MBB: Duke 81, Pitt 54 Post-Game Thread

[JBDuke]

Put your post-game thoughts here.

[JNort]

Let's go Duke!

[AGDukesky]

Grayson made some shots and Javin was able to play. Otherwise what you would expect against an outclassed opponent.

[rocketeli]

Pittsburgh is not good and our starters took care of business. Bench players had a good opportunity today but they mostly failed to take advantage of it.

[DukieInKansas]

Is there video available of how they honored Dick Groat at halftime?

[Billy Dat]

Wendell's defense is on the rise, fewer fouls, rim protection, etc. He and Marvin seem to be keying our defensive resurgence. The only real negative was that portion of the first half where we allowed a 10-0 run or so with some uninspired play on both ends. I am glad we don't play these guys anymore, and that we are heading into the meat of conference play.

[Bob Green]

Wendell's defense is on the rise...

Wendell Carter is a BEAST! He took care of business on both ends of the court today.

[arnie]

Pittsburgh is not good and our starters took care of business. Bench players had a good opportunity today but they mostly failed to take advantage of it.

Someone (maybe JimSumner) in an earlier thread said the gap between our 5 starters and bench was wider than he can remember. Beginning to realize how true this is, which may mean no more than 10-20 minutes bench play in critical games. K’s certainly willing to shorten the bench further if he thinks that will win games.

[SkyBrickey]

Love the balanced scoring attack. That's exactly what we need- not overly reliant on Bagley. Find the open man.

My eye test tells me our defense is getting better. We'll find out soon with UVA, ND and UNC.

If Trent Jr is hitting 50%+ of his 3s like he's been doing, we are a deadly offensive team.

Wendell filling up the stat line again. 3 blocks and 2 assists to go with his 21/8. So fundamentally solid.

[Saratoga2]

Coach K used this game to display the work done on defense and the starting 5 were very active and effective. Subs were not so much but did play with a lot of effort.

We have two beasts inside with Carter and Bagley. Both were very impressive in reduced minutes. Grayson played all out and did hit I believe 4 threes. Nice to see him willing to take those. His shot doesn't look especially smooth but at least it was going in frequently. The guy who impressed me perhaps the most was Gary Trent. He is playing more like and upperclassman and rarely makes mistakes out there. His 3 point shot has gotten very reliable.

Judging by the results with the subs in, they weren't holding their own against Pitt. Best to have only one or two subs on at a time.

[Kedsy]

If Trent Jr is hitting 50%+ of his 3s like he's been doing, we are a deadly offensive team.

Gary has actually hit 74% (17 for 23) over the past three games. His scouting report called him a streaky shooter. This sort of thing is probably what they meant.

[mgtr]

Amazing stat: No Duke player had more than 2 fouls (except Javin).

[UrinalCake]

The game looked like a practice session in which we worked on our full court press. A few lapses but overall the performance we expected against this overmatched team of freshmen playing in Cameron. Nice to see Allen knock down a few shots and get Javin back on the floor.

[TheOldBattleship]

The game looked like a practice session in which we worked on our full court press.

100% this was what this game was. Somewhere DeJuan Blair is shaking his head in disgust (and probably knocking someone over. I actually remember him being a nice guy when he was at Pitt, but, man, the dude knocked two members of the other team over in the paint every time he moved).

[duke4ever19]

Amazing stat: No Duke player had more than 2 fouls (except Javin).

I like the way you think.

And I didn't eat any of the apple pie my wife made for her sister's birthday (except for the two slices).

[WVDUKEFAN]

Great to see Grayson hitting today. I thought Trevon had a good game today even if the box score doesn't really show it. He looked more poised and he was aggressive defensively. Overall, the defense looked good too. Understanding we played Pitt, I'm not putting a lot into it, but we just looked like we are starting to get it. Trent had a great showing and there aren't enough accolades to give Bags and WC. Congratulations.

[Duke76]

100% this was what this game was. Somewhere DeJuan Blair is shaking his head in disgust (and probably knocking someone over. I actually remember him being a nice guy when he was at Pitt, but, man, the dude knocked two members of the other team over in the paint every time he moved).

Blair,,,,now that is who Zion reminds me of....on the Pitt game today i thought I saw some bigs really down in a defensive stance today out top...like you're suppose to be, really moving their feet laterally side to side...K talked about 'defense being like dancing" interesting longer quote I can't find at the moment...

[Newton_14]

Solid game and win. The defense is making strides with man to man, two different full court presses, and then the 2-3 zone. Grayson's defense went up 3 or 4 levels after the kid undercut him on the dunk attempt. Dude was mad. Like real mad. But used that anger in a very positive manner. Haven't seen him that fired up in a long time. Great to see his jumper falling again. His misses are so close it has to frustrate the heck out of him. Trent is in some kind of zone with that jumper, fun to watch. Last time I saw them in person was the NC State game, and today they looked significantly better in every phase of the game, opponent being horrible not withstanding.

I didn't think the bench was that bad, it was just they did not score much, but were fine in other phases of the game. Jack White is a rebounding machine and I got the chance to tell him in person after the game when he graciously took a pic with my daughter and her friend.

Shout out to my buddy Uh No who helped me get the two girls moved from upstairs down to the corner of the student section once I saw how empty the corners were about 20 minutes prior to tip! I guess the combo of Pitt/Melting Snow caused many people to skip the game...

Zion surprisingly announcing for Duke on our ride home was icing on the cake. wow. Did not see that one coming!

[uh_no]

Someone (maybe JimSumner) in an earlier thread said the gap between our 5 starters and bench was wider than he can remember. Beginning to realize how true this is, which may mean no more than 10-20 minutes bench play in critical games. K’s certainly willing to shorten the bench further if he thinks that will win games.

i was about to say i thought goldwire looked comfortable...and I think he did...but then realized the bench scored 2 points. that's pitiful. (pitt-iful?).

Where I think our bench is going to be important is not the direct contribution, but the fact that several guys can come on the court and not be liabilities. I know it sounds awful, but so long as the offense and defense keep on ticking when delaurier is in for carter or oconnell is in for whoever, that's a valuable bench....even if they're not putting up points.

We had a pretty efficient game tonight, and the starters averaged <30 mins. And we're playing without our #6. Maybe they're not productive, but they're not-un-serviceable...and that's important.

[heyman25]

i was about to say i thought goldwire looked comfortable...and I think he did...but then realized the bench scored 2 points. that's pitiful. (pitt-iful?).

Where I think our bench is going to be important is not the direct contribution, but the fact that several guys can come on the court and not be liabilities. I know it sounds awful, but so long as the offense and defense keep on ticking when delaurier is in for carter or oconnell is in for whoever, that's a valuable bench...even if they're not putting up points.

We had a pretty efficient game tonight, and the starters averaged <30 mins. And we're playing without our #6. Maybe they're not productive, but they're not-un-serviceable...and that's important.

Jack White was solid,but only getting 2 points for all those minutes is not good. Hopefully those guys will look at the film and get better. They are all competitive players, but were unproductive. Jack is very good on defense and rebounding. O'Connell was sloppy and missed open looks. Goldwire was competent. This was DeLaurier's 1st game back. We need Bolden back to shake off his rust. Starting 5 were better. Carter and Trent were the best today.