MBB: Duke vs. Wake Forest (Saturday 1/25, 4:30pm ET, ESPN) Pregame and In-Game Thread

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While the previous discussion of the OG Board raised question as to the class and intellect of Wake Forest supporters, I think this should remove any doubt:

Official: F**k You duke Thread​

(editing was required)

4 pages and going strong….and yes, it stays exclusively on topic.
Love it. Most fans only hate us because we are good. I revel in it!

9F
 
I've linked to several of Brian Geisenger's write ups before. I highly recommend subscribing to his newsletter. He's done some really good pieces on Duke, and here's a good deep dive on Wake: https://briangeisinger.substack.com...e&r=1k4wq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Wake is hedging a lot of ballscreens this year. This has allowed them to force more turnovers, however it can put them in situations where they are playing 3 on 4 if the ballhandler can make a quick pass. They deal with this situation by using their PF Spillers as a help defender. On of the clips from the UNC game shows Cadeau splitting the hedge and getting to the basket, only to get blocked by Spillers. The result of this is that Wake gets in rotations a lot defensively, and they are allowing a lot of 3 point attempts.

This has proven to be a pretty good passing Duke team. Ball movement is going to be important. The good news is that Jon has carefully crafted his lineup such that there aren't many non-shooters you can help off of. I'm wondering if Jon may be tempted to lean more into the small lineup tomorrow. That would either force Wake to stick Efton Reid on one of our wings, or downshift and put Spillers at the 5. Either way, with 5 shooters it's much more dangerous to get into rotations defensively.
 
I am famously anti-zone. It is defeatist. It is what you play when you can't physically match up with someone. Man to man is how you establish physical dominance. K played it later in his coaching career at times, because he found it was incredibly difficult to teach man to man to young teams in a short window. But he still preferred man. I once sat in a room with K and heard him talk for 15 minutes on how much he hated zone defense. His point was that in man to man you are delivering body blows. In a zone, you are absorbing them. Wake can have all the 2 point jumpers they want. Duke doesn't want to take away 2 point jumpers. Because you can't make enough 2 point jumpers to beat Duke. I don't care if you shoot 50%+ on them. They still can't beat you, because you would shoot better at the rim and 3s are more efficient.

My prayer: dear Lord. Please help me to never root for a team which plays zone as its primary defense.
If a team doesn't have foot speed you have to play zone. A match up zone can work well. This team has great feet. All of them move good. Including Kon.
 
If a team doesn't have foot speed you have to play zone. A match up zone can work well. This team has great feet. All of them move good. Including Kon.
Point taken. I would push back and say that a slow team can't play an extended style of man to man and probably needs to pick up at the 3 point line. But I think the only reason to use zone is for a change up for a possession or 2, or if you are up 30. Arguably, I am biased.
 
Point taken. I would push back and say that a slow team can't play an extended style of man to man and probably needs to pick up at the 3 point line. But I think the only reason to use zone is for a change up for a possession or 2, or if you are up 30. Arguably, I am biased.
Agreed. This team defense is elite. Switching is great. It's the team Coach K kinda had before one and dones. Portal has helped. If this team loses in the future it's because to other team offense is playing real good.
 
While the previous discussion of the OG Board raised question as to the class and intellect of Wake Forest supporters, I think this should remove any doubt:

Official: F**k You duke Thread​

(editing was required)

4 pages and going strong….and yes, it stays exclusively on topic.
That’s the insecurity to which I was referring upthread.

They’ve also nearly dropped out of the top 50 in the US News college rankings. They used to be as high as 25.
 
The 2nd-ranked Blue Devils got a victory in Boston and have nearly a week to rest and prepare for an early bird special game on Saturday in Winston-Salem against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, airing on ESPN (streaming link, listen, live stats).

mbb20250125.jpg
(source)

Duke links: preview, PDF game notes
WF links: preview, PDF game notes

Dave O'Brien (Syracuse grad; bio) and Jon Crispin (Penn State/UCLA basketball; article) will be on the sidelines calling the game for ESPN.

In the above-linked article, Jon Crispin talked to journalism students at Division III Rowan University last October. (Jon's brother Joe Crispin coached at Rowan until 2023, when he took an assistant coach job at their alma mater Penn State.) Turns out there's also video of Jon's 1-hour speaking engagement, and he fielded a few questions about the upcoming 2024-2025 college basketball season, some of which were about Duke:


"There's going to be moments where [Cooper Flagg is] incredible. How does he handle the moments where it's hard? One of the things about college [ball] is that it's incredibly well scouted. Pro sports are scouted, but what they scout is tendencies... college is far more scouted from a structural standpoint, which means a younger player is going to work for a little while, and then teams are going to adjust to him. Does he know how to adjust to the adjustment? Oh, they adjusted to me, what do I gotta do, I gotta figure it out again, it's just perpetual. So the question is, is he humble enough that when it doesn't work, he goes, I need to figure this out...?

Duke's had a few of those [guys who didn't adjust]. Jalen Johnson, a couple years ago, incredible player. The second that teams adjusted to him? Checked out, sore ankle, we got a shin problem, like it was someone else's fault. I think [Cooper's] got it, though, because he's 6-10 and shoots it and he also did it against Team USA. Jon Scheyer gets it, too. Scheyer leans a lot on Coach K, and Coach K's got a really good perspective on those guys."
 
Unfortunately, the zone worked poorly vs KY in the finals.

Kentucky repeatedly found weak spots in the zone, many near the top of the lane, and got the ball to Jack "Goose" Givens who shot 18-27 from the Floor and ended up with 41 points.

You beat me to it. I was at that game in the Checkerdome! Joe B. Hall caught a ton of grief after the game at Stan Musial's.
A group of older, well-lubricated Wildcat fans were bemoaning the fact that "the Baron woulda done it with white boys".
 
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