MBB: Duke 84, Hartford 54 Post-Game Thread

[JBDuke]

Put your post-game thoughts here.

[OldPhiKap]

Defense —> offense

[weezie]

Freshmen! Gotta love them and be patient.

[proelitedota]

RJ with 15 rebounds. Dadgummit.

[duke4ever19]

Color me confused about the "Our defense is a big problem" posts in the pre-game/in-game thread.

As I said in that thread, I don't see the correlation between this game and that particular concern, but I readily admit that I'm not an expert on defense and others might be able to show me some statistics or in-game tendencies that are a bad sign for this year's squad.

[Old Dukie]

Defense —> offense

Totally agree...good thing this was Hartford.

[Tripping William]

Color me confused about the "Our defense is a big problem" posts in the pre-game/in-game thread.

As I said in that thread, I don't see the correlation between this game and that particular concern, but I readily admit that I'm not an expert on defense and others might be able to show me some statistics or in-game tendencies that are a bad sign for this year's squad.

Much of that was sarcasm, at least from pfrduke, OPK and me, sparked by a poster basically saying that OAD’s cannot play an effective m2m.

[duke4ever19]

Totally agree...good thing this was Hartford.

But we yielded only 24 points at the half and only 30 in the second half?

What am I missing here? I thought the defense looked pretty darn good. Good enough for Kenpom #7 in defense.

Edit: Thanks, Tripping William. Perhaps I misread sarcasm for sincerity. If so, that's on me for not reading context clues correctly.

[dukebluesincebirth]

Zion off the backboard to RJ!!!! 😮😮

[SCMatt33]

Hartford played an incredible game there and their coach had a great plan. He pretty much gambled that he could pack the paint and hope Duke missed open three’s and that worked for a half and a few fortuitous plays early in the 2nd capped by getting a rebound after an and 1, then hitting a 3 for a 5 point trip. Even after Carrol fouled out they still kept it close for a minute or two, but the fatigue set in real fast. I thought it actually wasn’t the worst idea for them to chuck some of the three’s they did once it stretched to about 15, but they didn’t hit enough of them to stem the tide and Duke’s athletes just took over to a ridiculous degree.

Proud of Dukes players to keep plugging away in the first half even there were mistakes and missed shots. They mostly played solid D and never let a couple bad plays turn into a run for Hartford. I think the closest thing to a real run Duke game up was the single 5 point trip.

[OldPhiKap]

Color me confused about the "Our defense is a big problem" posts in the pre-game/in-game thread.

As I said in that thread, I don't see the correlation between this game and that particular concern, but I readily admit that I'm not an expert on defense and others might be able to show me some statistics or in-game tendencies that are a bad sign for this year's squad.

Totally agree...good thing this was Hartford.

Old Dukie’s post history is short, and almost universally negative. Check for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

[Old Dukie]

Color me confused about the "Our defense is a big problem" posts in the pre-game/in-game thread.

As I said in that thread, I don't see the correlation between this game and that particular concern, but I readily admit that I'm not an expert on defense and others might be able to show me some statistics or in-game tendencies that are a bad sign for this year's squad.

You don't need to be an expert...just watch the facial expressions on our OAD's after they have missed a defensive assignment. You'll see it more in games against stiff competition.

[arnie]

Zion off the backboard to RJ!!!! 😮😮

Javin’s best game at Duke. Great 5 or 6 blocks, no mistakes, no TOs and he finished at the rim.

[duke4ever19]

Old Dukie’s post history is short, and almost universally negative. Check for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Well, that makes more sense. Otherwise I was going to be double-checking my prescription medication.

[DukieInBrasil]

great game from RJ, looks like he's figuring out how to get and take better shots. Zion also had a good game. Javin had himself a statistically great game and, well, might it be time for Big 'Ques to not start anymore? Bolden grabbed 1 rebound. 1 solitary rebound. He doesn't have to score a lot to be valuable, but rebounding is right at the top of things he needs to be doing to add value to the team, and he just doesn't do it. As mentioned in the podcast and elsewhere, his DReb% was already historically low, and only went down tonight.
Aside from those observations, it looks like Duke really struggled from 3 today, with only RJ doing anything that wasn't terrible (3-4). People not named RJ broke into 2 groups: those that made a 3 (2-14) and those that didn't (0-9). Good thing that shooting performance came against a team of the quality of a Hartford. Good thing that Duke played a team like Hartford during Finals too.

[DUKEinFW]

Shoot the average on 3pt shots, most of which were wide open, and we are up by 20 at half. Convert a few other close in shots and missed dunks and it's a blowout in the first half. It was just a poor shooting first half

[Ian]

Defense was great, and the offense was fine too. Considering we shot 5-26 from 3 including 1-9 for Reddish, many of which were wide open. Had we hit our normal 36% we'd have hit between 9 to 10 out of 26. We got the looks we wanted, just was a tough night shooting.

[Old Dukie]

Old Dukie’s post history is short, and almost universally negative. Check for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Old Dukie just telling it like it is. If we can't win it all in 2019 with this group, it'll never happen until DEFENSE is re-established at a higher level. Watch Michigan play and you'll see what I mean.

[Old Dukie]

Defense was great, and the offense was fine too. Considering we shot 5-26 from 3 including 1-9 for Reddish, many of which were wide open. Had we hit our normal 36% we'd have hit between 9 to 10 out of 26. We got the looks we wanted, just was a tough night shooting.

What is Reddish's shooting % on the year?

[accfanfrom1970]

Thought we should have gone to the small lineup sooner since we were switching everything. Felt like that was our best lineup and really pushed the lead out.