MBB: Duke 85 - Gardner Webb 66 Postgame Thread

[FerryFor50]

Uneven, sloppy. Pretty typical for such a long layoff.

Still, a win's a win. D was better in the 2nd half.

[luburch]

Two things:

1. Was this Jay Williams worst game in CIS?

2. Andre Dawkins.

[CLW]

Well according to Twitterverse it was the same ole.

134.5 offensive efficiency for Duke, 108.6 for Gardner Webb.

Coming into the game GW averaged 97.3 (295th in the country).

If we cannot keep the 295th best offense in the country to under a point per possession by March its going to be a quick exit in the tourny.

[roywhite]

Geez, what a gloomy bunch of posts after a solid win over a decent opponent.

Loved the ball movement in the first half; seeing signs of better defense; the team will have a good stretch coming up to practice and improve before conference play starts.

[DBFAN]

Well according to Twitterverse it was the same ole.

134.5 offensive efficiency for Duke, 108.6 for Gardner Webb.

Coming into the game GW averaged 97.3 (295th in the country).

If we cannot keep the 295th best offense in the country to under a point per possession by March its going to be a quick exit in the tourny.

I have to disagree slightly on this. We only gave up 32 pts in the second half. A good amount of those points came in garbage time. Cook was the only starter on the floor during the last 4 mins or so, so it is quite reasonable to expect that we would have kept them below 30 pts in the second half had they stayed in. I do agree that first half D was pretty bad, but it seemed to get addressed at halftime. And keeping GW to just 32 pts isn't bad at all, considering they only lost to Missouri a few days ago by 9. Don't know this for fact but if the game was at Missouri, they probable also had their student body their to cheer them on, which made it harder. As opposed to the Christmas break crowd in Cameron tonight

[GGLC]

Awful defense in the first half and awful effort in the second half.

[mr. synellinden]

Geez, what a gloomy bunch of posts after a solid win over a decent opponent.

Loved the ball movement in the first half; seeing signs of better defense; the team will have a good stretch coming up to practice and improve before conference play starts.

I know this thread is likely to devolve into a lot of the same back and forth as after the Vermont game, but this was not a "decent" opponent. That was a relatively bad opponent who, as others have noted, is one of the worst offensive teams in the country, and they shot 54% for the game. I didn't see any signs of better defense, but if others did, then great. Jabari got abused on the defensive end. There was no cohesiveness and we still are not getting the switches right. We were not only terrible on defense, we played lethargic and uninspired team basketball in the second half. This was a bad game. And we've had several this season - it's more than anomaly. It's a trend, and I don't think we're playing like a top 10 team right now.

I love Duke. I love our coaching staff. I love every one of our players. I will always root as hard as I can for Duke. But there's nothing wrong with saying objectively that we are a bad defensive team right now and a only good basketball team in general. And I'd argue that we are still far away from the "team" part. Among the rotation guys - Jabari, Rodney, Andre, and Matt did not play last year. I hope it comes around for the team, soon.

[-bdbd]

Didn't get to see the first half, but the ESPNU postgame desk guys seemed to think that Duke's defense is the big question mark for them moving on through March. It doesn't seem like we exactly shut down a very mediocre offense tonight. Great to see Dawkins shooting so well. Obviously Jabari, Rodney and Quin played very well. I was thrilled to see MP3 get some burn too (but that was a terrible, telegraphed cross-court pass that he threw for the interception at the end). If only some of the young guys could demonstrate a little real defense. It is frustrating. I'm sure much more so for K, Wojo, Capel, James and the rest of the staff.

[Indoor66]

This amazes me. A nineteen point victory and someone who must have watched the damn game with a sliderule in their hand can only complain. Get a life!

[sagegrouse]

I have to disagree slightly on this. We only gave up 32 pts in the second half. A good amount of those points came in garbage time. Cook was the only starter on the floor during the last 4 mins or so, so it is quite reasonable to expect that we would have kept them below 30 pts in the second half had they stayed in. I do agree that first half D was pretty bad, but it seemed to get addressed at halftime. And keeping GW to just 32 pts isn't bad at all, considering they only lost to Missouri a few days ago by 9. Don't know this for fact but if the game was at Missouri, they probable also had their student body their to cheer them on, which made it harder. As opposed to the Christmas break crowd in Cameron tonight

Awful defense in the first half and awful effort in the second half.

Defense wasn't great in the first half, but it looked worse because Gardner-Webb hardly missed an open shot. We did OK with steals and TOs against the Bulldogs.

Our offense wasn't operating on all cylinders in the second half, but I thought the defense was pretty good.

sage

[vick]

This amazes me. A nineteen point victory and someone who must have watched the damn game with a sliderule in their hand can only complain. Get a life!

Hey I watched the game with a spreadsheet open and I'm not complaining that much. No I don't think that level of defensive performance will likely lead to a Final Four run. But it's December and we're replacing three senior starters. Why would anyone think this team would be a nearly-finished product right out of the gate?

[ncexnyc]

This amazes me. A nineteen point victory and someone who must have watched the damn game with a sliderule in their hand can only complain. Get a life!

Sliderule? Now you're really dating yourself. But I do get your point. Way too many on this board just can't enjoy the game for what it is. Why must everything be over analyzed? It's like the thread on the Off-Topic board discussing movies. Instead of having a fun night out, people want to disect every scene and debate it's merits or faults. It seems like many of them would fit in perfectly with the wine and cheese crowd over at the Dean Dome.

[CameronDuke]

Awful defense in the first half and awful effort in the second half.

Gotta disagree. My take on tonight:

It was evident Dawkins got a few extra jumpers off over the long exam break. In his post game presser, Coach K said that given Dawkins is a grad student, his exam schedule left him with more time to get some extra work in compared to the undergrads. If Dawkins can continue to come in off the bench and give us great instant offense in the form of "momentum 3s, a great offense will become that much better. It seems like the team gets a boost almost every time Dawkins drills home a 3 pointer.

I liked Plumlee's ability to tip rebounds out for extra possessions when he couldn't fully grasp a rebound. Hairston did this once too and it reminded me of Zoubek's extra effort to do this during our 2010 national title run. These extra efforts by both big men will go a long way over the course of the season if they can continue developing these skills.

Quinn Cook continued to build on a marvelous season with his ability to balance great passing with finding his own offensive skills shooting the ball and driving.

Jabari is just so smooth. I would like him to try playing inside the paint more and look for his jumper a bit less but that's my only gripe with him. He has such soft touch and a knack for finishing around the rim and I think with a good touch at the free throw line, he could feast inside the paint. He has proven he can shoot the 3 but maybe we can focus on getting it into him inside the paint more.

I still think Matt Jones needs to play more. He made a great rotation on defense tonight where he came from the weak side of a GW player going for a layup and knocked the ball out of bounds under the basket. It doesn't seem like much but his rotation on D just proved how much he understands Coach K's defensive schemes at an early stage of his career.

Thursday in MSG should be fun with two high octane offenses.

Let's Go Duke!

[GGLC]

Gotta disagree. My take on tonight:

It was evident Dawkins got a few extra jumpers of fiber the long exam break. In his post game presser, Coach K said that given Dawkins is a grad student, his exam schedule left him with more time to get some extra work in compared to the undergrads. If Dawkins can continue to come in off the bench and give us great instant offense in the form of "momentum 3s, a great offense will become that much better. It seems like the team gets a boost almost every time Dawkins drills home a 3 pointer.

I liked Plumlee's ability to tip rebounds out for extra possessions when he couldn't fully grasp a rebound. Hairston did this once too and it reminded me of Zoubek's extra effort to do this during our 2010 national title run. These extra efforts by both big men will go a long way over the course of the season if they can continue developing these skills.

Quinn Cook continued to build on a marvelous season with his ability to balance great passing with finding his own offensive skills shooting the ball and driving.

Jabari is just so smooth. I would like him to try playing inside the paint more and look for his jumper a bit less but that's my only gripe with him. He has such soft touch and a knack for finishing around the rim and I think with a good touch at the free throw line, he could feast inside the paint. He has proved he can shoot the 3 but maybe we can focus on getting it into him inside the paint more.

I still think Matt Jones needs to play more. He made a great rotation on defense tonight where he came from the weak side of a GW player going for a layup and knocked the ball out of bounds under the basket. It doesn't seem like much but his rotation on D just proved how much he understands Coach K's defensive schemes at an early stage of his career.

Thursday in MSG should be fun with two high octane offenses.

Let's Go Duke!

I agree with everything you've said, so I'm not sure why your post disagrees with mine. The second half effort was self-evidently lacking, particularly during the long stretch in the middle where all we seemingly did was make ill-considered offensive decisions and appear disinterested on defense.

[Furniture]

I thought Quinn had a much quieter game in the second half for whatever reason and that was probably the difference on O. I think most of his assists happened in the first.
It was a bit of a boring game. Can anyone relate this result to last years team. I seem to remember us struggling against some weaker teams last year too...

[CameronDuke]

I agree with everything you've said, so I'm not sure why your post disagrees with mine. The second half effort was self-evidently lacking, particularly during the long stretch in the middle where all we seemingly did was make ill-considered offensive decisions and appear disinterested on defense.

Not gonna get into a pissing match with you but I don't think effort was lacking in the second half or all game. Many posters on this board contribute nothing but calling out the effort of 18-22 year old kids, currently, at a time where they're coming off exams at one of the toughest academic institutions in America. Execution may have been lacking but effort - it looked to me like it was there. I thought the guys tried hard. I thought they did what the coaching staff probably wanted them to do. Why do you think there wasn't effort? I thought players tried tipping out rebounds better, Dawkins played with great effort in showcasing his shooting skills he honed in on during the long layoff, and Matt Jones displayed good effort applying his defensive knowledge of the schemes the coaching staff wants to implement.

Again, not getting into a pissing match but this isn't a video game or a situation where we roll the balls out of the ball rack for layup lines then beat teams by 50...Guys are learning on the fly and each game will show us we have strengths and weaknesses. I'll take a 19 point win over anyone we play.

[kAzE]

Boy, alot of naysayers here in this thread. How come nobody has mentioned that we did a great job rebounding this game? Jefferson was really doing a great job out there cleaning the glass. At one point we had 9 offensive boards to their 5 defensive boards. That's an area in which we definitely made some progress.

I like the fact that Dawkins is the 6th man in the rotation now. His offense is just too valuable to be buried in the rotation, especially when we have 2 non offensive threat/defensive players in the starting lineup. Even though Jones is superior defensively, I think Dawkins should be in the game more when he's shooting well. It just opens up the floor for everyone else to operate.

Of course, it would be even better if Sulaimon could get back on track. Hoping he has a couple of confidence building performances in the next few.

[OldPhiKap]

Good, typical post-exam game. Got it done. Get ready for UCLA.

[Troublemaker]

Not gonna get into a pissing match with you but I don't think effort was lacking in the second half or all game. Many posters on this board contribute nothing but calling out the effort of 18-22 year old kids, currently, at a time where they're coming off exams at one of the toughest academic institutions in America.

Agreed. I think psychologists call it "fundamental attribution error." Duke was subpar in this game but had reason to be. I bet we play much better in NY.

[Goduke2010]

Agreed. I think psychologists call it "fundamental attribution error." Duke was subpar in this game but had reason to be. I bet we play much better in NY.

I think Duke was pretty typical for how they've played this year, not subpar. Got a chuckle out of someone blaming our performance on exams.

I enjoyed tonight's game, probably because I've concluded we're not destined to be a great team this year. Disappointing, but surely by now we have enough evidence to realize that mediocre D and lack of size aren't really fixable.

My hope is that means Jabari comes back next year.