MBB: Duke 75, Syracuse 65 Post-Game Thread

[proelitedota]

Z moved just fine and was jumping around on the sidelines

On cue, start the mystery theme...

Hope that K isn't pulling an Izzo and inserting some adversity because we're peaking too early?

[uh_no]

Z moved just fine and was jumping around on the sidelines

TBF, knee injuries often don't preclude ANY movement, just lateral movement.

Anecdotally, a family member had a torn ACL + MCL, and still rode their bike, but couldn't do much else.

[DUKIE V(A)]

Tremendous win. Not always pretty and definitely had me nervous but beating Syracuse (especially at their place and at less than full strength) is an impressive feat.

Total team victory. Lots of different guys contributed valuable minutes, but AOC and Barrett played amazing and clutch games.

I will never understand the Reddish hate by some. Ever. He makes some occasional poor decisions, but what freshman doesn’t and his tend to be errors of commission (trying to make a play) rather than omission (playing passively). I can live with his aggressive errors as he is not fearful of the moment. By the way, he makes a ton of big plays in big moments and plays outstanding, consistent, hard defense.

Baker playing took me by surprise. That said, the calculus has to be he gives us a better chance to win championships. I liked what I saw tonight. He grabbed two defensive rebounds in limited playing time and looked confident on the one shot he took. Looking forward to watching him develop and get into the flow as the season progresses.

Go Duke!

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Maybe Coach said to the other coaches, surely Joey can make more 3s than Jack has lately. GoDuke!

Low bar...low low bar......

Joey came in with the others...the others insisted he be in the SI picture....he'll never have a better chance to win a title I wouldn't think...I've wanted the shirt lifted for a couple months. Timing is odd....but all we can do now is hope he helps capture that title with the four studs who insisted he was one of them pre season.

[devilnfla]

I hope Baker has shown something in practice, because he looked slow and scared to me in his few mins of burn

Go Duke!

I actually thought he looked poised out there. Picked up a couple of rebounds and his one shot had good form and just missed. Thought he had a nice block right before the half that was called as a foul.

[KandG]

The first half was what I was afraid would happen...really frustrating the way we attacked their defense for much of the first half (settling for a lot of bad 3s), while Syracuse got a lot of opportunistic baskets off offensive rebounds and making tough contested 2s. Some of those 3s Tre was trying to aim at the basket with no one near him were just cringeworthy.

It didn't help that we couldn't turn Syracuse over the way I hoped we might, because Tre had to defend Battle and RJ had to guard Brisette with Zion out. I was especially worried with Alex starting that we would give up a ton of points, given the way things turned out the first time we played Cuse at home.

But Alex (mostly) held his own, Tre locked down Battle, and we found intelligent ways to attack their zone in the second half. i was especially impressed with how strong Alex was with the ball against the zone, and how he stepped into his shots with confidence and passed quickly against closeouts. The majority of K's adjustments worked extremely well, and that second half was awesome.

RJ was just a monster all game and his in-between game flourished against the zone...he was just too strong and too smart for Syracuse to handle.

I see several people are being hard on Cam for his shooting but I'm going to defend him on this front: it was clear he was struggling with the sightlines in the Dome. He had *zero* feel on his three pointers, and Syracuse's zone made it worse as he rarely settled into a comfortable shot. I thought Cam's turnovers late in the game were more inexcusable, and I'm sure the coaching staff will be on him about being more careful with the ball. (yes, I thought he was a bit casual on his breakaway, but I think it's just him still learning how to be stronger with the ball).

Cam was good on defense, as was most of the team, including DeLaurier and Bolden -- Marques' first stint was actually a bit of a disaster as he got picked on immediately in the pick and roll. But those second half minutes and all those rebounds were *huge*.

Thought the turning point of the game was Dolezaj picking up his fourth foul (a pretty silly one on Tre driving the baseline)...he was the only one really giving us trouble on defense. I've always liked his game dating back to last season, and he gave us fits for much of the game.

Seeing Joey Baker and Vrankovic enter the game (ahead of Bolden no less) was definitely mind-blowing -- I had no idea what to think. My reaction (reinforced by the press conference) is that K feels we need more shooting...we can't get away with what we've shown to date, no matter how incredible our best players are. We're going to be seeing more zones, more gimmick defenses, and we need good confident shooters. And K feels Baker is one of the best we have.

Now making a decision like that so late in the season, and seeing Jack White glued to the bench, is definitely strange. I hope the reasons are tactical and have nothing to do with injuries or anything behind the scenes. No matter what, I look forward to seeing what Joey brings to the team the rest of the season.

[heyman25]

Tremendous win. Not always pretty and definitely had me nervous but beating Syracuse (especially at their place and at less than full strength) is an impressive feat.

Total team victory. Lots of different guys contributed valuable minutes, but AOC and Barrett played amazing and clutch games.

I will never understand the Reddish hate by some. Ever. He makes some occasional poor decisions, but what freshman doesn’t and his tend to be errors of commission (trying to make a play) rather than omission (playing passively). I can live with his aggressive errors as he is not fearful of the moment. By the way, he makes a ton of big plays in big moments and plays outstanding, consistent, hard defense.

Baker playing took me by surprise. That said, the calculus has to be he gives us a better chance to win championships. I liked what I saw tonight. He grabbed two defensive rebounds in limited playing time and looked confident on the one shot he took. Looking forward to watching him develop and get into the flow as the season progresses.

Go Duke!

It is not Reddish hate . It is just an opinion and an observation. Today Cam had 5 points 7 rebounds and 3 turnovers. 18% shooting from the field.

[jv001]

Low bar...low low bar...

Joey came in with the others...the others insisted he be in the SI picture...he'll never have a better chance to win a title I wouldn't think...I've wanted the shirt lifted for a couple months. Timing is odd...but all we can do now is hope he helps capture that title with the four studs who insisted he was one of them pre season.

Maybe Joey gives us the Freshmen Grayson Allen on the way to the 6th. GoDuke!

[Skydog]

Don’t underestimate Cams defense. He’s very good. His reach is impressive. He’s gotten better finishing around the basket. His shooting is streaky but his defense is solid.

Truth. It's just that offense (where RJ has been spectacular and Cam has been streaky) gets noticed much more than defense (where Cam is consistently strong and RJ too often takes plays off).

[uh_no]

It is not Reddish hate . It is just an opinion and an observation. Today Cam had 5 points 7 rebounds and 3 turnovers. 18% shooting from the field.

saying that reddish had a bad game, which is likely true, is different from saying "I don't understand what anyone sees in him", which you and others did.

(https://forums.dukebasketballreport...56#post1132156)

[scottdude8]

Oh, heavens. Weren't you one of the smarties who INSISTED baker was redshirting? Yeah, I think you were. As long as he was in UNIFORM EVERY GAME, there was a chance he would play.

I understand second-guessing is the lifeblood of this site. You can't, however, make definitive statements when you JUST DON'T KNOW.

Great job by AOC, Marques, Jav, RJ and Tre. Check Battle 4-17 on FG.

I also heard schulman with his "moment of silence in both English and Spanish line. He should go back to Canada and call curling. And take Bilas with him.

I think that you’re massively mischaracterizing my prior statements. I consistently said that all indications were Joey would redshirt and that was the plan all along. I drew parallels to the Alex Murphy situation, and how despite speculation all year he kept his redshirt. I also stated on multiple occasions that Joey could play at any point because you don’t apply for a redshirt until after the season. I doubt I ever definitively said “Joey Baker is not playing this year”. I did say that it was very, very unlikely based on the info we all had. It would take an unusual situation for him to play, and one occurred. All of that still holds. There were no indications prior to tonight that this would happen.

Please don’t put words into my mouth.

[Tooold]

I actually thought he looked poised out there. Picked up a couple of rebounds and his one shot had good form and just missed. Thought he had a nice block right before the half that was called as a foul.

I agree completely. Joey took a confident shot that missed. He seemed to move the ball quickly, without hesitation. His block was very good but got a bad call. He has some bounce. Coach K said he has been playing well in practice and they need shooters. So I hope and guess they are bringing him in now in order to help him develop for the rest of the season. Maybe he just wasn’t ready earlier, but, IMO, it has always been unrealistic to think he would stay for 5 years to get the benefit of a redshirt.

[buddy]

Jack has missed 25 straight 3 point attempts. His last made 3 was early in the second half against FSU. It is clear he has no confidence in his shot. His rebounding has remained strong, but he has become an offensive liability. Maybe (I hope) he had a bug tonight, because I miss his defense and hustle. But with Zion out and against the zone, a 3 point shooter who won't take the shot does not help. I also agree that Joey would not spend 5 years at Duke, or if he did he would be a disappointment. He may not get many minutes against VT (then again I expect us to go small against them), but he should be able to get minutes against Miami and Wake. By then Zion should be back for the finale, or we have real problems.

[CoachJ10]

Will stay in the shadow of Zion (rightly so)...but man...he just delivers the goods.

[AtlDuke72]

Yes, but at the same time he hadn’t played at all this year. They were clearly planning on redshirting him. The timing is odd. I hope it has more to do with White’s absence than Zion’s.

Still a lot of the season to go. Grayson Allen hardly played until the Wisconsin game.

[uh_no]

Jack has missed 25 straight 3 point attempts. His last made 3 was early in the second half against FSU. It is clear he has no confidence in his shot. His rebounding has remained strong, but he has become an offensive liability. Maybe (I hope) he had a bug tonight, because I miss his defense and hustle. But with Zion out and against the zone, a 3 point shooter who won't take the shot does not help. I also agree that Joey would not spend 5 years at Duke, or if he did he would be a disappointment. He may not get many minutes against VT (then again I expect us to go small against them), but he should be able to get minutes against Miami and Wake. By then Zion should be back for the finale, or we have real problems.

I wondered too...but you'd think he wouldn't be on the bench then, or even travelling. We shall see.

[lotusland]

Starting Alex might have been the key to unlocking his scoring. The bench just cannot score. Bolden’s 4 points were the grand total of our bench scoring tonight. I wonder if starting JGold would spark his scoring too?

[jv001]

I agree completely. Joey took a confident shot that missed. He seemed to move the ball quickly, without hesitation. His block was very good but got a bad call. He has some bounce. Coach K said he has been playing well in practice and they need shooters. So I hope and guess they are bringing him in now in order to help him develop for the rest of the season. Maybe he just wasn’t ready earlier, but, IMO, it has always been unrealistic to think he would stay for 5 years to get the benefit of a redshirt.

With the way teams have been packing the lane against Zion, having a player than can knock down 3s is huge. Out of Cam, Alex, RJ, and possibly Joey gives us higher odds in making those shots. Surely one or more can get hot on a given night to unclog the paint for Zion to go to work. Super Z is pretty good at getting to the rim even with the lane clogged. GoDuke!

[rocketeli]

Truth. It's just that offense (where RJ has been spectacular and Cam has been streaky) gets noticed much more than defense (where Cam is consistently strong and RJ too often takes plays off).

I remember the late great Al McGuire saying something once to the effect that it is very hard to be consistently focused and excellent on both offense and defense, for either a team or a player, so you basically have to pick one to focus on. Cam really seems by inclination or coaching direction to be especially focusing on defense, while RJ is offense. And generally it is offense that gets the highlight reels. After a player expends all the mental and physical energy on either one, it can be hard to be consistent the other way and thus Cam lacks focus on offense sometimes. I see why the NBA wants him, BTW--he is tall! He's almost as tall as Javin, even discounting the hair. He's a 6'9" guard and there aren't many of those. He's very athletic too. The NBA cares more about that (hops, upside, athleticism, potential, whatever they call it) than a streaky shot or a somewhat weak handle. They figure those can be fixed.

[heyman25]

saying that reddish had a bad game, which is likely true, is different from saying "I don't understand what anyone sees in him", which you and others did.

(https://forums.dukebasketballreport...56#post1132156)

Not what I said. NBA scouts think Reddish will be the 4th or 5th pick in the NBA lottery in June.
NBA scouts, not I don't understand what anyone sees in him.
uh_no that is my last post game comment.