Post Game Thread - Duke 73 - Pitt 79

[Billy Dat]

Let er rip

[kshepinthehouse]

Would have liked to have seen what happened if Roach would have hit that reverse layup.

[TywinBlue]

Congratulations to Coach Capel.

[dukelion]

Good effort...eventually.

If this is the Johnson and Moore we get down the stretch then maybe we got a chance to sneak into the tourney.

[simplyluvin]

When all is said and done, this was a poor performance on both ends, and yet we came close. We shot really poorly from the arc and the stripe, yet somehow we got it to within two a couple of times late in the second half. Great effort to get it close from 15 down, but I hope the team learns from this game how to buckle down and push through.

One hope for the future...Jalen and Wendell both played well. Hurt had a sub-par game, but if we can have a "big three" supplmented with stronger guard play, I am starting to like this team's prospects. But this loss hurts. Pitt is good, but this was a road game we needed to win. At this point, I feel like we can sneak into the tournament with playing 10-5 the remainder of the regular season, barring virus-related cancelations. That's a really tall order.

[Troublemaker]

The zone was ill-advised considering Pitt had just played Syracuse twice. I know we sprung a 3-2 zone on them instead of the 2-3 zone but a lot of the principles to beat a 3-2 remain the same -- get the ball to the FT line area, throw it over the zone to cutters, spray the ball to the corners when the zone collapses to the middle, etc.

A lot of good happened in this game, including of course Jalen's performance but also a quintessential 3-and-D outing by Wendell with not much dribbling and zero turnovers, exactly how we need him to play. But I wish we had just spent the week practicing man-to-man and then playing it the entire game (instead of going to it as a last resort after the 3-2 zone had utterly failed and with our players in foul trouble). I think Duke would've won.

[uh_no]

Let er rip

team has a lot of heart to come back every game. team also isn't a tournament team right now.

[-jk]

Signs of life. Hurt/Johnson can be a potent combo.

-jk

[proelitedota]

First game with JJ back, some disruption is expected. Against a good Pitt team at home the score was predictable.

On to the next one. I think we'll get much better with more games played.

[BigDuke6]

Why the zone? It made the game too easy for Pitt and didn’t generate turnovers and extra possessions this team absolutely needs.

[sagegrouse]

Spirited effort from the team -- after really rotten starts in each half. That is the mark of a very immature team. Happened against VT as well.

[ChillinDuke]

Signs of life. But we need some consistency.

Any semblance of a routine would be nice for a young squad.

In the end there's no excuse for poor first half play game in and game out. This young team needs to figure out for themselves what college and ACC caliber play is - every single game. Come ready.

There's time. But we need wins.

- Chillin

[CameronDuke]

The Duke team showed heart to claw back into the game after being down 15. Welcome back Jalen Johnson with a huge 24 and 15 double double. That kid is going to be a force for someone in the NBA.

Duke shot way too many 3s. 8-28 for the night. Would have liked to seen less 3s and more driving to the rim and trying to draw fouls. Pitt did a good job of that. Pitt shot 37 free throws tonight! Duke finished just 11-19 from the line. Duke had more rebounds and steals than Pitt. Duke fouled Pitt 24 times and Pitt fouled Duke just 15 times.

Need to find a way to either start knocking down 3s more efficiently or getting to the line through drawing contact.

Still lots of ACC games to be played but this team is not close to a Top 35-40 team in the country right now. I trust Coach K and his staff to get this team back on the right track sooner rather than later, though.

[BlueDevilStop]

The Duke team showed heart to claw back into the game after being down 15. Welcome back Jalen Johnson with a huge 24 and 15 double double. That kid is going to be a force for someone in the NBA.

Duke shot way too many 3s. 8-28 for the night. Would have liked to seen less 3s and more driving to the rim and trying to draw fouls. Pitt did a good job of that. Pitt shot 37 free throws tonight! Duke finished just 11-19 from the line. Duke had more rebounds and steals than Pitt. Duke fouled Pitt 24 times and Pitt fouled Duke just 15 times.

Need to find a way to either start knocking down 3s more efficiently or getting to the line through drawing contact.

Still lots of ACC games to be played but this team is not close to a Top 35-40 team in the country right now. I trust Coach K and his staff to get this team back on the right track sooner rather than later, though.

It was good to see their effort to get back into the game. There were some bright moments outside of the opening minutes of both the first and second half. This team cannot afford to have anymore slow starts.

[Billy Dat]

Another game where we mount a furious comeback after being down 15, get really close, but never take a lead and fail to make the plays we need, on both ends of the court, at winning time.

The major positive was the play of Jalen Johnson who looked like an all conference player, especially in the second half.

The best player on the court, however, was Champagnie. It’s been a while since an opponent schooled us like that. Toney was also a beast. Great effort by Pittt, and Capel slays one of his mentors.

I like the potential of the Johnson, Moore, Hurt + guards line-up. Roach started better than he finished, DJ was fairly ineffective, but K went with him over Jordan.

We move forward. It doesn’t look good now, but the pieces of a solid team are there, maybe Johnson can catalyze a collective jump.

[gofurman]

Another game where we mount a furious comeback after being down 15, get really close, but never take a lead and fail to make the plays we need, on both ends of the court, at winning time.

The major positive was the play of Jalen Johnson who looked like an all conference player, especially in the second half.

The best player on the court, however, was Champagnie. It’s been a while since an opponent schooled us like that. Toney was also a beast. Great effort by Pittt, and Capel slays one of his mentors.

I like the potential of the Johnson, Moore, Hurt + guards line-up. Roach started better than he finished, DJ was fairly ineffective, but K went with him over Jordan.

We move forward. It doesn’t look good now, but the pieces of a solid team are there, maybe Johnson can catalyze a collective jump.

Yup, another game with a big lead for the other team which is asking a lot.. just stay within 8/10...

Not sure why you keep a zone on a guy like Champagnie?? At 28 points for him I told my son .. "watch 'is - pass, shot score by Champagnie" - thats EXACTLY what happened.. he was just smiling up and down the court. Sure he was shocked we would LET him have those shots w a zone and see a basket that big. WHY K WHY? I do get that our D stopper - Goldwire - is too short to cover Champagnie but maybe Moore M2M on him? At least for a little while???
The only answer I have is maybe K felt we couldn't stay in front of the 3 super guards - Toney / Johnson and Champagnie?? Maybe he felt they were too fast? But this team had just blown out Syracuse and just played vs a zone so they were REALLY well prepared to face that zone oof ours which is not as good as the 'Cuse Zone D since they run it all the time and are longer. Really don't get that - Pitt JUST played and beat the Cuse by TWENTY who are better prepared to run that defense.. that makes no sense. n o n e

All that said - good takeaways, HUGE game by JJ and Moore did a ton.. Hurt took too long to get involved unfortunately though he did eventually. Good to see JJ and Moore as we know Hurt will bring it most games.

Other takeaways - YET AGAIN the other team made way more free throws than we did. If you want to simplify a W v L - they made 24 FTs .. we attempted to 19! We HAVE To get to the FT line much more.. If we get to the line just 5 more times we probably win that game. And we need to learn to foul less - though there were a few calls I felt were tough on Duke where we basically got out of the way and they still gave a foul against us. But Pitt was 24-37 FTs.. Duke 11-19. With all we did right and wrong if we get to the line a few more times and hit a few more FTs we may win. 37 attempts vs 19!

Honestly its a decent showing that we went --- 38% shooting overall (BAD), 28% from 3 (BAD) and 57% FT shooting (BAD) and still almost beat a good team

Need to quit getting down 15 points to start the game and get to the FT line more.

[FerryFor50]

Slow start, but not as slow as previous games. But again, dug a hole too deep to get out of.

<ref gripe>
Champagnie is really good, but it’s mind boggling how he only picked up 1 foul with as aggressively he plays. And Pitt shot 37 FTs to Duke’s 19 (could have been 20+ with converted front ends of 1-1s). Wasn’t a case of Duke shooting more threes than Pitt; only 8 more attempts.

I thought the refs let them play to start the 2nd half and Duke made a run, but then they got whistle happy again.

Was the first game this year where I felt officiating was a factor.
<end ref gripe>

Bad passes, missed rotations... I’m surprised the score difference wasn’t greater.

Jalen Johnson had a great game and almost single handedly rescued them. Wendell showed some life. Unfortunately the guard play and Hurt weren’t their usual selves. Maybe we’ll get a game where everyone is playing well some time this season...

They did show some signs down the stretch of improvement. So hopefully that carries over to another tough game against Louisville.

[Troublemaker]

<ref gripe>
Champagnie is really good, but it’s mind boggling how he only picked up 1 foul with as aggressively he plays. And Pitt shot 37 FTs to Duke’s 19 (could have been 20+ with converted front ends of 1-1s). Wasn’t a case of Duke shooting more threes than Pitt; only 8 more attempts.

I thought the refs let them play to start the 2nd half and Duke made a run, but then they got whistle happy again.

Was the first game this year where I felt officiating was a factor.
<end ref gripe>

I thought most of the fouls were called correctly. Really, it seemed like a case of the 3-2 zone surprising/affecting our guys more than it surprised/affected Pitt. Obviously, when playing a brand new defense, you might not slide into the correct positions quickly enough when the offense is attacking because you're not used to the movements required. When that happens, "tweet", foul called on you.

[FerryFor50]

I thought most of the fouls were called correctly. Really, it seemed like a case of the 3-2 zone surprising/affecting our guys more than it surprised/affected Pitt. Obviously, when playing a brand new defense, you might not slide into the correct positions quickly enough when the offense is attacking because you're not used to the movements required. When that happens, "tweet", foul called on you.

I had way fewer issues on the fouls called on Duke (other than a few where it looked like Duke players kept arms up) than the non-calls on the other end. Pitt was allowed to play physical defense without penalty.

[weezie]

I had way fewer issues on the fouls called on Duke (other than a few where it looked like Duke players kept arms up) than the non-calls on the other end. Pitt was allowed to play physical defense without penalty.

Yes and Champagnie's constant woofing went unnoticed.
Hurt's ankle added to the disjointedness but Johnson was a delight. Baker has become a liability. He's looking totally confused. Wendell played like an ekg strip. Guards are interchangeably headshaking.
But, if they can beat the holes...