MBB: Duke 96, Maine 62 Post Game Thread

I liked most of what I saw. I do wonder if Tyrese takes over at PG at some point in the season. Scheyer is giving Foster a chance, but I’m not convinced he’s our PG long term. Not really a huge worry right now though. A solid win over a well coached team. Worst stretch was obviously giving up the 9-0 run, and that’ll be a teaching point for Scheyer. Can’t have letdowns like that against higher level teams.
 
dukebluesincebirth said:
I liked most of what I saw. I do wonder if Tyrese takes over at PG at some point in the season. Scheyer is giving Foster a chance, but I’m not convinced he’s our PG long term. Not really a huge worry right now though. A solid win over a well coached team. Worst stretch was obviously giving up the 9-0 run, and that’ll be a teaching point for Scheyer. Can’t have letdowns like that against higher level teams.
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I've felt this way since day one.

I think Jon is trying to free up Tyrese a bit, in order to give him the chance to lock up the other team's best guard, and not get gassed, but so far it's not working. Caleb is a better catch and shoot guy, good driver, not a great distributer. Tyrese has been a point guard for Duke for two years. I think this is some unnecessary tinkering by Jon. Foster slows himself down when overdribbling sometimes. Particularly when he goes between the legs. Tyrese is such an aggressive north-south guy. It's funny, but I am most worried about guard play this year, and this is where we have the most experience.

Kon is great. Reminds me of an Indiana-style guy. I can imagine him playing for Bob Knight. He's got that meat and potatoes game. Fundamentals are solid. Almost flashy, but not quite. He gets a four point play and barely celebrated. Reminds me a bit of Mason Plumlee, who also had that "just go to work" midwestern attitude.

Cooper is the real deal. I do worry a bit, about the lack of a guy who's gonna really demoralize the other team. Coop and Kon seem fine to just play the game without much bravado. Sometimes you need a little arrogance on the road in the ACC. Mark and Flip might have had too much of that last season. Mark cost us the game at Tech. It's a fine line.
 
Great to final get the seasons of high expectations going. Soooooo many weapons. I watched Kon’s D closely and was pretty pleased. I think everyone of his shots is going in - liked to see him driving as well as bombing from outside. Man Man is better offensively than I thought but raw on D. Maliq is going to be important and I really liked what I saw from him. We don’t need him to be a big scorer.
 
Edouble said:
Cooper is the real deal. I do worry a bit, about the lack of a guy who's gonna really demoralize the other team. Coop and Kon seem fine to just play the game without much bravado. Sometimes you need a little arrogance on the road in the ACC. Mark and Flip might have had too much of that last season. Mark cost us the game at Tech. It's a fine line.
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Wasn’t Cooper known for this in high school?
 
I noticed during halftime warmups that Flagg was on the bench using the theragun on his legs rather than taking shots. Wondering if cramps are going to be a thing but we saw with Paolo that the training staff knows how to handle it.

Proctor did feel like he was playing off the ball, and we had a few stretches with him and Foster both on the bench. I don't know if Jon was just tinkering or sending a message or what, but it made for some unusual (and very large) lineups.
 
DukieInBrasil said:
Even winning big and few things to really be worried about, Duke still lost focus for a good long chunk of the 1st half.
Woulda liked to have seen a few things done better, but we got well balanced scoring with 6 guys in double figures. Kaman had a couple of absolute destruction blocks, Kon only shot 3-8 from 3 but still showed lots of all-around game to lead the team with 22. Flagg didn't look good on his 3s but did everything else really well. All 3 of the transfers who played did really well. Tyrese shot great form 3 but came up goose egg on assists. Foster otoh had 3 assists, but 2 turns.
If that 5+ minute stretch of 1st half doldrums hadn't ocurred we mighta got to see ol' Stanley Hubbard and crew do their thang...
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We still could have. Right before Cooper went down (hope he is ok), I kept thinking “Why are the starters still in the game at this point? Pull them, Jon!”
 
A couple of things stick out in the box score:

Cooper and Maliq each, on their own, had more assists than our entire starting backcourt.

Tyrese (3-5) was our only player to shoot over 50% from 3.

Despite the team being constructed with superior height, Duke had three blocks, all by Maluach.

Defense held Maine to 4 assists, 21% three point shooting, and 37% FG shooting.
 
Edouble said:
I've felt this way since day one.

I think Jon is trying to free up Tyrese a bit, in order to give him the chance to lock up the other team's best guard, and not get gassed, but so far it's not working. Caleb is a better catch and shoot guy, good driver, not a great distributer. Tyrese has been a point guard for Duke for two years. I think this is some unnecessary tinkering by Jon. Foster slows himself down when overdribbling sometimes. Particularly when he goes between the legs. Tyrese is such an aggressive north-south guy. It's funny, but I am most worried about guard play this year, and this is where we have the most experience.

Kon is great. Reminds me of an Indiana-style guy. I can imagine him playing for Bob Knight. He's got that meat and potatoes game. Fundamentals are solid. Almost flashy, but not quite. He gets a four point play and barely celebrated. Reminds me a bit of Mason Plumlee, who also had that "just go to work" midwestern attitude.

Cooper is the real deal. I do worry a bit, about the lack of a guy who's gonna really demoralize the other team. Coop and Kon seem fine to just play the game without much bravado. Sometimes you need a little arrogance on the road in the ACC. Mark and Flip might have had too much of that last season. Mark cost us the game at Tech. It's a fine line.
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For Kon, I was thinking Wisconsin, but I can see Indiana.
 
Kon is going to lead us in scoring this season. I haven’t seen such a pure scoring guard like him since maybe JJ.

Looks like Brown being first off the bench may be a pattern until Kham gets his sea legs.

I like Sion’s game. Solid defender, good finisher, and decent handles. We will have a very good guard rotation, but as was mentioned above, we may be a true PG away from being totally elite.
 
cbarry said:
Right before Cooper went down (hope he is ok), I kept thinking “Why are the starters still in the game at this point? Pull them, Jon!”
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In his postgame, Flagg said Jon wanted to play him extended minutes in order to get him accustomed to it. And in Jon's presser he said he was glad the cramps happened now because it will help Flagg be prepared for playing big minutes in future games.
 
Duke 96, Maine 62 (recap, box score, highlights, condensed game, full replay, presser)

Kon Knueppel scored a game-high 22 points, including 15 in the first 16 minutes. The freshman shot 8-of-14 from the field, including 3-of-8 from long range, and 3-of-3 from the free-throw line.

Cooper Flagg collected 18 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals to become the first freshman in Duke history to have at least 10 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals in their debut.

Caleb Foster and Sion James each scored 11 points, while Tyrese Proctor and Mason Gillis added 10 points apiece. Khaman Maluach registered six points, six boards and three blocked shots in his collegiate debut. Maliq Brown grabbed seven rebounds to match Flagg for the game-high on the boards, while also distributing four assists.

Duke MBB has already posted their Every Bucket video:


The Devils Den has locker room interviews with Maliq Brown, Mason Gillis, Sion James, and Khaman Maluach.


There's a lot of Cooper Flagg content already, and I'm going to be selective. In an ESPN postgame interview, he said that he had a cramp in his calf:


He later answered questions in the locker room, and the Bangor Daily News has the video:


Finally, DukeLights has a short video of Sion interviewing Kon Knueppel, and Cooper interviewing Sion:

 
Very deep team. Duke hasn’t had a dynamic duo like this at forward since 1962-1963
Art Heyman Jeff Mullins. Kon and Cooper are tremendous and it’s only Game 1.Cool seeing Luol Deng watching Khaman. Maliq, Malcolm and Sion don’t miss a beat. Caleb and Tyrese will improve. At times are half court offense was not sharp and blocking out on rebounds defensively has to improve. Already more entertaining than last season and it’s only game 1.
 
Edouble said:
I've felt this way since day one.

I think Jon is trying to free up Tyrese a bit, in order to give him the chance to lock up the other team's best guard, and not get gassed, but so far it's not working. Caleb is a better catch and shoot guy, good driver, not a great distributer. Tyrese has been a point guard for Duke for two years. I think this is some unnecessary tinkering by Jon. Foster slows himself down when overdribbling sometimes. Particularly when he goes between the legs. Tyrese is such an aggressive north-south guy. It's funny, but I am most worried about guard play this year, and this is where we have the most experience.

Kon is great. Reminds me of an Indiana-style guy. I can imagine him playing for Bob Knight. He's got that meat and potatoes game. Fundamentals are solid. Almost flashy, but not quite. He gets a four point play and barely celebrated. Reminds me a bit of Mason Plumlee, who also had that "just go to work" midwestern attitude.

Cooper is the real deal. I do worry a bit, about the lack of a guy who's gonna really demoralize the other team. Coop and Kon seem fine to just play the game without much bravado. Sometimes you need a little arrogance on the road in the ACC. Mark and Flip might have had too much of that last season. Mark cost us the game at Tech. It's a fine line.
Click to expand...
I kinda like the old school JJ arrogance that I see in Kon and Cooper. “I’m better than you and will show you by the way I play”. That will win some ACC road games.
 
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