MBB: Duke 72, unc 88 Post-Game Thread

[CrazyNotCrazie]

I would give it a very small chance he leaves Durham for the next two games. Those were going to be tough games with him. Duke will have to salvage the season until Zion returns. If he does not come back in 3 weeks - it gets dicey.

I definitely agree at least for Syracuse - leave him home and let him rehab - I want to win the war more than the battle. His time is better spent in Durham than flying to Syracuse to be a cheerleader.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Roy very classy post game...said great things about Zion....said "let's get real, when the big fella went out, it changed everything for Duke..." and later called him a wonderful kid.

[FerryFor50]

Yes, Zion going down shows the major flaws with this team... but isn't that a moot point? If Zion goes down we aren't winning either way so who cares what flaws lay beneath a Zion-less duke team

The only reason it matters is if Zion is out for a prolonged period. Otherwise, you're right - this game is an outlier.

[WiJoe]

gave up 62 points in paint. looked disinterested on defense. at very least, confused. too many 3s. ridiculous.

[FerryFor50]

gave up 62 points in paint. looked disinterested on defense. at very least, confused. too many 3s. ridiculous.

I don't think they were disinterested. First half, they were a bit shell shocked.

After that, the competed hard. Just didn't know how to fill the gaping Zion hole.

[J4Kop99]

Roy very classy post game...said great things about Zion...said "let's get real, when the big fella went out, it changed everything for Duke..." and later called him a wonderful kid.

That's what I like to see/hear. Now he should go find Bilas and relay the message.

[WiJoe]

Roy very classy post game...said great things about Zion...said "let's get real, when the big fella went out, it changed everything for Duke..." and later called him a wonderful kid.

roy is a lying, phony fraud. K blew him off in handshake line, which he should have been doing since NCAA wimped out on hammering the cheats for worst academic fraud in NCAA history

[proelitedota]

We need to be less shook in the future if one of our players goes down. We seem to be the worst since I started watching at adjusting to injuries.

[downeastdad]

Ton of respect for Roy’s post game presser.

Me too.

[WHOneedsSOX]

I definitely agree at least for Syracuse - leave him home and let him rehab - I want to win the war more than the battle. His time is better spent in Durham than flying to Syracuse to be a cheerleader.

I don't think there's any chance he plays Saturday. Best case scenario would be 2 weeks like the guy on Kentucky. Curry missed about 2 weeks on a very similar slip to Zion's where his knee bent awkwardly but he admitted he wasn't close to 100% the rest of the season. Don't know if Zion/Duke would consider him playing if he wasn't 100%.

[Mabdul Doobakus]

Our role players are who they are. None of them are scoring threats. We have no one who can space the floor. Barrett and Reddish alone are not good enough to overcome this team's flaws. They're inefficient as scorers even with Zion on the floor. It's not going to get better now. It's going to be very difficult for either of them to get good shots.

[CoachJ10]

To Ks presser?

[KandG]

Season obviously hinges on Zion's health at this point. This is still a very good team -- better than what they showed tonight -- but the upside is far more limited.

Actually thought we were doing a decent job of cutting into the deficit slowly but surely after going down 22 in the second half, but there were simply too many near turnovers that we couldn't turn into real turnovers or transition opportunities. UNC got to seemingly every 50-50 ball that resulted from a deflection or a good defensive possession.

Small note in an otherwise largely irrelevant game once Zion went out: Jordan Goldwire is just an amazing defensive presence, no matter how limited his minutes -- he was creating so much chaos out there -- but this time we couldn't capitalize on his disruptiveness.

Assuming Zion misses a few games (or more), we have to find a way to get offense from other players. White, Goldwire and O'Connell missing all 12 of their shots (including all 10 3 point attempts) isn't really going to cut it. Tre since the Gonzaga game is 8 for 42 on 3 pointers (19%). Jack's confidence looks shot right now. We're just too easy to defend if that's the kind of shooting we get, even on wide open 3 pointers (which those players had their share of).

(There were times it felt like RJ was looking off every teammate besides Cam because he simply didn't trust anyone else to take a shot)

Not really the best thing in the world to have to go to Syracuse and face that zone without our best player, so I'm writing off that one. Not writing off the season yet (I got the panic out of my system when Tre went down earlier this year). Just maintaining hope that it's a mild sprain for Zion and that the timetable is sooner rather than later.

[Reddevil]

This game should result in the sad bear on the front page. It sums up how we feel perfectly. Hopefully this is a bump in the road.

[Oriole Way]

Zion's time missed could be an opportunity to develop another scorer off the bench, which this team will desperately need with Zion out, and will also benefit from when he comes back. That player is Alex O'Connell.

O'Connell has some major flaws on both sides of the ball, and he's struggling with his confidence. But I think it's time to give him some prolonged playing time over the next few games, and let him play through mistakes.

[FerryFor50]

We need to be less shook in the future if one of our players goes down. We seem to be the worst since I started watching at adjusting to injuries.

Got any examples of college teams that have adjusted well to in-game injuries to one of their best players?

I can think of one example of a team folding after losing one of their best players this season - when K-State lost Dean Wade against Iowa St. And that was late in the 2nd half.

https://www.bringonthecats.com/2019/...dcats-cyclones

[jv001]

Two things:
1) Turnovers= 20..Barrett= 5, Cam= 4, Bolden=1, Jones= 3, Javin= 2, White= 3, Goldwire= 1, Zion= 1 and this was the one that really hurt. Darn shoe.

2) I told yall Obama was a jinx.

GoDuke!

[JetpackJesus]

It wasn’t, Duke doesn’t have those machines in Cameron Indoors.

Cameron is just over a mile from DUMC, and that's really because you have to go around LSRC now. Not sure why they couldn't have taken him there during the game. That said, I don't know if there's a medical reason for delaying the MRI or other hospital treatment. Someone mentioned in chat they try to wait for swelling to go down before imaging, but I am not a medical doctor.

In any event, he probably could've been at the hospital by the first media timeout if that's what they wanted.

[sagegrouse]

Three observations that haven't been made yet:

1. Outside of Cam and R.J., we made only four FG's -- three by DeLaurier and one by Tre. Thing is -- it's worse than that. Two of Javin's buckets were steals and breakaways. Therefore, we had only two baskets in the context of our offense that were not by Barrett or Reddish. C'mon guys!! We can do much, much better.
2. They are burning the midnight oil at Nike in Eugene, OR. Oh my god, what happened to that shoe?
3. Obama -- I dunno. Maybe he should just stay away from Duke basketball games. On second thought, we got clocked by Georgetown on January 30, 2010, with Obama in attendance, and that season ended OK.

[accfanfrom1970]

Zion going out means my participation in the off topic Ymmmm Beer thread is going to skyrocket along with my bar bill.