MBB Game Thread: Duke vs China 8/18/2011

[oldnavy]

OK, after watching the game I come away with almost nothing...

Between the whistle being blown every 10 seconds, the slippery floor, the different ball, and the unbelievable size of the Chinese players, and the short shot clock it was very difficult to get a read on anything.

I love the way Austin gets in the lane, but he has to finish. I think he will get much better at that, but he has the aggressiveness that you usually cannot teach so that is a very good thing. He has the attitude and no fear confidence, he just needs a little polish and time.

Miles was better than I expected. He did a very good job rebounding against some very tall dudes. He also did well offensivly once he got the ball on the post. He had a couple of good moves which is encouraging.

Mason, eh.. he just needs to get more aggressive IMO. He hesitated a couple of times when he should have attached. Hope he works this out.

Dawkins still can shoot, and now it seems he is a little more inclinded to drive the ball, which is a very good sign.

Curry is perhaps the best perimeter player we have. He is just really good, and needs to look for his shot a lot this year.

Now what about Ryan Kelly. Wow! I have liked his game all along, but he seems to have gotten an infusion of confidence or something. Hopefully he will continue to build on this. He has a great game and just seems to be where he needs to be most all the time. I think he is going to surprise a lot of people this year.

Over all the game was very sloppy and disjointed. Really never saw a flow, and the 24 second shot clock seemed to bother us a little combined with the Chinese pressure. The Chinese team is a pretty good ball club. They play smart and hard, so this is a great test for our guys.

But remember this is a glorified summer practice session, so don't read too much into it. Lots of time between now and the season to work on the weakness's

[moonpie23]

this is GREAT experience for this team...

[gwlaw99]

As much as I would love for this to come to fruition . . . the Chinese government would never allow it. They wouldn't risk having their most prized athletes defecting to the states. It's a testament to the outdated and ineffective development system in china. Athletes are trained from when they are 3 or 4, and if you go to college to become a student, you cannot be an athlete. It's an archaic system which hinders the country's great potential for sports, and I think allowing kids to go become student athletes in the U.S. would be fantastic for both parties, but it won't happen as things currently are.

Zhang Zhaoxu played for Cal.