2018-19 Duke Women's BB

[budwom]

I keep hoping I'll wake up some day and things will have changed, but holding my breath I am not. Very disappointing.

[Kedsy]

How would we or K react if after beating UVA, Bennett said "We didn't do well enough guarding #5, and with #1, we just didn't do what we practiced."

We'd be all over him...and K would almost assuredly say something like "Maybe he cut cable and lies under a rock"

Honestly, I can't imagine why anyone would care? Personally, I'd say, "that was weird," and wouldn't give it another thought. We're really reaching if this is why we don't like Coach P.

[uh_no]

Honestly, I can't imagine why anyone would care? Personally, I'd say, "that was weird," and wouldn't give it another thought. We're really reaching if this is why we don't like Coach P.

I agree that it's somewhat of a reach, but given what people here latch on to that other coaches/players say (how often we see things that people here tout as "bulletin board" material which is wholly innocuous), I think people would be all over it.

[Kedsy]

I agree that it's somewhat of a reach, but given what people here latch on to that other coaches/players say (how often we see things that people here tout as "bulletin board" material which is wholly innocuous), I think people would be all over it.

Yeah, maybe.

[Jedweb]

Watching Duke - Clemson game. Hoping our gals can hang on for a win, but i am more convinced that ever that there is no chance whatever that our program can regain top flight status with the present coach. While it's true that our defense can cause problems for middling or worse teams, we have no semblance of an offense except on the VERY occasional smart play and individual one on ones. The present coach cannot make consistent use of a player like Odom, who is extremely talented, and the team consistently makes passes right to the opponent. Over and over and over. A talented coach would have those fundamental flaws eliminated long before now. And it has consistently been that way with the current coach. On offense we look like a YMCA pickup game.

[chrishoke]

Duke has come back from a nine point deficit at the half to now lead by 9 with five to go.

[Stray Gator]

Duke has come back from a nine point deficit at the half to now lead by 9 with five to go.

And just like that, the lead had shriveled down to 2, with 1:20 to go.

[chrishoke]

Duke wins, 63-59. Shaky down the stretch, but nice win over an 18 win team.

[Stray Gator]

Some shaky moments against Clemson's press down the stretch, but Duke holds on to win, 63-59.

[chrishoke]

Gorecki had 21, Goodchild 17. duke had 22 in the first half, 41 in the 2nd. Our freshman center had a big block of a point blank range shot to tie the game w/ 35 secs to go, then was able to tie up the rebounder to give duke possession.

[Stray Gator]

Gorecki had 21, Goodchild 17. duke had 22 in the first half, 41 in the 2nd. Our freshman center had a big block of a point blank range shot to tie the game w/ 35 secs to go, then was able to tie up the rebounder to give duke possession.

The Akinbode-James block was certainly huge, but Gorecki also deserves credit for saving the day by stealing the ball back from Clemson to stop a potentially game-tying fast break after Goodchild turned it over with 13 seconds left and Duke only up by 2. Duke had a 10-point lead with 5:14 to go, but proceeded to fritter it away in a sadly familiar fashion, coughing up turnover after turnover to Clemson's press -- Duke amassed a total of 26 in the game -- and running possessions that involved a series of shaky passes culminating in a turnover, or a poor shot, or a semi-desperate three-point attempt, a sufficient number of which Gorecki and Goodchild were, fortunately, able to sink to fend off a fatal collapse.

Duke should feel relieved to escape with the victory. In fairness, I thought Duke got the benefit of several calls during the last 5 minutes, which provided just enough extra possessions and free throws to maintain a winning margin. This game could easily have resulted in an ugly loss, mainly due to the persistent deficiencies in the fundamentals of ball-handling and passing and clock management that continue to make watching these games a roller coaster of frustration and fun.

[chrishoke]

The Akinbode-James block was certainly huge, but Gorecki also deserves credit for saving the day by stealing the ball back from Clemson to stop a potentially game-tying fast break after Goodchild turned it over with 13 seconds left and Duke only up by 2. Duke had a 10-point lead with 5:14 to go, but proceeded to fritter it away in a sadly familiar fashion, coughing up turnover after turnover to Clemson's press -- Duke amassed a total of 26 in the game -- and running possessions that involved a series of shaky passes culminating in a turnover, or a poor shot, or a semi-desperate three-point attempt, a sufficient number of which Gorecki and Goodchild were, fortunately, able to sink to fend off a fatal collapse.

Duke should feel relieved to escape with the victory. In fairness, I thought Duke got the benefit of several calls during the last 5 minutes, which provided just enough extra possessions and free throws to maintain a winning margin. This game could easily have resulted in an ugly loss, mainly due to the persistent deficiencies in the fundamentals of ball-handling and passing and clock management that continue to make watching these games a roller coaster of frustration and fun.

Agree with all of this. To Stray's last point, the most egregious example came with less than 3 sec. to go in the 3rd, Duke had the ball under our basket for an out of bounds play. Very unlikely Duke was going to be able to get it all the way down court to score in that amount of time, but at least we should be able to easily keep Clemson from scoring and preserve our 5 point lead entering the fourth. Yep, you guessed it. Our inbounds pass was thrown right to a Clemson player who immediately threw up a prayer of a shot that did not draw iron but fell to a Clemson player under the basket who easily scored with a befuddled Duke player standing beside her just watching.

[CamrnCrz1974]

The Chronicle: Duke women's basketball clings to late lead to topple Clemson
By Glen Morgenstern | 03/01/2019
https://www.dukechronicle.com/articl...topple-clemson

[CameronBornAndBred]

The #13, #14, and #15 seeds for the ACC tourney are set in stone. Duke right now is staring at the #12 seed, and at playing
Boston College in the opening Wednesday round. Duke could stay at 12, or move as high as 10th.

In the same boat is VT, who is in a good spot, with their next game against Wake (#15). Also in the mix is UVA. They have the tall task of playing Notre Dame, so that can likely be chalked up as a loss, so Duke has hope of moving up. However, the Blue Devils HAVE to beat the smurfettes to make it come together.

In the long run, it doesn't make much of a difference, since they are guaranteed a Wednesday game. The one benefit of being the 12 seed against BC, is that, should they win, they play at 1:00. If they beat the Heels, and likely take the 11 seed, then they play at 6:30 (vs. Pitt).

[Kedsy]

You guys. Clemson is 11th in the country at forcing turnovers, at 21.4 per game. Yeah, 26 is more than 21.4, but not all that much more considering we lost all our point guards. Earlier this season, when we've played well but lost close games, all people saw was the "L." In this game, we beat a good team, and rather than appreciate the "W," people are complaining that it wasn't as pretty a W as it should have been. Seems like to a lot of people around here, every silver lining has a cloud.

[*]I hesitate to call the defense great (or even very good), by Duke standards, as Duke has only surrendered more than 62.9 points per contest twice in the last 20 years (64.3 ppg in 2001-02 and 63.7 ppg in 2013-14) and the 38.4 percent shooting by opponents would be the worst percentage in the last 20 years (the only other Duke team in the last 20 years to allow opponents was the 2001-02 squad, whose opponents shot 38.1 percent overall from the floor). And in terms of national statistics for this season, Duke's defense does not rank in the top 50 in terms of opponents' ppg (Duke ranks 135th), opponents' overall field goal percentage (Duke ranks 106th), or opponents' three-point percentage (Duke ranks 104th).

SUMMARY
Basically, Duke's defense is not great or good (by Duke's standards or nationally), but it should be "good enough" to win games. Unfortunately, that has not been the case, because the offense is a smidgen below where the defense is. And with the margin for error being so incredibly small, Duke has to do a much better job coming out of the locker room (to start the game and after halftime) to avoid falling into an insurmountable hole, as the offense this year likely will not be able to make up the deficit.

This is an old post, but I've been meaning to point out something. While it's possible Duke's D isn't as good as past Duke editions, our defense is still pretty darn good. Unfortunately, the available statistics (such as the ones linked by CC1974 above) don't tell the whole story because they are unadjusted for pace or schedule strength. For example, our pace this season (71.8 possessions per game) isn't super-fast but my guess is it's faster than most of Coach P's teams and possibly many of Coach G's teams as well. In that context, points per game doesn't tell anywhere near the whole story. Similarly, Duke has played one of the top schedules in the country (#25 according to RealTimeRPI; #26 according to Massey). Citing raw statistics like overall field goal percentage doesn't tell us so much without working that difficult schedule into the equation.

Massey also ranks Duke as the #41 defense in the country. Not sure what goes into that ranking, but it obviously suggests a defense that is much better than you'd think based on the raw numbers listed by CC1974.

[jimsumner]

Senior Day

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.db...CLID=211793217

[awhom111]

You guys. Clemson is 11th in the country at forcing turnovers, at 21.4 per game. Yeah, 26 is more than 21.4, but not all that much more considering we lost all our point guards. Earlier this season, when we've played well but lost close games, all people saw was the "L." In this game, we beat a good team, and rather than appreciate the "W," people are complaining that it wasn't as pretty a W as it should have been. Seems like to a lot of people around here, every silver lining has a cloud.




This is an old post, but I've been meaning to point out something. While it's possible Duke's D isn't as good as past Duke editions, our defense is still pretty darn good. Unfortunately, the available statistics (such as the ones linked by CC1974 above) don't tell the whole story because they are unadjusted for pace or schedule strength. For example, our pace this season (71.8 possessions per game) isn't super-fast but my guess is it's faster than most of Coach P's teams and possibly many of Coach G's teams as well. In that context, points per game doesn't tell anywhere near the whole story. Similarly, Duke has played one of the top schedules in the country (#25 according to RealTimeRPI; #26 according to Massey). Citing raw statistics like overall field goal percentage doesn't tell us so much without working that difficult schedule into the equation.

Massey also ranks Duke as the #41 defense in the country. Not sure what goes into that ranking, but it obviously suggests a defense that is much better than you'd think based on the raw numbers listed by CC1974.

Your point about pace made me look up some stats for recent seasons from the National Statistical Concern, which is the site that has advanced stats for the most seasons back. This season's pace is slower than all of the other seasons on record except for last season, which was exceptionally slow for some reason. I copied the basic advanced stats for all the seasons they have and pasted it below.

[Kedsy]

Your point about pace made me look up some stats for recent seasons from the National Statistical Concern, which is the site that has advanced stats for the most seasons back. This season's pace is slower than all of the other seasons on record except for last season, which was exceptionally slow for some reason. I copied the basic advanced stats for all the seasons they have and pasted it below.

Thanks for this. It surprises me, but I couldn't find those historical stats so I had to guess based on observation. I suppose that shows why the eye test is often not very reliable.

So our pace is about the same as 2015 through 2017 and faster than 2018, but much slower than 2013 and 2014. And our raw dRating is a fair amount worse than any of these seven seasons. Though, again, without adjusting for schedule, it's difficult to say for sure whether that means our defense really is much worse, but since we usually play a pretty strong schedule, my new guess is it probably is. Most or all of those others must have been top 10 defenses, while this year Massey rates us at #41 (though, again, I have no idea what adjustments he makes, if any, based on schedule).

[jimsumner]

Stephanie Watts will not play today for the Heels. Injured.

[chrishoke]

Game time. Let's go Devils! GTHC GTH!