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.

[mattyoung18]

Load management for Tre.

[sagegrouse]

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

[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.

[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]

Yet another adjustment to the starting line-up with Jack White getting the nod over Mathew Hurt.

Granted, we went up huge early but K continues to play mad scientist with the rotation. He really is looking for those line-ups that can perform on both sides of the ball.
After the Tre, Cassius, AOC, Jack, Vernon starting 5, he went to Javin and Wendell before going to Hurt. How did Hurt respond...by dropping about 10 points in the blink of an eye.

Our defense was fantastic, the Pippens were shell shocked.

It does feel like pretty open opportunity for guys to earn minutes. I feel like K is itching to expand Moore's role but he hasn't quite earned it yet.

It was great to see Tre knock down his first 3 of the season, and no so great to see him smash his head and be done for the night. I hope we see him Friday against the Driesells.

How does everyone feel about the Spongebob Squarepants chant? I feel really old that a cartoon that debuted when I was well into adulthood is already nostalgic for a bunch of grad students.

[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.

[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.

[uh_no]

I am really becoming excited about this team

we haven't put a foot wrong, but we're hanging a lot on a close win over kansas.

I'm excited, too, but it doesn't mean I think this game means...anything. It doesn't.

[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."

[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.

[AGDukesky]

we haven't put a foot wrong, but we're hanging a lot on a close win over kansas.

I'm excited, too, but it doesn't mean I think this game means...anything. It doesn't.

I mainly mean that my expectations were a bit down for this season, but the way this team plays together is fun to watch and reminds me of vintage Duke on Defense. I really like the pieces we have and how they appear to fit together...

[devilsadvocate85]

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.

Isn’t fast break points as a percentage of points allowed a highly context sensitive stat without the proper context? We held a team to 54 points. Why would 6 transition baskets in 40 minutes be a worry? Especially given the blowout. Wouldn’t fast break points measured against possessions make more sense?

[SkyBrickey]

You can argue whether we deserve it or not, but this team will very likely be #1 in the country next week. We are spoiled. The train keeps rolling...

[Kedsy]

Isn’t fast break points as a percentage of points allowed a highly context sensitive stat without the proper context? We held a team to 54 points. Why would 6 transition baskets in 40 minutes be a worry? Especially given the blowout. Wouldn’t fast break points measured against possessions make more sense?

I don't know, you may be right. For the season, over 22% of opponents' points have been fast break points. If you want to put it in terms of possessions, about 16.4% of our opponents' possessions have ended in fast break points. Either way, it sounds like a lot to me.

[uh_no]

I mainly mean that my expectations were a bit down for this season, but the way this team plays together is fun to watch and reminds me of vintage Duke on Defense. I really like the pieces we have and how they appear to fit together...

i'm with you. having two dynamic guards is great and some big guys down low. lots of potential for a really good team, something we haven't necessarily seen recently.