Coming into tonight, 225 teams had their shots blocked more often than Duke. See here:
http://kenpom.com/tmleaders.php?c=OppBlockPct
We got our shots blocked a lot tonight. Feels like that is happening a lot.
Anyone know where you can find stats on which college basketball teams get their shots blocked the most in a game? Certainly not hard to find who does the blocking, but have not found anything with respect to those on the receiving end of blocks. Curious if we would rank up there or is tonight just an anomaly.
UNC may have been better off tonight being less aggressive with respect to the block strategy and just focused on keeping hands up and boxing out. The cost of going up for a block is sometimes a rebound.
Coming into tonight, 225 teams had their shots blocked more often than Duke. See here:
http://kenpom.com/tmleaders.php?c=OppBlockPct
Just be you. You is enough. - K, 4/5/10, 0:13.8 to play, 60-59 Duke.
You're all jealous hypocrites. - Titus on Laettner
You see those guys? Animals. They're animals. - SIU Coach Chris Lowery, on Duke
I have not noticed a trend personally. Perhaps it's easier to get blocks when you don't bother rebounding.
first off. we did get blocked cleanly a lot. but we also did not get many foul calls. unc also overcommitted on the block (meaning it was a second player on defense that made the block, not the primary defender), which left us a favorable offensive rebound opportunity.
The blocks is very easy to explain, as Bobby Knight pointed out in an early game.
When Miles, Mason, and Zoo get the ball inside, they like to dribble and then bend their knees before going up for the shot. This makes them essentially 6 inches smaller and allows for talented big men to block or alter shots.
The two plumlees need to work on this. (Zou's not getting better). They can dunk, so it's really not necessary (Just go for the Jam). The only reason to go downward slike that is to get the foul, and opposing teams are not generally leaping when they bend downwards...
(It worked once with mason when he got them off their feet and went for the reverse jam).
Hopefully it'll get better. If Coach Knight saw the problem on TV, I'm sure the Duke Coaches know about it.
<devildeac> anyone playing drinking games by now?
7:49:36<Wander> drink every qb run?
7:49:38<loran16> umm, drink every time asack rushes?
7:49:38<wolfybeard> @devildeac: drink when Asack runs a keeper
7:49:39 PM<CB&B> any time zack runs, drink
Carolina Delenda Est
Goaltending!
Exactly! I am sure that at least two of those shots were coming down. Oh well, the way it worked out, the blocks usually led to our getting the ball back and being in better position for offensive boards. Had Raycom, and Bonner actually made the point that the blocks don't mean a thing if you don't get the ball back.
I saw 3 goal-tends on defense and 2 on offense that Carolina committed. However, that wasn't the main issue. It was the way our guys went up weakly time and time again. When going against shot blockers, jump into the guys chest and put it up on the glass. Our guys could have learned that from a guy who made a career out of it and had his jersey retired tonight.
Yes, there were lots of blocks for UNC tonight and in a completely unrelated story, Duke had only taken 4 free throws through 30 minutes of play and until UNC started fouling at the end they only had 5 team fouls. I'm sure the two facts are not related in any way!
Love the double digit win even with the home cookin' 9F
I respectfully disagree. Not calling some sure fouls early in the game let this game be close. I remember Miles absolutely getting slaughtered in a play first half after an offensive rebound.
Playing away I expect it though (at least we didnt get hosed like UConn did away at Syracuse tonight)
Exactly. By not calling fouls you allow a lesser team (who needs the fouls) to play even with a better team (who can foul also but don't need to). Some of that was happening tonight. Whistle happy almost always works in our favor because we are skilled and we adjust.
I wonder if the referees will get some help from the head of officials once Henson starts getting more PT. He gets up so high so quickly, I think it is taking the refs by surprise.
Henson will learn to get the shots earlier, before they head downward, once the refs start calling goaltending consistently.
Amen to that, Elvis!!!
At least two of those "blocks" were goal-tends, and I counted three more of them were on non-called heavy contact. The lack of calls, and the consequential swat party, led to our guys going up more tentative as the first half moved along.
To the later posts, yes, Duke has almost always fared better in tighter called games. Remember the difference in the two Ga Tech games. The first one, in Atl, the refs wouldn't blow the whistle on a mugging, which played well into the uber-physical Jackets. In game #2, in Durham, it was called much tighter, and the result was very clear.
I have long thought that some of more noteable losses in recent years came when the refs just swallowed their whistles with Duke playing a particular opponent. (Recall how roughly JJ was handled by LSU in his last game. I saw some of that in the Wisconsin loss in December as well.) Duke's rep as being a bit soft I'm sure came as a result of some of these games. But as they say, you have to adapt to how the refs are calling the game.