MBB: Duke 85, UAB 64 Post Game Thread

[roywhite]

The good: Nolan Smith. Just...wow. Pomeroy had us winning 81-60, We won 85-64. (Our pomeroy ranking should drop slightly, keeping us at 2, since we were less efficient than predicted).

Our opponent shot 40% from 3 and yet we never led by less than 14 in the 2nd half.
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The Bad: The team couldn't pull away for the 2nd straight game, though they at least won the second half. Kyle Singler was apparently 5-18 today, his second game where he seemed way cold. If he make 5 more of those shots, we pull away like we were supposed to.

Kelly took at least 3 wide open shots (2 of them 3s) that he couldn't get to drop...he seems to be cold from range recently, which would be a huge addition to this game.

Seth Curry seemed oddly enough to be in Ks doghouse, not playing for a good bit of the first half and then not being in for a good bit of the second. Not sure why that was the case. He did go 2-3 with 5 points when in the game.

Miles...returned to hacking Miles.

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I don't mean to sound totally negative. I have high expectations for this team, and for the first 8 minutes of this game, the team blew right by them. But after that, it was like a different team on defense. Too many open shots.

Thanks for letting us know you didn't mean to sound totally negative. I might have been confused into thinking that from the bulk of your post.

Did we watch the same game?

[sagegrouse]

Thanks for letting us know you didn't mean to sound totally negative. I might have been confused into thinking that from the bulk of your post.

Did we watch the same game?

I think to please Loran16, the NCAA should adopt the old CBA system, where IIRC the winner of the game got three points and the winner of each of the four quarters got one point. That way, just stomping the pea turkey out of someone in the first eight minutes isn't enough -- you need to do it in every time segment of the game.

sagegrouse

[delfrio]

i think andre is doing a fantastic job of letting the game come to him; i wouldn't want to see him push things too hard. the guy is in such a groove right now just doing what he's doing, taking what's there. if he starts to try and create too much, his shooting percentage could drop pretty quickly, and there's no way to know how much of an effect that can have on a kid's confidence.

I'm not so convinced. Andre seems to float on the perimeter during most offensive sets with very little movement. Maybe that's intentional, maybe not. But regardless, it seems like people are also not looking to get him the ball. Multiple times tonight and prior games Nolan or Kyle could have sent it his way for an open shot, but didn't. I don't know if it's not seeing him or what, but at least his defense stats seem to be picking up in the meantime.

[Billy Dat]

It's clear that the game plan is for Nolan to be a score-first PG who we depend on to get his points early, often and in a variety of ways. Clearly, he seems up to the task. Everyone else is going to have to figure how where they fit in that formula.

For Kyle, it's going to be a lot of pick and pop 3s after he sets high screens, and, it seems, more post-ups. Hopefully he'll start converting that little baby hook because the shot is there when he wants it. He'll also be forced to be active on the boards which is usually a good thing for he and the team.

We seemed to run a lot more plays for the bigs tonight, perhaps because we had a size advantage. Mason was a big beneficiary. We set him up both on the wing and on the block and he really finished well. Kelly got a lot of looks and played well. Miles was kind of non-existent. Most nights, I guess we'll be ok as long as 2 of the 3 have decent games.

Extending that thought a little further, after Nolan and Kyle, it seems like we're ok as long as 3 other guys have decent games. You need 2 of the 3 bigs to show up and we need Dre or Seth to be on their game. Obviously, against the best teams we'll need solid efforts from everyone, but no one is really emerging from the pack game after game. You'd think Dre and Mason were the most likely candidates - they've got a lot of games left to increase their consistency.

I agree about UAB hitting some seriously long 3s, I was more concerned with how easily they seemed to be getting backdoor looks. They missed a ton of shots from 5 feet and in that they should have made, especially early. We also seem a little susceptible to the drive, but we held them 7 points below their season average.

We made a really decent team look bad. Solid win...now let's put the ACC square in our sights and deliver a strong effort against the Terps on Sunday.

And...oh yeah...congrats to Kyle on 2,000...ho hum.

[strawbs]

did I miss something or did the announcers not even mention kyle getting to 2000 career points tonight? That is an amazing accomplishment, how does it get overlooked?

[Duvall]

did I miss something or did the announcers not even mention kyle getting to 2000 career points tonight? That is an amazing accomplishment, how does it get overlooked?

Mike Patrick is how. We're lucky he didn't call him Kenny Singleton.

[mr. synellinden]

I thought Kyle's shot selection was poor, particularly in the 2nd half. He took too many contested shots and missed open teammates. I dont know if he thinks he needs to carry a lot of the scoring load and it makes him press a little, but he missed out on finding a better shot a handful of times.

I noticed this as well, and I would bet this is the kind of thing the coaching staff will pick up when they watch film (if they didn't during the game itself) and work on with Kyle. I'm expecting to see better shot selection and better passing out of him the next few games.

[-bdbd]

I thought that we looked disappointingly ragged tonight against a fairly clearly outmanned UAB squad. And the shooting was just dreadful for long stretches. Can't play like that against MD, FSU, NCSU, VPI, NC@CH, etc. and still expect to win. Hope we step it up a bit for the Terps Sun.

I've never been a Len Elmore hater, but boy did he sound like he was pulling for UAB tonight! Others have complained in the past, but I felt it really came through in several comments tonight. At least he's smart enought that he'll catch himself saying something a little too anti-Duke or anti-refs (who are supposedly giving the Devils too many bennies), he'll then come back quickly with a qualifier or lukewarm compliment of Duke/K/the Duke player.

[mr. synellinden]

did I miss something or did the announcers not even mention kyle getting to 2000 career points tonight? That is an amazing accomplishment, how does it get overlooked?

They mentioned it briefly - said he was the fifth Duke player ever to achieve that and put up the stat when he hit 2001, and then it was overlooked. I was surprised the game wasn't briefly stopped, or there wasn't a shot of the scoreboard.

[Bluedevil114]

did I miss something or did the announcers not even mention kyle getting to 2000 career points tonight? That is an amazing accomplishment, how does it get overlooked?

They did mention it but did not dwell on it probably because Nolan was putting on a better show and they could not stop slobbering over him. I am sure Kyle would want it that way.

[SuperTurkey]

Mike Patrick is how. We're lucky he didn't call him Kenny Singleton.

Kenny Singleton needs to get untracked!

[roywhite]

Post-game quotes

I really liked what Coach K had to say about Mason:

That was Mason Plumlee's best game I think at Duke. He was talking, he played with a presence, getting 14 points and nine rebounds and four blocks, he didn't play tired either. We kept him in there a long time. We had a little bit of foul trouble with the bigs.

[Billy Dat]

I thought that we looked disappointingly ragged tonight against a fairly clearly outmanned UAB squad. And the shooting was just dreadful for long stretches. Can't play like that against MD, FSU, NCSU, VPI, NC@CH, etc. and still expect to win. Hope we step it up a bit for the Terps Sun.

I think if we play like we did tonight, we beat the teams you cited. I thought we looked good, the game was never in doubt after the first 3 minutes. We had Mason, Tyler, Josh, Seth and Kelly on the floor together in the first half.

[Ultrarunner]

I'm not so convinced. Andre seems to float on the perimeter during most offensive sets with very little movement. Maybe that's intentional, maybe not. But regardless, it seems like people are also not looking to get him the ball. Multiple times tonight and prior games Nolan or Kyle could have sent it his way for an open shot, but didn't. I don't know if it's not seeing him or what, but at least his defense stats seem to be picking up in the meantime.

It looks as though Andre is being used as a decoy/threat. By staying on the perimeter, Andre is forcing the defense to commit to him and limiting help defense when Nolan and Kyle are driving. It also looks as though he is looking to take advantage of defenders closing on him by driving past which creates a lot of uncertainty for the defender.

Andre really had a very well rounded game tonight with a solid 6 rebounds and three steals to go with eight point. Like you, I don't understand why he isn't the recipient of more kick out passes but expect there is a good reason for it. Or an opportunity for the team to grow which should make other teams a mite nervous.

[msdukie]

They mentioned it briefly - said he was the fifth Duke player ever to achieve that and put up the stat when he hit 2001, and then it was overlooked. I was surprised the game wasn't briefly stopped, or there wasn't a shot of the scoreboard.

11th Duke player.

[msdukie]

Mike Patrick is how. We're lucky he didn't call him Kenny Singleton.

He would have called him Todd Singleton.

[jv001]

We only had 6 turnovers which is exceptional against a quick team. Our opening blitz was the best ball we've played all year - starting out 26-4. Ultimately our focus and energy dropped off, sort of like the guys got bored.

I do think the offensive game plan UAB executed was a pretty good one - spread us out, drive and kick. If they had a better finishers, it would have been a game. Is that what we see out of FSU?

FSU just has a hard time getting the basketball in the hoop. Another thing I noticed in their loss to Auburn was that they don't do well against the press. The one thing they do well is play terrific defense. But first we must beat the twerps and then concentrate on FSU. Go Duke!

[Son of Jarhead]

Nolan's offensive proformance speaks for itself. Coach K spoke well for his defense. Coach K pointed out in his post-game that UAB's point guard, Johnson (#1, the player that had some fun with the Crazies when he fouled out) came into the game tonight leading the nation in assists & was probably the quickest guard Nolan will defend this year. Nolan defended him quite well. Coach K also commented that UAB's Sanders (#4) was a great shooter, could play for any team in the ACC, even ours, & that he would be playing in the NBA someday. {Side Note: As always, Coach K makes a point of complimenting opposing players afterwards when they play well against us. My favorite example of this was Bryant Stith of UVA... as a senior, Coach K took the mike after his last visit to Cameron & encouraged the crowd to applaud in appreciation for Stith, which we promptly did, giving him a standing O.} UAB is actually a very good team, I expect they will be dancing in March. We knocked them back at the beginning, but once they settled down, they played us fairly well. Good prep for a Round of 32 game perhaps.

[wtm001]

Did anybody see the lady holding up the sign that said something like "seeing Coach K win his 881st game, priceless"?

Wasn't this win number 882? Or maybe she was at the Miami game? I don't know

[hurley1]

Coach K obviously let off the gas once the score got so one sided in Duke's favor. Had we been playing a top team, he would have held it to the floor and you would have seen a different outcome.