a lousy ending

[devildownunder]

Well, we saw it all in this one, didn't we? Everything that was good and bad about this team came to light, as is usually the case when the games become really important.

We'll break down what went wrong here on the board ad nauseum but for now:

Congratulations, guys on working hard and growing this year. Thank you for all of your efforts and thanks especially to Greg Paulus, who has had the longest and most difficult ride of all and has improved a great deal along the way.

Looking forward to 2007-08 and, once again, Let's go Duke!

[escobar]

I agree, bring on 2007/08. Team chemistry will improve during the summer, this team was very young. A full summer of pickup will hopefully improve that, and the coaching staff I am sure will be working hard.

The guys played their best, especially Greg. Very gutsy and tough...

[SMO]

Build a double-digit lead, go on a drought, turn the ball over, miss some free throws, lose by 1-2. I'm not sure what will change that from this year to next, but hopefully maturity and experience will do it. We had plenty of opportunities to win this one and just didn't capitalize. I hope these guys come back next year ready to play mistake-free.

[Methodistman]

I guess the good thing is now for the next few weeks I'll be able to get caught up on everything I've got save on DVR . . .
:(

[smittendevil]

Ugh - another gut-wrencher.

The season is finally over. Too many highs and lows for me and seeing us lose like this again was just too much.

Excellent performance from Josh and Greg, but just not enough then, huh? Sigh. Same ol' story, I guess.

Bring on 07-08!

[jjasper0729]

maybe over the summer they'll practice free throws and get the muscle memory in place.

[mapei]

Can they also get quicker, please?

[arnie]

I don't see how next year can be dramatically better - no quickness at guard will be a killer until we start recruiting better players at that position. We should improve, but likely with baby steps until we bring in a true point guard that can penetrate and punish teams that try to press. Guard defense must improve!!

[efudd]

Women play on Sunday .... next play!

[jjasper0729]

assuming the freshman can pick up the defense fast enough, Nolan Smith should be pretty good (a-la G)

[dukeisawesome]

We're not gonna get quicker obviously, but the weight room could help a lot of the guys.

[dukeENG2003]

I don't see how next year can be dramatically better - no quickness at guard will be a killer until we start recruiting better players at that position. We should improve, but likely with baby steps until we bring in a true point guard that can penetrate and punish teams that try to press. Guard defense must improve!!

STOP it, Greg Paulus gave one of the guttiest performances from a Duke PG since J-Wil against Indiana. STOP it, hell of a game from Paulus, if you want to criticize someone, criticize our most senior player, Markie, for disappearing and missing clutch shots, but you CANNOT criticize Greg Paulus's performance, he played like an absolute warrior

[KandG]

I actually enjoyed the fight the team put up in this game and the State game, even though all the flaws of the later part of the season reared their head...the turnovers, the mental lapses, inability to get stops late in close games. I'm proud of the team, even though I wasn't surprised at how it all played out.

Sadly, this season feels like the way 1995 would have played out if K had been coaching...better results, but still something missing in the chemistry of the team despite a fair amount of talent. I wasn't disappointed with our last first round exit (in 1996) because that group wasn't as talented as this group. But this loss (and this season) hurts.

Sad, but hoping for much better next year.

[duke24/7]

it seemed like paulus in the final minutes was the only one who really WANTED IT, no way should he be given a rough time, i'll take him over lawson any day because of his guts and desire

[arnie]

You are entitled to your opinions regarding Paulus versus the point guard at UNC - but so am I. As a defender and penetrator, Carolina's point guard is far superior to Paulus. Sure Paulus tries hard, but he should be playing spot duty at both guard positions, not our primary scoring option. Also, his defense against quick guards is dismal. That will not likely improve.

[barjwr]

whatever happened to the josh mcroberts that was making all the amazing assists during the nonconference season and early in the acc slate? worse overall team movement/standing and watching, waiting for him to make a play?

[tux]

Not a direct response to you, but my thoughts:

I think Paulus will be fine. He improved the most from the beginning of the year until tonight. Duke asked a lot of him this year, and I think he did a good job.

In my opinion, our freshmen just faded a bit; it was a very tough year, and most freshmen lose their legs at some point --- more games, more pressure, etc. Duke just wore down. I think this was most true of Jon, who really struggled the last half of the year. As Paulus picked up his offense, Jon faded. For Greg to be effective, Duke needs a shooter on the wing. Nelson had his strengths (and he'll get hot from outside occasionally) but we can't count on him to be a consistent outside threat.

McRoberts showed his versatility, but needs to get stronger to take advantage of his athleticism inside. He was weak with the ball several times tonight late in the game.

A tough season for Duke, no doubt.

[YmoBeThere]

STOP it, Greg Paulus gave one of the guttiest performances from a Duke PG since J-Wil against Indiana. STOP it, hell fo a game from Paulus, if you want to criticize someone, criticize our most senior player, Markie, for disappearing and missing clutch shots, but you CANNOT criticize Greg Paulus's performance, he plakyed like an absolute warrior


Free throw shooting did us in and Greg didn't do well on that count. Just a couple would have been the difference. Greg has shown great improvement over the course of the season. It would be great if he were a better athlete, but that can't really be changed. I think his effort in this game is without question.

[YmoBeThere]

whatever happened to the josh mcroberts that was making all the amazing assists during the nonconference season and early in the acc slate? worse overall team movement/standing and watching, waiting for him to make a play?

When the only option at the end of games was JJ?

[cbarry]

I sure hope these guys do NOTHING EXCEPT SHOOT FREE THROWS all summer! This is so fundamental, there is no reason we should miss 12 free throws in 1 game. Same with turnovers. You would have thought we never faced the press before. Geez.

[tbyers11]

You are entitled to your opinions regarding Paulus versus the point guard at UNC - but so am I. As a defender and penetrator, Carolina's point guard is far superior to Paulus. Sure Paulus tries hard, but he should be playing spot duty at both guard positions, not our primary scoring option. Also, his defense against quick guards is dismal. That will not likely improve.

I didn't see anyone else comparing Paulus to Lawson until you brought it up. I think alot of the criticism of Greg has come from the inevitable comparison to Lawson. Lawson is one of the quickest point guards in the country. Greg will never be as quick as him. Also, saying that Lawson's defense (especially with his quickness advantage) is far superior to Greg is ludicrous. That doesn't mean that Greg isn't a very good player and didn't have a very good game tonight. He wasn't perfect but considering he had to bear the full load against VCU's press because of Nelson's foul trouble and Scheyer's deer in the headlights play every time that he touched the ball, I thought he acquitted himself very well. He should have shot his FT's better, but that was my only real problem with his game tonight. As you said just my opinion.

[mapei]

I think Greg was our best player tonight. He had too many turnovers and missed free throws, and no one on Duke's team seemed prepared to handle quickness. But Greg was still better than everybody else for Duke. Faint praise, I guess . . .

[cbarry]

That's true, Mapei. Greg tends to play well in the northeast. Had a very good game at B.C. this year as well. Said in an interview he loves to play in front of friends and family.

[SharkD]

Greg won't have to worry about being compared to Lawson next year -- from what I've heard, Ty doesn't think class attendance is all that important, since he's convinced he'll be drafted.

[KandG]

I'm not really sure what Lawson has to do with this discussion. But I do agree that he's gone after this season, along with Wright. I look forward to seeing Greg continue to improve and demonstrate the heart and toughness he demonstrated tonight.

[TampaDuke]

Lawson's myspace page last year (in HS) mentioned that his plan was to play one year in college and then "on to the league." I'm not sure if he can get drafted in the first round this year given the depth, but he's a sure bet to go if he thinks he can. I for one have not been impressed with his play this year. Yeah he's quick, but he's had a lot of turnovers and plays defense only when he feels like it. I'd take Paulus any day.

[Troublemaker]

I'd take Greg's head on Lawson's body.

[4everTerping]

Duke's main problem is their six best players would be 2 shooting guards and 4 small forwards, with maybe McRoberts being a power forward. No point guard, no post player. Coach K is an outstanding Xs and Os coach, but how could somebody who can choose any high school player in the country, miss on recruiting so badly stacking the same positions and leaving others void.

[FewFAC]

The better Greg got, the more this team lost. About exactly the ending I expected from this series of coaching missteps.

[throatybeard]

Women play on Sunday .... next play!

Word. It's not like we didn't know this men's team was limited. Let's concentrate on the rest of basketball season. :)

[jkidd31]

You are entitled to your opinions regarding Paulus versus the point guard at UNC - but so am I. As a defender and penetrator, Carolina's point guard is far superior to Paulus. Sure Paulus tries hard, but he should be playing spot duty at both guard positions, not our primary scoring option. Also, his defense against quick guards is dismal. That will not likely improve.

Lawson blows by almost every defender not just GP. I don't understand why people bag on Greg all the time. IMO he's showed heart all year and was servely hampered to start the season. He improved as the season went along which is all you can ask of a player. My biggest thing was the defense regressed. What happened??? Yeah Greg got beat off the dribble, so what, so did Duhon and he was regarded as a great defender. The problem was the help defense. Too many times this year no one rotated over which lead to easy baskets. Maybe we need to go out and find a JUCO guard for next season who can play lock down defense.

[Lulu]

The better Greg got, the more this team lost. About exactly the ending I expected from this series of coaching missteps.

That is a very true observation. The better Greg got, the worse everyone else became. I've been pondering this for weeks but didn't have a theory containing enough basketball IQ to actually post. I think you could almost say that as Greg got better, our overall chemistry got worse. Is it the difference in looking for a shot instead of a pass? Others just standing around? (our weave did look a bit odd at times, like certain people were just going through the motions and not even turning their heads, cause they knew they weren't going to do anything with the ball) And why couldn't we maintain our "attack" (not just tonight), was it really because we were always tired? If Paulus was really showing fatigue as early as the announcers were implying then perhaps some discipline is lacking. What do others think? The leadership aspect might be what I understand the least, but I wonder if we had too many "captains"... Also, I miss the more animated Coack K. I know he wasn't exactly stoic tonight, but he's starting to look like Deaner on the sideline.

What's this about "good riddance" to McBob from the coaching staff? I've never heard this. Any other threads someone might direct me to? I suppose that, if true, I'd almost be more excited for next year. Sumthin just wasn't right. Apologies for my lack of substance and intellectual input.

[FewFAC]

Well Lulu, much as I'd love to get into a thorough examination of why that theory may have factual credence, I do not have the necessary time to investigate, so I'll focus on a couple of key points.

1. Turnovers

Duke turned the ball over 17 times, while forcing only 11 turnovers.

This year's team slowed the game down, using as much of the 35-second shot clock as possible to force teams to expend energy on the defensive end of the floor and to limit the number of possessions the opposing team had on offense. The result is that while Duke allows its opponents fewer offensive possessions, Duke also has fewer offensive possessions.

For example, Duke had 72 offensive possessions in this game. 17 turnovers means Duke turned the ball over 24% of the time they had the ball on offense, meaning no shot attempt was even made. Of course, if you can't shoot the ball, you can't score.

On the other side, VCU only turned the ball over 11 times in 70 offensive possessions. VCU thus got shot attempts, or fouled, 82% of the time they had the ball. That exerts additional pressure on the Duke defense to prevent points from being put on the scoreboard.

2. Assists

Duke only had 11 assists in its 72 offensive possessions. This means that an offensive player for Duke created a score for a teammate on only 15% of offensive possessions. Without a player truly capable of creating opportunities for teammates, the team is forced to rely on one-on-one offense. While Duke did admirably, shooting 51% from 2 point range, Duke only shot 27% from 3pt range, making only three.

While VCU shot 37% from 2pt range, VCU made 56% of its 3 point shots, 9 in all. That is +18 points from behind the arc.

3. Free Throws

Duke missed 12 free throws, shooting 63% from the free throw line. While Duke did get to the line more often than VCU and did make more (+2), VCU only missed 6.

So basically Duke squandered offensive opportunities and VCU capitalized.