MBB: Duke 56, Purdue 75 Post-Game Thread

[MartyClark]

This was a difficult game to watch. I don't think Purdue is great. Edey was very effective but he is slow, ponderous and predictable in his offensive moves.Maybe we should have doubled down on him more but Purdue, unlike Duke, was hitting their outside shots.

Proctor had a good game. I think he has a good upside this season. Whitehead, Lively and Mitchell were largely absent. I expected them to be difference makers this year. With the exception of an early game by Mitchell, they are not.

It's early and there is plenty of room for improvement but, by golly, Duke needs to hit some outside shots.

I'm moderately discouraged by this team thus far.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Congratulations to Purdue on a great win. Edey is a beast and Painter schemes well for him. I agree with someone else that we might have been planning for Gonzaga as we seemed a bit caught off guard. We have better personnel to face someone like Edey than we have in years.

Nice to see Proctor step up his game. Now we need one or more of Lively, Whitehead, Grandison and/or Mitchell to become a consistent contributor. For the three freshmen, it is time to go from being great HS players to great (or at least good) college players. I don't think that is a big ask.

Ohio State is a solid team. This will be a big test to see how we bounce back. I am very glad it is at home. I hope Roach is OK. He really gutted it out and hit some big shots over the past few days.

[kshepinthehouse]

I am in full agreement with this post. There were a couple of possessions where Duke could have cut the lead to 5. They fought hard to get to that position in this game.

I’m glad that Jeremy looked good after the foot issue.

I also liked the zone.

I hope Jon can teach ‘‘em up before Wednesday

Blakes banged a three off the backboard and Mitchell got blocked on a three then missed another. Two guys we prob don’t want shooting many threes.

[dukelifer]

For the three games, Duke shot 5/29 (17%), 5/11 (46%), and 2/19 (11%).

For the season Proctor is 5/32 (16%).

That should give the team something to work on during the break.

Proctor can shoot but he may be better inside 15ft. Whitehead is streaky at best. There are no great shooters on this team- and winning at this level requires shooters or pros. I don’t see it happening but it is early.

[Dr. Maturin]

I think our 3 point shooting will come good to some extent. I can't imagine the coaching staff would give so many guys the green light otherwise. This may not be a great shooting team, but I don't think it's going to be 2019 either.

[kako]

5 thoughts...

1. I was worried after watching Purdue beat the Zags. Those fears came true. Purdue is a very talented and experienced team. Edey is a force like no other I've seen in CBB this year. There is no shame in losing to this team. After Portland, I think they just vaulted themselves into the chase for a #1 seed.

2. Duke did show fire, coming back a few times to cut the big lead to single digits. And the eventual switch to zone did derail Purdue temporarily. But their inexperience offensively was obvious when compared to the Boilermakers' offense. The game was a true learning experience. Duke isn't all that (yet), and now they know it, for certain. Time to work on a number of things, Devils.

3. To me, Proctor's play was the best thing a Devils' fan could point to in this game. And Lively actually played pretty good D on Edey. It's just that Edey was too much for one guy to handle.

4. You can see greatness in Whitehead more and more. He's got the moves. He still needs time to get into his best form. He could also work more on defense, I saw he was out of position more than once.

5. In order for this team to really make a deep run, guys like Blakes and Grandison need to make more of an impact every game. Even Reeves, in his first meaningful appearance, did his job when he came in. The upperclassmen need to have meaningful minutes, each and every game. Today, they did not.

9F

[CameronBornAndBred]

Peeeeeyewww

[heyman25]

Proctor can shoot but he may be better inside 15ft. Whitehead is streaky at best. There are no great shooters on this team- and winning at this level requires shooters or pros. I don’t see it happening but it is early.

Until Duke can start making wide open three point shots, Duke will have to struggle against good teams. It can be corrected. Oregon State and Purdue games show how badly Duke shoots on the perimeter.

[SouthernDukie]

Proctor can shoot but he may be better inside 15ft. Whitehead is streaky at best. There are no great shooters on this team- and winning at this level requires shooters or pros. I don’t see it happening but it is early.

Unfortunately, this is my take as well. We certainly have the defensive chops, but offensively we aren’t very good unless Jeremy is playing at a very high level. We simply don’t have enough outside shooters. And I’m not overly confident that will change at any point during this season. It saddens me to say this, but I don’t think the ceiling is as high for this team as some of you guys think it is. Really hope I’m wrong.

[simplyluvin]

The switch to zone by Coach Scheyer and staff really got Duke back into the game. I think Duke cut the lead to 6 at one point in the 2nd half and it was still very much anyone’s game. I was glad to see Roach return from injury and I hope he is ok going forward. Roach, Proctor, and Flip had good games offensively but as a team Duke shot just 2-19 from 3. Duke was also out rebounded 42-32 and out assisted 17 to 8. Purdue is a good team and Edey is a lot to handle in the post. Hopefully, the young guys can learn from this and be better for it going forward. Tough game overall but a lot of season left and Duke still has a high ceiling.

I really appreciate the optimism here and elsewhere on the thread after a loss, but the offensive futility we saw coming out of this tournament makes me feel that our ceiling is not quite that high. This team reminds me of the 2017 team when Jayson Tatum had to claw his way back from a foot injury, but that team had way more firepower (soph Kennard, junior Grayson, even Frank Jackson). We just don't have a scorer on this team (yet), but I have three causes for hope:

1. Whitehead has shown glimpses of being a serious baller. If by end of December he's back in game shape and at game speed, we may be in business. We need a scorer for this team to feed off. Last year, we got that from Paolo, Wendell, and AJ at times. Last year AJ was coming back from injury and his game blossomed, and he was the missing ingredient to what became an elite team. I think Whitehead has the potential to be even more impactful to us this year.
2. Proctor needs desperately to find his shot, but I really liked his dribble penetration game today, and he needs to do more of that until his shot comes around.
3. Flip has some poor man's Laettner game in him. If he grows in confidence, he could really blow up.

[Sixth_Sense]

Our offense is non-existent. Guess we’ll see if things click but I’ve drastically tempered my expectations for this season

[BandAlum83]

This is a scrappy team with fight, but here is my realistic assessment to this point. Would love to hear the errors in my thoughts!

Purdue looks like an elite eight or final four team.

Duke looks like a first weekend team with maybe a 5 or 6 seed.
Considering the weakness of the ACC, we maybe get the 3 seed in the ACC tourney, but 4-6 wouldn’t surprise me.

Lively and Whitehead look nothing like what I would expect the first and second ranked high school kids to look like, even considering injury set backs.

After 4 years, lively could hit Javin DeLaurier.
Whitehead could be a lottery pick after 3 years.
Mitchell’s ceiling is somewhere around Brian Davis, while I was hoping for a Justise Winslow.

Flip is a likely OAD lottery pick and the only one who should consider leaving.
Roach should come back next year, and may play abroad afterwards
Blakes can be a four-year favorite and will be an excellent college player.
Proctor is a star in the making! If he gives us 2 years, he could be a top 8 lottery pick.

I’m glad we have effectively used the transfer portal. This year would be pretty ugly without it.

I still love my Blue Devils despite this assessment.

[Mak P]

Please don't close the game thread unless the post one exist

[Saratoga2]

The team fought hard but pressing later in the game seemed to tire us out. Filipowski played a lot of minutes for a big man and appeared tired before he fouled out and Lively had a tough assignment but was good defensively. Nobody on our team or maybe in college basketball can match up with Edy. Painter does have other weapons with Loyer shooting among others. He also sold out to rebound with all his guys and it limited Duke's main strength.

On the good side, Proctor came alive and showed what some of the hype has been about. He is our best primary ball handler in my opinion and can score. Roach had a good game bunt seemed to tire out later in the game. Filipowski was our other offensive threat and that is where our scoring will have to come from on days when Mitchell and Young get limited.

On the not so good side, we lacked 3 point shooting and that may not improve against our better opponents. Those that zone us may expose our weakness. The good things said about Grandison and Blakes were not evident tonight. Whitehead is a good athlete but he makes decisions like a freshman at this point. One thing Scheyer did that I liked was bringing Reeves in. He had the size to bother Edy and could have given both Filipowski and Lively some rest if used more extensively and probably would have reduced the likelihood of either of them fouling out.

Good learning experience for the team, now on to the Big Ten challenge.

[scottdude8]

I really appreciate the optimism here and elsewhere on the thread after a loss, but the offensive futility we saw coming out of this tournament makes me feel that our ceiling is not quite that high. This team reminds me of the 2017 team when Jayson Tatum had to claw his way back from a foot injury, but that team had way more firepower (soph Kennard, junior Grayson, even Frank Jackson). We just don't have a scorer on this team (yet), but I have three causes for hope:

1. Whitehead has shown glimpses of being a serious baller. If by end of December he's back in game shape and at game speed, we may be in business. We need a scorer for this team to feed off. Last year, we got that from Paolo, Wendell, and AJ at times. Last year AJ was coming back from injury and his game blossomed, and he was the missing ingredient to what became an elite team. I think Whitehead has the potential to be even more impactful to us this year.
2. Proctor needs desperately to find his shot, but I really liked his dribble penetration game today, and he needs to do more of that until his shot comes around.
3. Flip has some poor man's Laettner game in him. If he grows in confidence, he could really blow up.

Well, one might say that analysis benefits from a bit of hindsight. At this point, I don’t think many foresaw the levels Kennard and Jackson would attain, and Tatum was still a hypothetical. Maybe Whitehead approaches Tatum, Proctor takes a leap like Jackson, and junior Roach approximates junior Grayson. Seems like a pipe dream right now, but so would your analysis at this point in that season.

[rsvman]

At one point with about four minutes left, I thought why not put Schutt in the game and let him fire away a bit?

The shooting was truly atrocious.

Edey is good, but I counted two obvious walks prior to his dunks, and several three-in-the-keys that were also ignored.

I was calling for the zone a LONG time before Scheyer finally went for it.

Overall, just a pretty ugly game.

[UrinalCake]

Blakes banged a three off the backboard and Mitchell got blocked on a three then missed another. Two guys we prob don’t want shooting many threes.

It's not an accident that those guys were open. The Mitchell wide open three that he missed I remember was on a possession where we went small and had Flip as our only big. Purdue responded by having Edey guard Mitchell as they knew he could leave him open on the perimeter.

[-jk]

Please don't close the game thread unless the post one exist

You can always start one! If more than one gets started, we generally merge them.

-jk

[trinity79]

• Edey didn't beat us. Purdue beat us.
• We did seem a little intimidated by the big stage.
• Too much iso-ball.
• With a guy like Edey, we should have been taking it right at him every trip down the court, instead of trying to use finesse. He's going to get called for the foul sooner or later.
• Remember, we have 4 big guys to their one. That should be our strength, not theirs.
• Even though Purdue has other good players, with Edey on the bench, I'm sure they would be less confident. Tom Izzo will certainly figure this out.
• We were in disarray after the first 10 minutes. I'm not going to attribute that to coaching, but even our "body language" on the bench looked bad.

[stals]

Duke’s offense right now is the worst I’ve seen in many years. Not sure it can be fixed given the lack of 3 point shooters.

Firstly, Purdue is good. They’re better than 4th to 6th best in the B10 that people initially thought.

Really, really concerned with two very, very horrendous offensive performances this long weekend. We do not have outside shooting consistency of any kind yet, and we lack real shotmakers. Whitehead might be one, but he’s a ways off right now from that. Flip could be one too, but he’s still catching up to the speed of the college game, and I’d wish he’d stop flopping around the floor.

The next poll will be indicative of where we truly are. Probably between 12 and 15 right now.

I love our effort on defense, and we should have gone zone earlier. But I’m really concerned about our offense going forward.