***DUKE VS COPPIN STATE OFFICIAL GAMEDAY THREAD***
- Thread starter krzyzewskiville
- Start date
I think he’s mostly right to be honest. To be fair, K definitely sat Carey multiple times last year though when matchups didn’t favor him playing. at VT comes to mind right away.
Bagley and Wendell were two sure fire top 5-10 picks from the second they stepped on campus so comparing them isn’t fair, but Mo’s point is correct- our guys currently aren’t anywhere near that level as Wendell and MB3. We all knew that coming in.
So, for me, it’s, matchup yesterday dictated that those guys wouldn’t play much. We will get a better sense Tuesday night against MSU.
I hear you tim but making the blanket statement (the one i initially responded to), unless our bigs are Bagley good this year, then if our opponent goes small, we have to as well... I just absolutely disagree.
What does that even mean (being Bagley-good? Offensively? Both ends?) What if one of our bigs isn't as offensively skilled but has excellent lateral quickness and is really solid as a pick and roll defender? Or has some other type of superior defensive skill? Or if we play one or two of our bigs and play some zone?
And please, no one tell me they lack such skills based off of practice. Hurt, Roach and Moore supposedly had been our best players in practice... how did that translate?
I just strongly disagree that in certain circumstances we MUST let our opponent dictate our personnel. Possibly, but we have not seen nearly enough from our bigs to give a faultless assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. And what about making them adjust to us? In our case that could mean a number of different lineups.
Regardless, you're right... we'll learn a lot more against Michigan State.
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I totally get where you’re coming from. My thought is (and we touched on this in today’s podcast which we will post tomorrow) that our bigs this year just don’t have that one offensive skill that requires them to be out there. It’s gonna be a, hot hand, type of deal. They’ll all show this year what they can be. But game one, against that small team, none of them gave us a reason (on the low Block) for them to require or demand minutes. Again, even Carey last year, had games where K sat him bc of matchups.
But we will see!
This quote stood out to me.
What is your opinion post match? - Playing defense with endless switching
Well, there's the simple fact that Coach K didn't play them hardly at all against Coppin State. He played Vernon, Carter, Bagley, and Okafor as much as possible (well, Okafor did start getting pulled in unfavorable matchups). When a player is good enough Coach K will play that player in most situations. Then there's the fact that nobody has ever talked about Williams and Coleman being dominant post players the way our previous freshmen post players were. Tape is solid but was never considered this great player at Columbia and wasn't even considered one of the top grad transfers. If you are expecting any of these guys to be like Bagley, Carter, Carey, or Okafor you will be disappointed.
Time will tell. I think Duke has the talent, especially in the backcourt and on the wings, they just need experience and time to develop. Michigan State and Illinois will be good barometers as both seem to be legit top 10 teams. If we can beat them or at least compete with them we can compete with anyone not named Gonzaga.
Completely agree. As a fan, I would probably feel good if they get a split in the MSU/Illinois matchups. Those are both older teams, and Illinois has a couple of pros. Those games will be tough matchups and great tests for Duke.
And I watched some of both Gonzaga games. To me it seems like it is them and then everybody else this year. They looked really good.