Observations from Countdown and practice

JasonEvans

JasonEvans

Host, The Duke Basketball Roundup
In addition to countdown, I got to attend a practice today. Some things are becoming very clear to me—

I heard from a source that Scheyer feels like a few guys have separated themselves from the rest. In practice, that became quickly clear.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1842624135656063048

https://twitter.com/x/status/1842633417193644186

This moment produced a gasp from me—
https://twitter.com/x/status/1842626167364300997

I’m at the airport but will have more later. Y’all need to listen to the pod we do tomorrow cause I will have a ton of stuff there!
 
Wow Jason. You're really sticking your neck out here. Love it!

I'm not at all surprised by anything you posted except that Mason will only play spot minutes. I've been predicting a 7.5 man rotation with Mason being that 0.5 man at around 15mpg.

Mason's defense and spot-up shooting are too good. If you noticed, he was matched up on Kon for most of the second game when Kon scored zero points.

I would bet that there are games where we need more defense at the 3/4 and Mason plays 15, 20, or even 25 minutes.

Also, I like hearing that Khaman is ahead of Maliq already. I love Maliq but for this team to dominate and win a natty, we need that 7-2 rim protector.
 
Funny, I came away from watching the countdown scrimmage feeling like all of the 10 players we expect to play looked good. Of course, I’m no coach.

I also think I know that Kon was on the losing side in both scrimmages yesterday. Don’t want to make a big deal of that, of course, but it is contrary to some other reports.
 
7 man lineup? Meet the new boss....same as the Ole.

I mean, Jon learned from the short bench master so this can't be a surprise to anyone.

Just hope Harris and Evans come back to Duke next year cause I really, really and I mean really want to see them play major minutes in a Duke uniform.
 
JasonEvans said:
In addition to countdown, I got to attend a practice today. Some things are becoming very clear to me—

I heard from a source that Scheyer feels like a few guys have separated themselves from the rest. In practice, that became quickly clear.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1842624135656063048

https://twitter.com/x/status/1842633417193644186

This moment produced a gasp from me—
https://twitter.com/x/status/1842626167364300997

I’m at the airport but will have more later. Y’all need to listen to the pod we do tomorrow cause I will have a ton of stuff there!
Click to expand...
Agree on the starting five. I had heard the same thing well before last night.
 
At practice today, the starters were in white. Sion joined them reasonably quickly (sometimes for Kon, sometimes for Caleb). Maliq was next (for Man-man).

I think Gillis only put on the white once, and it was only for a minute or two.

I hear all the folks who say he is going to play 15+ mpg, but we have seen this story A LOT over the years and the ending is never different.

If the ACC championship game was tomorrow, I would project him for about 5 minutes played. There is nothing he does better than Sion (who’s outside shot is better than I expected) and I dunno why Scheyer would say, “Sion is getting about 20 minutes off the bench… but I should cut him to 15 so I can give Mason 5 more.” What is the rationale for that?!?

My bet, in a biiiig game —
Prcotor 37
Cooper 35
Foster 32
Kon 29
Man-man 25
Sion 20
Maliq 15
Mason 5
 
dukelion said:
7 man lineup? Meet the new boss....same as the Ole.

I mean, Jon learned from the short bench master so this can't be a surprise to anyone.

Just hope Harris and Evans come back to Duke next year cause I really, really and I mean really want to see them play major minutes in a Duke uniform.
Click to expand...
I believe Harris and Evans and Ngongba will all return to Duke if they believe they have a great chance to start. And they should...
 
JasonEvans said:
At practice today, the starters were in white. Sion joined them reasonably quickly (sometimes for Kon, sometimes for Caleb). Maliq was next (for Man-man).

I think Gillis only put on the white once, and it was only for a minute or two.

I hear all the folks who say he is going to play 15+ mpg, but we have seen this story A LOT over the years and the ending is never different.

If the ACC championship game was tomorrow, I would project him for about 5 minutes played. There is nothing he does better than Sion (who’s outside shot is better than I expected) and I dunno why Scheyer would say, “Sion is getting about 20 minutes off the bench… but I should cut him to 15 so I can give Mason 5 more.” What is the rationale for that?!?

My bet, in a biiiig game —
Prcotor 37
Cooper 35
Foster 32
Kon 29
Man-man 25
Sion 20
Maliq 15
Mason 5
Click to expand...
If Jon wants to run a short rotation, this is probably what it would look like. But if he wants to go a bit more uptempo on both ends, he can utilize Mason. This is what I've posted for competitive games...

Cooper - 35
Proctor, Foster, Kon - 30
Khaman - 25
Sion - 20
Mason, Maliq - 15

With this rotation Mason would be backing up Kon for 10mpg at the 3 and Cooper for 5mpg at the 4.

I do agree though, if Jon decides to only go 7 deep, Mason will be that 8th man.
 
AGDukesky said:
I like your optimism but worried about Evans. Some mock drafts had him in the top of the first round I believe.
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I'm worried about him being disappointed, sure.

But he knows Kon is a better player right now. He guards him every day in practice.

At the end of the season, if Isaiah is looking at coming back to start for a coach and team and teammates he loves, I'm not sure why he'd leave to go somewhere else.

And hopefully we are beating a lot of teams by 20 at halftime so Isaiah and Darren do get to mix in some with the starters in the second half.
 
JasonEvans said:
If the ACC championship game was tomorrow, I would project him for about 5 minutes played. There is nothing he does better than Sion (who’s outside shot is better than I expected) and I dunno why Scheyer would say, “Sion is getting about 20 minutes off the bench… but I should cut him to 15 so I can give Mason 5 more.” What is the rationale for that?!?
Click to expand...
What's the rationale? Are you serious? I mean, just off the top of my head: 1) Helps prevent fatigue and injuries for starters. Maybe short bench is why we're always banged up / have injuries to key guys at the worst time; 2) Develop depth and confidence with our bench so that they, you know, have a clue what they're doing before one of the starters goes down or has foul trouble; 3) Team cohesion - it's kind of more fun when more guys are playing, improves chemistry on- and off-court; 4) Take matchups into account, different opponents will have different strengths/weaknesses where a bench guy is a better matchup.

It's lazy and shortsighted to just play 7 guys 85%+ of the minutes. In a business setting, everyone on your team "plays." If they can't add value, either their manager can't develop them or he/she is a poor judge of talent. Same thing applies on the court. If the Big 10 6th Man of Year is playing 5 minutes, that's on the staff, 100%.
 
BDW, Coach K became the top coach of all time in college basketball by ignoring everything you just cited. I see nothing to indicate that Jon is different in that regard.

Also, I was specifically talking about playing Sion less than 20ish so you could play Mason five more mins. Many of your points are targeted toward the larger issue of depth overall. My point is that if Sion, a guy who played 35+ for Tulane the past few years, is playing low-20s minutes, why would you reduce THAT so Mason plays more?

Sion is better. He should play as many minutes as Kon, CFos, and Reese sitting will allow him to.

Note- all the above goes out the window with an injury.
 
I'm the Konhead on the board so it's great that I get to make this observation from last night...

If you go back and look at the made baskets last night, several were Foster and Flagg taking Kon off the dribble. Those two know they can beat him one on one.

Not a huge deal. They are elite drivers. And Kon will have Khaman behind him to clean things up.

But if a team is having success picking on Kon, Jon has a couple of options. He can have Cooper D up the wing and have Kon cover the PF. Or he can bring Mason in to play more minutes. How often will this happen? Don't know.
 
This is an absolutely fascinating development. If Gillis, the Big Ten sixth man of the year and an unquestioned leader on last year’s national runners up, can’t carve out a solid role in the rotation that has to mean Kon and Sion have massively exceeded expectations. That, or Mason is not living up to expectations, but that would be super surprising for a super senior with the amount of tape he has. Can’t wait to hear more details on the pod!
 
JasonEvans said:
BDW, Coach K became the top coach of all time in college basketball by ignoring everything you just cited. I see nothing to indicate that Jon is different in that regard.

Also, I was specifically talking about playing Sion less than 20ish so you could play Mason five more mins. Many of your points are targeted toward the larger issue of depth overall. My point is that if Sion, a guy who played 35+ for Tulane the past few years, is playing low-20s minutes, why would you reduce THAT so Mason plays more?

Sion is better. He should play as many minutes as Kon, CFos, and Reese sitting will allow him to.

Note- all the above goes out the window with an injury.
Click to expand...
There's another question to ask here. When was the last time Coach K had this much talent 1-10? We were very "top heavy" during the OAD years. So just for kicks I went back and pulled the 8th man minutes for the pre-OAD years.

2010 - Andre Dawkins 12.6
2009 - Dave McClure 15.8
2008 - Brian Zoubek 10.5
2007 - Jamal Boykin 10.0
2006 - Martynas Pocius 6.1
2005 - Reggie Love 10.2

Personally, I think Gillis' talent is much closer (or above) Dave McClure than Pocius. Bottom line, when Coach K had deeper teams, he played more guys.
 
scottdude8 said:
This is an absolutely fascinating development. If Gillis, the Big Ten sixth man of the year and an unquestioned leader on last year’s national runners up, can’t carve out a solid role in the rotation that has to mean Kon and Sion have massively exceeded expectations. That, or Mason is not living up to expectations, but that would be super surprising for a super senior with the amount of tape he has. Can’t wait to hear more details on the pod!
Click to expand...
Everything you say about Gillis is right, but it’s worth acknowledging that his offense is limited. He is an excellent three point shooter, but doesn’t do a lot else. At Purdue, with Edey in the middle, that was enough. It may not be enough with Duke.
 
scottdude8 said:
This is an absolutely fascinating development. If Gillis, the Big Ten sixth man of the year and an unquestioned leader on last year’s national runners up, can’t carve out a solid role in the rotation that has to mean Kon and Sion have massively exceeded expectations. That, or Mason is not living up to expectations, but that would be super surprising for a super senior with the amount of tape he has. Can’t wait to hear more details on the pod!
Click to expand...
I get what you are saying. I know you have been high on Gillis, as I have been on Maliq Brown. I watched Syracuse regularly last year and thought Brown was their best all around player. I was very excited that we got him. If Brown can’t crack our starting lineup that means we have a great team.

I do expect Maliq will get significant minutes. Not sure about Mason. I expect a freshman or two will get shut out, don’t know who.
 
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JasonEvans said:
Also, I was specifically talking about playing Sion less than 20ish so you could play Mason five more mins. Many of your points are targeted toward the larger issue of depth overall. My point is that if Sion, a guy who played 35+ for Tulane the past few years, is playing low-20s minutes, why would you reduce THAT so Mason plays more?

Sion is better. He should play as many minutes as Kon, CFos, and Reese sitting will allow him to.
Click to expand...
I disagree that Sion is better. Sion is different. Sion is a better driver and play-maker, but Gillis is a better pure shooter and a better defender. My wife - who watches every game, but doesn't follow the team or basketball outside the Duke season - even had to ask, "Who is number 18? He's really good." She didn't say that about Sion. Not that she's the final arbiter or anything, but I think there is a definite case to be made that Gillis deserves playing time as much or more than Sion. He can face up with the opponent's best scorer, and he spaces the floor for bigger guys on the other end. There's a lot of value in that. I'll be surprised if Mason doesn't play more than 5 min. per game.
 
Phredd3 said:
I disagree that Sion is better. Sion is different. Sion is a better driver and play-maker, but Gillis is a better pure shooter and a better defender. My wife - who watches every game, but doesn't follow the team or basketball outside the Duke season - even had to ask, "Who is number 18? He's really good." She didn't say that about Sion. Not that she's the final arbiter or anything, but I think there is a definite case to be made that Gillis deserves playing time as much or more than Sion. He can face up with the opponent's best scorer, and he spaces the floor for bigger guys on the other end. There's a lot of value in that. I'll be surprised if Mason doesn't play more than 5 min. per game.
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Phredd, what did your wife say about TJ Power.
 
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