MBB: Duke 69, NCSU 53 Post Game Thread

[throatybeard]

It's a really weird situation. Johnson and Hurt are the two most talented players on the team, but the team is better without Johnson on the floor, and Hurt is so weak on D that he might actually be better as a sixteen minute/game instant offense sub. In a way, he's so good at playing into foul trouble that he comes close to that role as it is.

Alexander isn't great but at least he doesn't yell all the time like Walton. That's really my main criterion for a broadcaster. Don't yell. Fortunately, Vitale's bagpipes aren't what they once were, and they don't assign him many of our games anymore.

[rsvman]

I am glad that the coaches called off the dogs on the defense 30 feet from the basket. That, coupled with Williams's rim protection, resulted in a lot fewer easy buckets.

[Native]

Mark Williams improves each game. He looked strong today against State’s size with 13 points and five blocks.

Mark’s development has been a real bright spot. Having a bona fide rim protector helps us so much defensively.

[CameronDuke]

I don’t want to seem harsh on Jalen but I don’t see how he’s such a highly regarded NBA talent. He has potential but seems he turns it over in traffic sometimes, makes the wrong decision on when to drive or dish it, and really isn’t dominant at any one skill yet. Seems he could use another year in college.

But if some NBA franchise is willing to draft and pay him to develop, I don’t blame him for getting $$$ to do that.

[heyman25]

I don’t want to seem harsh on Jalen but I don’t see how he’s such a highly regarded NBA talent. He has potential but seems he turns it over in traffic sometimes, makes the wrong decision on when to drive or dish it, and really isn’t dominant at any one skill yet. Seems he could use another year in college.

But if some NBA franchise is willing to draft and pay him to develop, I don’t blame him for getting $$$ to do that.

He is not a good college basketball player
Good luck making it in the Professional game.

[Billy Dat]

First off, great to get a win. In a beyond-weird year, a laugher in Raleigh also goes against the grain.

I have not seen State all year but they were bad, whoa. I tried to find them on KenPom but I can't even locate them.

Obviously, lots to like about the way we played. Like many of the comments, I feel like the rotation was also the most interesting topic to discuss. The announcers said that Hurt was not going to start the game, but when State went bigger, K matched them. They didn't indicate who was going to start instead, I assume it was Goldwire for the 3 guard look. But, that's certainly a vote of confidence in Mark Williams, who looked great out there today. Then I consider Brakefield who did not play at all against Notre Dame but got big minutes today and was an early sub. There has been a lot of that kind of strange sub behavior with the bench rotation. I have to assume it's stuff in practice that is influencing this playing time. Or, another way to look at it is that the more we lose, the more we have nothing to lose...the cliche about insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result, etc.

We seemed to do a lot of things we had not been doing...defending (although they did shoot 45%...I am guessing our second half D was much worse than the first half), getting to the line, winning the turnover battle, etc. My eye says that we are a poor transition team. I am not talking so much about creating transition opportunities (although that doesn't seem to be a strength) but our ability to convert in transition. I never feel like we're going to score when we are breaking 3-2 or 2-1. Whatever.

Team defense, Hurt's shooting, Mark Williams blocks and scoring, Brakefield's minutes, Steward with 12-4-2, 20% from 3, getting to the line for 17 shots...accentuate the positives. Even though his stats didn't back it up, I think Wendell continues to emerge as, perhaps, our best all around player and leader.

Very very happy to win, and Happy 74 to Michael K.

[bluenorth]

The team continues to make progress. Having Williams in the game is, as others have noted, a positive change, especially on the defensive end. An off-season spent in the weight room will make him even more effective next year. Steward and Roach seem to me to be asserting themselves more, which is also a big plus. Hurt continues to take soft fouls - I'd love to hear what goes on in practice as the coaches try to cure him of that tendency. To steal a saying from elsewhere, "It's hard to score from the bench", so maybe that will help to motivate him.

As far as Johnson goes, I don't know what to think. There have been hints that his injury isn't really fully healed, and so he's being "managed" as far as minutes go. Not sure if I buy that, as he looks OK to me. It would have been nice to see a full year of him, but since he'll be collecting an NBA paycheque next year we'll never know what could have been.

[Alan_Wilson]

Baker's actually having a tiresome online argument online about his burned redshirt 2ya. He'll be back soon.

Come again?

[sagegrouse]

Baker's actually having a tiresome online argument online about his burned redshirt 2ya. He'll be back soon.

Come again?

Perhaps a comment only understood by MulletMan and VikingGuy.

[miramar]

Now wait a minute. While I'm not a fan of Corey, at least I don't get surprised if he talks about basketball during a game.

Walton's a different matter.

Walton is a huge Grateful Dead fan, and I can tell you from what I saw back in the day that there was an extraordinary amount of extracurricular activity going on in their concerts. Since Walton has supposedly seen over 850 Dead concerts, I’m surprised that he even knows that there is a basketball game going on.

[dukelifer]

I don’t want to seem harsh on Jalen but I don’t see how he’s such a highly regarded NBA talent. He has potential but seems he turns it over in traffic sometimes, makes the wrong decision on when to drive or dish it, and really isn’t dominant at any one skill yet. Seems he could use another year in college.

But if some NBA franchise is willing to draft and pay him to develop, I don’t blame him for getting $$$ to do that.

He is a project- but a first round project. He is certainly no worse than Nassir Little who has done very Little than cash a pay check so far in the NBA.

[rsvman]

Come again?

I took it as a wry joke, mostly at the expense of posters at DBR. I actually found it pretty amusing.

[soflabluedevil]

Mark Williams improves each game. He looked strong today against State’s size with 13 points and five blocks.

Great to this young player improving. He is obviously putting in a lot of work and seeing the results.

[TywinBlue]

Congratulations to the team !
Only our second win in the last six games at State.

Bravo to Mark !
It's ok with me if JJ sits and learns the rest of the season.

[dukelifer]

Need to catch the game after the fact but you have to start somewhere. I will take an easy win in the ACC any day.

[Music man55]

Good to get a win again. Better defense, but part of that is State was so bad. Hurt was great, need to get him to play like that from now on. Williams continues to get better and Moore solid. Don’t know what is gonna happen to Johnson, really has hit the wall. Why no Baker? Anyway, not gonna complain, feels good to win. Hope we keep it going!

[UrinalCake]

Thrilled to get a big win. It felt like the Clemson game in terms of the score, but that one seemed more about Clemson being a broken team whereas in this one I felt better that we were imposing our will. State is certainly not a great team either but they have some talented pieces and wins are never easy in their building. The team is evolving, different players have ups and downs from game to game so we just have to hope that they continue to come together and figure out which combinations work.

Really pleased to see us maintain the lead after going up big. It seems like an easy thing to do, but it's not. Good energy all around. You could make a reasonable argument that Williams is our best freshman right now, though Steward has been the most consistent over the season. A winnable game against Wake coming up followed by our showdown with UVA which could really turn around our season.

[tommy]

Good to get a win again. Better defense, but part of that is State was so bad. Hurt was great, need to get him to play like that from now on. Williams continues to get better and Moore solid. Don’t know what is gonna happen to Johnson, really has hit the wall. Why no Baker? Anyway, not gonna complain, feels good to win. Hope we keep it going!

Hit the wall? After playing what, 13 games? There may be a number of things going on with Jalen, but I don’t think fatigue is one of them. For his sake it better not be.

[HaveFunExpectToWin]

My guess is Coach K was trying to send Jalen a message. Don't think he was hurt.

Correct, he was not Hurt.

[Ggallagher]

Mark Williams improves each game. He looked strong today against State’s size with 13 points and five blocks.

One thing that caught my attention about Mark during the game was the fact that on four or five possessions, he did a good job of getting in position and grabbing a rebound. And then immediately lost it.

It looked very much like having soft hands and maybe not the best decision making after grabbing the ball. That seems like stuff that Nate could help him with. As good as Mark looked in this game, he could have been really dominating if he'd maintained control for about five more possessions. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'd love to see him clean that up and turn into a real force around the basket.