MBB: Duke 76, L'ville 65 Post Game Thread

[scottdude8]

There’s no such thing as a bad road win. There’s no such thing as a bad road win. There’s no such thing… my GOSH did those first 30 minutes feel like pulling teeth.

Ok, I feel better getting that out.

With that acknowledged, we probably took the best punch Louisville could throw, kept it within reach during that haymaker (as ugly as it was), and then took control without Coop. That’s huge for this team’s psyche moving forward.

Tyrese is looking for his own offense. Sion is attacking the basket more. Kon showed flashes of his ceiling. Maliq is a menace. All great signs.

But… we HAVE to figure out this slow start thing. At this point, I wonder if we need a Maliq for ManMan swap in the short term. This team needs ManMan to hit its ceiling but he’s clearly struggling right now, while Maliq, as mentioned, is playing top notch basketball. Let’s get ManMan his minutes against the opposition bench for a few games to get him recalibrated.

Despite the negatives, we should remember this is the type of game that we 100% would’ve lost the last two years. We just won it by double digits.

 

[-jk]

Not pretty, but a win's a win.

L'ville had no game plan for Coop on the bench.

-jk

 

[dukesouthbasement]

I missed the first half. Did Maluach get injured?

 

[91devil]

Another brick in the wall. DDMF.

 

[Music man55]

Defense comes through, even with Coop on bench! Great opening win Devils!!

 

[rifraf]

Not pretty, but a win's a win.

L'ville had no game plan for Coop on the bench.

-jk

Coach Scheyer playing 4D chess.

Seriously though I don’t think the fact that we had a very old lineup on the court during our big run was irrelevant.

 

[kmspeaks]

Amazing how the second the referees started to do their job Duke went on an 18-2 run. College basketball is really becoming unwatchable with the amount of physicality allowed.

 

[Billy Dat]

Have no fear when the Uncles are near!!!

The Uncles, Tyrese, Kon 18-2 run after Coop got #4 was amazing.

 

[weezie]

Selective physicality you mean, KMS.

 

[kAzE]

Awesome defense the whole 2nd half. Although the beginning of the run (when Cooper picked up his 4th foul) that flipped the game wasn't really about defense as much as Louisville just making horrible decisions and unforced errors repeatedly.

I really really like the lineup of Proctor, James, Flagg, Brown, Knueppel that closed the game. Probably the best 5 man lineup right now.

Is it just me or are we getting consistently unfair whistles this season? Maybe I'm getting old, but it seems especially bad this season. Some of the touchiest touch fouls I can remember in this game and the Kansas game.

 

[HouseH94]

A comment in the chat said it wasn't right to compare Cooper to Laettner. Why not? Their games seem similar if Cooper can ever get his 3s to fall

 

[J4Kop99]

Just want to point out that I turned the game on with 9 mins left and Duke up 59-57.

You’re welcome!! Good road win, all things considered

 

[ClemmonsDevil]

Man I love a road win in conference when you don't play your best! Loved that effort. Brown was MVP for me. He is a better David McClure. And I freaking LOVED Dave McClure.

 

[SkyBrickey]

That lineup really got it done. Proctor Kon Maliq Sion Mason. The D was outstanding. The ball was moving on offense.

Sion continues to outperform my expectations. Love how automatic he is on the foul line. He's clearly moved ahead of Caleb now.

That was the most aggressive Tyrese has been driving the ball this season. I think that's a good development.

Kon still slumping with his shooting but he led us in assists with 6. No one else had more than 1. I'd like to see Kon be even more assertive driving the ball and creating offense.

Cooper and Maliq with lots of winning plays.

 

[simplyluvin]

Proud of our guys. We worked through A LOT of offensive stagnation and played our best ball in the last 10 minutes, and honestly, after Cooper left with his 4th. What I saw after he sat was a lot more ball movement and a little more dribble penetration.

Also...is Sion our best option at PG?

 

[robed deity]

A comment in the chat said it wasn't right to compare Cooper to Laettner. Why not? Their games seem similar if Cooper can ever get his 3s to fall

Sort of agree, except that Cooper is more athletic than Laettner ever dreamt of being.

 

[goduke03861]

I was hoping that after the offensive performance against Auburn, Duke would understand what works best on offense, unfortunately for 32 mins we reverted to the jacking up tons of 3s. Thankfully the light bulb went off with 8 mins left to drive the ball and we ran away from them. CJS needs to impress upon this team to just drive the damn ball and save this Celtics 3 point crap for when they collect a paycheck in the league.

 

[ChrisP]

I find our offense...offensive! Ugh! Double ugh! Lots of hero ball tonight, it seemed. Haven't looked at stats bit will be shocked if we had many assists. I knew Louisville couldn't keep shooting 73% from three after they started off 8-11 from downtown but...yikes on our ability to score against their set (half court D). Really hoping the coaches figure put something to get us better looks/execution on offense.

 

[heyman25]

Have no fear when the Uncles are near!!!

The Uncles, Tyrese, Kon 18-2 run after Coop got #4 was amazing.

That was the best five of the night.Khaman needs to get defensive rebounds. He is not holding his own. The entire team needs shooting drills. We get good shots but can’t make them. The driving succeeded. I hope this every single game starting slow ends tonight.

 

[Alan_Wilson]

Someone is going to say "oh look at all the people crying about the offense well we won"... the offense tonight is not acceptable and emblematic of bigger problems. Kon shooting 9 threes is unacceptable. Tyrese with one assist is unacceptable. Malauch simply not having a role on the offense at all is unacceptable. This team is too talented to stand around the arc and shoot threes all night until one goes in.