MBB: Duke 87, Michigan State 75 Post-Game Thread

[sagegrouse]

Most points scored at Michigan State in 20 years. A phenomenal victory for the Blue Devils. Comments, please.

I have one: Day-umm, you guys at DBR are good! Lots of complaints here in the first half about Izzo's antics and lack of fouls called on the Spartans. The refs read the thread during intermission and cleaned up their act. Izzo got nailed and Duke was in the bonus early in the second half.

[yancem]

Can’t believe this hasn’t been started yet. Great game but am I the only thinking more “how did we loose to this team last year”? I mean we had frickin Zion and Barrett. I know Carey has been great but seriously!!!

[proelitedota]

Javin, Jack, Goldwire were great tonight. Veterans delivered except for AOC. Hope he can breakout soon.

[fisheyes]

Whatever Coach K said to the guys during the TO at the beginning of the second half when Michigan State cut the lead to 8 must have been priceless!

Great game!
Awesome effort on both ends of the court.
And without Stanley and (functionally) Moore.
Very impressive comeback after last week.

[simplyluvin]

One of the most satisfying wins I've seen. Tonight's game might be this year's version of last year's Kentucky game...indicative of our ceiling. Everyone played really well, maybe with the exception of Wendell who got in to foul trouble early. Loved Jordan and Joey's game tonight. Tre played like a POY, and Vernon played like a lottery pick tonight. Our strength may be converting defense to offense this year. Phenomenal game! Let's keep growing from this! Go Duke!

[yancem]

Oh, and can we now assume that Baker is now solidly in the rotation? Kid can shoot the ball!!

[dukelifer]

Most points scored at Michigan State in 20 years. A phenomenal victory for the Blue Devils. Comments, please.

I have one: Day-umm, you guys at DBR are good! Lots of complaints here in the first half about Izzo's antics and lack of fouls called on the Spartans. The refs read the thread during intermission and cleaned up their act. Izzo got nailed and Duke was in the bonus early in the second half.

That was an impressive performance. Nice balance- great games by Tre the seniors - Baker stepped up in a huge game and Goldwire with some key plays. I guess the veterans- absent AOC wanted some revenge tonight. Carey was great- hopefully just cramping and a decent game by Hurt- but this was one for the “old” guys.

[duke2x]

We might have been tight in last year's game.

Quality win against a quality team.

[ChillinDuke]

That's more like it.

We went inside early and often. Carey was fantastic. But it all started with Tre. Winston never got daylight. Goldwire also had useful minutes and was mostly great on D. Baker is emerging as a silky shooter - a welcome sight. White was mostly great in his glue role. Hurt played decently well and shot with confidence. And we had a Javin sighting! Much more on time and on target from Javin tonight, just generally in the flow finally.

Wendell had another poor showing and entirely disappeared. AOC had bad minutes as well. Luckily our depth is really a strength this year.

The defense was solid, the offense had much more flow and totally takes on an extra dimension having Baker as a shooter in the corner as another post entry opportunity as well as a 2-man game with Carey. The Tre-Goldwire-Baker-Hurt/White-Carey lineup is formidable - White for a defense skew and Hurt as an extra shooter with posting ability.

We looked great tonight. This will help us shake the SFA rhetoric at the very least.

- Chillin

[SkyBrickey]

Javin with 10 points, 6 rebounds and...wait for it...1 foul.

I thought he and Jack both had strong games tonight. Love seeing that from our senior captains.

Tre and Vernon both played like All Americans.

[Gooch]

Surprising lack of fight from Sparty. Our guys were cool and took them out of their game. Carey and Tre were awesome and Baker’s shooting—en fuego!

[KandG]

The Joey Baker Game?

The Javin DeLaurier Game?

No, the Tre Jones Game! Absolutely a monster on both ends who really, *really* wanted this game and felt the pain of that Elite Eight loss. And how about that left handed up and under layup driving to his *right* against three MSU defenders...that's something I never saw from Tyus.

Actually started to think this was the best possible version of the team when we were up 19, then I remembered that Moore was a non-factor, AOC was ineffective, and Stanley wasn't even playing. So we can get better.

Not going to get carried away because this was a particularly favorable matchup against a struggling team that made some odd or straight-out bad decisions when defending us. But we forced the action all game (save for the very start of the second half), played great D, and ran it down their throats off of nearly every turnover. Great, great win, and seeing Joey drain dribble pull-ups and Hurt effortlessly making catch and shoot threes made me feel much better about the offensive potential of this group.

(just saw the postgame interview with Tre: he didn't even go with the "just another win" platitudes common to a game this early in the season. Admitted he came in with a chip on his shoulder and that this game felt personal after what happened in the tournament. Love the candor.)

[kAzE]

We had a number of spectacular individual performances in this game. Vernon Carey, Tre Jones, Javin DeLaurier, Jack White, and Joey Baker each arguably had their best performance of the season. It was Javin's best game in a long time. I thought we matched up with these guys pretty well going in, and our size advantage inside, and MSU's lack of elite perimeter defenders was the difference.

However, we started looking a bit shaky once they went to the full court press. I'm surprised they didn't try that earlier, as backcourt pressure has caused a ton of problems for us in the past 4-5 games.

[Troublemaker]

Playoff Revenge, baby! This was like when Michigan went to Villanova last year and blew out the Wildcats in non-conf play, avenging the title game loss from the previous season. Gotta remember, Tre Jones cried immediately after the final buzzer sounded in the MSU loss last season. It was somewhat heartbreaking to watch as a fan. Proud of Tre for leading the team to this romp; must've been very satisfying to him.

[thedukelamere]

Love what I saw from just about everyone involved; guys playing within their roles, toughness and tenacity in a hostile environment... Hoping this has a @Wisconsin'14 effect on the troops.

3rd Star: J Gold
2nd Star: Tre Stones
1st Star: Big Vern

[TheOldBattleship]

Wow, that was a really impressive performance. Terrific defense on Winston, both team (as we all expected, we blitzed him at every opportunity on the perimeter and in p&r, but the shot-blocking around the rim REALLY bothered him) and individual from Jones (Tre clearly took that loss last year personally). Offensively, great individual performances from Jones and Carey, and just an unbelievably good gameplan from K to get Carey in great positions to catch and finish down low. They just had no answer for Vernon defensively, especially since Tillman was their only offensive weapon other than Winston and they couldn't afford for Carey to just bully him into foul trouble (instead, he bullied literally everyone else over 6'6" into foul trouble, which was hilarious at times).

But that game is the model for this team going forward. We're not always going to have such obvious individual matchup advantages, but we need to be willing to play this kind of game: one where we muck everything up on D, play fast when we can, and then execute a straightforward gameplan on offense. And if Tre starts hitting threes off the dribble like he did today...

[proelitedota]

https://twitter.com/ItsAntWright/sta...73411134078976

[Devilwin]

Total domination..Total.

[CameronDuke]

Duke doesn’t play (or win) true road games.

[Utley]

Can’t believe this hasn’t been started yet. Great game but am I the only thinking more “how did we loose to this team last year”? I mean we had frickin Zion and Barrett. I know Carey has been great but seriously!!!

This team plays so much better defense. Getting only 6 turnovers cost is the game last year.