MBB: Duke 82, SMU 75 (January 10, 2026) Postgame Thread

goduke03861 said:
I'm leaning towards this team being decent and that's it. The talent level is not equating to the product on the court.
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Here's my question: even if you're right, so what? Are you going to root for the team less because you think they're not as good as you want them to be?

How did you feel about last year's team at this point in the season? As of January 11, 2025, that team had the same exact win against an arguably worse Louisville team (even absent Mikel Brown), a bigger win against a much worse SMU team (even without Miller), and 2-2 record against Auburn (KP#4), Arizona (KP#13), Kentucky (KP#16), and Kansas (KP#24), and no other games against the top 60; instead of a 5-1 record against Michigan State (KP#13), Florida (KP#12), Kansas (KP#22), Arkansas (KP#23), Texas Tech (KP#21), and Texas (KP#52). Was that team "decent and that's it" too?
 
AppliedPsychology said:
These slow starts are going to come back to bite us at some point. Gotta figure that out. Thing is it doesn't seem to matter who starts; they still start off asleep at the wheel.
Also, Caleb seemed off today. He was a step slow. Maybe sick or hurt??
If Boopie had played we may well have lost.
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Agree on Boopie. Great player. Why did he not play today ?
 
SkyBrickey said:
SMU has some dudes. They might be the second best team in the conference this season.

This team is getting it done in different ways each game. I think that's a strength. Today it was big games from Pat and Isaiah. Good to see Cayden and Nik both playing well too.
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I hope they are second best. Otherwise we have a lot to work on. They coulda won without Boopie the Star
 
Kedsy said:
Here's my question: even if you're right, so what? Are you going to root for the team less because you think they're not as good as you want them to be?

How did you feel about last year's team at this point in the season? As of January 11, 2025, that team had the same exact win against an arguably worse Louisville team (even absent Mikel Brown), a bigger win against a much worse SMU team (even without Miller), and 2-2 record against Auburn (KP#4), Arizona (KP#13), Kentucky (KP#16), and Kansas (KP#24), and no other games against the top 60; instead of a 5-1 record against Michigan State (KP#13), Florida (KP#12), Kansas (KP#22), Arkansas (KP#23), Texas Tech (KP#21), and Texas (KP#52). Was that team "decent and that's it" too?
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Why is it that criticizing doing more with less here is always seen as some offense to Fandom. Yes this team is less enjoyable to watch than last season, yet I'm on a Duke message board and watching or attending every game. This forums negligence of less than directly positive commentary is so weird and off putting and has only gotten worse since the boards changed hands. This team is doing more with less and is objectively and subjectively worse than last year's team and is probably Jon's worse defensive team to date. If alternative viewpoints are problematic then just call this place a vacuum. If you don't see a demonstratively upset coaching staff then I don't think we're watching the same teams
 
goduke03861 said:
Why is it that criticizing doing more with less here is always seen as some offense to Fandom. Yes this team is less enjoyable to watch than last season, yet I'm on a Duke message board and watching or attending every game. This forums negligence of less than directly positive commentary is so weird and off putting and has only gotten worse since the boards changed hands. This team is doing more with less and is objectively and subjectively worse than last year's team and is probably Jon's worse defensive team to date. If alternative viewpoints are problematic then just call this place a vacuum. If you don't see a demonstratively upset coaching staff then I don't think we're watching the same teams
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Ok, but you didn’t answer either of my questions.
 
Kedsy said:
Ok, but you didn’t answer either of my questions.
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I definitely answered your second question, but allow me to respond to the 1st. This is no longer amateur basketball so being decent is in fact, a problem. These are players and coaches being paid millions of dollars to produce results at the highest level and that includes winning and putting a product on the floor that matches the level of investment. This illusion that college sports aren't professional sports needs to be wiped from the collective psyche. Our roster is littered with experience, talent, and NBA draft picks and at this point they should be performing at a higher level than what we're seeing. A fools gold level of results against top teams missing their players is the canary in the coal mine.
 
Was CFOS hurt? Slow starts going into February is a bad sign, good teams will pounce on us and expand those leads in March.
Nik has barely improved this season which is sad. Cayden makes too many mistakes at crucial moments. CAN MALIQ BROWN PLEASE SHOOT THE BALL??? If Maliq would shoot more, be more assertive on offense, it would make us better. Teams won’t be able to clog the paint when he is at the top of the key.
 
goduke03861 said:
Can play this game just as well, imagine if the team played to it's potential to begin all of those games and you're looking at games being put to bed at halftime against teams that shouldn't be in games if this team wants to win championships. Watch Jon's presser and see if he doesn't have the same frustrations with this team. Eventually we play a talented team with their entire roster and are going to get run out of the building. Newsflash all the teams we'll play when it counts will be teams of that build.
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some seriously pedantic slop here.
goduke03861 said:
FSU, GT and no offense SMU and LV down two of their best players are not teams a Duke team with the level of talent and coaching should be neck and neck with. If you disagree that is perfectly acceptable, but if that's this team's level they will not be playing in April and maybe not even after Mar 20th. Not to mention the no show vs lipscomb and the meltdown against a 5 man Texas tech team. Having numbers in front of a name is massively ignoring the context of those games. Michigan state now looks like a decent win, Florida isn't ranked, Kansas will be unranked next week as will SMU. This team right now is the definition of an unknown quantity against actual good teams with their entire roster. I'm leaning towards this team being decent and that's it. The talent level is not equating to the product on the court.
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this ain't last year's team. maybe it's your expectations that need to be adjusted and not the team.
goduke03861 said:
I definitely answered your second question, but allow me to respond to the 1st. This is no longer amateur basketball so being decent is in fact, a problem. These are players and coaches being paid millions of dollars to produce results at the highest level and that includes winning and putting a product on the floor that matches the level of investment. This illusion that college sports aren't professional sports needs to be wiped from the collective psyche. Our roster is littered with experience, talent, and NBA draft picks and at this point they should be performing at a higher level than what we're seeing. A fools gold level of results against top teams missing their players is the canary in the coal mine.
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the level of entitlement here is insane. The team is 15-1. Sure, Duke hasn't dominated teams that were geeked up to play us, and i too would love to see this team run everybody out of every gym we play in. But the team has played very good basketball in "winning time" in all but one game. I recall former Duke teams that would have crumbled and lost several of those games that this team won. In fact, last year's team lost 2 of them. With all that talent, and those NBA draft picks and all that product being put on the floor, that team lost 2 of those games, while this year's team has lost 1, and has more Q1 wins at this point than last year's team did.
 
goduke03861 said:
I definitely answered your second question, but allow me to respond to the 1st. This is no longer amateur basketball so being decent is in fact, a problem. These are players and coaches being paid millions of dollars to produce results at the highest level and that includes winning and putting a product on the floor that matches the level of investment. This illusion that college sports aren't professional sports needs to be wiped from the collective psyche. Our roster is littered with experience, talent, and NBA draft picks and at this point they should be performing at a higher level than what we're seeing. A fools gold level of results against top teams missing their players is the canary in the coal mine.
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We are 15-1, 4-0 in the ACC, and top-10 in the country in every poll and statistical ranking. We've accomplished this with 4 freshmen in our top-8 rotation - ie, we still have plenty of room to improve.

Maybe the problem is not the team but your bizarre sense of entitlement.
 
To see so much disappointment, disapproval, and despair being expressed here after this game and other recent games is disheartening to me. I'm delighted that Duke won, even though I would certainly have liked to see them play better at some points and in some respects. I don't know any Blue Devil fans who don't wish that every game could be a comfortable, dominating, stress-free victory. But I think it's sad that some of our fans can't be happy about Duke winning and enjoy celebrating the successful result unless the team wins by some larger margin that matches those fans' expectations, and unless every player performs up to the standard of excellence that those fans feel they are owed.

I'm not suggesting that criticism isn't appropriate, or that people shouldn't feel welcome to express concerns about the team's lapses or individual player's weaknesses. It's just sad to me that so many immediately feel compelled to focus on the perceived flaws and to emphasize the negative takes, as if the fact that the team won the game has somehow become a matter of secondary importance. Am I wrong to think that the opponent may deserve credit for making it difficult for our team to prevail, and that close games -- or losses -- aren't always attributable to failures by our players and coaches? Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand how watching games with such critical eyes and such high expectations can be much fun.
 
Stray Gator said:
To see so much disappointment, disapproval, and despair being expressed here after this game and other recent games is disheartening to me. I'm delighted that Duke won, even though I would certainly have liked to see them play better at some points and in some respects. I don't know any Blue Devil fans who don't wish that every game could be a comfortable, dominating, stress-free victory. But I think it's sad that some of our fans can't be happy about Duke winning and enjoy celebrating the successful result unless the team wins by some larger margin that matches those fans' expectations, and unless every player performs up to the standard of excellence that those fans feel they are owed.

I'm not suggesting that criticism isn't appropriate, or that people shouldn't feel welcome to express concerns about the team's lapses or individual player's weaknesses. It's just sad to me that so many immediately feel compelled to focus on the perceived flaws and to emphasize the negative takes, as if the fact that the team won the game has somehow become a matter of secondary importance. Am I wrong to think that the opponent may deserve credit for making it difficult for our team to prevail, and that close games -- or losses -- aren't always attributable to failures by our players and coaches? Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand how watching games with such critical eyes and such high expectations can be much fun.
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This happens every season. You can find these same "sky is falling" takes for last year's team too, especially after the Kansas and Kentucky losses. There was also a LOT of angst on here during the 2015 season when some fans thought we should be comfortably winning every game. I think it's one of those side effects of being insanely successful...
 
goduke03861 said:
I definitely answered your second question, but allow me to respond to the 1st. This is no longer amateur basketball so being decent is in fact, a problem. These are players and coaches being paid millions of dollars to produce results at the highest level and that includes winning and putting a product on the floor that matches the level of investment. This illusion that college sports aren't professional sports needs to be wiped from the collective psyche. Our roster is littered with experience, talent, and NBA draft picks and at this point they should be performing at a higher level than what we're seeing. A fools gold level of results against top teams missing their players is the canary in the coal mine.
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Lol. Are you by chance a politician? You STILL haven't answered either of the two questions!

Here, let me demonstrate what it means to answer a question so you can see where you went wrong. I will answer kedsy's two questions from my perspective.

1) It means essentially nothing to me, because I will continue to support the team and watch all the games even if they underachieve. I might feel disappointed if they lose games I think they should have won, but I will still be a fan.
2) At this point in the season last year, I was excited about the team despite their early losses, because I saw them improving and I knew they had great talent. I was hopeful that the team would win the ACCT and possibly even compete for a national title.

See? It's not that difficult.
 
goduke03861 said:
Why is it that criticizing doing more with less here is always seen as some offense to Fandom. Yes this team is less enjoyable to watch than last season, yet I'm on a Duke message board and watching or attending every game. This forums negligence of less than directly positive commentary is so weird and off putting and has only gotten worse since the boards changed hands. This team is doing more with less and is objectively and subjectively worse than last year's team and is probably Jon's worse defensive team to date. If alternative viewpoints are problematic then just call this place a vacuum. If you don't see a demonstratively upset coaching staff then I don't think we're watching the same teams
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Constructive criticism is always welcome here. Crappy hot takes and pointless pissing at the moon? Much less so. I hope you have the self awareness to recognize the difference.
 
Texas is 9-6, Kansas is 11-5 beaten without their number 1 draft pick, Florida is 11-5 needed a 3 at the wire, GT is 10-7, FSU is 7-9, SMU is 12-4 beaten without their number 1 scorer, UL is 12-4 beaten without their number 2 scorer, TT is 11-4 and had 5 scholarship players left with 6 mins left and still came back, so I'm sorry but all this super impressive wins stuff everyone is beating their chests about just isn't what the computers are fooling you all with. Michigan State is the best team and in my opinion the best the team has played and should be the standard the team is held to. Those KP numbers won't mean crap in a few weeks once all those teams continue to rack up losses like they all have. And don't bring up Arkansas who just lost by 100 to an unranked Auburn team. I compare this team to AZ, UCONN, ASU, Michigan and if you think we're playing at the same level as we're capable of or of those teams then I have beachfront property in Kansas to sell you.
 
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