MBB: Duke 81, Virginia 71 Post-Game Thread

[devilnfla]

Thanks for sharing the scheyer quote. Was that part of the ESPN coverage? Where did you see that?

Haven't done the research to prove my theory, but it seems like Duke shoots a better % from 3 on the road vs at home in Cameron. If that's true, it's odd as the Cameron rims have always seem to be shooter friendly.

[CDu]

I would expect Hunter to go. I was curious to the references to Jerome possibly going but none to Guy. I don’t watch UVA all that much but Jerome seems to me like a great college player but not a definitive pro. I see Guy as having better athleticism. It looks Guy is a couple inches shorter - is that the key difference?

If everyone comes back next year UVA is scary good.

The height difference is key, especially with respect to position. Guy would be an undersized SG in the NBA, while Jerome has excellent size for PG in the NBA. Guy is clearly more athletic, but unless he shows more of a PG’s game, his ceiling is capped somewhat by his lack of size.

[Duke76]

In my dreams, Zion’s block tonight is how Tony Lang’s block attempt in the 1994 final turned out...

Don't know if anyone has responded yet but I would have to agree....I was there...just ripped my heart out,,,,he was right there...another inch and we'd have 6 natties

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Don't know if anyone has responded yet but I would have to agree...I was there...just ripped my heart out,,,,he was right there...another inch and we'd have 6 natties

I know, PAINFUL...imagine the tee shirts and coffee mugs:

NCAA TITLES
91 DUKE
92 DUKE
93 FLUKE
94 DUKE

Much more fun to talk yesterday's game...

[Listen to Quants]

Yeah, I think Bennett will defend the same way if we play them again, counting on a less torrid shooting Duke team.
Post game, however, Scheyer made a comment which I find encouraging: he said Duke is a much better three point shooting team (or so he thinks) than we've shown thus far, he's not sure why that is.
The implication that they shoot a lot better in practice is nothing but good news...let's see if we can nudge that 3 pt shooting percentage up some...

Dezinformatsiya ... ?

[Dub]

Fun game. Amazing how the narrative changes when RJ is making his 3. Also, whoever mentioned Cam wasn’t a 1st rounder, I hope you watched this game.

On to the game. I love how we clamped down every time UVA went on a mini-run. I see lots of critiques here but we just beat the #3 team in the country on their court by 10. Appreciate what you’re seeing here. This team is special (duh)!!

As I’ve said before, if we keep playing defense this way for the rest of the season, someone is going to have to shoot lights out to beat us (see Syracuse). We just put up 81 on UVA. Think about that for a minute. On to the next one...

[ncexnyc]

Considering RJ's comments after the game I think this is appropriate.CHUCK.jpg

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Dezinformatsiya ... ?

I wondered the same thing myself....though they are 41% for the last 4 games...and that's without any from Jack.

[Duke76]

When some people say that Zion isn't quite ready to take over the NBA, this is the kind of game that they will point to. In the game he did, Hubie was somewhat less gushing about Zion than a lot of people because he knows the NBA game so well, and Rondo even said something about Zion still having to develop. I think that's what we saw against UVa: A whole lot less highlight reel offense when quality physical defenders put their minds to stopping him. On the other hand a defense designed to stop him gives up something else and just as we (fortunately) were able to, NBA offenses (even the Knicks) will exploit that. Zion will have to be reckoned with even when he isn't on Sports Center. And even in "subpar" games he'll still be on Sports Center; nothing about the NBA game would keep him from making that block (it will forever be "THE BLOCK"). I think he'll be just fine.

And speaking of the Knicks. Does anyone doubt that there will be another Patrick Ewing lottery fix this year?

except they don't generally double team a guy with regularity in the NBA and the court is bigger...he will be an all star in my opinion...to me he has good form on his outside shot and the more he feels the need to practice it the better he will be

[Utley]

And no way Syracuse shoots like that with Cam and or Tre out there.

Fun game. Amazing how the narrative changes when RJ is making his 3. Also, whoever mentioned Cam wasn’t a 1st rounder, I hope you watched this game.

On to the game. I love how we clamped down every time UVA went on a mini-run. I see lots of critiques here but we just beat the #3 team in the country on their court by 10. Appreciate what you’re seeing here. This team is special (duh)!!

As I’ve said before, if we keep playing defense this way for the rest of the season, someone is going to have to shoot lights out to beat us (see Syracuse). We just put up 81 on UVA. Think about that for a minute. On to the next one...

[uh_no]

except they don't generally double team a guy with regularity in the NBA and the court is bigger...he will be an all star in my opinion...to me he has good form on his outside shot and the more he feels the need to practice it the better he will be

i'm assuuuummming you mean that the spacing is wider, and not that the court is physically bigger.

[CDu]

i'm assuuuummming you mean that the spacing is wider, and not that the court is physically bigger.

Yeah NBA courts are the same dimensions as college. They are both slightly bigger than FIBA courts and notably longer than high school courts. But the college and NBA courts are the same size.

[Bob Green]

i'm assuuuummming you mean that the spacing is wider, and not that the court is physically bigger.

I had the same reaction. Lots of NCAA games are played on NBA courts.

[AtlDuke72]

Despite winning by 10 points and shooting 62% from 3, I thought we played a mediocre game overall. We were uncharacteristically careless with the ball and on the defensive boards. We had less possessions than UVA and that's never good, not even in a win.

Wow ! Some people are never happy. The Devils beat a really, really good team that plays incredible defense and has 3 or 4 future NBA players not to mention a freshman center who looks like he will be all world before too long.

[killerleft]

c'mon man. We shot ungodly well from 3. We also had a couple of possessions that could have been better. We were relatively poor (for us) on defense. This game looks different if we shoot a more reasonable number from 3. I'm not saying we lose, but it's very different. Now, whether we can shoot 60% when we're that wide open, who knows...but it's not a troll post.

Ungodly shooting covers up a lot of things, and there are still a lot of things we could have improved about our performance. You shouldn't read that as I (or probably mr grumpy dad) am not happy with the performance, but there are always things that can be better...and doing one thing well enough to win big should not cloud your ability to see the other things that need some work.

That's why my signature is what it is.

Point taken. I should not have made that post. I apologize to proelitedota.

I do disagree with putting too much stock in statistics. For instance, RJ may not have a gaudy shooting percentage, but he DOES have an uncanny knack for turning misses and "unwise" drives into points via putbacks and "fumbles". Yesterday's game did feature some great three-point shooting at the beginning of the game, but later on we answered every single run Virginia threw at us. Our defense was as good as theirs, maybe better.

What amazing play from everybody, but the freshmen are as unselfish and mature as any group I've seen at Duke. The commitment they've shown toward teamwork and their support for each other is special. I think the upperclassmen should take a bow for that as well.

[AtlDuke72]

I did feel bad for Salt afterwards, but it still makes me laugh.

https://streamable.com/djlaz

It should have been a charge on Salt ( totally ignored by Bilas). It turned out for the good since those free throws were pretty comical. Salt's "hard foul" on Zion should have been a flagrant foul since he ended up tackling him from behind with both arms wrapped around Zion which no one would call a basketball play. Having said that, Salt is a real difference maker for them with his defense and ability to set picks. The 94 Foot walk with Salt and Guy was entertaining. UVA has a like-able coach and players. I will like them even more if they handle the Heels this week.

[uh_no]

It should have been a charge on Salt ( totally ignored by Bilas). It turned out for the good since those free throws were pretty comical. Salt's "hard foul" on Zion should have been a flagrant foul since he ended up tackling him from behind with both arms wrapped around Zion which no one would call a basketball play. Having said that, Salt is a real difference maker for them with his defense and ability to set picks. The 94 Foot walk with Salt and Guy was entertaining. UVA has a like-able coach and players. I will like them even more if they handle the Heels this week.

if only they didn't do it when i'm trying to watch the game...

The amount of game time which isn't shown on the screen is getting ridiculous...there were several plays that they were showing who-knows-what for the first 5 seconds and then "oh wow that's right a game is going on"

Really poorly directed production.

[BandAlum83]

I don't think there was any reason to think that we're as bad as we shot lately, nor as good as we shot last night.

Now, what I did see was the quality of our threes was excellent last night...guys were set, open, getting the ball off kick outs LOVED the kick out to cam on the fast break at one point (something we haven't seen much from this team, but is generally a duke staple). Far better than the call-your-own-number, drifting to the side, closely guarded threes that we've seen.

That doesn't explain the entire difference, but I think if we continue to get and take the kind of quality looks we got last night, we'll continue to see moderately increased success over what we've seen for most of the season.

It looks like our 3FG% went from 30.8% to 32.0% as a result of last nights game. That’s pretty amazing after more than 20 games have been played.

Based on the rankings from Feb 8th that would take us from 316th to 289th place.

[Kfanarmy]

It should have been a charge on Salt ( totally ignored by Bilas). It turned out for the good since those free throws were pretty comical. Salt's "hard foul" on Zion should have been a flagrant foul since he ended up tackling him from behind with both arms wrapped around Zion which no one would call a basketball play. Having said that, Salt is a real difference maker for them with his defense and ability to set picks. The 94 Foot walk with Salt and Guy was entertaining. UVA has a like-able coach and players. I will like them even more if they handle the Heels this week.

SALT, THE MOVING SCREEN. coming to a court near you.

[wavedukefan70s]

SALT, THE MOVING SCREEN. coming to a court near you.

True .the refs missed a few on both.they called it loose .when javin can play physical for 11 minutes whith 1 foul you know its loosely called.he tends to get called a lot.