2024-25 DWBB Season

[loran16]

Bring on Oklahoma.

 

[CameronBornAndBred]

Duke announcer..."The Blue Devils cash in their chips"...hell yeah!

 

[du_bb1]

A bit sloppy at the end but a really good game by the ladies

 

[CameronBornAndBred]

That sound you just heard was Charlie Creme scratching someone's name off the two seed line.


PS, I stand by that. The coaching staff and the players are getting on the same page at the right time. And the right time is this early in the season.

 

[Phredd3]

This was a masterful defensive performance. I thought we'd lose this one, and I'm ecstatic to be very wrong. This is a team that was scoring 88+ per game coming in, and Duke held them to 62, and that includes a pretty sloppy close that pretty much gifted them 6 or more points in the last 4:30.

 

[DoubleBlue]

Duke false starts:

Radford: Lead from the beginning, but only 2 points 1:55 into the game.
Liberty: Lead from the beginning.
Maryland: Down 9-0, don't score until the 3:34 mark. Lose by 5.
Dayton: Down 8-0, don't score until 3:49.
South Dakota State: Lead but don't score until 2:04. Second score comes at 3:47.
Belmont: First score at 1:33, but only have 5 points 5 minutes into the game.

Yes, the numbers are convincing. I'm sure the coaching staff is well aware of the trend. I imagine its a question of balance so as to not get too fired up to start the game and then burning out later, versus keeping a more consistant intensity. It also seems that when they get too revved up at the start the offense gets chaotic and everything goes down hill. Maybe Coach knows best how to push the buttons and the team is performing well despite the poor starts.

 

[CameronBornAndBred]

This was a masterful defensive performance. I thought we'd lose this one, and I'm ecstatic to be very wrong. This is a team that was scoring 88+ per game coming in, and Duke held them to 62, and that includes a pretty sloppy close that pretty much gifted them 6 or more points in the last 4:30.

I'm hopeful that Kara lectures them on that closing. This team just last year put on some amazing 4th quarter efforts that proves nobody should ever let their guard down. Look in that mirror, ladies!

 

[dudog84]

I think what we're seeing is the fruits of scheduling tough. Kansas State's closest game was 20 points, and 2 of their wins were by more than 45.

Looking forward to Oklahoma. They're 5-0, and their closest game was 30 points. The 2-3 DePaul team they're playing right now will not make it close. I have a feeling we'll see big games from Toby and Oluchi on Wednesday.

Kudos to Kara.

 

[heyman25]

Ten points for Delaney as Duke takes the 69-52 lead.

Wonder why Wood and Fournier didn’t get much PT ?Better players work the post better than Thomas and Donavan.

 

[CameronBornAndBred]

Wonder why Wood and Fournier didn’t get much PT ?Better players work the post better than Thomas and Donavan.

Toby was first off the bench, but three fouls in eight minutes is all you need to know. Not sure about Wood without having been able to watch.

 

[Phredd3]

Here are the numbers from today's game against the Kansas State Wildcats at the Lee's Family Forum in Hendersonville, NV (i.e. Vegas):


OFFENSE
Possessions: 68.0 (slowest we've played this year)
oRtg: 1.074 (very good; 1.2121 adj., easily tops in the country, if adjustments are to be believed this early)
eFG%: 48.6% (not great)
3pt%: 46.7% (excellent)
2pt%: 42.6% (poor)
%three: 21.7% (very low, especially given how effective they were)
FT rate: 13.0% (very bad)
OR%: 40.0% (excellent, especially against this team)
TO%: 14.7% (really good, second-best of the season)
a/to: 1.400 (excellent, but of the season)
%assisted: 46.7% (not great)
fast break pts: 7 (9.6%) (bad)

DEFENSE
dRtg: 0.912 (very good; 0.733 adj., good for 2nd)
deFG%: 48.2% (surprisingly high)
3pt%: 20.0% (excellent)
2pt%: 52.3% (bad, but against a very tall team)
%threes: 18.5% (excellent)
FT rate: 29.6% (not so good)
DR%: 68.8% (solid against an excellent rebounding team)
TO%: 26.5% (good)
a/to: 0.833 (good)
%assisted: 60.0% (too high)
stl%: 11.8% (not good)
blk%: 11.4% (surprisingly good against this team)
fast break pts: 10 (16.1%) (not good)


I didn't actually see any of the game play, since it was on a sketchy outlet, so I won't say much except to recommend Chris Edwards' call on the Blue Devil Network. He's flying solo, and he does a very respectable job of painting the picture. Calling basketball is a pretty tough gig (much harder than doing either kind of football or one of the diamond sports, IMO), and Chris does a very good job including enough detail that you can picture the crucial parts, but not so much that he can't keep up with an end-to-end game. As others said, it almost takes you back to a different time. I enjoyed it, and his announcing was far better than the clips I saw from the junk network that had the video.

 

[Phredd3]

Toby was first off the bench, but three fouls in eight minutes is all you need to know. Not sure about Wood without having been able to watch.

I don't know for sure, either, but in the post-game interview with Chris, Coach Kara did say that she thought today was Delaney's best game this season. She scored 10 (very inefficient) points (3-for-13 shooting), but led the team with 8 rebounds. She only committed one foul in her 25 minutes against some very difficult bigs, and helped to hold their star, seventh-year (!) center Ayoka Lee to below her season average, even though Lee played almost 50% more minutes than she has been averaging so far this season. It's not clear to me that Wood would have done better than that, given that Wood is so thin and that Lee is a very strong player.

 

[heyman25]

I don't know for sure, either, but in the post-game interview with Chris, Coach Kara did say that she thought today was Delaney's best game this season. She scored 10 (very inefficient) points (3-for-13 shooting), but led the team with 8 rebounds. She only committed one foul in her 25 minutes against some very difficult bigs, and helped to hold their star, seventh-year (!) center Ayoka Lee to below her season average, even though Lee played almost 50% more minutes than she has been averaging so far this season. It's not clear to me that Wood would have done better than that, given that Wood is so thin and that Lee is a very strong player.

Thomas is off to a slow start . She showed some progress last season. Wood and Fournier on TV have been outstanding. Kennedy Brown and Esme were experienced but had inconsistent performances. Wood and Fournier will be a big factor this season. If Thomas gets in the groove lot to like about this team. Beard and Harding Hall of Fame should enhance the program. I wish Geno A would retire. UCLA and USC have great programs similar to Duke. Gottlieb at CA -USC is a good head coach like Kara. Remember her interview in the Final 4 was impressive. Got to root for the Jewish head coaches Gottlieb Pearl and Scheyer.

 

[brevity]

Duke 73, Kansas State 62 (recap, box score, highlights, presser)

Duke women's basketball junior Ashlon Jackson dropped a career-high 30 points to lead the 14th-ranked Blue Devils to a convincing 73-62 victory over No. 10 Kansas State in the 2024 Ball Dawgs Classic at Lee's Family Forum Monday afternoon...

Reigan Richardson contributed 16 points while Taina Mair quarterbacked the offense with seven assists. Delaney Thomas had a solid all-around game with 10 points and eight rebounds.

Duke WBB posted the above-linked game highlights and Ashlon Jackson highlights, both embedded below. There's also the Big 12's version.

What if you were stopped in the hallway and were suddenly asked to throw a press conference? No chair, no box score, just Coach Lawson and the wall behind her. The "Nothing Compares 2 U" of postgame comments:

“Great win for us. They’re a really experienced team, great size. Proud of how we battled. Ashlon was the best player on the floor offensively and defensively. Reigan was great. Mair ran the team late. Certainly our best win of the season. Proud of the group.” (source)

Not on video, but some comments from the players here and here.

Ashlon Jackson: “The energy was crazy from my teammates. As soon as the ball went in, hearing my teammates -- it just felt great. My teammates have the utmost confidence in me. That’s what keeps me going.”

Reigan Richardson: “Coach has preached to us that each game will get harder. Each game we played thus far has prepare us for the next. We’re going to take it one game at a time and stay true to ourselves.”

Next up is #8 Oklahoma, who beat DePaul 85-62 in the second game today. That game will tip off around 4:30pm ET Wednesday (30 minutes after the consolation game between Kansas State and DePaul is over).

 

[brevity]

FloCollege/FloSports/FloHoops has yet to put up a full replay of today's game; I had hoped they would, because they did post the entirety of NC State's game in the Bahamas from this morning.

If you would like to see a bit more of today's Duke-KSU game, there are some fly-by-night sources on YouTube with longer segments, but this Duke highlight video from Breaking Ground seems different because it's not the FloHoops feed, but independent footage from a high-quality camera by someone behind Duke's basket for each half.

I'm listening and live statting with the game underway (KSU up 6-0 early), and here's a weird stat: I know one of the referees.

There's a pretty good closeup of the referees around the 2:35 mark. One of them, InFini Robinson, was (and probably still is) a police officer in the greater Las Vegas area.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1597389721209954304

According to Basketball Reference, she played for Michigan (1999-2001) and UNLV (2002-2004). Back in 2012 she officiated an offseason practice among NBA players, and Kyle Lowry was so upset with her that he threw a ball at her, which hit her in the shoulder. Bad move.

From ESPN. Come for the violence, stay for the Duke connection (not me):

Rockets' Lowry charged with battery in Vegas

Houston Rockets guard Kyle Lowry is facing a misdemeanor battery charge amid accusations that he threw a basketball at a referee and threatened her during a game at a Las Vegas training gym.

www.espn.com

The criminal complaint says the 25-year-old Lowry was taunting 30-year-old Infini Robinson while she was officiating a game between NBA players Sept. 22.

Police say that when the game ended, he threw a ball at her torso and cursed at her for calls he didn't agree with.

Robinson later was hit in the shoulder by another basketball in an area designated for officials. She said the ball hit her with such force that it pushed her body back in the chair where she was sitting, and said it likely would have broken her nose had she not been bent over changing her shoe.

The report says Corey Maggette of the Charlotte Bobcats approached her afterward and apologized on behalf of Lowry. She told police Lowry also approached her, saying "I truly apologize for what I did. I let my emotions get the best of me."

 

[CameronBornAndBred]

Georgia Tech knocked off #21 Oregon by a lot tonight. (74-58)

Go ACC!

 

[brevity]

FloCollege/FloSports/FloHoops has yet to put up a full replay of today's game...

Women Hooping is a YouTube account that tends to share a lot of replays, clips, and segments from college and WNBA games. They have posted the full replays for both of today's games in the Ball Dawgs Classic: Duke vs. Kansas State and Oklahoma vs. DePaul.

It's pretty much a one-camera setup like I said, but at least the announcers are on site. It's... fine, just not broadcast quality. Wednesday's games should be similar. Between the radio and stats, social media video clips during the game, the highlights after, and an eventual full replay, I think it's a non-terrible alternative to having to subscribe to watch it live.

I'll try to have a game preview for Oklahoma sometime Tuesday.

 

[Phredd3]

It's pretty much a one-camera setup like I said, but at least the announcers are on site. It's... fine, just not broadcast quality. Wednesday's games should be similar. Between the radio and stats, social media video clips during the game, the highlights after, and an eventual full replay, I think it's a non-terrible alternative to having to subscribe to watch it live.

It's better than paying $20, but it's pretty terrible. There was no chyron at the start of the game, so no game clock, no shot clock, and no score. The announcers didn't seem to know that, because they very seldom actually mentioned the score. There was a gap in the feed early on that was unexplained, and was very confusing with no score shown. They tossed up a chyron after about a period, but took it down again, because it didn't work. They got one at halftime, but the score was still wrong and the clock was only sometimes functional. They mostly fixed both, but both remained somewhat unreliable. They never did show a shot clock. The announcers were pretty bush-league. It was better than one guy with an iPhone or something, but it was fairly terrible.

I certainly wouldn't have wanted to pay for that.

 

[Phredd3]

Wonder why Wood and Fournier didn’t get much PT ?Better players work the post better than Thomas and Donavan.

Toby was first off the bench, but three fouls in eight minutes is all you need to know. Not sure about Wood without having been able to watch.

I don't know for sure, either, but in the post-game interview with Chris, Coach Kara did say that she thought today was Delaney's best game this season.

After watching the terrible feed, though, I have a follow-up for this. First, Fournier did not commit her third foul until very late in the game, but got whistled quickly for two, which basically made her ineligible for the rest of the half. Wood held her own for a time, but what you don't see in the box score is just how effective the Donovan/Thomas combo was in defending the post. To say Ayoka Lee is a load is not giving her enough credit. She is hefty, strong, super tall, and has great technique. Also, their entry passes to Lee were very practiced, so Lee could catch the ball high and just pivot to a shot. Most of the time, the ball never dipped even to her head level, which meant shorter players had no chance. We needed Delaney's strength to keep her from maneuvering, with Donovan's speed in switching and great leaping ability to get some weakside deflections. Those two did a great job of making it really difficult for Lee to receive and control the ball in the block. They didn't create a ton of direct turnovers that way, although there were a few, but they just made it so hard for Kansas State to use their primary weapon that a lot of times they were forced into bad shots somewhere else (plus a few shot clock violations). The reason the other posts didn't get much PT is because what we were doing was working so well.

Kansas State clearly had not seen anything comparable to our ball pressure, either. We were everywhere, and sped them up to the point of gratuitously stepping out of bounds, and panic travels. K-State committed 18 turnovers (their usual had been just 11), and that was a huge factor in this game.

Ashlon Jackson's shooting was awesome, but this game was won on the defensive end. Smothering.

 

[ratamero]

I will never pay for a service that calls our #5 "Oluchi Okinawa".

(great win though!)