Let's Go Duke!
(and Sorry, Central. I was pulling for y'all!)
-jk
Game on. Go Devils!
Looking for a scout report... CDU?
Central got treated like TC Williams in Remember the Titans by the stripes.
Real bummer.
Whatever the hell "it" is, Jabari found it.
-Roy "Ole Huck" Williams
I noticed that they don't have any seniors on their roster, though a lot of juniors. Don't know if they are transfers. Hopefully no Mercer repeat.
One guy who plays is 6-10, but guards outrebound him. They have a 7 footer, but looks like he's a redshirt.
On the other hand, they shoot the 3 well. One guy hits 46%, others hit in the high 30s and into the 40s. Duke can't let them get hot, so I imagine the staff is telling them to focus on perimeter D. Fortunately, Duke has been pretty good at that this season.
Looking forward to the game.
9F
I will never talk about That Game. GTHC.
Im no CDu - but a few points
Ward is the 6'6" wing that scores 12 a game .. gets 6 rebounds a game
Shahid is the 6'0 g that scores 12 a game
Those are the two main point scorers... also
Geu is a skinny 6'8 forward who puts up 9 a game / gets 5 rebounds in limited minutes
they have 7 guys at 33 to 46 pct on threes for the year.. ehh - all 7 of them play 15 min or more. Samuelson is 6'3 and takes a bunch and makes 46% of his threes. slight worrisome is how many guys shoot the three well. one or two you can defend. 5+ is hard to figure
10/11 players play 10 min or more from game to game. no one averages 30 min. deep team
No Size. Zion might drop 45
Pomeroy rated Mercer #87 in 2014. He rates North Dakota State as #202. Big difference.
Offense is definitely ND State's best feature. But let's not make them into the Warriors or anything. They're the #117 offense in the country (according to Pomeroy; Torvik ranks them #115). Compared to Duke opponents, their offense is between BC and Pitt. They do shoot well from three, tied for #67 in the country. But this is a team that during the regular season went 15-15 against the country's #236 schedule. And even if somehow we don't guard them well, their defense is terrible. KenPom ranks their D #294 (Torvik goes with #286). They're #247 in 2-point D, #298 in 3-point D, and #347 in turning the other team over. Their overall KenPom rank is worse than Eastern Michigan (a team we beat by 38), worse than Hartford (which we beat by 30 despite their being the #28 three-point shooting team in the country, much better than ND State), worse than Princeton (which we beat by 51), worse than every team on Duke's schedule except Stetson and Army. They're not good.
Last edited by Kedsy; 03-21-2019 at 12:12 AM.
47% of their field goal attempts are 3-pointers: https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb...tate/2019.html
38% of our field goal attempts are 3-pointers: https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb...duke/2019.html
Yes, they are far better on O (120th or so) than on D (270 or so). Maybe some Goldwire on a three point shooter? that said they are 3points lower than WFU (KenPom) who scared the junk out of us at home
It feels like Christmas Eve.
The action begins in 11 hours and I am almost too excited to go to sleep!
16 games tomorrow, another 16 Friday!
Upsets, Cinderellas, buzzer beaters, buzzer roll-offs, half court shots, over time games, great story lines, whose shining moment comes first, and whose is it on a Monday night in April.
Enjoy all!
27 point favorites as of this posting.
Duke’s biggest challenge in this game is overconfidence. I expect a slow start with almost a week off and our opponent coming off more recent play. Should pull away in the second half.
Overconfidence isn't the challenge. Just plain-old "missing the game" is their biggest challenge.
This is the overall 1 seed vs a bad 16 seed. Yes- last year, UVa got rocked. But do we really think there is a >0.1% chance of happening? Cus I don't.
Duke should be overly confident.
The only thing I'm looking forward to in this game is Baker, White, Goldwire, and Vrank getting some quality minutes.
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club