Looks like our main rotation might be Carey, Hurt, White, Stanley, and Jones.
We played a 9 man rotation today. I don't think even K can shrink that down to 8.
Awesome win against a tough, experienced opponent. I was concerned about our offense but did not give enough credit to how good our defense could be. Stanley was impressive, but we got contributions from everyone. Jack White showed the heady play that made him so valuable at times last year, busting up a 3-on-1 break, getting the game clinching steal, and numerous other huge plays.
Thank you edouble and others who called me out when I was wavering on how good this team could be out of the gate. They did look nervous at the start, and they did not shoot well, but they did enough to win. I think we’re going to see a lot of ugly wins this year, but I love what we’ve seen so far.
Looks like our main rotation might be Carey, Hurt, White, Stanley, and Jones.
We played a 9 man rotation today. I don't think even K can shrink that down to 8.
Welcome to the #UVAfanLife, lol.
You guys def looked strong defensively, whether KU committed a lot of unforced errors or not, the shots they DID get off were NOT good ones or easy ones by and large.
I think K was well aware that defense would be the primary driver for your team, especially early in the season, and thus the Goldwire start. I think as the season wears on, and the offense smooths out, you'll see Jordan's minutes fade a bit to more of a situational spot.
I was also interested to see that Baker didn't play at all. Injury? Suspension? If it's neither of those, and he's just going to not really be a part of the plan, I think you have a strong 7 man rotation with Jones/O'Connell/Stanley/Hurt/Carey with DeLaurier and White the main guys off the bench, Moore mixing in FAIRLY consistently, and Goldwire playing spot minutes.
Hurt looks like he has the potential to be the primary offensive weapon, and will be interested to see how dominant Carey can be when he isn't matched up against this type of front line (read: almost never). I think Jones will have to have a better perimeter shot to get where you REALLY want to go (FF/Title contention) but there are a lot of games to play and this is a small sample size so far (so who the heck knows about ANY of my points really, lol).
Way to represent the ACC in the Champs classic! Means no nonconference losses for the league as a whole kicking off the season! ;-)
Never seen a shot that deserved to go in more than that open above-the-break three he took as the trail guy after making a fantastic defensive play. The one that was 2/3s of the way down and just rolled out. Just a violation of the ineffable laws of basketball for that one not to go down for Jack. Fingers crossed that those shots start falling.
I think this may be our best lineup, but I wouldn't expect it to start (which is totally fine!). I think JG may continue to start to set the tone, and I think Stanley works well off the bench. I wouldn't be surprised if we start Carey, Hurt, AOC, JG and Jones going forward, even if Stanley and White get more PT than AOC and JG.
I love the varied pieces that this team has. Who plays big minutes will vary based on our opponent and who is hot. I think that's a pretty darn encouraging scenario.
Scott Rich on the front page
Trinity BS 2012; University of Michigan PhD 2018
Duke Chronicle, Sports Online Editor: 2010-2012
K-Ville Blue Tenting 2009-2012
Unofficial Brian Zoubek Biographer
If you have questions about Michigan Basketball/Football, I'm your man!
My dog jumped at my elated scream when that one went in. He earned that.
Jack doesn't need to be a 40% 3 point shooter. If he's a 30-35% shooter he can do enough to stretch the floor and stay out there for his hustle and D. I think that's what we'll see this year.
Scott Rich on the front page
Trinity BS 2012; University of Michigan PhD 2018
Duke Chronicle, Sports Online Editor: 2010-2012
K-Ville Blue Tenting 2009-2012
Unofficial Brian Zoubek Biographer
If you have questions about Michigan Basketball/Football, I'm your man!
Should not have dropped acid before the tip, the colors of the broadcast screwed with me at randomly intermittently times.
Jack, Javin, and Tre got it done.
I'm imagining the season is being played in reverse. Tonight is the final night with the championship game (#1 vs #2) about to take place. Duke just won the consolation match (#3 vs #4). I'm very happy with this result.
The bookies won this one. Aside from being impressed with them, I am starting the Cassius Stanley fan club. He’s going to be special. My biggest disappointment was no Joey Baker.
I love all of you and am so, so happy that we are getting to watch Duke basketball for yet another season.
Also, WENDELL'S FEET WERE SET!
LOVE beating Kansas after this recent run of losses. Every L we have suffered in this event is at their hands. A little payback is sweet.
Of the 9 who played, many had huge moments from the time we were down 9 in the second.
Of the upperclassmen, I was thrilled that Jack played such a prominent role and that Alex was very much in the mix. Javin played his usual solid game, but Jack and Alex played better than I expected.
Cassius, Vernon and Hurt with very impressive debuts. Cassius was rock solid on e he settled down, Matthew played with a lot of confidence, and while Vernon’s D was a little soft (letting Dotson get all the way to the rim in the final minutes), I loved how Big Vern was being aggressive on offense (although he can drop the running one hander brick from his repetoire).
Tre came up HUGE in the crunch, that jumper with the shooter’s (ha ha ha) touch and the clutch FTs, plus a big board.
Wendell looked like a freshman, and Jordan was just his usual self as opposed to turbo Jordan.
Extremely satisfying win.
I really like the way Carey posts up. I think he’s going to be a real force inside and put up a lot of points against most every front line we play this year. Tonight may the toughest he sees all season and he still had a solid game.
One thing about the defensive effort that struck me: the sheer spread of the Kansas turnovers. It wasn't one or two guys throwing the ball around or a certain positional group struggling. It was everybody. No starter had less than 3 TOs. The two primary ballhandlers (Dotson and Agbaji, both potential All Big-12 guy) had 5 each. The bigs turned it over. The wings turned it over. And they turned it over in a gazillion ways. Just a masterclass in defensive pressure.
For those looking for reasons that Joey Baker didn't get minutes, that's my guess as to why. The one big strength of this team is the cohesive peskiness of the defense. I just don't know if K is going to risk compromising that for the shooting that Baker brings. Hopefully Baker will follow O'Connell's lead and improve enough defensively to carve out a role. But my guess is that he just hasn't done enough on that end of the court to earn minutes.
I’m not sure the last time Duke beat a top 5 team while shooting 38% from the field, but that’s what good d will get you. While there’s certainly some “November basketball” producing those numbers, I think it might be pretty indicative of the types of games we’ll see from Duke all year. You could really see the offense struggle to get good shots off in the half court, and a lot of that shooting performance was about not being able to get good shots rather than missing shots you’d expect to be made at a higher clip. Most teams also won’t have the size Kansas does, though, but they probably also won’t turn it over as much, no matter how good the defense plays.
I think one of the biggest keys for Duke will be finding lineups that can work both offensively and defensively. You could see some really good work from Carey and O’Connell on offense, but the defense suffered when they were in. Carey in particular has a long way to go in recognizing the whole court on d. That’s not even a knock on him as every other freshman who walked in from 2014-2017 had the same problem. The difference is the team isn’t full of offensively minded players and the defense is going to be the more important end of the court night in and night out.
I was very impressed with some of what Stanley was doing tonight and if he can continue to improve, he could be a huge piece to the puzzle.
Tonight’s lesson in why Coach K is Coach K and I’m SCMatt33 on DBR: I was not a fan of bringing Goldwire back in with 1:30 left. Coming in cold, he got blown by on the first possession to let them close to one, but was was definitely the right call to have him in for the last minute after he got that bad possession under his belt as KU got shut down after that save the garbage time buzzer 3