Duke Mid-Season Thread

• hoops23

  

  Laley23;1061548 wrote:That was amazing. So ridiculous.

  lol, yes it was..
  
  I also just realized my brain shutdown while typing that post as I said Steph went to Dayton, but I obviously meant Davidson lol...
• Laley23

  

  hoops23;1061551 wrote:lol, yes it was..
  
  I also just realized my brain shutdown while typing that post as I said Steph went to Dayton, but I obviously meant Davidson lol...

  lol, I figured you were just making fun of CC. The fact he was trying to tell me/us that Seth was better because Duke wanted him was so asinine. He couldnt grasp that it might have something to due with Steph owning college BBall.
• vball10set

  ccrunner609;1061313 wrote:STFU........nobody wins games when you give up 50 in the 2nd half and shoot 39% from the floor and your opponent shoots over 50%. Curry and Rivers combined for 11-32.

  
• reclegend22

  

  Difficult loss to swallow in Cameron, especially while Duke was on the cusp of surpassing its longest ever home-court winning streak of 46 -- which Coach K and Duke accumulated from 1997 to 2000, the longest such spell in ACC history. The thing I hate about losing to six-loss Florida State -- fucking intensely -- even if they are a very talented team and excellent defensively, is the fact that they traditionally only play that way against Duke and North Carolina (last year's Elite Eight run was a great anomaly). Enjoy losing to Texas-San Antonio in the first round, Lenny. (Although, as a fan of the ACC, I certainly hope I am wrong and that FSU builds on this tremendous week of basketball with wins over Duke and UNC and represents the conference well in March.)
  
  As for Duke, despite playing no defense yesterday, I am very excited for the reemergence of Austin Rivers and Andre Dawkins. Rivers has scored 39 points and hit 5-of-9 from three over the past two games, while Dawkins has just been disgustingly dirty. In three straight games against Clemson, Wake Forest and Florida State, Dawkins is averaging 20 points per night and shooting 15-of-28 from beyond the arc. As I've previously championed, the kid is simply one of the most explosive long-distance shooters in the country.
• robj55

  

  vball10set;1061590 wrote:

  lmao
• swamisez

  

  I would pay for Seth curry to take a three month vacation. Kid cannot play for this team. He is a defensive liability and offensively is the easiest guard in the acc. Doesn't use screens well, shies away from contact, doesn't drive to his left, won't shoot the 13-18 foot jumper, and is unable to run the offense whilst playing point guard. Last year Nolan and kyrie would drive to create wide open looks for Seth. This year not so much.
  
  Get well soon Quinn cook, Seth curry is killing this team in the meantime.
• reclegend22

  

  Curry just doesn't stop it with the I-think-I-am-Isiah-Thomas-and-I-am-coming-through lunacy. Every time he catches it within a 40-foot radius of the hoop, it's going up. A three-ball or all the way to the hoop. (Austin Rivers sometimes suffers from this syndrome, but he's a freshman and the kid has the ability to finish and finish on the regular. Big difference.) One of the cornerstones of Duke's half-court offense over the years has been the Blue Devils' acute understanding of spacing and the drive-and-kick to open up perimeter scoring, and that's a big problem because Seth Curry has apparently never heard of the word kick. A recurring and repeated theme in almost every Duke game lately has been Seth Curry stampeding into the lane like a wildcat while Andre Dawkins stands alone behind the arc jumping up and down and flagging his hands, waiting for a pass that will never come. Andre might as well just chill out when Curry touches the ball because the only thing Andre is going to get in his hands is arthritis from all the waving.
  
  Seth is a good player, but he just needs to learn to play within himself and understand his limits. As others have pointed out, he is not his brother.
• swamisez

  

  I don't mind Curry shooting. He is an excellent shooter and is quite reliable in many cases.
  Where I get incensed is when he is put in as the point guard by K and told the run the offense. That all but eliminates his offensive game because he is not a player who can score off the dribble.
  
  Furthermore, when Curry is on the floor teams are constantly rotating him to the top of the key or the left wing and driving past him for layups or getting free throws. He is so slow and "alarmingly unathletic" that the defense is forced to help on virtually every defensive possession. Couple that with Kelly playing 18-25 feet from the basket on most plays and you have a defense that cannot pressure the ball in the half court and is dependent on the Plumlees to have a good night defensively altering shots.
  
  I am sure K knows all his teams deficiencies, but I am just upset at how this team has devolved. Recruiting efforts need to be stepped up, and from what I have seen there doesn't appear to be much Duke can do. Would love a Daniel Ewing, Demarcus Nelson, or Luol Deng type player on this team. Need a wing who can score off the dribble and a defender who can actually stop dribble penetration by shooting guards and small forwards.
  
  C'est la vie
• swamisez

  

  Devils got a W in College Park. They are a much better team than Maryland, although the Terps played better than they have in a few games.
  
  The Good
  -Mason Plumlee has found his stroke at the charity stripe it seems. He has made 11 of his last 14 and I think has been shooting over 80% over the last four games. A far cry from the 41% he was shooting up until the Temple game
  
  -Miles Plumlee, wasn't a walking turnover last night. Played solid defense around the rim and worked well in tandem with Mase.
  
  -Ryan Kelly, solid game, didn't dominate in any one area but contributed in all. Nice all around effort. This is what he can be every game.
  
  The Bad
  -Austin Rivers shooting last night, couldn't drop one in the ocean from deep and was misfiring on his pull up 15 footer. There will be better nights. It is a good thing he can take it to the rack.
  
  -Tyler Thornton on ball defense, especially on the final play of the half. Stoglin and Moseby abused him most of the night.
  
  The Ugly
  -Seth Curry perimeter defense. Good grief! I don't want to be even more of a S.Curry hater but this kid has no business with the ball in his hand nor should he be out there playing the matador defense he excels at.
  
  -Duke 3 point shooting-1 for eleventy billion? Missing the friendly confines of Cameron aren't we Andre Dawkins.
• vball10set

  ccrunner609;1066886 wrote:Maryland guards dominated Duke last night. What they did was actually change up the game and pound it inside. Last night Duke actually became a well rounded and deeper team. They can beat you inside and they can beat you outside.

  Unless you're wearing Scarlet and Gray
• reclegend22

  

  Big win for the Devils on the road in the ACC, which is never a feat of ease, records be damned. So with that I am highly pleased.
  
  But for God's sake, have you forgotten about perimeter defense, Duke? We were able to tighten up inside just enough at the end to seal the victory, but that first half was just atrocious. Duke's guards were repeatedly brushed by in their attempt at employing a sad case of pressure defense, and our frontcourt was either out of position, too far away to help out or generally just guarding with the same intensity and vigor of a pine tree. Maryland was waltzing to the hoop like they were moving rhythmically to music. Unless this team can begin to consistently stop penetration starting on the perimeter, it will be a short run in tournaments for Duke.
  
  As for Dawkins, sure it was an off night, but he's generally a hired gun in opposing gyms. He's a guy that's not affected by playing away. Not three games ago, he hit five huge threes in Little John against Clemson, including the clincher in the final minutes. I've always thought of him as a kid who, like J.J. Redick before him, enjoyed the frenzy of unfriendly environments (Wisconsin and Baylor games immediately come to mind). We need him to keep hoisting them up. He's our most explosive shooter when on. By a mile.
• gorocks99

  

  Thought this was interesting, even though I think Doyel is a blowhard: http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/17018067/fabled-cameron-crazies-succumbing-to-cameron-monotony-at-duke
  
  I guess Duke is averaging around 650 students in its 1200 seat student section this year (down about 150 from 08/09), meaning the school is selling gen admin tickets to fill in the rest: http://dukechronicle.com/article/low-attendance-forces-duke-athletics-sell-student-seats
• swamisez

  

  Doyel doesn't know what he is talking about in this article. He has no idea why students don't go to games.
  
  It would have been novel if he actually asked a student, or read the response article in the Chronicle but he didnt.
  
  Duke students aren't going to games anymore because last year the Duke Athletics Dept. in cooperation with the line-monitor minions mandated that all attending games had to do pregame walk up and get wristbands. Students can no longer just flash an ID and walk in to games. They have to stand in a pregame line and get a wristband in order to enter. It is the dumbest policy I can think of. It makes sense vs. Carolina and maybe the occasional Maryland game but other than that it is pointless.
  
  Line monitors went on a power trip and now their stupid policies are making students not want to go. I can't think of another school that makes students line up 1-2 hours before every game, gives them wristbands for entry, then makes them leave and denies other students who don't have wristbands when they arrive.
  
  Hopefully the Athletic Dept. steps in and fixes this stupid rule, or at least limits it to only a couple contests a year.
• reclegend22

  

  Make no mistake about it. Duke didn't win today. St. John's simply ran out of time. The Blue Devils are in serious jeopardy of losing in a "historic upset" type of situation in the first round of the NCAAs. I am going to be scared to death watching this team play in late March.
  
  On a bright note, Andre Dawkins found his rhythm again in the first half with a 4-of-6 performance from beyond the arc. He's very streaky -- very much in the same mold of a young John Starks, with regard to both his rollercoaster outside shooting and animated temperament -- but Duke's ability to make a long tournament run will depend largely on whether or not Dawkins is hot. Aside from Rivers, there's just no one else. Seth Curry, with his severely undersized frame and lack of athleticism, can easily be relegated to a "pig" type player and Cook and Thornton just aren't offensively there yet. Duke, though, needs Dawkins to develop a better handle and get to the hoop more often. He's a high flyer and needs to display it.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  ccrunner609;1068763 wrote:^^^Come on now.....Duke will be tough to beat in a close game where they need a bucket late to win. Mason Plumlee has turned into a player and when they need a bucket it will be pumped down to him in the post. I just hope he can hit the FT's when they foul him.

  
  Doooooooooooooooooooooooooooiooooooooook!
• reclegend22

  

  CC, I should have been more clear. I meant guard-wise offensively, Duke only has two reliable guys, and one of them is streaky. Those two guys being Rivers and Dawkins. Mason Plumlee has certainly transformed into a formidable post for the Devils. You are correct. If he comes back next year, he will be an all-out monster. And Kelly is pretty consistent as well.
  
  As I've said previously, however, without consistent defensive ability to stop penetration and scoring in the key, we are going to, as you allude to, be in a lot of close, end-game situations. And by a lot, I mean probably every game we play until this changes. We just can't totally break free of anyone it seems and that's because we are only putting short segments of good basketball together and not playing with a sense of urgency.
• swamisez

  

  [LEFT]"We did enough to win, which almost makes me sick to say that," Krzyzewski said. "I hate saying that we did enough to win. I mean, that's not who I am and not who this program is. You don't do `enough to win.' We play really good basketball, and then hopefully we win. But that's the story. ... I'm not pleased with today one bit. One bit."
  
  Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/ncaa/men/gameflash/2012/01/28/74572_recap.html?sct=hp_t2_a13&eref=sihp#ixzz1kowyNXuL
  
  Where is the intensity? Seems like the players hope to win, want to win, but aren't dying to win. Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith brought the intensity and made everyone on the floor better. Don't see anyone on the floor doing that at the moment. Not sure if there is someone on the roster who can do that. That more than anything else is what makes this team hard to watch. I want Duke to lose by 50 against the Tarholes so they have a real gut check, come to Jesus meeting and decide what they want out of the season. [/LEFT]
• Footwedge

  This is the worst defensive team that I've ever seen out of Duke. They don't seem to care...whether it's in the half court or in transition. Very uncharacteristic of a K team.
• Big Gain

  Footwedge;1068857 wrote:This is the worst defensive team that I've ever seen out of Duke. They don't seem to care...whether it's in the half court or in transition. Very uncharacteristic of a K team.

  Uncoachable?
• Footwedge

  Big Gain;1069342 wrote:Uncoachable?

  Dunno. I've watched them maybe 5 times and they never have a good defensive game. Even good defensive teams take a night off periodically. But this team is like that every game.
• swamisez

  

  Too many big slow white guys on the floor in the paint, and guards who can't stay in front of defenders on the perimeter makes for bad team defense.
  
  The best defensive team on the floor is the worst offensive team out there sadly.
  Best D-Cook, Thornton, Hariston, Plum 1, Plum 2
  Best O-Curry, Rivers, Dawkins, Kelly, Plum 2
  
  When Curry, Rivers and Dawkins are out there its as if guards are just out there for show until the ball is in the offensive court.
  
  Not sure where the balance is, I would hope it involves Cook at the PG, and less of Seth Curry and Dawkins out there in tandem. Together those two couldn't guard Stephen Hawking.
• reclegend22

  

  swamisez wrote:Not sure where the balance is, I would hope it involves Cook at the PG, and less of Seth Curry and Dawkins out there in tandem. Together those two couldn't guard Stephen Hawking.

  Actually, Stephen Hawking might be tougher to defend than you think. His travel pal would be very tricky to stop in the open court on a fast break.
  
  I agree with you that Cook needs to become more of a focal point. I'm glad he's recovering from the sickness/injury that derailed his progress earlier this month, because he is our future at point guard and, in my opinion, I actually deem him a better offensive generator than Curry. Not in terms of shooting, but with regard to setting up our offense and creating in transition. Cook understands how to find guys and distribute to our perimeter scorers. Curry simply does not. A lineup of Cook, Rivers and Dawkins gives us the athleticism and size we need. As much as I appreciate Seth's shooting, he needs to be relegated to a "Microwave"-type scorer off the bench.
• swamisez

  

  Agree totally on Curry. I think if Cook were healthy at the start of the season and hadn't had this set back Curry would be getting fewer minutes, sharing them with Rivers and Dawkins in all honesty. The offense can't afford identical players on the court at the same time (Curry and Dawkins are near identical defensively) offensively Seth can handle the ball but has lost his deep shooting touch. Dawkins can't help but turn over the ball when he has to handle it and is only really viable from behind the arc.
• reclegend22

  

  swamisez wrote:Dawkins can't help but turn over the ball when he has to handle it and is only really viable from behind the arc.

  True. And it's a shame, because, with his sick hops, if Andre just had the ability to efficiently put the ball on the floor and get to the bucket, he'd be an All-American. The kid is criminally underrated as a leaper because, well, nobody ever really gets to see him leap. On the rare occasion that he does get the ball in the open court, though, he really does remind me of John Starks, as I've said before, who was another supremely under-appreciated aerial man. Then again, I guess if Mason Plumlee just had the ability to dribble and shoot threes then he'd be just like Dirk Nowitzki. You can't always get what you want.
  
  With that said, I think Dawkins is Duke's most important player offensively. Not only is he the most explosive scorer on the team, but, because of his above average height on the perimeter, Dawkins is the only guy who can routinely get his own shot from behind the arc -- and that really spreads the defense and opens the game up for Mason in the interior. When he's really working, Andre cavorts through opposing defenses like Reggie Miller. It's beautiful to watch, and it keeps defenses honest.
• swamisez

  

  That looked like a duke team out there tonight. Lots of ball pressure. Good helpside and they fought for lose balls and won the 50/50. Great to see.