MBB: Duke 75, Wake Forest 73 Post-Game Thread

[JBDuke]

Put your post-game thoughts here.

[scottdude8]

First off, I loved the Crazies tonight. Their energy poured through the TV. If any are around the forum, step forward and take a bow… then get ready to do more on Saturday!

That was just one of a lot of things I loved about this game, even with it getting tighter than we might’ve liked at the end.

I loved the fast start. I loved how we responded after Wake’s first half run. I loved how we ended the first half and started the second. I loved how we responded to Wake’s second half spurts with our own.

I loved Jeremy being assertive. I loved Tyrese running the show and shooting confidently. I loved Mark impacting the game in all the little ways, and then breaking through on the box score in the second half.

This was a GREAT way to build off of last Saturday to head into this Saturday.

A less obvious love: Did anyone else notice the way Dereck was defending three point shooters? It was a big adjustment, where instead of an aggressive close out he stopped short and went up as high as he could vertically. It’s not only probably just as effective as a traditional closeout given his size, but helped keep his foul difficulties in check. A nice coaching adjustment and great job putting it into practice by Dereck.

Also, for those wanting more “fire” from Coach Scheyer, I think we saw it tonight. Multiple animated arguments with the refs.

[SouthernDukie]

I guess a win’s a win. Kinda. Not really sure. The last three minutes left much to be desired. But at the end of the day, it is a W. And there was a lot to be happy about.

[dukelifer]

A two point game- geez. Crazy.

[AGDukesky]

Not the ending that leaves a great feeling despite some good moments. It seems like Wake games are often weird. I’ll take the win but this team still needs to play much better at the end of games.

[dukelifer]

Not the ending that leaves a great feeling despite some good moments. It seems like Wake games are often weird. I’ll take the win but this team still needs to play much better at the end of games.

Need to make FT’s. Not what you want to see. Two close games where Duke won and failed to hit FTs at the end.

[scottdude8]

I guess a win’s a win. Kinda. Not really sure. The last three minutes left much to be desired. But at the end of the day, it is a W. And there was a lot to be happy about.

A two point game- geez. Crazy.

Really? The final margin was so deceiving based on last minute foul-and-jack-up-shots stuff when the game was no longer in doubt after Kyle put it to bed. I really don’t think that’s the takeaway here.

[dukelifer]

Really? The final margin was so deceiving based on last minute foul-and-jack-up-shots stuff when the game was no longer in doubt after Kyle put it to bed. I really don’t think that’s the takeaway here.

I am happy about the win - but missing pressure FTs is not a good thing. Both Mitchell and Flip are good FT shooters

[SouthernDukie]

Really? The final margin was so deceiving based on last minute foul-and-jack-up-shots stuff when the game was no longer in doubt after Kyle put it to bed. I really don’t think that’s the takeaway here.

What? I said there was a lot to be happy about. But the last three minutes were pretty bad. Surely you’re not gonna argue that?

[ChrisP]

How sweet it is!!!

[UrinalCake]

The lead never felt safe even when it was 12 or 13 because Wake was shooting so poorly and you knew they would eventually start hitting. But we did enough to survive. Hope Jeremy’s wrist is okay, he was much less effective after that happened. Proctor and Lively continue to progress, Mitchell was great in his role. Certainly not a great closing stretch but good performance overall and most importantly we got the W.

[Saratoga2]

Very sloppy in the second half. Some nice moments but they still haven't learned to finish well. Fortunat6ely it's a win but it should have been a whole lot more than 2 points. Nice first half by Roach, nice game by Proctor and Lively. Mitchell played hard and Grandison played smart.

[scottdude8]

What? I said there was a lot to be happy about. But the last three minutes were pretty bad. Surely you’re not gonna argue that?

True true, although I’m sure you could admit you buried the lead a bit

For me, the fact that we stretched the lead back to 9 after Wake cut it to 4 is MUCH more telling about how we played than what the final margin is based on the last 40 seconds.

[CDu]

Important win. Yes, it was closer than we would like (though not as close as the final score would suggest). But progress isn’t linear. The important thing is that we keep winning even on off-nights.

I think Scheyer had some tremendous out-if-timeout calls, but I think he also may have ridden some guys a bit too long in the second half. Flip in particular seemed gassed. Thankfully we survived.

Roach had a terrific offensive night, and worked hard against Appleby. He didn’t get the best of Appleby defensively, but he made Appleby really work for it.

Proctor had an excellent second half.

Lively and Flip both made a big impact, but their bugaboos did show back up (Flip’s turnovers, Lively’s foul trouble). Mitchell had a quiet impact with 8 rebounds and 2 steals.

Young did what Young always seems to do: fantastic efficiency on offense.

We were fortunate that Wake missed A LOT of open 3s, but also unfortunate on a few key whistles. But, again, the important thing was getting the win. Now on to UNC!

[Music man55]

Great win guys. A little too close the final 46 seconds, but we survived it. Roach and Proctor were really good and Flip made his usual clutch baskets. I thought Grandisson made some heads up plays for us and Lively was a factor in this one. Mitchell makes so many plays that don’t show up in the stat sheet. The only thing that concerns me right now is in a tight game, they need to knock down free throws. A good win though against a tough team. By the way, what a huge discrepancy in fouls in the second half. No wonder Jon was grilling the refs. Let’s go boys, get a win over those cheats Sat. 9f.

[DukieInBrasil]

It was better than a loss.
Duke played pretty well for ~32 minutes, and then once again played the world's worst basketball down the stretch. Committing stupid fouls, missing front ends of 1n1s, and so. many. turnovers.
I was hoping to see sustained growth demonstrated in the GT game, but what i saw was reversion back to how Duke played vs BC, or Miami.
In an odd twist, Filipowski played some sport other than basketball for much of the game, and then scored 5 points in the final minute to win the game for Duke.
Roach played one of his best games at Duke, and Proctor had an excellent game shooting the ball and a terrible game holding on to the ball.
Weird game. Better than a loss.

[lotusland]

Weird game but Jeremy lead the way and was MOTM. Duke D was fierce with Lively in. He picked up a cheap one for #4. I was a little surprised no Lively at the end. Weird game for Proctor. He scored well but had his worst floor game of the season. Flip had a Meh game but still had a double double and iced the game with a clutch three and breakaway dunk at the end. Mitchell had a very Mitchell game.

[kako]

5 thoughts...

1. Duke defends home court again! Due to the run of most of the game, a larger margin would have been nice. But a win's a win.

2. Roach was on fire the first half. He didn't take nearly as many shots the 2nd, you could see Wake was defending him more closely. But it's so clear Duke is a much better team with him on the floor... Flip's 1st half was meh. But his 3 definitely moved the needle late in the 2nd. Aside from his missed FT at the end, his last few minutes were very good.

3. A few things I didn't like... poor FT shooting at the very end of the game... A severe drop in assists (Lively was our assist leader?)... The drop in effort going after rebounds in the 2nd - yeah, Wake went bigger but Duke still outsized the Deacs, and I think there was a lack of effort (other than Mitchell - his motor was on all game).

4. I just dogged Duke for not having assists, but Proctor really is coming into his game lately. It's clear he's this team's #1 PG. Sure, Roach can play some 1 as well, but Proctor has the spot.

5. Good point by Davis that the team being so new, they don't grasp the rivalry yet. So even though it was payback time with Wake, the Devils as a team were likely not looking ahead. But now, it's time. 9 friggin' F.

9F

[KandG]

I liked a lot of things about this game, not least Jeremy’s offense in the first half, which forced Wake out of their heavy emphasis on our bigs in the paint and opened things up to allow us to enter the second with a reasonable lead.

I also loved Jeremy’s dogged defense on Appleby all game, he was being run through so many screens but he’s really improved in his ability to navigate those even though he occasionally gets caught scrambling and committing a silly foul.

Proctor with some timely shooting and overall good game management, plus his defense was mostly sound and love how he rebounds for a guard.

I liked Lively for about three quarters of his minutes but he still can’t seem to avoid those unfortunate fouls that keep him out of the game late. I continue to believe that our ceiling is much higher when we get Derek playing in a closing lineup that can be suffocating on D. Those stretches where Lively and Mitchell seemed to snuff out everything at the rim were tantalizing and I’d love to see that be our identity at the end of games. Instead, we had to sweat it out as Wake made it uncomfortable with Young and Flip looking vulnerable whenever Wake’s actions freed up someone on a switch.

Rough game for Flip but I appreciated that he kept his head in the game even though there was some clear tentativeness and frustration at moments in the second half when he wasn’t getting what he wanted on offense. That three point shot to make it 73-66 was pretty much the dagger, and that was after Flip was missing everything from the perimeter — plus he moved well without the ball to get those two inside baskets (nice calls from Scheyer on both plays out of timeouts).

Appreciated that Coach Scheyer worked the refs given how questionable the whistle was at various points during the game — maybe it helped when we got an excellent non-call on the Flip screen that knocked down Monsanto leading to Flip’s three, and the call on Appleby on his “illegal” screen.

[heyman25]

Very sloppy in the second half. Some nice moments but they still haven't learned to finish well. Fortunat6ely it's a win but it should have been a whole lot more than 2 points. Nice first half by Roach, nice game by Proctor and Lively. Mitchell played hard and Grandison played smart.

Really poor decision making on our possessions to close the game. Nothing is ever easy with this team. Flip made many passes to Wake Forest.