https://www.theringer.com/march-madn...caa-tournament
Probably no surprise, considering the source. Also no surprise, considering a lot of the chatter on this board during the season.
To summarize, if Zion continues to play at his otherworldly level, it appears that any failure in the tourney will not be laid at HIS feet.
I mean, I'd largely agree with this. Zion is doing things that are borderline nonhuman. If he continues to do those, it won't be his fault if we lose a game.
I mostly agree with the article, though I think it does a bad job of delineating between the struggles of Barrett and the struggles of Reddish. The point they make is that if Duke loses, it will likely be because we get the bad versions of Reddish and Barrett. And the UNC game is a good example of that, as neither was very good in that game. But I don't think it's fair to group the two players together in their flaws.
Yes, Barrett has some flaws. He's not great defensively and he forces too many bad shots. But he's a fantastic defensive rebounder for a guard and he does a lot of different things of value on offense (secondary ballhandler, secondary passer, volume scoring threat, transition menace). I've voiced the limitations of Barrett's game plenty, but it isn't fair to lump him in the same boat as Reddish on offense. He's still a really good player overall, though he does have occasional stinkers.
Reddish is a different story. Where Barrett is usually just a somewhat inefficient scorer, he's clearly still a net positive on offense. Reddish is not typically a net positive on offense. The article lays it out quite nicely in their description of Reddish's offensive game, so I won't go any further there. That said, where Reddish is clearly inferior to Barrett on offense, he is superior on defense (not to nearly the degree that Barrett is better offensively of course, but still better defensively). He's really good defending the perimeter, underrated even. I don't expect Reddish to provide value offensively game to game, but I do expect him to be a defensive force. And he usually delivers on that end.
I assume the author has seen the big Duke games this year but not all of them. It reads that way.
While Cam is either on or off, with little in between, on offense, his defense never seems to suffer much from a bad shooting night. So he's still a big asset on that end of the floor. That's something Coach K has stressed in the past; not letting your struggles consumer you defensive effort. I do think the game has not fully slowed down for Cam yet, evidenced by his charges.
I would also note that RJ has been the primary playmaker on an awful lot of possessions the past month, with Tre Jones playing off the ball. That is something that seems to have evolved over the course of the conference schedule. Is that because of lingering Tre should issues? I am not sure to be honest.
Cheap shots and nonsense, especially against RJ. RJ is an amazing player -- to focus on his shooting misses the point. Cam has his issues -- one of which is that he is sharing the court with tow ball-dominant players.
I look forward to a great tournament from all three plus Tre.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
In addition to not knowing the name of Duke's starting point guard, this guy also needs to work on his math skills:This article is pretty shoddy work by someone who clearly only watched at most 5-6 Duke games all season.There is no one off their bench whom Coach K seems to trust. He played sophomore guard Jordan Goldwire 28 minutes against the Tar Heels, nearly a tenth of his total (262) all season.
I think it was a good article and, as CDu points out, has fair criticisms to our 2nd and 3rd best players.
The criticism towards RJ is harsh, but really, really fair to Cam. Cam, offensively, has been nowhere near the top 3 player folks predicted of him coming into college.
Like you, I am expecting a great tournament from all 4 freshman. But I won't be surprised if RJ has a few incredibly inefficient games or Cam fouls out in multiple games due to offensive fouls on drives.
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
Tjarks is only ever evaluating players as they project to the NBA, his interest in college basketball goes no further than as an NBA feeder system so that's the perspective of the article.
I was talking to a friend last night (shout out to DBR's Avvocato) and he asked me who is the most underrated Duke player? His answer was RJ. Obviously, he is getting a lot of post-season awards so that's not what he was talking about...it is more in the perception. I think the Gonzaga game unfairly branded him vis-a-vis Zion as a selfish player. I agree that the article was fair in its critiques of his deficiencies, but it ignores his massive strengths, especially his willingness to compete and be in the big plays - win or lose. The kid has been such a leader for us, happy to take the heat. I love him!
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
I think Barrett being more a primary ballhandler in February stemmed from Zion being out and K trying to maximize Barrett. Barrett is a great scorer but not so much a catch and shoot kind of guy so Jones trying to get him the ball in scoring position doesn't really work. Unfortunately, I think this hurt Jones's game. Now that Zion is back, Duke can run it's more normal motion offense and take better advantage of Barrett, Jones and Zion.