Duke 105, Central Arkansas 54 - Post Game Thread

[AGDukesky]

I am really becoming excited about this team

[Music man55]

Great outing tonight for the devils, defense again really good, especially in 1st half. Wow, Tre really got his bell rung. Glad Coach K kept him out rest of the way for pre-cautionary reasons. Good offense tonight also, 9/16 from three. Not shabby at all, even though C. Arkansas not a great test as far as top notch teams to measure against. Good win, keep it rollin' blue devils!

[jwillfan]

Great outing tonight for the devils, defense again really good, especially in 1st half. Wow, Tre really got his bell rung. Glad Coach K kept him out rest of the way for pre-cautionary reasons. Good offense tonight also, 9/16 from three. Not shabby at all, even though C. Arkansas not a great test as far as top notch teams to measure against. Good win, keep it rollin' blue devils!

K from the post game comments: "“Tre looks pretty good and I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. I asked him what my name was and he said, ‘Michael’. That was pretty bold of him.”

[gep]

I really worry about Tre... both for himself and the team. Until I see him in a game again, I will be concerned.

[DukieInBrasil]

I hope that this game represents a turn in the tide regarding Duke's shooting from 3 for the season. Not that they'll shoot this well every time out, of course not, but that they CAN shoot well sometimes. That's an important distinction. Several players got to see 3s go down, but also it seemed that most guys were able to play to their strengths.
J-Gold may not get much love outside of the Duke program and fans but i think a game like this shows that he could have chosen to go to a school of the caliber of Central Ark. and been a star-caliber player. He chose to sacrifice those aspects to labor with less renown for Duke, and i appreciate that. He helps make Duke a better team, and a better program.
Cassius continues to be dyn-o-mite, Moore continues to meh, Carey and Hurt really played well, and joined Javin, J-Gold and J-Bake with career and/or season highs in scoring. Lots to like in this game, despite the imbalance in skill.

[devildeac]

K from the post game comments: "“Tre looks pretty good and I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. I asked him what my name was and he said, ‘Michael’. That was pretty bold of him.”

At least he didn't say, "Poppy."

[mattyoung18]

Load management for Tre.

[sagegrouse]

Cassius Stanley is poor at only one thing -- looking like a four-year college player.

[brlftz]

Cassius Stanley is poor at only one thing -- looking like a four-year college player.

He's a special player. He's so much more than an amazing vertical. He is aggressive and yet plays within himself, and it's always the right play.

[yancem]

He's a special player. He's so much more than an amazing vertical. He is aggressive and yet plays within himself, and it's always the right play.

Not that I’m saying he is as good but in many ways I see a little Zion in Stanley. They both really get at it defensively and bring a contagious energy to the floor. They also are capable of scoring big numbers but neither really dominate the ball. Also, they both just seem to have so much fun out there. Oh, and they both can jump out of the gym

[jv001]

Cassius Stanley is poor at only one thing -- looking like a four-year college player.

It may just be me but Cassius has the look of a player that doesn't get real high and doesn't get real low. It's like he let's his playing speak for him. If he continues to play like this and I don't see why he wouldn't, he can have any look on his face and I won't care one bit. I like the way he get's into his defensive position and he's the kind of player that looks to be all over the court. Good game for Coach K to play all his players and they performed quite well. GoDuke!

[SkyBrickey]

Great shooting night across the board. Lots of unselfish plays. This is the kind of game that can be a real confidence builder.

[Kedsy]

Great performance against an overmatched team.


OFFENSE

Possessions: 80.53 (nice and speedy)
oRtg: 1.30 (first really strong raw ppp of the season)
eFG%: 62.8% (very strong)
3pt%: 50.0% (excellent, especially for a team maligned for its inability to shoot)
2pt%: 58.9% (good)
%threes: 24.3% (low, but if that's what it takes to shoot 50% from the three-zone, I'm all for it)
FT rate: 18.9% (way too low, for the second straight game)
OR%: 33.3% (kind of meh, but our best OR performance of the season so far)
TO%: 14.9% (good)
a/to: 1.5:1 (acceptable)
%assisted: 42.9% (kinda low, but Tre only played 9 minutes)
fast break pts: 21 (20.0% of points; decent)

DEFENSE

dRtg: 0.67 (very good for third straight game out of three)
eFG%: 38.2% (also very good)
3pt%: 20.0% (ditto)
2pt%: 41.7% (good)
%threes: 29.4% (good combo: we kept them off the line, and when they took them, they missed)
FT rate: 47.1% (kinda awful for the third straight game; looks like this might be a point of concern)
DR%: 89.7% (outrageously good; 2nd straight game over 80%)
TO%: 26.1% (it ain't 35%, but I'll take 26% if we can do it consistently)
a/to: 0.38:1 (3rd straight game under 0.5:1, which is a little bit wow)
%assisted: 44.4% (decent)
stl%: 17.4% (very strong)
blk%: 13.7% (19.4% of 2pt shots) (also very strong)
fast break pts: 12 (22.2% of points; not so great for the third straight game; point of concern?)


Excellent all around offensive performance, with the possible exception of free throw rate and offensive rebounding, which at this point look like potential team weaknesses. Excellent all around defensive performance, with the exception of free throw rate and fast break points allowed, which also seem like potential team weaknesses.

[Billy Dat]

Great performance against an overmatched team.

Excellent all around defensive performance, with the exception of free throw rate and fast break points allowed, which also seem like potential team weaknesses.

Not every early season opponent can be Evansville!

The FT rate is baffling because we seem more determined than ever to drive the ball. Are we not proficient at drawing fouls? If anything, we were the ones fouling a lot to start the game.

[Kedsy]

Not every early season opponent can be Evansville!

The FT rate is baffling because we seem more determined than ever to drive the ball. Are we not proficient at drawing fouls? If anything, we were the ones fouling a lot to start the game.

Yeah, our free throw rate has been bad on both sides of the ball. So far this season, our opponents have attempted 72 free throws while Duke has attempted just 55.

This is somewhat unheard of for Duke in the Coach K era -- in the past 36 seasons (since and including 1984), Duke has only attempted fewer free throws than its opponents once, in 1996. And that season, Duke attempted just 14 fewer free throws than its opponents for the entire season. Since 1997, Duke has only once attempted fewer free throws than 119% of its opponents attempts (2014, when we attempted 103% of our opponents' attempts). So if this keeps up, it's a big deal.

[wilson]

...So far this season, our opponents have attempted 72 free throws while Duke has attempted just 55...

Duke doesn't get any of the calls.

[UrinalCake]

The FT rate is baffling because we seem more determined than ever to drive the ball. Are we not proficient at drawing fouls?

The refs called a handful of charges early on (for both teams) and I thought our guys responded by pulling up more and staying vertical when going up for the shot after driving, rather than initiating contact. I was actually encouraged that they made this adjustment. There were games last year where we kept doing the same thing over and over and getting called for the charge every time because that's how the game was being called and we never adapted.

Why would 6 transition baskets in 40 minutes be a worry?

In the big picture of this game it's not, but I can recall at least two of those being the result of really bad shots/decisions on our end that led to breaks the other way. And we could project that making those types of plays in a "real" game could be the difference between winning and losing. It's hard to maintain focus when you're up by 50, but K expects the team to be 100% on, even in a glorified practice like this.

[CDu]

My takeaways from the game:

- Stanley continues to impress. I'm still a bit inquisitive about his perimeter shooting; I don't think he's even attempted 5 shots outside of 10 feet. The shots he does take he makes, so no complaints so far. But the most impressive thing is that his defensive awareness is really advanced. Yes, I know that he's 2 years older than many/most freshmen. But that shouldn't affect his defensive IQ. The quality of coaching and opposition in high school and AAU ball is soooooo much lower than college that most players (regardless of age) come in having to learn how to play defense. But he appears to have a really good feel for that end of the court. Hopefully it continues.

- Nice to see Jones hit a 3, but I was more pleased to see him continue to hit his 15-18 foot shots. The continued success on those suggests that his shooting touch is improving. So hopefully that translates to the 3pt line eventually. He does pretty much everything else at an elite level for a college PG, so if he can just be okay from 3 that's a game-changer.

- Carey is just too good for a team as bad as Central Arkansas. He did whatever he wanted inside. As a big, he's got a steeper learning curve defensively. But he's clearly a really polished offensive player inside. I've liked what I've seen from him: 28 points (on 13-15 from the field) and 13 rebounds in 35 minutes against the two overmatched opponents. He wasn't superlative against KU, but given their size and experience I'm not concerned. For Carey, it's about defensive awareness and avoiding foul trouble. If he can manage those two things well enough, the sky is the limit at the college level.

- I still am not sure what to think about Hurt. The shooting stroke is obvious: he has a great touch from anywhere on the floor. But he's slow and skinny, and his game looks that way. I do wonder how well he'll hold up if teams put an athletic, physical, experienced, defensive-minded big wing (think like a Justise Winslow body/athleticism type), or gets him isolated with a big post guy when he's on defense. We've yet to really see a good test for him (KU turned it over too much to have any sort of cohesion; CSU and UCA are just too inferior). He seems to have a good feel for the game, but the physicality could be a concern once teams with talent start being able to gameplan us better. The lack of rebounds is a bit of a concern too, and related to the point above. I'm hopeful that his smarts will win out; just cautiously optimistic at the moment rather than all-in.

- The nice thing about the freshmen bigs though is that we have two seniors who can fill in admirably as needed. White is continuing his "do the little things" role well. DeLaurier doesn't seem to be much different in performance than last year, which is a bit concerning. But he's at least being more vocal, so that hopefully is helping the defense.

- Moore appears to be starting to figure it out. He clearly wasn't ready for the pace of the game against KU. He looked more involved against CSU, and really started to stuff the stat sheet against UCA. Obviously ACC teams are better than CSU and UCA, but hopefully he's starting to build his confidence and figure out the pace of the game. He's such a physical specimen that he can be a huge plus on the wing. He just needs to find the right balance of aggressiveness and composure against better teams.

- I thought O'Connell again looked the part of a regular last night. No, he didn't hit his open 3s at a super high rate. But I'm not concerned about that. He didn't seem to be a detriment defensively, and that's the big concern. If he's a net zero (or better) defensively, he should be in the rotation for his offense.

- Goldwire had a nice bounceback game after two duds. I don't expect a ton from him against better teams. But I don't expect much will be asked of him against better teams so long as Jones is healthy and not in foul trouble. As a disruptive presence against teams with shaky ballhandling, he has some value.

Overall, it was a fun win against an overmatched opponent. We jumped all over them early, took the game out of doubt, and cruised. The primary 9 rotation guys played well (or did what they were expected to do in the cases of DeLaurier and White). Let's hope that continues as the games get tougher!

[English]

My takeaways from the game:

SNIP...

- Carey is just too good for a team as bad as Central Arkansas. He did whatever he wanted inside. As a big, he's got a steeper learning curve defensively. But he's clearly a really polished offensive player inside. I've liked what I've seen from him: 28 points (on 13-15 from the field) and 13 rebounds in 35 minutes against the two overmatched opponents. He wasn't superlative against KU, but given their size and experience I'm not concerned. For Carey, it's about defensive awareness and avoiding foul trouble. If he can manage those two things well enough, the sky is the limit at the college level.

I know I'm late to the party on this, but the announcers commented that this season is literally the first time that Vernon Carey Jr. has played primarily inside in his basketball career? Is that possibly right? I realize we're in the age of positionless, everyone-is-a-shooter, Euro-bigs, etc. ball, but the guy is 6'10 270#. He hasn't been a primary post presence before? His offense looks pretty smooth and his defense isn't a total catastrophe for a guy who's learning the fundamentals of playing inside for a short time. He's more mobile than his size would suggest, and it's possible he might not be a total liability for floor spacing with other non-shooters out there.

Overall, a fun game to watch--especially nice to see the shots falling. UCA isn't putting up much of a fight, but hopefully the shooting gives our guys confidence going forward. An encouraging step.

And not for nothing, but I thought the party line on the Boogie Ellis decommit was because Tre announced he was returning and Boogie wanted to play the 1? Of course, he chose a school with more options of primary ball handlers (Memphis), but there was no way he was going to be the guy at Duke with Tre on the roster. I could be misremembering, or that could've just been what was put out there, but I distinctly remember it was Tre, not Cash, that "chased" Boogie off.

[Tripping William]

And not for nothing, but I thought the party line on the Boogie Ellis decommit was because Tre announced he was returning and Boogie wanted to play the 1? Of course, he chose a school with more options of primary ball handlers (Memphis), but there was no way he was going to be the guy at Duke with Tre on the roster. I could be misremembering, or that could've just been what was put out there, but I distinctly remember it was Tre, not Cash, that "chased" Boogie off.

This is consistent with my recollection as well.