MBB: Duke 79, Wake Forest 71 Post-Game Thread

[JBDuke]

Put your post-game thoughts here.

[wsb3]

Whew. It was ugly but it's a win. Kind of had a feeling it would be like this. As tired as they looked Sunday I did not see them being energized tonight. Glad Wake did not take advantage of our mistakes & missed free throws.

[Saratoga2]

Didn't see the game but would love to hear what was going on low percentage shooting, Luke Kennard not getting on the board, Marshall's big night, etc.

If I read the Amile string right, it doesn't look like he will be back, so what we had tonight will be all we have going forward.

[weezie]

Hard to argue against Marshall as MOTM, what heart! And to think, his last game in Cameron is nigh...

[FerryFor50]

Weird game.

Wake in the first half? Hitting 5/9 from three, but turning the ball over a ton. Duke? Can't shoot, but played decent D to force turnovers. Plumlee owned boards.

Result? 1 point lead for Duke.

2nd half Wake regressed back to mean and Duke started hitting shots late in the half, so Duke wins.

Lots of points left at the FT line (13 misses, 5 by Allen, 6 by MP3). Allen shot 19 FTs, but that was deceptive - wasn't until late when he started getting to the line. Allen still getting absolutely mugged on drives, as well as getting cleared out on rebounds.

Ingram looked rough early but woke up. He also helped a lot of the boards.

Just glad they won and no one got (seriously) hurt. Was a little nervous when Jones tweaked an ankle.

[MCFinARL]

Weird game.

Wake in the first half? Hitting 5/9 from three, but turning the ball over a ton. Duke? Can't shoot, but played decent D to force turnovers. Plumlee owned boards.

Result? 1 point lead for Duke.

2nd half Wake regressed back to mean and Duke started hitting shots late in the half, so Duke wins.

Lots of points left at the FT line (13 misses, 5 by Allen, 6 by MP3). Allen shot 19 FTs, but that was deceptive - wasn't until late when he started getting to the line. Allen still getting absolutely mugged on drives, as well as getting cleared out on rebounds.

Ingram looked rough early but woke up. He also helped a lot of the boards.

Just glad they won and no one got (seriously) hurt. Was a little nervous when Jones tweaked an ankle.

Generally agree with this, especially the observation that it was a weird game. In the first half Duke clearly outplayed Wake but couldn't hit shots and barely led. In the second half Duke made more mistakes generally and got a lot shakier on defense but somehow won because Wake stopped hitting so many outside shots. Very strange but I will take the victory.

[arnie]

We simply gutted it out. Didn't finish drives in 1st half and Wake made shots they don't normally make, but D much stronger in last 10 minutes. Hoping for another miracle Saturday.

[KandG]

One field goal in the final 7:05...yikes.

Even with a 30 second clock, those possessions down the stretch up 68-60 were the definition of labored: it looked the return of a former favorite topic around here, "stall ball", with lots of dribbling in place, little movement, and one possession fizzling out after another. Thank goodness we got to the line a lot and that our defense held up. Wake's self-destructive tendencies helped immensely as well, no more so than that Devin Thomas pass to the backside of Ingram.

Glad to see Thornton pick up his play again in the final 10 minutes or so, after a rough game and a half, even with a couple of unsightly possessions. Kennard was surprisingly invisible for the game, so much so that K had Jeter in the game to replace Plumlee after he fouled out, leading to hack-a-Jeter. Good for Chase for making the one FT and keeping the game from getting any more tense. (Marshall was *very* impressive and I'm glad he rebounded after his outing against Pitt)

Hope the team can get some rest to recharge batteries for the big game on Saturday. I'd by lying if I said I wasn't worried given how empty the team's tank has looked the last two games, but I don't doubt UNC in the final home game will give them an extra spark. GTHC!!

[dukelifer]

Duke needed this win to keep a decent NCAA seed. Wasn't pretty but it was a win. The UNC game will be emotional on senior/grad student night and I expect the guys will come out with a lot of energy. After that- it is all about getting tourney experience. Going to be tough without Amile to get far in either tourney- particularly the ACC. Duke is looking at a 4 or 5 seed- maybe a 6 in the NCAAs if they lose the next two. Always an adventure with this group. Has been fun to watch the growth.

[Billy Dat]

I only saw the second half.

For the first 12-13 minutes, we couldn't get a stop.

Then we started to score, then we started to get stops, or maybe they just missed. Devin Thomas was so sloppy with the ball, that kid really seems to have a ton of unrealized potential.

DT, after giving us nothing on offense, broke the ice with a couple of buckets, Grayson had a big 3, MJones hit a few big 3s, but when we had a chance to salt it away with about 5 left, we went cold and then went stall ball a bit early. The final 2 minutes took at least 10-20 in real time, Wake managed to keep fouling without any time winding off the clock and they were scoring really quick lay-ups on the other end. There were about 20 total possessions in the final 2 minutes.

K took the jacket off with about 5 to go.

Ingram had a couple of galvanizing plays - a huge block, a big defensive board in traffic, he also was scoring when we needed buckets earlier in the second half.

Marshall did a lot of his stat accumulation in the first half which I didn't see. He fought like crazy in the second half but was hit and miss, but his physical presence and tenacity were very important. Compare him to Devin Thomas. Imagine if Thomas played with MP3s drive and passion and commitment - he could be an AA.

We take the win and look to Saturday. It's hard to tell what will happen. Was that Louisville-UVA-UNC run the peak of the season? Who knows. It'll be good to have a day of rest tomorrow followed by 2 good days of practice. It's March...9F!

[DukeWarhead]

Didn't see the game.
Why was Luke such a non-factor? Did he ride the pine all night?
Tired of hearing how tired we are. Other teams play the same schedule and yes, maybe they have a deeper rotation, but some people make it sound like we are just so exhausted.
Finally, we need to do something to cure the damn foot jinx for this team. If Amile gets redshirted, I'm sure I'll be happy next season, but right now this is just sad - would have loved to see him get this team over the hump.

I dunno. I have no expectations for this team going into March, but at least I think they can compete with just about anybody because of the crazy good parity this season.

[FerryFor50]

I only saw the second half.

For the first 12-13 minutes, we couldn't get a stop.

Then we started to score, then we started to get stops, or maybe they just missed. Devin Thomas was so sloppy with the ball, that kid really seems to have a ton of unrealized potential.

DT, after giving us nothing on offense, broke the ice with a couple of buckets, Grayson had a big 3, MJones hit a few big 3s, but when we had a chance to salt it away with about 5 left, we went cold and then went stall ball a bit early. The final 2 minutes took at least 10-20 in real time, Wake managed to keep fouling without any time winding off the clock and they were scoring really quick lay-ups on the other end. There were about 20 total possessions in the final 2 minutes.

K took the jacket off with about 5 to go.

Ingram had a couple of galvanizing plays - a huge block, a big defensive board in traffic, he also was scoring when we needed buckets earlier in the second half.

We take the win and look to Saturday. It's hard to tell what will happen. Was that Louisville-UVA-UNC run the peak of the season? Who knows. It'll be good to have a day of rest tomorrow followed by 2 good days of practice. It's March...9F!

It felt like the defense was weak when the offense wasn't scoring. Lots of transition points, guys not getting back, hung heads.

No coincidence the defense got better once Allen got his shot back.

[dukelifer]

Didn't see the game.
Why was Luke such a non-factor? Did he ride the pine all night?
Tired of hearing how tired we are. Other teams play the same schedule and yes, maybe they have a deeper rotation, but some people make it sound like we are just so exhausted.
Finally, we need to do something to cure the damn foot jinx for this team. If Amile gets redshirted, I'm sure I'll be happy next season, but right now this is just sad - would have loved to see him get this team over the hump.

I dunno. I have no expectations for this team going into March, but at least I think they can compete with just about anybody because of the crazy good parity this season.

This team is tired and that is true for a lot of teams. Nobody is tearing it up right now. UVA struggled with Clemson. UNC struggled with Syracuse. Duke did what was needed. Luke is a Frosh and has off nights. He will be much more consistent next year.

[CameronDuke]

The guys played like a scene out of Rocky, especially Marshall. They didn't finesse themselves to the win tonight - it was mainly heart and grit. They kept answering the bell. I hope they rest up these next three days for a barn burner on Saturday night as they go for the sweep of UNC.

I've been saying it for a month plus now, but Amile looks more and more like he's going to redshirt and come back next year. There's still time yet for him to return, but after missing 17 of 18 ACC regular season games, one has to wonder how effective he would be and how arduous it would be to incorporate him back into our team's on court plan and concept. This may go down as the worst injury in Duke's history in the last at least 25 or so years in terms of missed games being the metric for severity of the injury. Kyrie missed the entire ACC regular season and ACC Tournament but at least came back for the NCAA Tournament. Boozer, Brand, and Kelly all came back too. I would be shocked to see Amile back on the floor this year. Nonetheless, the guys keep giving it all they've got (mostly) and that's all one can ask for!

[Ballboy1998]

Pretty uneventful game. Honestly felt like Wake took ill advised threes all game and made a lot of them for the first 3/4. Once their shooting reverted to the mean, the good guys got a working margin.

Did not like seeing Grayson get blatantly pulled down with no flagrant. Dangerous play and really feels like open season on him now. I look forward to the outrage on Sportscenter (yeah, right).

Again very happy with Thornton's performance.

GTHCGTH!

[FerryFor50]

Did not like seeing Grayson get blatantly pulled down with no flagrant. Dangerous play and really feels like open season on him now. I look forward to the outrage on Sportscenter (yeah, right).

Don't forget the hip check at the end of the game when a simple touch foul to put him on the line would have sufficed.

[Newton_14]

It was ugly, but will definitely take the win. I thought we started out really well in the first 10 minutes with a good verve and energy, but despite playing well in a lot of areas, we just could not make shots. We were getting good shots, but just could not make them, and were missing FT's as well. With that, instead of the lead being 15-17, it was 5-7. That led to a quiet crowd, and suddenly we were flat, and Wake was making shots. Had we just shot it normal during those first 10 minutes, the rout is on, and the flatness of the next 10 minutes likely never happen. It was the trickle down effect. Suddenly its the 2nd half and you look up and Wake is leading. I was proud of how the guys fought through that and made enough plays to get separation finally at 68-60. The place was rocking at that point, but darn if we didn't have a repeat of the first 10 minutes there and suddenly could not make shots or FT's again. Thankfully our defense held strong and we got enough stops and made free throws in those final 3 minutes to hold on.

Can't say enough about Marshall Plumlee and Grayson Allen. I know Marshall got a little too excited on 2 or 3 of his shot attempts, but those aside, the kid was just a beast. An absolute beast. I'm not sure they had his rebound count correct either. He started the game with 3 to 4 really quick rebounds, yet during a stop in play I noticed they only had him at 1. After a few minutes they did bump it to 2, but I really thought it was 3 or 4 at that point. Either way, what a game. Great defense all game long, even with knowing he had to be smart and stay on the court. Timely buckets, and just rebound after rebound after rebound. He was directing traffic out there on defense ala Amile as well.

Grayson is just other worldly good. Some of those 3's he made (and has made them consistently all year) were just huge. We are witnessing greatness. If that kid decided to stay all 4 years, he would light up the record book and 3 would forever hang in the rafters in Cameron thereafter. A joy to watch. And Wake absolutely went after him at every opportunity to get in his head. Manning even sent the walk-on in on our last 1st Half possession to foul him, which he did, by grabbing his jersey right in front of the ref before Grayson air mailed the pass over Derryck's head. Say what you want, the kid takes a beating out there, mostly from body blows, but the guy fouled the crap out of him on that break away. I suppose it looked on TV as a play on the ball, but he actually hammered him on the shoulder, not even close to the ball.

Matt was very solid, and Brandon was Brandon other than a tough shooting night. He made up for it in other categories and the intangibles like he does so often as well. Another player destined for greatness. Luke laid another goose egg and he is just hard to figure out. I know some kids do not show emotion but Luke is like a zombie out there. I know he cares and probably wants to win as much as the next guy but I think he would be better served finding ways to get more pumped/angry/amped up, whatever. He is far too talented to not score at all in a game, even with limited minutes. He got lost a few times on defense as well, and got yelled at by K and teammates. We need the good Luke heading into uncheat round 2 and the tourneys.

Danny Manning is a horrible coach. Loved him as a player, but whatever those kids achieve they are basically doing it on their own. I do not see him lasting as a HC. Probably a good assistant, but does not appear to have a clue as a head coach.

Lastly, I do hope we as a fan base collectively, appreciate what it has taken for this team to win 22 games and counting. I am fully in the camp with others that K needs to be in the running for ACC Coach of the year. It kills me we lost Amile because I truly think we are a top 5 team with him, and would be in first place in the ACC and a Top 5 team, but to win the amount of games they have won without him is remarkable. No depth. One quality big man, who just happens to be Marshall Plumlee, no true Power Forward, a Freshman PG who had to reclassify late rather than be in High School right now, missed the entire summer with his teammates, Jones misses most of the uncheat game and all of Louisville... this crazy ridiculous horrendous ACC scheduling... all that, and this team came up 1 game short of being able to play for a share of the Regular Season Title this Saturday. 1 freaking game short. Amazing. The guys and the coaching staff should be applauded. My two cents.

Go Duke!

[uh_no]

Pretty uneventful game. Honestly felt like Wake took ill advised threes all game and made a lot of them for the first 3/4. Once their shooting reverted to the mean, the good guys got a working margin.

Did not like seeing Grayson get blatantly pulled down with no flagrant. Dangerous play and really feels like open season on him now. I look forward to the outrage on Sportscenter (yeah, right).

Again very happy with Thornton's performance.

GTHCGTH!

overall i was happy...but he's still far too shaky on offense. it took most of the game before he scored, and still has trouble finding his place...he still makes a few highly questionable decisions...but that's okay.

He really needs to be more aggressive earlier in the game though...otherwise the D just keys in on grayson and brandon.

[tbyers11]

You could tell that there was an emphasis on taking the ball to the hole instead of settling for threes after Sunday. However, in the first half this led to some contested layups and runners that weren't bad shots but they weren't great shots either. It seemed like we were thinking too much and not playing by feel. When the shots didn't fall you could see that we were pressing a bit. The D was scattershot in the first half. Very good for a possession here or there but we gave up way too many offensive rebounds. Wake also hit some deep 3s by not great shooters. Then we got a working margin and instead of maintaining or extending we gave it all back.

We didn't come out on fire in the second half and we were in for a game. D was pretty awful the first 10 minutes. Then Matt and Grayson hit a couple of 3s and our D got pretty good for about a five minute stretch. We got up 68-60 and closed the game out from there even though it was pretty with a couple of bad stall ball possessions and some missed FTs.

I don't think we looked that physically tired. There was a lot of effort, but you could see that mentally we were definitely not sharp. Without the ability to have a real practice after the Pitt debacle, I was afraid this might be the case. When our shooting was way below average in the first half and Wake's was well above average (from 3) we were in for a fight. Thankfully, Wake isn't that good, the 3 pt shooting reverted to the mean in the second half for both teams, and we came up with a really good stretch from the 10 minute mark to the 5 minute mark of the 2nd half.

Marshall was a beast tonight with 13 points and 17 rebs (10 offensive). He also played pretty good D against Thomas.
Grayson forced some shots in the first half but took it hard to the hole and drew fouls all game long. His shooting came around in the second half and he ended up with 30 points. He had 5 steals too. Both MP3 and Grayson were great all night.
Brandon was off shooting. He seems like he is thinking about his moves too much instead of being in a comfortable rhythm. He did hit a couple of key shots in the middle of the 2nd half. He did have 11 rebs and 3 key steals and a key block followed by a 3 on an important possession.
Matt was very good on D drawing the Miller-Macintyre assignment most of the night. Did have a couple of dumb fouls though. Shot very well from 3.
Derrick was really silent for the 30 minutes despite playing nearly all of them. Some very key drives/finishes and a nice feed to Marshall for a dunk at 70-62.
Luke took 2 good 3s and had a couple of nice drives in his first half. He didn't play a ton in the second half until FT time in the last 3 minutes and didn't shoot in the second half. I was bit surprised he had such an off game.

Overall, it was ugly but it got the job done. Hopefully with some time to recharge we can come out focused and loose against UNC on Saturday.

[Newton_14]

Didn't see the game.
Why was Luke such a non-factor? Did he ride the pine all night?
Tired of hearing how tired we are. Other teams play the same schedule and yes, maybe they have a deeper rotation, but some people make it sound like we are just so exhausted.
Finally, we need to do something to cure the damn foot jinx for this team. If Amile gets redshirted, I'm sure I'll be happy next season, but right now this is just sad - would have loved to see him get this team over the hump.

I dunno. I have no expectations for this team going into March, but at least I think they can compete with just about anybody because of the crazy good parity this season.

I think that is unfair actually, but we can agree to disagree. There is no other team I am aware of having to ride 6 guys as hard as we are having to ride Plumlee/Allen/Ingram/Jones/Thornton/Kennard, with 3 of those being Freshmen, and 1 being a Soph who played 7mpg as a Fr. That is a lot to ask of guys that young. Add in what I mentioned in my previous post about having 1 reliable big man who is a first year starter himself, having never played heavy minutes until this year; a freshman PG who was originally going to be in his final year of High School, and missed the summer training/school acclimation... and the only other guy that plays at all is also a freshman who wasn't quite ready for rotation minutes, and finally the very bad ACC scheduling (the only thing we have in common with other teams)... I don't get how anyone could feel these guys aren't gassed/running on empty. It's just not a formula for having a rested/tourney ready team...that's all...

Not sniping at you or anything... just feel the tired/running on empty/exhausted assessment is very fair and on point for this group