So Troublemaker, your saying take Duke and the over ? I'm going on your expertise and doing this.
Your 4-time Degenerates Champion (although I'm not doing so hot in the current contest) has taken Duke and the over tonight. I got a good number with Duke -2 but I think I still like the current price of Duke -4.5 because I expect us to win pretty comfortably tonight. I like that we had a "bye week" leading up to this game to integrate Jalen and install new stuff now that he's back, and I have a suspicion that he's going to be a boost to the defense. I've often felt in the past few games that we could use one more great athlete to help with the D, and whatever Jalen's warts are, he's likely our best athlete. I also think we can integrate him sensibly into the offense now that we know that our halfcourt offense should center around hyper-efficient Matthew first and foremost. (With Jalen, I think we should lean into the Ben Simmons comparison and have him focus on great defense, great transition offense while playing more of a distribution role in the halfcourt.)
I also like that we're coming off a loss (and that this game feels like a must-win) and that we got our first taste of a quality ACC opponent against VaTech following several previous games against the bottom of the ACC. We weren't ready for that level of play at the start against VaTech, but then we responded well and went toe to toe with them. I think we'll be ready at the start of this one, and I think we'll benefit for having gotten that experience against the Hokies under our belt.
Finally, I like that in ACC games, Duke has experienced horrible opponent shooting luck and Pitt has experienced great opponent shooting luck. Things don't necessarily have to reverse themselves and "return to the mean" immediately tonight, of course, but generally speaking, we should experience better luck going forward on the opponent shooting front (and Pitt should experience worse luck).
So Troublemaker, your saying take Duke and the over ? I'm going on your expertise and doing this.
Should I ? You make the call and let us all know. So we all can make a few bucks.
Same ol' same ol'....
Welp...things looking ugly early again.
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This team started so badly. For our team just do fundamental basketball. Baker is never ready for a play on offense
Baker space yourself. He is too passive
I didn’t realize that Jason Capel was a Pitt assistant, so that means that Jeff is indeed better.
Our offense is just...it looks so disjointed. Always.
Embarrassed by Duke We are very bad
Falling in love with the three and passing up good 2-pt opportunities to take more 3s. I don’t understand?
I expect us to play hard and play smart, and that was not close on either front.
GTHC
C'mon, folks - you know the rules! Let's keep the criticism constructive...
-jk
Another men vs boys type of game.
If it's any consolation I'm confident we'll be very good next year but just not sure there are enough games left this year to get this team to a place where they can challenge good teams and make a tourney run.
Cannot watch. Are they keying on Hurt? Not many shots raken...
Pitt was 12-17 from the line that half and Duke was 3-6.
Duke was 5-18 from the 3, may want to stop settling for bad 3s and try to drive to the rim and draw fouls and on the defensive end, quit fouling Pitt.
Need to somehow cool off Champagnie next half.
Pretty even game other than fouling pitt like crazy and them being 12-17 from the line.
Still think this one will come down to the final 4-5 possessions.