MBB: Duke 72, KU 75 Post-game Thread

[Kjeffrey]

I'll give credit to Kansas, they played their best game of the season and were clearly ready for this matchup. KJ Adams did it on both ends, and really shut down Coop for most of the game. Harris was just about flawless.

That said, that's about as frustrating a game from a group of referees that I can remember. I don't usually criticize the officiating, but that was one of the worst officiated Duke games I think I've seen in favor of 1 team. I'm surprised they threw out Dickinson, as he was getting away with murder every play before that kick happened.

Still, our end of game execution is just terrible. We had more than our share of chances and once again turned it over twice in the final minute of the game. I think Sion went to the rim on that last play thinking Kon was going to shoot it, but ended up disrupting the play completely. Kon's shooting in these big games has to be better too. 0 for 8 is really rough.

1-8 against Kentucky
3-6 against Arizona
0-8 against Kansas

It’s very concerning…

 

[dukelion]

Hard not to be a bit worried going forward.

Cooper isn't gonna put on 15 lbs this season and teams will now use this game as their playbook when facing Duke this year. Road conference games will be a bloodbath for him.

And perhaps more/most worrisome is a lack of a post scoring on this team. We simply don't have a anyone outside of Flagg who can reliably get a high percentage shot at the rim. Over half our FGs today were from 3 and we actually hit at a great rate (42%) and still lost. When we have an off night shooting and teams are ultra physical with Flagg what do we do?

Being out rebounded by 6 (5 offensive) was also an issue especially down the stretch. Khaman and Maliq each had a single rebound......which is a bit of a red flag especially with Dickinson missing the final 10 mins.

Good news is that they have so much room to grow.....but grow they will need to do as the team looks a bit flawed at the moment.

 

[lmb]

Dickinson grabbed Brown's leg before he kicked him. That may be why the refs called a flagrant 2.

 

[luvdahops]

To be a true title contender we have to be better on offense. Period. And not just in end of game situations. We need to get back to constant ball and player movement, and use iso and the 2-man game much more selectively. We're simply too predictable otherwise.

 

[SkyBrickey]

This is the same Kansas team that blew a 21 pt lead to UNC at home and was missing their all American center for the last 10 game minutes. Missed free throws, missed rebounds, and Jon's inability to draw anything up at end of game scenarios was identical to Kentucky so what was learned?

Stop with the Jon heat. This was the #1 team in the country. They are old. We are young. We were right there. We have a higher ceiling than this Kansas team. Kon goes 2-8 on wide open 3s and this is a very different debate. We are celebrating.

Everybody just take a breath. We still should be favored to win the natty.

 

[Ballboy1998]

Leading the country in woulda, shoulda, couldas. Hard to win those close ones late without a lead guard to lean on.

With the state of the ACC, the Auburn game is now extremely important if this crew wants any shot of a top seed in March.

 

[goduke03861]

Calling a spade a spade Kon is shooting 19% from 3 against ranked teams. The proof is there, he's not that guy outside of Cameron

 

[pamtar]

People unloading on Jon need to chill. He coached a great game. Refs were absolute trash and we lost by three against the No 1 team and the best coach in the country. It’s been freshman since before K retired. What do you expect? I feel great about our season going forward.

 

[karmacoma]

I know we will be vastly different in March. We really need Proctor and Foster to improve. Just not a dynamic playmaking guard at the moment. James can handle the ball and is tough and we played through Kon tonight, but gonna be hard to win a chip without better play from Foster and Proctor. I know Proctor had 15 but they combined fo

Agreed. I can't imagine Kon running point was the roster construction strategy, but here we are.

 

[SkyBrickey]

A few too many turnovers in this game, and an inability to get defensive rebounds to close out possessions even with Dickinson out of the game. I thought some of that also came down to the way we allowed Kansas’ guards to dictate things even after the ejection.

I think we’ll continue to get better offensively, the Kon-Cooper pick and roll looked really good in the second half. But defensively we were scrambling a bit too much and didn’t look totally connected out there, even Cooper made mistakes trying to defend too aggressively.

Agree with everyone who feels our offense should have more sets with Cooper off the ball and setting screens. Having him isolate, as good as he can be, doesn’t work against a packed defense if he doesn’t have a reliable jump shot and/or the ability to make reads when drawing double and triple teams.

This is a really smart take from KandG. He knows hoops.

 

[DBKilby]

Stop with the Jon heat. This was the #1 team in the country. They are old. We are young. We were right there. We have a higher ceiling than this Kansas team. Kon goes 2-8 on wide open 3s and this is a very different debate. We are celebrating.

Everybody just take a breath. We still should be favored to win the natty.

Kansas isn't the #1 team unless you take the AP seriously which no one should. This is a terrible loss.

 

[WHOneedsSOX]

I know we will be vastly different in March. We really need Proctor and Foster to improve. Just not a dynamic playmaking guard at the moment. James can handle the ball and is tough and we played through Kon tonight, but gonna be hard to win a chip without better play from Foster and Proctor. I know Proctor had 15 but they combined for 2 assists.

What does Duke do with Foster? He's just not a very good player right now. But he's also not a typical bench player either.

 

[SkyBrickey]

Defense competed but our offense still stinks and we turn the ball over way too much.

Stinks? Come on DB. Lighten up. Room for improvement? For sure. We won the game after the first 8 min against the #1 team in the country.

 

[jay040]

Given that Kon was 0-7 and Proctor was 5-7 from three, I would have tried to design the last shot for Proctor.

Duke had the chance to take over when Dickinson went out, and the coaches should have warned Duke that they were going to call the game tight to keep it under control. That series of 3-4 fouls in under 1.5 minutes gave Kansas back the momentum in the game. Kansas has a deep team. We had two freshman level turnovers in the final minute by freshman. Hopefully it’s a learning experience and they’ll play better in March.

 

[FosterCoachK82]

Thoughts:

1. It is an early season game against an equal. We battled them til the end. This will tough up the team.

2. We won’t win many games when Kon shoots 0-8 from 3. I hope he finds his shot soon.

3. Flagg is great, but loses the ball dribbling into heavy traffic in the middle. Need to address this.

4. What is Khaman’s role? He seemed like a ghost today.

5. Tyrese and Maliq were great. And Maliq got hosed on more than one call. He is one of the best defensive players out there. And he made a 3!

6. I think we are on par with any team in the country. We are also young and should grow more than other squads. I like this team.

 

[SkyBrickey]

HardER I’d say. If we can beat Auburn that goal is still very much in sight. One thing I’m taking from this early season is I’m much less worried about an upset with this squad. We’ve shown we aren’t over reliant on one guy. We’ve shown we can come back from early deficits. We’ve shown we can stay competitive when we aren’t shooting well. If that holds it’s going to be hard for a less talented team to beat us, period. Just so happens that Kansas and Kentucky are very talented.

Yep. This is a team that can go undefeated in the ACC.

 

[simplyluvin]

Not at all saying Scheyer is not our guy, but he does seem to have trouble dialing up good plays at the end. It’s possible we don’t execute well, but offense is not CJS’ strong suit.

Going against the best coach in the game today is never going to be easy, but we keep getting out coached in critical moments. We have to play better at the end of games.

 

[Bluedog]

Calling a spade a spade Kon is shooting 19% from 3 against ranked teams. The proof is there, he's not that guy outside of Cameron

I disagree. It's a small sample size, no "proof" that he's going to shoot 19% against good teams. He's a good shooter but can be streaky just like a lot of good shooters. Most of his shots were on the right line but had some of them just rim out. I expect him going 0fer will be a rarity. We needed his two 3s against Zona late and that was his first away game.

 

[Mak P]

We're not going far without a PG. A PG who can atleast penetrate and get defenses scrambling. To Kon, you have to make your 3s in these big games. 2 3s from you and we probably win. You're missing open 3s

 

[goduke03861]

I disagree. It's a small sample size, no "proof" that he's going to shoot 19% against good teams. He's a good shooter but can be streaky just like a lot of good shooters. Most of his shots were on the right line but had some of them just rim out. I expect him going 0fer will be a rarity. We needed his two 3s against Zona late.

It's just as much evidence of his ability as a shooter at this level as the games in Cameron are, so you can't go the other way and say he's a good shooter then based on cupcake city games at home. In games with real players he's not shooting well.