MBB: Duke79, Wake 68 Post-Game Thread

[BlueDevilStop]

Three straight road games coming up.

@VT
@Pitt
@Louisville

This stretch will be a good test for this team.

[BlueDevilStop]

Love watching Steward play and progress -- great quickness, versatile, good basketball instincts.

Trying to find a good comp from the Coach K era at Duke.
Almost hate to mention this one, but with his slender build, quickness, and combo guard talents, there is a bit of Johnny Dawkins. Maybe I should temper that -- a "poor man's" Johnny Dawkins.
Or perhaps more like one of his coaches -- Nolan Smith?

Steward's instincts have been incredibly impressive to watch. He has such a great feel for the game in general. Routinely cuts at the most opportune times and has a great feel for putting himself in position to grab rebounds.

[jv001]

Steward's instincts have been incredibly impressive to watch. He has such a great feel for the game in general. Routinely cuts at the most opportune times and has a great feel for putting himself in position to grab rebounds.

I agree about his instincts and he doesn't look like the typical freshman trying to learn the Duke man2man. The way he goes after rebounds you'd think he's 6'8" not 6'2". I wonder what his vertical measurements are? You can tell he loves the game because of that smile. I'm hoping he starts hitting the 3 because right now he's in a slump.

GoDuke!

[azzefkram]

Good

• Duke won (always excellent)
• Matt
• JGold
• DJ
• Rebounding

OK

• Jeremy (a bit too sloppy with the ball)
• Defense (numbers weren't great but Wake made a boatload of tough/low percentage shots)
• Brakefield (active if not entirely effective on D)

Bad

• Return of Bad Wendell
• Mark (can see glimpses of potential but doesn't seem ready yet)
• Joey (for a shooter he never seems ready to shoot the ball)

I am somewhat surprised by the lack of shooters on Duke. I mean, aside from Matt, who can Duke expect to make a shot. DJ came in with the reputation but he seems more of volume scorer than a shooter at this point. Joey never seems ready to shoot so can you be a shooter if you don't shoot the ball? Duke missed an awful lot of wide-open shots yesterday. Fortunately they rebounded the heck out of the ball so it didn't hurt them. I makes me wonder if Duke should run more sets/plays that free players up to go to the rim. Might help with the free throw rate as well.

[-jk]

There are two things I've been watching, both requiring communication, and both improving (albeit with a lot of room for still more growth): passing on offense and switching on defense.

Let's keep building on them!

-jk

[Music man55]

Good win over a scrappy Wake team. We will see this week a better gauge of the team with 3 road games against some tougher competition. Somebody mentioned up-thread and I agree, why is Joey Baker afraid to pull the trigger on his three pt. shot? Have the coaches talked to him about it? Just wondering.

[jv001]

Good win over a scrappy Wake team. We will see this week a better gauge of the team with 3 road games against some tougher competition. Somebody mentioned up-thread and I agree, why is Joey Baker afraid to pull the trigger on his three pt. shot? Have the coaches talked to him about it? Just wondering.

I think opponents know Baker can shoot the 3 and they close out on him rather quickly. They had rather he put the ball on the floor and drive. Just a guess.

[CDu]

Good win over a scrappy Wake team. We will see this week a better gauge of the team with 3 road games against some tougher competition. Somebody mentioned up-thread and I agree, why is Joey Baker afraid to pull the trigger on his three pt. shot? Have the coaches talked to him about it? Just wondering.

I think opponents know Baker can shoot the 3 and they close out on him rather quickly. They had rather he put the ball on the floor and drive. Just a guess.

Yeah, and he doesn't have a quick release. So that makes it harder for him to get his shot off unless wide open.

As for the game, I wouldn't make too much of it. We were obviously very rusty, and it showed. That being said, we'll obviously need to play much better against Va Tech if we want to win. They are a big step up in quality from Notre Dame, BC, and Wake.

Hurt and Steward played the best, obviously. They both appear to be college-level studs. Hurt for his shooting ability all over the floor, and Steward for his feel for the game in hunting down plays. I'm not sure if either is well-suited for the next level (Steward has the best chance if he can develop as a PG), but man are they turning into impact players at the college level. Hurt has a real shot at ACC Player of the Year, and Steward needs to be in the discussion for ACC Freshman of the Year.

Goldwire continues to be a revelation. His development over 4 years has been spectacular. Easily one of the biggest risers in Duke history in terms of performance relative to recruiting cache. It's just a great story. He's such a good defender, and his offense has become good enough to keep him on the floor. It's really fun watching him pressure the ball.

Roach was the other really solid performer. He has somewhat quietly settled in as a 12+ ppg and 4 assist per game guy over the last 4 games. So while he hasn't emerged to the degree that Steward has, he does appear to be rounding into form. The turnovers are a bit concerning (9 in the last 3 games), so there is still work to do. But he's making progress.

The mixed-bag performer for me was Wendell Moore. He did unfortunately revert back to bad habits (turnovers, poor shots). But he contributed a lot in other ways, including 8 rebounds and generally solid defense. It does appear that the team has shifted him back to spending more time at PF, which is good. Hopefully he can figure out the right balance to his offensive game (less dribble).

Somewhat similarly, Brakefield had a dud of any offensive game, but a really effective defensive game. He had 3 steals, a block, and a tie-up in his 17 minutes. But the offense was nonexistent as he showed his limitations when the 3-ball isn't falling.

Baker played sparingly, and I suspect that he'll settle into a 5-10 mpg type of role once Johnson returns. He just is too limited at this stage, unfortunately.

Williams looked lost out there, and honestly aside from the opening tip I'm not sure he's ready for ACC play this year. I suspect his minutes will go away when Johnson returns.

It does seem like the squad is starting to find its identity, with Brakefield and Moore coming off the bench behind Hurt, Johnson, and the 3 guards. Then we'll see Baker probably getting 5-10 mpg as the last man in the 7.5-man rotation. Tape, Williams, and Coleman will play as needed due to foul trouble, but probably will combine for no more than 5-10 mpg.

Hopefully Johnson can return somewhat soon. He'd be a real boost to this lineup, taking the pressure off of Brakefield and Moore.

[Nrrrrvous]

It does seem like the squad is starting to find its identity, with Brakefield and Moore coming off the bench behind Hurt, Johnson, and the 3 guards. Then we'll see Baker probably getting 5-10 mpg as the last man in the 7.5-man rotation. Tape, Williams, and Coleman will play as needed due to foul trouble, but probably will combine for no more than 5-10 mpg.

I totally agree with this. I think we are seeing K's 7.5 man rotation developing. I can see the 5 starters you mentioned going for ~30mpg, Moore and Brakefield getting ~20-25mpg, Baker with ~5-10mpg. The two biggest question marks for me -

Does Jalen have limited minutes due to foul issues? (My point being that K may want to give him 30mpg but may not be able to)

Does Moore regress back to the point where K can't even give him the 20-25? (Against ND he only played 9 minutes, Brakefield's minutes went up to 25 and Baker hit 15.)