MBB: Duke 69, Virginia 65 -- Post-Game Thread

[Edouble]

We stole this one. Never should have been in a position to lose. We need more energy too much finesse way too much dribble. Suliamon and Jefferson were warriors.

That's my point. Way to close out the game. Way to not let us lose.

[DBFAN]

Wow, so many people on here saying we shouldn't have won, and we aren't a top 25 team. Did it ever occur to some of you that maybe UVA shouldn't have been in it at the end but some very fortunate Foul calls all night for them kept them close. A game like this can do a lot for a team. They won withoubParker again, and they refused to lose that game. Cheer up folks we just beat a team that was 3-0 coming into the game

[jcastranio]

Jabari, Rodney, and Quinn went 10-30, 5-16 from 3. The rest of the team was 12-19, 5-6 from 3. Shot selection, not really being a part of the team offense. Their defense is too weak to warrant them dominating the shots as much as they are. In addition to the defensive problems, the fool's gold of early season offense has "stunted" our growth as a team on offense. Still time to grow, though.

[kAzE]

That woulda been a double digit loss if we were at their place, so thank goodness for Cameron.

- Sulaimon is clearly more effective off the bench. He looks lost when he's in the game with Parker and Hood at the same time. When he's the #1 option on offense, he plays MUCH better on both ends.
- Jefferson was the player player on the floor for Duke. He was the toughest, smartest, and the best defensive player on either team tonight. 15 rebounds, and the biggest one of the night with the assist to win the game, then the steal and the offensive board to seal it. He was the only guy on the floor who didn't play like crap in the last 3 minutes.
- Parker is having a really tough time adjusting to the increased defensive attention he's getting. He's getting doubled in the post every time he touches it there. Instead of forcing the issue, he's got to find the open teammate. Less stepback 3s would be nice, too. He keeps passing up catch and shoot opportunities for flashy stepback fadeaways. STOP IT. JUST TAKE THE EASY SHOT.
- Hood is the most consistent offensive player on the team. Really glad we have him. He's been the MVP of the 4 ACC games so far.
- I liked the 5 for 5 substitutions. I thought we got the most out of our guys when they were on the court.

[GGLC]

This Duke team is like the NY Knicks of the ACC. At times they almost insist on taking the shots with the highest degree of difficulty. Guys, they don't give extra points on the scoreboard for making harder shots.

Better ball movement (ie, not just around the perimeter) would help with this. Pass it inside!

[GGLC]

I liked the 5 for 5 substitutions also. Maybe Semi for Hairston, though.

[CoachJ10]

Wow, so many people on here saying we shouldn't have won, and we aren't a top 25 team. Did it ever occur to some of you that maybe UVA shouldn't have been in it at the end but some very fortunate Foul calls all night for them kept them close. A game like this can do a lot for a team. They won withoubParker again, and they refused to lose that game. Cheer up folks we just beat a team that was 3-0 coming into the game

Good point on the reffing. The so called emphasis on the holding, grabbing, pulling was supposed to stop teams LIKE Virginia (and Ohio St, Wisco, etc.) from their manhandling. Yet they were able to get away with it all game long and some horrible calls on Duke really kept UVA in this game. It is a dead-horse to me at this point, and no one likes to harp on the refs all the time, but NCAA officials are really just inconsistent and incoherent and really can impact games.

[arnie]

Hmm I guess that's true. Maybe if he was in toward the start of their comeback before the +13 lead got down to -1 though. Might have helped.

Actually during most of the meltdown we were playing 3 guards, Hood and Amile. UVA killed us on the boards- if I recall he didn't put Parker back in to help until the game was essentially tied. When Hood has to play the 4 we can't defend down low or rebound.

[roywhite]

Jabari, Rodney, and Quinn went 10-30, 5-16 from 3. The rest of the team was 12-19, 5-6 from 3. Shot selection, not really being a part of the team offense. Their defense is too weak to warrant them dominating the shots as much as they are. In addition to the defensive problems, the fool's gold of early season offense has "stunted" our growth as a team on offense. Still time to grow, though.

I like that stat, actually. We don't have to rely on the big three for scoring so much.

One quick reflection -- Clemson and UVa are outstanding defensive teams; it's hard to get good quality shots against them. Playing against that caliber of defense helps us realize areas for offensive improvement.

[gcashwell]

Actually during most of the meltdown we were playing 3 guards, Hood and Amile. UVA killed us on the boards- if I recall he didn't put Parker back in to help until the game was essentially tied. When Hood has to play the 4 we can't defend down low or rebound.

When hood or Parker has to play low we can't defend or rebound. That's why Plumlee's +/- was the best tonight.

[CoachJ10]

Actually during most of the meltdown we were playing 3 guards, Hood and Amile. UVA killed us on the boards- if I recall he didn't put Parker back in to help until the game was essentially tied. When Hood has to play the 4 we can't defend down low or rebound.

I was really surprised we didn't go big once we got our double digit lead to try and mitigate their rebounding and driving. Plumlee, Jefferson and Parker at 3,4,5 is our best rebounding group...sure seemed like the right time for it.

[GGLC]

I feel like somewhere along the way Jabari has forgotten how to rebound. He was averaging ~9+ a game for a long stretch for awhile there. What is he averaging over the last four games?

[NashvilleDevil]

Good point on the reffing. The so called emphasis on the holding, grabbing, pulling was supposed to stop teams LIKE Virginia (and Ohio St, Wisco, etc.) from their manhandling. Yet they were able to get away with it all game long and some horrible calls on Duke really kept UVA in this game. It is a dead-horse to me at this point, and no one likes to harp on the refs all the time, but NCAA officials are really just inconsistent and incoherent and really can impact games.

Officiating has been terrible this year. How is Virginia bumping and grabbing Jabari not a foul but Tyler touches a guy it is? Watch in the tourney they start calling it like they did at the beginning of the year.

[Billy Dat]

Good to win it at the end. That would have been crushing to have lost that game.

Rasheed and Amile --- co-men of the match.

THIS. As we set up for the possession that ended with Rasheed's soft bounce 3, I said to myself, "If we lose this game, this team might implode". But, between that Rasheed bounce and Amile's second free throw, and the fact that Harris missed that semi-bunny after Amile weirdly lost the ball on that steal, the basketball gods smiled on us.

Regardless of the near total and epic collapse, hopefully this is a shot in the arm. Maybe Rasheed has totally turned the corner...maybe. After being quiet all game, Cook carried us from 4 minutes left until 2 minutes left until he missed that foul shot and everything started to unravel.

We're just having a weird season. Jones starts, we go A team B team, we get carried by Rasheed despite his being re-demoted to the bench, dogs and cats living together...I don't know...

As hurleyfor3 said, my brain is blank.

[arnie]

Uh, what?

What did TT do that "doomed" us? I saw several poor plays by several players. That was a team collapse that luckily resulted in a win.

You don't remember him falling down, then grabbing the player as he drove down the lane? Yes it was a team collapse, but the others had positive contributions throughout.

[Saratoga2]

We were wondering what adjustments coach K would make. He decided to play two lines in effect. His idea appears to be that the guys were wearing down in the games and would play better if they knew they would get a rest. For most of the game we played hard and well and our defense was very good against a solid team that was on a winning streak. What I liked (a lot)
1. Defensive rotation
2. Amile's great rebounding and excellent defensive play. He also chipped in on offense and sealed the game by making his free throws at the end. (clutch) and also a clutch rebound at the end.
3. Rasheed played great with excellent shooting, aggressive driving. He was not good during closeout with two fouls, a bad turnover and a missed free throw but I am glad for him that he hit the three to put Duke up. It has to help how he feels about himself.
4. I really liked what Marshall did. His size caused UVA problems inside and he blocked one but also batted the ball out to keep Duke alive and I believe Rodney hit a 3 as a result.
5 Matt is good defensively and Quinn came through with some needed scores late.
6. Rodney's defense on Harris slowed him down and he had some important scores.

What I didn't like:
1. Giving up a big lead late. Lot of poor decisions late.
2.Taking the air out of the ball and having a lot of difficultly against a good defense when we initiated our offense with 7 or 8 seconds left.
3. Having a huge disparity with free throws in the first half. We were putting up a lot of threes while they were getting inside enough to get fouled.

Other comments:
1. I didn't notice Semi. Did he get in?
2. Think Rasheed has graduated to the starting team again.

[BlueandWhite]

Parker and his teammates need to get him in positions where he can use his talents. He can drive. Get him the ball at the elbow and let him he work. He can post. Spread the offense and get him the ball on the block. He can roll off the pick. Keep drilling it in our guards to look for him on that instead of pounding the ball.

Thank you Coach J for this post -- 100% agree. The #1 problem with this offense, lack of a post presence, is glaringly obvious, agree that Parker needs to be put in a much better position to score, consistently, game after game.

Defense better tonight but needs more work - way to go Amile.

Still a work in progress, I have hope that this team can make real strides as the season progresses...

[ChicagoCrazy84]

Actually during most of the meltdown we were playing 3 guards, Hood and Amile. UVA killed us on the boards- if I recall he didn't put Parker back in to help until the game was essentially tied. When Hood has to play the 4 we can't defend down low or rebound.

It can be tricky because you want to have your best players on the court at the end (or whoever is playing the best) when it is close. You'd like to have Plumlee or Hairston (I guess) in at the end, but it would've been disaster on the offensive end.

[DBFAN]

Officiating has been terrible this year. How is Virginia bumping and grabbing Jabari not a foul but Tyler touches a guy it is? Watch in the tourney they start calling it like they did at the beginning of the year.

If I recall doesn't the NCAA want 6,002 teams in the tourney now. The easiest way for that to happen is to make these games closer, and make it hard to differentiate between the good, and mediocre squads.

[KandG]

I was actually encouraged by a lot of what I saw prior to the final 5 minutes. Really like the two five man lineups to stagger minutes and shots, even though the 2nd lineup concerned me because Sheed was the only one capable of creating his own shot in that group. (Turns out, he did really well with that five) Defense seemed more attentive, even though there was way too much fouling in the first half. Amile's effort was amazing.

Yes, Virginia missed several good looks, but I thought Duke dictated the game impressively for the majority of the time, and things fell apart late mainly because of a couple of bad breaks & brain lapses, at which point the loss of composure issues that have dogged this team started to kick in. Cook, in particular, even though he didn't shoot well throughout, was mostly restrained until things got tight and he started doing his aimless dribbling routine for 27 seconds or give-the-ball-to-Rodney-to-force-up-a-shot-with-multiple-defenders-late-in-the-shot-clock.

Jabari really should be more of a factor than he has been the last few games -- even if he doesn't score, he needs to be able to slant the defense in some way, instead of having to force things against a good defense like Virginia's or being a last second outlet when Hood can't get a shot off. Thornton has become a near liability with the new rules, especially in late game situations. Can't take charges, can't be physical with opponents, only weakens the team on offense.

Let's hope some rest and more time for the coaching staff to figure things out will eventually righten the ship. Unlike others here, I was largely encouraged by what I saw tonight. Then again, I'm not expecting a championship or even an ACC title from this group. Just a better, more competitive effort from game to game that actually optimizes the talent at hand.