MBB: Duke 74, Georgia State 55 Post-Game Thread

[Bob Green]

Discuss the game here.

[rhynelander]

any thoughts on Murphy or lack thereof?

[uh_no]

per espn recap:

The Panthers never got closer than 12 points in the second half and turned it over 16 times while being denied their first victory over an Atlantic Coast Conference team besides Georgia Tech.

OUCH!

[pamtar]

A. Where was Alex Murphy?
B. TT is looking good, but if he keeps shooting like that he's not gonna be left open for long.
C. Mason.
4. We don't have a true scorer.
H. Amile and Rasheed looked great. I was especially impressed with their passing in the second half.

[Saratoga2]

Anyone with insights about Alex not getting into the game?

Too man turnovers, although we were changing lineups a lot and that has to cause confusion. Really Mason didn't have that many TO's considering he played 38 minutes. Also Rasheed, Ryan and Amile didn't have many.

I was surprised that we had so many threes against a team where we had a height and experience advantage inside.

[wallyman]

Boy, are we entitled and cranky.

Sure it was just Georgia State, but really nice games by Mason and Tyler and good to see Seth out there looking good. And Sheed and Amile had terrific debuts. Default position on Tyler has been that if he's starting it's because Quinn isn't doing well enough, but Tyler played perhaps his best game tonight. Pass, shot and defended like a guy who deserved to start. We'll know more after Kentucky, but not a bad opener. Only worry is Murphy not getting in. We'll have to see what that was about. Go Duke.

[CDu]

Discuss the game here.

Sloppy play. My thoughts:

- Mason was big and athletic, and that was enough tonight. But he still struggles with his post moves (maybe one post-up bucket tonight), and still struggles from the line. Against lesser bigs though it just won't matter.

- For the preseason talk about Curry not playing PG this year, there he was as our starting PG tonight (Thornton played primarily off-ball until the second half). He played pretty well despite the leg issues. That was nice.

- Cook still has some work to do as a playmaker. He is showing eome defensive chops though which is nice.

- Sulaimon struggled a bit defendively but showed some of that offensive skill.

- Thornton made some horrific passes for turnovers. Thankfully he made up for it from 3pt range.

- Speaking of which, the more things change, the more they stay the same. We fired up 20+ 3s. If we hit at a 40% clip, that is just fine.

- Love that Jefferson kid. So much energy.

- I haven't been impressed with Murphy, but I was surprised that he got no run at all.

- The PG play is going to have to get MUCH better for us to beat good teams.

A win is a win. It was not a thing of beauty (awful offense early, sloppier defense at times in the 2nd), but the talent gap and our great shooting and Mason allowed us to prevail.

[Dukehky]

Well, it wasn't the prettiest opener ever (better than last years), but we're 1-0.

I absolutely detest the line-up with Curry, Cook, Thornton. It's tiny, weak defensively, and not as offensively potent as some of our other line-ups, I just don't see the plus side to that line-up.

We went away from Mason early in the second half, which led to a lot of turnovers and bad three pointers by bad three point shooters (Josh Hairston, if you read this, you do not have permission from ANYBODY to EEEEVVVVEEEEERRRRRR shoot a 3 point shot). Toward the end of the game, we got open looks that we knocked down because we dumped it in to Mason who made good kick out passes or did the whole drive and dish thing.

Amile is going to get a lot of run on Tuesday, because he's going to have to. If we play that 3 guard line-up, we're gonna get torched. This Kentucky team is better than I thought/hoped that they were going to be. I don't know what's going on with Murphy, but we need him, and if he just doesn't have his ish together yet, then he needs to get it together and get it together quick.

Rasheed I think needs to be a little more aggressive in looking for his points, because nobody else is going to score for him, might as well go ahead and make that paper boo boo.

I don't like Tyler shooting 3's in closer games, there has to be a better shot out there somewhere. But if he continues to go 50% from out there, then I'll have no choice but to shut up.

We're going to have a tough game on Tuesday, we can win it, but it's going to be tough. They are so much more athletic than us that it's not even remotely funny. I don't really see any favorable match-up for us other than Kelly v. Wiltjer. Gotta get Noel in foul trouble because he is a stud on defense (from what I've seen) and could really give Mason fits.

[slower]

We're going to have a tough game on Tuesday, we can win it, but it's going to be tough. They are so much more athletic than us that it's not even remotely funny. I don't really see any favorable match-up for us other than Kelly v. Wiltjer. Gotta get Noel in foul trouble because he is a stud on defense (from what I've seen) and could really give Mason fits.

If we don't play better than we did tonight, it could be embarrassing.

[Dukehky]

Boy, are we entitled and cranky.

Sure it was just Georgia State, but really nice games by Mason and Tyler and good to see Seth out there looking good. And Sheed and Amile had terrific debuts. Default position on Tyler has been that if he's starting it's because Quinn isn't doing well enough, but Tyler played perhaps his best game tonight. Pass, shot and defended like a guy who deserved to start. We'll know more after Kentucky, but not a bad opener. Only worry is Murphy not getting in. We'll have to see what that was about. Go Duke.

Yeah, this is a win, but it was not the product that Duke fans are used to and expect out of this level of talent. If you think that that kind of performance is going to get Duke to where you hope them to be at the end of ever year, then you clearly don't watch anybody else play basketball.

I would hardly call Rasheed and Amile's games terrific either. They were effective, and that's it.

Sniping at people for being reasonably critical of this team is a really lame thing to do. If you want to say that everything is gravy and always is, that's fine, but just because you're pleased with everything doesn't mean you should call somebody entitled. We should have beat this team by 40.

[roywhite]

Official Boxscore

Mason with 19 points, 14 rebounds, and 4 blocks
Tyler with 13 points including 3-6 from 3 pt, 2 steals, but 4 turnovers

Team was 51.1% FG overall with good ball movement in 2nd half
11-24 from 3-pt
Held Ga. State to 37.3% FG shooting

[cbnaylor]

I agree with a lot that has been said. It appears that we were all watching the same game. I thought it was funny that Duke was suppose to work their offense from the inside this year...but it looked a lot like the same. Live and die by the 3. It's a good thing that Duke was hitting their 3's because if they weren't, this game would have been a lot like last years home opener. Duke needs to be a lot more aggressive by driving in the lane. Why is it so hard to do that? We really need some slashers. I know a lot of people think that Cook is the answer to creating plays in the lane...but we need our SF and SG to do the same. Duke did a little bit better of doing this in the 2nd half but teams will know not to bite. Every time that Duke drove in the lane, they never finished. They always kicked it out. As for the Defense, I was please for the most part. A lot better than last year. The on ball defense was great but Duke got a little slack on cutting off the baseline. I know that it's only the first game and there will be room for improvement. I'm looking forward to this season. Go Duke.

[Ultrarunner]

Yeah, this is a win, but it was not the product that Duke fans are used to and expect out of this level of talent. If you think that that kind of performance is going to get Duke to where you hope them to be at the end of ever year, then you clearly don't watch anybody else play basketball.

I would hardly call Rasheed and Amile's games terrific either. They were effective, and that's it.

Sniping at people for being reasonably critical of this team is a really lame thing to do. If you want to say that everything is gravy and always is, that's fine, but just because you're pleased with everything doesn't mean you should call somebody entitled. We should have beat this team by 40.

Could you, as a favor to me, define "reasonably critical?"

I have to admit I only caught the final few minutes of the game but what little I saw of Rasheed and Amile looked pretty darn good for freshmen. The stat sheet seems to bear that out. Perhaps if you stopped looking at the team as a product and looked at them as young men, it might alter the perception that they were merely "effective."

I think that this kind of performance at the end of the year would be most disappointing. Fortunately, we have the entire season to improve and I expect we will.

[Billy Dat]

I have the game taped and only saw some pieces so far, but I don't like the sound of this tweet from Watzone:

"Coach K said Alex not playing was a coaches decision. It is part of the growing process at Duke. He'll be back. "

[roywhite]

I have the game taped and only saw some pieces so far, but I don't like the sound of this tweet from Watzone:

"Coach K said Alex not playing was a coaches decision. It is part of the growing process at Duke. He'll be back. "

Thanks for the info.

Tough love, and Coach K understands and teaches both of those words. Hope Alex learns and grows.

[MCFinARL]

Thanks for the info.

Tough love, and Coach K understands and teaches both of those words. Hope Alex learns and grows.

Me too. Tough love is one of those tricky strategies--it works great for some players and destroys the confidence of others.

[Newton_14]

Anyone with insights about Alex not getting into the game?

Too man turnovers, although we were changing lineups a lot and that has to cause confusion. Really Mason didn't have that many TO's considering he played 38 minutes. Also Rasheed, Ryan and Amile didn't have many.


I was surprised that we had so many threes against a team where we had a height and experience advantage inside.

Georgia St played zone almost the entire night. That is why we took so many three's. They collapsed on our bigs in the paint all night long, but Mason still got his 19.

Really hope Alex Murphy had a stomach bug or something. For him to not play a single minute, there has to be sickness or something.

I will post my analysis on the game tomorrow. Too tired tonight.

[mapei]

Get used to shooting a lot of 3s. It's what we do, what K's offense is built for. I don't think we will ever be 'inside-out' on a majority of plays despite what some have predicted. Austin could slash, but he was also kind of an exception in the context of most recent seasons, and he also was a one-man show during the stretch run last year.

[OldSchool]

Georgia State was over-matched, so it's hard to tell a lot from this game.

We didn't get enough out of the flow of our offense for large stretches of the game. We made up for that to a limited extent through scrappy play. Sometimes playing against a zone defense can take the air out of our attack. I was wondering during the first half whether the coaching staff had elected to roll out only a limited offensive scheme so as not to give Kentucky anything meaningful to look at on tape.

Defensively, I think we have more upside than last year.

[Dukehky]

Some good news. Kentucky is susceptible on the offensive glass. Alex Len has gotten a lot better and is looking like a first team all acc guy, but Mason is a better rebounder IMO, hopefully he'll be able to seal Noel and frustrate him.

Go Terps?