MBB: Duke 84, Auburn 78 Postgame Thread

[hibby91]

Did anyone else notice the score jump during the timeout at 9:19? Entering the timeout score was 56-61. After timeout it was 56-63. I think I tracked it back to an offensive goal tending on Brown at 11:17. The play by play calls it a Foster layout. They must have reviewed it and determined that either Brown didn't touch it, or it wasn't in the cylinder.

I appreciated the 2 points at the time because the game was tightening up at that point.

 

[scottdude8]

My expanded thoughts:

1. I'm too old for this (late night game) stuff. And I'm not even old! I guess it's soon to be time for me to move to the West. Hope my family is okay with that.

2. We got to see peak Evans impact in the first half. He got tons of good, clean, open looks, and he just knocked them down repeatedly. He doesn't bring much else to the table right now, but when he's shooting well, he's a game-changer. And in the first half last night, he was definitely on. And it was crucial.

3. I keep saying it, but he just keeps making it relevant. Brown is just such a menace on defense. He totally flustered Broome in that first half. Broome scored just 1 point against Brown in the first half, and Brown got into Broome's head so much that Broome committed a silly foul on Brown 30 feet away from the basket in the second half (trying to play Brown the way Brown played him). Pearl did an excellent job of scheming Broome some downhill looks in the second half, taking advantage of Duke's approach to hedging ball screens. It allowed Broome to get separation from Brown, and it was the only way he scored on Brown. Whenever Broome got an iso look against Brown, Brown won the battle. I've never seen a backup be a legit candidate for DPoY, but I feel like Brown should get that kind of love. He's just so disruptive.

4. The guards played better in this one. Foster in particular was much more active than usual. James and Proctor had more typical contributions. It's really important that the guards all contribute so that we don't have to have so much burden on Flagg and Knueppel.

5. Not a great game from Maluach. He's seeming more to be a situational big at this stage. It's great that we have Brown to allow some flexibility as Maluach develops. There is a ton of upside with the big freshman, but it's very much a work in progress.

6. Auburn made a clear effort to prevent Knueppel from getting scoring chances. He's clearly not a "give him the ball and let him cook" type of player. But he still had a really solid game in a reduced role. Didn't force shots, and didn't make mistakes. Thankfully Evans was able to go ham in the first half and get the offense flowing.

7. Just as importantly (and probably relatedly), I thought we did a better job of getting easy-ish looks in this one. Foster did a great job of getting to the rim. Not surprisingly, our offensive efficiency skyrocketed.

8. Just really really happy with the win. It completely changes the path forward to have that marquee win in house. We were clearly as good as Kansas and Kentucky, but losing both of those games left us without the positive resume. Getting this win solidifies us in that class of "reasonable 1 seed" candidates. As long as we maintain our status through ACC play and the eventual game against Illinois, we should be in very good shape for tourney seeding.

I think the bolded (Maluach's performance) is the most appropriate negative to take from last night's game. That said, it's pretty darn impressive that Scheyer was able to bring Maliq on board knowing that this would be a possibility. I'm not worried at all about Man Man, personally... we've seen this story before with Williams and Lively. Part of my optimism for the long-term ceiling of this team is that history tells us Man Man is going to continue to get better, and IMHO his ceiling is at minimum the best of Williams and Lively. If you add that, or something approximating it, to this team, woooo boy.

 

[Kfanarmy]

Yeah, he also took and missed three 3 pointers. He also fouled out and looked fairly one dimensional to me.

I guess if that one dimension is not beating Duke on 12/4/2024 okay. Otherwise maybe you could be more specific on that one dimension. I'm assuming it can only be one aspect of his offense or defense, and then of course only one thing he does well. Would be really great to pinpoint that so the rest of the country knows that one dimension they have to prepare for to neutralize him and then can focus on the other four guys on the floor.

 

[3rd Dukie]

Before the Kon hand wringing gets too crazy, it’s important to note that Auburn was scheming its D to take him away. It’s a testament to the Duke team that we can take advantage of that with other guys rather than needing Kon to force it. A lot of our other easy buckets don’t happen if Auburn isn’t paying so much attention to Kon.

Also, it speaks to Kon’s resilience that he had a tough game but still made an important 2 in the final minutes.

Very good observation!

 

[azzefkram]

A great win for the good guys. I thought most of the team played well. Evans was unreal in the first half. Tyrese made some really tough shots late. Extremely happy with the win.

Now for a bit of constructive Duke criticism. Resilience is a fabulous trait but I am a bigger fan of dominance. How about Duke trying that at the start of games, m'kay? Let's help an old guys blood pressure out.

Now for a bit of (hopefully) constructive board criticism. The fan gatekeeping has gotten out of hand. Speed reading is your friend (side note I am not a fan of ignore). I understand that negative posts can be annoying after a big win, but no more so than the mental gymnastics posts rationalizing mediocre performances. Let's let fans fan.

 

[Kfanarmy]

Really curious if anyone was at the game and can comment on the quietness of Cameron from about the under 16 time out to the under 8. Game kind of hung in the balance there, and the crowd went quiet it seemed on TV. I'm assuming that was because Duke went cold for a few minutes. but the team could have used a lift from the fans during that time.

 

[HoKogan]

In the 3 minute 41 second clip, above, Pearl mentions fouls 5/6 times. "Flagg lives at the foul line" "Denver(?) had several shots blocked but could not get to the foul line".

While I grow weary of the "Duke gets all the calls" narrative, there is no other conference that deserves to be the victim of home cooking more the SEC, whether real or imagined. I haven't had a chance to watch the game, it was too late for me, will watch this evening.

 

[CDu]

I think the bolded (Maluach's performance) is the most appropriate negative to take from last night's game. That said, it's pretty darn impressive that Scheyer was able to bring Maliq on board knowing that this would be a possibility. I'm not worried at all about Man Man, personally... we've seen this story before with Williams and Lively. Part of my optimism for the long-term ceiling of this team is that history tells us Man Man is going to continue to get better, and IMHO his ceiling is at minimum the best of Williams and Lively. If you add that, or something approximating it, to this team, woooo boy.

I don't think his ceiling is at minimum the best of Lively. Lively is MUCH quicker than Maluach, so defensively I suspect Lively will always be better than Maluach. I'd agree that his ceiling is at minimum the best of Williams though, and a better offensive ceiling than Lively. But Lively was a pretty uniquely awesome weapon defensively, in that you could switch him pretty much 1-5 and not be disadvantaged. And I doubt Maluach ever approaches Lively in that regard. He's much more of a traditional big man defensively. A very imposing traditional big man. But he's subject to some of the same limitations that Williams faced on that end of the floor.

But I think "a better Mark Williams" is a pretty accurate description of what Maluach can become this year.

 

[CDu]

Did anyone else notice the score jump during the timeout at 9:19? Entering the timeout score was 56-61. After timeout it was 56-63. I think I tracked it back to an offensive goal tending on Brown at 11:17. The play by play calls it a Foster layout. They must have reviewed it and determined that either Brown didn't touch it, or it wasn't in the cylinder.

I appreciated the 2 points at the time because the game was tightening up at that point.

They reviewed it and called goaltending on Auburn. They deemed that an Auburn player made contact while it was on the cylinder. So the basket went to Foster.

 

[azzefkram]

I think the bolded (Maluach's performance) is the most appropriate negative to take from last night's game. That said, it's pretty darn impressive that Scheyer was able to bring Maliq on board knowing that this would be a possibility. I'm not worried at all about Man Man, personally... we've seen this story before with Williams and Lively. Part of my optimism for the long-term ceiling of this team is that history tells us Man Man is going to continue to get better, and IMHO his ceiling is at minimum the best of Williams and Lively. If you add that, or something approximating it, to this team, woooo boy.

I thought Man Man played okay last night. While Maliq's defense was great in the first half, it was decidedly less so in the second.

 

[CDu]

I am going to disagree with folks who said that Broome had a bad game. There is no such thing as a bad 20 point, 12 rebound, 3 assist game on the road against the #1 defense in the country.

It wasn't a dominant game for Broome, and was far less efficient than usual. But he was still reasonably efficient (more than one point per possession) and very impactful on the boards.

Duke played Broome about as well as you can play him... and he still went for 20 and 12. He is a stud, and he was very good last night. Not dominant, but it says something that the home team can be legitimately happy with holding him to 20 and 12 and still better than a point per possession used.

 

[rsvman]

I’d like to believe that you could just put an emphasis on practicing free throws and they would improve, but these guys have been shooting free throws since they were five years old. If you’re a good shooter you will make your free throws at a high rate. If not, you won’t. That’s all there is to it.

This is not a great shooting team. Free throws are going to be a problem all season long. The guys will simply have to find other ways to win, like they did last night. Yes, it’s going to make for a nerve-wracking ride, but that’s part of the fun, right?

Go Duke!

This is simply untrue.

 

[Papa John]

Hard agree. I just detest having to read doctors, lawyers and business folks opine about it. There are people capable of offering critical appraisal. They just ain't here.

Anyone is capable of offering [or, attempting to offer] critical appraisal. The reality is that many [or, most] of the critical appraisals offered here are simply not that insightful. But that's fine—it's the Internet. And criticism goes hand-in-hand with sports fandom. As does criticizing the critics. It's all just one big dialog that we can each choose when to dip into, and when to draw back from. I find selectively overzealous moderation to be more problematic, particularly from moderators who at times tend to engage in the same behavior they purport to be moderating. Someone said above there's a difference between being a fan and fandom... similarly, there is a difference between being a moderator and moderation. They should encourage a robust, healthy discussion with differing perspectives, not create a series of echo chambers (or mysteriously make relatively innocuous posts disappear into the ether in the dead of night without explanation). Just my $.02, for whatever it's worth.

 

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Great Win!! First post here. I think my favorite plays were Tyrese’s deep 3 as the shot clock expired, Sion’s dunk and 1 on the fast break, and coopers runner in the lane after almost falling down. We were very solid down the stretch and able make the couple key plays to keep the lead (mostly) at 2 or 3 possessions in the last 10 min. Definitely have some things to work on before March (half court offense, not getting behind early) but the team has great potential and they are physically and mentally resilient.

Proctor's shot-clock beating 3 was absolutely the game saver. If we give them the ball there, the mojo shift kept them from having the ball and the chance to take the lead.

 

[mattyoung18]

Why do the refs love Baker-Mazara so much? He should’ve gotten at least 1 foul for his body slam of Sion.

I've never seen Bilas so clueless on the arm to the neck and head on James by Auburn.Bilas, "looked like a play on the ball ".Bilas has achieved a new low.

 

[Billy Dat]

Now for a bit of constructive Duke criticism. Resilience is a fabulous trait but I am a bigger fan of dominance. How about Duke trying that at the start of games, m'kay? Let's help an old guys blood pressure out.

Agree that the slow starts are maddening, but it does help the old BP to know that we aren't ever going to quit. The fight in this team is awesome AND we don't do ourselves any favors having to spend so much energy coming back.

 

[Western]

2. We got to see peak Evans impact in the first half. He got tons of good, clean, open looks, and he just knocked them down repeatedly. He doesn't bring much else to the table right now, but when he's shooting well, he's a game-changer. And in the first half last night, he was definitely on. And it was crucial.

6. Auburn made a clear effort to prevent Knueppel from getting scoring chances. He's clearly not a "give him the ball and let him cook" type of player. But he still had a really solid game in a reduced role. Didn't force shots, and didn't make mistakes. Thankfully Evans was able to go ham in the first half and get the offense flowing.

The thing about Evans that has really impressed me isn’t his shooting, it’s his ability to get shots. He understands how to get open, and has the speed, length, skill, and footwork to do so — and to get himself square and get a shot off quickly upon receiving the ball.

A couple of his shots last night were wide open, particularly the shot after Evans & Proctor switched sides and Auburn just lost Evans. But most were the result of Evans doing more to get open than you can realistically expect out of a freshman with 29 minutes of game experience coming into the night. Even the shot in the right corner on the kickout from Kon, which was pretty open, was there because Evans did a great job of backing out to the corner to make himself available on the drive (and to keep from crowding the paint around Kon.) The drift down the left wing to remain available for Flagg’s kickout (exactly what Flagg failed to do during Kon’s drive late in the Kansas game.)

A lot of guys can shoot. Evans can shoot, and showed advanced understanding of how to get shots, and ability to act on that understanding.

Kon’s ability to remain useful, or at least not a liability, even when he isn’t scoring continues to impress and encourage me.

 

[accfanfrom1970]

End of the game I'm wanting Procter and Kon to be handling the ball (and I'm assuming the opposing team trying to keep it out of their hands) just because of free throws.....Sion had a rough game last night from the free throw line but has been good, Cooper was better in the 2nd half? from the line. Caleb scares me.

 

[bshrader]

I've never seen Bilas so clueless on the arm to the neck and head on James by Auburn.Bilas, "looked like a play on the ball ".Bilas has achieved a new low.

Fortunately, the rule doesn't stipulate whether the play is a "play on the ball" or not. Is it excessive and unnecessary and/or avoidable? That's the question officials ask themselves in these situations regarding F1 fouls.

 

[CDu]

The thing about Evans that has really impressed me isn’t his shooting, it’s his ability to get shots. He understands how to get open, and has the speed, length, skill, and footwork to do so — and to get himself square and get a shot off quickly upon receiving the ball.

A couple of his shots last night we wide open, particularly the shot after Evans & Proctor switched sides and Auburn just lost Evans. But most were the result of Evans doing more to get open than you can realistically expect out of a freshman with 29 minutes of game experience coming into the night. Even the shot in the right corner on the kickout from Kon, which was pretty open, was there because Evans did a great job of backing out to the corner to make himself available on the drive (and to keep from crowding the paint around Kon.) The drift down the left wing to remain available for Flagg’s kickout (exactly what Flagg failed to do during Kon’s drive late in the Kansas game.)

A lot of guys can shoot. Evans can shoot, and showed advanced understanding of how to get shots, and ability to act on that understanding.

Yeah, Evans is a gunner, and he knows how to get his looks. It helps that he is tall and long, but he definitely knows how to hunt for his shots. And that is definitely a skill in and of itself. He's definitely not a passive/deferential player.

The danger comes when he isn't hitting his shots. But, the solution then is "he just goes back to the bench." But last night illustrated what Evans can provide when he IS on.