MBB: Duke 72, KU 75 Post-game Thread

jafarr1 said:
Lots of posts in this thread read that way. Some actually made me laugh out loud. Maybe I could understand it if we got destroyed, but we didn't.

We are six games into the season with two returning players and with three freshmen playing half our minutes. We've had people declare that Flagg should literally never have the ball in his hands down the stretch, that Kon simply cannot shoot at this level, plus a laundry list of things that Scheyer is getting wrong. Oh, and apparently losing to Kansas is a bad loss.

Any loss to Kansas stings. But sometimes ... and hear me out here ... teams bringing in six new players take more than six games to come together. It's November. There are plenty of positive signs, and there is plenty of time for this team to learn from their mistakes, and to correct them or otherwise make adjustments.
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Exactly. This team could still be dominant by April. The defense already is. The offense will develop. I think we made a step forward tonight with Kon proving that he can create offense at a high level.
 
SkyBrickey said:
Yeah, I'm sensitive to anybody who begins a statement with "I'm glad Jon is our coach but..."

It's his third year. We just played the #1 team to a stalemate. You don't have to preface criticism like Jon is on the hot seat.
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Man, please don’t twist my words. Absolutely did not imply Jon is on the hot seat. Quite the opposite as a matter of fact. He’s our guy. Should be able to point out where things could be better.
 
J4Kop99 said:
“Losing by 3 to a number 1 team” is missing the proper context.

As for point 2: Last years team was very good. Just lost to an extremely hot NC state team. Did you not think last year’s team could win the whole thing after the sweet 16 win??
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I didn't think anyone was getting by UConn last year.
 
karmacoma said:
I like this take. Hope we don't slide to the four line like last year. Having to take out the number 1 seed in the Sweet 16 took something out of us last spring, or that's at least how I explain to myself how poorly we shot the ball in the regional final.
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Yeah, I mean we’re hurting from a loss. It sucks. But there is a ton of potential growth from this team. In K’s later years we very rarely saw a team actually improve as the season went on. I’m hopeful and feeling positive we’ll see something different here. We have a very good defensive team that unfortunately was over matched by a Very mature and athletic team tonight. We didn’t have many teams this good defensively though in the last 10 years or so of K.

I loved what we saw from Proctor most of tonight. We absolutely must get more production out of the guards. Kon has a surprisingly nice game but if he is consistently our 2nd option on offense then I still think we’re going to be in trouble against Kansas level teams. We’re going to have to lean on Foster and Proctor to deliver. I also feel with some confidence that we’ll see Malauch improve as the season progresses.
 
I was encouraged by this game, honestly. A very few number of things go slightly differently and we win by eight.

Can't wait to see how this team develops over the next few months.
 
simplyluvin said:
Man, please don’t twist my words. Absolutely did not imply Jon is on the hot seat. Quite the opposite as a matter of fact. He’s our guy. Should be able to point out where things could be better.
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Ok fair enough. I'm sorry Simply. A lot of people love criticizing Jon's coaching after a big loss. But never after a big win when it's the SAME coaching.
 
FosterCoachK82 said:
I would be thrilled with 17-3 but don’t expect to get there. Other teams have really good coaches, and players, and traditions, and home courts. I love our team but some folks don’t understand the landscape of college basketball today.
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We were 15-5 last year and the ACC is no better. I think the bottom teams last year are better though. I like this team much better than last year.
 
I tend to be very negative about, well, everything. But I CAN NOT believe how much of the "let's give up on the season" vibe going on in this thread.

It's freakin' November. Kansas is a national title contender. We lost by 3 friggin' points. But, apparently, we have unfixable problems, our coach has no idea what he's doing, we're likely to lose a whole lot of games and, oh, by the way, it's not within the realm of possibility Kansas or Kentucky will lose games either.

For pity's sake. Kansas played about as well as they could tonight. They got unexpected play from key players. We had a couple of lulls - lulls that in the last few years would have had the wheels totally come off, but they didn't.

We have to fix some things. But they certainly don't look like endemic problems that will plague us forever.

Except according to a bunch of people posting here....

We're 6 games into the season, it's not even Thanksgiving, and the vibe on the board seems to be deciding that beating Arizona on their home floor convincingly tells us little about this team, but losing to Kansas by 3 on a neutral floor exposes everything about us.

Honestly, that's not a fun way to root for my team.

Sorry...rant over.
 
UrinalCake said:
We were swimming upstream all night after the slow start, fought hard to keep the score close but could never get over the hump and couldn't finish in closing time. Turnovers, free throw shooting, and rebounding will be the biggest things to work on. Kon shooting terribly in another big game obviously needs to change.

We have the pieces to go far in the tournament but there's a lot of work to do to get there. The offense still feels predictable and uncreative. Despite all that we had three good possessions to take the lead or tie in the final minute and just couldn't convert.

Brown had an incredible game, Proctor's shooting kept us in it, and Cooper learned to adjust to the double teams. A learning experience for sure that will hopefully pay dividends down the road.
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Yeah, Kneuppel missing three after three was the death knell. I could be mistaken, but wasn’t he supposed to be a great shooter from long range?

Basically, it’s a double-edged sword to be heavily reliant on freshmen, even highly-regarded ones. Yes, they make sensational plays here and there, but not so much at winning time. And every year, we hope and pray that they’re going to be so much more clutch at tournament time than they are early in their first year, but it never really seems to happen.

Honestly, I don’t recall a single example of a reversal of fortune in “clutchness” from beginning of freshman year to end. There seems to be a kind of collective mythology that it happens, but I don’t think it actually does.
 
Duke rebounded poorly, didn't remotely value the ball, and had its worst defensive performance of the year but still had a decent shot to send the game into overtime.

This thread is a bit odd. There is way too much chicken littling going on. There is also way too much copium. Duke has a great roster but has more work to do than I thought they would at this point.
 
Obviously Kon’s shooting hurt us in this one as it did vs Kentucky. But I’m not worried about his shot at all. The larger concern is his difficulty in finishing against the size and length that the stronger teams possess. He struggled with it against both Kentucky and Kansas.

I did not think the offense was creative enough tonight. When they were doubling Cooper we needed to take advantage of that by calling sets more frequently to get the ball to the open other guy. And I didn’t think we worked all that hard or creatively to free Cooper. Everything was contested and difficult for him. He got beat up tonight. One reason was the refereeing but the other was that we didn’t have ways to relieve the pressure on him.

End of game situations I think the ball should be in Tyrese’s hands. He can drive the ball and shoot over defenders. He is an excellent pick and roll passer, which would work well with Cooper or Khaman. And if he draws a lot of attention he can find Kon or another shooter in the corner. That provides the most good options for us.
 
Steven43 said:
Yeah, Kneuppel missing three after three was the death knell. I could be mistaken, but wasn’t he supposed to be a great shooter from long range?

Basically, it’s a double-edged sword to be heavily reliant on freshmen, even highly-regarded ones. Yes, they make sensational plays here and there, but not so much at winning time. And every year, we hope and pray that they’re going to be so much more clutch at tournament time than they are early in their first year, but it never really seems to happen.

Honestly, I don’t recall a single example of a reversal of fortune in “clutchness” from beginning of freshman year to end. There seems to be a kind of collective mythology that it happens, but I don’t think it actually does.
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You should maybe tune out and we will let you know when we are in the Final Four. Sheesh.
 
J4Kop99 said:
Excuses, excuses. This is a bad loss any way you look at it. Made worse considering the almost identical way they lost to Kentucky a week prior.

The lack of offensive cohesion is concerning,

-Duke started off slow on both ends
-struggled with Kansas’ physicality throughout (heard that one before)
-could not consistently get into their offense
-changed absolutely nothing schematically once Dickinson was ejected (Flagg was not nearly aggressive enough)
-had bad turnovers throughout
-once again could not execute late


Scheyers inability to draw up even the semblance of a good end of game ATO is concerning.
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I agree we have a lack of offensive cohesion, and that is because we have no true playmaking guards!
 
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