MBB: Duke 81, Ohio State 72 Post-Game Thread

[Jeffrey]

A lot to like in this one. Lively played his best game. Whitehead had some moments. But the biggest thing was we had the depth and experience to withstand the foul attrition this time, whereas last year we just didn’t.

Absolutely! Coach S really earned his pay. Coach is doing it his way, building a deep bench, and engaging those in greatest need. Love opening the paint and enabling guards to push & dish off Lively screens. S enabled Lively to awaken.

[Jeffrey]

Ryan Young — not bad considering how much we overpraise him on this board (sorry, inside joke). In all seriousness, he continues to look like a great pickup for us and makes big plays whatever his limitations.

I’m certainly guilty of underrating Young! I paid much more attention to him tonight and in Warren Zevon’s words, “Ain’t That Pretty At All”. Regardless, the man plays solid offense and may earn almost as much PT as he did last season. Given the extreme talent difference, in teams, I’m still somewhat confused how. Coach S clearly saw a great opportunity and is making the most of it. We may have hit the Coach lottery two consecutive times.

[LSanders]

So, on the last night of the last ACC-Big10 Challenge:

- Duke beats a top 25 team

- The ACC beats the Big10

- UNC loses by double digits

The Challenge trifecta!

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Yup I mentioned the other day, I think that will be the key stat. Less than 15 3-point attempts, you'll see mostly wins from Duke. More than 15 and approaching 20, it's going to be ugly.

Credit this win to Scheyer. I liked that Roach was playing off the ball in the first half. He kind of got lost, but he'll get used to it. Loved the constant attempts at pick and rolls for Lively to get going. By far his best game. He was disruptive on D at times and much more aggressive going for rebounds.

Whitehead has a pretty 3-point shot. High arching. Almost too high. I didn't like that he curled out for the 3 on the fast break but was glad he made it.

Mitchell is clearly the guy to get less minutes as time goes in. Nothing against him, but his ability to be strong and get to the rim appeared to only exist against inferior opponents.

We did a better job at making good decisions when penetrating into the lane. I saw less forced difficult layups, although, roach has 1 or 2. Roach had one step through that showed patience that I liked. Proctor had that great assist at the end of the shot clock.

Roach isn't an elite free throw shooter. He's our captain but I don't trust him to sink crucial free throws at the end of close games. Proctor and Flip are potentially elite. With Flip's killer mentality, he's the one I want taking those types of free throws. Also, forget the Laettner comparisons. He reminded me of Kevin Durant tonight.

The best part of the night - the recruit cheering with the crazies. I forget his name. He really seemed to get into it. It was fun seeing him do all the cheers. He was so easy to pick out in the crowd since he was a foot taller than everyone else and the only person wearing black clothes. I hope he comes to do. He looks like he has quite a likeable personality.

Only thing better than a duke win? A UNC loss. They might get a break in the rankings since they lost an away game to #10, but there's a chance that come Monday, UNC will have gone from the #1 team in the country to unranked ina matter of about a week and a half.

And yes, the Villanova shot against UNC was better than any Duke championship.

Sorry if I missed it but who was the recruit?

[DoubleBlue]

Sorry if I missed it but who was the recruit?

https://247sports.com/Player/Isaiah-Evans-46116361/

[Matches]

Minor thing I guess but Proctor has one of the smoothest shots I’ve seen. The net barely ripples on his makes.

[TKG]

Early days to be sure but I like John's demeanor on the sidelines. He is so focused on his players and coaching them and has left the officials alone, thus far. The latter being refreshing from my perspective.

[Southgate0809]

Early days to be sure but I like John's demeanor on the sidelines. He is so focused on his players and coaching them and has left the officials alone, thus far. The latter being refreshing from my perspective.

His demeanor is hard not to like. I read an article about him that explained he's being mentored on leadership by a retired Navy Seal commander. They told the story of how Scheyer was frustrated after his assistants didn't do what he had asked. His mentor told him he's being too damn nice. I don't want that to be a weakness for him. Eventually, he's going to need to tear into the team when they need a different type of motivation. I have seen him working the officials though, which is ultimately good. I think K's strategy was that he is going to be so relentless that the referees are subconsciously scared to hear from him, so they might wind up making calls in Duke's favor. I think Scheyer usually kills them with kindness and is agreeable, so that when he does express frustration, it carries so much more weight because you know he's not acting that way on every play.


Also, noticed that Whitehead has managed to knock the ball out of an opposing players hands on the perimeter on several occasions - I think one was off the dribble. That's such a valuable skill. I remember Tyus Jones being great at that. There was one play last night where we were hustling on D, Roach got a tip, somebody else went after the ball, and bad luck led to a made 3 by Ohio State. Our D has been really disruptive for some stretches. We had a great stretch of such D against Kansas. I'm hoping Whitehead takes that to the next level and can help sustain it for longer. Lively is becoming more disruptive. I love having Young on the court so much though. I absolutely loved the way he banged down low on defense last night. I want to see him get physical with Bacot, who can dish it out, but can't take it. Seeing Young and Lively on the court together would be an interesting lineup when Flip needs a break. Especially for teams like UNC that has a big 5 like Bacot that could be guarded by Young, and 4 like Nance that I think could be effectively guarded by Lively. On offense, having Young down in the post with Lively running the pick and roll would be interesting. Lobs might be more difficult if Young's defender is crowding the paint, but Lively is a good enough passer that if you can dish him a nice bounce pounce immediately after he begins to roll, he will probably be able to dump it to a wide open Young, who always finishes with the reverse move under the hoop.

[SkyBrickey]

Early days to be sure but I like John's demeanor on the sidelines. He is so focused on his players and coaching them and has left the officials alone, thus far. The latter being refreshing from my perspective.

I’ve noticed this too and I think it flows down to the players. I haven’t seen any real griping or bad body language after some horrendous ref calls. Everybody seems to be like, “next play”.

[Southgate0809]

I’ve noticed this too and I think it flows down to the players. I haven’t seen any real griping or bad body language after some horrendous ref calls. Everybody seems to be like, “next play”.

That's a good observation. Mark Williams was the king of complaining about calls. He seemed fortunate not to get some techs. There was one play where Blakes was called for a charge this year. He looked like he was going to run up to the referee George Brett-style, and his teammates restrained him. I get the idea that Blakes is just a big ball of energy, and it make take a lot of effort making sure that energy harnessed and used in the right way.

[4Gen]

Minor thing I guess but Proctor has one of the smoothest shots I’ve seen. The net barely ripples on his makes.

Yeah, last night on one of his shots, I was thinking: Nothing but... well nothing.

[SkyBrickey]

Minor thing I guess but Proctor has one of the smoothest shots I’ve seen. The net barely ripples on his makes.

Noticed that on this free throws too last night.

I’ve mentioned before that his many 3 point misses have all seemed to be either front iron or back iron. This is a really good sign of consistency for a shooter - ie, it’s always straight, you’re just calibrating depth.

He hit a couple last night and I think he will very likely be a solid 3 pt shooter going forward. His shot is flattish - a bit like Keels last year - but I don’t think it’s a big problem. On the other extreme, Whitehead with the rainbow 3 jumper….

[TruBlu]

The technical foul called on Jeremy was total BS. IMHO.

[uh_no]

The technical foul called on Jeremy was total BS. IMHO.

he flipped the ball back at the OSU player. That'll be a technical almost as easily as slamming it.

[MChambers]

Noticed that on this free throws too last night.

I’ve mentioned before that his many 3 point misses have all seemed to be either front iron or back iron. This is a really good sign of consistency for a shooter - ie, it’s always straight, you’re just calibrating depth.

He hit a couple last night and I think he will very likely be a solid 3 pt shooter going forward. His shot is flattish - a bit like Keels last year - but I don’t think it’s a big problem. On the other extreme, Whitehead with the rainbow 3 jumper….

One of his threes last night barely touched the net, just like his free throws. Dude can shoot, and think by February we'll look back at our concern about his shooting and laugh.

[bshrader]

https://247sports.com/Player/Isaiah-Evans-46116361/

It'll be interesting to see if an offer is coming his way. Obviously, we've made more than a handful of offers so far for the 2024 class, namely Cunningham/Carter Bryant/Bryson Tucker. Some of the elder statesmen may be able to comment on this moreso than I, but it feels like the interest in Bryant may have cooled and he's looking elsewhere. So we'll see if anything materializes here.

[azzefkram]

Nice bounce-back win over a very physical opponent.

Things I am happy about:

1. Jeremy's ability to conjure up a bucket when the team seems to need it
2. Tyrese's overall game
3. Duke's free throw shooting
4. Duke's D for the first 30 minutes
5. Lively getting opportunities around the basket
6. Flip's all-around solid game
7. Duke only taking 13 3s (while making 5 of them)
8. Ryan's offensive rebound
9. Duke's 16 assists on 22 makes

Things I am unhappy about:

1. Flip's behind-the-back dribble in traffic (has that ever not led to a TO)
2. Duke's D for the final 10 minutes

I thought the officiating was absolutely dreadful. I am not sure it hurt or helped Duke, but much of the game looked like the D-Day landing scene from Saving Private Ryan. I was a bit surprised to see that Tyrese had only one assist.

[Southgate0809]

he flipped the ball back at the OSU player. That'll be a technical almost as easily as slamming it.

I loved when Jason Williams threw a hard bounce pass to a Maryland player as time expired after the Final Four win against them.

[jv001]

A very nice win against the #25 team in what I thought was a physical game. That being said, I was proud of our young guys and our YMCA center. After the Purdue beat down, I didn't know what to expect. It looks like our men's basketball team might just have the same type of fight as our football team. I loved the balanced scoring and the nine-player rotation. I thought everyone that got minutes contributed to the win.

Two comments from Coach Scheyer, 1) he said in his pressor, that he probably should have played Grandison more in the Purdue game. 2) He said Lively is good on the pick-in-roll and Jeremy gave it to him a couple of times last night. But he said that the team needs to look for him more. He also commented on Lively and Whitehead missing very important time in the preseason. Derick missed over a month and Dariq missed over 3 months. He said not just the media, but everyone should be patient with them. I guess he was talking about us DBRs.

GoDuke!

[jv001]

Nice bounce-back win over a very physical opponent.

Things I am happy about:

1. Jeremy's ability to conjure up a bucket when the team seems to need it
2. Tyrese's overall game
3. Duke's free throw shooting
4. Duke's D for the first 30 minutes
5. Lively getting opportunities around the basket
6. Flip's all-around solid game
7. Duke only taking 13 3s (while making 5 of them)
8. Ryan's offensive rebound
9. Duke's 16 assists on 22 makes

Things I am unhappy about:

1. Flip's behind-the-back dribble in traffic (has that ever not led to a TO)
2. Duke's D for the final 10 minutes

I thought the officiating was absolutely dreadful. I am not sure it hurt or helped Duke, but much of the game looked like the D-Day landing scene from Saving Private Ryan. I was a bit surprised to see that Tyrese had only one assist.

Good list but a terrible comparison.

GoDuke!