MBB: Duke 84, EMU 46 Post-Game Thread

[kAzE]

we were playing the 312th slowest team in the nation, so achieving an average pace is probably pretty good)

If a team is ranked 312th in slowness, wouldn't that make them a really fast team?

[Kedsy]

If a team is ranked 312th in slowness, wouldn't that make them a really fast team?

Eek. I think you got me.

[BlueDevilCorvette!]

Jack White don't mind sticking his nose in for a rebound, or diving for a loose ball. If open, he will take the shot but rarely takes a bad shot at all. He really does so many great things for this Duke team and overall, has a nice feel for the game. I'm glad he is a captain because he surely leads by example!

[DukieInBrasil]

Just wanted to point out trivia:
Jack White has hit more 3s this year so far (5) than he hit in his career prior (3), and has now scored more points this year (25) than either of his 1st 2 (22, 21) seasons at Duke.
He's averaging 25+ mpg and seems to have firmly entrenched himself in the top 6 of the rotation. It's a pretty dramatic growth in his role on the team.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Just wanted to point out trivia:
Jack White has hit more 3s this year so far (5) than he hit in his career prior (3), and has now scored more points this year (25) than either of his 1st 2 (22, 21) seasons at Duke.
He's averaging 25+ mpg and seems to have firmly entrenched himself in the top 6 of the rotation. It's a pretty dramatic growth in his role on the team.

He's the most fundamentally sound and strong rebounder Duke has, and as we know, his hops are pretty darn good too. He's the best practice 3 point shooter on the team apparently - and if he gets good game minutes, that will probably translate to him becoming a threat from 3. I was glad to see a few go down for him last night. We need him confident for conference games, tougher games, closer games.

[Kedsy]

He's the most fundamentally sound and strong rebounder Duke has...

I don't know how to measure "most fundamentally sound and strong rebounder" but I do know that, using rebounding percentage as an objective measure, Jack White has been our third-best defensive rebounder and our fourth-best offensive rebounder this season:

---------------------
DR% (at least 10mpg)
---------------------
Javin DeLaurier: 23.1%
Zion Williamson: 21.9%
Jack White: 15.9%
Jordan Goldwire: 13.7%
Cam Reddish: 11.8%
RJ Barrett: 11.7%
Alex O'Connell: 10.4%
Tre Jones: 8.3%
Marques Bolden: 7.4%

---------------------
OR% (at least 10mpg)
---------------------
Zion Williamson: 16.8%
Javin DeLaurier: 10.4%
Marques Bolden: 10.0%
Jack White: 8.9%
Alex O'Connell: 4.7%
Cam Reddish: 4.4%
Tre Jones: 3.5%
Jordan Goldwire: 3.1%
RJ Barrett: 2.2%

Neals384 excellent plus/minus thread shows that (at least in the first two games) Jack has spent about half his time at PF and half at SF. So maybe he doesn't have quite the opportunity to rebound as the guys who split time at C/PF, but I'm not sure he would top Zion's or Javin's rebound numbers even if he played "big" 100% of the time. I'm also dubious that we should discount Zion's and Javin's superior athleticism as making them less fundamentally sound and/or strong in their rebounding efforts.

Frankly, looking at Jordan Goldwire's defensive rebounding numbers while playing as a 6'2" PG, we might be seeing more fundamental soundness there (or it might be just the luck of the long rebound, hard to say after only three games). The one thing I can say for sure is Marques Bolden needs to beef up his defensive rebounding if we want to continue our dominance when the competition gets better; 7.4% is astonishingly bad for a 7-footer. Last season his DR% was 17.8%, so hopefully it's just an early-season blip.

[jv001]

He's the most fundamentally sound and strong rebounder Duke has, and as we know, his hops are pretty darn good too. He's the best practice 3 point shooter on the team apparently - and if he gets good game minutes, that will probably translate to him becoming a threat from 3. I was glad to see a few go down for him last night. We need him confident for conference games, tougher games, closer games.

I think you're correct about Jack being fundamentally sound rebounding the bb. I would even go as far to say he might be the most fundamentally sound player on the squad. He may not be the most athletic(but he's athletic), he might not be the best shooter(jury still out) and he may not be the quickest player(not slow either) but he sure knows the Duke system(offense and defense). So far he's gotten my attention and it looks like he's gotten Coach K's as well. GoDuke!

[jimsumner]

For me, the highlight of White's game against EMU was the play where he put the ball on the floor from about 25 feet out and finished with a dunk. His rebounding and 3-point shooting are and will continue to be assets to this team. But he's never been especially confident in his ability to create off the dribble. If he can continue to refine that, he becomes more dangerous and Duke becomes even harder to defend.

[kAzE]

---------------------
DR% (at least 10mpg)
---------------------
Javin DeLaurier: 23.1%
Zion Williamson: 21.9%
Jack White: 15.9%
Jordan Goldwire: 13.7%
Cam Reddish: 11.8%
RJ Barrett: 11.7%
Alex O'Connell: 10.4%
Tre Jones: 8.3%
Marques Bolden: 7.4%

Ugh . . . maybe it's because Marques is challenging an inordinate number of shots (which would naturally put him out of position for defensive rebounds), but that number needs to come up.

Marques has played well thus far this year, but his lack of rebounding ability for a guy with his size and length has always been a mystery to me.