MOTM: Duke v. Syracuse (Feb 23, 2019)

[jipops]

AOC was great. But it seems weird to vote for the 2nd best player in the game as man of the match...because he was the 2nd best player.

[kako]

I wanted to vote for AOC, I really did. 3's are what this team could really use, and today he provided it. A tip of the hat to Bolden as well, as his rebounding down the stretch was also key.

But there's no denying Barrett was the MOTM. He just gets buckets, which were at a premium until late in the game, for a game high 30. And he led the team in assists as well.

9F

[westwall]

RJ did what RJ does, and was the best player tonight. But Alex the one who stepped UP the most, and was crucial to the victory as a result. I think that makes him the MOTM.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Just voted in the main board MOTM poll. Voted for AOC there, too. It's a bit closer there than here, 296-295.

[DukieInBrasil]

We don't win without RJ. We don't without AOC. I went with AOC b/c his 3s were all super timely. 2 gave us leads and 3 of them gave us more than a 1-possession lead.
RJ had a brilliant game. He missed a couple of pretty poorly thought out shots early, but he didn't miss much after that. It was a total sham that he only took 1 FT all night, considering all of the contact that he took getting shots in the lane. He seemed to make a lot of what otherwise looked to be bad shots, but he apparently has the strength and body control to put the ball up with enough touch to coax them thru the hoop. Great game.

[YmoBeThere]

And don’t forget about Javin Bolden, who had 9 points, 3 blocks and 15 big rebounds.

I thought it was Marques DeLaurier?

[dukelifer]

I picked AOC. We knew/expected we would get a good performance by Barrett. The kid is a rock and plays like an upperclassman. But AOC was critical to the second half surge. Duke does not win this game if another player does not step up and AOC did. The kid earned his scholarship last night. The hope is that he can continue to make threes.

[Phredd3]

I was torn between RJ and AOC. My first thought was that AOC's game was exactly the game we needed at the precise moment we needed it, while you could argue RJ was just being RJ. Except on closer look, that's not really true. RJ was being better than RJ usually is (which is already really, really good). RJ in this game was very controlled and efficient in a game where we knew we would have limited possessions and would need to be more efficient than usual. He had the most assists on the team, a smattering of rebounds, a couple important blocks and missed very few shot attempts despite significant contact. It reminded me of his performance in the first Virginia game. Oh, and he played every single minute.

So RJ also had exactly the game we needed at the precise moment we needed it, so as much as my initial reaction was to throw it to AOC, RJ absolutely compels me to vote for him.

[WVDUKEFAN]

I’m the lone guy voted for Jav. Definitely not the most spectacular stats, but that double put back was great. I thought he played pretty good defense as well. I think he played hard and showed a lot of heart.