The less said about that third quarter, the better. That was at the Clemson/Wake/BC level. Not sure why i should continue to follow Duke when I have three top programs (UT, A&M, and Baylor) within easy driving distance.
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The less said about that third quarter, the better. That was at the Clemson/Wake/BC level. Not sure why i should continue to follow Duke when I have three top programs (UT, A&M, and Baylor) within easy driving distance.
It will be very interesting to see how the team reacts.
Jada Claude will start tonight against Idaho State. Onome Akinbode-James off the bench.
Apologies in advance for the lengthy post. But I come to a somewhat weighty conclusion so I feel I need to support that conclusion.
I was shocked when I saw the pre-season rankings that had us at 40 in the AP with a measly 4 votes, and absolutely no votes in the Coach’s poll (53 teams received votes). How could that be? We had all five starters back. From an average team, but still. There was talent.
Haley Gorecki – one of only 2 ACC players to receive a vote for the AP pre-season All-America team. Only 15 got votes nationwide, so she is considered a top 20 player. 5th-year senior, all the experience you could want.
Leaonna Odom – senior. Ranked #9 in high school. When she wants to play, she might be one of the top 10 players in the country. She was one of the best players on the court as a sophomore against UConn (22 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists).
Miela Goodchild – no high school ranking, but was probably top-20 in the class. One of the best freshman 3-point shooters in the country, she broke Becca’s freshman record and Becca was ranked #6.
Jade Williams – junior, #14 high school and everyone was raving about what a great summer she had. Was hoping she was just a year late in developing (always like to see that sophomore surge).
Onome Akinbode-James – showed some promise as a freshman.
Then in support:
Kyra Lambert – yes, coming off an injury but Coach P said she was looking better than ever. As a 5th-year, if she’s healthy she’s one of the top point guards in the country. She was the #9 recruit in high school. And from what I saw in the UNLV game, she appears healthy.
Freshman class – decent support, no big stars but a couple of them were ranked in the 20s by one of the recruiting services (the rankings above were ESPN). So there was hope.
I wondered how the pollsters could be so wrong about us. They weren’t.
No shame in losing to Texas A&M. They were ranked #5. But I thought we would have a chance. They’ve only got 1 top-50 recruit on their entire team! (I did not check to see if they have any high-value transfers)
Then UNLV stayed with us well into the 4th quarter. What? They’ve got 1 top-100 recruit on the entire team! She was ranked 82!
Then the debacle of Sunday. Losing at home to Northwestern by 21 points. I figured some of our players got hurt. Nope. Our top 4 players all got 30+ minutes. Northwestern does not have a single top-50 recruit on their team!
I honestly thought this was going to be a great year, that we would have a shot at a Final Four. Lots of experience, Kyra should be in game shape by ACC time, and even a chance that Mikayla Boykin could be in game shape by February.
But it had to be this year. Haley, Leaonna, and Kyra will all be gone. Next year Jade will be the only top-20 recruit on the entire team (caveat for Miela). Recruiting had some slight promise, but now we’ve whiffed on everyone but a single recruit, #37.
Speaking of which, recruiting has fallen off a cliff. Top recruit in this year’s freshman class is ranked #57 (again, that’s ESPN) Miela was a pleasant surprise the year before, but our top American high-schooler was ranked #77.
This is as good a place as any to say the miss on Bella Alarie was unforgiveable.
The future is bleak. The girls don’t have the deep pool of talent that the boys do. Virtually every Final Four team has at least one top-5 recruit, usually several. We’re not even coming close.
I thought Coach P was a good coach (some on this board probably think I gave her too much benefit of the doubt). She was successful before she came to Duke. The Chelsea Gray class was spectacular, and it was very bad luck when Chelsea went down mid-season in both her junior and senior years. I’ve written before that Mike Krzyzewski probably never becomes "Coach K" if Johnny Dawkins had gotten hurt his junior (probably completely miss the NCAAs) and senior years (certainly no Final Four).
But them’s the breaks, and it appears Coach P has lost it. I am loathe to call for people to get canned, but when you’re reportedly making over $1 million/year you have to produce. You have to. So she has to go.
It's more than just a "new coach". As others have pointed out, Banghart is a proven winner. She won big with an Ivy, too, which is even more impressive. She could have been at any school right now, and easily recruit over P. Unfortunately for us, she happens to be just a few miles down the road now.
(quotes pulled from the broadcast thread)
seriously, wake me when the nightmare is over. I can't bear to watch a single game, and I used to watch every one I could.
Duke had one of its better games today, a 66-50 win over previously undefeated Penn, one of the preseason Ivy favorites. Leaonna Odom had one of her best games at Duke, 23 points, 16 rebounds, a couple of assists and some really good defense on Kayla Padilla, Penn's best player, helping hold her to 5-for-14 shooting.
Haley Gorecki only scored 12 points but had 10 assists and should have had more had Duke not missed some bunnies.
Duke led 38-22 at the half but wobbled in the third quarter against an effective zone press. But Duke regrouped in the 4th, outscoring Penn 17-6 and pulling away.
One game next week, at Nebraska in the ACC-Big 10 Challenge, a chance to see if Duke has shaken off its early-season road woes.
Take a look at the “crowd” for the game. Didn’t Duke average over 4,000 women’s attendance at one time? I know it’s Black Friday but still ...
In Duke’s three toughest games so far this year—the two losses and the win over Penn—the Blue Devils are an aggregate -44 in the third quarter. Chew on that for a minute.
Well Duke playing Nebraska tight through 2 quarters, though slipped a little in the 2nd. Sigh.
LOL, There may be no dumber way to lose than a travel on the attempt at a game tying possession. And why the heck did P use her last timeout for...D if she was just going to foul instead of saving it to advance the ball?
Sigh.
I didn't get to watch, but at least it was close, which isn't bad for an away game vs a 8-1 team.
Noticed we only had 13 TOs for the game, that's an improvement.