MBB: Duke 97, Syracuse 88 Post-Game Thread

[JBDuke]

Put your post-game thoughts here.

[fuse]

Whew!

[ratamero]

Urgh. Did not enjoy this.

(I did like that beautiful 88% FT shooting)

[SCMatt33]

I didn’t agree with some of the aggressive play late, and I normally hate stallfense, but with all the bad turnovers I thought it would be the right call. That’s why coach K is a hall of famer and I’m not. Break the press to score, not let them keep pressing you. I thought Javin did a tremendous job defending with 4 fouls, and I thought in general Duke did a good job managing the foul trouble. Refs really backed themselves into a super tight whistle, especially on the perimeter, which really benefits the zone team, at least until they had to press. Duke picked a good day to be good at the free throw line. Still need to clean up some things with these turnovers and transition d. Same kind of stuff that hurt us against Pitt. The first half was the kind of mistakes you live with, aggressive turnovers that are dead balls or under the basket. They started getting the sloppy turnovers leading to transition opportunities in the second half, which you can’t afford against better teams.

Also, I find it ironic that Baker didn’t play in this game after giving up his redshirt in the same building last year.

[duke2x]

Ugly ending. Glad to see Wendell back. Glad to see O'Connell play well, but I wonder if part of the PT tonight was because he likes to play in the Dome (and against the #2 school in his recruiting process).

Since ACC expansion II:
Duke - winless on Monday. (Syracuse 3-0)
Syracuse - winless every other day of the week except for the first one. (Duke 8-1)

ESPN is frantically juggling its 2021 broadcast schedule to put the game in Cameron on Monday night.

[TKG]

Nice win. Now the get the heck out of that place.

[SouthernDukie]

Nice win. Now the get the heck out of that hellhole.

Amen to that!

[du_bb1]

Last 4 minutes we played 'young' Moore got hurried, bad decisions by several including Trey-but survived and should learn from this.
need to work on press break and patience.

[CoachJ10]

Cassius Stanley.

Vernon Carey.

ACC refs.

[proelitedota]

[CDu]

A lot of physicality allowed in this one. Glad we won, and never let them within a shot at tying. Great free throw shooting was huge.

Happy to move on to BC.

[Eternal Outlaw]

Who won the Super Bowl?

Any big NBA trades at the deadline?

Wow, that game took forever but great FT shooting, they fought through a tough game.

[arnie]

Tre 10 of 10 from the line. Wonder how far we fall in the polls this week?😏

[DukieInBrasil]

spectacular close to the 1st half and very solid 2nd half. Amazing performance on offense.

[Devilwin]

Vernon Carey was great.

Cassius Stanley was very good.

Tre Jones was just nails near the end.

Everyone else had their moments..Just wish we'd quit starting so slow, we'd score 100 points a game.

Refs were, well, typical ACC refs..

Good win, Vernon MOTM.

[Saratoga2]

Not seen the stats as yet, but clearly Vernon controlled the paint, scoring easily and often and getting a career high in rebounding. Cassius also used his athleticism to save us from an embarrassment going down the final minutes of the game. Alex also had a very good game hitting shots and making plays.

When Syracuse pressed us, it really bothered the team and Tre might have gotten a little flustered. The announcer said we were taking Alex out to put a better ball handler in the game in Wendell. At the time I questioned that move as Wendell had already tried to dribble through a crowd. His decision making is not that good as yet, and with the rust, he became a liability on offense and rushing into a charge when he didn't need to.

Good that our guys made their FTs, especially Tre going down the stretch as he didn't miss and they were important.

Good lesson to the guys getting pressed hard (and physically with a lot of contact) and finding a way to deal with it. Coach K was very much on top of the situation calling good times out and giving instructions. We still have a lot of freshmen and this is a major learning experience for them.

[KandG]

Welcome back, Alex O'Connell, Javin DuLaurier and Wendell Moore. All sorely missed during our recent hiccups in the conference, all contributed mightily to tonight's win.

Our frequent fouling (into the bonus in less than 10 minutes in both halves), the turnovers, the shaky attack against the press all induced heartburn. But the FT shooting, rebounding, efficient second half offense and overall resilience in a tough road environment were terrific. (note about the press: made me nervous to see Hurt be the inbounder so often, but all things considered he handled it well)

Officiating was iffy (to say the least), but the only call that really made me angry was the taunting technical against Carey. Just disgraceful, a potentially game altering type of call. Fortunately, the team's depth meant we were able to withstand the damage.

Really good contributions from every Duke player. Dolezaj and Hughes gave us fits as I expected, but I was actually very impressed with Girard. Didn't look fazed at all against the relentless pressure we provided. 17 points, 7 assists, only 1 turnover. I tip my hat to him.

(Side note: thought when Cuse got the lead down to 88-82 with under two minutes left that they should have temporarily dialed back the press, and dared us to beat them in a half court offense to prevent the quick score we got to effectively clinch it. But at that point, I suppose they were committed to speeding us up and playing fast, even though we had mostly attacked the press well after Wendell fouled out)

[fuse]

Team is now battled tested and survived the 5 v 8 zone.

[dukelifer]

What day is it? That was one long last 2 minutes. Stanley with two huge plays in crunch time and Tre was great at the line. Cuse can shoot and they are a difficult team to play. Nice to see AOC play well. Not sure it will translate but needed his shooting today. Overall solid offensive game- defense was not great. It is good to have Moore back but his turnovers were costly.

[TKG]

What day is it? That was one long last 2 minutes.

Shades of the old Big East.