MBB: Duke 88, NC State 69 Post-Game Thread

[NYBri]

Give me a 9! Give me an F!

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Actually, you’ll think you’ve already seen it, but there will be an even more spectacular play coming!

True...when you think youv'e seen it...you have not. When you see it, you'll KNOW it.

[MrPoon]

J Rob was fantastic as was Goldwire but don’t sleep on Stanley as key to this game.
With Tre, Vernon and Moore are all key but Stanley is there Mojo. When he plays with confidence and energy they feel different as an entire team.
Its not just the dunks, its the drives, the rebounding. Of course was fantastic and unexpected but Stanley is the lightning rod that really changes this team.

I also think some of the changes in this line up were K admitting he didn’t get UVa right. He’s insanely good of course but he is always trying to improve. He was trying to mix up things in a way he didn’t in Virginia. Good for him. Never resting.

[MrPoon]

I do know I was hoping they would find a classy, not running up the score way to win by 23....

[jv001]

6 players in double figures and solid all around play(especially 2nd half).

Goldwire= 11 points, 5 assists, 2 turnovers, 2 steals and 6 rebounds
J-Rob= 10 points, 6 rebounds(4 offensive), 1 assist, 1 block.
Moore= 10 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 turnovers
Stanley= 18 points, 7 rebounds(4 offensive) 1 assist, 2 blocks
Carey= 17 points, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 blocks.
Tre= 15 points, 4 assists, 3 turnovers, 4 steals, 3 rebounds

Team: 48% FG, 33% on 3s, 85% FTs, 46 rebounds, 16 offensive boards, 14 assists, 12 turnovers, 5 steals and 6 blocks.

A good game from the good guys. Now some time before the cheats come to town.
9F

GoDuke!

[uh_no]

Still need to get to the bottom of this. Who is this cameraman and what’s up with the hat? He’s been in CIS all season.

Attachment 10320

all i know it's he is all about celebration and presumed that I'd never heard of cool and the gang. man was sorely mistaken.

[fuse]

Tale of two halves? I missed the first, seems like Duke struggled before maybe the ten minute mark in the second half?

[moonpie23]

K ripping fans talking about players...said if they wanted to talk junk about his coaching, that was fine..."they can come into cameron and look in the rafters"

he was angry...

[CDu]

So before the game I talked about our struggles with the high ball screen, with big men getting stuck on the perimeter, and fouling. In hindsight, the solution was staring us in the face: the zone. Good call by Coach K to make that switch, and good execution by the players. Also, great to see so many guys step up. Hopefully they can build off it. It will be interesting to see if we go to the zone more often moving forward, or if this was a one-off. But man did they respond.

[Reddevil]

After watching the team struggle defensively for at least the last 3 years, I am convinced that freshman cannot defend consistently at a high level. In this OAD era zone should be used almost exclusively. Maybe some surprise M2M occasionally. Let the freshman studs roll on offense and play zone on the other end. It prevents getting torched on PNR's and getting stuck on switching mismatches. It also keeps bigs under the basket where they belong.

[freshmanjs]

After watching the team struggle defensively for at least the last 3 years, I am convinced that freshman cannot defend consistently at a high level. In this OAD era zone should be used almost exclusively. Maybe some surprise M2M occasionally. Let the freshman studs roll on offense and play zone on the other end. It prevents getting torched on PNR's and getting stuck on switching mismatches. It also keeps bigs under the basket where they belong.

Kentucky does it. They’ve played good m2m with freshman throughout the calipari era (although this year not a freshman oriented team).

[gofurman]

We just look better in a zone. Carey doesn’t need to be trying to guard a quick guard out at the 3 point line. State settled for a lot of 10 ft jump shots instead of the layups against our man D. And, since we don’t know how to box out, we may be a better rebounding team when playing zone.

What a difference in halves. Let’s zone in the tourney please

[duke2x]

I do know I was hoping they would find a classy, not running up the score way to win by 23...

41 point swing (where have I heard that before?) on short rest. I'll take it. We've got to find a way to start faster.

[uh_no]

What a difference in halves. Let’s zone in the tourney please

teams will prepare for it now.

It may be the kind of thing where once the element of surprise is lost, you need a good amount of time to do it well against teams that are prepared for it. Even in 2015 when we famously switched to zone against louisville, we played very little in the actual run to the championship.

[Scorp4me]

My only problem is that sometimes Coach goes away from what is working. Deep rotation, let's shorten the bench. Baker doing well, let's keep him on the bench. Robinson had a great game, no chance the next. Zone works, gotta get back to that man to man. I don't know if it's just not believing what he sees, afraid it's a flash in the pan, trying to improve and going down the wrong path, convinced the change is a bandaid and we need to get back to what he things it should be...but I hope he looks at all the positives from this season and isn't afraid to use any of it. This team doesn't have the overwhelming talent that last year had, but it has a lot more options. Might as well take advantage of them all!

[dukelifer]

My only problem is that sometimes Coach goes away from what is working. Deep rotation, let's shorten the bench. Baker doing well, let's keep him on the bench. Robinson had a great game, no chance the next. Zone works, gotta get back to that man to man. I don't know if it's just not believing what he sees, afraid it's a flash in the pan, trying to improve and going down the wrong path, convinced the change is a bandaid and we need to get back to what he things it should be...but I hope he looks at all the positives from this season and isn't afraid to use any of it. This team doesn't have the overwhelming talent that last year had, but it has a lot more options. Might as well take advantage of them all!

K used 9 players- but certain combinations were working better than others. He made a call and it worked. The team has been in every game except one and they avenged that loss tonight. This is a limited team but certainly one that could get hot. They need Stanley to play at a high level and they have enough around the three to have a chance- but they cannot be a two player team on O.

[Saratoga2]

My only problem is that sometimes Coach goes away from what is working. Deep rotation, let's shorten the bench. Baker doing well, let's keep him on the bench. Robinson had a great game, no chance the next. Zone works, gotta get back to that man to man. I don't know if it's just not believing what he sees, afraid it's a flash in the pan, trying to improve and going down the wrong path, convinced the change is a bandaid and we need to get back to what he things it should be...but I hope he looks at all the positives from this season and isn't afraid to use any of it. This team doesn't have the overwhelming talent that last year had, but it has a lot more options. Might as well take advantage of them all!

UNC is a running team that uses its bench. Can we use a short rotation against that approach effectively? It certainly worked tonight so shouldn't be abandoned but maybe a sigghtlye xpanded lineup to counter the UNC approach?

[Troublemaker]

Coach K gave us hope back tonight and should be commended for continuing to tinker.

Let's continue to see where zone and JRob can lead us. Maybe the zone gets figured out but we weren't going to accomplish anything doing what we had been doing, anyway.

Playing a stretch-5 in JRob makes the defensive quartet of Tre-JGold-Cassius-Wendell more viable offensively since those four range from poor to average in shooting ability.

We don't really have the height that you usually associate with zone defense (at least using the players we used tonight), but their quickness and activity can hopefully make up for it.

[heyman25]

K used 9 players- but certain combinations were working better than others. He made a call and it worked. The team has been in every game except one and they avenged that loss tonight. This is a limited team but certainly one that could get hot. They need Stanley to play at a high level and they have enough around the three to have a chance- but they cannot be a two player team on O.

Great post. Like to see this team jell and yes they are young. However first day of practice I believe was October 15. The young team needs to play as a team. Tired of the young excuse.Listen to what the Coaches say and execute them.
Go to practice after practice. It is March.

[UrinalCake]

teams will prepare for it now. It may be the kind of thing where once the element of surprise is lost, you need a good amount of time to do it well against teams that are prepared for it.

Yep, we saw this two seasons ago with Carter and Bagley. Made the switch about halfway through the conference season, but then by the end of the season opponents had figured it out.

I like mixing in the zone but also think it will be very matchup-dependent. NCSU and UNC-CHeat are good candidates because they shoot poorly - State had several wide open threes in the second half that they missed. Of course they were getting those when we were playing man too, so maybe there’s no difference. Against a team like Notre Dame or VT we’d be playing M2M full time.