MBB: Duke 97, Syracuse 88 Post-Game Thread

[simplyluvin]

Prayers for Coach Scheyer. I really like this win. Vernon was a monster inside, and Cassius is turning out to be a special player. Cassius has a different game, but he plays a role like how Justise did in 2015: stopper and timely basket-maker.

And Alex O’Connell with his strange Syracuse-whisperer tendencies. If he’d only build on these games.

I don’t think we will shoot free throws like that again, so defensive cleanup may be at the forefront of Coach’s mind.

[Furniture]

A very big win against a tough Cuse team on their home court with 31K fans going nuts. They had the place rocking. Our guys showed some poise against all that. Tre with clutch foul shooting. Vernon a beast with 26-17 and hit 8 of 10 FTs. Cassius with some plays that made my jaw drop. Javin and Alex really played well and we needed it tonight. Wendell didn't play smart at the end of the game and it could have cost us but thankfully it didn't. I think he will learn from the mistakes. Now let's take care of business with 2 more road wins.

GoDuke!

i agree. This was a big win and a huge learning experience. There aren’t many other teams that get to play and even win in that type of hostile environment before the tournament...

[Mike Corey]

This is not the most talented Duke team and yet somehow I find myself enjoying this season more than any since 2010.

Love winning at Syracuse and hate playing at Syracuse. We beat that press just enough to hold on.

[duke4ever19]

If I'm not mistaken Syracuse scored 24 pts in the last 5 minutes, and we still won. I'll take that

Maybe that accounts for our Kenpom defensive rating to drop from 9 to 14?

I'm almost certain we were in the single-digits in both offense and defense as of around 5-6pm today.

[kako]

5 thoughts...

1. If I had to bet one team would hit 29 for 33 from the line, I would not have bet on our Blue Devils. And Jones 10-10, most (if not all) of them down the stretch. 29-33 isn't luck. Neither are the 50% games they have turned in, either. They should shoot better! Personally, I'd like to see them get a handle on this... Missed FTs are like pin pricks in my basketball soul. And I need not elaborate about RJ's last FT, JWill's last FT, etc... Maybe they shoot better from the line in domes? That might bode well for the NCAA's (assuming they get into the regionals).

2. I know AOC gets major grief on this site, as well as DeLaurier. Both stepped up today. Both of them are what they are. They will have good games and bad games. Today was a good day. Duke needed them.

3. Carey = monster. I loved how he powered through the Orangemen over and over. I know he has an outside shot, but I really don't want him taking it. If they have to run high-low, they need to do it with Hurt at the top. Carey gets so much respect down low. Duke only shot 6-17 from 3, but I'm guessing it would have been worse without the double and triple teams on Carey each possession. He needs to stay out of foul trouble. On that Dolezaj drive with the clock running out, he was smart not to take a foul. Once he gets 3 fouls, he has to play matador defense in order to keep himself on the floor.

4. The continued inability to hold a lead against inferior talent is worrisome. I'll say it again, they really need someone on the team to be what K has called the Mthr-Fker. Someone with fire to keep the team on the edge. They get a 15 point lead, then they think their sh*t doesn't stink, and they lose the lead. It's almost like I'd rather see them in a close game where they have to keep clawing, rather them see them stretch the lead (unless it's with a minute to go). When they were up by 10 with 2 minutes to play, I started thinking about the Austin Rivers game - same position, just reversed. It didn't get that close, but Duke made some bonehead plays down the stretch. Only Jones' FTs saved them.

5. I hope the coaching staff is OK. More power to Scheyer and to Smith's daughter and family. Get well soon!

9F - Let's Go Eagles!

[sagegrouse]

I may have missed this, but why no Joey? Someone in chat said something but it sounded iffy, not going to repeat it. Any solid/real info?

I thought Alex got the nod because of his dynamite performance last year at Syracuse -- and he did well tonight.

[Kedsy]

Duke's offense? Really good. Duke's defense? Really bad? Trend?

OFFENSE

Possessions: 76.6 (pretty fast; the battle of the pace in theory favored Duke; in practice, Syracuse's press and Duke's seeming inability to attack it possibly had something to do with it)
oRtg: 1.27 (1.29 adjusted; excellent for the third straight game and 4th out of six)
eFG%: 63.0% (outstanding)
3pt%: 35.3% (adequate)
2pt%: 67.6% (super good; 2nd best 2pt% of the season)
%threes: 31.5% (After five games over 37%+ from three, this game we took it easy; amazing considering that Syracuse forces the most threes in the business - over 50% of opposing shots against Syracuse this season have been from way downtown)
FT rate: 61.1% (very strong; 2nd highest FTR of the season)
OR%: 46.2% (also very strong)
TO%: 24.8% (dreadful; 3rd worst TO performance of the season)
a/to: 1:1 (not good)
%assisted: 61.3% (pretty high; 4th highest %assisted of the season)
fast break pts: 22 (22.7% of points; excellent; sixth 18+ fast break points in last eight games)

DEFENSE

dRtg: 1.15 (by far our worst defensive ppp of the season; adjusted dRtg of 1.04 still somewhat horrific)
eFG%: 42.9% (good)
3pt%: 23.1% (very good)
2pt%: 47.7% (decent)
%threes: 37.1% (only 7th time in 21 games that an opponent has taken more than 30% of their shots from three)
FT rate: 52.9% (worst FT rate of the season)
DR%: 58.0% (worst DR% of the season)
TO%: 13.0% (worst defensive TO performance of the season for the 2nd straight game)
a/to: 1.3:1
%assisted: 48.1%
stl%: 7.8% (poor; 3rd straight blah steals performance)
blk%: 7.1% (11.4% of 2pt shots) (adequate)
fast break pts: 25 (28.4% of points; most fb points given up this season; fourth straight not-so-good defensive fast break performance)


It's kinda funny that before the game people were worrying about our offense. For the third straight game (4 of 6) our offense was best-in-the-country good (though we did cough up waaaay too many turnovers). But our defense has become indefensible. Our 4th 1+ ppp defensive performance in five games, and this one was by far the worst yet. We did hold them to low shooting numbers (astonishingly low considering we gave up so many fast break points), but our worst defensive rebounding, worst defensive FT rate, and worst defensive turnover performance led to our worst dRating of the season. It's really something to be worst-of-the-season in three of the four factors, but there it is, despite the return of Wendell Moore. It's a worrying trend.

[heyman25]

Prayers for Coach Scheyer. I really like this win. Vernon was a monster inside, and Cassius is turning out to be a special player. Cassius has a different game, but he plays a role like how Justise did in 2015: stopper and timely basket-maker.

And Alex O’Connell with his strange Syracuse-whisperer tendencies. If he’d only build on these games.

I don’t think we will shoot free throws like that again, so defensive cleanup may be at the forefront of Coach’s mind.

At 14 years old I had an emergency appendectomy in Rochester NY. I thought then when it was removed you would feel better. Hope Jon had a good doctor in Syracuse NY. Jon might be gone from the bench until Chapel Hill.
Moore , although its good he is back, he was wreckless handling the ball.
Also if anyone knows if Will Avery has a job with the basketball team. I have seen him at nearly every televised Duke game one row back.

[sagegrouse]

At 14 years old I had an emergency appendectomy in Rochester NY. I thought then when it was removed you would feel better. Hope Jon had a good doctor in Syracuse NY. Jon might be gone from the bench until Chapel Hill.
Moore , although its good he is back, he was wreckless handling the ball.
Also if anyone knows if Will Avery has a job with the basketball team. I have seen him at nearly every televised Duke game one row back.

He is back at Duke working on his degree. No word on an official position with Duke basketball.

[uh_no]

Maybe that accounts for our Kenpom defensive rating to drop from 9 to 14?

I'm almost certain we were in the single-digits in both offense and defense as of around 5-6pm today.

2 Duke ACC 17-3 +28.63 118.1 5 89.4 7

was our KP stats as of yesterday morning at 8am

[Dukehk]

Gosh what a tough environment to pull off a major road win. Those guys sell out and create attendance records everytime we come to town.

We were in control for most of the game after the first 10-15 minutes.

The full court press kind of exposed our decision making a little bit (i.e. Wendell Moore) but we never stopped fighting and Cash was amazing on the break. Great to see us hit all our free throws too.

Not easy to drop 97 points on syrcause zone defence!

Hopefully no more injuries from now on!! We need to grow and get ready for March.

[Billy Dat]

Has any Duke player ever had the hang time of Cassius Stanley.? His touchdown catch from Vernon was appropriate for Super Bowl weekend. The kid was literally FLOATING. As the ball left Vernon’s hand I was cursing that it was a turnover because it looked like it was headed about 5 feet beyond the baseline and then I see a figure looking like someone executed some kind of video game double jump emerging above a scrum of bodies. All I wanted him to do was catch it, but before I could process what was happening he was making a pretty difficult finish. That was an insane play.

While our defense was obviously not great, I think we did what we needed to do as far as preventing their 3 attempts, and I think the number of FTs they took certainly helped their efficiency.

In that utterly painful final 5 minutes, I would love to know the average amount of time per possession because it felt like 7 seconds. My sons and I were making guesses, “Ok, there’s 1:09 left, when will the clock stop on this next whistle...1:06?” So freakin painful.

As a NYer surrounded by Syracuse grads, rest assured that this has become THE GAME for them, as of the record attendance numbers didn’t already let you know that. It is a classic example of how when Duke goes on the road, it’s not a regular road environment. As such, I think this was an absolutely HUGE win for us. Despite his late mistakes, I thought Wendell looked like he hadn’t missed a beat and it was great to have Javin and AOC in the mix. The band is back together, and despite K’s going with Jordan late - which didn’t feel right at the time - I thought the maestro was managing substitutions with an illuminati-esque elan!

[Troublemaker]

The defense was very, very good up until the point when Cuse started pressing. I don't know what happened after that. Maybe, because we weren't able to rest on offense while facing the press, our defense got tired.

Not excusing it, per se. Just painting the complete picture and saying that our defense was probably going to rise in the defensive rankings until Cuse put the press on.

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.

It's all about preptime. I hate having to play the Cuse Zone with only 1 day off.

[roywhite]

1. If I had to bet one team would hit 29 for 33 from the line, I would not have bet on our Blue Devils. And Jones 10-10, most (if not all) of them down the stretch. 29-33 isn't luck. Neither are the 50% games they have turned in, either. They should shoot better! Personally, I'd like to see them get a handle on this... Missed FTs are like pin pricks in my basketball soul. And I need not elaborate about RJ's last FT, JWill's last FT, etc... Maybe they shoot better from the line in domes? That might bode well for the NCAA's (assuming they get into the regionals).

Just my theory, but it would seem easier to shoot free throws when there are so many game stoppages. Not as easy in a very fast-paced game with few stoppages. A matter of fatigue and the difference it can make in a player's stroke from the line.

[WVDUKEFAN]

We played pretty good tonight. TOs were concerning. No Joey B, either.

[howardlander]

The defense was very, very good up until the point when Cuse started pressing. I don't know what happened after that. Maybe, because we weren't able to rest on offense while facing the press, our defense got tired.

Well part of it also was that the Syracuse kids made some tough shots including several long threes that you wouldn’t really expect them to make.

[CDu]

The defense was very, very good up until the point when Cuse started pressing. I don't know what happened after that. Maybe, because we weren't able to rest on offense while facing the press, our defense got tired.

Not excusing it, per se. Just painting the complete picture and saying that our defense was probably going to rise in the defensive rankings until Cuse put the press on.




It's all about preptime. I hate having to play the Cuse Zone with only 1 day off.

Yep, going into the last 5 minutes, we had held them to about 1 point per possession unadjusted (which would have been sub-0.9 adjusted). Then, they flipped the switch and scored 24 points on 14 possessions.

Part of it was the press forcing transition chances. Part of it was foul trouble causing us to get tentative. Part of it was Syracuse hitting some tough 3s. But for 35 minutes of the game the defense was solid, and then it completely fell apart the last 5 minutes.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Yep, going into the last 5 minutes, we had held them to about 1 point per possession unadjusted (which would have been sub-0.9 adjusted). Then, they flipped the switch and scored 24 points on 14 possessions.

Part of it was the press forcing transition chances. Part of it was foul trouble causing us to get tentative. Part of it was Syracuse hitting some tough 3s. But for 35 minutes of the game the defense was solid, and then it completely fell apart the last 5 minutes.

I would agree with this...and one key is during that time they hit 2 ridiculous length bombs...if memory serves. One by Junior and one by another player....and now that I think about it, also a super quick release 3 from the left wing by a third player. These defense stretchers, plus the tentative play due to foul trouble, were huge factors in closing the gap.

[Duke76]

i agree. This was a big win and a huge learning experience. There aren’t many other teams that get to play and even win in that type of hostile environment before the tournament...

toughest zone to play against and we proved we could pass and penetrate through it...I liked trey flashing the middle as those floaters from free throw line in are his best shots, imo. With Moore back think we wore them out...saw where BPI had us at the top

[fuse]

Duke's offense? Really good. Duke's defense? Really bad? Trend?

OFFENSE

Possessions: 76.6 (pretty fast; the battle of the pace in theory favored Duke; in practice, Syracuse's press and Duke's seeming inability to attack it possibly had something to do with it)
oRtg: 1.27 (1.29 adjusted; excellent for the third straight game and 4th out of six)
eFG%: 63.0% (outstanding)
3pt%: 35.3% (adequate)
2pt%: 67.6% (super good; 2nd best 2pt% of the season)
%threes: 31.5% (After five games over 37%+ from three, this game we took it easy; amazing considering that Syracuse forces the most threes in the business - over 50% of opposing shots against Syracuse this season have been from way downtown)
FT rate: 61.1% (very strong; 2nd highest FTR of the season)
OR%: 46.2% (also very strong)
TO%: 24.8% (dreadful; 3rd worst TO performance of the season)
a/to: 1:1 (not good)
%assisted: 61.3% (pretty high; 4th highest %assisted of the season)
fast break pts: 22 (22.7% of points; excellent; sixth 18+ fast break points in last eight games)

DEFENSE

dRtg: 1.15 (by far our worst defensive ppp of the season; adjusted dRtg of 1.04 still somewhat horrific)
eFG%: 42.9% (good)
3pt%: 23.1% (very good)
2pt%: 47.7% (decent)
%threes: 37.1% (only 7th time in 21 games that an opponent has taken more than 30% of their shots from three)
FT rate: 52.9% (worst FT rate of the season)
DR%: 58.0% (worst DR% of the season)
TO%: 13.0% (worst defensive TO performance of the season for the 2nd straight game)
a/to: 1.3:1
%assisted: 48.1%
stl%: 7.8% (poor; 3rd straight blah steals performance)
blk%: 7.1% (11.4% of 2pt shots) (adequate)
fast break pts: 25 (28.4% of points; most fb points given up this season; fourth straight not-so-good defensive fast break performance)


It's kinda funny that before the game people were worrying about our offense. For the third straight game (4 of 6) our offense was best-in-the-country good (though we did cough up waaaay too many turnovers). But our defense has become indefensible. Our 4th 1+ ppp defensive performance in five games, and this one was by far the worst yet. We did hold them to low shooting numbers (astonishingly low considering we gave up so many fast break points), but our worst defensive rebounding, worst defensive FT rate, and worst defensive turnover performance led to our worst dRating of the season. It's really something to be worst-of-the-season in three of the four factors, but there it is, despite the return of Wendell Moore. It's a worrying trend.

We’ve had no answer for teams that play “downhill” and just simply drive our defender 1:1 to the basket.

Jack White seems to be one of the few players that has been able to generate steals of blocks defending his man 1:1.

The drive to the hoop also starts the rotation on defense that the second rotation is too slow, opening the (back) door for a relatively easy assist and layup.

Our defensive ferocity seems largely built around harassing a primary ballhandler into initiating offense far from the basket and disrupting the other team’s offensive flow. Teams that want to get into a track meet have killed us with easy buckets.