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-jk
12-01-2007, 02:09 PM
79-73. Whew.

sandinmyshoes
12-01-2007, 02:10 PM
Whew boy. I am glad we were not playing Western Michigan. :eek:

dukeisawesome
12-01-2007, 02:12 PM
wow, quick update on the main page

I was thinking this was like a tournament game, but now I want to say it even felt like a Final Four game. Davidson was really good and it was a lot different than the Marquette challenge since Davidson executes really well. I thought we played pretty well despite a few cold stretches. I'm really liking our team, we play really smart and everyone is a weapon, no liabilities unlike last season.

willywoody
12-01-2007, 02:15 PM
after gerald's last free throws, what happened? can't tell from on line.

and i wish much evil on the lsu fball coach.

Cicero
12-01-2007, 02:19 PM
I wish this game had been televised (ESPNU doesn't count as televised, at least not in my house)...I listened on the radio, but will be interested to hear the impressions of those who actually saw the game. Was it close because we struggled, or because Davidson played well (or both)?

M. Tullius

DukieInBrasil
12-01-2007, 02:20 PM
i didn´t get to watch the game but "watched" it by ESPN gametracker. It seemed that Davidson got too many "made 2pt layup"s. Did anybody play D? And we got into at least 2 non-scoring funks, a much-too-scary phantom of last year.
Henderson - what a stud.
Scheyer - saved the day.
Paulus - starting to show that stroke that he finished last year with.
Singler - nice, solid game, another double-double.
King - what is up with his FTs??? Should we ask the opposing team to defend him while shooting from the stripe? Should we ask Taylor to take his FTs from the 3pt line?
LT/Z - seem to be dangerously retrogressing to last year´s form after such a promising stretch of games to start the year. A combined 4pts and 2rebs from the 2 of them is NOT gonna cut it .
I for one think D-Marc should be restricted to the first half and the first 10 minutes of the second half, no crunch time minutes for him, mos def not what you want from your captain. Your captain MUST NOT miss BOTH charity shots in the closing minutes of a tight game.
A win is a win, but i think that those-who-must-not-be-named down the road will gain a lot of satisfaction from this game. Well, maybe not, now they know that they must be afeared of this year´s Duke team.

DBFAN
12-01-2007, 02:21 PM
I don't want to sound like a pessimistic SOB, but we should have won that game by at least double digits. I could only listen on the radio, and I think they felt the same way, seems like we were just there to be there,and had no intensity whatsoever. I was really hoping that we would blow them out, now I am a little worried about the toughness of our team. I could be over reacting but we handled the same team pretty easily last year.

captmojo
12-01-2007, 02:22 PM
what is up with TKs FTs? He is now shooting worse from the stripe, undefended, than he is from 3pt range. Must be mental. Maybe we should ask someone from Davidson to defend him while shooting FTs...

If you watch him, he dribbles the ball looking down at it, then when he feels ready he comes straight up with the shot. He does not take time to envision the shot before he takes it.

Wander
12-01-2007, 02:23 PM
You guys do realize that this team took UNC down to the wire, right? Davidson doesn't play close to national powers because they "catch them sleeping," they play close to national powers because they're a legitimately good team.

willywoody
12-01-2007, 02:27 PM
i didn´t get to watch the game but "watched" it by ESPN gametracker. It seemed that Davidson got too many "made 2pt layup"s. Did anybody play D?

the few look-ins on espn news showed duke getting mismatched on switches leading to big men lay ups for davidson.

pratt '04
12-01-2007, 02:28 PM
I could be over reacting but we handled the same team pretty easily last year.


You are over reacting. Davidson is a really good team. That was a great win for our team.

snowdenscold
12-01-2007, 02:29 PM
So I guess we're 1.5 times as good as UNC? ;)

Indoor66
12-01-2007, 02:30 PM
So I guess we're 1.5 times as good as UNC? ;)

At a bare minimum. :D

Sir Stealth
12-01-2007, 02:30 PM
This is great evidence for why watching on gametracker does not count as watching the game and shouldn't be described as such even with quotation marks. Demarcus's last free throw attempts were ugly, but he was as responsible for coming out with a win in this game as anyone. His defense was great as usual, and a lot of our offense towards the end of the game came by putting the ball in his hands. Rather than putting his head down and playing as a black hole as he has sometimes justifiably been accused of doing, he did a great job of driving and then passing off to players like Paulus who hit the shots. Not to mention that he is the senior captain and the team's toughness starts and centers around him. He needs to work on his free throws, but he wanted the ball at the end of the game and wanted to go to the line. That kind of confidence and attitude is what you want.

Paulus also had an outstanding game. Earlier on, he did a lot of great pure point guard type stuff - driving deep to the basket and then passing it off for players to hit open jumpers. Then, at the end of the game, what can you say - it's obvious that he's the guy to go to when it's time for the momentum turning dagger.

Henderson's two spectacular weak side blocks are pretty hard to match as far as defensive plays, yet he seems to be making them routine. This was a very good game for him (after being somewhat quieter since Maui), although it was somewhat disappointing to see him force an airball as we looked to use him as a go-to player to the stretch.

Finally, can't talk about why we won without mentioning Scheyer. The guy quietly, again, had as good a game as anyone and was crucial to the outcome.

I think that Duke played a decently good if not great game. It wasn't perfect but I never really felt that fear of a loss at any point. Last year, you could always feel real danger coming. Things weren't always clicking today but Duke always seemed in control. Curry is a very dangerous player and will get his points, but I think you could tell going into the game that Duke was not let him going off be the reason why we lost.

bbar7502
12-01-2007, 02:34 PM
maybe i am just a duke homer, but i feel like we should have won that game by at least 15 or more. it seems like when we got to that 13 or 14 point lead teritory we would just loose some intensity and make some careless mistakes. at the same time though, davidson made some tough shots and didn't give up. i saw enough travels and touch fouls called to last me till xmas. ugly game but i think, duke did show some poise at the end to close it out. good win, next play......

nicktonyg22
12-01-2007, 02:34 PM
I seem to be one of the few that have ESPN U, so to give everyone a little perspective from someone who was able to watch the game, something that killed us was the high pick and roll with Stephen Curry immediately passing to the cutting screener.

Paulus saved the day today. His leaning three and falling-out-of-bounds 2 with 3 left on the shot clock were spectacular daggers and really the reason that we came away winners. Gerald was very solid today too and will win many man of the match votes because of a huge block, amazing alley-oop dunk and great overall scoring game. This was obviously not the right game for Zoubek, he just didn't have the right stuff to match up with the finesse and quickness of Davidson's big men. He'll get more minutes in games with imposing big men.

I missed the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half, but by looking at stat tracker, it seems that it was a really bad stretch for us. Anyone notice that we have been allowing teams to score more than us in the 2nd half in most of the past few games?

DBFAN
12-01-2007, 02:34 PM
I understand all of that, the fact is we are suppose to be a better team this year, and we struggled today, grant it coach did just say that it was the 6 game in 12 days so I will give them that. I guess it just upsets me to see them get a big lead and not just keep pushing it. I mean come on this team got handled pretty well by Western Michigan (I think) I just really wanted our team to make a statement today and they did not. So instead of people like ESPN noticing how good we are they will probably show more on how our size is going to hurt us, or how we always get the calls.

LetItBD08
12-01-2007, 02:42 PM
Obviously this proves that we're 50% better than Carolina right now. I'm kind of worried however because we were 52% better than them when we compare exhibition games against Shaw (79 pts/52 pts). According to this flawless trend we are going to only be 46% better than them when we play them in Februrary. Don't even try to dispute the numbers. This logic is impeccable, and you know it.

Troublemaker
12-01-2007, 02:45 PM
I seem to be one of the few that have ESPN U, so to give everyone a little perspective from someone who was able to watch the game, something that killed us was the high pick and roll with Stephen Curry immediately passing to the cutting screener.


Great point. Davidson's big men hurt us but it wasn't on postups. They repeatedly screened up top and then slipped to the basket for immediate layups or mismatches that became layups, taking advantage of our concern for Curry and their other shooters. It was the combination of mobile bigs and good shooting/passing guards that hurt us, so we'll have to do a better job in the future against that combination, which we won't see too often.

LetItBD08
12-01-2007, 02:48 PM
Gerald was very solid today too and will win many man of the match votes because of a huge block, amazing alley-oop dunk and great overall scoring game.

For those of you who didn't see it, he had one block where his hand met the ball about 13 feet in the air. Okay, I'm not good at estimating these sort of things, but it was absolutely absurd. He deflected the ball at its apex several feet from the basket. It's an eventful day in sports, but this should be on the top ten tonight.

Stray Gator
12-01-2007, 02:48 PM
I understand all of that, the fact is we are suppose to be a better team this year, and we struggled today, grant it coach did just say that it was the 6 game in 12 days so I will give them that. I guess it just upsets me to see them get a big lead and not just keep pushing it. I mean come on this team got handled pretty well by Western Michigan (I think) I just really wanted our team to make a statement today and they did not. So instead of people like ESPN noticing how good we are they will probably show more on how our size is going to hurt us, or how we always get the calls.

I watched the entire game, and I strongly disagree that we "struggled" today or that it wasn't one of our better efforts. If you'll notice, Duke started out both halves encountering problems scoring, then gradually outscored Davidson at an increasing rate during the last 8 minutes of each half. That was not coincidental. Davidson did a great job of disrupting our offense, and forcing us to take difficult shots or turn the ball over, while they were fresh and full of energy at the start of both halves. But they played a physical game, and seemed to wear down and become less aggressive as the fatigue and fouls mounted. I thought our guys played a fine game. It was just that Davidson played a fine game, too--as they did against UNC. IMO, the margin was more a credit to Davidson than a sign of any slide by Duke.

Bob Green
12-01-2007, 02:48 PM
Anyone notice that we have been allowing teams to score more than us in the 2nd half in most of the past few games?

Davidson & Marquette are the only two teams to outscore us in the second half this season.

dukeisawesome
12-01-2007, 02:52 PM
Davidson is very good. I wouldn't want to see them in March. If Curry had not gotten into foul trouble, we may well have lost. Also, their PG Richards is an excellent passer. We did give up some easy layups when they slipped to the basket, but I think that is more because they have guys who can shoot from outside so it is tricky on the screen plays and add to that the fact that they can thread the needle and you've got a problem.

Scheyer was excellent. The rebound he tipped to GH for the layup was a very smart play and overall he plays very smart. GH's athleticism was incredible, but sometimes I think he tries to do too much such as the difficult shot he took from near the corner late in the game. Paulus was great as well passing and shooting from the outside.

nicktonyg22
12-01-2007, 02:53 PM
Bob, you are right, I didn't check my facts...I guess what I meant was that we aren't really putting teams away because teams are playing pretty even with us in the 2nd half. We only outscored Wisconson and Princeton by 1 in the 2nd half of those games...not nitpicking because I'm ecstatic to be undefeated at this point, but just an interesting fact.

wisteria
12-01-2007, 02:58 PM
Paulus, I love you !!!!!!!!!!!!

OK.... I'll go and calm down a bit.

Devilsfan
12-01-2007, 03:00 PM
Why didn't he "make the trip"? You would think against an unathletic bunch of mid major types inside (there guards are as good as anyones) he would have a field day. Now we have to watch that team from KY. and wonder what if. Enough said. Lance, please start rebounding and playing like the Duke starter you are.

dukestheheat
12-01-2007, 03:01 PM
I knew going in that this game would be tough.

Davidson almost beat Carolina just a couple weeks ago; the Holes won by only 4 points.

So, I am gratified that Duke could hold on and win this one today. Our defense on Curry was excellent, imo, and I think given Davidson's resurgence that this is another big win for Duke!

We must spend time working on our free throws, imo.

GO DUKE!

dth.

Lord Ash
12-01-2007, 03:03 PM
I too was unimpressed by Lance; he was slow to rotate on D and still picks up these tickie-tackie fouls. I think that the team has to be a little better when it comes to supporting him with switches, however, as a switch that leaves him on their PG is just an accident waiting to happen.

dukestheheat
12-01-2007, 03:07 PM
Obviously this proves that we're 50% better than Carolina right now. I'm kind of worried however because we were 52% better than them when we compare exhibition games against Shaw (79 pts/52 pts). According to this flawless trend we are going to only be 46% better than them when we play them in Februrary. Don't even try to dispute the numbers. This logic is impeccable, and you know it.

LetitBD08-

whichever you are, you just ARE. all seems right to me, based on the way I do MATH around here. works the same with the checkbook.

dth.

willywoody
12-01-2007, 03:09 PM
i hope someone can post a video of one of henderson's blocks. he had one where the davidson player was spotting up on a fast break from what looked to be about 15 feet out on the wing and henderson came flying back in on defense and blocked the ball from what looked like over twelve feet in the air. it looked impossible and i keep telling myself the tv angle must've exaggerated it.

wisteria
12-01-2007, 03:16 PM
I'm just glad that we held on enough to a tough win, (whew!) The good side of today's game is that we showed some mental toughness in the closing minutes. Paulus was the Mr.Clutch, with the 3pt shot and the falling-out-of-bound shot. The steal right after Paulus's shot was excellent too. Scheyer and Henderson made the clutch free throws. Overall, we were composed and never broke down like we would have done last year.

Being rated as No.7 may have increased our expectation for this team. But I kept thinking to myself that last year's team would have crumbled under such pressure.

We didn't play the best basketball today. But such a battle in early December could only benefit us later. Hopefully lessons will be leanred from this game.

(And whoever outthere saying it was a neutral or even home court for Duke can now shut up.)

Jumbo
12-01-2007, 03:33 PM
You guys do realize that this team took UNC down to the wire, right? Davidson doesn't play close to national powers because they "catch them sleeping," they play close to national powers because they're a legitimately good team.

Exactly. If anyone thinks this wasn't a good win, you're not familiar with Davidson. That's a REALLY good team. Sure, Duke could have played better. But I've seen Davidson play way better, too.

wisteria
12-01-2007, 03:35 PM
Davidson with or without Curry were completely different teams. The couple times where Curry went down because of PF, we pulled away, only to be caught up once he came back in game. Big credit to Curry for playing so long with 4 PFs and yet so effective. Curry indeed is an elite college bball player.

Channing
12-01-2007, 03:41 PM
I just saw the highlight clip on ESPN.com . . . when Paulus made his move and took that last fallaway jumper it reminded me 100% of JJ. A hesitation dribble and then a quick pullup, creating space from the defender. What a tremendous shot.

Jumbo
12-01-2007, 03:41 PM
Why didn't he "make the trip"? You would think against an unathletic bunch of mid major types inside (there guards are as good as anyones) he would have a field day. Now we have to watch that team from KY. and wonder what if. Enough said. Lance, please start rebounding and playing like the Duke starter you are.

His +/- was plus-10 -- second best on the team. I think he made the trip.

Troublemaker
12-01-2007, 03:43 PM
Why didn't he "make the trip"? You would think against an unathletic bunch of mid major types inside (there guards are as good as anyones) he would have a field day. Now we have to watch that team from KY. and wonder what if. Enough said. Lance, please start rebounding and playing like the Duke starter you are.

I don't think your description of Davidson's bigs is accurate. For one thing, they seemed to move with enough quickness to cut off our penetration and to slip inside our defense for layups. That said, I was unhappy with LT's performance also but it wasn't because he was going against clumsy sloths.

loran16
12-01-2007, 03:50 PM
His +/- was plus-10 -- second best on the team. I think he made the trip.

Lance's +/- is more the result of him being on the floor with the other 4 guys than anything he's been doing.

That said, there isn't really much of a better option, unless we go completely small (And put scheyer in his place).

Anyhow, good game by the team. They played sloppy but still managed to stay ahead the entire 2nd half...and that is a good sign indeed.

Next up: A week michigan team.

Jumbo
12-01-2007, 03:54 PM
Lance's +/- is more the result of him being on the floor with the other 4 guys than anything he's been doing.

That said, there isn't really much of a better option, unless we go completely small (And put scheyer in his place).

Anyhow, good game by the team. They played sloppy but still managed to stay ahead the entire 2nd half...and that is a good sign indeed.

Next up: A week michigan team.

We did put Scheyer in his place and went with the small lineup -- three times. We got outscored 15-14. Maybe Lance was doing some things that don't show up in the boxscore -- ever think about that?

_Gary
12-01-2007, 03:58 PM
As someone who did get to watch the game, let me tell you it was a very good win for us. Davidson is extremely solid. In fact, I'm not sure of the last time I've seen a college team execute the pick & roll as good as this team has. And I'll take Richards on my team any time. This guy easily accounted for a dozen or more points just on his incredible passes alone. Passes that most other college players either wouldn't have attempted or wouldn't have completed to their big men for easy lay-ups. I'm telling you, this team can make some serious noise in the Big Dance if they play like they did today against Duke. No shame in winning this one by "only" six points.

And I love King. The guy has absolutely no conscience whatsoever on the offensive end. Yeah, he took a couple of shots he probably shouldn't have, and it might have even led to him being pulled a little quickly the first time he was on the floor today. But then he came right back in and took another shot. He missed that one too but you still gotta love his attitude.

Gerald is a walking highlight reel. We all know that. And his blocks were spectacular. One little gripe with him though. I felt he forced a few shots. He actually made one or two that I still thought were kinda bad shots. Perhaps the coaches are telling him to just take over at times. I don't know. But every so often today I did feel he could have passed the ball back out when he was driving to the bucket instead of forcing up some shots. The thing is, he's so athletic that he can rise above a lot of defenders who are actually covering him well and still make some shots.

Didn't think Lance played as poorly as a few have mentioned. But I'll admit he wasn't my focus today so I could be wrong.

Great game overall from everyone. And a very solid win, IMHO.

Gary

wisteria
12-01-2007, 04:07 PM
by the way, I want to know who the ESPNU announcers were. Was it just me? I had to turn off the sound because they were getting close to openly cheer on Davidson.

loran16
12-01-2007, 04:07 PM
We did put Scheyer in his place and went with the small lineup -- three times. We got outscored 15-14. Maybe Lance was doing some things that don't show up in the boxscore -- ever think about that?

Oh no question. Ordinary #s like Points/rebounds/assists can't measure that. And +/- might. But it has some flaws, for example: how long during that small lineup was Curry in the game. Because it was clear today that we took a big edge on them when curry was off the floor.

Mind you, lance had a better game than he did vs wisconsin. But i suspect the #s were inflated.

_Gary
12-01-2007, 04:10 PM
by the way, I want to know who the ESPNU announcers were. Was it just me? I had to turn off the sound because they were getting close to openly cheer on Davidson.

I didn't think so. And I'm quite sensitive to that sort of thing - LOL. Seriously though, I thought the guys today did a good job announcing.

Also, forgot to mention how much I love Singler. I can see now why some were comparing his game to Larry the Legend's. No, I'm not saying he's Bird. But he's a great all around player, and I love watching his game. He's going to be huge for us come March!


Gary

freedevil
12-01-2007, 04:13 PM
This is off topic. But I sort of wish Patrick Patterson had come to Duke. Our team looks great as it is, but he could've added/helped that down low presence. Sigh.

Go Duke.

Duvall
12-01-2007, 04:14 PM
by the way, I want to know who the ESPNU announcers were. Was it just me? I had to turn off the sound because they were getting close to openly cheer on Davidson.

I forget who the play-by-play guy was, but I believe the color commentator was former Duke assistant Bob Wenzel.

I didn't notice anything, but announcers often favor the underdog a little - who doesn't? No big deal.

wisteria
12-01-2007, 04:29 PM
:D So maybe it was indeed just me them. I was probably getting too frustrated during the streches when they were making a big run. I guess now I can feel how the opposite fans often feel when their teams were playing in Cameron.


I forget who the play-by-play guy was, but I believe the color commentator was former Duke assistant Bob Wenzel.

I didn't notice anything, but announcers often favor the underdog a little - who doesn't? No big deal.

Matches
12-01-2007, 04:31 PM
I was at the game and did not think we played poorly at all. Davidson is really good, guys. Curry is absolutely the real deal. He made a 3 in the 1st half right at the end of the shot clock with three guys on him. We defended him really really well and he was still productive. When he couldn't get his shot he fed other guys for open looks.

A lot of those Davidson "layups" weren't really - they did a good job of feeding the post, and had both a size and strength advantage down there. Sadly, we're going to see a lot of that this year. Lance didn't play poorly, but he can't guard bigger stronger guys one-on-one down low.

Henderson, Nelson, and Paulus all played great games. Scheyer had some big moments as well. We led almost the whole way but Davidson never gave up, kept clawing back into the game.

Crowd was pro-Davidson but not overly so; there was a lot of blue too. The Davidson fans did get a lot more vocal in the last 10 min or so. Nice win for Duke in a tough situation against a good team.

freedevil
12-01-2007, 04:41 PM
I watched the game and thought Duke was pretty thoroughly in control as well. They didn't put it away, per se, but in the last 4 minutes, I was ecstatic to see an alternate version of last year's stall ball!!!! Instead of just literally stalling, we'd dribble the clock down and then attack the basket with purpose. I loved it.

hondoheel
12-01-2007, 04:59 PM
As usual, your free throw defense was better against Davidson than Carolina's was. Davidson hit 5 of 12 against you but 12 of 15 against UNC.

365Duke
12-01-2007, 05:05 PM
by the way, I want to know who the ESPNU announcers were. Was it just me? I had to turn off the sound because they were getting close to openly cheer on Davidson.

They were Mike Gleason and Bob Wenzel. I was pretty sure Wenzel was going to propose to Curry at halftime:rolleyes: Not to take anything away from Curry (he is a great player) but when Curry would dribble across half court and I thought this guy was going to wet himself.

wisteria
12-01-2007, 05:05 PM
The best response is ignoring. er...wait.. damn, I replied. :)


As usual, your free throw defense was better against Davidson than Carolina's was. Davidson hit 5 of 12 against you but 12 of 15 against UNC.

heath_harshman4
12-01-2007, 05:05 PM
good game overall against a team that has a hellish schedule. The big bad thing (besides missing 9 free throws) that I noticed was a glimpse from last years team. Not scoring for almost the first 4 minutes of the 2nd half was hard to watch. Last year's team did that sooo many times with a big lead, and I thought that was over this year. But, in the end, K led the guys to a win and Paulus became clutch man today. Hopefully they can keep this momentum up for the upcoming games with Michigan and Pitt. GO DUKE

dyedwab
12-01-2007, 05:19 PM
I thought this was a really good win, against a well-coached team, with an absolutely superlative player. How in the world did Stephen Curry make some the plays he did.

Our game was similar to the Carolina/Davidson game in at least one respect. We couldn't impose our pace on Davidson. Neither could Carolina. So we had to win in other ways.

Lost in the clutch shooting of Paulus, the acrobatics of Henderson, and the overall steady play of Scheyer was Demarcus Nelson's stellar game. Great D, and some key passed to set up Paulus on clutch shots.

A great win over a really good team - and a game that we could have easily lost last year

Constantstrain 81
12-01-2007, 05:21 PM
I saw the game on ESPNU. I thought we played well and were in control the entire game. We just could not pull away several times when we had the chance. Part of that was some good, tough play by Davidson - part of that was the uneven officiating (on both sides). It's a block, then it's a charge. Touch foul called, then it is okay. "Carrying the ball, then it is okay." We and Davidson had momentum shaken by calls that could have just as easily not been made. I never, ever felt that we were in danger, though.

Henderson, Demarcus (defense especially), Paulus, Singler, Scheyer - all played tough. Missed free throws on both sides canceled out.

Lance had a good game. He will not get big numbers against some teams because he is the 5th option. Many times he is way out screening on offense and out guarding a big man playing outside on defense. Hard to get many points or rebounds that way. Still, he played a good game. We are better with him in the line-up.

I do not really want to hear (from announcers or anyone else) about how we would have lost if Curry wasn't in foul trouble. Curry played 34 minutes. He had 20 points and 8 turnovers. His charging fouls were out of control charging fouls. Henderson scored 21 with more rebounds and 3 blocks - he only played 25 minutes. Curry was good - but Duke won this one. No doubt.

Oh yeah, good hustle by King even though the shot wasn't falling.

devildeac
12-01-2007, 06:06 PM
As usual, your free throw defense was better against Davidson than Carolina's was. Davidson hit 5 of 12 against you but 12 of 15 against UNC.

Wow, great stat-was Speedo Guy, the grad students or
DUMB there to help distract the Davidson shooters?

wisteria
12-01-2007, 06:14 PM
Wow, great stat-was Speedo Guy, the grad students or
DUMB there to help distract the Davidson shooters?

Talk about Speedo Guy, has everyone meet the Dancing Lederhosen Guy?
(Sorry, I digressed.)

mgtr
12-01-2007, 06:52 PM
Davidson is a terrific team, and I won't take anything away from them. We played OK, but not great. I expect that Davidson will win a bunch of games this year, and will learn from their tough (very tough) schedule. Come the tournament, they will be a difficult, difficult team. I hope we don't draw them.

dukepsy1963
12-01-2007, 07:54 PM
I was at the game (my first Duke game in many years BTW) and have a few general impressions.

First, Davidson can play basketball! Curry's 3 point shot in the first half (while guarded closely) was unbelievable. What a smooth player!

Second, the feel of the game "in person" was that it was much closer than it appeared on the tube. I was really worried toward the end that we were losing it.

Third, Davidson had a very large number of vocal supporters there. The crowd was clearly a "sixth" man. We learned that around 1100 students were there. Almost the entire student body!!

Fourth, I was not impressed with the calls for either side, but especially against Duke. Many calls were simply missed it seemed to me. Or dead wrong.

Fifth, free throws were terrible. They could have made a difference...for fortunately didn't.

Finally, I enjoyed every minute of the game, especially Henderson and Paulus' play. Singler was also very tough on the boards.

All I can say...is whew!!

Thanks Devils for pulling out a win!
Davidson will give lots of people problems. They are good.

Saratoga2
12-01-2007, 08:10 PM
I was at the game (my first Duke game in many years BTW) and have a few general impressions.

First, Davidson can play basketball! Curry's 3 point shot in the first half (while guarded closely) was unbelievable. What a smooth player!

Second, the feel of the game "in person" was that it was much closer than it appeared on the tube. I was really worried toward the end that we were losing it.

Third, Davidson had a very large number of vocal supporters there. The crowd was clearly a "sixth" man. We learned that around 1100 students were there. Almost the entire student body!!

Fourth, I was not impressed with the calls for either side, but especially against Duke. Many calls were simply missed it seemed to me. Or dead wrong.

Fifth, free throws were terrible. They could have made a difference...for fortunately didn't.

Finally, I enjoyed every minute of the game, especially Henderson and Paulus' play. Singler was also very tough on the boards.

All I can say...is whew!!

Thanks Devils for pulling out a win!
Davidson will give lots of people problems. They are good.

Scheyer was 5 for 5 and Henderson was 4 for 5. Those guys were hitting well, King has been off and Demarcus has had a problem in the past which continue.

Ima Facultiwyfe
12-01-2007, 08:22 PM
"I do not really want to hear (from announcers or anyone else) about how we would have lost if Curry wasn't in foul trouble. Curry played 34 minutes. He had 20 points and 8 turnovers. His charging fouls were out of control charging fouls. Henderson scored 21 with more rebounds and 3 blocks - he only played 25 minutes. Curry was good - but Duke won this one. No doubt."

Good point. Also, I think Coach K made another good point in the post game when he said "We need to get back to practice. That's the problem with a busy schedule early. You don't get enough time to practice."

I think that could have been one reason they guys may have lost a bit of focus for a few minutes....something that is dangerous against a smart team like Davidson.

All in all it was a beautiful game to watch. No chest pounding or trash talking....no "in-your-face" junk. Just sharp guys and great coaches on either side concentrating hard and trying to do their best. And more than once I noticed how nice it was not to have Vitale's drivel getting in the way.
(Bless his heart.:rolleyes: )
Love, Ima

wisteria
12-01-2007, 08:23 PM
When it comes to FT shooting, Scheyer is really JJ-esque. He's just automatic. Whenever he goes to the line, I feel assured.

Singler has a nice touch, Gerald was doing well too.

Although he doesn't have much chance to show, but Lance's free throw uaually seems to be pretty smooth. (I don't have stat though.)

I think King is probably shooting his 500 FT assignment right now.
Maybe Demarcus joins him as well. :D


Scheyer was 5 for 5 and Henderson was 4 for 5. Those guys were hitting well, King has been off and Demarcus has had a problem in the past which continue.

jjasper0729
12-01-2007, 08:38 PM
Although he doesn't have much chance to show, but Lance's free throw uaually seems to be pretty smooth. (I don't have stat though.)

Lance's numbers are decent (16-23 69.6%). I think his shot looks an awful lot like bill cartwright when he's at the line.

3rd Dukie
12-01-2007, 09:00 PM
This is great evidence for why watching on gametracker does not count as watching the game and shouldn't be described as such even with quotation marks. Demarcus's last free throw attempts were ugly, but he was as responsible for coming out with a win in this game as anyone. His defense was great as usual, and a lot of our offense towards the end of the game came by putting the ball in his hands. Rather than putting his head down and playing as a black hole as he has sometimes justifiably been accused of doing, he did a great job of driving and then passing off to players like Paulus who hit the shots. Not to mention that he is the senior captain and the team's toughness starts and centers around him. He needs to work on his free throws, but he wanted the ball at the end of the game and wanted to go to the line. That kind of confidence and attitude is what you want.

Paulus also had an outstanding game. Earlier on, he did a lot of great pure point guard type stuff - driving deep to the basket and then passing it off for players to hit open jumpers. Then, at the end of the game, what can you say - it's obvious that he's the guy to go to when it's time for the momentum turning dagger.

Henderson's two spectacular weak side blocks are pretty hard to match as far as defensive plays, yet he seems to be making them routine. This was a very good game for him (after being somewhat quieter since Maui), although it was somewhat disappointing to see him force an airball as we looked to use him as a go-to player to the stretch.

Finally, can't talk about why we won without mentioning Scheyer. The guy quietly, again, had as good a game as anyone and was crucial to the outcome.

I think that Duke played a decently good if not great game. It wasn't perfect but I never really felt that fear of a loss at any point. Last year, you could always feel real danger coming. Things weren't always clicking today but Duke always seemed in control. Curry is a very dangerous player and will get his points, but I think you could tell going into the game that Duke was not let him going off be the reason why we lost.

What this guy said, except I didn't think Henderson forced the 3 near the end of the game. I just think he threw up a brick. He looked wide open, and the shot seemed to be there the taking. I especially agree with your statement about the lack of fear. I don't agree with the folks who say we played poorly, nor the ones who say we barely escaped. Davidson played a fine game, but we played a finer one. I never felt we were going to lose.

3rd Dukie
12-01-2007, 09:34 PM
by the way, I want to know who the ESPNU announcers were. Was it just me? I had to turn off the sound because they were getting close to openly cheer on Davidson.

It did seem that way at times. However, unless I am mistaken (again), Bob Wenzel, the color guy, was an assistant under Bill Foster at Duke and was on ths staff for the '78 Final Four team. I may be confused about his name, but I don't think so.

captmojo
12-01-2007, 09:39 PM
Davidson is very good, but one real power forward away from greatness. Curry is superb. He was double teamed most all day, a move I found hard to agree with. He still got off decent shots and was always able to find the open man. Sometimes the one he found was the center for a down-the-lane lay up. His finding an able outlet is grounds for my disagreement with Coach K concerning how to defend him. That said, K's strategy worked so what do I know?

Demarcus is short-arming his free throws at the end of the game. He will have to elevate his arms to the point that his elbow is at least as high as his nose to be successful. This is a lack of focus due to fatigue. The rest of his mechanics look good. His shots at the end were on line, just short.

I am still discouraged with players refusal to use the backboard on lay ups. Furthermore even to utilize the boards on shots within 10 feet on angle.

Oh yeah, in comparing this to carolina's game with Davidson, I am stumped to figure if Gardner-Webb would be considered as being 1.9 times better than the holes.:rolleyes:

NEXT VICTIM PLEASE.

dukestheheat
12-01-2007, 09:51 PM
3rd Dukie is spot on in that Duke played well and not poorly; also, I, too never felt that Duke was going to lose the game. It's just that Davidson is a fine team and played almost equal to Duke...it's not that Duke gave them opportunities; they, like Duke, made their own way and it just so happened that Duke came out of top, for which I am grateful.

I also think that Davidson is one or two good players away from being able to beat many ACC-caliber teams; with two other good shooting guards and one dominant big guy, they are competitive on a national level, imo.

Duke played well enough to win it and that was a great, pressure-packed win that will propel them to greater things.

dth.

77devil
12-01-2007, 09:55 PM
It did seem that way at times. However, unless I am mistaken (again), Bob Wenzel, the color guy, was an assistant under Bill Foster at Duke and was on ths staff for the '78 Final Four team. I may be confused about his name, but I don't think so.

It was the same Bob Wenzel.

dukestheheat
12-01-2007, 09:58 PM
Davidson is very good, but one real power forward away from greatness. Curry is superb. He was double teamed most all day, a move I found hard to agree with. He still got off decent shots and was always able to find the open man. Sometimes the one he found was the center for a down-the-lane lay up. His finding an able outlet is grounds for my disagreement with Coach K concerning how to defend him. That said, K's strategy worked so what do I know?

Demarcus is short-arming his free throws at the end of the game. He will have to elevate his arms to the point that his elbow is at least as high as his nose to be successful. This is a lack of focus due to fatigue. The rest of his mechanics look good. His shots at the end were on line, just short.

I am still discouraged with players refusal to use the backboard on lay ups. Furthermore even to utilize the boards on shots within 10 feet on angle.

Oh yeah, in comparing this to carolina's game with Davidson, I am stumped to figure if Gardner-Webb would be considered as being 1.9 times better than the holes.:rolleyes:

NEXT VICTIM PLEASE.

So, as my daughter Emily says around here, 'DAD, DO THE MATH!'. You see, they know my math skills are 'smokin'' so they're constantly asking me to apply my superior, innate mathematical wisdom to life and especially to Duke basketball.

ok, here it is:

Dad's math....

Duke beat this very good Davidson team by six; the Holes only beat Davidson by four. 6 is greater than 4, or 6>4, so therefore,

DUKE>CAROLINA. Once again, Carolina delenda est. I have taught all this to my daughter and to my son, named Cameron.

GO DUKE!

dth.

astoria26
12-01-2007, 10:15 PM
Hey guys - I just posted my recap of the game on the SI FanNation page. Hope you guys enjoy it! Let me know if its worthwhile and I can do this for every game. Just my thoughts during the game - I didn't edit much, and I haven't rewatched tape to add in anything I'd missed.

http://www.fannation.com/blogs/post/84715

Thanks!

Olympic Fan
12-02-2007, 12:11 AM
It did seem that way at times. However, unless I am mistaken (again), Bob Wenzel, the color guy, was an assistant under Bill Foster at Duke and was on ths staff for the '78 Final Four team. I may be confused about his name, but I don't think so.

Bob was the second assistant on Foster's staff in 1978 and moved up to the top spot in 1979 and 1980 after Lou Goetz left (with Ray Jones moving up to the second spot).

Bob was also a strong candidate to replace Foster after the 1980 season. In fact, the day before the new coach was introduced the Durham Morning Herald had a headline that said: Name of Duke's new coach to start with a W. They expected the job to do to Wenzel, Old Dominion coach Paul Webb or Ole Miss coach Bob Weltlich.

Tom Butters surprised them all when he introduced some Polish guy with an unpronounceable name. He took notice of the Herald's headline and said, "I guess you can call me Coach Who."

I wonder what ever happened to him?

BTW, Bob Wenzel became head coach at Jacksonville, where he had a nice run (making the NCAA tourney in 1986 and winning at least one major national coach of the year award). He survived a very serious heart problem that essentially ended his career.

He's a good guy ... and I know he has no bitterness about not getting the Duke job.

dukelifer
12-02-2007, 08:04 AM
While not a true away game- this was the first time this team played in an arena where most folks were cheering against them. They need to learn to take that energy and use it to play hard throughout. Overall Duke played very well. They ended the first half and started the second half very poorly. If they have had one consistent problem is their play at the end of the first half- They tend to relax and give up easy points. In all games this year- Duke has not given up double digit leads. But once Duke got a 10 point lead again- they matched Davidson. In many ways I am glad Duke did not win by 20. They will learn more about themselves in close games and see who can step up. Paulus showed he may be ready to be the guy who wants the ball at the end. In fact, Singler, Scheyer, Henderson and Paulus have all played well down the stretch. A team that has 4 potential scorers/playmakers at the end of games is something that Duke has not had in a while. That makes them very dangerous. Davidson is a good team that plays well together. Duke played well enough to win and made plays at the end. This team is getting confidence that they can win close games. They still need to show their stuff in true hostile arenas. Right now, the biggest unknown is how they will handle that pressure.

Buckeye Devil
12-02-2007, 08:29 AM
of the fact that this Duke team is undefeated with a developing and very young team after playing what I would consider to be 4 quality teams so far this year-Illinois, Marquette, Wisconsin, and now Davidson. Plus this team has played a lot of basketball in less than 2 weeks.

I am not ready to put them in the class of the likes of UCLA yet, but to be undefeated at this point is a good accomplishment with one more difficult pre-conference test coming up in Pittsburgh.

1Devil
12-02-2007, 08:42 AM
The fact is that Duke didn't have it in this game. They didn't play with passion for much of the game and got outhustled. Call it sleepwalking or whaever you want. They played just well enough to win and that's all. I don't like DBR calling it a magnificent performance by Davidson. Davidson played well, but let's not go crazy...they shot 44% and 42% from the line.

I'm sure Coach K was not happy.

SMO
12-02-2007, 10:32 AM
If anyone knows where we can find video of Henderson's insane block please post a link. I'm dying to see it!

3rd Dukie
12-02-2007, 12:07 PM
It was the same Bob Wenzel.

Thank you.

3rd Dukie
12-02-2007, 12:15 PM
Bob was the second assistant on Foster's staff in 1978 and moved up to the top spot in 1979 and 1980 after Lou Goetz left (with Ray Jones moving up to the second spot).

Bob was also a strong candidate to replace Foster after the 1980 season. In fact, the day before the new coach was introduced the Durham Morning Herald had a headline that said: Name of Duke's new coach to start with a W. They expected the job to do to Wenzel, Old Dominion coach Paul Webb or Ole Miss coach Bob Weltlich.

Tom Butters surprised them all when he introduced some Polish guy with an unpronounceable name. He took notice of the Herald's headline and said, "I guess you can call me Coach Who."

I wonder what ever happened to him?

BTW, Bob Wenzel became head coach at Jacksonville, where he had a nice run (making the NCAA tourney in 1986 and winning at least one major national coach of the year award). He survived a very serious heart problem that essentially ended his career.

He's a good guy ... and I know he has no bitterness about not getting the Duke job.

That is a great story. Thanks for posting it. He did seem quite enthusiastic when Davidson made a good play, but I just took that as excitement for the game.

It also seems to me that there was someone at Davidson with a name similar to Wenzel (no, not Fred Hetzel) at about the same time, but I cannot recall his name.

Patrick Yates
12-02-2007, 01:06 PM
The fact is that Duke didn't have it in this game. They didn't play with passion for much of the game and got outhustled. Call it sleepwalking or whaever you want. They played just well enough to win and that's all. I don't like DBR calling it a magnificent performance by Davidson. Davidson played well, but let's not go crazy...they shot 44% and 42% from the line.

I'm sure Coach K was not happy.

This guy sums it up pretty well. Duke played a solid (minus) game. It is not that we played bad, merely that we did not play as well as we could have. This is probably a function of a perception that Davidson is not as strong a team as Wisconsin, Illinois, or Marquette (sp).

[Which is probably true. As good as Davidson is, they are constantly pushing national powers to the wall, but they rarely beat them. Marquette and Wisconsin would beat them in a neutral site, and Illinois might as well. Davidson gets really psyched for North Carolina ACC squads, while I doubt the reverse is true. Looking at the schedule, if the team was going to choose a game to be less psyched than usual, I would choose Davidson rather than a quality opponent from a power conference. Davidson is good, but they seem to be giant scarers rather than giant killers. IMO.]

Regardless, we simply weren't on tonight, at least from the offensive end. Defensively we were pretty good, but not as good as we could have been. Still, no complaints on D. I did not feel that bad about the O, mainly because most of our guys simply weren't getting the shots to fall from the perimeter. I can live with missing open jumpers. I don't like it, but it is far better than losing because you couldn't get open looks at jumpers.

As for Lance, I thought he played pretty well. He had some good moves, passes, and shots on O. His D breakdowns were the result of a VERY disciplined Davidson O. Think backdoors, making the extra pass, etc. I thought some of his woes were the result of some D breakdowns by guards, which can kind of nail a post to the wall.

My headache was caused by Zoubs. Poor hands and poor decisions. He brought the ball down twice, which for a 7-1 guy is not acceptable. More upsetting to me was a time when he lowered his hands on D while the ball was near the basket. Other than his hands, my biggest concern is that he negates his own size too often. He isn't mobile yet, but he brings outstanding size to the table. He can't bring his hands down when he is near the ball on D, or when he gets the ball on O. It will come, I hope, but waiting for that day is painful.

On a happy/sad note, Patterson looks pretty good at UK. Hans looked better, but that is a result of more experience and far better players arround him. I doubt KY has another player that would make UNC's team. Patterson would have really helped this Duke team, making the miss there more painful. I like our team, a lot more than I thought I would, and I believe that Lance, at least, will turn into a solid post before he leaves. Still, with Patterson on our team I do think we would be one of the elites with Memphis, UNC, and UCLA (and maybe G-town). As well as the rest of the team is playing right now, with PP manning the post we would be scaring teams. He is a much better athlete than I thought he was. He is a little raw offensively, but he is ideally suited to recieving dishes from Kyle, Scheyer, et al. Oh what could've been. That is the Sad.

The Happy is that Patterson may (should, and probably is) realize the same thing. KY is riddled by injuries, and they don't have enough talent to overcome said injuries. He must realize that as a Devil, Duke might be ranked in the top 2 or 3 with him on the squad. By March, Duke might've been a national favorite. His production would be a little lower, but he would be doing more with less. His overall numbers would've been down, but he might've had the chance to average nearly 10 rpg, and near that on scoring (while taking very few shots. Mostly Dunks and point blank hooks.) His NBA stock would be sky high, because he would've been all potential. He could've jumped, or returned to a team still needing size (I have to wonder if his decision was swayed by the widely held belief that Duke was a/the favorite for Monroe). He could've returned for his soph year, after spending a summer toiling for USA basketball somewhere, to the preseason No 1 team. Oh well.

Next Play. But, I really hope we get a hold of them somewhere. But, since they may be holed up in Lexington come March, I really doubt it. I also have questions about Billy G's tenure. That Garner Webb loss will stick in Lexinton's Craw, FOREVER. And BG STILL hasn't signed a contract. I hear there are major issues with the AD. Yippee.

Patrick Yates

trinity92
12-02-2007, 01:15 PM
Davidson is very good, but one real power forward away from greatness.

Unfortunately, I'd have to say exactly the same thing about this year's devils. The last 3 minutes or so of this game were very reminiscent of last year. Without a true post, we're reduced to either hoisting up outside shots in the half-court, or sending a 6-4/6-5 guy (Gerald, Demarcus or Scheyer) slashing into the lane. That leads to either a) kicking outside for an open outside shot (subject to the vagaries of the outside shot again) or b) a 6-4/6-5 guy going into the trees and basically hoping to get fouled.

Those shots Paulus hit to seal the game were very tough, and might not fall next time. I suspect an opposing coach would be happy to risk losing on those two shots if given the opportunity again.

Davidson had the same kind of guards that VCU had last year, and the game was similar. Given our strength on the perimeter, does anyone else find it surprising that we get more bothered by this kind of team than a big team like wisconsin?

I'm happy with our team and the sky isn't falling, but my best bet at this point is that Singler and Henderson stay one more year and then are gone. We need that true big to win it all next year.

Karl Beem
12-02-2007, 03:10 PM
"BG STILL hasn't signed a contract. I hear there are major issues with the AD."

I sense a DUI coming on.

whereinthehellami
12-03-2007, 11:03 AM
This is off topic. But I sort of wish Patrick Patterson had come to Duke. Our team looks great as it is, but he could've added/helped that down low presence. Sigh.

Go Duke.

I'm not. I think the team chemistry would have taken a hit. Our team chemistry now is nice. Patterson was a good friend of OJ Mayo (not good) and was quoted as saying that he didn't feel "it" with Duke's current roster while visiting Duke. Thats two strikes, you're out...this isn't baseball.

DukieInBrasil
12-07-2007, 12:09 PM
The Davidson game shows us that Duke is able to win against good competition even when not playing its best. Davidson has been a good team and well coached for a long time. Still, they have not beaten a ranked opponent in something like 23 consecutive attempts. This indicates that they still have not risen to the level of being a fear-inducing team, but they can make its opponent worry. For Duke, this is a quality win against a likely NCAA tourney participant from the So.Con. We have already beaten possible dance participants NMSU (pre-season WAC champs), Illinois (longshot from Big T(elev)en), Marquette (#13 at the time), Wisconsin (#20 a.t.t.), EKU (regular dance invitee last few years) and now Davidson. That's 6 of 8 teams that we've beaten already that have a legitimate shot at being in the field of 64. This is not a cup-cake schedule.
The good:
• Once again 3pt shooting was very good and well-distributed with Paulus, Nelson, Scheyer, and Singler bagging multiple 3s while Henderson was off a little and King was off a lot from deep.
• Moxy was a big ++ in this game. This is the very type of game that we lost last year by folding down the stretch. This year's team has people that want to take that last shot; Paulus, Henderson, Scheyer and Singler have all hit late, clutch shots this year. Last year's team struggled to find somebody who wanted that shot.
• Henderson and Scheyer both made lots of plays that helped keep Duke ahead, momentum-maintainers. Paulus made a couple of big shots in the last 1:00+ that essentially provided the final margin. Singler was once again playing beyond his Fr. status, pulling in another double-double. Other than Singler, our frontcourt was very quiet (Z and LT scored 4pts and 2rebs combined). Nelson once again posted a quiet but strong game with + contributions in several areas.
• The ballhandling was just a shade better than mediocre, finishing the game with a +1 Ast/TO ratio (17/16) against a team with a good backcourt.

The mediocre:
• FT shooting was pretty good except King (0-3) and Nelson (3-6); if 3-9 becomes 7-10 (King missed front end of 1n1) then Duke wins by 10. As the Sr. captain, Nelson really needs to make (at least one of) those FTs late in the game, if he's gonna be effective on O at the end of tough games (when we he NEED his D) then he's got to be better than a 50% FT shooter.
• The D was not terrible nor was it very good. It was just good enough to win against a disciplined and good, but not great, team. I've been surprised that Hendo hasn't shown much of a propensity for blocking shots, until recently, b/c he has such great hops. He has really started collecting blocked shots along with his highlight reel dunks. Our frontcourt got burned for a lot of layups due to our backcourt not shutting Davidson's down. Props to Davidson.

The bad:
• We didn't come out with as much fire as them, especially the beginning of the 2nd half. K has long said that a big part of Duke's success over the years has been the ability to finish the 1st half and/or start the 2nd half with a big run. The opposite happened against Davidson, allowing them to shave 5 pts off the lead going into half time and then Duke didn't score for 4 minutes to start the 2nd half. I credit this to Davidson, rather than Duke playing poorly, Davidson wanted it more and made it happen. However, Duke was able to play well enough most of the 1st half and essentially maintain a lead the rest of the 2nd half to win the game.

DukieInBrasil
12-07-2007, 01:15 PM
The Davidson game showed us that Duke is able to win against good competition even when not playing its best. Davidson has been a good team and well coached for a long time. Still, they have not beaten a ranked opponent in something like 23 consecutive attempts. This indicates that they still have not risen to the level of being a fear-inducing team, but they can make its opponent worry. For Duke, this is a quality win against a likely NCAA tourney participant from the So.Con. We have already beaten possible dance participants NMSU (pre-season WAC champs), Illinois (longshot from Big T(elev)en), Marquette (#13 at the time), Wisconsin (#20 a.t.t.), EKU (regular dance invitee last few years) and now Davidson. That's 6 of 8 teams that we've beaten already that have a legitimate shot at being in the field of 64. This is not a cup-cake schedule. Once upon a time, Michigan would have been at least a decent game, but not this year, still, it´ll be nice to say that Duke is 3-0 against Big T(elev)en teams this year!!!