2018-19 Duke Women's BB

[dudog84]

From media release.

"Blue Devil freshman Rayah Craig will not be enrolled at Duke University for the spring 2019 semester due to violation of university policy."

Not a basketball issue.

I was wondering what was going on with her. After scoring 13 points in the opening game and looking like she would be a serious contributor this year, she scored 12 in the next 8 games as her minutes dwindled. And then she didn't play at all in the last game (at Oregon State, don't know if she even made the trip). Hope she gets things straightened out and comes back to the team, mostly for her own sake.

While I'm happy for Haley, I'm getting annoyed that she keeps out-rebounding our entire starting front court by herself.

[jimsumner]

I was wondering what was going on with her. After scoring 13 points in the opening game and looking like she would be a serious contributor this year, she scored 12 in the next 8 games as her minutes dwindled. And then she didn't play at all in the last game (at Oregon State, don't know if she even made the trip). Hope she gets things straightened out and comes back to the team, mostly for her own sake.

While I'm happy for Haley, I'm getting annoyed that she keeps out-rebounding our entire starting front court by herself.

Craig will not return to Duke.

[chrishoke]

Duke beats Florida Gulf Coast 57-41 today in Cameron. The team is now 8-4. Jade led all scorers with 17.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Duke beats Florida Gulf Coast 57-41 today in Cameron. The team is now 8-4. Jade led all scorers with 17.

That's pretty impressive defense. FGC hadn't scored lower than 60 this year.

[jimsumner]

That's pretty impressive defense. FGC hadn't scored lower than 60 this year.

They came into the game shooting 42 percent on 3s and went 7-for-37. Duke did a good job of closing out on the shooters.

The offense is still a work in progress.

[grossbus]

Jim, I thought they had plenty of open looks from 3, but they had a difficult time drawing iron.

[jimsumner]

Jim, I thought they had plenty of open looks from 3, but they had a difficult time drawing iron.

Their coach thought they hurried a bunch. They aren't used to having that much size close on them.

[burnspbesq]

Was that Jade’s first career double-double? If she can do that on even a semi-regular basis, then our ceiling in ACC play starts to look like more than 8-8.

[buddy]

Was that Jade’s first career double-double? If she can do that on even a semi-regular basis, then our ceiling in ACC play starts to look like more than 8-8.

It was her first career double-double; however, FGCU does not have a player taller than 5'11". She won't be that lucky in ACC play.

[chrishoke]

Was that Jade’s first career double-double? If she can do that on even a semi-regular basis, then our ceiling in ACC play starts to look like more than 8-8.

Yes it was. Our next game is at 9th ranked NCS Thursday at 7.

[du_bb1]

Was at the game-our length certainly bothered the much shorter Eagles, at least one 3 pt shots blocked. Way too many TO's, several as they were trying to feed the post-looked to my untrained eye like a combo of not the best pass and the big not going to the ball. Boykin looked good, seven assists with only one TO. Odom a non factor. Could be a long year.

[burnspbesq]

Yes, we lost, but there was a lot there from which to take encouragement. We fought. We guarded. We had relatively few turnovers by our standards. We had two nice runs, 12-3 at the end of the first quarter and 13-0 spanning the third and fourth. It was a one possession game with four minutes to go—then State dialed up its D and we took the shots they wanted to give us.

Louisville is next.

[Mike Corey]

Not good.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Yes, we lost, but there was a lot there from which to take encouragement. We fought. We guarded. We had relatively few turnovers by our standards. We had two nice runs, 12-3 at the end of the first quarter and 13-0 spanning the third and fourth. It was a one possession game with four minutes to go—then State dialed up its D and we took the shots they wanted to give us.

I agree with this.

Not good.

I disagree with this. As I said in the broadcast thread, "it was a 4 point game going in to the last three minutes, tied at half. Bad time to fall apart, but for the most part, a well played road game against a ranked conference rival."

I was expecting us to be down by double digits at halftime. I am starting to allow myself to find some hope in this team. They won't be great, not by a long shot, but they do have the opportunity to be good as the season progresses.

[killerleft]

I agree with this.


I disagree with this. As I said in the broadcast thread, "it was a 4 point game going in to the last three minutes, tied at half. Bad time to fall apart, but for the most part, a well played road game against a ranked conference rival."

I was expecting us to be down by double digits at halftime. I am starting to allow myself to find some hope in this team. They won't be great, not by a long shot, but they do have the opportunity to be good as the season progresses.

I'm with you on this. I want to believe, since I'm committed to seeing at least three conference home games this year.

[Kedsy]

I agree with this.


I disagree with this. As I said in the broadcast thread, "it was a 4 point game going in to the last three minutes, tied at half. Bad time to fall apart, but for the most part, a well played road game against a ranked conference rival."

I was expecting us to be down by double digits at halftime. I am starting to allow myself to find some hope in this team. They won't be great, not by a long shot, but they do have the opportunity to be good as the season progresses.

I'm with those who saw a ray of hope in this game. Our defense is strong. Our offense needs work against better teams.

I had high hopes for Jade before the season started, but the game seems a bit too fast for her right now. She might be able to dominate smaller teams like FGCU, but against bigger teams she has to think before she does anything and that's a recipe for travels, dropped passes, and missed layups. She has potential, but I'm not sure I see major improvement coming until the off-season. For now, her role should probably be defensive specialist.

Leaonna seems to get stuck in low gear too often. Especially on offense. But during our runs last night you could see her switch it into high gear and it was a sight to see. If she can throw herself into high gear most of the time, she'll be the player we all know she can be.

Haley has been forcing things way too much on offense and thus has been a very inefficient offensive player. But if some of the others take a step forward offensively, she can relax and become much more effective. Plus her defense last night was really good.

I really like the way Onome runs the floor, though offense seems harder for her when Jade is on the court (so I'm not sure the "two towers" thing is the most effective offensive plan for this team). The game is a little too fast for her, too, but (unlike Jade) I think she has the potential to catch up this season. With Leaonna and Onome filling the lanes and Mikayla leading the break, we could be a strong fast-break team.

Faith does what Faith does. She's never going to be a star but she can defend and make an occasional bucket. As long as we don't have to rely on her for too much, she's fine.

Miela has a sweet shot. She needs to take care of the ball a little better and be more aggressive to be optimally effective. Once she gets used to the greater physicality of the American game, she could be a real plus for the team.

Jayda seemed mostly out-of-control when she was in the game last night. With Rayah gone we don't seem to have a lot of effective depth against stronger opponents.

To me, Mikayla is the main reason for hope. I think she's looked great the past couple games, with excellent-to-amazing court vision. Thus far, her passes have led to turnovers as much as assists, but for the most part they're great thoughts. Once her teammates learn when and how to expect the ball from her, I think our offense could begin to hum a little. And yesterday her threes began to fall, which if she can keep it up adds a new (and to me, unexpected) dimension to her game.

Anyway, it's possible the team gets disheartened and starts playing like they expect to lose, which would be a shame, but I think it's more likely that that they continue to fight and start to gel on offense. In which case (as you say) we have the potential to be a pretty good (but not great) team by the end of the season. Personally, I'm looking forward to watching it happen.

[Phredd3]

The bummer about last night is that three quarters of excellent effort effectively went to waste based on that final frame. Even a loss could have been an OK thing to have on the team resume if we had kept the score difference to a bucket or, at most, two. As it turned out, the post-season committees, and more importantly the team itself, may have trouble getting a positive message about that game.

And there was a lot that went right, especially on the defensive end. We allowed some wide open looks right at the outset, but after a timeout and a switch to man-to-man, we held down a very good offense. Once we showed a different defensive look, we could switch back to the zone and it could still be effective. State was averaging close to 80 per game, and we held them to 63.

But we really need to have better passing. Six assists in a game is just not going to cut it, and especially not when we have almost three times that number of turnovers. We also need to do something about the rebounding. Being out-rebounded is likely to happen when our offense shoots under 30% from the floor, but we also gave up 14 offensive rebounds to State. That's partly a function of running zone most of the time, but it's also partly because of our technique. Our biggest two front court players grabbed a grand total of 4 rebounds (2 each) in a combined total of 44 minutes. We simply have to have better rebounding production than that.

But we were in range of the ninth-ranked team in the country, so while the final result was disappointing, there really were a lot of positives to take from this game. We aren't too far away from being a competitive team, and we feature only one senior on the roster, so if we do improve, we are likely to see the results carry into next year, as well.

It's a rough start to conference play to face the ninth- and third-ranked teams in the country, but if our defense continues to keep us in games, we're liable to steal a few wins from the unsuspecting before all is said and done.

[chrishoke]

This is a very likable team that certainly has some potential. I hope folks will rally around them. They need our support.
By the way, the heels stayed with the Cards last night, so their is hope.

[jimsumner]

Here's what I wrote before the ACC opener.

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.db...DB_OEM_ID=4200

[Kfanarmy]

Don't get to see them too much here; coverage of Duke WBB is extremely rare these days. I recognize some of the same refrains from years passed however. Good to great defense paired with a struggling offense prone to bad and worse turnover stats. The drift toward the bottom of the ACC seems inexorable.

…The offense is still a work in progress….

Our defense is strong. Our offense needs work against better teams.

At this point, that is Duke Women’s Basketball. It really takes an extremely strong defensive effort for them to win consistently against the better (not best of) NCAA teams. Don’t ever really see them having a great offense or taking great care of the ball on a day-in day-out basis.

In which case (as you say) we have the potential to be a pretty good (but not great) team by the end of the season.

This is a realistic hope. 13 games into the season, they stand 12th of 15 ACC teams. I don’t really see them making the NCAA tourney at this point. Do you?

By the way, the heels stayed with the Cards last night, so their is hope.

That UNC can make the tourney?

Hope springs eternal. Maybe Duke can turn the programmatic tide.