MBB: NC State 88, Duke 66 Post-Game Thread

[CDu]

There were a lot of things that went flukishly wrong (us missing so many FTs; us fumbling the ball so much; them hitting 60% on 3s). If we take those things fluky away, it is a tight game and we don’t resort to trying to hit 10-run HRs in the second half.

That said, I do have one concern moving forward, and that is the defense from our bigs on ball screens. State absolutely torched all of our bigs whenever they could get a guard iso’d on one of our bigs. Carey, Hurt, DeLaurier, didn’t matter who. Now, Markell Johnson I can understand. He is an NBA level talent. But Devon Daniels has no business eating our lunch offensively. We are going to need to figure that out, because I think we will see more of that moving forward.

The loss stinks. If we had won out, we likely get a 1 seed in the NCAAs. Now? That is unlikely, and we also need help to not get stuck as a 2 seed in the ACCs. Bad night all around.

[sagegrouse]

Posted by Sage Grouse this am--

Here's my assessment:

1. At least two of ten players from Duke need to get hot from three territory.
2. Tre and Vernon need to continue to play at a high level.
3. Defense needs to be rock solid.


Are these too much to ask?

Kindly,
Sage
'It's nice having ten players capable of playing really good college hoops'

Lessee... 4-17 from three.
Tre and Vernon were, in fact, solid -- Vernon was outstanding.
State shot 60+ percent from three. Not all defense but still...

I won't name players for playing poorly, but some seemed to show no interest in the game.

[Dr. Rosenrosen]

Paraphrasing K... they wanted it more, we didn’t play strong, we got our butts beat.

[InSpades]

Disappointing to see so many all of a sudden going off the ledge and saying this is a “first weekend team”. Really? From one game, in a place where we historically have stumbled?

When you wake up tomorrow morning this will be the same team that gave us the Carolina Comeback and looked like world beaters against Notre Dame days ago. This is a solid team in a year without an incredible team in the country. All of our goals are still very achievable.

Breathe guys. Breathe.

The Carolina Comeback makes you think this is a team that is going places? We were down huge to the last place team in the ACC. A team that isn't going to make the NIT.

For a team on a 7-game win streak... we looked not that great.

Duke forced the ball into Carey a bunch (can't say I entirely blame them as he is a beast). Took way too many difficult shots (Tre did not have a good start to the game).

Jones and Carey took 38 of our 69 shots (55%) and 17 of our 22 free throws (77%). Jordan Goldwire took the 3rd most shots at 9 which was almost twice as many as anyone else. Jordan plays with a lot of heart but if he's our 3rd scoring option... we are not going very far. Stanley and Hurt need to step up their games. They've looked great at points this season.

Love this team but... it certainly wouldn't shock me if they lost early w/ the way they play. You can't come out and let teams get a 10 point lead and hope to make a big comeback.

That being said... we always seem to lose a late season game to an ACC team on the bubble. Hope we turn it around and finish the rest of the regular season strong.

[CDu]

Anyone know why Jack has fallen out of the rotation the past few games? Tonight he had a couple of minutes in the first half and none in the second. Jack consistently brings rebounding, defense, maturity, and stability to the team.

Because he doesn’t provide offense, and this team doesn’t have as much dynamic on-ball talent to allow for him to play more.

[bluedev_92]

Yes AOC REALLY annoyed me with his lazy pass in the first half near the elbow and Moore had one not long after that was almost as bad. I'm almost as annoyed at K for playing straight up man when the high ball screen was literally KILLING Duke. Daniels' feasted upon that scheme.

Agree on all counts. At least play underneath the big man screens. Killed us on both drives & rebounds after the switch.

[duke4ever19]

Disappointing to see so many all of a sudden going off the ledge and saying this is a “first weekend team”. Really? From one game, in a place where we historically have stumbled?

When you wake up tomorrow morning this will be the same team that gave us the Carolina Comeback and looked like world beaters against Notre Dame days ago. This is a solid team in a year without an incredible team in the country. All of our goals are still very achievable.

Breathe guys. Breathe.

The Carolina Comeback?

You can buy those in bulk at Costco. Notre Dame grabbed the last off the shelf, but I'll check with 'Ol Roy and see if he has any more in the back.
Plenty of Cheerwine and Sun Drop in the fridge out front too. Glass bottles . . . not that canned stuff.

[Saratoga2]

NCS had a game plan of using their guards to get inside and they were efficient at making their layups. As the game wore on their confidence must have been high as they were making 3 point shots one after another. Funderburke was a load inside and he played with a lot of energy. The State defense was also solid as they protected the rim well. They seemed energized and quick to the ball while we weren't.

For us, Carey played well and went against two solid big players. He did his job as well as anyone could expect. He played 30 minutes, which is about his limit. Unfortunately, DeLauier didn't seem competitive so we sorely missed Carey while he was in. Clearly coach K didn't think much of Jack White's effort and Hurt seemed to be over his head against such an athletic and good sized team. We really had little contribution from big men other than Carey.

Tre had a nice game as well but it must have been exhausting. He gave the team a chance in the second half before seemingly running out of gas. I thought our guards tried to force the ball to Carey, force shots and make poor choice in the passing lanes. Moore plays good defense but he forces the ball and we don't need spinning inside jump shots. Stanley also had issues. Maybe it was just good State defense, but our guards have to find a way to get us better shots. Goldwire also tried to force the ball inside and that is not his game and his outside shot wasn't good tonight.

Joey Baker is a gunner, but when he doesn't hit he has little other value. Alex had some good minutes but he too seemed to telegraph passes and make turnovers. He was only credited with 2, but it seemed like more.

No understanding of why our FT shooting suddenly turned god awful. Do they practice?

[Coballs]

Paraphrasing K... they wanted it more, we didn’t play strong, we got our butts beat.

Link to K's post game presser? It should be a doozy

[BigZ]

No way Duke was going to win at VT and at State .

[azzefkram]

You know, if you're going to get pants'd at least do it during an early game. Cheesy Pete that was dreadful. I'm fairly certain that Duke didn't do a single thing competently the entire game. I'm not even mad. Heck I'm slightly impressed..

I get how people can say this team can lose in the first weekend. I wouldn't be shocked if that happened. I also wouldn't be shocked if Duke won it all.

[rsvman]

No way Duke was going to win at VT and at State .

Possibly true, but we didn't need a 22-point loss.

[knicknut]

The crazy threes from NCSt and in-and-outs from Duke we can put behind us.

The lazy turnovers, the lack of adjustments, and the plays where three NCSt players surrounded the basket for an offensive rebound with no Blue Devils challenging were not.

Hopefully we don't see this team again. In a weak college season like this one, nearly any team is susceptible to these nights, at least.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Someone remind me of when we lost to Georgetown and NCSU and then won the championship, please.

[KandG]

The cliche that may make the rounds is this Duke team isn't as transcendent as the one that beat ND by 34, nor is it as atrocious as the one that got down by as much as 27 to NC State.

Have to say though that while tonight might be somewhat of an outlier (especially with our FT shooting and some of State's overall shooting), this team looked more familiar to me. It's the same team that showed up for big chunks of the BC and UNC games on the road. Getting blitzed early, lots of dumb turnovers on entry passes, bad or non-existent three point shooting, immature or invisible efforts from our young guys.

Now we won the BC and UNC games eventually, and I suppose we could have won this game or made it closer had our FT shooting been even remotely average and a few more bounces gone our way. But one of the supposed advantages of a deep team is if one or two players aren't quite getting it done, someone else steps in and makes plays. It just felt like Tre was trying to do too much on his own when Vernon was being blanketed and most of his teammates couldn't even make a decent pass.

All those high ball screens just killed our guards and Vernon tried, but we gave up way too much penetration. Same thing happened at BC, except they're more turnover prone and we eventually contained them. State tore us apart masterfully and Johnson, Daniels and Funderburk essentially beat us by themselves.

The game was over at the start of the second half when we went down 20, and to that point had one assist and missed 9 of 11 free throws. Bad play by the road team and otherworldly shooting by the home team can always happen, but the other stuff speaks to focus and composure.

I think I'm most disappointed that veterans like Jack and Javin aren't giving us more lately. I was shocked to see Jack enter the game so early, but the game looked too big for him and he left the game contributing nothing beyond a block. My dreams for Javin as a small ball center that can anchor a more potent defensive lineup were dashed yet again, because he looked just as susceptible to the high ball screens and he was beaten to 50-50 balls and rebounds that should be his stock in trade as a backup.

There've been other bad, dispiriting blowouts over the years with teams better than this one, so it's certainly not jump off the ledge time. But there is a lot to figure out right now.

[stingy]

K basically said we weren’t hungry because we had been winning a lot, and they were needing a win so they were really hungry. When those two scenarios meet this is what happens.

[DUKIE V(A)]

Someone remind me of when we lost to Georgetown and NCSU and then won the championship, please.

Two words...”Alarmingly Unathletic”

[stingy]

Also guys carried over bad plays from prior possessions into the next one, trying to make up for something, instead of having amnesia. But this isn’t Xbox, it’s human nature.

[jipops]

After tonight I’m totally convinced we’re a Final Four team.

Grabbing another beer...

[rsvman]

K basically said we weren’t hungry because we had been winning a lot, and they were needing a win so they were really hungry. When those two scenarios meet this is what happens.

Blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda...