MBB: Duke 118, Kentucky 84 Post-Game Thread

[Utley]

So, looking like a relative down year for you folks, huh?

If anyone called this - it was you - kudos to you. This offense against the UVA defensive will be fascinating to watch.

[DarkstarWahoo]

I have no idea who checks Zion for UVA. Hunter and Key aren’t nearly as strong as him, and everyone else is too small or way too slow. And then you have to deal with Reddish and Barrett.

I don’t know how good Kentucky is, but they’re sure not a cupcake. Those freshmen y’all have are extremely real.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

but we can't really tell much about the Duke team based on an early season blowout of a cupcake opponent.

When do the real games start?

Hoping to squeeze in a trip to Wofford so the team can really get tested....

[OldPhiKap]

I don’t know why y’all are so excited about us smoking a football school.

[Duke76]

KenPom hasn't updated with our game yet (as of the time of this post), but by my own calcs, Duke gave up about 1 point a possession to Kentucky.

Which is very good (but not great) defense considering Kentucky's talent (seriously -- they are a top 10 team, but Duke was just better tonight) and the fast-paced game that lends itself to easy transition buckets every now and then.

That's my take.

looked at the Kansas MSU highlights and I will say both those teams appear to have physically stronger, more mature bodies than KU. So there are teams in our way that will present more of a challenge this year but I was encouraged by the way the guys moved laterally defensively....our offense will be mostly unstoppable...but defense is where we will deflate teams over a game...promising start for sure

[Dukeblue91]

OMG is all I can say.
This was the most fun I had watching bb in some time.
The look on Kentucky players faces was priceless.
If any of you get a chance look at +/- of this game.
Just amazing.
It also bears repeating but Zion is otherworldly.

[Saratoga2]

Being an old guy and also with a softball game this morning, I only watched the first half while recording the rest. I was amazed at how eassily Duke scored. Kentucky may not be as good as their initial rating but they for certain are not as bad as we made them look. Loved seeing the pained expression on Calipari's face.

I surprised the Pavlov references haven't surfaced. The NBA coaches must be salivating over our freshman class. Of course the big three get well deserved credit, but Tre was also great with ball security, floor vision, defensive pressure and he looks for his team mates first. He can and will score as needed.

Several people predicted Jack White would get a lot of minutes this year and they were right. Thirty last night based on his defense and rebounding. He is a tough kid and by the way, he can shoot as well.

AOC will have trouble getting minutes on this team, but we know he can shoot the ball. He seems to have gained a few pounds and looks a little more defined. With this team, we are goingt to have the lead a lot and AOC will get his chances.

Our back line is strong enough and servicable. Just stay out of foul trouble and who will beatt us? Maybe that is a little optimistic as Villanova, Kansas and the like may play a lot better defense. Remains to be seen.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

I perused the forum Cats Illustrated for about 5 minutes. There was a thread titled "Did Duke Pay Zion" or some such. It was interesting, there were a few whiners who assume Duke did...but pretty fair amount of UK fans saying get over it, we got crushed, and Duke nor UK has to pay players - or words to that effect.

[whereinthehellami]

Holy smokes, what a game. Duke out rebounded UK and had more production from the their bench. Those were two areas that pretty much everyone agreed UK had the advantage. Thanks Mr. White!

Loved seeing a pained Cal on the big screen after his comments on Coach K this summer. You poke a blue devil you get the horns.

Have another cup of coffee and enjoy the UK game thread!!

[MChambers]

I came into this game feeling skeptical and preparing for a loss. I’m truly astounded by how well we played. Defense was strong, offense was unstoppable. Our concerns for this team all summer were shooting, defense and leadership and we passed all of those with flying colors. So many positive things to take from the game but my favorite play has to be the grab-the-ball-our-of-the-air block by Zion followed by him dribbling the length of the court and threading a bounce pass through two defenders to Barrett for the and one. It was like playing a video game with a cheat code.

That play reminded me of a block Elton had in 2000 against a Maryland big, where he just took the ball away. Of course, he didn't then dribble up the floor and throw a 30 foot bounce pass.

[mattman91]

has anyone mentioned the 10 steals yet? 4 by Cam. Wow.

[MChambers]

So, looking like a relative down year for you folks, huh?

There still will be a WTF loss. Count on it.

[BLPOG]

I wonder how UK reacts to the game in terms of setting their course for the season.

Do they say "here's to forgetting that ever happened" or do they say "let's remember, so no team can do it again?"

[BeachBlueDevil]

I don't know how to process what I saw last night still. Like, I can't remember Duke totally dominating a fellow blue blood program like that in a loooooong time... If ever.

This Duke team is going to be special and hard to beat. Zion and RJ are players that look to be head and shoulders above everyone else, Cam Reddish can shoot and slash, Tre Jones is the point guard this team has needed since Tyus left, and the play of the four of them should it stay consistent all year will only boost Bolden, Javin, Jack and Alex.

The sky REALLY seems to be the limit with these fellas based on the sample size of the Canadian tour, two exhibitions, and last night domination of PayPal Cal and the 'Cats.

[Researchc]

I'm so glad to get past these first 3 exhibition games. A win against Kentucky State University is not my idea of a quality wi... Wait... That was the University of Kentucky?!! The team that was ranked higher than us and Vegas had as the favorite to win the game?

Barring injuries, this team had the chance to do something special. I've never seen a team so cohesive in the first game... let alone a team led by 4 freshman. Number 6 is definitely a possibility.

[DevilHorse]

Driving in this morning, trying to find some chatter on last night's game, all I could find was a run-down of scores on WFAN-NY. The 20-20 reporter ran down the local college hoop scores (Syracuse is local to NYC of course). Then the Kansas score, and after a pregnant pause, an uptick in emphasis from the stoic scores, "and number two Kentucky was KILLED by Duke 118-84". You rarely hear that word in used.

Duke will surely move up to #2 this week if not #1 in the polls. Bigger swings in movement earlier in the year, and last night's win was more of an eye opener than was that of Kansas. Duke called off the dogs (cats and horses) with 10 minutes to go.

The shot clock never appeared to come into play for either team; except perhaps when Duke slowed things down at the end. This added to the pace/enjoyment of the game.

I seem to recall last year that early games had a lot of whistles as the referees had points of emphasis on fouls that they wanted to make with the players. They were a bit more frugal with the calls later in the season (in general). It seemed like early in the game players might be destined to foul out, but fortunately/surprisingly no one did. It felt like Zion had about 10 fouls, or when there was a whistle, my eyes went to him to see if he was reacting.

Kentucky shot 38 (73%) free throws to our 29 (69%) last night. Barrett missed 4 of the 9 we missed. Needs to go to the Kenny Dennard school of Free Throw repair.
Duke had one more rebound than Kentucky, but then with 20 more shots and 17 more FGs, there weren't a lot of balls to rebound

Zion highlight was #8 on the SCtop10 last night! The snatch of the shot, dribble and super pass to RJ for the and 1 finish.

Larry
DevilHorse

[ncexnyc]

Add me to the, "I never saw that coming" club.

I pretty much expected to see Zion and RJ play the way they did, but Cam was a very pleasant surprise. We've heard about how he can disappear for long stretches of a game, but last night he was really solid from start to finish.

Mr. Bolden was rock solid and showed why he's such a vital piece of the puzzle. He was a steady anchor on the back line. A few more games like that and no one will remember the Canadian tour.

You've got to love Jack White. We got a glimpse of what he was capable of last year when he remade his body and this year he obviously put work into his shot. Jack is this team's glue guy.

I wasn't sure Tre would be able to duplicate what his brother brought to the table, but he clearly has the chops to be just as good as Tyus was. The kid didn't force anything, plays solid on ball defense, and knows when to pick his spot.

I'm not sure how much we'll get to see of Javin, Alex, and Jordan this year. All three are solid players and would get solid minutes on most teams, but the flexibility of Zion, RJ, and Cam will make it hard for any of them to get big minutes.

Of course this is just one game and it's a long season, but right now it's really hard to curb my expectations.

[ndkjr70]

Hard to put into words how much I enjoyed that game last night. It's early, but this offense can be special.

1.49 points per possession. That's more than any team scored against any power conference opponent last year, and this was a bunch of freshman playing their first real game together -- against the number two team in the country.

Crazy.

[House P]

Here is a fun tidbit which my help describe the talent disparity we saw last night.

In the final RSCI recruit rankings, Tyler Herro and Joey Baker were ranked 35 and 37, respectively.

Tyler Herro led Kentucky in minutes played last night. Joey Baker is (probably) going to redshirt for Duke.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

The reddit thread is freaking spit out your coffee funny...

Here's the best of many great comments, this from a Florida Gulf Coast fan:

I had to change my stream from this game to Pornhub when my mom walked in to prevent her the shame of seeing me witnessing this absolute assblasting