MBB: Duke vs. UNC (ACCT, Fri 3/14, 7pm ET, ESPN) Pregame and In-Game Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
brevity

brevity

Member
The 1-seed Blue Devils go for the Triple Crown as they attempt to defeat the 5-seed North Carolina Tar Heels a third time this season, in the first semifinal game Friday evening on ESPN (streaming link, listen, live stats).

To get to this point, Duke won the first quarterfinal against 8-seed Georgia Tech, but lost quite a bit in the process, as Maliq Brown and then Cooper Flagg went down with injuries. Each has a vigil thread; look for updates there, if there are any. UNC, meanwhile, produced a mild upset in the second quarterfinal, beating 4-seed Wake Forest. This was a Quad 2 win for them, which is less than they needed, but more than they deserve.

I'll prepare a game preview a little later. Feel free to discuss Friday's re-rematch here.
 
Do we start Gillis or Evans? I'm guessing Gillis.

Drake Powell is a really good defender on Kon. We need other guys to step up and score 15-20. Proctor, Sion, Evans are the prime candidates.

Pat has shown flashes of excellent post-up moves. Will we feed it to him in the post where he has an advantage over Lubin and Washington?

Khaman had a rough game in Chapel Hill on both ends. Hoping he redeems himself tomorrow.

GTHC
 
UNC plays defense by bumping and grabbing a lot but the refs seem to allow them a lot of freedom. A credit to the Wake ball handlers that they didn't turn the ball over more. We will pit our size against there speed. Maybe Caleb will have a role since he can stay in front of their guards.
 
The biggest question mark is how do we defend the high ball screens they will put Maluach into over and over again. Brown won't be available to come in and shut those down. We either hard hedge and recover, play drop coverage, or go zone. Or we just live with Maluach/Ngongba being isolated against a guard and hope for the best. I suppose another option is go small with Gillis or Sion at the 5. Lubin is only 6'8 so it wouldn't be a huge mismatch.

Wake had some success sending a second defender flying at Davis and forcing him to give up the ball. I doubt we do that though.
 
We really need our bigs to step up. Man Man and Pat were ineffective on defense in Chapel Hill. I'm not sure we can switch 1-5 tomorrow. I think we may have to live with non-RJ guys getting open 3s if it means protecting our big men. The other option is play Gillis at the 5 and switch everything.

Offensively, I think we may be fine. They can't guard us, as we've seen over 40 minutes. Davis, Jackson, and Cadeau have been BBQ chicken in both games. Hit our 3s and we should have a good chance.


Oh, and long live the ACC Tournament. It still matters to me.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top