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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    About 150 feet in front of the Duke Chapel doors.

    MBB: Duke 85, Utah St 52 Post-Game Thread

    Put your post-game thoughts here.

    As a friends said, "Welcome to Duke, Luke Kennard."
    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.”

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by JBDuke View Post
    Put your post-game thoughts here.

    As a friends said, "Welcome to Duke, Luke Kennard."
    Kennard's game today reminded me of Grayson's coming out party at Wake last year. I hope the confidence remains as it did for Grayson.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Washington DC
    Kennard's shot was falling for the first time this season. Good for him. He really could wind up being our second leading scorer this season, because he scores multiple ways and is always on the attack.

    The difference in the game was Amile and Marshall controlling the boards, and the paint for that matter. According to the in game stats, we out-rebounded them 35-23. When the box score comes out, I expect to see 6-7 blocks by our guys.

    My favorite play of the game was Brandon taking a hard dribble towards the basket, absorbing contact from the defender and using his length to hit a floater from about 8 feet out. I like it. Brandon is working hard out there and figuring things out. He's growing as a player.

    Derryck is still in a bit of a hurry. He needs to look to score less and facilitate more. I like that he is playing huge minutes and hustling though. That's going to pay off come March.

  4. #4

    Defense!

    Luke and Amile both had great games. Also liked what I saw from Brandon - he's improving...

    I was most excited to see better man-to-man D today. Utah State did not have great penetrators, but I still thought we did a much better job of keeping them in front of us and then helping off from the weak side. That tougher D should really help us against IU. And if all 4 freshmen continue to improve at this rate, watch out!

  5. #5
    Team is looking better. Nice to see Kennard hitting. If he gets more consistent- he will open up a lot of options. He played a little more angry today. Ingram showed some flashes but he is still struggling to figure out what he can do well out there. But he did not force that much today. He does show some ability to grab rebounds in traffic. Indiana will be another good test.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    San Francisco
    Defense was the story of the day, for me. We looked the best we've looked all season on D. I know that Utah State isn't particularly formidable on offense, but we dominated them like you would expect a top team to dominate a weak offense. I was happy to see both Derryck and Brandon play hard on defense even when they didn't have much going for them on offense. Brandon, especially, stayed focused all game despite being quiet on O.

    This team has so much potential on O, too. Amile and Matt are more or less perfect secondary scorers. Meanwhile, Grayson makes scoring look easy. Finally, Luke, Brandon, and Derryck are all oozing potential. It was great to see Luke knock down shots today. If that trio can continue to develop, what is already the top offense in the land will begin to look really scary to opposing teams.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Washington, D.C.

    Defense

    Count me in on liking the defense. The first 5 or so minutes of the second half were especially impressive.

    I thought Kennard was wonderful today, and Amile and Marshall also had great games. Grayson was typically outstanding. Matt was good, although I still cringe when he initiates the offense.

    Ingram definitely made strides, long strides, and I found myself agreeing with Greenberg (uncomfortable feeling) that Ingram right now is best as a matchup problem at the 4. At the 3, he doesn't have enough of an outside shot to really spread the floor.

    Thornton seemed a little off all day, and Jeter has to learn to stop slapping at the ball, but I'm confident both will improve quite a bit by season's end.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    I thought Amile looked dominant out there today. Granted it was against a relatively small team, but he got pretty much what he wanted in the post, was all over the boards, and was a man among boys out there on D. No question he'll get my motm vote, despite Luke's hot hand.

  9. #9
    Imagine in two years Senior Grayson Allen and Junior Luke "old man game" Kennard dominating the ACC. The hate will so intense it'll be like Laettner never existed.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Dallas, TX
    Overall great team effort on both sides on the court and great job by pretty much everyone. Derryck struggled a bit offensively, but wasn't needed, with the huge game from Luke.

    I think most of us saw this coming out party happening sooner or later for Luke, and I'm just glad he's out of his slump. Even before this game, he had been doing a magnificent job of being aggressive and getting good looks for himself. The ball just wasn't going in the hoop, and today, he just started getting buckets.

    He's not going to be THIS good, but he might be the most creative offensive player on the team. When his shot is going, he puts SO much pressure on the D with his shot fakes that he can easily get to the paint and make a play. His range is out to the NBA 3 point line, and will not hesitate to shoot it from deep if you're backed off. I feel like Grayson gets by mostly on pure athletic superiority, while Luke is actually a bit more skilled at finding openings to get his shot off. He has great awareness of the defense, and can rise up in a split second if he senses the D is weak. He's also a bit better on defense than I was lead to believe, with 7 steals on the season.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Durham
    Quote Originally Posted by COYS View Post
    This team has so much potential on O, too. Amile and Matt are more or less perfect secondary scorers. Meanwhile, Grayson makes scoring look easy. Finally, Luke, Brandon, and Derryck are all oozing potential. It was great to see Luke knock down shots today. If that trio can continue to develop, what is already the top offense in the land will begin to look really scary to opposing teams.
    I hate to be tough, but I'm still not seeing it for derryck.

    In 19 minutes he was 1-9, 0 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals 1 TO and 4 fouls, and both assists were in the first minute he was in the game. I don't mean to rip on him for a poor game, but this seems to be more the norm than the exception.

    He's had a couple games he scored well, but he's not scoring well or consistently on the year, he hasn't been much of a distributer, and he's still making some very bad decisions (the blown dunk trying to showboat, a horribly missed lob pass to chase).

    So I ask this honestly, what is it that people are seeing? It's not showing up in his stat lines.

    Anyway, I was really happy with how the team played today. The defense looked pretty solid, and the offense was flowing more than I think it has recently. Much more effective motion without the ball, lots of good passing into the defense and back out. Luke was great, and grayson's energy is ever astouding...he dover for a ball a few times, and leads the team out there as much as the captains.

    unfortunately, Indiana doesn't look to be as good as they were initially projected, but it still looks to be a better test than tonight. Hopefully we can see results from the hard work these guys are doing in practice, with a solid win over a decent team, instead of a nail biter!

    Lets Go ACC (except UNC)
    1200. DDMF.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Raleigh
    Derryck had a rough game today. It sure as heck looks like he's trying really, really hard. It looked like K seriously talked to him for a long time the last time he subbed out, and not as a @#$% and *&^% talk but more of a father-son type teaching encounter before he sat for the rest of the game. Pulling exceptionally hard for the young man.
    [redacted] them and the horses they rode in on.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Quote Originally Posted by uh_no View Post
    I hate to be tough, but I'm still not seeing it for derryck.
    It's weird. So far, he's played better against top 50 competition (UK, VCU, Gtown) than he has the weaker teams on the schedule.

    I'm okay with that pattern continuing one more game.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    I can't put my finger on quite why- freshman Derryck Thornton reminds me of what I recall of Quinn Cook's freshman season.
    That turned out ok :-)

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by uh_no View Post
    I hate to be tough, but I'm still not seeing it for derryck.

    In 19 minutes he was 1-9, 0 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals 1 TO and 4 fouls, and both assists were in the first minute he was in the game. I don't mean to rip on him for a poor game, but this seems to be more the norm than the exception.


    To be fair, he had two nice passes to Jeter that should have gone for assist but Jeter fumbled them out of bounds.

    I'm not giving up on him yet and I think his future is bright. TBH, I'm more disappointed in Ingram than Derryck, however I believe both will be just fine by the end of the year when it matters.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Durham
    Quote Originally Posted by fuse View Post
    I can't put my finger on quite why- freshman Derryck Thornton reminds me of what I recall of Quinn Cook's freshman season.
    That turned out ok :-)
    with a loss to lehigh?

    oh you meant his career.
    1200. DDMF.

  17. #17
    I'm not seeing the reason to hate on Thornton. He's a Freshman (and young even by that standard) point guard (the most important position) that's been thrust into a point guardless team and he's holding his own. He's a top 20 recruit, he's not Tyus Jones (#4 overall in 2014). He can handle the ball and hit open shots already, and he'll only get better. Only way you should be disappointed is if you expected him to dominate from the get go.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Undisclosed
    We are lucky to have Thornton on the team, he did not need to reclassify. Much like Andre adawkins, coming early is at our request. I am neither surprised not concerned that he has a big learning curve. A season is a lifetime.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Durham
    Quote Originally Posted by Potato Head View Post
    I'm not seeing the reason to hate on Thornton. He's a Freshman (and young even by that standard) point guard (the most important position) that's been thrust into a point guardless team and he's holding his own. He's a top 20 recruit, he's not Tyus Jones (#4 overall in 2014). He can handle the ball and hit open shots already, and he'll only get better. Only way you should be disappointed is if you expected him to dominate from the get go.
    This is the phraseology that's confusing to me. On numbers, he's not holding his own. I'm okay with that. as you say, he's a freshman at a tough position, and certainly not Tyus Jones. So if he's NOT holding his own, why can't we be honest about that?

    He has more PF and nearly as many turnovers as assists, and hasn't shown the ability to consistently initiate the offense (arguably the most important thing the PG does).

    Here's the thing though:
    I'm okay with that. Maybe he'll play better this year (I hope so, I think he hopes so, I think everyone hopes so), or maybe he'll need another year. He came early.

    So lets be honest with that. Let's not say stuff like I've seen so far...that he's the next coming of sliced bread, that this team's postseason hopes revolve around him, that he looks great...he doesn't. he might not be ready now, he might not be ready this year. AND THAT'S OKAY. Just be honest about it.

    TL;DR: it's okay for freshman to not hold their own.
    1200. DDMF.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    Thornton reclassified back to his original class.

    He's older than Ingram and Jeter.

    In order to finish up his high school credits, he took summer-school classes through the summer, staying off the court at a time when his classmates were already playing pick-up at Duke.

    It was widely understood that he would be behind when the season began and that is still the case.

    He is erratic and he still has a tendency to dribble into trouble. But his performances in MSG show that he is a big-time talent and a player that Duke very much needs.

    I cannot imagine why anyone would want to write off a true freshman in November. Thornton will be a major part of any success Duke will have this season.

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