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View Full Version : A thought on our recent struggles



yancem
02-24-2008, 11:50 PM
For the last week I have been thinking about our recent poor play I have a few thoughts. It has been speculated in previous threads that the main reasons for the recent poor performances are: lack of productivity from Henderson (due to his injured wrist), lack of defensive intensity, poor shooting (3pt and free throw) and high number of turnovers. All of these reasons seem sound to me and were pretty much my thoughts as well.

But another thought occurred to me after yesterdays game. While the recent poor play started shortly after Henderson hurt his wrist, it is also about the same time that Zoubek came back and to a certain extend coincides with the recent development of Thomas on the offensive end of the floor. I know that getting production out of those two should only help this team, especially since our one true weakness lack of an inside presence but maybe in the short term there have been some negative side effects.

For the most part, Duke has camped 4 players on the perimeter with one player quasi in the post (usually 5-10 feet from the basket). With the reemergence of Zoubek into the line up and the addition of Thomas' new found offensive ability, the fifth player has been more often setting up as close to the basket as possible. This changes the offensive spacing, maybe not a whole lot but enough that opposing centers have to cover less ground for weak side help on drives. It also changes the passing spacing as well, instead of having 5 players to pass the ball around the perimeter we only have 4. This may have slightly disrupted rhythm which could explain, at least in part, our shooting problems. Also with the defensive center being closer to the basket driving lanes have been narrower making for more contested close in shots.

Another area where this could have effected the offense is in the area of turnovers. Duke, for the majority of the season, hasn't really tried to feed the ball to the post because we really haven't had a post presence. All of the sudden, we our making an effort to feed Thomas and Zoubek the ball down low and either our lack of practice or skill in doing so has lead to a large number of turnovers.

Now I'm not trying to say that this is the only reason for our lower level of play but it could certainly be a part of the issue. The good news is that its a problem that should take care of itself as all of the players become more comfortable with the addition of post play to the offensive side of the ball. I don't know if the St Johns game is very useful in measuring progress since they are not a very good team but at least we did what should be expected and that's beat them handily. GaTech may give us a better test.

Just a thought.

Uncle Drew
02-25-2008, 12:16 AM
For the last week I have been thinking about our recent poor play I have a few thoughts. It has been speculated in previous threads that the main reasons for the recent poor performances are: lack of productivity from Henderson (due to his injured wrist), lack of defensive intensity, poor shooting (3pt and free throw) and high number of turnovers. All of these reasons seem sound to me and were pretty much my thoughts as well.

But another thought occurred to me after yesterdays game. While the recent poor play started shortly after Henderson hurt his wrist, it is also about the same time that Zoubek came back and to a certain extend coincides with the recent development of Thomas on the offensive end of the floor. I know that getting production out of those two should only help this team, especially since our one true weakness lack of an inside presence but maybe in the short term there have been some negative side effects.

For the most part, Duke has camped 4 players on the perimeter with one player quasi in the post (usually 5-10 feet from the basket). With the reemergence of Zoubek into the line up and the addition of Thomas' new found offensive ability, the fifth player has been more often setting up as close to the basket as possible. This changes the offensive spacing, maybe not a whole lot but enough that opposing centers have to cover less ground for weak side help on drives. It also changes the passing spacing as well, instead of having 5 players to pass the ball around the perimeter we only have 4. This may have slightly disrupted rhythm which could explain, at least in part, our shooting problems. Also with the defensive center being closer to the basket driving lanes have been narrower making for more contested close in shots.

Another area where this could have effected the offense is in the area of turnovers. Duke, for the majority of the season, hasn't really tried to feed the ball to the post because we really haven't had a post presence. All of the sudden, we our making an effort to feed Thomas and Zoubek the ball down low and either our lack of practice or skill in doing so has lead to a large number of turnovers.

Now I'm not trying to say that this is the only reason for our lower level of play but it could certainly be a part of the issue. The good news is that its a problem that should take care of itself as all of the players become more comfortable with the addition of post play to the offensive side of the ball. I don't know if the St Johns game is very useful in measuring progress since they are not a very good team but at least we did what should be expected and that's beat them handily. GaTech may give us a better test.

Just a thought.


Fair accessment and well written post Y. IMO against Wake and Miami Duke just didn't bring it as a team. The intensity wasn't there, the passing was sloppy.....REALLY sloppy and Duke played their type of ball as opposed to playing their own. Getting Z reoriented back into the mix may have played some factor in the losses. But if it means he plays even close to how he did against St. Johns the rest of the season I can live with those two losses.

St Johns is a really bad measuring stick to truly see if Duke is out of the funk. Even in that game the Red Storm jumped out to a quick early lead. GT isn't Tenn, or Memphis but it will give us a little better indicator. I think the line up changes and switching starters out each game is a good idea. And as DBR said in it's recap of the game, the fact that King played over ten minutes without scorring means he is out there playing D, rebounding and passing the ball. Every player fills a role every game, and those roles can change from one game to the next.

Faison1
02-25-2008, 11:17 AM
I've been giving our mini-slump some thought as well, and my guess is it may have to do with hangover after achieving a major goal.

I'm sure everyone out there has experinced this....you work REALLY, REALLY hard to achieve something....after you've been successful attaining it, it's REALLY, REALLY tough to maintain that momentum shortly thereafter.

These guys are young, and to think where they've come from. Very tough season last year. Then come into this season, win the Maui Tourney, go undefeated first half in ACC play, including winning at Chapel Hill, and sweeping Maryland....THAT'S HUGE!!!!!

So, my guess is they were just a little off.....maybe feeling satisfied deep down inside...then let their focus come off ever so slightly. And that's all it takes.

Just a guess.

Clipsfan
02-25-2008, 12:49 PM
I've been giving our mini-slump some thought as well, and my guess is it may have to do with hangover after achieving a major goal.

I'm sure everyone out there has experinced this....you work REALLY, REALLY hard to achieve something....after you've been successful attaining it, it's REALLY, REALLY tough to maintain that momentum shortly thereafter.

These guys are young, and to think where they've come from. Very tough season last year. Then come into this season, win the Maui Tourney, go undefeated first half in ACC play, including winning at Chapel Hill, and sweeping Maryland....THAT'S HUGE!!!!!

So, my guess is they were just a little off.....maybe feeling satisfied deep down inside...then let their focus come off ever so slightly. And that's all it takes.

Just a guess.

That seems very reasonable to me, and it is probably at least a part of their decline. As has been mentioned, a lot of the trouble appeared to be due to lack of desire.

Saratoga2
02-25-2008, 12:55 PM
I've been giving our mini-slump some thought as well, and my guess is it may have to do with hangover after achieving a major goal.

I'm sure everyone out there has experinced this....you work REALLY, REALLY hard to achieve something....after you've been successful attaining it, it's REALLY, REALLY tough to maintain that momentum shortly thereafter.

These guys are young, and to think where they've come from. Very tough season last year. Then come into this season, win the Maui Tourney, go undefeated first half in ACC play, including winning at Chapel Hill, and sweeping Maryland....THAT'S HUGE!!!!!

So, my guess is they were just a little off.....maybe feeling satisfied deep down inside...then let their focus come off ever so slightly. And that's all it takes.

Just a guess.

Maybe we just hit two teams that had good backcourt play a decent inside presence and who played with high intensity throughout the game. These were both away games with hostile crowds. Couple that with Henderson's injury and we have a large part of the reason for the losses.

I also believe that the other stated reasons of the initiator of this string had a lot to do with it. They were poor foul shooting, poor guard play both on the defensive end and handling the ball and foul trouble also contributed to the losses. The guard play at Wake was very shaky perhaps based on matchups while the guard play at Miami seemed to be the result of going against the zone.

Coach K seems to be aware of the issues and is no doubt thinking of lineup adjustments that will make up better against GT. I don't believe the good play of Zoubek and Thomas can be looked at as negatives.

yancem
02-25-2008, 11:23 PM
I've been giving our mini-slump some thought as well, and my guess is it may have to do with hangover after achieving a major goal.

I'm sure everyone out there has experinced this....you work REALLY, REALLY hard to achieve something....after you've been successful attaining it, it's REALLY, REALLY tough to maintain that momentum shortly thereafter.

These guys are young, and to think where they've come from. Very tough season last year. Then come into this season, win the Maui Tourney, go undefeated first half in ACC play, including winning at Chapel Hill, and sweeping Maryland....THAT'S HUGE!!!!!

So, my guess is they were just a little off.....maybe feeling satisfied deep down inside...then let their focus come off ever so slightly. And that's all it takes.

Just a guess.

That's a good point too. I'm sure that it is difficult to buy into K's warnings for some of the younger guys. Hopefully everyone has a better perspective going forward.

chrisheery
02-25-2008, 11:37 PM
but it is much more appropriate here:

duke started this season with the commitment to pushing the ball up the court, pressing when the other team had a size advantage and using our depth, especially with ball-handlers and athleticism to exploit the other teams' lack thereof. it seems to me we have gotten away from that a bit. it had not hurt us, because we were scoring so well, until miami and wake. in those games, though, it seems like it might have been a good alternative. in the miami game, we really played our best when we were pressing and pushing the tempo. we scored about 40 points in 13 minutes at the end of the game. i realize you can't have a team play like this all the time because they will wear down no matter how deep they are, but do you think we will save this for the tournament and unveil it again when it is most advantageous? or are we the going to continue with the style we have gotten comfortable with over the last 15 games or so?

want to point out, i am not trying to criticize the team, coaches or anything, just wondering if anyone thinks this team still has another gear we could use in the tourney that would propel us to the final four. (i do) thanks for your thoughts.

Devil in the Blue Dress
02-26-2008, 11:28 AM
I don't disagree with various ways of looking for explanations of the way the team played against Wake and Miami, but I do continue to wonder whether our team has battled some of the bugs being passed around. Are our guys immune to the flu and other upper respiratory maladies going around these days or have they been sick like so many others?

yancem
02-26-2008, 02:16 PM
I don't disagree with various ways of looking for explanations of the way the team played against Wake and Miami, but I do continue to wonder whether our team has battled some of the bugs being passed around. Are our guys immune to the flu and other upper respiratory maladies going around these days or have they been sick like so many others?

If they've caught the bugs that I have this year then it is amazing they were even able to suit up. Of course, I am no longer 19-22 years old, so that might have something to do with my feebleness.