MOTM vs. Clemson

[Bob Green]

Who was the Man of the Match vs. Clemson?

[4decadedukie]

Bob,

As I have stated for previous games this season, Clemson was truly a team victory, but Captain Nelson's contributions earn "Man of the Match" honors. In fact, there seems to be a pattern here . . .

Warm regards.

[dukestheheat]

agreed on Markie; he is slashing very well into the paint, and also is showing great leadership for our team. Captain Markie!

dth.

(although I'm totally proud of our next star, Nolan Smith!).

[Karl Beem]

Captain, our Captain.

[Ben63]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Nolan Smith. He played great. He doesn't have the stat line DeMarcus has, but he hit big shots and played great defense.

[ArkieDukie]

I voted for DeMarcus, but I could've easily voted for Nolan Smith or Gerald Henderson. All had good games, but I ultimately decided on DeMarcus. He came through when we needed him to.

With that said, I salute Nolan Smith for coming in and lighting it up. He was Rollin'.

[VaDukie]

DeMarcus = 1st team All-ACC

[Buckeye Devil]

I probably should say DeMarcus, but I went with Gerald simply because I thought he had some big plays at the right time in the second half as well as some good rebounding for someone his size. Plus, the missed dunk was still impressive.

[DukeDevilDeb]

Maybe we should have a choice in the MOTM polls that says TEAM EFFORT.

The game last night was won by the Blue Devils. Markie was fabulous, absolutely terrific. Smith came in and electrified us. Henderson and Singler had great games; Lance got a couple of really amazing rebounds. And Greg leapt up when it really counted and made his contributions.

Seems to me that, when you can call out that many players, it is the TEAM that should get the accolades!

[loran16]

Don't forget scheyer...we got our first big lead in the 1st half when scheyer went on an 8-0 run all by himself.

But yeah, all in all, this was a team effort.

[jimsumner]

With all due respect to the people who voted to the contrary, DeMarcus Nelson was the best player on the floor last night by a fairly wide margin. Lots of long-time Duke observers thought that it was his best game in a Duke uniform.

There's a lot of stuff that doesn't show up on the stats sheet. K's gamble to have only a single captain is paying off in a big way. This is Nelson's team.

[wilko]

Maybe we should have a choice in the MOTM polls that says TEAM EFFORT.

I agree!! It was a great collaborative effort. There was no single hero or Defining moment bucket to win the game at the last second.

Altho I would be remiss not to reconize Markies efforts as the Captain. He is playing Re-markie-bly well. Since there is no team option gotta be him... and if there was a team option Iwould prolly give it to him anyway...

[devildeac]

Markie, but this was a very fine TEAM effort. When we looked at the score board with about 5 minutes to go, all 5 Devils playing had 10+ points each and 3 fouls each or less. After looking at the box score today, there were a lot of guys with 2-3 steals each and 3-5 boards each with A:T ratios of greater than 1.

[SilkyJ]

pickin the captain, but thought scheyer and nolan both had great games. Gerald also played well. I thought our defense looked better than clemson's 50+ shooting %, but i guess we did have 20 some TOs...

2 bad shooting games in a row for greg. no biggie at all, but i think he's forcing it a little. taking shots that are contested and not getting set b/c of it. i think he also is taking them from further out, probably b/c of the pressure pushing him out there. the problem is that he has that range when he's open, but he's gotta let the ball come to him off of ball rotation.

[Acymetric]

I think it's important not to overlook that not only did Nelson lead us in points, he also shot 77%. To me that's the most important stat for him, shows that he really didn't force anything.

[Classof06]

Gotta be Demarcus. Yet another great performance. It's very early but he's playing at a First Team All-ACC level.

[DukeDevilDeb]

Don't forget scheyer...we got our first big lead in the 1st half when scheyer went on an 8-0 run all by himself.

But yeah, all in all, this was a team effort.

Goodness, I certainly didn't mean to leave Jon out. I love to watch him on defense; he's really grown in all aspects of his game.

And as for other comments... yes, DeMarcus was the individual who outperformed everyone else against Clemson... no doubt about it. But without his supporting cast, what can he do? He had a sub-par night against FSU... 7 points total if I remember correctly. But I truly believe that this team is all about TEAMwork... back to Coach K's image of hand as fist.

[mpj96]

In a depressingly familiar theme, the Tigers only managed 43.5% from the line, which is just bizarre. It’s one of the elemental skills of basketball. How can they be so consistently bad at it?

I think there should have been a slot for the Crazies. The Crazies' stalwart defense of our FT line was phenomenal last night. 13 FTs missed. 13 point margin or victory. Good work, Crazies.

[Uncle Drew]

For the record I voted for Nelson, and he is proving to be the captain and leader we all hoped he would be. But if Henderson landed that dunk he wouldn't have been man of the match, he'd of been mack daddy of the year!