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

SkyBrickey said:
A little perspective. According to the computers, that was our toughest game for 2 months. And we walked out with an 11 point win after a bad shooting night (27% from 3).
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Yep. Let's put some numbers behind that. We were favored by 7 (per Kenpom), and won by 11. Before that game, our expected conference record was 17-3, and now it's 18-2. The closest predictions (below double digits) for our remaining games are:
Jan 4, @SMU, favored by 8
Feb 8, @Clemson, favored by 2
Feb 22, Illinois (neutral), favored by 6
Mar 8, @UNC, favored by 5
 
dlmzzz said:
Yep. Let's put some numbers behind that. We were favored by 7 (per Kenpom), and won by 11. Before that game, our expected conference record was 17-3, and now it's 18-2. The closest predictions (below double digits) for our remaining games are:
Jan 4, @SMU, favored by 8
Feb 8, @Clemson, favored by 2
Feb 22, Illinois (neutral), favored by 6
Mar 8, @UNC, favored by 5
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I think there's a real good chance we could be 20-2 walking into Clemson's gym on Feb 8. If it happens, it will be our defense that gets us there. With this group, there's no reason to ever have a bad defensive night.

Interesting minutes spread tonight. 9-deep. Proctor played 37m but no one else played more than 30m.
 
I rewatched the last 11:30 or so right around when Cooper sat with his 4th. He had just scored two good transition baskets right before he got whistled. A couple of observations:
  1. There seemed to be better spacing when cooper was out. This made the lane easier to penetrate and Sion and Proctor had good drives that led to buckets or free throws. Good things happened when our guards drove to the basket. Better spacing also got Kon his two threes.
  2. Good things also happened with Maliq as a distributor at the top. He’s such a baller and I’m so glad he’s on our team. Smart player. He had at least two backdoor cuts that led to baskets.
  3. UL played with a smaller lineup that allowed us to take advantage inside.
  4. Sion at the point was at the very least a steadying force.
  5. Mostly, however, our defense was locked in. They did cool down from 3 but our D was really tenacious and our ball pressure was fierce. This led to some easy transition baskets.
  6. When Cooper came back, we ran horn sets for him, and it honestly seemed to slow the offense down again.
I was trying to glean any positives for our offense in that last stretch where we were so efficient, and I see mainly defense creating offense and better motion and ball movement with the smaller lineup. This might be controversial, but maybe we shouldn’t run that Cooper-centric offense and let the offense come to him. I also think he holds the ball too long.
 
simplyluvin said:
I rewatched the last 11:30 or so right around when Cooper sat with his 4th. He had just scored two good transition baskets right before he got whistled. A couple of observations:
  1. There seemed to be better spacing when cooper was out. This made the lane easier to penetrate and Sion and Proctor had good drives that led to buckets or free throws. Good things happened when our guards drove to the basket. Better spacing also got Kon his two threes.
  2. Good things also happened with Maliq as a distributor at the top. He’s such a baller and I’m so glad he’s on our team. Smart player. He had at least two backdoor cuts that led to baskets.
  3. UL played with a smaller lineup that allowed us to take advantage inside.
  4. Sion at the point was at the very least a steadying force.
  5. Mostly, however, our defense was locked in. They did cool down from 3 but our D was really tenacious and our ball pressure was fierce. This led to some easy transition baskets.
  6. When Cooper came back, we ran horn sets for him, and it honestly seemed to slow the offense down again.
I was trying to glean any positives for our offense in that last stretch where we were so efficient, and I see mainly defense creating offense and better motion and ball movement with the smaller lineup. This might be controversial, but maybe we shouldn’t run that Cooper-centric offense and let the offense come to him. I also think he holds the ball too long.
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I went back and rewatched it too. Agreed that the defense seemed a lot more locked in. We totally stifled them. On the offensive side, I expect Jon and staff will be examining that tape closely. Lots of ball movement. Lots of guys making plays. We need to integrate Cooper into that offensive flow.
 
Not injured as far as know.
dukesouthbasement said:
I missed the first half. Did Maluach get injured?
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There was one possession (16 minutes and change of the 2nd half) that I replayed several times. Proctor drove; the man guarding him slipped and fell on his butt, almost colliding with Hadley at the lower block, who lowered both hands to protect himself. So there'so one paying attention to Man Man. He was open in the paint, but so close to the end line he wasn't in the right spot for what could have been an easy alley oop dunk, nor did he indicate in any way that he was unguarded and needed the ball. So you can't blame Proctor for taking an unguarded 2 pointer, which missed. Seeing the shot go up, Man Man made no effort to seal off Hadley, instead letting Hadley gain inside position and seal him off. The rebound basically came between the two, and 6'6" Hadley managed to tip the rebound to a teammate. To sum up, you had two Dukies totally unguarded and we still couldn't score.

Not trying to throw too much shade on Man Man. He's still inexperienced and has played better than that at times. But Coach may have seen what I saw, as Man Man went to the bench soon after that and didn't return.
 
1) in second half, Louisville called time out to stop a run and came out and promptly turned it over. Scheyer called a time out and we scored off the time out. That was nice to see!
2) Malik and Cooper 5 steals while our three guards 1 steal (Sion)
3) I knew we would come back when Louisville had 4 fouls and we had 9 fouls. Once they started evening it out we made our run. That was as much of the reason that we came back. Still nice to see the offensive flow better with the smaller lineup. Gives us confidence we can play with Flagg out.
4) I just love the Brown and James combo at end of games. They are calming force, clutch, have good passing to each other, rebound, and play good defense. Only concern with brown is we get a ref who calls ticky tack fouls when he reaches in to knock the ball away.
 
When the season began, I expected Kon to lead the team in scoring off his 3-point shooting, but I expected him to struggle defensively. However, Kon has shot the 3 ball poorly, but has made up for it with his playmaking. His assist to turnover his outstanding. His defense is average and not as bad as I expected. Man-Man has performed about like I thought he would. Freshmen big men need time to adjust to the level of play and with his lack of experience he's not up to par yet. The wonderful thing is Jon was brilliant enough to convince Maliq to come to Duke. He's been a ball-hawk and leads our defense. I thought Mason played his best game last night and maybe he's going to go on a hot streak.

GoDuke!
 
roywhite said:
Does Maluach ever control the opening tap? Doesn't seem like it. My recollection is that Lively was very successful in that initial play of the game.

And Maluach certainly has the length and jumping ability to win more frequently. Just seems like he is lacking a certain comfort level on the court. Probably related to his lesser level of basketball experience.

His improvement and better feel for the game would be a positive development for the team. Maybe better starts which would be nice.
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I think he won the tip against Kansas (and All of the early games - Maine, Army, etc.)
 
Dwight said:
Brown has been terrific. But I like having him bring the defensive energy off the bench, as it helps maintain our intensity on that end throughout the game.
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I can see this argument but the question to me is if Brown starting would help prevent the opponent from getting off to fast starts? Not sure how much of that has been fluky shooting or too many open looks…
 
Our recent starts have been problematic, but last night I wasn't overly worried....Lville came out all jacked up in front of a packed house, hit a number of very tough shots, so I figured if we could weather the initial storm we'd be OK.
 
When I first joined DBR, Jumbo used to do Phases of the season. Can anyone else take up that role?

The reason I ask is a couple of the burning questions preseason have been answered. Such as, yes, Brown can guard centers!
 
Maged said:
When I first joined DBR, Jumbo used to do Phases of the season. Can anyone else take up that role?

The reason I ask is a couple of the burning questions preseason have been answered. Such as, yes, Brown can guard centers!
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I believe Jumbo is assisting his favorite Duke player run the Duke basketball team now-a-days. I miss him as I do Newton.

GoDuke!
 
trinity79 said:
I'm only talking about ACC road openers, that is our first ACC road game of the season. You'll find that we lost in 2023 (Ga. Tech) , 2022 (Wake), and 2017 (Boston College). We might have won 6 of 7 including home games but that's not what I'm talking about.
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Road openers have definitely been an issue. Going into yesterday's game Duke was 9-9 since Scheyer's freshman year.
 
mr. synellinden said:
Shane Battier says hello. But generally I agree with the idea that he’s among the best all around defenders we’ve ever had. I think Cooper will be in that class eventually.
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Shane was a very good individual defender but really excelled off the ball. King and Grant were both better one on one (i.e. they were true lockdown types).
 
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