MBB: Duke 62, Pitt 76 Post Game Thread

[Bob Green]

Discuss the game here. Let's keep it civil. Thanks!

[toughbuff1]

Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug.

[bedeviled]

Duke's semi-annual flogging game is never fun to watch.

Huge credit to Pitt, though. Not only did they shoot superbly, but their activity, positioning, and passing were great.
Most of all, I appreciated and respected their attitudes, especially given how charged the audience atmosphere was. There was very little manimal posturing stuff (I hate when Duke does it, too). Even on things like the big block on Chase in the 1st half, the over-the-top pass to dunk to start the 2nd half, the 3-on-1 dunk, and the dagger 3-ptr, Pitt continued to work instead of flexing and yelling. And, they got the job done; I give all my kudos to them.

[gurufrisbee]

Ugly.

[jacone21]

Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug.

And sometimes the bug flies in your mouth.

[Coballs]

And there went 2 hours that I'll never get back.

[DukieInKansas]

If you are looking for a bright spot this afternoon, the women are up by 35 over unc with around 6 left in 3rd qtr.

9F 9F 9F 9F

[Ian]

You can talk about rebounding and you can talk about us settling for jumpshots. But it all came down to one thing, we had no legs, no legs to move for rebounds or drive into the lane. The gas gauge was at empty when the game started.

The team is worn down, particularly Ingram and Allen and Plumlee. This is starting to remind me of the 2006 Duke team that was a 2 man team that just wore down at the end.

Maybe Amile will come back and give them a lift, I down know what else to say.

[porkpa]

The final score probably doesn't accurately measure the degree by which we were thrashed.

[weezie]

What else is on? Time for a golf nap.

[duke4ever19]

Shades of Georgetown in 2010. Just a honest to goodness beat down.

[KandG]

Pretty brutal beatdown by Pitt.

Confession: before we went on our recent run of quality play, I feared this is how the season would end. Barely squeaking into the tournament with five guys averaging 38+ minutes, matched up on day 1 with a deep physical team that would take advantage of us being too small, too depleted, too gassed.

I assume this game is an outlier, and that Pitt played slightly over their heads in punishing every single mistake Duke made, and even when we defended reasonably, making a lot of tough jumpshots (plus converting rebounds when they didn't go in). Sometimes our offense is so good we can just match shots with the opponent, but Pitt defended well, plus the tired legs meant we settled for a lot of long shots. Just couldn't find anything near the rim that wasn't heavily contested for almost the entire game.

I maintained the slightest glimmer of hope when it was 59-48 and we had the ball with a chance to cut it back down to single digits after falling behind 17. Thornton missed a stepback jumper and the rout was truly on thereafter.

No rest for the weary with a quick turnaround this week. Next play.

[CameronDuke]

One of 16 league games where we have missed Amile tremendously. Sometimes we have been able to mask it and earn/steal wins, today it was apparent we had a very limited front court.

Marshall has 11-12 career games left at most (if we win the ACC and NCAA Tournaments) and had 0 points and 4 rebounds today.

Wake Forest became a must win game for Duke.

Next play.

[CoSprings]

That was 2 hours of the real. As I said in the 'in-game' thread, this team has really overachieved the last 3 weeks and today felt like a reversal to the mean. We just need to be honest with ourselves as fans and admit this team is incredibly limited and very, very fortunate to be 21-8 given the schedule we've played. This team can see-saw up to the point where they can barely knock off a top team and then have the same ability to sink to being absolutely embarrassed by a bubble team. That's just life this year for Duke. It is what is. The kids are trying like heck, they have great attitudes and are very likable, they just aren't a top shelf Duke squad, and we probably need to let them be what they are and stop thinking they are going to go make some crazy run in March with the limitations they have.

[dukelifer]

Not the team I have watched over the past few weeks. It was the team I thought I would be watching- one that was overmatched and unable to muster the will on the road. Fortunately this team has been tough and has shown the ability to fight through game time aversity. Bad games happen. Pitt was desperate and played with focus. This was a major win for them and should help get them off the bubble. The only takeaway is that this team is still young and struggles with physical teams. Usually Marshall is better in these games but he gave almost nothing. Amile would have been ideal here. Need to beat Wake and then UNC is always a crapshoot. Team is learning for next year an beyond. The chances of winning the ACC and NCAA tourneys is not zero but pretty small. Just need to work on not having games like this anymore. Part of the process of getting the Final Four- hopefully next year.

[wavedukefan70s]

I hate to say we looked beat.flat out gassed.

[Devilwin]

Pitt was unreal. We were horrible. End of story. Oh, and for those of us praying for Amile, we are running out of games. He'll be back, but my money's on next year. We play with what we got.

[CameronDuke]

Any chatter on if Amile has filed his redshirt papers yet? Is the team still planning on bringing him back for 2 regular season games and 10 at most ACC/NCAA Tournament games (likely less)?

[SCMatt33]

So first things first. The first and primary reason Duke lost is because our energy level wasn't in the same ballpark as theirs. Everything else that happened, imo, is merely a symptom of that.

I'm gonna vent on the offense a bit now. By my count (and this could be inaccurate) Duke attempted a grand total of 6 passes in the second half where the recipient was inside the 3 point line. 3 of those possessions were in the last 5 minutes, with 2 in the final few possessions. On those six possessions, Duke scored 6 points, a made 3, a made 2, and a 1-2 from the foul line. On the rest of the half court possessions for the half (so discounting the 2 points for the tech and not counting Luke's steal and shoot 3 as a possession at all for these purposes), Duke scored 19 points. I don't have an exact count on those possessions, but my gut says that there were likely 30-35 total possessions in the half leaving it at 19 points in the mid to high 20's on possessions without an interior pass attempt. It makes it so easy for the other team to defend when they know they can press out on all ball screens and not have to look behind them for a cutter. You just can't beat teams playing offense that way. If I'm an opposing coach. I'm showing this tape to my team and telling them to deny any kick out pass and make them prove that they'll beat you on a back door cut. I tell moon ball defenders to guard close and funnel the dribbler to help while telling my center to fully commit to the help and make Duke probe that they'll dumping off successfully.

This isn't a just today thing either. Dukes assist rate before today was 48.5 good for 260th in the country, I guarantee that it's much worse than that on two pointers. I fully understand that we don't have a passing point guard on the roster, but you don't need crazy stuff. Just some simple flashes to the high post by Ingram, or a post and kick out by Plumlee can get the defense moving for driving lanes.

[KandG]

Coach K:

"We played with no emotion"

"Forty-eight shots and 32 threes...that shows a lack of wanting contact...that and the rebounding."