

I'm pretty sure this wasn't KJ's first start - I think she started the game in Tampa as well. Regardless, it's great to see her getting her chance after never really bouncing back from her redshirt year. She showed a lot of hustle yesterday, I thought.

I haven't looked at the box score to check attendance but it was a VERY well attended game for this time of year. It was strange to not have the band there at all, but I know that was due to the football game.

Attendance: 5534 (http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=22762&SPID=1846&DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=1321819)

jimsumner
11-19-2007, 02:20 PM
Merry,

You're right about Keturah. It was Bridgette Mitchell's first career start, Keturah's second.