MBB: Duke 89, Miami 59 Post-Game Thread

[brevity]

Ten minutes later. Is this thing on?

Share your post-game thoughts here. Please respect the DBR guidelines and do not vent or throw a stool.

[UrinalCake]

Great confidence boost leading into the open spot in the schedule. Miami was really depleted after that tough FSU game, then having to go on the road and with Lykes banged up. They didn’t have much fight. Still an impressive performance by our guys, nice to see Hurt knocking down shots and everybody playing their roles really well. Also glad Alex was able to get some garbage buckets, I’ve been worried about him completely falling out of the rotation.

Carey and Stanley have a tendency to spin right into double teams. That’s about the only negative I can think of. Great performance to build off of.

[Native]

Good game to get rid of the bad taste in our mouths after Clemson and Louisville. Nice to have a week until our next game to catch our breath a bit.

[Mrezt]

Easy win from the beginning, that was a nice game to sit back and watch on mute. Loved watching Hurt play tonight as well as Stanley and Baker. I love when Baker is hitting his shots

[CameronDuke]

Hurt’s shot is coming around. Tre with an impressive stat line: 16 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists. Cassius with another phenomenal alley oop dunk on a baseline out of bounds play. Was his head above the rim?

Great 3 point shooting as a team: 11-25 (44.0%). 7 blocks as a team. 18 assists on 34 made field goals. Miami was banged up, but Duke defended well and limited turnovers to 10.

10-13 (76.9%) from the free throw line was excellent to see, too.

16-3, 6-2 with a week off before hosting Pitt in another late tip-off at Cameron.

[Saratoga2]

Miami came out and tried to zone us and our 3 point shooting made them pay. Eleven for twenty-five was good shooting. Lot of good performances. Hurt and Tre in particular were very good tonight and Joey was active. Javin got a few points and may have led the team in rebounding, but he shouldn't try to distribute.

I was surprised that Vernon was not finishing strongly tonight. He got fouled on every play but didn't make the inclose baskets and had to make his points mainly from the linne.

The team seemed to get sloppy in the second half as we went to different combinations and they switched to more mtm defense at times. I guess it is difficult to concentrate with a big lead.

Interesting to see AOC run up 8 points in 6 minutes in garbage time. Would love to see him play with energy and help the team.

Week off coming up. Good win to set up the next games.

[weezie]

...Share your post-game thoughts here. Please respect the DBR guidelines and do not vent or throw a stool.

Hey where is everybody? I'm hoping Cassius gets a top ten play for that one handed slam or maybe for the one handed soft little hover scoop. But likely not. Stool swinging is rocking the interwebs tonight

[weezie]

...Share your post-game thoughts here. Please respect the DBR guidelines and do not vent or throw a stool.

Hey where is everybody? I'm hoping Cassius gets a top ten play for that one hander slam or maybe for the one handed soft little hover scoop. But likely not. Stool brandishing is rocking the interwebs tonight.
Oh haaayyy, #2 of top ten!

[CameronDuke]

Hey where is everybody? I'm hoping Cassius gets a top ten play for that one hander slam or maybe for the one handed soft little hover scoop. But likely not. Stool brandishing is rocking the interwebs tonight

The one handed slam by Cassius was #2 on the Sportscenter Top 10.

[ncexnyc]

Alex, Alex, Alex.

I'm watching the game in the first half and I'm saying to myself, "Why hasn't Coach K. put Alex into the game?" Alex promptly gets inserted into the line-up and then has his pocket picked for a really bad turnover.

Fast forward to the end of the game and Alex goes off for 8 quick points, reminding us all that he's actually got talent.

It would appear the only person who can stop Alex, is Alex himself.

Nice to get back to our winning ways. Hurt had a really nice game, but I want to see it against a team with a solid frontcourt. I guess that's where the absence of Moore shows up the most. Having those two available lets Coach K. mix and match depending on what that opposition has.

It was nice to see Baker bounce back from his last outing. The kid is a lot tougher than you think by just looking at him.

[uh_no]

Ten minutes later. Is this thing on?

Share your post-game thoughts here. Please respect the DBR guidelines and do not vent or throw a stool.

is anyone left awake after that second half? that could explain it.

[Kedsy]

Our 4th 30+ point ACC win in eight ACC games. For an entire season, only one Duke team under Coach K has had more 30+ point ACC wins than this year's model (that would be the 1999 team).

OFFENSE

Possessions: 71.3 (acceptable speed)
oRtg: 1.25 (1.23 adjusted; strong)
eFG%: 61.7% (very good; 6th 60+ eFG% in our last 11 games)
3pt%: 44.0% (great)
2pt%: 59.0% (very good)
%threes: 39.1% (4th straight game we've taken 37%+ of our shots from three (and in three of those games we've hit 40+% of them); this is different from most of the season -- could we be seeing a change in our offensive strategy?)
FT rate: 20.3% (not so good)
OR%: 28.1% (poor; third straight OR clunker)
TO%: 14.0% (good, after two straight not-so-good)
a/to: 1.8:1 (also good)
%assisted: 52.9%
fast break pts: 20 (very good; 22.5% of points; 5th 20+ fast break points in last six games)

DEFENSE

dRtg: 0.83 (adjusted dRtg of 0.74 is excellent)
eFG%: 33.3% (very strong)
3pt%: 22.2% (ditto)
2pt%: 33.3% (decent)
%threes: 30.0% (good; another game (13th time) that an opponent has taken 30% or fewer of their shots from three)
FT rate: 36.7% (not good)
DR%: 71.4% (acceptable)
TO%: 18.2% (a little low after seven straight defensive TO% of 20+% (and eight in nine games))
a/to: 0.46:1
%assisted: 33.3%
stl%: 7.0% (not so good)
blk%: 11.7% (16.7% of 2pt shots) (strong)
fast break pts: 11 (18.6% of points; so-so, I'd hoped for better - last time we held them to 4)


Pretty close to the same adjusted ratings as the last time we played Miami (1.27 and 0.76). It was nice to see after last week's performances. It'll be interesting whether or not the recent trend taking so many threes becomes a permanent feature in our offense. Also the fast break points -- we've had 18 or more fb points in five of our last six games, after only doing that twice in the 13 games before that.

[Billy Dat]

%threes: 39.1% (4th straight game we've taken 37%+ of our shots from three (and in three of those games we've hit 40+% of them); this is different from most of the season -- could we be seeing a change in our offensive strategy?

I wonder if it has anything to do with trying to free up Vernon, per K’s quote (below) from the post-game presser?

On Vernon Carey:
“He has counter moves - counter moves are great if you’re doing them against one guy. I don’t think anyone has come up with a counter for double and triple teams. That’s what’s happening to him. If the three-point shooting keeps going well then, he’ll have more room. Part of the reason we have more open threes is because of Vernon. When he runs the court, people are going to go to him. That gives a window of opportunity. In Matt’s case, he was a little slower with that window earlier, so they could recover to him. His prep is quicker and if he keeps going like that – then that’s a great counter with Vern. Vern has – it’s tough to move down there. As long as he’s running – he just has to stay patient. He did a great job tonight with just running and making sure the defense has a plan.”

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Pretty close to the same adjusted ratings as the last time we played Miami (1.27 and 0.76). It was nice to see after last week's performances. It'll be interesting whether or not the recent trend taking so many threes becomes a permanent feature in our offense. Also the fast break points -- we've had 18 or more fb points in five of our last six games, after only doing that twice in the 13 games before that.

I saw an analytic breakdown on Duke several days ago - from something at ESPN.com - that said the analytics scream that Duke should shoot more threes. I'm not sure where K is with analytics, but it might indeed be a new tactic, or an adjusted one, compared to earlier in the season.

[53n206]

Good game to get rid of the bad taste in our mouths after Clemson and Louisville.

Not exactly.

[Devilwin]

Hurt MOTM. Great game from him..Team looked good last night. Three point shooting was off the hook. Only concern I have is Vernon being a better finisher. With his size he should be a bit better than he's been lately, double teams aside. He is missing shots now he should make easily around the rim..Stanley's dunk was just awesome..

[TKG]

I was not able to watch the game but given the score and the fact that Lykes was banged up, surprised to read in the box score that JGold played 34 minutes and Tre played 35. Would someone mind providing some context?

[fuse]

I was not able to watch the game but given the score and the fact that Lykes was banged up, surprised to read in the box score that JGold played 34 minutes and Tre played 35. Would someone mind providing some context?

Doubt it’s what you are looking for, K didn’t have a lineup he trusted to sub them out with a lot of time to go.

I’d guess the long break between games was a factor in playing them longer than needed.

Scorewise, they might have been able to come out at the 8 minute mark as a guess, which would have left Stanley, O’Connell, or Baker as primary ball handlers.

The reason the game was such a thorough dismantling was due to Jones and Goldwire’s defense. Turn that off and even playing a slow tempo, I would expect the score would have gotten a lot closer.

[rocketeli]

Hey where is everybody? I'm hoping Cassius gets a top ten play for that one handed slam or maybe for the one handed soft little hover scoop. But likely not. Stool swinging is rocking the interwebs tonight

Always more comments after a disappointing loss or a rivalry game than a blowout of a team most Duke fans don't have a lot of intense feelings about. Miami clearly decided to start the game concentrating on interior defense and daring Duke to beat them with threes. Perhaps a reasonable strategy given this Duke team's shooting earlier this season, but a question I'd be asking if I were a Miami fan is why they stuck with it until they were down 25 points or so. They did better when they abandoned that plan in the second half (and Duke was a little sloppy) but too little too late.
So far this season Hurt's been like a six foot tall guy who can't swim trying to ford a river. So long as the water is less than six feet he's fine, but once it gets deeper than that he struggles. In plain terms, his performance on the court is often dictated by the quality of his opposition. It would be nice if he could grow figuratively "taller" and be able to hit threes and be less of a liability on defense against stronger teams, and as he is young and a freshman I think this could happen.
Duke is now 5-0 against the bottom 7 teams in the conference. (and 1-2 against the top 7 (minus Duke here of course.) That's important--winning the games you are supposed to win. Not everybody has this year--look at Kerolina.

[tbyers11]

I was not able to watch the game but given the score and the fact that Lykes was banged up, surprised to read in the box score that JGold played 34 minutes and Tre played 35. Would someone mind providing some context?

Duke has 3 people capable of the being the primary ball handler (Tre, JGold and Wendell) and one of them is hurt. When K doesn't trust AOC to play real minutes there are lots of minutes up for grabs at the PG/SG slot.

Lykes was banged up and didn't play his normal 35+ minutes but he didn't come out of the game for good until about 5 minutes were left. Tre played his normal amount of minutes and came out for good at the under 4 TO. He probably could have left for good 1-2 minutes earlier but meh. Until Wendell comes back or AOC starts playing better Goldwire will probably be around 30 mins/gm and Tre 35 min/gm unless we want to play Mike Buckmire.