MBB: Duke 77, Va Tech 63 Post-Game Thread

[SouthernDukie]

Great win in another hostile environment.

More strange stats: Duke is dead last in the nation giving up points in the paint, yet we are first in blocks? I think that’s what I heard during the game.

Our pressure D on the perimeter is solid and we do force our fair share of turnovers, but we also are susceptible to being beat off the dribble. So I guess the “points in the paint” stat makes sense. But I believe we will get better with our interior D as the season progresses.

[DUKIE V(A)]

Always difficult to beat VA Tech in Blacksburg. Nice win! Hokie Nation is In good hands with Coach Young; he does a nice job.

Does anyone have three better wins than Duke?

Kansas
@ Sparty
@ VA Tech

[SkyBrickey]

Always difficult to beat VA Tech in Blacksburg. Nice win! Hokie Nation is In good hands with Coach Young; he does a nice job.

Does anyone have three better wins than Duke?

Kansas
@ Sparty
@ VA Tech

Definitely not. There’s a reason why we will be #1 in all the computer ratings.

[Troublemaker]

Always difficult to beat VA Tech in Blacksburg. Nice win! Hokie Nation is In good hands with Coach Young; he does a nice job.

Does anyone have three better wins than Duke?

Kansas
@ Sparty
@ VA Tech

Interesting question (maybe). If I told Duke fans that you have the power to re-write history but you have to distribute 3 wins and 1 loss among these four opponents -- KU (neutral), SFA (home), @MSU, @VaTech -- how would you distribute those 3 wins and 1 loss? See, for me, I wouldn't change a thing. I want the two big wins against KU and @MSU, and I want the ACC road win @VaTech. SFA beats us, and I don't care that much, because we won the bigger games.

[-jk]

Definitely not. There’s a reason why we will be #1 in all the computer ratings.

We're still #3 in KenPom. We'll see what happens with he removes the pre-season biases.

-jk

[BD80]

ACC regular season game.

Duke played TEN players, with the 5 subs averaging 21 minutes, each sub playing 12 or more minutes.

That last happened in … ?


(no injury to a starter requiring substitution)

[roywhite]

Me too! Although maybe Nolley was just frustrated, since Moore had held him scoreless in the 2nd half.

Could be. Nolley made some plays, but ended up with a strange looking stat line of 7 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 turnovers.

https://goduke.com/documents/2019/12/6//120619_.pdf

[CDu]

ACC regular season game.

Duke played TEN players, with the 5 subs averaging 21 minutes, each sub playing 12 or more minutes.

That last happened in … ?


(no injury to a starter requiring substitution)

To be fair, one of the starters (Stanley) basically played reserve minutes (7) as he was returning from injury.

[roywhite]

No shortage of really good defenders on this team -- Tre Jones, Jordan Goldwire, and Jack White are experienced, smart, and tough. Wendell Moore looks like a versatile stopper and others are coming along.

This Duke team is a throwback to some of K's early teams -- no fun to play offense against. Duke wears teams down.

[uh_no]

We're still #3 in KenPom. We'll see what happens with he removes the pre-season biases.

-jk

i'd imagine the loss to SFA at home is as damaging at this point as any pre-season suppression.

[COYS]

This was Moore’s best game and it was wonderful to see. He still had some moments where he was thinking too much or moving too fast, but for the most part he was great tonight. There were a few times he drove into the lane, read the defense, and passed/dribbled back out before he got into trouble. Just last week he would have turned the ball over or forced a tough shot. And his defense was great. He was quietly our best offensive player by offensive rating. He was by far our worst offensive regular coming into the game. So quite a turnaround. And I hope it continues because he offers so much and makes a deep Duke team even deeper.

Speaking of depth, coach K just played ELEVEN!&/):&! guys 7 minutes or more in a non-blowout ACC Road game. Ten of those guys got double figures.

Also, perusing Bart Torvik’s advances box score, our best player by Game Box Plus/Minus was Vernon, with Wendell coming in second. So once K figured out how to use Vernon, he was absolutely deadly in his limited minutes.

I have to say, I’m far more bullish on this team’s chances to bring home number six than I thought I would be prior to the start of the season, even with the SF Austin game. Not that I thought Duke would be bad, but I didn’t think we had much of a chance to be one of the favorites heading into the tournament. But this team is better than I expected. Vernon is a dominant player. The defense has been awesome (and can be even better as the freshman work their way in). And the team has looked good despite uneven offense. Any offensive improvement and this team could actually be dominant in a way I did not expect this year.

http://barttorvik.com/box.php?muid=D...12-6&year=2020

[OldPhiKap]

i'd imagine the loss to SFA at home is as damaging at this point as any pre-season suppression.

Yup. We should be a top ten team from our wins, but probably not a top five team. Which sounds about right.

Hard to think of many teams clearly above us too. Parity is a real thing for several reasons.

[roywhite]

Crikey, what a dunk by Jack White in the 2nd half!

[Mak P]

No shortage of really good defenders on this team -- Tre Jones, Jordan Goldwire, and Jack White are experienced, smart, and tough. Wendell Moore looks like a versatile stopper and others are coming along.

This Duke team is a throwback to some of K's early teams -- no fun to play offense against. Duke wears teams down.

I think it was us vs Georgetown he blocked the shot into the stands lol

[ncexnyc]

A very impressive win tonight. We took Tech's best shot and managed to make it a game by half-time. Coach K. righted the ship with that key timeout after a shaky start to the 2nd half and the team responded big time.

Moore must like playing on Fridays, as this was his best game since the Georgetown game. I was also pleased to see Alex contribute in a positive manner. Watching him is very frustrating as a fan, because it's obvious he his the physical talent as well as the basketball skills necessary to be a very good player. I really believe his problems are between his ears.

[Kedsy]

Two nice road wins in one week. I'll take it.

OFFENSE

Possessions: 66.3 (very slow; VaTech won the pace battle)
oRtg: 1.16 (good; 4th best oRtg in nine games; not sure adjusted rate is worth it yet, but this adjusts to 1.21)
eFG%: 53.2% (decent but not great; 6th best out of 10 games)
3pt%: 26.9% (pretty bad)
2pt%: 62.2% (excellent; 2nd best 2pt marksmanship of the season)
%threes: 41.3% (waaaay too high for this Duke team)
FT rate: 15.9% (pretty awful; lowest FTR of the season)
OR%: 25.0% (third straight really bad OR performance)
TO%: 10.6% (excellent; best offensive TO% of the season; though it should be noted VaTech ranks tied for 227th in forcing TOs)
a/to: 2:1 (quite good)
%assisted: 46.7%
fast break pts: 6 (7.8% of points; very poor)

DEFENSE

dRtg: 0.95 (last five games have been our four worst unadjusted defensive ppp of the season; again with the caveat on adjusted rates, this one was 0.86, which is pretty good)
eFG%: 52.7% (poor)
3pt%: 25.0% (good)
2pt%: 61.1% (somewhat awful; fifth straight game over 50%)
%threes: 35.7% (2nd highest %3 of the season, but much lower than VaTech's 48.5% coming into the game)
FT rate: 10.7% (outstanding, best FTR of the season; though it's worth noting VaTech ranks 326th in the nation in FTR; still, their rate for the season is 22.4%, so this is much lower)
DR%: 77.4% (excellent; 6th game out of 10 over 77%; 9th game out of 10 over 70%)
TO%: 21.1% (over 20% for the first time in four games; especially impressive considering VaTech is tied for 31st lowest TO% in the country)
a/to: 0.86:1 (more opposing TOs than assists for the first time in four games)
%assisted: 44.4%
stl%: 12.1% (good; third straight game 12% or better)
blk%: 7.1% (11.1% of 2pt shots) (only fair)
fast break pts: 3 (4.8% of points; fabulous; lowest % of opponent's points for the 2nd straight game)


Odd stats in this game. Good offensive production, but the only things we did well were two-point shooting and hardly any turnovers. Defense decent all around, other than opposing 2pt%.

For aficionados of unexpected individual statistics, Javin DeLaurier has (a) made nine shots in a row; and (b) only committed one (1) personal foul in his last 30 minutes on the floor.

[Kedsy]

Speaking of depth, coach K just played ELEVEN!&/):&! guys 7 minutes or more in a non-blowout ACC Road game. Ten of those guys got double figures.

I may not be that good at counting, but I'm pretty sure it's TEN and Nine (rather than ELEVEN and Ten).

[Neals384]

ACC regular season game.

Duke played TEN players, with the 5 subs averaging 21 minutes, each sub playing 12 or more minutes.

That last happened in … ?


(no injury to a starter requiring substitution)

duke was perfect from the free throw line

that last happened in...?

[ndkjr70]

I just watched the game. And re-watched it. Unless I missed something, and I don’t think I did, there was a total of ZERO fouls called on made baskets for either team. 0 opportunities for an “and-one”. I have never, ever seen that.

[hustleplays]

Two nice road wins in one week. I'll take it.

OFFENSE

Possessions: 66.3 (very slow; VaTech won the pace battle)
oRtg: 1.16 (good; 4th best oRtg in nine games; not sure adjusted rate is worth it yet, but this adjusts to 1.21)
eFG%: 53.2% (decent but not great; 6th best out of 10 games)
3pt%: 26.9% (pretty bad)
2pt%: 62.2% (excellent; 2nd best 2pt marksmanship of the season)
%threes: 41.3% (waaaay too high for this Duke team)
FT rate: 15.9% (pretty awful; lowest FTR of the season)
OR%: 25.0% (third straight really bad OR performance)
TO%: 10.6% (excellent; best offensive TO% of the season; though it should be noted VaTech ranks tied for 227th in forcing TOs)
a/to: 2:1 (quite good)
%assisted: 46.7%
fast break pts: 6 (7.8% of points; very poor)

DEFENSE

dRtg: 0.95 (last five games have been our four worst unadjusted defensive ppp of the season; again with the caveat on adjusted rates, this one was 0.86, which is pretty good)
eFG%: 52.7% (poor)
3pt%: 25.0% (good)
2pt%: 61.1% (somewhat awful; fifth straight game over 50%)
%threes: 35.7% (2nd highest %3 of the season, but much lower than VaTech's 48.5% coming into the game)
FT rate: 10.7% (outstanding, best FTR of the season; though it's worth noting VaTech ranks 326th in the nation in FTR; still, their rate for the season is 22.4%, so this is much lower)
DR%: 77.4% (excellent; 6th game out of 10 over 77%; 9th game out of 10 over 70%)
TO%: 21.1% (over 20% for the first time in four games; especially impressive considering VaTech is tied for 31st lowest TO% in the country)
a/to: 0.86:1 (more opposing TOs than assists for the first time in four games)
%assisted: 44.4%
stl%: 12.1% (good; third straight game 12% or better)
blk%: 7.1% (11.1% of 2pt shots) (only fair)
fast break pts: 3 (4.8% of points; fabulous; lowest % of opponent's points for the 2nd straight game)


Odd stats in this game. Good offensive production, but the only things we did well were two-point shooting and hardly any turnovers. Defense decent all around, other than opposing 2pt%.

For aficionados of unexpected individual statistics, Javin DeLaurier has (a) made nine shots in a row; and (b) only committed one (1) personal foul in his last 30 minutes on the floor.

Kedsy, Thank you for your thorough breakdown of the atypical stats for this game.

I happen to think that both the statistical and the [informed] "eyeball" perspectives on a game have validity, even when they diverge. Sometimes your statistical reports inform and correct my eyeballs, other times I think that the stats don't capture essential elements of what goes on in a basketball game. Your stats on Javin's recent play are compelling. My eyeballs, allied with my very finite memory, told me that Javin is playing better. I didn't know how much better. Nine shots in a row, and one foul in 30 minutes! wow. One eyeball perspective: Javin is displaying some nifty big man offensive moves to the basket, and finishing. Who knew? Go Javin!