a lousy ending

[tbyers11]

You are entitled to your opinions regarding Paulus versus the point guard at UNC - but so am I. As a defender and penetrator, Carolina's point guard is far superior to Paulus. Sure Paulus tries hard, but he should be playing spot duty at both guard positions, not our primary scoring option. Also, his defense against quick guards is dismal. That will not likely improve.

I didn't see anyone else comparing Paulus to Lawson until you brought it up. I think alot of the criticism of Greg has come from the inevitable comparison to Lawson. Lawson is one of the quickest point guards in the country. Greg will never be as quick as him. Also, saying that Lawson's defense (especially with his quickness advantage) is far superior to Greg is ludicrous. That doesn't mean that Greg isn't a very good player and didn't have a very good game tonight. He wasn't perfect but considering he had to bear the full load against VCU's press because of Nelson's foul trouble and Scheyer's deer in the headlights play every time that he touched the ball, I thought he acquitted himself very well. He should have shot his FT's better, but that was my only real problem with his game tonight. As you said just my opinion.

[mapei]

I think Greg was our best player tonight. He had too many turnovers and missed free throws, and no one on Duke's team seemed prepared to handle quickness. But Greg was still better than everybody else for Duke. Faint praise, I guess . . .

[cbarry]

That's true, Mapei. Greg tends to play well in the northeast. Had a very good game at B.C. this year as well. Said in an interview he loves to play in front of friends and family.

[SharkD]

Greg won't have to worry about being compared to Lawson next year -- from what I've heard, Ty doesn't think class attendance is all that important, since he's convinced he'll be drafted.

[KandG]

I'm not really sure what Lawson has to do with this discussion. But I do agree that he's gone after this season, along with Wright. I look forward to seeing Greg continue to improve and demonstrate the heart and toughness he demonstrated tonight.

[TampaDuke]

Lawson's myspace page last year (in HS) mentioned that his plan was to play one year in college and then "on to the league." I'm not sure if he can get drafted in the first round this year given the depth, but he's a sure bet to go if he thinks he can. I for one have not been impressed with his play this year. Yeah he's quick, but he's had a lot of turnovers and plays defense only when he feels like it. I'd take Paulus any day.

[Troublemaker]

I'd take Greg's head on Lawson's body.

[4everTerping]

Duke's main problem is their six best players would be 2 shooting guards and 4 small forwards, with maybe McRoberts being a power forward. No point guard, no post player. Coach K is an outstanding Xs and Os coach, but how could somebody who can choose any high school player in the country, miss on recruiting so badly stacking the same positions and leaving others void.

[FewFAC]

The better Greg got, the more this team lost. About exactly the ending I expected from this series of coaching missteps.

[throatybeard]

Women play on Sunday ... next play!

Word. It's not like we didn't know this men's team was limited. Let's concentrate on the rest of basketball season.

[jkidd31]

You are entitled to your opinions regarding Paulus versus the point guard at UNC - but so am I. As a defender and penetrator, Carolina's point guard is far superior to Paulus. Sure Paulus tries hard, but he should be playing spot duty at both guard positions, not our primary scoring option. Also, his defense against quick guards is dismal. That will not likely improve.

Lawson blows by almost every defender not just GP. I don't understand why people bag on Greg all the time. IMO he's showed heart all year and was servely hampered to start the season. He improved as the season went along which is all you can ask of a player. My biggest thing was the defense regressed. What happened??? Yeah Greg got beat off the dribble, so what, so did Duhon and he was regarded as a great defender. The problem was the help defense. Too many times this year no one rotated over which lead to easy baskets. Maybe we need to go out and find a JUCO guard for next season who can play lock down defense.

[Lulu]

The better Greg got, the more this team lost. About exactly the ending I expected from this series of coaching missteps.

That is a very true observation. The better Greg got, the worse everyone else became. I've been pondering this for weeks but didn't have a theory containing enough basketball IQ to actually post. I think you could almost say that as Greg got better, our overall chemistry got worse. Is it the difference in looking for a shot instead of a pass? Others just standing around? (our weave did look a bit odd at times, like certain people were just going through the motions and not even turning their heads, cause they knew they weren't going to do anything with the ball) And why couldn't we maintain our "attack" (not just tonight), was it really because we were always tired? If Paulus was really showing fatigue as early as the announcers were implying then perhaps some discipline is lacking. What do others think? The leadership aspect might be what I understand the least, but I wonder if we had too many "captains"... Also, I miss the more animated Coack K. I know he wasn't exactly stoic tonight, but he's starting to look like Deaner on the sideline.

What's this about "good riddance" to McBob from the coaching staff? I've never heard this. Any other threads someone might direct me to? I suppose that, if true, I'd almost be more excited for next year. Sumthin just wasn't right. Apologies for my lack of substance and intellectual input.

[FewFAC]

Well Lulu, much as I'd love to get into a thorough examination of why that theory may have factual credence, I do not have the necessary time to investigate, so I'll focus on a couple of key points.

1. Turnovers

Duke turned the ball over 17 times, while forcing only 11 turnovers.

This year's team slowed the game down, using as much of the 35-second shot clock as possible to force teams to expend energy on the defensive end of the floor and to limit the number of possessions the opposing team had on offense. The result is that while Duke allows its opponents fewer offensive possessions, Duke also has fewer offensive possessions.

For example, Duke had 72 offensive possessions in this game. 17 turnovers means Duke turned the ball over 24% of the time they had the ball on offense, meaning no shot attempt was even made. Of course, if you can't shoot the ball, you can't score.

On the other side, VCU only turned the ball over 11 times in 70 offensive possessions. VCU thus got shot attempts, or fouled, 82% of the time they had the ball. That exerts additional pressure on the Duke defense to prevent points from being put on the scoreboard.

2. Assists

Duke only had 11 assists in its 72 offensive possessions. This means that an offensive player for Duke created a score for a teammate on only 15% of offensive possessions. Without a player truly capable of creating opportunities for teammates, the team is forced to rely on one-on-one offense. While Duke did admirably, shooting 51% from 2 point range, Duke only shot 27% from 3pt range, making only three.

While VCU shot 37% from 2pt range, VCU made 56% of its 3 point shots, 9 in all. That is +18 points from behind the arc.

3. Free Throws

Duke missed 12 free throws, shooting 63% from the free throw line. While Duke did get to the line more often than VCU and did make more (+2), VCU only missed 6.

So basically Duke squandered offensive opportunities and VCU capitalized.