MBB: Duke 79, Pitt 67 Post-Game Thread

[JBDuke]

Put your post-game thoughts here.

[ndkjr70]

That was agonizing.

Come back Wendell Moore. We’re playing 4-on-5 too frequently when AOC and Baker are on the floor.

They made the plays needed to win the game. Seems like any time a guy on the other team whoops it up and screams in a Duke player’s face, they go on to lose. Hope he has is mouth that wide open to eat the L’s he took later tonight.

Jack White is playing like November of 2018 jack white and I’m heeeeere for it.

[scottdude8]

Rust after a week off. To be expected, but we dealt with it nicely.

Love seeing Jordan shooting with confidence. All he needs to be is an average 3 point shooter. He’s proving that he is.

Great news that Wendell is warming up.

Jack White, once again, makes winning plays. The rebounds he comes down with are TOUGH boards that other players wouldn’t get.

Rough patch for Joey and Alex. They’ll be needed against the zone Saturday.

Win is a win is a win. Go Duke.

[CameronDuke]

Just win, baby!

Big Vern was Big Vern. 26 and 13.

14 points, 8 assists, no turnovers from Tre.

Out rebounded Pitt 38-32.

19 assists on 30 made baskets. Only 9 turnovers.

A hard fought 79-67 ACC win. None are easy at this point in the season.

Now for 3 straight on the road. One in New York, one in Massachusetts, then one right down the road.

17-3, 7-2.

Let’s Go Duke!

[Saratoga2]

Duke got little from AOC, Delauier and Baker. It made them really a 6 man team who looked like they might loose it but the stalwarts got control. Carey had a great game as did Jones. Others played well . A loss tonight would have been a disaster.

[devildeac]

Duke got little from AOC, Delauier and Baker. It made them really a 6 man team who looked like they might loose it but the stalwarts got control. Carey had a great game as did Jones. Others played well . A loss tonight would have been a disaster.

Yea, the box score is brutal for those guys.

[Devilwin]

Duke got little from AOC, Delauier and Baker. It made them really a 6 man team who looked like they might loose it but the stalwarts got control. Carey had a great game as did Jones. Others played well . A loss tonight would have been a disaster.

Exactly. Wonder why Javin saw so little action?

[ndkjr70]

Exactly. Wonder why Javin saw so little action?

Because he played extremely poorly. For his limited action he picked up two very silly fouls, missed an assignment and got out rebounded. He couldn’t be trusted on the floor, and I don’t blame K for not just hoping it got better.

[SCMatt33]

There’s a lot to say about specific points in this game, but Duke really did a terrible job of getting back on D tonight. I don’t know what percentage of points Pitt got in the first 7 seconds of the shot clock, but it was way too many. Duke did an tremendous job on half court d, but transition was just poor. And some of it you can understand as “agressive mistakes” where a couple of guys go for a loose ball. But too many times, Pitt got the ball in the lane, or even pulled it out from under the basket and got either uncontested or very lightly contested layups.

Now you give the team credit for not doing it in the last 5 minutes once Pitt got close, but the 35 minutes before led the, to that point. The 11 point lead at half time could have been 15-20, the 18 point lead could have been 25-30 and the run would have been moot had transition d been reasonably decent.

[devildeac]

Exactly. Wonder why Javin saw so little action?

Because Pitt had no answer for big Vern except double and triple teams and incessant mauling. Glad he had the stamina to finish.

[rsvman]

They had no answer for Vernon Carey.

[dukelifer]

Impressed with Pitt. They don’t give up. Toney is a raw talent. Will be interesting to see how he develops his overall game- but he is strong and bouncy. Duke did not play well other than a stretch where guys hit a ton of threes. Carey had a very nice game. A win is a win- but Duke still has work to do. Still- Duke could have folded but hit some clutch shots to seal the win. That is progress.

[jv001]

Carey and Tre played very well. Jack White off the bench was huge and Jordan with another good game. Especially in the first half. Not so good for Alex, Joey and Javin. It looks like Javin plays better against bigger players. I hope our guys can hit threes against the Syracuse zone and Carey can get some offensive rebounds. Our guys toughed out a physical game tonight. Proud of them.

GoDuke!

[jipops]

I’ll try to stick to positives.

Carey was and is fantastic. He’s a guy that can put the team on his back.

Pretty good job limiting turnovers. That has been a problem this season but not too much tonight. Tre controlled the ball well.

Jack White was unsung tonight. Big block near the end and always good to see him hit shots.

Every ACC win is valuable.

[KandG]

First half was rough to start but expected with the long layoff. Really nice to see Goldwire launching threes with confidence when Pitt gave him so much space -- his two threes toward the end of the half gave us the lift that established a good lead going into the second.

Second half started out great but after we went up 60-42, we took our foot off the gas and only scored 8 points in nearly ten minutes. Credit to Pitt for constantly playing with energy and attacking us hard (Toney was incredible, yet another wing to give our team fits), but I thought it might have been good for Vernon to get a brief break and have Javin in there to solidify our defense a little. I don't know if Javin's in the doghouse or if K liked how much energy Vernon was playing with, but our defense was really rough for that nine to ten minute stretch when they cut the lead to 68-65.

Pitt just kept involving Vernon in high ball screens and/or weaving around the perimeter and driving against our back line hard with good results. We also fouled a little too much and lost our three point touch (I don't blame Jordan for missing his last two threes, though, they were still leaving him wide open).

Recovered well at the end and those FTs by Matthew to get it back up to five were huge. Nice defensive stop by Cassius on Toney (maybe the only time he was really slowed down the whole half), and Tre was solid throughout and didn't turn it over at all until the closing seconds.

As we go on the road, would really like to see more from Baker -- everything was pretty bad tonight, the catch and shoots, the shot fakes into jumpers, the dribble drives, none of it was going for him. Sometimes it's like that. Very encouraging to hear that Wendell may be back sooner than anticipated.

[jv001]

First half was rough to start but expected with the long layoff. Really nice to see Goldwire launching threes with confidence when Pitt gave him so much space -- his two threes toward the end of the half gave us the lift that established a good lead going into the second.

Second half started out great but after we went up 60-42, we took our foot off the gas and only scored 8 points in nearly ten minutes. Credit to Pitt for constantly playing with energy and attacking us hard (Toney was incredible, yet another wing to give our team fits), but I thought it might have been good for Vernon to get a brief break and have Javin in there to solidify our defense a little. I don't know if Javin's in the doghouse or if K liked how much energy Vernon was playing with, but our defense was really rough for that nine to ten minute stretch when they cut the lead to 68-65.

Pitt just kept involving Vernon in high ball screens and/or weaving around the perimeter and driving against our back line hard with good results. We also fouled a little too much and lost our three point touch (I don't blame Jordan for missing his last two threes, though, they were still leaving him wide open).

Recovered well at the end and those FTs by Matthew to get it back up to five were huge. Nice defensive stop by Cassius on Toney (maybe the only time he was really slowed down the whole half), and Tre was solid throughout and didn't turn it over at all until the closing seconds.

As we go on the road, would really like to see more from Baker -- everything was pretty bad tonight, the catch and shoots, the shot fakes into jumpers, the dribble drives, none of it was going for him. Sometimes it's like that. Very encouraging to hear that Wendell may be back sooner than anticipated.

Javin wasn't going to help on defense or offense tonight. On one play the Pitt player drove to the basket and Javin played matador defense and drew a foul. The TV immediately went to Coach K as he sent in a sub or Javin. Not only did he sub for him, he made some remark to one of the assistant coaches in the effort or lack of effort on Javin's part. I don't know if Javin played anymore after that. If he did he was invisible.

GoDuke!

[mkirsh]

Javin wasn't going to help on defense or offense tonight. On one play the Pitt player drove to the basket and Javin played matador defense and drew a foul. The TV immediately went to Coach K as he sent in a sub or Javin. Not only did he sub for him, he made some remark to one of the assistant coaches in the effort or lack of effort on Javin's part. I don't know if Javin played anymore after that. If he did he was invisible.

GoDuke!

Coach K was upset that Javin didn’t step in and take the charge. He did go back in after that but only very briefly

[Ultrarunner]

I miss the days where Laettner and Hurley put boots to throats.
We relaxed in the second half and let them make it a game.

[ndkjr70]

I miss the days where Laettner and Hurley put boots to throats.
We relaxed in the second half and let them make it a game.

I miss those days too but you can also just say Zion and RJ... didn’t duke break it’s all time record in terms of margin of victory over ACC opponents in the games that Zion was healthy for last season?

[mkirsh]

Up and down game for Duke.

I really liked a lot of what Coach Capel did - 5 out on offense to draw Carey away from the hoop leaving no rim protection on drives and exploiting poor rotations. The zone and press in the second half really killed our rhythm. That said, I don’t think the T he took was a good one when his team was already fighting hard early; it just cost him two points. And I also don’t know why he went away from the zone late in the game, but I’m glad he did.

As for Duke, we need to tighten up rotations when other teams spread the floor and try to go after Carey in PNR, and also rebound better against the 5 out dribble drive offense. And on O need more from Baker and AOC. Very glad Goldwire and White picked up the slack today when Pitt challenged them to beat them.

Anyone know what the Crazies were saying that set Coach K off?