MBB: Duke 81, BC 64 Post-Game Thread

[JBDuke]

Put your post-game thoughts here.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

A few jitters to start, a few missed FT's and 3's, but a solid first road win for our Devils! LGD GTHc!

[Kfanarmy]

That was some pretty ugly basketball, aside from about 4 minutes in the 2nd half. Defense consistently out of position.

[arnie]

Good neutral court win. Looking forward to playing on the road and an ACC crowd against WF this Wednesday.

[TKG]

I know we are early in the season but this team reminds me of the Jabari Parker team; potential offensive explosion every time they step on the court but unable to stop dribble penetration and the pick-and-roll.

[CameronDuke]

Good first "road" win of the season although BC's home crowd sounded like a library for most of the game. Wake Forest will surely be a more rabid road crowd Duke will face. Ingram is starting to come into his own and his ability to utilize his length inside for shots over smaller defenders and his touch from deep are really advanced for a player so young. It is nice to have a guy like Kennard to come off the bench and give us 17. Matty and Grayson continue to provide solid leadership and scoring as well as hustle and conceptual skills defensively. Thornton was a bit off tonight (played just 15 minutes with 1-2 shooting and an assist) but still seems to have his heart in the right place and appears mature as a person. Our inside scoring and interior defense are still a bit of a chink in our armor but MP3 and Jeter give us hustle as well and an occasional bucket or two inside when set up in the right position by driving guards. Any win in the conference counts the same and road wins are especially nice. This may seem like a ho hum, manufactured ACC victory we have all been accustomed (spoiled) to seeing but for a team that starts two freshmen and a sophomore and brings two more freshmen off the bench, this was a solid effort to grasp what Coach K wanted to do.

Can't wait to see how we come out against Wake Forest in Winston-Salem.

[duke4ever19]

Good neutral court win. Looking forward to playing on the road and an ACC crowd against WF this Wednesday.

Neutral is right. Plenty of pro-Duke cheers this afternoon. Surprised how empty the place was considering Duke was the opponent.

[devildeac]

Neutral is right. Plenty of pro-Duke cheers this afternoon. Surprised how empty the place was considering Duke was the opponent.

Must have been rather deflating to the few Boston folks in attendance.

[Saratoga2]

The starting lineup seemed to have communication issues with the TO bug impacting Derryck making passes that weren't there and Brandon initially a little sloppy as well. Even when he came back in during the second half Derryck didn't seem to be over the jitters and wound up sitting a lot. He also had multiple fouls but I think it was the carelessness with the ball that sat him down. That put a lot of pressure on Matt to be the primary ball handler. He had some problems but did an acceptable job overall.

I thought BC played a MTM that stayed in closer to the basket, which cut off a lot of our slashing opportunities. Our 3 pt shooting was cold so along with the TO's we were struggling early. We got steals and rebounds and got fast break opportunities which helped us pull away. Brandon showed a variety of scoring methods and BC couldn't defend him.

Our best lineup was with Grayson, Brandon, Luke, Matt and Marshall. They are just better with the ball, not as many careless TO's, good passing, 4 very good scorers and decent defense. Luke is a clever scorer and if his 3 goes down more regularly, he could average 20. Brandon is a freak of nature. So smooth while Grayson just takes it to the defense. Matt will get his in any way the defense makes available. Great to see them coming along. Chase had a few good plays so perhaps he will build on that and give us an option should Marshall tire or get into foul trouble.

I didn't look at the stats as yet, but it seemed as though our 4 bigger guards did a good job of rebounding. BC is not a very good team, but it was still a road win and the first ACC matchup for our freshmen.

[arnie]

Must have been rather deflating to the few Boston folks in attendance.

Also deflating to ACC fans - BC hosting the defending NCAA National Championship Team and no interest in Boston. This simply doesn't happen in any other venue. Can we "trade" them in for UCONN or simply drop back to a 14 team bball conference and apply more pressure to ND on football side?

[ChillinDuke]

...

Our best lineup was with Grayson, Brandon, Luke, Matt and Marshall. They are just better with the ball, not as many careless TO's, good passing, 4 very good scorers and decent defense. Luke is a clever scorer and if his 3 goes down more regularly, he could average 20. Brandon is a freak of nature. So smooth while Grayson just takes it to the defense. Matt will get his in any way the defense makes available. Great to see them coming along. Chase had a few good plays so perhaps he will build on that and give us an option should Marshall tire or get into foul trouble.

...

It's not really time to throw in the towel in terms of development, especially remembering that last year's team went 2-2 in the ACC before having that breakout game at Louisville. And even then, they proceeded to go 4-3 in conference before their next breakout game at UVA which was the gateway to 12 straight ACC wins. So, there is certainly still time for this team to find themselves.

But I find myself agreeing (admitting?) with Saratoga's post above. Derryck just isn't coming along as fast as we probably need him to for this particular team. And don't take that as some major dig at Derryck - it's not at all. My point is more that I think our best chance at beating teams (and beating teams consistently) is with the 4 guards mentioned above in a lineup together. There is so much offensive firepower in that lineup - any of those 4 can go for 20 in just about any game. And if two of them do, we have good odds to win the game.

Given where our defense is right now - I'm just starting to think we are a long ways away from dramatic improvement (without Amile in the lineup). I think our best shot is to just double down on offense and see if we can outscore teams.

Of course, some incremental gains in our defense and/or Chase and/or Marshall and/or Derryck would help and perhaps help greatly. But standing at today and looking out into the future, I think my best plan would be to go with those 4 and Marshall and see where we land.

Interested to see where K goes with this team.

- Chillin

[mo.st.dukie]

But I find myself agreeing (admitting?) with Saratoga's post above. Derryck just isn't coming along as fast as we probably need him to for this particular team. And don't take that as some major dig at Derryck - it's not at all. My point is more that I think our best chance at beating teams (and beating teams consistently) is with the 4 guards mentioned above in a lineup together.

- Chillin

I disagree about Derryck. This was his third straight start and he was coming off a great game against LBSU. Clearly K has confidence in him to give him those three starts. He's coming along quite nicely but it's always important to remember with all players that progress is not linear, it's full of 1 step forward, 2 steps back and 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Derryck had a bad game today but prior to this game he was showing excellent progression and my guess is that we will see him have another good game sometime soon. Derryck has a different game compared to our other guards and brings some great speed and on-ball defense. His jumpshot has been really solid as well and he's shooting well from 3. He'll be an important piece to this team and will have some games where us fans will be very happy he's on our side.

[dukelifer]

I disagree about Derryck. This was his third straight start and he was coming off a great game against LBSU. Clearly K has confidence in him to give him those three starts. He's coming along quite nicely but it's always important to remember with all players that progress is not linear, it's full of 1 step forward, 2 steps back and 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Derryck had a bad game today but prior to this game he was showing excellent progression and my guess is that we will see him have another good game sometime soon. Derryck has a different game compared to our other guards and brings some great speed and on-ball defense. His jumpshot has been really solid as well and he's shooting well from 3. He'll be an important piece to this team and will have some games where us fans will be very happy he's on our side.

I agree. Derryck will have better games but there will be times when he will sit- depending on the matchups and Freshman mistakes. He is not Tyus but he is capable of being a big contributor.

Duke was the only road team to win in ACC play today. It is not easy to win impressively on the road- particularly with a bunch of very inexperienced players. I was happy to see Luke turn a poor shooting first half around. Ingram is clearly a special player. I was not sure he was ready to go pro- but the ceiling is unbelievably high for that guy. He will be leaving as his potential is too great- even if his body is not ready for the next level. Grayson is a bit crazy. He needs to be careful out there- cannot afford to lose him. The team is fun to watch but it starts getting hard in the ACC. Wake is playing well. Never an easy place to play and their fans will be loud and intimidating.

[BD80]

I disagree about Derryck. ... He's coming along quite nicely but it's always important to remember with all players that progress is not linear, it's full of 1 step forward, 2 steps back and 2 steps forward, 1 step back. ... He'll ... have some games where us fans will be very happy he's on our side.

So he's like Darth Jar Jar? Deceptively effective?

[KandG]

I was at the game and the number of Duke fans was overwhelming and far more vocal than the BC fans, though to be fair, I'm not sure all the BC students are back yet this soon after the start of 2016. But the sad reality is also that there just isn't much local interest in BC basketball, and the team did little to nothing to reward those who did show up to root for BC. If it sounded like a library on the broadcast to home viewers, that's because it was like that in the actual stadium.

The first ten minutes of the game were extremely ugly as others have noted, with the Duke offense looking mechanical at best and scattered at worst. It was a little too easy for BC to focus on Grayson and wall off his penetration, given the shaky ball movement & decision making early on in the halfcourt offense. Derryck was especially guilty of questionable decisions where he would penetrate only to pass when he should shoot, or force a shot when there was nothing there.

The turnovers Duke forced (leading to transition points) and the fouls they drew from overaggressive BC defenders did seem to loosen the team up, and they more or less dominated thereafter, even with several defensive lapses (thank goodness BC couldn't make open 15 footers). I really liked Kennard's off-ball movement and how aggressive he remained even after he had several open shots fail to drop. Ingram is something special even if he still looks raw -- BC had no answer for his length and he seems to make a few plays a game where his arms enable something good (a rebound, a deflection, a block) even when he's out of position.

Matt looked like the most composed player on the court by far, on both ends of the court -- even when he got burned once backdoor, he slapped his head like he knew what he did wrong immediately and knew not to let it happen again, whereas some of the younger guys looked simply confused after getting beat. I loved the way Matt always seemed to be in the right place on the court, and how well he ran things on offense and worked to get Brandon open looks.

I still worry how well we'll do against better teams when we have so little going inside besides Grayson slashing and Brandon shooting over people on mismatches -- I recall Plumlee getting one post up and rolling to the basket once, likewise for Jeter. This team still has a lot of learning to do...but the positive is that their ceiling is significant as well. I enjoyed watching them a lot up close today, highlight plays, mistakes and all.

[Pghdukie]

I kringe everytime cameras show AJ.

[miramar]

Ingram played 40 minutes, Allen 39, Jones 38, and Plumlee 34. I know that they are well rested and that Coach K knows how to handle minutes, but this would be a great time for Jeter to step up.

No matter what, Ingram and Kennard played some great stretches of basketball, and if they and Thornton continue to develop then this could turn into a really tough team once Amile comes back.

[burnspbesq]

Just tuning in now to watch the replay (took the kid to LAX to head back to school, then went to Amoeba in Hollywood to spend the gift certificate).

When did G-Man start rocking the earring???

[dukelifer]

Just tuning in now to watch the replay (took the kid to LAX to head back to school, then went to Amoeba in Hollywood to spend the gift certificate).

When did G-Man start rocking the earring???

Many years ago

[FerryFor50]

Any game that doesn't end in a Duke injury is a good game to me.

Was a bit worried when Allen hit his head on the floor. Not sure why there was no foul called on the play - the defender bumped Allen and caused him to go off balance. Doesn't the defender need to leave room for a shooter to land?