I thought our offense was poor. Smith pounded the ball far to much and we didn't have adequate motion through most of the game.
Of course it doesn't help when you can't throw the ball in the ocean for much of the game.
These last 3 games have been the best stretch of basketball that LT has played at Duke. His FT shooting is terrible, but otherwise he´s playing really well. SWEEEETTT LT!!
I thought our offense was poor. Smith pounded the ball far to much and we didn't have adequate motion through most of the game.
Of course it doesn't help when you can't throw the ball in the ocean for much of the game.
On a positive note, we only had 9 TO's.
They mentioned it during the game, but I think K's decision to put Singler on Barron after the FT's was a great move. I thought the block was clean, and I'm just real glad those RHI guys weren't expecting an airball.
Not sure if anyone else is getting this feeling, but do we have chemistry issues? I realize it's early, but I feel like at this time last year our offense was already clicking.
we gotta give our guys some props for their guts, down 6 with 3 minutes to play and they scratched out a win...
URI is a solid team. They hustled on every play, and made Duke work for every basket. Early on, we were content with shooting long twos and 3s, and they weren't falling. Our transitional defense got picked apart, and Jimmy Baron lit us up in the second half. Despite all of that, we were able to get the w. Its not something I am super proud of, but we were able to overcome a ton adversity to edge out this win. Singler and Scheyer stepped up. But, this was another game where Singler has clearly shown that he is the best player on the team. G has been rather disappointing these first few games, and needs to step up if we are to go far in March.
Although our transitional d was slightly poor, we did alright in the half court set. We forced them to take long shots, but they were on fire. Also, we allowed way too many second (and third) chance shots. We need to do something about rebounding. That might be our biggest concern, and URI really exploited it.
Anyone else find it really weird to see Greg in such a reduced role?
Does anyone know (or has it been covered elsewhere on the board) what the turning point was for Greg's playing time in the preseason?
Just really, really strange to see him out there so little.
Rebounding and perimeter D troubling, but it's early. Good resolve and overall toughness. Scheyer continues to show he is a true heart-and-soul, run through the wall guy-as true a one as the program has had in awhile. Reminds me a lot of Brian Davis and Wojo in his fight.
dukemsu
This should be real wakeup call for the team. I didn't want to speak negatively, but I have thought we were soft so far this year, and URI showed us up. Thanks to Singler and Scheyer, we won. I have been negative on LT for the past two years, but he does provide a real contribution. I hereby retract earlier negative comments.
Although Smith did not have a great game, I think this game showed why he starts over GP, and I am a big fan of Paulus.
The most confusing player on the team is Henderson. Of course, he had foul problems tonight, but he seems to take a lot of plays off. Given his ability, he ought to be challenging Scheyer and Singler for kudos in every game. Those two guys just worked their tails off tonight.
I expect that in the next game, our players will all be working at the Singler/Scheyer level.
Here's another drinking game: take a swig every time someone on DBR uses the phrase "come March," even though it's, like, still November. One game at a time - or at least one month at a time, OK?
URI was fantastic and probably deserved to win. Baron was incredible - I'm not even sure I ever saw 8-for-9 from JJ. I guess it was 8-for-10 counting the last one from halfcourt. But he wasn't the only one. They were regularly blowing by Duke defenders and grabbing rebounds. Like others, I'd say that Jon and Kyle were fantastic, and LT had his moments, but everyone else was pretty mediocre IMO.
The full-court press was particularly ineffective. Once they beat it, Duke was out of position to defend and URI was playing 3 or 4 against 2.
That would have been really exciting to watch if I hadn't had a rooting interest!
For those of you who were wondering who would get the minutes at PG during close games, especially at the end, check out the boxscore for this game: Smith got 31 minutes to Paulus' 10, and played almost all of the important minutes towards the end of the game. Our entire late-game lineup seems to be:
PG: Nolan Smith
SG: Jon Scheyer
SF: Gerald Henderson
PF: Kyle Singler
C: Lance Thomas
Defensive Replacement: Dave McClure
glue guys:Singler and Scheyer.
Henderson has problems putting the ball on the ground, and he might already be thinking about late June. I can't substantiate this, but he doesn't seem (mentally) as involved in games. Singler stepped up big time (on O and D), and he is showing why he is the best player on our squad. I respect Henderson's athleticism, but that's not going to get us far in March. We need more from G.
I'll say two things:
1. Duke has not figured out how to run a good offense when they can't hit the 3 ball, its been our achilles heel since JJ's senior year. The first 3 games, our offense has been terrible but we've thrived off of turnovers and takeaways. We seem unsure about penetrating inside, sometime we're good, sometimes we're out of control. My guess would be trying to establish a good stop and pop mid range game. Its hard to defend, it opens up the the paint and we have guys who can hit 15 footers, Jon, Greg, Kyle, even Marty. Miles apparently was better facing the basket taking jumpers rather than playing a true post.
2. Good teams make bad teams play their way, thats how they win, plain and simple. I didn't see anything we did to try to take URI out of their element. the bad news is that it makes facing someone like WFU a possible nightmare unless we figure things out.
Its a gutty win by this team and a wake up call. Lets see what they can learn from it.
Dang, that was too close!
We have got to realize that no way this team Rhode Island shoots that well regularly. They were totally unconscious out there tonight, and that doesn't only pertain to their star player, Baron. All teams in the country WILL have great difficulty beating any team that shoots like that, so we shouldn't read too much into our only winning this game (versus a team picked to finish 9th in the Atlantic 10 this year) by a field goal.
The free throws and several gritty offensive plays saved Duke tonight.
Here's what I'm noticing over the last couple years with the team: we really struggle with teams that come out with a equal level of intensity to ours. It's not that we cower to that, but it seems to knock us back a bit. Eventually, we can recover as we did tonight; has anyone else noticed this over the last several years?
dth.
Paulus got beat pretty bad a couple of times on defense when he was in there. I don't think K wanted to take that chance in a close game when they needed stops on every posession. I would love to see him on the offensive end when they need points. I thought Nolan passed up several open shots when they backed off of him.
I was a student during the final Vic Bubas years and the first Bucky Waters years. Bucky was a great guy to talk to then as well and much more approachable than Bubas (he came and gave a talk at my house at the beginning of every season) - he just couldn't coach .
Jim
T '70
Without a true center, 08-09 will be a repeat of 07-08. Only this time around it will be worse because everyone already knows how to beat us. Case in point, RI.
I am a big fan of Paulus, but he was beat off the dribble 4 or 5 times. He does generate turnovers from his hustle defense and quick hands so he's not a net liability, but the other guys in the game need to remember who's in at point on defense so they can help with a quick pg's dribble drive.
Just as Henderson was starting to make some impression on offense he picked up his 3rd foul at the 17:06 mark in the second half. Conventional wisdom would say he should come out at that point but K kept him in. Sure enough 17 seconds later G picks up foul #4.
Baron's shooting 3's was unbelievable. He was 0 for 6 inside the arc. RI deserves credit for coming out strong and not wilting in the second half.