Put this one away early. 2nd half shots didn't fall and some concern about poor free throw shooting but the team played really hard and pretty well on D tonight. A very low possession game tonight as well (welcome to the new ACC)
Put your post-game thoughts here.
JBDuke
Andre Dawkins: “People ask me if I can still shoot, and I ask them if they can still breathe. That’s kind of the same thing.”
Put this one away early. 2nd half shots didn't fall and some concern about poor free throw shooting but the team played really hard and pretty well on D tonight. A very low possession game tonight as well (welcome to the new ACC)
Jabari played really well. I'd like to see Tyler take some of those open layups. I could not love Amile's offensive creativity more.
well didn't see the blue team as much I would have liked but, a lot of time in the 2nd half was methodical and not much effort was put out. At least not much energy was put out by the starters and no injuries witnessed (ankle turns or anything).
Onward to UNX.
We looked awesome on both ends the first half. Our defense was good all game, but the second half, from all perspectives, was one of the most boring I can remember. We went through a drought, Tech was equally inept, and we started aggressively killing clock with 6 minutes to go, and Tech really did nothing to try and prevent us from doing so. We stunk it up from the line, especially in the second half. It was as forgettable an ACC road win as you will see.
But, we went on the road, took control immediately and never looked back. Aside from a few lazy sequences in the second half, we were focused and ready. It is hard to understand why Todd Z and company weren't playing the final few minutes, but that's K. They said the ACC head of officials was in the house which might explain the return to calling hand check fouls 30 feet from the basket - all game. Josh Hairston was whistled the minute he started taking off his warm-ups, I think he had 3 fouls in the scorebook during the National Anthem.
2-0 during this 8 day grind. Bring on the Heels.
Jabari 2.0 still having his way.
Very good defense.
A cookie for me for predicting the return of line changes when 3 games in 5 days was announced.
Stallball.
Go To Hell Carolina.
I got nothing else.
In general a good game coming into UNC, I didn't get the PT figures, but the starters got good time along with Quinn and Andre. All those did well. Matt appears to be trusted. The questionable area was Josh vs Marshall and Semi. Don't know the rationale and who is hurt, etc. but I am sure coach K has his reasons. Hope Jabari will get enough rest to play two more tough games coming up.
More tomorrow as I am hitting the sack but...
1. I love this team and the quality depth. So many weapons!
2. Tonight we saw vintage, old school Duke Defense that I grew up watching in the K area. Tech struggled to even get into a set or run a simple play all game long. That was a joy to watch! Likely the best defense we have seen from this team all year long. Beautiful!
More later! Two down, 2 to go to make this tough week a 4-0 stretch. One game at a time though. Next goal? Beat the low character cheaters at their place Thursday!
Go Duke!!
Hideous second half on offense for Duke, bad FT shooting, poor flow on offense, everything. Fortunately, the defense was more than good enough and the team had built up a good lead in the first to withstand any runs. The second half was so ugly that I turned the sound off on the game with about 11 minutes left and watched the 4th quarter of Heat-Mavericks in the background after Lebron entered the game. That looked more like basketball.
Duke can play as ugly as it wants and miss boatloads of free throws again on Thursday as long as they can come away with a win in Chapel Hill. I won't be bothered with style points nor turn the sound off on that game. Looking forward to it…GTHC!
Are you referring specifically to the second half drive where Miller bodied Rasheed into the hardwood? Yeah, that was weak. Miller sure got a lot of props from Brando who was calling him "one of those really good players that no one in the country knows about". Really? He's OK. He's got potential, but so do a ton of other people...
A solid effort by our squad, particularly on the defensive end, and on the offensive end during the first half.
A minor quibble: Rodney's shot selection. On the plus side, he hit a bunch of threes within the flow of the offense which was great. On the minus side, he forced up a lot of bad shots from two point range to the tune of 1-10 shooting. I'd like to see him work harder to get good shots (for himself or his teammates) as opposed to taking 18' contested jumpers.
Agree with Billy and others regarding Jabari's improvement as a defender and rebounder. On offense, he, also, has benefited by cutting down on the contested jumpers.
While I'm on a roll regarding the 18 foot shot: We have so many good three point shooters that I feel like Coach K should ban any shots from 15' to 21'. (Except Hairston. I realize I'm in the minority, but I actually like it when he shoots them. )
We're going to have to bring our A game to beat Carolina on Thursday. It pains me to admit that their motley crew is playing well right now. Let's bring it!!!
This game reminded me of a typical NBA game when it's the first night of a "back-to-back":
Low energy 2nd half with a workman-like performance to finish off an inferior opponent while having an eye toward the next game.
Our defense looked sharp and active while GTech did their best to make the game as ugly as possible.
TT, Parker, and Hood stood out to me.
But I get the funny feeling Dawkins is going to go off Thursday as he's been just a little too quiet lately.
first off, beautiful redo of the ga. tech stadium, very intimate, shooters had to really like the lighting and the backdrop colors around the goals etc.
just thought it was a great place to play and also watch a game…certainly not better than Cameron but pretty cool nonetheless.
Boys were on fire 1st half….really running this weave offense a number of times that looked good and produced buckets..but second half was horrendous, way too much dribbling around…i just really hate that kinda offense and Rodney and Quinn are the worst offenders…Maybe K wants that but I don't think so. Parker and Hood both miss shots when they shoot it too flat
Imo not a good tune up for the Knuckleheads from Chapel Hell but gotta believe it will be a much more fluid game. K seemed to be really instructing from the sidelines on offense as if the guys didn't know how to run the plays in the second half or they were trying new plays out. definitely gotta play two more even halts of basketball…maybe we just lost interest. Anyway it was a treat for the family and oh by the way that was the worst Tech team I have seen in 30 plus years of living in Atlanta.
The McCamish Pavilion is impressive. It reminds me of a smaller JPJ where UVa plays. Tyler had two great pick pockets in the backcourt where he came from behind a dribbler and stole the ball. He even dove after a loose ball after a steal and tipped it to JP to keep it in bounds. He hit two 3s at the end from the corner that sealed the game. How pretty was that up and under move Amile put on Miller in the first half? We obviously need to shoot free throws better but that can be fixed. Very good turnout from Duke fans too.
Oh, I did have one more thing. Tyler with one of his patented 6/5/3/2/3 games. Other players can have their double-doubles. Tyler is perfectly happy with an impactful quintuple-low-single-in-which-one-category-is-fouls performance.
Beat Maryland - check
Beat Tech - check
Next game - the Cheaters
Everything else - noise to be ignored
No one got hurt. When Ga Tech had chances in the 2nd half to get the lead to 9-10, Duke shut them down. On to Thursday.
Be interesting to see if this weave offensive play keeps getting traction…..sure do wish Rasheed would learn the floater like Nolan…I just think he takes it in too far many too times against centers and gets stuffed often…he does get fouled a lot..just not pretty ball…really think the flow of the UNC game will be much faster and more fluid and not so physical.