MBB: Duke 83, Cuse 54 Post-game Thread

Jay Will absolutely gushed about Duke last night, and for good reason. At one point early in the 2nd half, he said that Duke was having the night offensively that Syracuse was hoping for...and Duke was up 21. Up until that point Duke was playing okay offensively, but not great. Defensively Duke was playing superbly though, and Syracuse just couldn't score. Then Duke went on a scary offensive run to put the game away.

And that's what this team does at their best. Play GREAT defense. If the offense never clicks, Duke is beating conference teams by 8-15 points. If the offense does click, Duke is destroying teams.

There was a point in the second half last night where Duke just got into the "flow state" offensively and there was just nothing Syracuse could do about it.

I thought Proctor played really well last night. He had the worst night offensively on the Duke team. He was only 5 for 11. And he also made 4 threes. Everyone else shot 50% or better. And Proctor was cooking last night. If he has that kind of night then I think Duke is almost impossible to defend. And he had the worst night on the team .

Defensively Duke is two different teams. One with Maluach and one with Brown. Both of which are incredibly hard to score against. Hearing Seth Greenberg talk about how insanely difficult it is to score against Duke is correct. I love watching this team defend. I would argue Brown is the best interior defender I've ever seen. That guy is an absolute freak. I don't know how stuff is funded from a sports perspective but there's nothing I want more than for him to become the keeper on the US Men's National Soccer Team. Because I don't see how anyone could score if he was a goalkeeper in soccer. And I don't even follow the men's national team. I'm only obliquely aware they exist, although I am a huge fan of the Women's National Soccer team. And then James, Flagg and Proctor are great defenders. And that doesn't even get and Kon and Gillis who are either really good on-ball defenders, or really good help side/team defenders.

Defensively I would say this is the best team Duke has had since the 2010 champs. That team really throttled people and made them inefficient. If the 2010 team scored efficiently, you were going to lose to them. In today's game, you're always subject to a team getting hot and making shots. Like that Arizona team in 2011. Sometimes, you just get lit up and that's always a fear in a high variance, single elimination tournament. But if this Duke squad can play defense at this level and can play well enough offensively in the NCAA tournament for six games I love the team's chances.
 
On the subject of rebounding (which may be again be a challenging stat for us against Clemson). While Maliq and Mason have boxing out ingrained, I think Khaman and Patrick are still relying on height and athleticism (which was no doubt more than enough in their prior years) to try and rebound from less than ideal position. It also doesn’t help that they get out so high on switches. I guess it is a trade-off in keeping the perimeter well guarded.
Yeah, I've wondered whether we want to limit our switching against Clemson to increase the chances that our bigs are "at home", ready to box out and get rebounds. Also, I don't know how to evaluate how best to match up with Schefflin...whether his craftiness will give ManMan trouble, or whether ManMan's length and athleticism just gives Sheffy the fits. I think that ManMan has enough length to guard Shefflin without leaving his feet too often. Maybe Maliq is a better matchup by making it difficult for Shefflin to get the ball and/or do anything once he has it. Difficult to sort through this matchup, so I won't try anymore.
 
Another strong game by Duke. As I've asked before, though, it's hard to know if Duke is really this good OR the rest of the ACC is this bad? Frankly, Syracuse played poorly at times and the outcome of the game was never really in doubt. IMO, another "boring" game to watch (in terms of competitiveness). I got so bored that at some point early in the second half, I switched off the game and began watching YouTube videos on how to clean our your washing machine. That was more interesting than the game!
I think this has been a special season and has the potential to be a super special one...I'm trying to enjoy every moment.
 
I'm hopeful it's just a blip. For the season, we are a very good rebounding team on both ends of the floor. We've only had a handful of bad rebounding games defensively, and this was our 5th-worst offensive rebounding game (despite it being a "meh" output). It's definitely something to keep an eye on that the last two games are two of our worst rebounding games of the season. But I'm not ready to call it a concern yet.
I wonder if the weaker rebounding these last two games has to do with what seems a much more aggressive switch everything mentality on defense. Maluach’s rebounding rate hasn’t been great and definitely he has been pulled away from the rim a lot more lately.
 
Jay Will absolutely gushed about Duke last night, and for good reason. At one point early in the 2nd half, he said that Duke was having the night offensively that Syracuse was hoping for...and Duke was up 21. Up until that point Duke was playing okay offensively, but not great. Defensively Duke was playing superbly though, and Syracuse just couldn't score. Then Duke went on a scary offensive run to put the game away.

And that's what this team does at their best. Play GREAT defense. If the offense never clicks, Duke is beating conference teams by 8-15 points. If the offense does click, Duke is destroying teams.

There was a point in the second half last night where Duke just got into the "flow state" offensively and there was just nothing Syracuse could do about it.

I thought Proctor played really well last night. He had the worst night offensively on the Duke team. He was only 5 for 11. And he also made 4 threes. Everyone else shot 50% or better. And Proctor was cooking last night. If he has that kind of night then I think Duke is almost impossible to defend. And he had the worst night on the team .

Defensively Duke is two different teams. One with Maluach and one with Brown. Both of which are incredibly hard to score against. Hearing Seth Greenberg talk about how insanely difficult it is to score against Duke is correct. I love watching this team defend. I would argue Brown is the best interior defender I've ever seen. That guy is an absolute freak. I don't know how stuff is funded from a sports perspective but there's nothing I want more than for him to become the keeper on the US Men's National Soccer Team. Because I don't see how anyone could score if he was a goalkeeper in soccer. And I don't even follow the men's national team. I'm only obliquely aware they exist, although I am a huge fan of the Women's National Soccer team. And then James, Flagg and Proctor are great defenders. And that doesn't even get and Kon and Gillis who are either really good on-ball defenders, or really good help side/team defenders.

Defensively I would say this is the best team Duke has had since the 2010 champs. That team really throttled people and made them inefficient. If the 2010 team scored efficiently, you were going to lose to them. In today's game, you're always subject to a team getting hot and making shots. Like that Arizona team in 2011. Sometimes, you just get lit up and that's always a fear in a high variance, single elimination tournament. But if this Duke squad can play defense at this level and can play well enough offensively in the NCAA tournament for six games I love the team's chances.

I would say Battier may be better than Brown
 
I wonder if the weaker rebounding these last two games has to do with what seems a much more aggressive switch everything mentality on defense. Maluach’s rebounding rate hasn’t been great and definitely he has been pulled away from the rim a lot more lately.
I think this is a big part of it. A few teams had big games shooting the 3 against us - ND, Wake, NCSU. It looks to me like Jon has really made 3-pt defense a point of emphasis these past two games (how many 3s has Cooper blocked?) and that definitely pulls our rebounders away from the basket.
 
Yeah, I've wondered whether we want to limit our switching against Clemson to increase the chances that our bigs are "at home", ready to box out and get rebounds.
Fair question, but in my experience really really good teams make you change to react to them, not vice versa. If Clemson can capitalize on our switching when they have a size advantage - yes of course, change it up. Have a plan ready to engage. But make them prove it first.

I love that this team does so many things well and we can impose our will.
 
Maybe Sion should have gotten more MOTM votes:

"Duke is now +328 in 525 minutes with James on the floor (100th percentile), outscoring opponents by 38.8 points per 100 possessions (100th percentile). In the minutes with James in the game, nearly 23.5 percent of Duke’s defensive possessions have included a block or a steal, according to CBB Analytics."

 
Maybe Sion should have gotten more MOTM votes:

"Duke is now +328 in 525 minutes with James on the floor (100th percentile), outscoring opponents by 38.8 points per 100 possessions (100th percentile). In the minutes with James in the game, nearly 23.5 percent of Duke’s defensive possessions have included a block or a steal, according to CBB Analytics."

Sion has been great. Cooper is Duke's best player, but you could make an excellent argument that Sion is Duke's second-best player.
 
Yeah, I've wondered whether we want to limit our switching against Clemson to increase the chances that our bigs are "at home", ready to box out and get rebounds. Also, I don't know how to evaluate how best to match up with Schefflin...whether his craftiness will give ManMan trouble, or whether ManMan's length and athleticism just gives Sheffy the fits. I think that ManMan has enough length to guard Shefflin without leaving his feet too often. Maybe Maliq is a better matchup by making it difficult for Shefflin to get the ball and/or do anything once he has it. Difficult to sort through this matchup, so I won't try anymore.
Clemson shoots threes really well.
 
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