And I've been schooled to believe Duke can't shoot 3s. Bad assumption for this game. Best game we've played this year.
The team seems to find a way. Liked Cam's play. He looked confident out there. That drive and dish to Zion was a key play in the game. Not sure we will shoot like that again- but they were shots in rhythm. Tre played a brilliant game and RJ was a man tonight. Also I thought Bolden was very important tonight with his blocks and good post defense. Hoos are a very good team and they were well rested. Losing Diakite hurt them but the kid who came in for him had many good moments. Great win but just the start of a very tough stretch. One game at a time.
21-2, 9-1.
Coach K improves to 11-3 vs Tony Bennett in his career.
A wire to wire win on the road at a team good enough to make the final four. Just an unreal night shooting the ball from 3 and getting to the line while also forcing 14 turnovers, getting 12 steals, and having 18 assists on 26 made shots. It's not like Virginia shot poorly. They shot 28-60 overall and 10-24 from 3. Duke just knocked them back early and I think the closest they got after being down 14 was 4 at the half. Whenever Virginia cut it to 5 or 7 in the 2nd half, Duke just hit clutch shot after clutch shot. Duke really showed me something tonight in a hostile environment.
Jay Huff by the way is gonna be an absolute stud. He has a lot of Ryan Kelly in him.
Virginia was 17-1 in the ACC last year (20-1 including the ACCT) and already has 2 Ls in the league this year with trips to UNC and Virginia Tech still.
On to Louisville to resume this gauntlet of a schedule.
Let's Go Duke!
OK I am going to keep talking about the road 3P% until Duke goes cold, which may happen on Tuesday against Louisville.
UVA may be the only team in the country that could keep the game competitive with Duke shooting like that from three. Huge team win.
Now, Hoos, please take out all your frustration on the holes Monday night!
Virginia: If you want to win you're going to have to beat us with the 3.
Duke: Well, okay.
Quick-ish question for any basketball rule nerds out there. There was a sequence in the second half where Zion Williamson lost control of the ball/was try to control the ball and was on the ground with the ball bouncing around and going off his foot, followed by a Virginia player tapping it as it went out of bounds. It looked like the ref however "whistled the play dead" from the point of the "kick" at least he was making kicking motions, and awarded the ball to Virginia. Huh?
Fun stat: UVa was only within 3 points at the opening possession. And after Duke took a 5-0 lead, it was never again a single-possession game.
Wow. What a display of three point shooting tonight with RJ and Cam just so hot. Tre also was extremely impressive with his disruptive defense, good passing and many contributions on offense. Virginia played very good defense which showed up on the many turnovers on Duke. Zion had more tonight than I have seen before and also RJ tried to force it inside and that didn't work. At times, Virginia looked quicker to the ball, but when Duke hits the 3 at that rate, they are hard to beat. Duke did look tired at the end of the first half but seemed to recover in the second half and Jack White's defense helped give Zion a rest. Bolden had another good game, a little difficulty with his footwork, but his defense was very good, even when beaten on terrific UVA offensive plays.
Cam's overall game has really come a long way. Great defense and great scoring with minimal turnovers.
OTOH, Heels are playing their best ball of the season and Hoos were playing their worst entering tonight, when they got somewhat back on track. Granted, some of that had to do with Jerome’s back issues, but winning in the Dean Dome with them playing like they are will be a tall order.
I’d be pretty happy with 2-2 in the next four (@UNC, ND, @VT, @Louisville). I think UVA is leveling off.
Depends on availability of Jerome and Diakite. IF we're down both of those guys, it's HUGE trouble. Even just being down Diakite would be big trouble given that UNC seems to have returned to using 2 bigs a lot.
**Now back to your regularly scheduled Duke postgame thread**
Again, incredibly impressed at the shooting. I would have assumed even wide open and uncontested Duke might've been at best in the 45-50% range, and that makes this a toss up game. Man, I will not forget that shooting exhibition ANYTIME soon. Amazing.... out of adjectives.
A very impressive win. 10 points at UVA is like 20-25 anywhere else.
"I wanted it to be in my hands," Roach said of his game-sealing drive. "I wanted to take—I wanted that moment."
"Definitely was a bit personal for me," Roach added. "I mean, what happened last year, obviously, but just wanted to come out here and do anything I can to get this win, and we did that." Duke-Carolina, Cameron Indoor, Feb. 4th 2023
RJ's post-game interview on the court was great. "We love road games. That's why we wear black, cause it's their funeral."
I love these guys -- they're killers.