MBB: Ohio State 71, Duke 66 Post-Game Thread

[J4Kop99]

I don’t understand what the coaching staff was doing the last 5 or so minutes. Seemed like they were annoyed and wanted to get the hell out of there long before the game was actually over. Clearly the team was rattled at the end. surprised there wasn’t an attempt to calm them down.

Shoulda woulda coulda

[-jk]

I don’t understand what the coaching staff was doing the last 5 or so minutes. Seemed like they were annoyed and wanted to get the hell out of there long before the game was actually over. Clearly the team was rattled at the end. surprised there wasn’t an attempt to calm them down.

Shoulda woulda coulda

I suspect they were trying to not foul out the rest of the team.

-jk

[WHOneedsSOX]

OSU closed on a 12-0 run.

Yikes. Would've liked to see Moore demand the ball and take over. Keels seemed too timid with the ball tonight.

[Eternal Outlaw]

OSU closed on a 12-0 run.

Fouls called in their favor vs against them? Fouls they got away with vs ones we got away with? So many possibilities

[rsvman]

On the plus side, nobody got cramps. So there's that, which is nice.

[KandG]

Fully deserved loss. Not sure what was going on in the second half, but credit to Ohio State for cutting down their turnovers and simply being stronger with the ball and making the most of their opportunities the last 20 minutes.

A lot of aimless offense and bad isolations masquerading as offense for Duke. Yes the foul trouble hurt and there were some questionable calls, but there just wasn’t any composure especially in the last six or seven minutes. Our legs seemed to get heavier and heavier as the game went on and OSU scoring the final 12 points of the game wasn’t remotely surprising.

Playing a small lineup on a crucial possession can definitely be questioned (rather than having Williams in for some verticality and a possible offensive rebound), and I wondered whether we shouldn’t have thrown some zone in late the way we did in the first half, but overall this was just a poor response by youth to adversity. Would like to see some alternatives to Moore isolations and Keels jumpers when Paolo is held in check the way he was tonight (though you’d like Paolo to diversify his repertoire as the season progresses).

Definitely mimicked a scenario like a first or second weekend NCAA game where we might not get favorable calls, face a hostile crowd in a dome, and have to fight through foul trouble. Hope we learn from this.

[CDu]

I suspect they were trying to not foul out the rest of the team.

-jk

They weren’t trying very hard at it. Probably could have used a few more minutes with Griffin earlier in the second half when Williams and John got their third. Didn’t go 2-3 zone at all in the second half.

[J4Kop99]

I suspect they were trying to not foul out the rest of the team.

-jk

Questionable calls for sure but let’s be fair here - Duke was up 15 at one point and had a 13 point lead at the half. Inexcusable.

The refs didn’t hold Duke to 0 points over the last however many minutes.

[Chicago 1995]

I think Banchero is a terrific player. For sure going top 3 in the draft. That being said, I thought he had more tricks in his bag on offense. Or maybe Duke just didn't put him in the best positions to score tonight.

Tough loss but not a big deal. This Duke team is good, just need to fine tune some things.

Banchero couldn’t do much because Lidell and Key were all over him — literally — and he couldn’t get a whistle. Made him completely a perimeter player

[CameronDuke]

Got the undefeated season pressure monkey off Duke’s back. 23 points scored in the 2nd half - gross!

12-16 from the line was good to see. Not sure if this team will be a great 3-point shooting team. 4-14 tonight (the last miss was a half court heave at the buzzer) for 28.6%.

Good game offensively for Moore, Jr. that was about it. Banchero looked a tick off most of the night except for the pretty scoop layup finger roll. Williams wasn’t bad offensively but he and Theo stayed in foul trouble. Griffin continues to primarily ride the pine pony. Roach was meh - 4-10 overall, 1-4 from 3. Keels continues to struggle shooting. He’s now 13-43 from 3 this year, 30.2%.

I hope Duke can learn some offensive execution lessons tonight about finishing games strong. They really went cold offensively down the stretch. The team gets 2 weeks off to think about and learn from this one. I think they’ll come out ready to play against their next opponent.

They won’t be #1 in the nation in the AP Poll for very long, I hope they finish there though.

How bad is the ACC this year? Not a good start overall to the season for the ACC. Duke has the two biggest wins against kentucky and Gonzaga but tonight’s loss was a game they could have easily won if they had executed offensively down the stretch. Credit to Ohio State for ramping up their defense, but Duke also took some forced shots and played a lot of 1 on 1 drive to the rim and throw it up in the lane ball.

Next play.

[DevilYouKnow]

This is all my wife’s fault.

She went to bed at the half, because “we’re up 13 at the half. We got this.”

No romance for her until the morning.

[Meckler]

What’s with the dribble-weave at the top of the key with less than 3 minutes to play? I knew we were in trouble when we started doing that. And on multiple possessions.

[dukelion]

We didn't score in the last 4:30...barely even got a decent shot off.

Really disappointed that we settled for so many jumpers. They didn't have great size but we barely posted up.

I'll give them credit for making the tough shots and really just being tougher than us down the stretch.

Paulo in particular seemed to get frustrated and wasn't really interested in taking strong to the rim. He can make those long two's but unfortunately he can miss a whole bunch too.

Darn...sadly I think our 1 seeds hopes will be dashed with the lack of available quality wins going forward.

[Chicago 1995]

Questionable calls for sure but let’s be fair here - Duke was up 15 at one point and had a 13 point lead at the half. Inexcusable.

The refs didn’t hold Duke to 0 points over the last however many minutes.

No, but the way the game was officiated dictated the shots we got the last five minutes.

[SouthernDukie]

There are still some people who don’t think refs can impact the outcome of a game.

K needed to get t’d up this game.

I was calling for that, even toward the end of the first half.

[mph]

On the plus side, nobody got cramps. So there's that, which is nice.

Well, we are 2-0 in cramp games.

[Duke79UNLV77]

There were a couple of one-offs tonight. We can’t shoot any worse than we did the second half, and I can’t imagine we’ll face more unbalanced officiating.

More generally, we need Keels to make more shots and AJ to become a weapon. Our offense can stall at times when we aren’t forcing turnovers.

[ChillinDuke]

I’ve seen this movie too many times. Cold shooting spell, followed by complete disarray on offense down the stretch. No one seemed to want the ball when the game tightened up. Hate to say it, but we got “knocked back” tonight. And that includes the coaches, who were way too passive throughout.

I'm gonna call you out not to be rude, but to ask. Did we really get knocked back? Because I don't think we did at all. We opened up a, what, 14-point lead? And we were up almost the entire game. Up 7 with 5 to play? I don't think that's getting knocked back at all.

The primary reason we lost is we didn't execute in the final 4 minutes. And it cost us the game.

Now, I also thought the officiating was too lopsided. Not necessary in the calls they made, per se. But in what we were allowed to do vs what OSU was allowed to do. And I thought it made the game confusing. Some will call that griping about refs but I think it's a fair criticism. Add in the fact that it was an away game in the B1G/ACC Challenge, just felt, well, strange.

- Chillin

[dyedwab]

Not a great game at all by anyone.

But the whole game shifted on Mark Williams' 4th Foul and then on Theo John's 4th and 5th.

Those fouls made us much, much more timid on the defensive end, which had been keeping us in the game since our offense was so putrid.

Whenever we lose, I wonder what are the "its just a lost" issues versus "its a problem" issues. Our inability to create in a half court offense except one-on-one drives to the hoop is teetering between those issues.

[jipops]

It seems like K goes into some games thinking he won’t call any plays. This seemed like one of them. Just a total mess in the half court, and it caught up to them in the 2nd.

It also doesn’t help that this team doesn’t really have shooters. That’s likely to bite us a number of times this season.

Still, nobody should be at all surprised we dropped this one. The writing was on the wall.