MBB: Duke 81, Virginia 71 Post-Game Thread

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Originally Posted by CrazyNotCrazie

In my dreams, Zion’s block tonight is how Tony Lang’s block attempt in the 1994 final turned out...

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Too soon!!! (But apt reference ;o)

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Originally Posted by lotusland

The Hoos had a lot to do with the turnovers. Tough sledding in the lane tonight.

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Yeah, Virginia made the choice to clog the lane rather than contest the 3's. A reasonable choice, but it ended up not working overall.

For anyone that follows Virginia basketball and NBA Draft rumblings - Hunter is likely gone after this year to the draft, correct? Probably 90%+ chance he declares for the draft?

How about Jerome? He's a junior but what are the chances he leaves early too? 50-50?

I think Guy returns next year but gets drafted in 2020. Next year's Virginia team is gonna be near the top of the league again, returning everyone but Salt, Hunter (likely), and maybe Jerome (but I think he'll return). Clark, Jerome, Guy, Diakite, Huff is a good starting 5 plus Key returns.

quite the quote by Barrett: "we love to play on the road. We like to wear black because it's their funeral."

Entertaining game...Salt's free throw still has me chortling

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Originally Posted by CoachJ10

Played great basketball on both ends of the court tonight. Poised and confident on offense, aware and aggressive on defense.

Our defense was fantastic tonight. For all the talk about our great 3 pt shooting, the degree of difficulty of the made shots by the wahoos was very high. They had to hit a lot of tough shots to keep this close.

Jerome is very fortunate for the rough handling he got away with against RJ. There was definitely some home cooking that helped him out there.

And I know this horse has been beaten to death ad nauseam...but Mr Bilas continues his streak of finding some calls that “should have gone against Duke” and never ones on the opponent for us.

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Was about to post something similar...great post.

Jerome and Guy made some tough buckets....Hunter made some very long contested two's...and we forced quite a few TO's. Fantastic D on our part.

And yeah Bilas needs to keep his street cred by pushing the Duke gets all the calls narrative.

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Originally Posted by proelitedota

Despite winning by 10 points and shooting 62% from 3, I thought we played a mediocre game overall. We were uncharacteristically careless with the ball and on the defensive boards. We had less possessions than UVA and that's never good, not even in a win.

/DAD RANT OVER

GG. That was well fought win.

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That sounds like trolling, but maybe you just don't make adjustments to expectations depending on how good the opponent is or how well they might be playing. Since you have often sounded rational in other discussions, I'm going with the troll.

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Originally Posted by hustleplays

You guys are so classy. This must have been a tough loss for you. I was prepared for a loss, given your team's prowess. We shot lights out, and both teams played tough. It is a privilege to see two superior college teams go at it, with great offenses and defenses, and with sportsmanship.

At around the 11 minute mark of the 2nd half, Kyle Guy was called for a foul against a driving Tre Jones. It wasn't a hard foul, but Kyle went over to Tre to help lift him up from the court. Just a small thing, perhaps, but indicative of your team's culture. I hope we win, but if we don't, I hope that you guys do.

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If I'm being completely honest, regular season losses don't really hurt anymore. After the tourney loss last year, nothing even comes close in comparison. I appreciate the kind words and I echo the sentiment about good sportmanship by players on both sides. I think there's mutual respect there. I'm not sure UVA has always been a program that deserved Duke's respect so that is progress in my mind.

Still laughing at Jack Salt's second free throw attempt LOL

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Originally Posted by killerleft

That sounds like trolling, but maybe you just don't make adjustments to expectations depending on how good the opponent is or how well they might be playing. Since you have often sounded rational in other discussions, I'm going with the troll.

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c'mon man. We shot ungodly well from 3. We also had a couple of possessions that could have been better. We were relatively poor (for us) on defense. This game looks different if we shoot a more reasonable number from 3. I'm not saying we lose, but it's very different. Now, whether we can shoot 60% when we're that wide open, who knows...but it's not a troll post.

Ungodly shooting covers up a lot of things, and there are still a lot of things we could have improved about our performance. You shouldn't read that as I (or probably mr grumpy dad) am not happy with the performance, but there are always things that can be better...and doing one thing well enough to win big should not cloud your ability to see the other things that need some work.

That's why my signature is what it is.

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Originally Posted by jhmoss1812

If I'm being completely honest, regular season losses don't really hurt anymore. After the tourney loss last year, nothing even comes close in comparison. I appreciate the kind words and I echo the sentiment about good sportmanship by players on both sides. I think there's mutual respect there. I'm not sure UVA has always been a program that deserved Duke's respect so that is progress in my mind.

Still laughing at Jack Salt's second free throw attempt LOL

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I did feel bad for Salt afterwards, but it still makes me laugh.

https://streamable.com/djlaz

Grats on the win, was a great offensive performance. And it really was. I haven’t seen the whole thread, but in case it hasn’t come up, the 1.28 points/possession Duke scored was the highest UVA has allowed since, I believe, 2014.

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Originally Posted by CameronDuke

For anyone that follows Virginia basketball and NBA Draft rumblings - Hunter is likely gone after this year to the draft, correct? Probably 90%+ chance he declares for the draft?

How about Jerome? He's a junior but what are the chances he leaves early too? 50-50?

I think Guy returns next year but gets drafted in 2020. Next year's Virginia team is gonna be near the top of the league again, returning everyone but Salt, Hunter (likely), and maybe Jerome (but I think he'll return). Clark, Jerome, Guy, Diakite, Huff is a good starting 5 plus Key returns.

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I agree, for the most part, but Hunter (assuming he goes) combined with Salt will be a huge defensive loss for them. If Jerome were to leave too, they'll still be quite good, but I think that Jerome and Hunter are both among the top few 2-way players in the Country and that is not easily replaced. No idea whether he'll go pro but I think Jerome is both special, and ready. Unfortunately, whomever we may bring in ourselves next year, we'll be losing 2-4 of the best 2-way players too so let's enjoy this particular ride as long as it may last! Go Devils!!!

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Originally Posted by proelitedota

Despite winning by 10 points and shooting 62% from 3, I thought we played a mediocre game overall. We were uncharacteristically careless with the ball and on the defensive boards. We had less possessions than UVA and that's never good, not even in a win.

/DAD RANT OVER

GG. That was well fought win.

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A 10 point road win against the #3 team in the country where we never trailed...

Mediocre? You have to judge based on the quality of the opponent.

Was it our best game of the year? Probably not. If you told me we'd shoot 62% from 3 then I would likely predict we'd win by more but... shooting is a part of the game. We shot really well.

UVA hit a lot of tough shots as well...

Also I'm not sure what you are talking about possessions. Both teams generally get the same # of possessions every game (give or take 1). They had more offensive rebounds but that's the same possession... not another possession.

I read somewhere the 81 points Duke scored on Virginia tonight were the most any team has scored at the John Paul Jones arena on a Tony Bennett coached team since he took over the program in the 2009-2010 season. Just a truly outstanding offensive performance tonight. If this team just starts consistently hitting 35-38ish percent from 3 and 70 percent from the line, (13-21 tonight), they're gonna flex on some teams down the stretch the next couple months.

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Originally Posted by Wahoo2000

Congrats to Duke - shoot over 60% from 3 every night, and you'll win almost every game by 20+! Just an amazingly unbelievable shooting performance from 3. Total difference in the game.

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Originally Posted by jhmoss1812

Good game guys. You guys are just better. Fortunately we don't have to play again. If we do, it'll at least be late in either tourney and I can live with that.

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Classy stuff you two. Seriously. UVa shot 42% from 3-land and 47% overall and still lost by 10 while scoring 71:eek:. Pretty amazing. Now, get healthy and hungry and beat the cheats Monday night.

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Originally Posted by uh_no

couple thoughts on that.

1) the kind of defense duke put in today is not the kind of game-losing performance duke has put up in some of the tournament debacles.

USC: 114 adj
oregon: 102
mercer: 116

a 95 is not a BAD number, and is the kind that a good offense can beat, especially one that is hitting threes like no one has any business to (and we shouldn't count on that...but of course this is DBR, so we'll expect to shoot 60% every game now), and especially when not playing one of the best defensive programs in the past decade.

2) while they did hit some ridiculous shots, you'd expect a really good offense, especially a top 5 offense, to hit some of those ridiculous shots. That's why you adjust. Even adjusting for the fact that they might hit some ridisulous shots by subtracting 17, it's still not the kind of performance duke has put up recently.

3) Along with the ridiculous shots, there were some easy shots that you would expect to make (the missed dunk stands out...salt?). I don't know if it cancelled out 100%, but it goes both ways to some degree. Some of us have talked about wishing we had a way to adjust for how often a shot went in...it would adjust for that kind of thing and would give a more reliable number for the small sample size of a single game.


I think duke played some exceptionally good possessions...we got them in to 2? shot clock violations? A ton of TOs and blocks? But we also had some exceptionally poor possessions. The aforementioned two when they threw it over Tre trying to guard a guy in the post, Bolden trying to routinely guard guys on the perimeter (his footwork is FARRRR improved, but he's still a liability there), Bolden on a couple of miscommunicated doubles leaving his guy wide open on the weak side...

Personally, I think we're far better when we're switching 2-5 with an ICE for the high ball screen than switching 1-5...but nobody asked me, and we won anyway. Shrug.

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Good points. Can't spork.

I tend to agree on the switching 2-5 instead of 1-5. But Marques really has improved his footwork a ton. I do agree he's still a liability out there, but it's closer to a wash than I think I realize.

- Chillin

The best thing about the last few games is that Cam looks like a different player. It's obvious that Tre and Zion are both beasts on the defensive end but Cam is not far behind those 2. He is very active, quick and his length really bothers people. He seems to have stopped the silly turnovers that plagued him earlier in the year and has a lot more confidence in his shot. If he's on from deep it brings another dimension to the team. His dish to Zion late in the game after Zion's big offensive rebound showed a lot of confidence. We could've just run the clock (maybe should've just run the clock) but when you can get a Zion dunk... I'd say that's a pretty high percentage chance.

Cam's line from today: 6 of 10 from the field, 5 of 8 from 3. 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks, 0 turnovers.

Just a super solid game from him.

Marques is looking much improved as well. We obviously don't need as much from him but anything we can get from him is a bonus.

Also interesting was the minutes breakdown... Jav and Marques split 35 minutes in the middle. So we went 5 minutes w/ the smaller lineup w/ Jack. Jack played another 8 minutes. Cam sat 4, Zion sat 4. That was it. RJ and Tre both went 40. Can't say I blame K... when you have studs you run w/ them. Only real worry there is foul trouble. Should probably get used to this for big games going forward.

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Originally Posted by CoachJ10

Played great basketball on both ends of the court tonight. Poised and confident on offense, aware and aggressive on defense.

Our defense was fantastic tonight. For all the talk about our great 3 pt shooting, the degree of difficulty of the made shots by the wahoos was very high. They had to hit a lot of tough shots to keep this close.

Jerome is very fortunate for the rough handling he got away with against RJ. There was definitely some home cooking that helped him out there.

And I know this horse has been beaten to death ad nauseam...but Mr Bilas continues his streak of finding some calls that “should have gone against Duke” and never ones on the opponent for us.

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Well, it's not exactly a "should have gone against" Duke's opponent, but Bilas did object to the call against Bolden for being in Salt's cylinder :) Bilas said something like, "that called defense." I think he used to do even more leaning over backwards to avoid anyone seeing a pro-Duke bias than he does now.

Cam. Best game yet. 😎

I’m very happy with the game tonight. I’ll mark it down as one of our five where everything works. I agree with other posts above that we would have beaten most teams by 20 or 25. We were just that “On.” The only player I thought had a sub-par (for him) game was Zion and that’s only because he’s raised our expectations ridiculously high.

I was once again impressed by Virginia. They are a tough and talented team that clawed their way back into contention several times when lesser teams would have just let it go. Much respect goes to them.

Bottom line is a big win against a superior team on their home court. I’m smiling.

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Originally Posted by ikiru36

I agree, for the most part, but Hunter (assuming he goes) combined with Salt will be a huge defensive loss for them. If Jerome were to leave too, they'll still be quite good, but I think that Jerome and Hunter are both among the top few 2-way players in the Country and that is not easily replaced. No idea whether he'll go pro but I think Jerome is both special, and ready. Unfortunately, whomever we may bring in ourselves next year, we'll be losing 2-4 of the best 2-way players too so let's enjoy this particular ride as long as it may last! Go Devils!!!

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Even if both Hunter (projected mid-late lottery-ish) and Jerome (projected late first, early second) leave, I still think we'll be borderline top 10 next year. Key, Huff, and Diakite have all made pretty strong strides towards being consistent performers lately. Put those dudes with Clark and Guy and we'll win a bunch of games again.

I played this game for 4-5 years:
13-14 - We lose Harris and Mitchell? Won't be the same.
14-15 - We lose Anderson and Atkins? Won't be the same.
15-16 - We lose Brogdon, Gill, & Tobey? Won't be the same (and we weren't, but in fairness it took the combo of Austin Nichols being kicked off the team AND Wilkins coming down with a pretty bad illness than basically ended his season before we fell away from being top 10)
17-18 - We lose Hall & Wilkins? Won't be the same.

Somehow, barring major player departure/loss IN SEASON, we've been top 5, or at worst, a top 10ish team since 2014. Whoever comes, whoever goes, regardless of hype or star rankings, Bennett keeps cranking out elite results............ in the regular season and conference tournament.