Game recap and five observations from today's loss. Tough, tough loss.
https://bluedevilstop.com/duke-drops...-on-the-brink/
Game recap and five observations from today's loss. Tough, tough loss.
https://bluedevilstop.com/duke-drops...-on-the-brink/
I actually thought Joey's 3 was an excellent shot, a great opportunity. He's a very good shooter and it was a very open look. Not sure if there are a whole lot of other shots I would have preferred to that one at that point in the game.
There are lots of things to criticize about the team and the game, but I don't think that piece of shot selection was one of them.
And in most years where the team is of the quality we've been accustomed to, Jordan Goldwire would not be in the rotation. Or particularly close to it.
Really thought that three from Steward was going in.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
Not to disagree with your agreeing with me but non-top 100 high school players just don't play at Duke at all. If we had a point guard anything like a Tyus or Tre Jones, or Frank Jackson, or even Trevon Duvall or Derryck Thornton of recent vintage -- not to mention the older guys like Hurley, J-Will, Duhon, Wojo, etc. -- Goldwire would be playing more like 5 minutes a game. If that. He's a great story and he's worked so hard to get to this point, and by all accounts is a great kid, and he does do a good job with on-ball defense, but guys with his skill level almost never see this kind of floor time at Duke. Far from our only problem, but it is one of them.
Didn’t need to scroll far to find the correct take here. This team is suffering from the strange pandemic season disproportionately.
To those who think the sky is falling: yes, we wouldn’t make the tourney if it was played today. But there is a ton of season to go, and this performance beats the average ACC team. And we should get better. Lots of time for our luck to shift.
Oh, and btw, Kansas also just lost its third straight. The biggest difference between us and them, a Top 25 team? They have more wins because of a full non con schedule. If this team is 8-5 we’re still disappointed, but not running around like chickens with our heads cut off. That must always be remembered.
Agree with much of this post, but this tends to happen when the floor is unbalanced. It's just the way it is with no Carey, Boozer, Carter, Bagley, Zion, etc. available. We also have a defensive specialist at pg and another two guards that are accruing experience. Duke was due for a development year. It was gonna happen. UVA had a hiccup in 2017 with 7 losses in the ACC (similar situation), and you can see where they've vaulted.
We need taller guards to play that pressure man to man. Steward, Roach, and Goldwire (to a lesser degree) are getting bullied up top. And as others have mentioned, we need an alpha or two. We're just gonna have to get through this year and see what these experiences reap next November.
Frustrating loss. Especially because it was there for the taking. Wide open 3 for Baker to take the lead, and unfortunately it didn’t fall. Wide open 3 for Steward to tie, and it just didn’t fall. Ugh.
The positives:
- Hurt stepped back up and played like an All-American again.
- Steward had a really nice bounce back game as well
- Aside from a couple of ill-advised 3s, Moore played well
- Despite what I am about to say below, we still had a chance to win against a solid team on the road
The negatives:
- Big step back from Johnson. He was way too sloppy today. We really needed a better game from him
- A really rough game from Roach too
- Minimal help from the bench
We are gonna need more from at least one more guy. And we need to make better decisions.
Not a fair comparison at all. Duke canceled games against some truly dreadful teams. Winning those 3 wouldn’t change much. Kansas while struggling has loses against the no 1 and 2 AP teams and has wins over top 15 Creighton and Texas Tech. Duke’s “best” loss is to no 16 VT and our best win (and best is doing a lot of work here is maybe) Notre Dame.
To me Duke’s totally lackluster resume is a real sign things could get 1995 level ugly.
Duke is now 81-244 from 3 on the season for 33.2%.
Haven’t posted in ages... got a little too amped up in years past during losses but miss jumping in.
Simple question and I don’t say this flippantly. When was the last time Duke was a top flight three point shooting team? The Wall Street Journal had a good article about NBA threes and it seems to me Duke has gone a long time without being a real constant threat on the most important shot in basketball. Every team is different but my poor memory seems like this has been the case for awhile now. Maybe a player has a good game here or there but it’s not a regular part of the strength of Duke’s offense. BUT they seem to take a lot. This team is a perfect example. I don’t know why the disparity but it seems like a regular handicap for years that keep inferior teams by talent in games. Am I nuts and remembering wrong?
Great point. It hasn’t been a strength in years. From memory, seems like Kennard was our last great 3 point shooter. The one and some era hasn’t produced many great shooters for us. Grayson was a pretty good shooter but not on the level of Kennard, and, if memory serves me correctly, didn’t shoot the 3 as well his senior year for whatever reason.
I guess it depends on what your definition of "top flight" is. For three consecutive years 2013-14-15 we were 39.5-40% from three point range. That has to qualify as "top flight."
Everyone is down on our three point shooting this year, and rightfully so. The perception is compounded by the fact that we only shot 35% last year and a dreadful 31% in 2019, which of course was the Zion year. So a lot of meh 3-point shooting recently. But before that, for about the last 20 years or so, we've only had a few that we've shot under 37%. Those were three straight years in the early 00's where we were at 36% and 2009 when we were at 35%. Nothing like what we've seen the last three years in total.