Duke vs. Rhode Island postgame thread

[Duvall]

For those who thought there was no way K would be playing his top guys 30+ minutes this season, today's box score does not bode well. Yes, I know G was in foul trouble and Paulus was possibly hurt, but I now believe Singler and Scheyer will be playing 30+ minutes almost every game. Hopefully, they won't tire out under those conditions.

They played 33 and 35 minutes in a one possession game. Hopefully, not every game will see Duke trailing most of the way in hopes of coming back to win by three.

[Kdogg]

Older guy=Bucky Waters, Duke Basketball Coach from '69-'73. He sits on press row for a lot of games when he's in town. Really great guy to talk to.

I could swear Bucky kept saying "we" when he talked about Duke. I have seen UNC guys do this alot but Dukies rarely slip.

[TwoDukeTattoos]

I fail to see how RI proved we don't have a true center. Did they even have a true center? They had Zoubs "brother" who came off the bench and fouled out. Other than that, they just shot the lights out and we started off slow.

We were outrebounded 27-23. OK, not a huge disparity. But when you couple that with the fact that we had no consistent scoring threat down low, it becomes a concern. When your shooters are in a slump, a team needs to have a center down low to bail them out. We don't have that. And if Plumlee doesn't develop, this will be last season all over again. I am simply calling it like it is.

[TwoDukeTattoos]

This is an absurd, oversimplified, wrongheaded notion. And it has absolutely nothing to do with the areas where Duke struggled today.

I knew Jumbo would lash out at my "oversimplified" analysis. Sometimes, Jumbo isn't as smart as he thinks he is. Dude, I didn't attempt to break down every stat column. I simply stated the obvious. The paint was empty and five guys were trying to hit jumpers. I didn't see any lobs down low. Did you, jumbo? Check it: all teams that are successful in March have legit low-post presences. Right now, Duke doesn't have that. If you think they do, you're delusional. And if you don't think they need it, you're delusional.

[DevilCastDownfromDurham]

At first I was worried about Henderson, and may have mentioned something about it in an earlier post, but upon rethinking, I don't see this problem continuing. The team as a whole isn't working well offensively. I think his game will start to pick up soon, and at some point we'll start playing better on offense as a group.

With his athleticism and tools, G is the one guy I thought could thrive (and carry us) even when the rest of the offense wasn't flowing well. If there are some issues we don't know about (maybe it's more "exercise-induced asthma") I hope they are resolved. I'm really mystified why a guy with every physical advantage looks like a second-string role-player against this competition.

Still, G has certainly delivered for us in the past and the upside is that Kyle and Jon have both had the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to create and dominate in an offensive vacuum. If G can shake whatever has him in a funk maybe this will pay dividends in the long run.

[RelativeWays]

was it just me? or did bucky keep saying "cingular" for Singler...?

What, you didn't know that the marquee ACC match up will be Kyle Cingular versus Tyler Hansborough?

[TwoDukeTattoos]

was it just me? or did bucky keep saying "cingular" for Singler...?

Nope, not just you!

[Indoor66]

was it just me? or did bucky keep saying "cingular" for Singler...?

Well, Bucky IS a State grad!

[godukerocks]

Good point. Kyle has some Laettneresque nastiness. He needs to dial it down a bit or he's going to get the ol' Daniel Ewing treatment, T after T.

dukemsu

Baron hit a three, then on the next Duke possession Singler hit one, and when heading to their respective benches right after, Singler started jawing. I loved that.

[Indoor66]

Baron hit a three, then on the next Duke possession Singler hit one, and when heading to their respective benches right after, Singler started jawing. I loved that.

The ref also had some words for Singler as he returned to the court...

[Acymetric]

The ref also had some words for Singler as he returned to the court...

Speaking of refs, was it just me (and the people around me at the game) or were the refs particularly bad tonight. I hate being "that guy" but I thought there were a lot of blown calls.

Edit: As far as Singler goes, does anyone remember that youtube video of him giving an opposing player a purple nurple? I'd usually call it a different name, but I'm not sure if that word is kosher on the boards...

[captmojo]

Rhode Island played really, really well. They deserved to win. But so did Duke.

Speaking of centers, Zoubek and Thomas outscored Seawright, Martell, and Francis 16-6.

Duke didn't play badly and they sure didn't play badly because of their center play. I realize some people are genetically encoded to blame every problem on the 5s but it's getting old.

Barron shot as well as anybody I've ever seen at Duke. Yes, anybody. It's tough to defend a 25-footer much better than Duke did tonight. Sometimes, you've just got to give the other team credit. Barron and James were exceptional tonight, RIU had Duke on the ropes numerous times but everytime Duke had to have a score, they got one. Duke deserves some credit too.

A word on Paulus. He hurt his right arm in practice Friday, had significant swelling, and couldn't even make a fist until this morning. Kid's a gamer.

An excellent analysis as usual.

I would add that this was a serious gut-check for the Devils and they were very lucky to come away with the W. All of Barron's shots were with a hand in his sight line. Uncanny. URI did not win because they were intimidated by what they were about to accomplish. (they choked) Barron did not miss a shot, as bad as that last one, at any other time during the game. I think he probably made a few behind the back-over his head-off handed ones during shoot-around. His last shot was heaved from half-court with 2.2 left till the buzzer. He had time to get a lot closer in range for a better 3 attempt. He'll probably kick himself over that when he views game film.

Duke did not lose because they were determined not to. Good experienced coaching leadership down the stretch was also key.

Good thing this wasn't a familiar foe like one of those fellow conference members who would have proven a lot more confident.

Next victim please.

[captmojo]

Speaking of refs, was it just me (and the people around me at the game) or were the refs particularly bad tonight. I hate being "that guy" but I thought there were a lot of blown calls.

What stands out to me were at least two times, when Duke was on defense, that they forgot what number comes after four.

[Kedsy]

They played 33 and 35 minutes in a one possession game. Hopefully, not every game will see Duke trailing most of the way in hopes of coming back to win by three.

Yeah, but if you can't spread the minutes around in a November home game against an Atlantic 10 team, when do you think we'll start playing more guys? A deep rotation means guys playing meaningful minutes in meaningful games, not garbage time in a blowout.

[bigj4194]

Baron hit a three, then on the next Duke possession Singler hit one, and when heading to their respective benches right after, Singler started jawing. I loved that.

not sure if this is the same time but i believe it is, but after kyle hit his shot someone bumped him and said something while walking to the bench so in kind he responded. this was also the timeout when Coach Collins said to kyle as he was entering the huddle, "Shoot the (insert swear word) ball"

as i have not added my $0.02 yet, here are my thoughts. Baron on URI was out of this world, at one point any time he hit a shot Abby Waner who was sitting in front of the graduate students was just shaking her head and couldn't believe it. LT is looking better each game and I think he will have a break out year this year. While maybe not being phenomenal, he will be a good player for us. I was impressed by Zoubek's performance. Miles will get more comfortable with the more PT he gets, and he didn't get a lot today. The only think LT needs to work on are his FT. E-Mail looked great on defense and is going to be a shut-down defender eventually. Paulus didn't play much, not sure if that was because of the quickness of the URI guards or because of his injured arm, but the little bit he was out there he looked fine, but not great. He looked better in the previous games. G, due to foul trouble, didn't have the opportunity to do a whole lot. He had a great dunk, but other than that was quite quiet. McClure as always played good defense but when it came to offense didn't do anything, he needs to get more aggressive. Didn't see much of Marty, so no major comments there. Nolan proved to be a great defender and his offense is coming. He seemed at times to be forcing his shots and his drives. I was pleased with his performance and I think he will be a great PG for us. Kyle and Jon were both quite impressive. They are going to be the leaders of the team this year. All our offense that was quite successful seemed to flow through either of them. I look forward to seeing how they perform in the rest of the season.

[Acymetric]

What stands out to me were at least two times, when Duke was on defense, that they forgot what number comes after four.

I'd say there were probably 3 or 4 of those. There was one where they could almost have called two five second violations, and didn't call it. I swear, it was close to 7-8 seconds.

They also missed several plays that should have either been blocking fouls or charges on both ends. Its one thing to call it the wrong way, at game speed I can understand making a mistake, but to call NOTHING? I was at the wrong basket to have a good view, but I thought Z drew a nice charge during the 1st half. Can't remember if it became a no call or blocking foul. Unfortunately, I think refs are going to give the other player the benefit of the doubt every time when Z is involved.

They also missed at least a couple out of bounds calls. Plays on the sideline right in front of me where the ball clearly bounced off a RI player right in front of a ref and he blew the call.

On a positive note, the hustle from Singler when he chased that ball across the court and almost saved it before going out of bounds in the corner by the RI bench was great. Didn't make the play, but everyone cheered at how hard he went for it, I thought that was a great moment.

I also liked Nolan Smith's play at the beginning, where the other player (#5?) was bumping and swatting him the whole way down the court. Nolan ended up getting pissed an took the ball from the inbounds to the hoop, and after the play you could tell he wasn't going to take that crap.

[bigj4194]

What stands out to me were at least two times, when Duke was on defense, that they forgot what number comes after four.

Just two? I can think of at least 4. My thoughts of the refs, they weren't outrageously bad, but they definitely missed major things on both sides of the ball and then they did make bad calls on both teams. I will always be biased towards Duke, but they did make some horrible calls on URI, especially the foul that put Kyle to the line in the last minute. I had a pretty good view of it as I was front row right by the FT Line in the student section. The URI defender got all ball as Kyle went up. That said I will say this...the refs were not the best i have seen.

[captmojo]

Remember it's early in the season for these guys too.

[bigj4194]

one last thing...the statistic that stands out to me is Fast Break points. URI - 13 Duke - 2. This cannot be a trend, we need to get back on defense.

[BlueintheFace]

I just feel the need to point this out- remember that time when Kyle Singler's body was practically out of bounds and he still managed to hit a behind the backboard- reverse layup... that was cool.