After Further Review

[WI#1Dukie22]

24+ hours later I have personally picked the pieces up and gathered my thoughts....

The Zion Shoe ordeal was a punch in the gut, Luke Maye Kicked us in the nuts and UNC as a whole beat us while we were down. (Thats what good teams do)

The sun rose again and we move on. We have since heard Zion is Day to Day, K has had time to prepare our remaining talent for whats ahead without Zion. I think we play 2-4 games without Z. I dont feel we have any business losing any of those with or without him.

I do have concerns- and they were starting with Z before UNC- they were magnified 100x vs UNC without him.
*Our Defense has slipped quite dramatically. The first 30 mins vs UL, NC ST and UNC. NOT GOOD.
*Our lack of shooting has just been glaring. I thought this would avg out with the talent we have. It has not
*The development or upcoming of the bench. Alex and Jack had chances to do special things Wens. Careers are made from coming in on the big stage and being the next man up. They just have not done this.

Saturdays game is now a monster, well they all are leading up to UNCII. We cant lose another one if were going to "win" the regular season, and most importantly stay on the NCAA 1 Seed line- hopefully in the east.

I still have all the confidence in the world going forward, I think the talent is in place of course but Wens night was an eye opener and reality check. We need to regroup and FIGHT ON!!!

GO DUKE

 

[Laettner]

I'm still salty and if we lose Saturday fall to 3 seed in ACCT. Love that 945p tip on Thursday!(heavy sarcasm)

 

[HeLooks2MuchLikeDave]

We aren't losing Saturday. I feel extraordinarily confident about this game. But I do recognize that the team has hit a bit of a wall outside of RJ, Zion, and to an extent, Cam. We desperately need Alex and Jack to make those open 3s; it will help so much with our spacing. We need more consistency from Javin and Ques. And Coach needs to find a way to give Tre and RJ a breather at some point in the game.

 

[dukebluesTX]

In the long run I think the shoe fiasco nets Zion a ton more money with his inevitable shoe deal. Nike will make sure he signs with them because if he doesn't, it will look like he spurned them because of their crappy shoes. Good for the big man, cash in!

 

[LetsGoDuke301]

Every good team has stretches where they underperform. Losing the other night sucks. With or without Zion. But big picture, which is hard to look at when your rival scalps you and mops your own floor with your hair, it was just one game in the regular season. I have little confidence in a deep tournament run without Zion. But I have great confidence in playing the third weekend of the tournament with a healthy team including Zion.

This team has what it takes to get the motor rolling again, so I will reserve the level of disappointment I will have until we are at full strength. Meaning that I won't panic should we lose tomorrow at Syracuse without Zion.

 

[BeerPoisoning]

There’s nobody in college hoops that holds a candle to our talent. Our talent produces the wins and keeps us winning but the fact that our talent is raw and not polished makes us beatable on a bad night.

Our shooting sucks and that isn’t going to be fixed over night. Nothing wrong with taking 3’s but we need to focus on taking way more attempts inside the arc.

We have great perimeter defense. We are terrible defending someone off the dribble attacking the basket, sometimes we just get lucky that Zion plays incredible help-D in those situations. Paint protector!

I don’t think our bench development sucks. Jack and JG were only 3-star recruits. I wouldn’t call JG a lost cause but, he just doesn’t really provide anything offensively. I’m up in the air about Jack, starting to think he’s not as good as he looked early season - he has really sold us out in conference. I’m the only person on the planet that believes in Alex. He needs a chance, he shot 48% from 3 last season.

 

[LouisiAaron]

There’s nobody in college hoops that holds a candle to our talent. Our talent produces the wins and keeps us winning but the fact that our talent is raw and not polished makes us beatable on a bad night.

Our shooting sucks and that isn’t going to be fixed over night. Nothing wrong with taking 3’s but we need to focus on taking way more attempts inside the arc.

We have great perimeter defense. We are terrible defending someone off the dribble attacking the basket, sometimes we just get lucky that Zion plays incredible help-D in those situations. Paint protector!

I don’t think our bench development sucks. Jack and JG were only 3-star recruits. I wouldn’t call JG a lost cause but, he just doesn’t really provide anything offensively. I’m up in the air about Jack, starting to think he’s not as good as he looked early season - he has really sold us out in conference. I’m the only person on the planet that believes in Alex. He needs a chance, he shot 48% from 3 last season.

Because of our aggressive style we are going to give up drives. You can’t handcheck so it’s pretty hard to keep another scholarship guard in front of you consistently

 

[kwyjibos13]

...You can’t handcheck ...

Coulda fooled me watching Wednesday night...

 

[Mpm277]

The lack of depth outside our four freshman is pretty glaring, imo.

 

[WI#1Dukie22]

I think our D is a bit overrated, we are starting to get exposed. I’m sure k will adjust a bit here. Ques is such a great lane protector but he spends the grand majority of his time hedging and defending guards.

 

[WI#1Dukie22]

^ which seemed to work ok with Zions incredible ability to recover and defend anything from anywhere

 

[BeerPoisoning]

Because of our aggressive style we are going to give up drives. You can’t handcheck so it’s pretty hard to keep another scholarship guard in front of you consistently

Our defense is a plastic ruler. Aggressive and in your face, but if there’s explosive penetration (god that sounds wrong lmao) we don’t bend, we snap in half.

Hand-checking by the official rules is illegal so that’s no excuse.

 

[LouisiAaron]

Our defense is a plastic ruler. Aggressive and in your face, but if there’s explosive penetration (god that sounds wrong lmao) we don’t bend, we snap in half.

Hand-checking by the official rules is illegal so that’s no excuse.

Name me an aggressive defense that can completely stop dribble penetration. We guard out to halfcourt and play the passing lanes. Which means if we play a team that’s spread out and one man gets beat then yes layups will come easy. We are looking to attack and cause turnovers. The consequence of that is easy buckets. Like in football, if you blitz a lot and play man to man and your cornerback slip it’s an easy touchdown. Same concept.

 

[BeerPoisoning]

Name me an aggressive defense that can completely stop dribble penetration. We guard out to halfcourt and play the passing lanes. Which means if we play a team that’s spread out and one man gets beat then yes layups will come easy. We are looking to attack and cause turnovers. The consequence of that is easy buckets. Like in football, if you blitz a lot and play man to man and your cornerback slip it’s an easy touchdown. Same concept.

Yes, you’re right but that’s not what I’m getting at. Maybe my wording of dribble penetration was wrong. Our aggression and pass anticipation gambling is elite.

I’m saying 1 on 1 on the perimeter we smother on-ball. If the offensive player is explosive we get beat off the dribble. Once that player blows by, the on-ball defender virtually gives up and relies on whoever is playing the 5 to stop the play. Nothing to do with passing lanes. Allowing the blow by either gives up an easy bucket or drop off pass from help defense. Just stating that as athletic as we are, we should be able to stay in front of a guy and cut off the drive. Our defense hasn’t been as good the past 3 or 4 games and it’s because of that. Jack and Cam specifically struggle with it.

 

[LouisiAaron]

Yes, you’re right but that’s not what I’m getting at. Maybe my wording of dribble penetration was wrong. Our aggression and pass anticipation gambling is elite.

I’m saying 1 on 1 on the perimeter we smother on-ball. If the offensive player is explosive we get beat off the dribble. Once that player blows by, the on-ball defender virtually gives up and relies on whoever is playing the 5 to stop the play. Nothing to do with passing lanes. Allowing the blow by either gives up an easy bucket or drop off pass from help defense. Just stating that as athletic as we are, we should be able to stay in front of a guy and cut off the drive. Our defense hasn’t been as good the past 3 or 4 games and it’s because of that. Jack and Cam specifically struggle with it.

That sounds simple but it’s not easy keeping another good athlete in front.