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View Full Version : Duke MBB vs. Michigan Post Game Thread



Bob Green
12-08-2007, 04:07 PM
Post your game thoughts here.

BlueDevilBaby
12-08-2007, 04:09 PM
I love the balance. :D

Saratoga2
12-08-2007, 04:15 PM
Post your game thoughts here.

We got to see more of what Nolan can do. Duke has been lacking the superquick penetrating guard in the recent past. This kid can do it all and should become a major force as he develops. I love his defense to go along with the terrific range of his offensive skills, outside shot, penetration, elevation and a great finish.

The rest of the team was balanced today with just about everyone contributing. There should be no comments about bench play, since the whole team got to play. I liked the way the team fed Zoubek later in the game, and he came through, showing good finishing skills.

slower
12-08-2007, 04:17 PM
I didn't get to watch the game (I'm at work). Didn't get to listen to it, either. I was following along on the SI.com game-tracker thingy. When I saw that Taylor King hit two late 3-pointers, my heart rate increased and I punched the air with both fists. I LOVE that guy! By the time he leaves Duke, I won't be surprised if he's one of THE all-time fan favorites.

NYDukie
12-08-2007, 04:19 PM
Long time Duke fan growing up in NYC back from the Ferry and Laettner days posting here for the first time. Enjoy all the posts, even the idiotic ones. Watched the entire game and feel this year an excitement about this team that wasn't there last year. Great scoring balance (though I wish we had a player with post presence), depth with an attack mode I haven't seen since the Battier/Jwill teams. Even though early in the season, I now watch the games waiting for that big run that was a signature of the past Duke teams over the past 10 years that wasn't there last year. Team reminds me a lot of the 98 team (if Thomas can become McCloed they can definately win the NC).

Now that I'm registered I will chime in time to time to bring a NYC opinion. Keep up the good posts.

Oh, and here is a good T. King comparison from NYC. CHRIS MULLIN reborn!!!! Well almost!!!

ArkieDukie
12-08-2007, 04:20 PM
I really liked the fact that, at one point in the first half, our bench had outscored the entire Michigan team. :D

jipops
12-08-2007, 04:21 PM
We scored 95 points, won by 28, and K sounds generally dissatisfied in the post game interview (and he explains his disappointment). I love it.

DukeBlood
12-08-2007, 04:24 PM
We scored 95 points, won by 28, and K sounds generally dissatisfied in the post game interview (and he explains his disappointment). I love it.

Didnt see the post game interview, What was Coach K disappointed with? There were a couple things i was.. But mainly missing easy shots(in the beginning)

Ben63
12-08-2007, 04:27 PM
Sharing the basketball is wonderful in the game of basketball and Duke proved it today. Multiple players scoring in double figures is always a good sign. We got a good look at what Nolan Smith will be. IMO this was Zoubeks best game to date. Taylor King is pouring in 3's very easily but also getting some inside points. Good to see the verstility.

The only negative has got to be the dependence on the 3ball. If there is a night where the shots just are not dropping, are we going to be able to get points inside? I think we can with D Nelson and Henderson driving to the basket even though they were quiet today.

Final Grade- B+ Slow start but got up and stayed up on the team that was not up to their level. It is good to see they are winning the games they are supposed to win.

phaedrus
12-08-2007, 04:28 PM
I really liked the fact that, at one point in the first half, our bench had outscored the entire Michigan team. :D

not only that, but it was probably our two lesser-rated freshmen who were outscoring michigan by themselves.

NYDukie
12-08-2007, 04:28 PM
My guess would be that they did allow Michigan a decent amount of good looks during the game. A better team would have taken advantage! That's some K would be upset with! They did look rusty because of the time lag between games due to exams but then again, many teams are dealing with the same issue.

Bob Green
12-08-2007, 04:36 PM
Our bench outscored our starters 54 - 41. We are deep.

Patrick Yates
12-08-2007, 04:38 PM
or rather, the complete lack thereof. Thank God. I like that K kept it going tonight. It seemed like he tried to slow the game down by making more substitutions, and tinkering with lineups. This seemed to slow us down, but in a good way that was organic, rather than forced, like the weave.

I loved the scoring spread, which has to scare the bejeezus out of the ACC. Recently, Duke has been somewhat easy to guard. Assign your best perimeter player to Duke Player A, and your best interior player to Duke player B. Then have the other players slouch off their guy onto A or B, cause they guy they are assigned to is NOT going to beat you.

No more. We have 6-7 guys who can go off on you, and 2 more who will snake bite you when you ignore them. I love it. And best of all, none of them are real Defensive liabilities. Paulus and King are the closest, but both are smart, heady defenders, who are at least capable. UNC now has to take us seriously, and the rest of the ACC must be wetting themselves at the thought of this team, full of pi$$ed off kids eager to mete out revenge for recent dissappointing years. VT and UMD, I am looking in your direction.

As for today, Smith looked great. Zoubs and Thomas played better, and I loved the bench use. Great accross the board.

Patrick Yates

Sir Stealth
12-08-2007, 04:38 PM
Taylor King has got to be one of the all time most pleasant surprises. I thought he'd be one of those good down the road guys and that his contribution this year would be somewhat closer to Maui levels. Instead he's just exploded immediately and that's great to see. He's a deadly, key player.

Another exciting thing about this team is that it still seems like it could potentially really improve. Does anyone think that Henderson or Scheyer couldn't be more consistent fitting their talents into the offense? Nolan Smith appears to be improving rapidly now, and you've gotta hope that Lance and Zoub have a good deal of improvement ahead of them. Singler is still just beginning his college career. McClure will also be there to slowly work himself back in as a contributor. So the team has a ton of upside.

Michigan looked terrible in the first half and we pretty much could beat them comfortably in our sleep (and a lot of the team did seem to be asleep in the first half). Both teams looked better in the second half. It's great to see Duke rolling along right now - though I'm also glad to hear K be critical in an easy victory; I think he has high expectations for this group.

chi
12-08-2007, 04:47 PM
Dang it, I have to remember that I am no longer live in East Coast ...

SMO
12-08-2007, 04:52 PM
or rather, the complete lack thereof. Thank God. I like that K kept it going tonight. It seemed like he tried to slow the game down by making more substitutions, and tinkering with lineups. This seemed to slow us down, but in a good way that was organic, rather than forced, like the weave.

I loved the scoring spread, which has to scare the bejeezus out of the ACC. Recently, Duke has been somewhat easy to guard. Assign your best perimeter player to Duke Player A, and your best interior player to Duke player B. Then have the other players slouch off their guy onto A or B, cause they guy they are assigned to is NOT going to beat you.

No more. We have 6-7 guys who can go off on you, and 2 more who will snake bite you when you ignore them. I love it. And best of all, none of them are real Defensive liabilities. Paulus and King are the closest, but both are smart, heady defenders, who are at least capable. UNC now has to take us seriously, and the rest of the ACC must be wetting themselves at the thought of this team, full of pi$$ed off kids eager to mete out revenge for recent dissappointing years. VT and UMD, I am looking in your direction.

As for today, Smith looked great. Zoubs and Thomas played better, and I loved the bench use. Great accross the board.

Patrick Yates

Along with VT and UMD, don't forget FSU dancing around Cameron last year. Can't wait to see the looks on their faces this year.

Patrick Yates
12-08-2007, 05:10 PM
Along with VT and UMD, don't forget FSU dancing around Cameron last year. Can't wait to see the looks on their faces this year.

I agree, but I do not think FSU is as down as VT and UMD. We should beat all three, but I am really looking forward to sweeping UMD, and obliterating VT.

Patrick Yates

jimsumner
12-08-2007, 05:29 PM
The only thing K expressed any dissatisfaction with in the post-game was the transition defense at several points during the game. Thay's what promoted the time out. K did not think Duke was communicating as well as it could in those situations. That was pretty much it. If you know K, you know that communication is a biggie.

He was very complimentary of Nolan. Said both Nolan and Taylor had their best week of practice this week. Said that Nolan is so conscientious, he was trying to do too much and was overthinking the game. This week they tried to simplify it to one word "attack." He attacked.

K noted the missed shots early and said that it probably should have been 60-40 at the half.

He also noted that it was a "grueling" week academically. Lots of papers due. He was glad Duke didn't have a midweek game.

Ben63
12-08-2007, 05:29 PM
I think Duke looked a little sluggish today especially early on, presumably because of the layoff from the last game. We don't play a game until next Monday (12/17) vs Albany and then a quick turnaround vs Pitt that Thursday (12/20). After that the next game is Jan 6 vs Cornell.

That is 9 days from today until Albany
3 days later vs Pitt
Then 17 days off until the game vs Cornell
Thats 3 games in 31 days folks

I know Albany and Cornell are not even up to par with Michigan, but does anyone else see this as a potential problem after not looking good early on after a 7 day layoff from Davidson to Michigan??

jimsumner
12-08-2007, 05:31 PM
No. Duke has scheduled gimmes after every down period. They know what they are doing.

mgtr
12-08-2007, 05:39 PM
I cannot add a whole lot to the prior posts, but I was happy to see McClure getting up to speed and contributing, both rebounds and points. I thought Zoubek showed some improvement, which is good, but still has a way to go. I will not be surprised if by midseason he starts instead of Thomas.
I was disappointed with our slow start (again) which is reminiscent of last year. Other teams also seem to be keying on Singler (I think), which may account for his lack of production (plus fouls). We are lucky to have Taylor King to go in there and push and shove.

Saratoga2
12-08-2007, 05:42 PM
I think Duke looked a little sluggish today especially early on, presumably because of the layoff from the last game. We don't play a game until next Monday (12/17) vs Albany and then a quick turnaround vs Pitt that Thursday (12/20). After that the next game is Jan 6 vs Cornell.

That is 9 days from today until Albany
3 days later vs Pitt
Then 17 days off until the game vs Cornell
Thats 3 games in 31 days folks

I know Albany and Cornell are not even up to par with Michigan, but does anyone else see this as a potential problem after not looking good early on after a 7 day layoff from Davidson to Michigan??

I live a few miles from where Albany plays their home games. They are a scrappy team and will give you 40 minutes of effort. They recently were beaten by Siena and are not on a par with Duke, but they will give a good effort. I will report more before the game.

RelativeWays
12-08-2007, 06:00 PM
Unfortunately I had all kinds of errands to run today so I was only able to listen to and watch most of the second half. Offensively, we seemed to be on target, firing on all cylinders, which honestly was to be expected. We seemed to lapse some defensively and just traded baskets for the first portion of the second half. I can't imagine Coach K was too happy about that. All in all, a good performance considering the week layoff.

mehmattski
12-08-2007, 06:31 PM
or rather, the complete lack thereof. Thank God. I like that K kept it going tonight. It seemed like he tried to slow the game down by making more substitutions, and tinkering with lineups. This seemed to slow us down, but in a good way that was organic, rather than forced, like the weave.

Watching the game, I got the sense that K didn't go to the slow down despite being up 30 points because of the opponent, and being a bit miffed that they had fired Tommy. But, your explanation makes a bit more sense... going to different looks and using it is a tryout is a good way to go.

Still, later in the season there's going to be a situation, probably in a road game, when Duke is going to be up by 15 with 5 to go or 10 with 2 to go and absolutely need to go to a slow-down offense. This team has so far shown a number of different ways to execute the end-game, so there shouldn't be as much problem executing as last year's team did. There are no points for style in basketball, only for victories.

Kilby
12-08-2007, 07:23 PM
1. Transition D may not have been what K wanted but overall Duke is playing great rotating D.
2. Duke wasn't running as much as I hoped and I was wondering if outlet passes were the problem. However, as soon as Nolan was in the game we were down the floor quicker attacking the basket. Even Demarcus and Henderson pushed the ball more than Paulus.
3. Zoubeck did make some quick outlet passes.
4. Paulus hit a floater down the lane. If he gets comfortable doing that he becomes even more dangerous.
5.Please let Lance grow his dreads back. I thought that he would excel once Duke was running more but it seems like he is still has not found his comfort zone.
6. King is comfortable and can play a strong 4.
7. Nolan Smith is my hero.

CatfiveCane
12-08-2007, 07:57 PM
1. Transition D may not have been what K wanted but overall Duke is playing great rotating D.
2. Duke wasn't running as much as I hoped and I was wondering if outlet passes were the problem. However, as soon as Nolan was in the game we were down the floor quicker attacking the basket. Even Demarcus and Henderson pushed the ball more than Paulus.
3. Zoubeck did make some quick outlet passes.
4. Paulus hit a floater down the lane. If he gets comfortable doing that he becomes even more dangerous.
5.Please let Lance grow his dreads back. I thought that he would excel once Duke was running more but it seems like he is still has not found his comfort zone.
6. King is comfortable and can play a strong 4.
7. Nolan Smith is my hero.


This isn't scientific or anything and the season is still early, however:

Last year Duke averaged 53 shot attempts per game (33 games)
This year Duke is averaging just less than 61 shots per game (9 games)

Thus so far we are taking 8 extra shots per game this season compared to last season. And it's not just that we're missing more shots and getting rebounds: our FG % is higher this year than last (49% vs 46%). So I think Duke really is pushing the ball more this year. Of course it is early and we will have to see how things work out during the grinding ACC schedule.

cbfx3
12-08-2007, 08:04 PM
I loved the tempo.. Nothing worse than watching a big lead evaporate while running stall ball

Troublemaker
12-08-2007, 08:36 PM
Duke's 3-pt shooting percentage in our 9 games so far:

[57.1, 34.6, 26.3, 46.2, 40.0, 42.3, 45.8, 44.0, 40.7]

This is something I'm going to pay attention to during the season due to the notion that "one bad game from three" can be this team's downfall in the postseason (a theory that I both agree and disagree with), so it'll be good to know how often such a bad game from three will occur for Duke. So far, through nine games, we've only had one bad game. Now this game WAS against Princeton in our first game in Hawaii against a then unfamiliar shooting background, so maybe it carries significance. Also, 5 of the 9 games we've played were in the cozy confines of Cameron, and we've played some typical early-season creampuffs so far, so I think the better set of data will be to eventually look back upon all the non-home games this season to see how often a "bad game from three" occurs. I expect that later in the season, bad games will occur more often because the grind of the season will begin to wear down our shooters and because we'll be playing more road games at that point. It's something to track.

That said, one of the keys to the season and one of the ways we can improve, is to find ways to compensate for not having a consistent low-post option on offense. What are we missing by not having a Kevin Love or a Tyler Hansbrough? Those guys provide offensive consistency on a game-to-basis by taking and making close-in shots. That's the advantage of a good big man and why we desire one. They also tend to draw fouls and make their teammates better by drawing double-teams. Well, the dribble-drive can accomplish the same things. So far, Duke has used penetration well to draw defenders to kick for open threes and to draw fouls. What I would like to see is more attacking of the basket for close-in finishes or for mid-range shots and runners. That's why it was really nice to see Nolan have a big game today to help his confidence. He's someone on the team that can drive to score and as he becomes comfortable, Duke will become a better team and more consistent.

That's what I'm looking for in terms of improvement. If Duke can drive to finish and drive to make midrange shots, we don't really need a good offensive big man because we'll be accomplishing what they can accomplish, just through different means.

Devil in the Blue Dress
12-08-2007, 08:51 PM
When I saw that Taylor King hit two late 3-pointers, my heart rate increased and I punched the air with both fists. I LOVE that guy! By the time he leaves Duke, I won't be surprised if he's one of THE all-time fan favorites.

Watching Taylor King from my vantage point in Cameron tonight, I was again reminded of Bob Verga and Jack Marin. On defense he plays like a linebacker.

We all know Singler is likely to be one of the greats during his career at Duke; he's already showing us how he's going to accomplish it. Smith's game is getting better and better. The balance this team has with all sorts of combinations on the floor is fantastic! The two to watch? King and Henderson. Greatness in the making!

OZZIE4DUKE
12-08-2007, 09:30 PM
No. Duke has scheduled gimmes after every down period. They know what they are doing.

Coach K did this intentionally (the long layoffs). It was something he wanted to try in the scheduling. We'll all see soon enough how it works out.

Sixthman
12-08-2007, 09:31 PM
The next time someone tells you that Paulus lacks the athletic skills to play the point show them the tape of this game. The competition was inexperienced, but very fast and skilled. Paulus owned them on both ends of the court. He likely does lack the skills to finish the kind of plays we saw from Nolan Smith today, but he had 6 assists and no turnovers and all the speed he needed on defense. He seems to be getting better as the season progresses.

Grey Devil
12-08-2007, 09:36 PM
Coach K did this intentionally (the long layoffs). It was something he wanted to try in the scheduling. We'll all see soon enough how it works out.

Oh, I don't think it will be soon enough. I don't know how the team's going to handle it but I know I'm going to have trouble with only 3 games in 31 days! Talk about withdrawal....:eek:

Grey Devil

astoria26
12-08-2007, 09:42 PM
How solid was Paulus tonight? He had some great dishes, cutting into the lane and getting the defenders to bite, then sending great passes out to Nelson or King on the 3 point line for a trey. 6 assists, no turnovers!!

And this was definitely Nolan's breakout night! I love how each of the freshmen now have their signature game - Singler with his do-it-all toughness, King with his quick-release three's from all over the court, plus his bloodthirsty defending - and now Nolan, blowing people by with his quickness, and his HOPS!!!! Many times when he rose up for the shot I thought - is that Henderson?? And then I do a double-take - it's Nolan Smith! What a time to break out - when no one else really seemed to step up in the first 10 minutes of the ballgame. My hat's off to Nolan. And how deep is our bench?
<---------------------- this deep! ------------------------>

Also, I just posted my game blog - check it out! Thanks!

http://www.fannation.com/blogs/post/87099

Cali-Duke
12-08-2007, 09:51 PM
Nolan had a great game as everyone said. But, is it just me or is anyone else a little worried that he had 0 assists. This isn't the only game where he has had few assists. I guess he might be involved in the touches that lead to the shot, but from watching the game, it seemed like he is more of a slasher than a point guard. It bothers me a little when Coach K's stance on position is that the only defined position is point guard. Thoughts?

dukestheheat
12-08-2007, 09:55 PM
time off is necessary; our guys are college guys and they need time home or to study for exams; certainly, time off from playing does bring in the rust and we all very clearly saw that today early on but this is expected of all teams.

look at all the upsets that come down early on in each college basketball season (presumably due to teams just not coming together just yet)!

so no big deal with the rust and all that in terms of the final outcome of the game, but Nolan Smith was Duke's team defibrillator today and I just loved his play. I've been waiting for him to do what he did today: take it up a notch and motivate his team with his speed, defense and overall ability.

So yeah, any extended layoff presents a problem for ALL teams out there.

dth.

dukestheheat
12-08-2007, 10:02 PM
cali-duke,

good pick up on his zero assists and i hadn't seen that, but, I thought that his passes were excellent and that he distributed well overall. his moves to the hoop were one-on-one and he just stunned the Cameron crowd and the TV audience with his athleticism to work those moves.

if he can score and spark the team the way he did today, i don't care if he ends up with zero assists just so we can get one more point on the scoreboard versus our opponent, especially the hated holes.

dth.

dukelifer
12-08-2007, 10:05 PM
Nolan has been pressing a bit- perhaps looking for his own offense first. Today that offense came. It was a huge confidence boost. In early games and the BW game- he showed he could pass the ball. I think he has good instincts but he is not a classic point guard. The assists will come as he gets more comfortable out there. A few more games like today and we will be seeing a whole new Nolan. But most Freshman are up and down.

jipops
12-08-2007, 10:15 PM
The only thing K expressed any dissatisfaction with in the post-game was the transition defense at several points during the game. Thay's what promoted the time out. K did not think Duke was communicating as well as it could in those situations. That was pretty much it. If you know K, you know that communication is a biggie.

He was very complimentary of Nolan. Said both Nolan and Taylor had their best week of practice this week. Said that Nolan is so conscientious, he was trying to do too much and was overthinking the game. This week they tried to simplify it to one word "attack." He attacked.

K noted the missed shots early and said that it probably should have been 60-40 at the half.

He also noted that it was a "grueling" week academically. Lots of papers due. He was glad Duke didn't have a midweek game.

He did sum up the game as a good but not great effort. I think he was a little perturbed about Mich shooting somewhere around 60% deep into the 2nd half. Transition D in the 2nd was his main gripe.

Devilsfan
12-08-2007, 10:38 PM
Nolan is a big time basketball player, its beautiful to watch Gerald's fluidity and gracefulness, Jon does so many things right, DeMarcus is strong as hell, Kyle is always in the right spot, TK has a lightning quick release, Dave can contribute a lot this year, Paulus' best attribute is his competitivness, and we're all waiting and pulling for Lance to show up for 15- 20 minutes.

Ben63
12-08-2007, 11:40 PM
The next time someone tells you that Paulus lacks the athletic skills to play the point show them the tape of this game. The competition was inexperienced, but very fast and skilled. Paulus owned them on both ends of the court. He likely does lack the skills to finish the kind of plays we saw from Nolan Smith today, but he had 6 assists and no turnovers and all the speed he needed on defense. He seems to be getting better as the season progresses.

This season has the potential to be Greg's best as a Devil. Freshman year he led the ACC in assists but it wasn't terribly difficult to feed the ball to JJ or Shelden Williams. Last year he was forced into more of a scoring role w/o JJ or SW. Nelson and McRoberts scored but towards the end of the season Greg had to score alot. This year Duke has more scorers (see much improved Henderson, Singler, King, and also Lance Thomas) and this will allow Greg to do what he does best, see the whole court and distribute the basketball to the scorers. He will still have his 3ball to keep defenses honest, but he won't have to use it as much this year. Expect to see his PPG go down but assists and assists to turnover ratio shoot up. Expects big things from Greg Paulus this season.

Olympic Fan
12-09-2007, 12:04 AM
(1) I'm a little sorry that King Taylor hit those last two 3s ... everybody seems to focus on his 3-point shooting. I keep watching the rest of his game. I thought (even when he was 1-for-6 on 3s -- he finished 3-of-8) that he was having his best game. He played good help defense ... he rebounded fairly well and he made his 2-point shots (4 of 5).

He was also the "big man" when Duke had its first-half spurt, breaking open an 18-14 game. I loved that lineup -- K had both point guards, Scheyer, Nelson and King on the floor together. After scoring 18 points in 11 minutes, Duke scored 14 in the next 100 seconds -- nine by Nolan Smith.

(2) Yeah, it was a coming out party for Nolan. He played with the poise and confidence I saw in the exhibitions, but not lately. I know he didn't have any assists, but that was largely because no one could keep up with him in transition and when he penetrated in the halfcourt, Michigan was playing him to pass.

BTW, I know he officially had no assists. But go back and watch the tape -- he made the pass to the King in transition that led to King's 3.

(3) Another fairly tough game for Thomas -- his third in a row. I thought it was going to be another bad one for Zoubek too. He was useless in his first-half stint. But he may have played better in the second half than he's ever played at Duke (considering the competition -- Michigan's not great, but they do have some big, athletic guys up front). That was good to see.

A very sloppy first 11 minutes -- it looked like last year's team out there. I thought they were going to win 56-50 like we did last December all the time. The Nolan Smith-spurt was a thing of beauty and from that point on, there was only one slight glitch -- about a six minute stretch in the second half where the two teams were trading baskets (although the lead stayed between 18 and 22 points during that whole period).

Buckeye Devil
12-09-2007, 07:58 AM
It was a good effort against a bad team (from a medicocre conference) in the infancy stages of learning a new system from a first year head coach.

Smith and Henderson looked great and King played good defense and came up with some good rebounds on both ends of the floor. Paulus quietly did a good job running the point and playing solid defense. Singler is still picking up some silly fouls which could hurt down the road against stiffer competition.

I can't help but think that Duke will need more production from Lance Thomas as it gets to the heart of the schedule.

Saratoga2
12-09-2007, 10:05 AM
(1)
(3) Another fairly tough game for Thomas -- his third in a row. I thought it was going to be another bad one for Zoubek too. He was useless in his first-half stint. But he may have played better in the second half than he's ever played at Duke (considering the competition -- Michigan's not great, but they do have some big, athletic guys up front). That was good to see.

A very sloppy first 11 minutes -- it looked like last year's team out there. I thought they were going to win 56-50 like we did last December all the time. The Nolan Smith-spurt was a thing of beauty and from that point on, there was only one slight glitch -- about a six minute stretch in the second half where the two teams were trading baskets (although the lead stayed between 18 and 22 points during that whole period).


I think the game plan was to take the ball inside in the initial few minutes. Duke went that way several times and were coming up empty. Lance was a part of that and couldn't finish against the inside presence of Michigan. He has decent size and good athleticism and speed but has yet to show he can finish consistently. We had to get away from the inside strategy to get the offense started.

One play that wasn't mentioned that I thought was significant was when Scheyer drove the ball around the defense, drew the defender on the right side down low and hit David cutting to the basket for an easy bucket. That showed how aware Scheyer is of the floor and also showed that David is a mature player and recognized the possibility of Scheyer getting him the ball. On a night where there were many really fine plays, I liked this one the most.

Bill

DevilWolf
12-09-2007, 10:07 AM
I'm also fairly sure that Smith was robbed of a couple of assists in the second half on good passes that led to fouls but missed shots.

Slant
12-09-2007, 11:15 AM
One of the things I am taking away from this game is how active and agressive Zoubek was while he was in there. Scoring 7 points, scrapping after rebounds and loose balls, and no silly fouls in his 12 minutes played. That's what he has to do to be a stronger post presence.

If we can get Brian to do that this year for 20 minutes a game, it can be a big plus for the Devils. By seasons end, he could be a solid post presence - not great, but at least a firewall against bigger teams and of course Mr. Hansborough.

I have a good feeling that Brian may become one of the pleasant surprises this season for the team!

southgater
12-09-2007, 11:34 AM
Although there were lots of positives in the game with Michigan, I was concerned about the half court defense. I didn't go back and check, but it seemed there were numerous occasions where a dribbler out front beat their man into the lane, which forced help from someone else to stop the drive. This then lead to a kickout to a man in the corner for an open 3-pointer. Fortunately, Michigan missed the vast majority of these open looks. A better shooting team would have made us pay for this big time. Not sure if this inability to stop the dribble drive was due to our crowding these guys out front or just being beaten by them - I don't recall who the defenders were on these.

On another front, I liked the energy that Lance started with on offense. Although he missed most of these shots, I liked that he was taking it to the rim and taking good shots. They will start to fall one of these days.

jimsumner
12-09-2007, 12:28 PM
RE: Zoubek. His highlight for me occurred in the second half. Zoubs got stuffed on a shot. I mean absolutely stuffed. But he didn't pout, or whine, or look to the officials. He quickly got down on the floor-not that easy to do, I suspect, when you're 7'1"--wrestled the ball away from a Michigan player and retained possession. The definition of "next play."

Bob Green
12-09-2007, 01:36 PM
Although there were lots of positives in the game with Michigan, I was concerned about the half court defense. I didn't go back and check, but it seemed there were numerous occasions where a dribbler out front beat their man into the lane, which forced help from someone else to stop the drive. This then lead to a kickout to a man in the corner for an open 3-pointer. Fortunately, Michigan missed the vast majority of these open looks. A better shooting team would have made us pay for this big time. Not sure if this inability to stop the dribble drive was due to our crowding these guys out front or just being beaten by them - I don't recall who the defenders were on these.



Overplaying on the perimeter and relying on help defense is Duke's primary strategy. The objective is to disrupt the opponent before they can execute their half court offense, create turnovers and convert those turnovers into points. I don't recall our perimeter defenders being beaten badly during the game.

You raise a valid point about the kickout for an open three point attempt.

beltwayBD
12-09-2007, 02:52 PM
As a Wolverine alum (as well as Blue Devil), I found a few things to like in Michigan.

1) Ekpe Udoh -- almost got a double-double. And the guy can block shots like Taylor King can shoot the three.

2) DeShawn Sims and Kelvin Grady. They both performed well under pressure. Sims was 5 of 11 from the field and Grady, for a freshman playing at Cameron, was impressive from the point.

Manny Harris had an off game, but his abilities and potential are well established. Michigan will be an okay team this year, and a good team next year.

Love to see the Dukies do what they do best, and they did it yesterday. Can't wait to see them play Pitt, that will be a real contest.

kmspeaks
12-09-2007, 03:50 PM
Just one more example of why we all love David McClure for doing all the little things. At the end of the first half when Greg dished to Nelson in the corner for a 3, Dave screened off the defender who was rushing out to challenge the shot.

Good look by Greg and good job by Nelson to knock down the shot but just wanted to point out the great job by Dave to make sure the shot went unchallenged. Great to have him back on the floor! :D

beltwayBD
12-09-2007, 03:53 PM
Just one more example of why we all love David McClure for doing all the little things. At the end of the first half when Greg dished to Nelson in the corner for a 3, Dave screened off the defender who was rushing out to challenge the shot.

Good look by Greg and good job by Nelson to knock down the shot but just wanted to point out the great job by Dave to make sure the shot went unchallenged. Great to have him back on the floor! :D

Absolutely, let's hope he stays healthy and gets some more playing time. Coach K will have one hell of a rotation w/ McClure coming off the bench. Despite our difficulties last season, David was incredible coming off the bench for us last year.

mgtr
12-09-2007, 04:10 PM
The point has been made repeatedly that the bench outscored the starters, but I don't know if anybody has noted the the three Freshmen nearly outscored the rest of the team. Not bad at all!

Ben63
12-09-2007, 04:39 PM
Absolutely, let's hope he stays healthy and gets some more playing time. Coach K will have one hell of a rotation w/ McClure coming off the bench. Despite our difficulties last season, David was incredible coming off the bench for us last year.

McClure is such a valuable player for us. He does all of the little things and also does some things we don't ever see. Sure he sets those screens and rebounds, but I'm sure he is an excellent defender in practice to make the #1's better. He is more valuable than we think.