Originally Posted by
gumbomoop
Because we have but the slimmest of chances to make the NCAAT, I’ve already mostly moved on to “next season” thoughts — of Griffin and Banchero, of the possibility that we’ll get Keels, of my (non-pollyannish) expectations of solid soph years from Steward and Williams, hopes for leadership, confidence, and consistency from Moore.
Yet I do wish I knew, am truly fan-curious about, how Krzyzewski and staff are preparing for the ACCT. In some ways it might reflect K’s approach to the 2017 ACCT, when Duke was the 5-seed, looking at the daunting task of needing to win on 4 straight days. This year the task is yet more daunting.
Of course I have no idea how the staff are preparing the players. I have a few questions, some speculation.
Would the staff spend all of Sunday’s and Monday’s prep on BC — one game at a time, can’t look forward to UL or we’ll simply falter against BC? Having played UL twice, the staff already knows how to prepare for UL, so if we get past BC, spend Tues eve and Wed midday (?) just going over UL-Duke games, what to do better this time, how to try to contain Jones and Johnson, etc.
In one limited sense, Duke has the “advantage” of knowing who its first 3 opponents will be, if successful on Tues and then Wed. So the staff must be preparing general game-plans for UL and FSU.
Whatever they tell the players before (we hope) facing UL and FSU, respectively, the staff must know that Duke might be able to stay with UL and FSU offensively, but that defensively Duke couldn’t deal in either game this season with UL’s Jones (among others) and would next face a major defensive challenge playing for the 3d straight day against a rested and angry FSU, #10 AdjO (Kpom).
So, any chance K would throw the dice with the zone for the “entire” tournament, 1 game, or 2, or at least 3? Sunday and Monday, is K literally thinking only of BC, or is he “planning for the tournament,” at least the known tournament he can see in front of his team? Would he use the BC game, in effect, to practice playing the zone he might think is Duke’s best option on Wed and Thurs, perhaps all week long, however long the week? Does K think Duke could beat either UL or FSU with our m2m?
Surely he couldn’t throw the dice in another way, using a lot of press, rotating frequently? No, the zone seems a better guess. Just a guess.
How about the larger question of squad rotation? Doesn’t K have to use all of players 7-10 (Brakefield, Baker, Coleman, and Tape) against BC? And specifically on those 4, doesn’t K have to use each of them for more than just 2-3 minutes each? Is it: Do whatever you need to do to beat BC, even if that means playing only 7 guys, 6 of them for 32 minutes each? Or is it: Calibrate playing time to beat BC and keep your top 6 players around 25 minutes each? Which would mean — I know all of you can count — 16-18 minutes each for Brakefield and Baker, and 7-10 each for Coleman and Tape.
K isn’t just giving up. So what’s his approach? What’s his plan? What should be the plan?
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