***DUKE VS GEORGIA TECH OFFICIAL GAMEDAY THREAD***
- Thread starter krzyzewskiville
- Start date
A little stress in life is good Crazie lol. I was always told it builds character
and UVA has 43 at the half....we should study their tape of how to beat the zone
I've built a lot watching duke basketball over the years
Packed zone by the Yellowjackets hoping for crappy outside shooting from Duke. Worked for a half for GTech. I think this is the blueprint for our opponents.
I know right. I credit them with half of it over my lifetime. Helped with patience and grief counseling as well after learning how to handle a game loss lol.
Watching this game made me realize how much I missed seeing Tre Jones. If players weren't required to have your shirt tucked in your shorts, I swear you may see Tre's head sticking out of the other team's jersey as tight as he is guarding somebody. His on-ball defense is sick.
That poster is a bum. He only comes around when something doesn’t go real smooth.
In Cam’s defense, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 steals and a block is a nice contribution.
OH ok, I was looking for another game post from him but didn't see one. That explains it, thanks.
Make outside shots. That’s the ingredient.
We’re just a poor outside shooting team. I think the most frustrating thing about that is we’re used to having shooters all over the court. This season we really don’t have one. Maybe Alex can be? Luckily, we have a few guys who are capable on a game-by-game basis. But overall, outside shooting is this team’s biggest deficiency.
Agreed its our only weakness. If we could just become decent from outside we will be almost unbeatable. Right now we are terrible
UVA shooting 54% and then 40% from 3 and pounding the boards....Duke can do 2 of those so we should be good.
We did. I think K thought that Cam would better, bordering on being a very good 3pt shooter. AOC was supposed to be a sniper. And K probably thought Tre would be further along WRT to the perimeter shooting. Zion is right at the low end of his expectations. So is RJ.
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We should have been a mediocre three point shooting team. Not a great one, or even a pretty good 3pt shooting team. But mediocre . We aren't even that, and it could come back to bite us.
And to top it off, both RJ and Cam look like good shooters. If you just watched their mechanics, while not perfect, you would think they’re quite accurate....especially Cam.
AOC seems to need to be on the court for a few minutes to really get into the feel of the game. At which point he become much more effective. Unfortunately, he plays the same position(s) as 3-5 guys that are just ahead of him right now. In an ideal world, he'd be ready to go as soon as he steps on the court. We won't always have time for him to get comfortable out there.
Agreed. Thats why i think in the long run we will turn it around be be a decent shooting team
It is the same strategy that everyone has to beat the zone, which is why the zone almost went away: Make 3s. The zone allows for wide open looks form 3, and they are worth more than 2 pt shots (obvi). If the opposing team can't make threes, when only nominally challenged on those shots, then the zone is effective. If the other team can make threes, the zone will get shredded.
I have a feeling a team is gonna pack it in during a tournament game and force us to hit shots.
We’re gonna need Alex, if he can just become an average defender, he belongs out on the floor against the zone. Just the threat of his shooting makes things easier for Zion and RJ.
We’re gonna need Alex, if he can just become an average defender, he belongs out on the floor against the zone. Just the threat of his shooting makes things easier for Zion and RJ.
I maintain that Cam has grown over the last year to year and a half. He was wide considered to be around 6-7(ish) at the end of the summer before his senior year of HS. Certainly, he wasn't 6-8. He looks like he's closing in on 6-9 now.
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This is probably a Mike Dunleavy situation. When we first started recruiting Mike, he was a 6-7 shooter. Be the end of his frosh year, he was a 6-9ish kid whose shot wasn't reliable. Not bad, but spotty. By the time he got into the meat of his soph year, he was back to being deadly from 3 once again. I think Cam is a similar situation. His apparent growth spurt has changed everything. His ball handling, lauded as an incredibly strength in HS, is wobbly now. That is because his arms and legs aren't as short as they used to be, and he's further from the court than he once was. Same with shooting. His release point isn't where it used to be. The shooting form is fine. It is beautiful to the point that it is smoke show hot. But the dimensions are altered because he isn't the same height as he used to be. Long term it is great for him, because he could eventually morph into a more skilled Paul George, but that doesn't do Duke any good in his OAD year.
We took a lot of open looks today. We just missed them.
I love everything about the way this team plays. They are unselfish and they play defense really well (esp. for freshmen; let these guys play til they are juniors and they could be the best Duke defensive team of all-time).
But, 2-21 is worrisome. White, Reddish, and O'Connell are all good shooters. But, when a couple go bad, the team tends to go bad. Those guys need to sit in the gym and shoot 3s until they bleed. And, when they get comfortable in games I don't think they can be stopped.
They stay healthy, get out of the 3 point funk or get hot from 3 in the tourney as a team, with that defense - very few teams will be able to handle them.
But, the 3 point issue has to be remedied.
Well, for what I got to see (missed the entire 1st half), it sure wasn't pretty at times, but hey folks, a win is a win. As good as these kids are, and because of their youth, it's not always going to be easy and the spread won't be covered.
You have to be proud of the way they stayed together and supported each other, otherwise they were ripe for the picking today.
I really got a chuckle out of some of the comments about Alex, especially his hair cut (my exact sentiments)
. I really like this kid, and he is a baller. If the Coaches can get him consistent and more playing time, he will come through big time as the season moves on. He & Cam really have a nose for the ball, and they can both light it up. Just be patient as I am trying to be, I believe they will set a few fires before this season is over.
Go Duke!
OFC
You have to be proud of the way they stayed together and supported each other, otherwise they were ripe for the picking today.
I really got a chuckle out of some of the comments about Alex, especially his hair cut (my exact sentiments)
. I really like this kid, and he is a baller. If the Coaches can get him consistent and more playing time, he will come through big time as the season moves on. He & Cam really have a nose for the ball, and they can both light it up. Just be patient as I am trying to be, I believe they will set a few fires before this season is over.Go Duke!
OFC
I think Javins confidence is shot, he hardly played, and Coach James was constantly talking to him throughout the game, especially pregame and halftime warmups
I think we, as a fan base, need to let go of the fantasy that Duke will, or even COULD, turn into a good three point shooting team. If this group stayed together, next year they'd be shooting 38% as a group, no matter how closely guarded they might be. And we'd be wrecking teams on the reg. We won't, of course, see that come to fruition.
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Folks, we knew that 3pt shooting would be a weakness this year. Any rational evaluation of Duke, preseason, would have had to see and recognize that fact. Admittedly, "weakness" is a strong word. The most accurate assessment would have realized that 3pt shooting was likely to be the "weakest" part of the team, at least relative to everything else. As such, we all had an internal "worst case scenario" prediction for perimeter shooting. But, so far, 3pt shooting is worse than any reasonable "worst case scenario" could have predicted. It is bordering on disaster case scenario.
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I really thought that Cam would be a steadier shooter than he's been. Especially lately, given how open he's been since late December, as teams backed off of him to some degree, allowing for more open looks than I expected. I thought Tre would be a weaker shooter than Cam, but not by as much as he's been. And that is with Cam being a disappointment from 3 in the first place. RJ and Zion had lesser expectations on my part, wrt 3pt shooting. Unfortunately, they've been on the low end of my expectations, again, which is exacerbated by them having reduced expectation in the first place. AOC was supposed to be a sniper off the bench, but he's come in at the low end of expectations, if that. At best he's inconsistent. Jack was better to start the year, but he's really trailed off lately.
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As I said earlier, I never expected the team to be a good 3pt shooting team. I thought they'd be better than they are. RJ shoots a slightly worse percentage than I thought he'd shoot, but he compounds that by taking way too many threes. Zion is worse than I thought, but he doesn't take too many, so he doesn't kill us. His poor shooting only hurts as much as it does because everyone else is a letdown in that regard.
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Thankfully, the D is far better than we could have dared hope. Tre is far better on D than we could have hoped, and Cam would be getting raves for his D if he wasn't playing beside Tre. Frankly, I thought RJ would be more akin to bad-James-Harden on D, but he's been fine. Better lately. But he's turned into a willing and capable defender. He's a plus defender compared to most freshman, and he's top tier on Defense compared to most offensively oriented players in their frosh year. Ditto Zion. Bolden has become a quality defender. Jack is much better on D, and on the boards, then we could have dared dream. Goldwire is capable on D, which is all we needed from him (for the wheels not to come off when he comes in). Javin is OK, but he'll be more useful vs teams with mobile bigs so we don't have to watch Bolden chase guys all over the court. AOC has been fine on D. Most of his worst failures have come in small ball lineups when we lacked a post defender, and AOC does something that allows a move that a true big would stop, only we don't have one in. He's gotten lost on a few backdoors, but overall he's been fine on D.
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But the three point shooting, which we all knew would be "not great," has been far worse than our worst fears. We'll be fine until the elite 8 or so, but we'll enter the danger zone vs the types of teams we'll face from that point on.
I have a feeling every team we play from here on out will do that. Look, it won't guarantee a win. But it offers the best chance of not getting obliterated vs Duke on national TV, with the game featuring multiple highlights on SC afterwards. Vs this Duke team, I'd be trying to ameliorate the losses as much as possible. With the hope that Duke will be cold enough, while my own team were hot enough, from 3 that Duke ultimately loses.
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AKA Gonzaga.
We didn't play good defense against gonzage for 32 mins though. I think that is a different game if we played now
Pretty good company for a guy who’s struggling and had an off day.
O'Connell played much better after he cut his hair. Maybe he can see better. Keep it short !
I have always thought Javin has a coordination issue of some kind. Something isn’t in sync with his mind and body. But what do I know... I’m just watching him run around on TV.
Saw him play in HS and honestly was surprised we offered him...never had much of an offensive game...just a great athlete out athleting other HS players
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If you like kicked balls, you missed the game of the century.