MBB: Duke v Notre Dame (Sat 2/15 4:00 pm ESPN) Pre-Game and In-Game Thread

[OldPhiKap]

Wait, I thought you gave up beers.

I know you didn't give up Duke MBB, however, even if you can only watch about 1/2 the games.

Gave up on beers until I hit my target weight, which is about five pounds to go. But may give it up for Lent too since I’m on a roll.

As for ACCN, thankfully I think most or all remaining games are on real tv.

Oh, and post on the ymm, bourbon thread when you do your tour!

[devildeac]

Gave up on beers until I hit my target weight, which is about five pounds to go. But may give it up for Lent too since I’m on a roll.

As for ACCN, thankfully I think most or all remaining games are on real tv.

Oh, and post on the ymm, bourbon thread when you do your tour!

Absolutely will. Of course, an Against the Grain ale might sneak onto another thread.

Hmm, what to taste while watching Duke-ND this weekend...

[OldPhiKap]

Absolutely will. Of course, an Against the Grain ale might sneak onto another thread.

Hmm, what to taste while watching Duke-ND this weekend...

Water with lemon here, maybe my go-to San Pellegrino.

[Pghdukie]

Anyone try bud light seltzer yet ?

[devildeac]

Anyone try bud light seltzer yet ?

What timing. I sent a picture tonight of the budlight seltzer display in a local grocery store to our son and fuse and got the following replies respectively:

1. front.gif

2. "Blocked and reported"

And, no, I don't plan on my first tasting during the Duke-ND game this weekend, either (as he tried to return to on-topic ).

[DavidBenAkiva]

In an astonishing display of defense, UVA edged Notre Dame 50-49 in overtime last night. The teams combined to score 5 points in the 5-minute overtime. The condensed game highlights were probably 45 seconds.

[devildeac]

In an astonishing display of defense, UVA edged Notre Dame 50-49 in overtime last night. The teams combined to score 5 points in the 5-minute overtime. The condensed game highlights were probably 45 seconds.

With or without commercial interruption?

[OldPhiKap]

Bump

[HereBeforeCoachK]

In an astonishing display of defense, UVA edged Notre Dame 50-49 in overtime last night. The teams combined to score 5 points in the 5-minute overtime. The condensed game highlights were probably 45 seconds.

That'll drive Mike Brey to drink....

[Music man55]

Irish will play us tough. Glad we'll be well rested. If we can keep their 3pt.shooting at a minimum, we should win.

[Truth&Justise]

Notre Dame is not really in the NCAAT bubble discussion right now, but a win at Duke would change that in a hurry. This is a team with tournament-level talent, and it must be smarting at missed opportunities: a 1-point loss to FSU, a 1-point OT loss to UVA, a 3-point loss to Louisville. They're on an upward trend (4-1 in their last 5), looking for that one statement win to catapult them to tournament discussion. They will fight hard.

This isn't going to be easy for Duke.

[rsvman]

Notre Dame is not really in the NCAAT bubble discussion right now, but a win at Duke would change that in a hurry. This is a team with tournament-level talent, and it must be smarting at missed opportunities: a 1-point loss to FSU, a 1-point OT loss to UVA, a 3-point loss to Louisville. They're on an upward trend (4-1 in their last 5), looking for that one statement win to catapult them to tournament discussion. They will fight hard.

This isn't going to be easy for Duke.

Agreed. I don't take any of our opponents lightly, but certainly not this ND team.

[House P]

Notre Dame is not really in the NCAAT bubble discussion right now, but a win at Duke would change that in a hurry. This is a team with tournament-level talent, and it must be smarting at missed opportunities: a 1-point loss to FSU, a 1-point OT loss to UVA, a 3-point loss to Louisville. They're on an upward trend (4-1 in their last 5), looking for that one statement win to catapult them to tournament discussion. They will fight hard.

This isn't going to be easy for Duke.

Excellent point about how important a win vs Duke could be for Notre Dame's tourney chances. T-Rank's "Tourney Cast" feature currently predicts that Notre Dame has an 11% chance of making the tourney. A win vs Duke would raise that to 50%.

Meanwhile, T-Rank doesn't attempt to quantify such things, but you gotta think that a win vs UVA on Saturday would greatly increase UNC's chances of getting a bid to the CBI tourney!

[uh_no]

Excellent point about how important a win vs Duke could be for Notre Dame's tourney chances. T-Rank's "Tourney Cast" feature currently predicts that Notre Dame has an 11% chance of making the tourney. A win vs Duke would raise that to 50%.

Meanwhile, T-Rank doesn't attempt to quantify such things, but you gotta think that a win vs UVA on Saturday would greatly increase UNC's chances of getting a bid to the CBI tourney!

Seth greenberg believes UNC has what it takes to miss the tourney this year. He's the expert!

[Troublemaker]

Irish will play us tough. Glad we'll be well rested. If we can keep their 3pt.shooting at a minimum, we should win.

Notre Dame is not really in the NCAAT bubble discussion right now, but a win at Duke would change that in a hurry. This is a team with tournament-level talent, and it must be smarting at missed opportunities: a 1-point loss to FSU, a 1-point OT loss to UVA, a 3-point loss to Louisville. They're on an upward trend (4-1 in their last 5), looking for that one statement win to catapult them to tournament discussion. They will fight hard.

This isn't going to be easy for Duke.

I'm somewhat conflicted. Since the ACC season started in earnest in January, Notre Dame hasn't lost a game by more than 5 points. Still, I expect us to be 12-13 point favorites and I kind of expect us to win by 20+ against the Irish, i.e. we perform well above expectations. I have a theory that by the end of this season*, we'll look back and see a loose pattern that we perform above expectations against good O / bad D teams (like Notre Dame) and perform below expectations against good D / bad O teams.

(* I say by the end of the season because hopefully we'll have enough data points then. Some of the current data is muddled because several teams have changed profiles as the season progressed. For example, at the time we played VaTech earlier this season, they were definitely a good O / bad D team but now their D ranks higher than their O. I don't know what to do with that.)

Anyway, the upcoming Notre Dame and @NCSU games (both are good O / bad D teams) will be good tests for my theory.

[rocketeli]

As others have posted, it wouldn't do to overlook this ND team. They are 6-7, 15-9, but lost to BC by 1, Louisville by 3, Syracuse by 2, at FSU by 1 and at VA by 1. Touchdown Jesus must have been preoccupied with spring training. They have won a few close ones too, but they conceivably could be considered only 8 points away from being 11-2 20-4 and in top ACC ranks.

[MarkD83]

Back to the top. There is a game today. Perhaps coach Brey can sit with the students

[arnie]

Back to the top. There is a game today. Perhaps coach Brey can sit with the students

Good point, hope K turns on his hearing aid.

[Rickshaw]

Think there is a game coming on. Pay attention .

[SCMatt33]

I think there’s a couple of keys for Duke today. First, what lineup does Duke play when both Durham and Mooney are on the floor together? Duke has struggled finding lineups that don’t have a clear weak link on either offense or defense. I think we’ve started to see some more 4 guard lineups, with Jones, Goldwire, Stanley and Moore on the floor together, but that won’t be feasible with both of those guys on the floor for ND. Will Coach K trust either Hurt or White to bang around with Mooney, or will we see some lineups with Javin and Vern together? If it’s the latter, staying out of foul trouble will be vital. When Durham is out of the game, can Vern produce enough offensively to offset some likely struggles on defense. Vern has struggled a lot defending the perimeter, especially ball screen action. He lost track of a lot of FSU players on pick and pops early in the game Monday, and got lucky that the Noles were bricking open looks.

On the offensive end, I would expect that ND will double him as many have done recently. Duke has had the nasty habit in conference play of trying to force deep post possessions for Vern and not finding other ways to get him involved. I think letting him catch the ball a bit farther out, and letting him pass back out and reposting would help a ton. Also getting guys to reposition and cut when the double team comes is vital. I think one of the most beautiful plays I saw all year was Stanley cutting right to the rim on a give and go for an easy lay-in after his man turned to double Carey. The key was that they let Carey catch it a good 12-15 feet from the rim, where FSU wasn’t going to contest the catch, made it a much easier play. Contrast that to a play later in the half, where Carey is trying to establish on the block and FSU fronts him. Jack White tries to lob it over the top, and while it wasn’t a terrible pass (Carey was able to reach out and get a hand on it), that play needed a perfect pass to work. Without one, FSU’s help was able to get there at the same time as the pass and knock it loose for a fast break opportunity. Passing it short there is just as bad. We saw that happen once against UNC and lead to a foul by Carey trying to get the ball.

If Duke can’t improve on how they get Carey involved on offense, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him only play 20 minutes against an ND team that will be a matchup problem for him defensively with 5 capable shooters on the floor half the time