This was Duke’s game for the taking. Duke was up 4 with 1:30 to go. That is a winnable game. Hit one shot and FTs and Duke likely pulls it out.
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Make the layup at the end of the second period, and the game doesn't see overtime. There are any number of things that could have gone just a little better to win. But the plain truth is we held Colorado to 20 points below their season average, and still couldn't win the game. That needs to change.
The D was so good all year- but the start of that game was the biggest issue. Duke gave them confidence and it took the rest of the game for Duke to get a lead. Not sure this team can play D that intensely and still play O effectively. That is for Lawson to figure out.
In this game Duke expended so much energy in fighting back, which was mostly from points off of turnovers, that they had little energy left for offense. In the few instances where they settled the ball for a set play they were all gasping for air and although they got decent shots they were all way off. Duke chose to prioritize defense, somewhat to the detriment of the offense, but that may have been the best tradeoff considering the players' capabilities.
That may be, but I can tell you that was one of the most enthusiastic crowds of the whole year. I've been to almost all the games, and I'm clearly one of the few. The opening game was played at 11:00am on a weekday, and you pretty much could have heard a pin drop. I have a general admission season ticket, and for the vast majority of the season I could get there ten minutes before tip and sit five row up at dead center court. There were times when I felt the people cheering consisted of pretty much the band and me.
There are a couple of reasons for that, first and foremost of which is that the team has been fairly lousy for the last five years, and even when they were good just before that, the culture was bad, so there were people who were interested in women's college basketball who flat-out refused to come. Secondly, the marketing for the women's team is not so hot. They held pre-game season ticket holder events, but the majority of the season ticket holders - already a fairly small group - didn't know about them until the very last one. Even at that last one, the assistant coach who was supposed to come speak was so late to the event that he spoke for less than five minutes, then answered exactly three questions before he had to leave again. They haven't figured out how to attract students to game at all, and there's no student culture for the women. There was back at the beginning of the McCallie years, but that eroded away as the team became both less and less relevant, and less and less fun to watch.
That's all repairable, but it takes time and effort to build back the good will and enthusiasm. Honestly, Monday night was a pretty good start, and I think it is was fairly damaging from that perspective for the team to drop that game. When you the fans finally show up, it's really important to send them home happy. It was a good game, but it could have done so much more for the program if we'd been able to win it. Hopefully, it's just the start.