Countdown to Craziness 2021

[jv001]

And I thought Alex Murphy was going to be a star at Duke after his sophomore C2C…

Some good names of players that didn't shoot like we expected. I'd throw in DJ Steward from last years team. He came in with a reputation as being a very good shooter. I've got my fingers crossed that Keels and an improved Wendell Moore will fill it up from the outside. There's the chance the added distance from high school to college will affect our freshmen as well. Looking forward to the season getting under way and seeing how the team does against opponents that don't have the name Duke on their jerseys.

GoDuke!

[ClemmonsDevil]

Some good names of players that didn't shoot like we expected. I'd throw in DJ Steward from last years team. He came in with a reputation as being a very good shooter. I've got my fingers crossed that Keels and an improved Wendell Moore will fill it up from the outside. There's the chance the added distance from high school to college will affect our freshmen as well. Looking forward to the season getting under way and seeing how the team does against opponents that don't have the name Duke on their jerseys.

GoDuke!

You hear that Duke never plays tough games on the road. Well the Blue team opened up on the road against a tough White team in Cameron. That ought to shut the critics up.

[Phredd3]

Jaylen Blakes impressed me a lot in the scrimmage videos and CTC recap I watched. I think he could work his way into the rotation during ACC play, something like 8-10 mpg as a defensive presence, secondary ball handler, and spot-shooter.

Yeah, I agree with this. Everyone was talking about how Roach didn't impress much in the CTC game, but it was mostly Blakes guarding him in both games. Blakes doesn't strike me as a spectacular defender, but he seems to have a knack for positioning and a basketball awareness that is pretty refined for a top 100-ish recruit. He also was able to use some speed changes to create space to shoot and made some nice finds with his passing, including a downcourt pass off a rebound for a Jones dunk. Blakes reliably brought the ball up court for his team, something that Wendell notably did NOT do (though also as noted, Blakes wasn't generally the same team most of the starters were on, and I don't think he played with Wendell at any point - I could be wrong about that). No, he's not threatening for a starting spot, but I think he'll earn minutes.

For all that Mark Williams hit a three, I don't think he'll be doing that often enough for other teams to respect it. His shot still does not look smooth, despite his good evening at the free-throw line. But if he does hit a few early in the season to put the notion in opponents' heads, that certainly would help. Even if he does, though, it's still just a nice extra. Mark won't be out there for his offense. He'll be out there as eraser and vacuum cleaner, and anything beyond put-backs, dunks, and free-throws will be a bonus.

[jv001]

Yeah, I agree with this. Everyone was talking about how Roach didn't impress much in the CTC game, but it was mostly Blakes guarding him in both games. Blakes doesn't strike me as a spectacular defender, but he seems to have a knack for positioning and a basketball awareness that is pretty refined for a top 100-ish recruit. He also was able to use some speed changes to create space to shoot and made some nice finds with his passing, including a downcourt pass off a rebound for a Jones dunk. Blakes reliably brought the ball up court for his team, something that Wendell notably did NOT do (though also as noted, Blakes wasn't generally the same team most of the starters were on, and I don't think he played with Wendell at any point - I could be wrong about that). No, he's not threatening for a starting spot, but I think he'll earn minutes.

For all that Mark Williams hit a three, I don't think he'll be doing that often enough for other teams to respect it. His shot still does not look smooth, despite his good evening at the free-throw line. But if he does hit a few early in the season to put the notion in opponents' heads, that certainly would help. Even if he does, though, it's still just a nice extra. Mark won't be out there for his offense. He'll be out there as eraser and vacuum cleaner, and anything beyond put-backs, dunks, and free-throws will be a bonus.

Yes, I'd rather Mark be near the basket for offensive rebounding rather than standing at the 3 point line.

GoDuke!

[Truth&Justise]

And as expected, 82.3% of the student section looks lost.

To be fair to them, it's hard to cheer during CTC. There are some chants the Crazies do when Duke is on offense, and some they do when Duke is on defense. What do you do when Duke is on offense and defense at the same time??

[flyingdutchdevil]

To be fair to them, it's hard to cheer during CTC. There are some chants the Crazies do when Duke is on offense, and some they do when Duke is on defense. What do you do when Duke is on offense and defense at the same time??

To be more fair, the students haven't had a home game in 20+ months.

Freshman and Sophomores have never been to a game before in Cameron. Juniors and Seniors have the only experience. So, Juniors and Seniors need to man up and do some teaching, cus it's gonna be kinda sad if Cameron is completely uncoordinated this year (cue every Duke grad to say, "Cameron Crazies have been subpar ever since I graduated!")

[Phredd3]

To be fair to them, it's hard to cheer during CTC. There are some chants the Crazies do when Duke is on offense, and some they do when Duke is on defense. What do you do when Duke is on offense and defense at the same time??

Call over the recruits (or potential recruits) and show them a good time. Truthfully (Phredd-fully?), that may have been the most valuable thing that happened all night.

[DavidBenAkiva]

Yeah, I agree with this. Everyone was talking about how Roach didn't impress much in the CTC game, but it was mostly Blakes guarding him in both games. Blakes doesn't strike me as a spectacular defender, but he seems to have a knack for positioning and a basketball awareness that is pretty refined for a top 100-ish recruit. He also was able to use some speed changes to create space to shoot and made some nice finds with his passing, including a downcourt pass off a rebound for a Jones dunk. Blakes reliably brought the ball up court for his team, something that Wendell notably did NOT do (though also as noted, Blakes wasn't generally the same team most of the starters were on, and I don't think he played with Wendell at any point - I could be wrong about that). No, he's not threatening for a starting spot, but I think he'll earn minutes.

For all that Mark Williams hit a three, I don't think he'll be doing that often enough for other teams to respect it. His shot still does not look smooth, despite his good evening at the free-throw line. But if he does hit a few early in the season to put the notion in opponents' heads, that certainly would help. Even if he does, though, it's still just a nice extra. Mark won't be out there for his offense. He'll be out there as eraser and vacuum cleaner, and anything beyond put-backs, dunks, and free-throws will be a bonus.

Thanks, and the feeling is (mostly) mutual.

I think Mark Williams has real offensive skills that he'll show this year. He's quick and surprisingly effective in isolation plays in the post. He's also extremely tall and long and bouncy. Unlike many younger post players, he also doesn't shuffle his feet all that much. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Williams scores 20+ points with certain matchups. I'm thinking that will happen about 5-7 games this season. Paolo is a matchup nightmare for pretty much everyone. Williams is also a matchup problem for a lot of teams. He's a lot better with the ball in his hands than I think he gets credit for.

[uh_no]

To be fair to them, it's hard to cheer during CTC. There are some chants the Crazies do when Duke is on offense, and some they do when Duke is on defense. What do you do when Duke is on offense and defense at the same time??

I've contended for a long time that they should plan better and split the section...say this half cheers for white and this half cheers for blue...but that would be logical and take planning.

[Atldukie79]

To be more fair, the students haven't had a home game in 20+ months.

Freshman and Sophomores have never been to a game before in Cameron. Juniors and Seniors have the only experience. So, Juniors and Seniors need to man up and do some teaching, cus it's gonna be kinda sad if Cameron is completely uncoordinated this year (cue every Duke grad to say, "Cameron Crazies have been subpar ever since I graduated!")

I shall resist the chance to provide a curmudgeonly response about the Crazies. (though I might have the qualifications to do so!) I love what they do in this era. It is just different from the late 70's when I was there.

We were more organic and less organized...by far. (Sorry DBR pod cast guys...no line monitors! No cheer sheets) We never thought about our role as entertainment for TV. Face painting and costumes were rare. I believe the student section was larger then and more students surrounded the court. The band and the fans had no competition from electronic music or scoreboard videos. We were on our own to create noise. The traditional vehicles of fan support were the pep band, cheerleaders, and some clever student groups.

Of course we sometimes erred on the crude and rude side of the imaginary line...

Was it better back in the day? No. Just different.

[jimsumner]

Yeah, I agree with this. Everyone was talking about how Roach didn't impress much in the CTC game, but it was mostly Blakes guarding him in both games.

Umm, Roach had eight assists, with two turnovers, mostly with Blakes guarding him. In 24 minutes.

I can live with that from my point guard.

For those of you who don't read the front page.

https://www.dukebasketballreport.com...mike-krzyewski

[DavidBenAkiva]

Umm, Roach had eight assists, with two turnovers, mostly with Blakes guarding him. In 24 minutes.

I can live with that from my point guard.

For those of you who don't read the front page.

https://www.dukebasketballreport.com...mike-krzyewski

I thought he played very well and the box score suggests as much.

Roach is going to get the unnecessary criticism award from Duke fans this year that Wendell Moore received the year before and Jordan Goldwire in 2020. Roach is not going to be asked to be a primary scorer. He can score and will, but it's not his role on this team. Criticizing him for not dropping 20+ points is beside the point.

[uh_no]

I thought he played very well and the box score suggests as much.

Roach is going to get the unnecessary criticism award from Duke fans this year that Wendell Moore received the year before and Jordan Goldwire in 2020. Roach is not going to be asked to be a primary scorer. He can score and will, but it's not his role on this team. Criticizing him for not dropping 20+ points is beside the point.

It depends. if he's running the offense, and it stagnates, or makes poor decisions when he does call his number, or shoots 20% from 3, or has a poor penchant for turnovers...criticism might be deserved.

But as you say, fans often devalue anything that doesn't involve scoring points, and especially if said things are difficult to measure empirically (like defense, for instance)

Either way, Roach, and guard play in general is my biggest ?? on this team. And points or not, Roach will shoulder a good amount of the responsibility, credit, and blame for Duke's trajectory this year. We might say his marginal impact is absurdly high.

[House P]

Just watched Coach K’s presser… did anyone else notice he talked about the possibility of playing Mark, Theo, and Paolo together?!?! I have to think that may be a short term solution to AJ’s absence, but at minimum it sounds like we’ll see some of Theo and Mark on the floor together. If that works, that adds a TON of flexibility to our rotation..,

This post made me think of the glorious four minutes and two seconds during the 2016-17 season when Coach K rolled out the following lineup

Jack White (6'7")
Amile Jeffereson (6'9")
Chase Jeter (6'10")
Javin Delaurier (6'11")
Antonio Vrankovic (7'0")

Forget twin towers, that lineup is the entire Pudong district in Shanghai!

Sadly, I can't find any video of this lineup* and my memory isn't good enough to remember what kind of offensive and defensive schemes they ran. The play-by-play reports that Duke outscored their opponent 10-6 with this lineup.

Not surprisingly, this lineup took the court with 6:09 remaining of a 30+ point blowout vs Maine -- a game where two of Duke's regular backcourt players (Grayson Allen and Frank Jackson) were unavailable.



*Edit: It looks like the full game replay may be available on GoDuke.com, but I am not a premium subscriber.

[rocketeli]

I shall resist the chance to provide a curmudgeonly response about the Crazies. (though I might have the qualifications to do so!) I love what they do in this era. It is just different from the late 70's when I was there.

We were more organic and less organized...by far. (Sorry DBR pod cast guys...no line monitors! No cheer sheets) We never thought about our role as entertainment for TV. Face painting and costumes were rare. I believe the student section was larger then and more students surrounded the court. The band and the fans had no competition from electronic music or scoreboard videos. We were on our own to create noise. The traditional vehicles of fan support were the pep band, cheerleaders, and some clever student groups.

Of course we sometimes erred on the crude and rude side of the imaginary line...

Was it better back in the day? No. Just different.

I remember the 70s with some fondness as well, at least for the crowd, if not the basketball results. It may be hard for some of our younger posters to believe, but Duke was pretty bad for most of the 70s, so we had to make our own fun. And it was just for us--most games weren't televised. Cameron was a lot more intimidating as well--the students sat on both sides and one end zone. Of course, since the team was not good, the student seats didn't always fill up and unless you were in BOG and really wanted to sit together you could just stroll in as the game started, full of beer and energy. There was no buffer of friendly fans seated behind the visiting bench either. There were no cheer sheets and we would have laughed to scorn anyone who suggested them. And we were LOUD. Of course, a lot of stuff would be verboten today--obscenities, personal remarks, and throwing things on the court. (What did we throw? Oh anything...aspirin, underwear, ice, cups, heated pennies...you name it, it hit the floor at least once a game...that would probably be a forfeit at least nowadays)

[TheDevilMadeMeDoIt]

I shall resist the chance to provide a curmudgeonly response about the Crazies. (though I might have the qualifications to do so!) I love what they do in this era. It is just different from the late 70's when I was there.

We were more organic and less organized...by far. (Sorry DBR pod cast guys...no line monitors! No cheer sheets) We never thought about our role as entertainment for TV. Face painting and costumes were rare. I believe the student section was larger then and more students surrounded the court. The band and the fans had no competition from electronic music or scoreboard videos. We were on our own to create noise. The traditional vehicles of fan support were the pep band, cheerleaders, and some clever student groups.

Of course we sometimes erred on the crude and rude side of the imaginary line...

Was it better back in the day? No. Just different.

Hey, we rocked the stadium in the late 60’s and early 70’s too. The pep band sat on the floor on the baseline on the home end. Some students sat right on the base line on the opposite end of the stadium where cheerleaders and camera crews are now. You could scream at opposing players who were just a few feet away. My friends and I got into a screaming match with Eddie Fogler. Later when Coach Waters visited our living group (frat) we told him that when Fogler started screaming back at us we knew we had done our job. To some of us old farts the cheer sheet seems canned and not spontaneous enough. And yes, we could be quite profane, particularly for the cheats and State. How could you not hate Norm Sloan and Dean what’s his name?

[ClemmonsDevil]

Dean what’s his name?

Wormer?

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Wormer?

Oh. We have a Dean Wormer at Faber.

[ClemmonsDevil]

Oh. We have a Dean Wormer at Faber.

Just so you know I use Hermione's voice when she was telling Ron: "It's leviOsa, not levioSA" when I pronounce your name in my head. It basically goes: "It's CrAzy, not CrazIE." You're welcome.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Just so you know I use Hermione's voice when she was telling Ron: "It's leviOsa, not levioSA" when I pronounce your name in my head. It basically goes: "It's CrAzy, not CrazIE." You're welcome.

LOL. My 11 year old son who is a huge Harry Potter fan would be mortified to know that I had no idea what you were talking about. But since I am the first to tell other people that GIYF, I followed my own advice and now I have some frame of reference.

As a former Chronicle writer, I was driven crazy that The Chronicle had a headline the other day "Cameron is still Crazie" - no, it's not, it's still Crazy.

And yes, I am fun at parties despite occasionally being somewhat anal retentive. Think Ted Lasso without a mustache.