MBB: Duke 72, BC 61 Post-Game Thread

[DU82]

Just saw that with today’s win, Coach K pulled ahead of ALL other Duke coaches. 1118 to 1117.

[jipops]

He was certainly the best today, and for most of the season. The last few games? Less so. But he was a monster today.

The staff seemed to make the conscious effort to put him in a place to make plays. Instead or catching the ball 20ft or beyond from the basket, like he has been lately, he was taking the high post or around the ft line setting up the drive. Paolo makes really good decisions with the ball, when he has control of it. Setting him up for iso plays 20ft from the basket was taking the air out and giving him low percentage shots. I know K likes to play 4 out but this doesn’t play to his strengths. Hopefully he is setup closer to the lane going forward.

[jimsumner]

From the front page.

https://www.dukebasketballreport.com...eels-theo-john

[SavDukeGrad]

BC is also honoring Coach K by making a donation to the Emily K Center (like Clemson). Coach K acknowledged it and thanked them for it in his post game presser. Another nice gesture, and he seemed touched.

Carolina is just looking more petty all the time...

[OldPhiKap]

Brutal stretch of games. I’ll take the road win and move on. And give thanks for Moore looking fluid after that assault a few days ago.

[DukieInBrasil]

Eventually the team figured out how to play better than the team they were clearly better than. Lots of sloppy turnovers to start the game and then Banchero and Moore settled down and played really well. As a team though, 8 assists vs. 13 turnovers, not good.
Mark Williams continues to be stratospherically efficient on offense, but he got absolutely abused by the Kraken from BC on the defensive side of the ball.
Keels followed up a fantastic Clemson showing with another good shooting and scoring night, but he was also very careless withe ball.
Strange game, won by double digits, and BC was never really within 2 possessions after the half, but it felt like Duke still wasn't very effective and missed lots of chances to push the lead when they had the chance.
Double digit win on the road, pretty good.

[91devil]

Just saw that with today’s win, Coach K pulled ahead of ALL other Duke coaches. 1118 to 1117.

Well done, Coach.

Happy 75th Birthday on Sunday!

[SavDukeGrad]

BC is also honoring Coach K by making a donation to the Emily K Center (like Clemson). Coach K acknowledged it and thanked them for it in his post game presser. Another nice gesture, and he seemed touched.

Carolina is just looking more petty all the time...

I wanted to add to this. I didn’t realize, until I read this article, that Florida State has also made a donation to the Emily K Center in Coach K’s honor.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-ba...ue-devils-win/

[arnie]

Just saw that with today’s win, Coach K pulled ahead of ALL other Duke coaches. 1118 to 1117.

1191 career total; needs 9 more for an even 1200. He gets it if the ACC/NCAA tourneys are successful.

[Dr. Maturin]

Nice win. Playing 6 games in 2 weeks, we won 5 of them.

The good:

- Got Paolo back on track. He was under control and played well.

- We won the rebounding battle for the 6th game in a row. Offensive rebounding is looking more and more like a strength.

- 3-point defense remains outstanding. In the modern game it is quite difficult to hold a team to just 1 made 3. Of course, BC did miss a few open looks.


The bad:

- turnovers are starting to look like a real weakness. After being a really good ball-handling team in OOC play, Duke's turnover rate in ACC play is 17.8%, which is 10th. Turnovers forced is even worse, at 13.2%, which is last in the league. Even that lot down the road, which has been terrible at forcing turnovers all year, has been better during conference play.

- I was at times disappointed in our help defense. There were two occasions where Keels was under the basket when his teammate was beaten off the dribble. Instead of cutting off the drive, he half heartedly approached the driver before moving out of the way to allow the layup. This team is not very interested in taking charges. When it comes to forcing "non-steal turnovers" Duke is 350th in the country.

- Small nit pick: we once again allowed a team to go on a run in garbage time. This also happened against Wake, Syracuse, ND, and UNC. It doesn't *really* matter, of course. But in each of those games the final margin doesn't reflect the lead Duke built over 35 minutes. It makes our efficiency numbers look less great which can effect our NET.

[CDu]

Small nit pick: we once again allowed a team to go on a run in garbage time. This also happened against Wake, Syracuse, ND, and UNC. It doesn't *really* matter, of course. But in each of those games the final margin doesn't reflect the lead Duke built over 35 minutes. It makes our efficiency numbers look less great which can effect our NET.

That one is on the coaching for taking out the starters before the opponent does. It is hard to fault, Jones, Blakes, Baker, and even Savarino for giving up points to ACC starters.

[arnie]

That one is on the coaching for taking out the starters before the opponent does. It is hard to fault, Jones, Blakes, Baker, and even Savarino for giving up points to ACC starters.

Sort of agree with this; but another “starter” is in (Roach or other) and we give up points/lead margins in record fashion. Doesn’t really matter, but the group of Blakes, Baker, Jones and remaining “starter” were recruited Div. 1 players.

Seems to me, lesser talented end of game players in Duke history looked much better.

[roywhite]

Banchero was outstanding tonight. Seems to me that he is the best player in every game but somehow gets ignored by the posters on DBR.

Textbook game for Paolo today. Aggressive and not too dribbly. He took advantage of what they gave him.

The staff seemed to make the conscious effort to put him in a place to make plays. Instead or catching the ball 20ft or beyond from the basket, like he has been lately, he was taking the high post or around the ft line setting up the drive. Paolo makes really good decisions with the ball, when he has control of it. Setting him up for iso plays 20ft from the basket was taking the air out and giving him low percentage shots. I know K likes to play 4 out but this doesn’t play to his strengths. Hopefully he is setup closer to the lane going forward.

We've taken little notice here of what a productive rebounder Paolo has become. Over the last 9 games, he's averaging better than 10 rebounds a game. Early season team rebounding was a weak point, but not lately.

I can picture Coach K having had a discussion with Paolo and encouraging him to rebound more. Done.

[jv001]

Whew! I'm glad the run of games so bunched together is over. Well until tournament time. I thought the team played quite well with a few exceptions. I was really disappointed in AJ's defense. BC ran plays thorough the guy AJ was guarding and it worked for them. It's pretty close as to who is the weaker on the ball defender between AJ and Joey. I hate that because I really like both of these players. AJ's offense makes up for his lack of defense, but Joey's offense does not. I loved the way Paolo played. He was once again a beast on the boards and didn't force things on offense. We had 13 turnovers and 8 of them came from Wendell and Trevor,
as they each had 4. Duke won the rebounding war 41 to 31 and 13 of the 41 were on the offensive end helping Duke with 14 second chance points. Our centers combined for 5 blocks. Mark with 2 and Theo with 3. I'm liking Theo's play more and more as the season goes on. Now let's get ready for the Demon Deacons on Tuesday night. They will be fired up after their loss to Miami.

GoDuke!

[CDu]

Sort of agree with this; but another “starter” is in (Roach or other) and we give up points/lead margins in record fashion. Doesn’t really matter, but the group of Blakes, Baker, Jones and remaining “starter” were recruited Div. 1 players.

Seems to me, lesser talented end of game players in Duke history looked much better.

Firstly, if 4 of 5 players are walk-ons or clearly below ACC starter level then it doesn’t matter how good the fifth player is. If that group is facing starters, they are going to give up points.

Secondly, in some of those games it wasn’t even a starter who was the fifth guy. Against Syracuse, the fifth guy for the last 3 minutes was Worthington. Against UNC, the fifth guy was John.

[Dr. Maturin]

Yeah, it's not some huge issue. It's not an issue at all when it comes to assessing how good this team is. With all the games recently it is a luxury to be able to rest starters. It just makes the final score a little less satisfying. Maybe the analytics will slightly ding us for that, although I think some of them weed out garbage time anyway.

[Billy Dat]

We've taken little notice here of what a productive rebounder Paolo has become. Over the last 9 games, he's averaging better than 10 rebounds a game. Early season team rebounding was a weak point, but not lately.

I have noticed this too. Imagine how many boards he would get if he actually boxed out, which I never seem to see him do. The kid's physical gifts are many. One thing I am picking up on, and I am not sure if it is a real thing or I am just imagining it, he really keeps a very calm and cool demeanor out there, even more than the start of the year. I know we have had a wild schedule, but it's like he doesn't want to waste energy. There were many times last night when he could have emphatically dunked...and he did so once early, but several other times he simply dropped the ball in or made easy lay-ups with no flair. He's evolving as a silent assassin!

I was really disappointed in AJ's defense. BC ran plays thorough the guy AJ was guarding and it worked for them. It's pretty close as to who is the weaker on the ball defender between AJ and Joey. I hate that because I really like both of these players. AJ's offense makes up for his lack of defense, but Joey's offense does not. I loved the way Paolo played. He was once again a beast on the boards and didn't force things on offense. We had 13 turnovers and 8 of them came from Wendell and Trevor,
as they each had 4. Duke won the rebounding war 41 to 31 and 13 of the 41 were on the offensive end helping Duke with 14 second chance points. Our centers combined for 5 blocks. Mark with 2 and Theo with 3. I'm liking Theo's play more and more as the season goes on. Now let's get ready for the Demon Deacons on Tuesday night. They will be fired up after their loss to Miami.

Agree about AJ's defense and Theo John's recent uptick. Young players can be like toddlers...when one area of their development is surging (e.g. walking), the other areas lay dormant (e.g. talking). I am trying to be patient with these young guys and not expect them to be finished products. Theo, on the other hand, has really gotten better recently. His shot blocking is very impressive. I also am highly entertained (and sometime frustrated) by the fact that if he catches it on the block, and not help defense arrives, that hook is going up!

This team still has so much upside. We have not really played a game where our top 7 all played really well, at least that's what memory tells me. Someone earlier was pointing out that when Keels is up, Roach is down. Sometimes it feels like if Paolo's up then AJ is down, or at least it's hard for both to really shine at the same time. I am not if all of this is true, but the "Duke-is-firing-on-all-cylinders" mega game has not yet happened. Maybe UNC was the closest yet.

Anyway, lots to be excited about. This year has the drama of K's Last Ride and expectations of the fanbase are crazy (I sense it on DBR but the larger Duke Twitterverse is insane)...and so it can seem like this team is consistently underperforming but we continue to grow and hopefully with a more normal schedule and March approaching, we can get to that next level that our talent suggests is possible.

[OldDog]

Agree with all comments on Roach. I think the fact that we don’t have a reliable lead guard (with Keels also having had down stretches) is significantly limiting this team.

Was also concerned by the way Karnik (33) dominated Mark. He seemed extremely comfortable the whole game and seemed to be outworking Mark. And no disrespect to Kraken (he’s a good player) but we will face much more effective bigs and cannot get out worked like this.

I’m also concerned about Paolo on the defensive end. He has significant lapses in help side rotations. And I’m sure this will ruffle some feathers but…although he is rebounding extremely well recently, he never boxes out which will become problematic against the (admittedly small amount of) posts who can match his physicality / athleticism.

All in all good win in a very tough stretch and don’t mean to be overly pessimistic. Wendell showed very encouraging flashes and I appreciated how AJ kept shooting even when a couple things didn’t go his way. Trevor’s trending upwards which is very exciting. The team looks good but I think there are a couple things (primarily fire and consistency) that are holding us back from the high expectations that we all have.

[budwom]

anyone else find it annoying that the BC coach spent a whole lot of time three feet onto the court, including Duke possessions right in front of him? He was roaming around like an old fart with a metal detector on the beach. Did not see the refs warn him.

[jv001]

I have noticed this too. Imagine how many boards he would get if he actually boxed out, which I never seem to see him do. The kid's physical gifts are many. One thing I am picking up on, and I am not sure if it is a real thing or I am just imagining it, he really keeps a very calm and cool demeanor out there, even more than the start of the year. I know we have had a wild schedule, but it's like he doesn't want to waste energy. There were many times last night when he could have emphatically dunked...and he did so once early, but several other times he simply dropped the ball in or made easy lay-ups with no flair. He's evolving as a silent assassin!



Agree about AJ's defense and Theo John's recent uptick. Young players can be like toddlers...when one area of their development is surging (e.g. walking), the other areas lay dormant (e.g. talking). I am trying to be patient with these young guys and not expect them to be finished products. Theo, on the other hand, has really gotten better recently. His shot blocking is very impressive. I also am highly entertained (and sometime frustrated) by the fact that if he catches it on the block, and not help defense arrives, that hook is going up!

This team still has so much upside. We have not really played a game where our top 7 all played really well, at least that's what memory tells me. Someone earlier was pointing out that when Keels is up, Roach is down. Sometimes it feels like if Paolo's up then AJ is down, or at least it's hard for both to really shine at the same time. I am not if all of this is true, but the "Duke-is-firing-on-all-cylinders" mega game has not yet happened. Maybe UNC was the closest yet.

Anyway, lots to be excited about. This year has the drama of K's Last Ride and expectations of the fanbase are crazy (I sense it on DBR but the larger Duke Twitterverse is insane)...and so it can seem like this team is consistently underperforming but we continue to grow and hopefully with a more normal schedule and March approaching, we can get to that next level that our talent suggests is possible.

Excellent points must spread sporky things. One other thing I like is the toughness of this team. Keels and Theo are studs, and they like studs. Coach K has only said a couple of times, the team was knocked back. As good as Roach was playing while Trevor was out, he's now playing poorly. I don't know what's up with that. If he'd just shoot well, and let Keels, Moore and Paolo run the offense, I think it would help him shoot better. It looks like he's hurrying his shot because he's afraid he'll be blocked. As for his drives, he needs to look at videos of Tyus driving the lane.

GoDuke!