***DUKE VS WAKE FOREST OFFICIAL GAMEDAY THREAD***
- Thread starter krzyzewskiville
- Start date
Thornton really struggled against Pitt but he made some timely plays last night and his defense has been a big asset (ask J. Berry).
I agree Thornton is really the only one that can guard someone quick off the dribble. Despite how much he frustrates me he has to play this year. He just has to play better/smarter or duke will go out somewhat early. Can't win the tough games without good PG play.
Probably. But we don't need Thornton to score as much or take the number of shots --- volume-wise --- that we need from Luke to be successful.
As a team we already know our margin for error is small. The kind of team we have this season means we need all players playing well or things can go south in a hurry. I don't think we win on Saturday night, but if we can show half the heart and half the fight we did in our first meeting with the Heels I'll be a pretty happy camper.
The team is gassed..they are playing as hard as they can but it's finally caught up to them.
I expect UNC to whoop us soundly. We will be a quick out in the ACC tourney..probably the best thing that can happen to us. I can't see a run with no double bye and playing six guys over four days.
We are good enough with some rest to pick off anybody in the tournament, that will be a crap shoot.
I think we all thought Amile would be back by now...he isn't and it sucks. The team is significantly short handed.
Probably 4-5 games max left for this squad...then on to next year.
I expect UNC to whoop us soundly. We will be a quick out in the ACC tourney..probably the best thing that can happen to us. I can't see a run with no double bye and playing six guys over four days.
We are good enough with some rest to pick off anybody in the tournament, that will be a crap shoot.
I think we all thought Amile would be back by now...he isn't and it sucks. The team is significantly short handed.
Probably 4-5 games max left for this squad...then on to next year.
Agree, and as I said earlier this year his shot really confuses me. I started noticing something (could be nothing) but he rotates the ball in his hands sometimes while in the shooting motion looking for the seems. That's not typical of good/great shooters. It's no problem from the FT line as you have time to get the ball perfectly on the seems. Again could be nothing. But what's alarming to me is NOT that he's missing shots it's how badly he misses shots consistently. I get it everyone throws up bricks, but it's not like Luke has many in and out misses. There are a lot of times like Brandon that they're chasing after the ball right after it leaves their hands. Happens a lot.
I expect UNC to throttle our post play like last time except for 40 minutes. But it's Duke vs UNC and anything can happen. Even with UNC dominating the post Duke can still win if they dominate the guard play (completely possible). But this game is impossible to predict most times. It's at Duke, we have K instead of Roy, due for a great shooting game. I'm hopeful.
I think UNC is a tough contest for obvious reasons. But, I don't buy for a second that a defeat on Saturday would have anything to do with being gassed. This is UNC. Our guys will be up for this game. While I certainly think the lack of depth is a problem against UNC as we may get tired during the course of the game, I don't think we're going to have any residual fatigue issues heading into that contest -- as we've got a full 4 days off before a Saturday night game, where we don't even need to do any traveling. That's very different IMO from some of our recent games where we've been dragging; where we'd have 48 hrs.-55 to play tough turnaround contests on the road where we've had to travel.
The lack of depth will be a killer in the ACCs. But, we should be more or less fresh to go to start Saturday. Our bigger issue is that UNC's still the better and deeper team, and that depth will have an impact over a 40 minute game. And, I'd add that, of late, it seems like playing at home has hurt our guys against UNC b/c they often come out too tight and too frenzied to the point where it becomes counterproductive. For whatever reason, in recent years, it seems as if the road team has tended to be more poised -- at least for the first 30 minutes of the games.
With that said, as before, 3-pt. shooting is the ultimate X-factor. We hit shots and avoid foul trouble, it's going to be a game where, down the stretch, we've got the two best playmakers on the court. If we lose, I think it will be b/c guys like Thornton and Kennard struggle to hit shots from outside. It really can't be overstated how important it was for Duke at Chapel Hill to get a big game from someone other than Grayson and BI -- b/c Kennard killing Hicks was what forced UNC to put its bigs back on Ingram and/or forced UNC to go with smaller lineups. UNC's a better overall team. But Grayson's always going to have a size/strength advantage over UNC's guards and, to the extent UNC doesn't go small, they're going to have to play a 4 on BI -- which is also not a good matchup.
The lack of depth will be a killer in the ACCs. But, we should be more or less fresh to go to start Saturday. Our bigger issue is that UNC's still the better and deeper team, and that depth will have an impact over a 40 minute game. And, I'd add that, of late, it seems like playing at home has hurt our guys against UNC b/c they often come out too tight and too frenzied to the point where it becomes counterproductive. For whatever reason, in recent years, it seems as if the road team has tended to be more poised -- at least for the first 30 minutes of the games.
With that said, as before, 3-pt. shooting is the ultimate X-factor. We hit shots and avoid foul trouble, it's going to be a game where, down the stretch, we've got the two best playmakers on the court. If we lose, I think it will be b/c guys like Thornton and Kennard struggle to hit shots from outside. It really can't be overstated how important it was for Duke at Chapel Hill to get a big game from someone other than Grayson and BI -- b/c Kennard killing Hicks was what forced UNC to put its bigs back on Ingram and/or forced UNC to go with smaller lineups. UNC's a better overall team. But Grayson's always going to have a size/strength advantage over UNC's guards and, to the extent UNC doesn't go small, they're going to have to play a 4 on BI -- which is also not a good matchup.
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