MBB: #2 Duke vs #4 Ohio State Pre-Game & In-Game Thread

[licc85]

Well, this should be a fun one. I haven't seen them play this year yet, but I believe this is their starting lineup:

Aaron Craft (6-2)
Lenzelle Smith Jr. (6-4)
DeShaun Thomas (6-7)
Sam Thompson (6-8)
Evan Ravenel (6-8)

Key Bench Guys:

Amir Williams (6-11)
Shannon Scott (6-1)
LaQuinton Ross (6-8)


Just looking at matchups, I think they will have a tough time containing Mason, as their only real rotation player who is taller than 6-8 is Amir Williams, a sophomore who is averaging just 13.5 mins a game.

We are going to have some trouble with their big and versatile wings, DeShaun Thomas and LaQuinton Ross are both going to be difficult for us to contain with our 3 guard lineup, since they can both shoot and both are big time athletes.

The Buckeyes are shooting a ridiculous .521 from the field, including .478 from long range. We are going to have to step up our defense if we hope to contain their hot shooting. DeShaun Thomas is averaging more than 24 points a game. He needs to be the focus of our defensive effort, although I'm not quite sure who we have that can stop him. (I hope it doesn't come down to Tyler guarding him, that could be painful)

The keys to the game will be to handle their tough perimeter defense and take care of the ball while committing to Mason in the paint on offense. I believe if we consistently get Mason the ball down low, their bigs will start piling up fouls and help us get in the bonus, where we have a huge advantage in terms of free throw shooting (79% to their 68%).

Overall, I think the matchups favor us slightly. They are stronger on the wings, but we have quality bigs who can score and even with Aaron Craft, I think we out gun them on the perimeter with Cook and Sulaimon, who are both doing a fantastic job on offense and D. Throw in the Cameron Crazies and the best coach of all time, and I think our chances are pretty favorable. As long as we didn't become complacent after a tough Atlantis tournament, I think we got this. I'm picking us to win by 6.

[CDu]

How we match up against Thomas (and to a lesser degree Ross) at SF is going to be a critical aspect of the game. Whereas Kentucky ran very few plays for Poythress, Thomas gets lots of looks. And Thomas is a much more versatile, more polished offensive player than Poythress, so he should be more able to punish undersized defenders (either by posting them up or shooting over them).

I doubt we'll see a ton of Jefferson or Murphy at SF, so that puts the pressure squarely on Sulaimon and Thornton to handle a very tough matchup.

It will also be important for Cook to handle the defensive pressure that Kraft brings. Kraft is one of the tougher players in the country defensively. Cook has handled two teams with pressure defense already, but this will be a different kind of pressure. Hopefully he's up to the challenge.

We have a HUGE advantage in the frontcourt (with the possible exception of when Thomas plays PF), as Mason and Kelly are much better than Ravanel, Thompson, and Williams.

Kraft has had an impressive start to the season offensively. He, Smith, and Thomas are all shooting over 45% from 3pt range with at least 13 attempts each. That's a bit scary.

It will help a lot if Mason and Kelly can stay out of foul trouble, and if we can hit some shots early to get our confidence going. This OSU team isn't the same team that dismantled us last year, and we have the benefit of the home court as well. We just have to keep Thomas and Kraft from dominating the game and we will stand a good chance.

[Dukeblue91]

Their game plan will be simple and mostly consist of penetration and driving past our guards and going to the rim or dishing for 3pt plays.
It won't be as easy as last year and I also think that Cook will hold his own against Craft on both ends of the floor.
The do not have a answer for Mason and we will need to exploit this right from the start before jacking up a bunch of quick 3's.
This could be a very good game for Amile to be effective and a potential game changer.
It could also be the perfect game and motivational tool for Kelly to come out of his shooting slump.
Tyler will see a lot of floor time too I think but you never know.
I'm very excited about this game for the obvious reasons and should we win it will be a huge boost for our team.

Lets go Duke!

[Mike Corey]

OSU hasn't been tested yet in 2012. That will change tonight.

The Bucks have a lot of talent on that roster, but it's unclear where they stand as a team.

You all know about Craft and Thomas.

Smith is a scorer (same with Ross), but hasn't demonstrated that too much as a collegian just yet (same with Ross). He's the Bucks' third-leading scorer at 11 ppg. Craft and Thomas are second and first, at 14 and 24 ppg, respectfully.

Thompson is a tremendous athlete--Matta says he's the most athletic guy he's ever coached--and showed flashes of a nice mid-range game a year ago, in addition to highlights like this:



Amir Williams and Evan Ravenel are serviceable big men, but neither has put up impressive numbers. We may see more of Amir than Ravenel due to Amir's superior length, but Ravenel--a BC transfer--is the superior player right now. This duo doesn't need to score much for OSU other than garbage points, but they do need to play defense. I think this is our primary area of advantage, as others have said.

Shannon Scott was an elite PG coming out of high school, and he and Craft will get some on-court time together, and Scott will spell Craft when/if necessary. He's put up 7 ppg thus far in 2012.

The notion out there is that Craft can't/won't score, but I don't think that's true. He's no slouch offensively, even though he's no Mike Conley or Kyrie Irving. He is a tremendous defender, but he also is very capable at managing the offense and not making mistakes.

Thomas will get his points. How everyone else does will determine the outcome of this game, IMO.

[COYS]

It will also be important for Cook to handle the defensive pressure that Kraft brings. Kraft is one of the tougher players in the country defensively. Cook has handled two teams with pressure defense already, but this will be a different kind of pressure. Hopefully he's up to the challenge.

This will be one of the most important matchups on both sides of the ball. On offense, Quinn will have the tough task of getting the ball to Mason in the post and to our other scorers while facing Kraft's excellent defensive pressure. This is no small task. On the defensive end, Quinn needs to prevent Kraft from easily getting the ball to Thomas and others in good scoring positions. As others have mentioned, Kraft is no slouch offensively. So far this season, he has been a big part of the Buckeye engine on offense. If Quinn and the rest of the team can limit Kraft's playmaking and shotmaking opportunities on the offensive end and be patient against his pressure on the defensive end, Duke has enough other weapons to win. It will be quite the challenge, though I think Quinn will be up for it.

[NSDukeFan]

I wonder if the coaching staff will concede that Thomas is going to have a big game (by not diverting extra attention to him, though trying our best to make him take tough shots) and try to limit the rest of the team? Thomas is having a great start to the season and would potentially make an all-American team if the season ended right now. I was surprised that Shannon Scott didn't get much playing time last year after how strong he appeared to be coming out of high school but it sounds like he is making an impact now. Smith seems to be a solid starter in the backcourt as well, so I don't expect Duke to have much of an advantage there. This has the makings of another exciting game against a very good team early in the year. Great scheduling Duke! This has been fun.

[gumbomoop]

It will also be important for Cook to handle the defensive pressure that Kraft brings. Kraft is one of the tougher players in the country defensively. Cook has handled two teams with pressure defense already, but this will be a different kind of pressure. Hopefully he's up to the challenge.

Kraft has had an impressive start to the season offensively. He, Smith, and Thomas are all shooting over 45% from 3pt range with at least 13 attempts each. That's a bit scary.

We just have to keep Thomas and Kraft from dominating the game and we will stand a good chance.

Despite my loyalty to Duke guys, the player I have most enjoyed watching the past 2 seasons is Aaron Craft. I agree with what CDu says here, adding only a friendly amendment that Craft might be the toughest defender. Even if not literally true, it's close enough that Quinn will indeed face an entirely different level of intense pressure. Craft's on-ball footwork-positioning is striking. He's excellent at avoiding/getting through high screens, often punishing the screener with incidental contact [his football background is probably relevant] rather than being punished. He has smart hands. Physically very strong, he seems to be able [allowed?] to make substantial contact with the opponent without drawing many fouls. He's also dangerous in doubling down to cause hand-havoc [to Mason or Ryan], yet able to maintain contact with his own man.

With the departure of several fine offensive threats from tOSU over the past 2 seasons, Craft now needs to be an O-threat, and he is. But it's his smarts, his Scheyer-court sense, and his brilliant D that most impresses me.

K once famously advised something close to this: "Just watch Shane. For a few possessions, don't pay attention to anything else. Just watch Shane."

Just watch Craft.

[scottdude8]

The key to this game will be fatigue. I covered last year's game for The Chronicle, and it was the only time I ever heard K make an actual excuse—he couldn't stop emphasizing how exhausted the team was following Maui. I would think that not having to deal with jet-lag this year, as well as being energized by the Crazies, would help there.

Other than that, if we can hold Thomas to around 20 points as opposed to letting him go off for 25-30, that would be a big boost.

[jimrowe0]

I wonder if the coaching staff will concede that Thomas is going to have a big game (by not diverting extra attention to him, though trying our best to make him take tough shots) and try to limit the rest of the team? Thomas is having a great start to the season and would potentially make an all-American team if the season ended right now.

I believe that the coaching staff will concede a good porition of scoring from Thomas and try to limit everyone else. If Quinn/Tyler can bottle up Craft then we should be just fine. Look for Mason and Ryan to have big nights.

[loran16]

I believe that the coaching staff will concede a good porition of scoring from Thomas and try to limit everyone else. If Quinn/Tyler can bottle up Craft then we should be just fine. Look for Mason and Ryan to have big nights.

Yeah I agree with this: We have no one that can stop Thomas (not embarrassing - Thomas is likely the player of the year) , and they have no one that can stop Mason. We need to not repeat what we did against Louisville land later against VCU - don't stop pounding the ball to Mason.

Cook will have his hands full with Craft and it'll be his toughest challenge yet, but Thomas is the big threat.

Pomeroy predicts that this'll be a game where it's all about the two offenses (understandably).

[jcastranio]

... is that Sullinger had a big impact on their offense. Even if he didn't have the ball, his presence impacted our defense. Thomas had a big game and we were not even looking at him. Our shooting went south, we got rattled, they got even more confident and ... well, you know the rest.

We have more balance this year - and more confidence. Our defense is better. They are a solid team, but not the same without Sullinger. I wonder if Ryan starts off on Thomas.

I'm not as worried about their good 3 point shooting - our defense tends to "guard" against the open 3 pointer.

Close game in the first half, OSU with an early lead.

Duke opens up a 5-6 point lead midway through the second. We win big if the 3 point % is north of 35% and FT % is north of 75%. If not, we win in a scrappy battle, by 4-7 points.

[tommy]

For a fairly extensive preview of tonight's game, see this piece, on Watzone's site, written by, well . . . me! Hope you enjoy it and find it informative.

[elvis14]

For a fairly extensive preview of tonight's game, see this piece, on Watzone's site, written by, well . . . me! Hope you enjoy it and find it informative.

Thanks for the link, Tom. I liked the way you started the article comparing the path of last years team to the path of this years team. I'm hoping the paths diverge starting about 9:30 tonight.

This is going to be a tough game. I favor us at home but it's hard to shake a team like OSU that can play defense. Thomas is THE type of player that scares me with this Duke team (and the reason we want so badly for Alex Murphy to step up). I'd love for Ryan and Mason to use their size and score a bunch of points in the paint tonight.

[ChicagoCrazy84]

The key to this game will be fatigue. I covered last year's game for The Chronicle, and it was the only time I ever heard K make an actual excuse—he couldn't stop emphasizing how exhausted the team was following Maui. I would think that not having to deal with jet-lag this year, as well as being energized by the Crazies, would help there.

Other than that, if we can hold Thomas to around 20 points as opposed to letting him go off for 25-30, that would be a big boost.

Yeah huge difference with this, which is nice. The time difference between Maui and Durham is what, 6 hours? The Bahamas i believe is the same time zone as Durham. Add in the fact that we aren't travelling to Columbus 48 hours later, I think the fatigue factor should be ok

[CDu]

I agree with what CDu says here, adding only a friendly amendment that Craft might be the toughest defender. Even if not literally true, it's close enough that Quinn will indeed face an entirely different level of intense pressure.

No clear disagreement here. I haven't seen enough of everyone to say for sure, but I haven't seen anyone that I'd say is a tougher defender than Craft. I do think he gets away with some excessive physicality, but because he gets away with it you have to consider it a positive aspect of his game.

He's such a constant defensive presence and one the likes of which Cook has probably never faced. So much of what has been good offensively has been a result of what Cook has generated for us, and Craft will make that difficult. So either Cook will have to play REALLY well or we may be forced to attack OSU differently than we've attacked other teams so far.

[-bdbd]

Heading into the OSU game here's a nice write-up on why Duke has surprised everyone thus far, as written by an Assistant Coach from one of our previous opponents (apparently from Atlantis tournament):


http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-...17--ncaab.html

In a nutshell, he says Plumlee is a load, and you have to either concede him a bunch of points, or double-down on him, and pla 3-vs-4 on the perimeter. He says he'd take MP2 over Indiana's Zeller right now (!!). He also says that Cook is significantly better than last year, and RS has added a slashing and perimeter D element. The weakness? He says Duke lacks depth.

We will see. But this is generally pretty complimentary...

[CDu]

Heading into the OSU game here's a nice write-up on why Duke has surprised everyone thus far, as written by an Assistant Coach from one of our previous opponents (apparently from Atlantis tournament):


http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-...17--ncaab.html

In a nutshell, he says Plumlee is a load, and you have to either concede him a bunch of points, or double-down on him, and pla 3-vs-4 on the perimeter. He says he'd take MP2 over Indiana's Zeller right now (!!). He also says that Cook is significantly better than last year, and RS has added a slashing and perimeter D element. The weakness? He says Duke lacks depth.

We will see. But this is generally pretty complimentary...

Yeah, I think this was a really well-thought-out piece by Assistant Coach X. It really hit on the keys so far: Plumlee, Cook, Sulaimon, short bench. He could have said more about Curry's craftiness and effectiveness or Kelly's defense, but I think the improvement by Plumlee and Cook and the emergence of Sulaimon are what has driven our surprising (to the rest of the world) start.

[ArtVandelay]

For a fairly extensive preview of tonight's game, see this piece, on Watzone's site, written by, well . . . me! Hope you enjoy it and find it informative.

Thanks for the preview; nice work. The similarities to last year are indeed pretty uncanny. I will say, though, that most people seem to think of the OSU game last year as the first indication of a flawed team that couldn't hang with the big boys. That may be somewhat true, but what is often overlooked is that OSU also played what I assume was one of their best games of the season. They absolutely could not miss in that game. Obviously we weren't winning that game either way, but I think we might not have gotten so defeated and kept it more competitive if the Buckeyes had missed a few shots.

Anyway, the big difference from last year's team is the presence of Cook, which will hopefully allow us to deal with OSU's pressure a bit better, the improvement of Plumlee as a go-to scorer, and what initially appears to be an improved team defense, which hopefully will be enough to avoid a repeat from last year.

My prediction is that we'll be feeling a bit less rosy about our offense tomorrow after facing a tough OSU defensive team. However, it does sound like they have some talented pieces, just not enough cohesiveness and experience to really put it all together on the offensive end. At the end of the day, Jared Sullinger ain't coming through that door, and I don't get the sense they have the horses on offense to score with us. We shall see.

[DukeBlueHeart4]

Is there anywhere online to watch this game? I thought it would be on ESPN3 but it's blacked out.

[timmy c]

A few things I’ll be watching for tonight:

Can Duke get to the free throw line?
They have been the aggressor so far this season. Averaging over 24 attempts per game – making 80% is a huge difference maker.

Can Duke defend the 3-pointer?
OSU is shooting lights out from behind the arc – 47%!!!

Who wins the matchup battles?
Does OSU have answer to Mason? Does Duke have an answer to Thomas?

Point Guard battle:
Quinn has shown marked improvement. He’ll get another great test tonight against Craft.