So what we see is that both of these teams can play offense. There were a couple of plays on the Villanova offensive video where I thought our guys could’ve made Ds, but didn’t seem interested. A little concerning. What I find interesting is that between the two teams, neither video had too much in the way of defense, at all. Is that the nature of a PR video? Is that the nature of the early season before the kids learn defense? Are both teams unstoppable on O? Like others have said, the videos are great to get you psyched but are not very informative about what we will be seeing during the season
I noticed that the defenses rarely left their feet to challenge plays at the rim, which likely speaks to the desire to avoid injury.
These one-sided videos are funny though - yesterday I thought duke goes undefeated with no margin of victory less than 10. Today? K probably gets canned before January
Trinity '09
This is such a wonderful example of how the "truth" is hidden by our biases. Duke highlights for Duke fans and Nova highlights for Nova fans...
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
I actually find the video encouraging to some degree. It’s obviously SUPER limited but in most highlights we did a good job cutting off the initial drive but got beat in rotation out to shooters. Likely an easier problem to address than not being able to guard the ball. For what it’s worth from a 1 min video (not much).
I had a similar reaction. Obviously highlights packaged by Nova are going to show them scoring, but from what I saw it wasn't like they were blowing by our defenders or getting wide open looks. As others have said, it certainly seemed like we were playing conservatively to keep healthy, so we weren't closing out on threes with the effort we would in a regular season game, or contesting at the rim. But I saw Trevor staying with his man quite nicely and forcing contested, challenging buckets... yes, they went in so they're highlights for Nova, but they also point to his ability to defend which is a major unknown at this point.
We'll know a lot more come Saturday... now if only I wasn't stuck in Canada without access to ACCNX to watch the game
Scott Rich on the front page
Trinity BS 2012; University of Michigan PhD 2018
Duke Chronicle, Sports Online Editor: 2010-2012
K-Ville Blue Tenting 2009-2012
Unofficial Brian Zoubek Biographer
If you have questions about Michigan Basketball/Football, I'm your man!
Posted on Duke's basketball instagram account today - AJ Griffin is practicing with a 5 of Paolo, Wendell, Trevor Keels, and Theo John. Great to see!
New video posted on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKbrAYGXnvA
Scott Rich on the front page
Trinity BS 2012; University of Michigan PhD 2018
Duke Chronicle, Sports Online Editor: 2010-2012
K-Ville Blue Tenting 2009-2012
Unofficial Brian Zoubek Biographer
If you have questions about Michigan Basketball/Football, I'm your man!
Takeaways:
- Looks like AJ was warming up with the squad, and got a little bit of a sweat going in the locker room before gametime. Seeming more and more like the injury was indeed relatively minor.
- A couple looks at the high/low game with Mark and Paolo. In his limited action last year Mark showed a really impressive ability to make plays from the high post since he can see over the defense (and with his wingspan no one can get in his passing lane). That action with him and Paolo could be DEADLY.
- More confirmation that it wasn't a "complete game", but various mini-scrimmages under various situations. So the final score/stats may not be the most indicative of how we did.
- Lots of smiles on the court. That's always good to see.
- That said, confirmation that Paolo got 29/12 in the post game interview!!! Can you imagine how psyched we'd be if that was his line in the first game of the season, or even the first exhibition of the season?
I'm happy that the experts have us as a borderline Top 10 team right now. Let them sleep on us.
Scott Rich on the front page
Trinity BS 2012; University of Michigan PhD 2018
Duke Chronicle, Sports Online Editor: 2010-2012
K-Ville Blue Tenting 2009-2012
Unofficial Brian Zoubek Biographer
If you have questions about Michigan Basketball/Football, I'm your man!
I am going to try to fully enjoy my unbridled optimism about this season right up until our first bad performance…