MBB: Duke vs. Evansville (Wed 12/20, 7 ET, ESPN2) Pre-Game and In-Game Thread

[JBDuke]

Duke is back in action after the exam break, hosting Evansville in Cameron on Wednesday night.

[Spanarkel]

Evansville's top two scorers, forward Ryan Taylor and guard Dru Smith, are recovering from foot injuries and will not play in the Duke game.


On a somber side note, the university recently commemorated the 40th anniversary of the plane crash that took the lives of the entire team/coaching staff(the one player not on that plane due to an ankle injury perished in an auto accident two weeks later). I was surprised to learn that two of Evansville's players who perished were from Goldsboro.

[MrPoon]

Get your predictions in now as to which Evansville player will have a career day shooting 3s. The injuries make the guessing game even more exciting!

In all seriousness, I can’t wait for this game. I expect rust but I expect rebounding, D and greater clearity on offensive sets.

[Tappan Zee Devil]

Get your predictions in now as to which Evansville player will have a career day shooting 3s. The injuries make the guessing game even more exciting!

In all seriousness, I can’t wait for this game. I expect rust but I expect rebounding, D and greater clearity on offensive sets.

looking at the number of posts, it seems that most people can wait.
I would offer a witty and insightful comment, but I don't know enough about Evansville to do so - other than they have done well this year and we need to take them seriously.

[Furniture]

http://bluedevilnation.net/2017/12/chat-grayson-allen/

good interview of Grayson. It sounds like the team have reflected a lot on the recent loss and have had a productive few days of practice!
Lets go Duke!!

[BullBlue]

http://bluedevilnation.net/2017/12/chat-grayson-allen/

good interview of Grayson. It sounds like the team have reflected a lot on the recent loss and have had a productive few days of practice!
Lets go Duke!!

Very nice interview, thanks for posting the link. Seems like forever since the last game. I'm looking forward to seeing the improvements on defense Grayson talked about.

Let's Go Duke!

[BandAlum83]

Go Duke!!!

[tbyers11]

Evansville's top two scorers, forward Ryan Taylor and guard Dru Smith, are recovering from foot injuries and will not play in the Duke game.

Thanks for this info. Vegas is definitely aware. Ken Pom predicts a 19 point win for Duke (injuries not accounted for) while the Vegas line I find is Duke -28.5.

For a Duke team that has had some focus issues these year, hopefully they ignore this information.

[dukelifer]

Thanks for this info. Vegas is definitely aware. Ken Pom predicts a 19 point win for Duke (injuries not accounted for) while the Vegas line I find is Duke -28.5.

For a Duke team that has had some focus issues these year, hopefully they ignore this information.

Duke should win this easily. They may lose a little focus later in the game if up by 20+ but they should be itching to get back on the court and win big after BC.

[flyingdutchdevil]

Duke should win this easily. They may lose a little focus later in the game if up by 20+ but they should be itching to get back on the court and win big after BC.

I think this will happen. Duke will come out engaged, pissed off, and hopefully better on D. We'll be up at least 20 at half-time.

The issue is that focus in the second half. I hope we can keep our foot on the pedal, but that's asking a lot from a young team at this point in the season.

[Henderson]

Way too much nonchalance in this thread in my view.

When we lost to BC (where we were a heavy favorite), the most sensible view here was, "Next play."

Well, here's the next play.

Another team against which Duke is a heavy favorite.

Every game matters.

Let's bust 'em. Go Duke.

[English]

Thanks for this info. Vegas is definitely aware. Ken Pom predicts a 19 point win for Duke (injuries not accounted for) while the Vegas line I find is Duke -28.5.

For a Duke team that has had some focus issues these year, hopefully they ignore this information.

A couple of thoughts:
1. I don't think that KenPom spread accounts for Evansville missing two of its top players;
2. The Vegas spread is now up to 29pts (the O/U is 146)

That said, it's tough to love laying that many points in any circumstance. Biting your fingernails, hoping for Buckmire and Tucker to hang on to a 30-pt lead while letting the air out of the ball in the closing 5min sounds like a recipe for not fully enjoying the game. Of course, we could also get a repeat of the Saint Frank game when everyone in the gym was on fuego and hitting. Tough to predict, especially with the layoff for exams.

I may still do it, but that's mostly because I'm a masochist.

[WiJoe]

when did this turn into a gambling thread?

after bc, i'm going to be terrified of the top 3-point shooting team in the country, like it or don't.

[Hauerwas]

I wouldn't be surprised to see the line up shuffle tonight as well as a wrinkle in our zone look. K seems to have three strategic options on defense: 1. Hammer home the man to man and hope by February the team can fully embrace his style of man to man D and go all in on the traditional Duke style of D. 2. Realize this team (and every freshman led team) cannot grasp K's man to man defense schemes and create a hybrid approach that incorporates the zone to mitigate the woeful defense. 3. Introduce a full-court pressing style of defense with a zone/man hybrid approach to slow the ball down, eat up clock, force turnovers, and utilize our length.

I hope to see the combination of both the second and third options because I am convinced that freshman cannot play K's man to man defensive scheme. What they can do is get creative and use the personnel strengths to their advantage (height, length, athleticism). I believe we will see some 1-3-1 with DeLauerier up top in the same way Amile played that spot a couple years ago. Then use Javin to trap on the wings. We need to be much more active on defense as opposed to passively allowing teams to dribble drive and dish to wide open jumpers. I hope K gets creative with this group, they have a lot of options besides getting spread out on defense and simply getting picked apart by smaller teams who can drive and dish for 3 pointers.

I also Wouldn't be surprised to see Javin start and then move Grayson to the point and go with a big lineup (Allen, Trent, Javin, Marvin, and Carter). Duval has yet to prove he can mentally stay engaged on both offense and defense for an entire game. And his sketchy decision making, plus inability to hit an open jumper, are at this point making him a liability. He needs to figure out how to harness his athleticism to drive and penetrate more on offense, as well as to push the ball in the open court, and then use his athleticism to ball hawk. But to date, we've seen glimpses of this, but nothing consistent.

[MChambers]

Way too much nonchalance in this thread in my view.

When we lost to BC (where we were a heavy favorite), the most sensible view here was, "Next play."

Well, here's the next play.

Another team against which Duke is a heavy favorite.

Every game matters.

Let's bust 'em. Go Duke.

Luckily, no one posting in this thread is suiting up tonight.

[uh_no]

Way too much nonchalance in this thread in my view.

Duke played an awful game against #82 BC who was on fire and still nearly won. Evansville isn't nearly as good as BC is...making duke's margin for error that much greater.

[Kedsy]

I also Wouldn't be surprised to see Javin start and then move Grayson to the point and go with a big lineup (Allen, Trent, Javin, Marvin, and Carter). Duval has yet to prove he can mentally stay engaged on both offense and defense for an entire game. And his sketchy decision making, plus inability to hit an open jumper, are at this point making him a liability. He needs to figure out how to harness his athleticism to drive and penetrate more on offense, as well as to push the ball in the open court, and then use his athleticism to ball hawk. But to date, we've seen glimpses of this, but nothing consistent.

Sketchy decision making? His possibly ill-advised late three-attempt vs. BC notwithstanding, Trevon has shown at least as good if not better decision making ability than either Bobby Hurley or Jason Williams did when they were freshmen. Would you have benched them too?

Put another way, Trevon is on pace statistically to have the best (maybe second-best) season of any Duke freshman PG, ever. Of course there's room for improvement, and we all hope he improves, but give the kid a break, he's doing *great* for a kid playing his first 12 collegiate games.

I agree that the team is better when Javin is in an 18 to 25 minute role, rather than an 8 to 14 minute role. It's great that he can essentially sub in for any of our starters (since Grayson can slide over to the point and Gary can slide over to SG). Javin is our best defender and he makes his teammates look better on defense too. The defense has exciting potential when he's in the game. But the team would not be better with Trevon in a lesser role. I'm 100% convinced of that.

Also, I like your 1-3-1 idea and think it would be a lot of fun to watch. If I were coaching I'd be very tempted to go that route. I'll be surprised if that's where Coach K goes, however. My guess is his goal is to do exactly what they've been doing, only do it better. Hopefully the team took the opportunity of the long layoff to do just that.

[jv001]

Sketchy decision making? His possibly ill-advised late three-attempt vs. BC notwithstanding, Trevon has shown at least as good if not better decision making ability than either Bobby Hurley or Jason Williams did when they were freshmen. Would you have benched them too?

Put another way, Trevon is on pace statistically to have the best (maybe second-best) season of any Duke freshman PG, ever. Of course there's room for improvement, and we all hope he improves, but give the kid a break, he's doing *great* for a kid playing his first 12 collegiate games.

I agree that the team is better when Javin is in an 18 to 25 minute role, rather than an 8 to 14 minute role. It's great that he can essentially sub in for any of our starters (since Grayson can slide over to the point and Gary can slide over to SG). Javin is our best defender and he makes his teammates look better on defense too. The defense has exciting potential when he's in the game. But the team would not be better with Trevon in a lesser role. I'm 100% convinced of that.

Also, I like your 1-3-1 idea and think it would be a lot of fun to watch. If I were coaching I'd be very tempted to go that route. I'll be surprised if that's goes, however. My guess is his goal is to do exactly what they've been doing, only do it better. Hopefully the team took the opportunity of the long layoff to do just that.

I agree with Kedsy. If Javin starts, I don't think it will be in place of Duval but it might be in place of Carter. I don't think Wendell is playing badly but I do think Javin is a better defender. Yeh, I know he's leading the team in block shots, but if we continue to go man2man, Javin is the better defender of the 2. Even then, we give up a lot on offense because Carter is one of the best low post players in the country. I'm with both of you in going to the 1-3-1 zone and maybe throw in some pressure defense as well. Coach K is not going to give up on Tre this early in the season and I expect the game is going to slow down for him sooner rather than later. GoDuke!

[tbyers11]

A couple of thoughts:
1. I don't think that KenPom spread accounts for Evansville missing two of its top players

Agreed. That is why I mentioned that in my parenthetical

when did this turn into a gambling thread?

after bc, i'm going to be terrified of the top 3-point shooting team in the country, like it or don't.

My apologies for leading down the path toward gambling. No one had commented on Spanarkel's info that Evansville's two top scorers would miss the game. Seemed very important to me and the fact that Vegas considered it worth ~10 points was further evidence of that.

I also agree with you that any team that is a good 3P shooting team should give us pause this year. However, interesting to note that despite being the best 3P% team in the nation, they are 332nd (of 351) in % of FG that are 3P at 27.8%. Evansville doesn't shoot a ton of threes, especially since Ryan Taylor got hurt.

[English]

Agreed. That is why I mentioned that in my parenthetical



My apologies for leading down the path toward gambling. No one had commented on Spanarkel's info that Evansville's two top scorers would miss the game. Seemed very important to me and the fact that Vegas considered it worth ~10 points was further evidence of that.

I also agree with you that any team that is a good 3P shooting team should give us pause this year. However, interesting to note that despite being the best 3P% team in the nation, they are 332nd (of 351) in % of FG that are 3P at 27.8%. Evansville doesn't shoot a ton of threes, especially since Ryan Taylor got hurt.

WHOA. That's really something. That'd be like having Marvin Bagley III on the roster and NOT getting him the ball in the paint. Er, too soon?


ETA: Apologies for completely neglecting your parenthetical in your earlier post. Total oversight.