Game Thoughts + Thank You Freshmen

[BeerPoisoning]

Congratulations to MSU. They won a clean and fair game. I’m pretty numb and there wasn’t a lack of effort (IMO) so I only have 3 notable post game thoughts.

#1 — I don’t have a problem with RJ taking the last shot, but considering we had 2 chances I think Zion should have gotten the ball for the final look. Overall, he also should of gotten the ball more inside. Zion himself shouldn’t have settled for the 3 on a couple of occasions.
#2 — Cassius Winston used his off-ball hand to shove and create space while attacking the basket. There were multiple instances where Tre lost his balance due to it and even got shoved enough to have to back peddle a couple times. He absorbed the contact and came back quick. I’M NOT CONDONING FLOPPING but those are situations where he needed to sell the contact to the official, it’s not going to be called otherwise. He played a little too honest.
#3 — If we played all game with the same level of intensity and offensive style that we did in that 1st half 5-6 minute span where we scored 12 unanswered, we would have blew their doors off. Even aside from hitting the shots, our half-court offense looked healthy and our defense was polished.

This is a really tough pill to swallow. Getting booted always stings, but it stings the most when we’re a heavy contender. Every year is banner or bust, but we had an incredible season. This group of diaper dandies gave us lots of entertainment and it was a treat to be a Duke fan this year. I wish the players going to the draft a successful NBA career and good health moving forward. Thank you to them for choosing Duke and I’m grateful for all the highlights and good times. In retrospect, I hope all the returning players work hard in the off-season so we can once again be a heavy contender next year. We can’t win them all but we are blessed to be contenders nearly every year. It’s always a great day to be a Duke fan and today is no different.

 

[BeerPoisoning]

Well I forgot...
#4 — I know it’s hard to take Zion out of the game but 280lbs needs to sit and breathe. He was out of gas the final 3 minutes which led to him settling for a bad 3PT and lower intensity. If I were in Coach K’s spot, I probably couldn’t talk myself into pulling Zion to the bench for 2-3 minutes either. But I think we would of had a better chance had it been done.

 

[Shatterthesky22]

My biggest thing is, we handed them the game with our turnovers. A near stream of unforced errors. We get a couple of those back, we're still dancing. Shouldn't have been a close game, none of these in the tournament should've been. Oh well. We had a solid season, nothing to sniff at, just wish it could've been special, as this was a special team. Maybe next year with the returning experience of O'Connell, Goldwire, and Javin (hopefully Bolden as well but I dunno) we can cut down on the mind boggling miscues that ended our season.

 

[BeerPoisoning]

My biggest thing is, we handed them the game with our turnovers. A near stream of unforced errors. We get a couple of those back, we're still dancing. Shouldn't have been a close game, none of these in the tournament should've been. Oh well. We had a solid season, nothing to sniff at, just wish it could've been special, as this was a special team. Maybe next year with the returning experience of O'Connell, Goldwire, and Javin (hopefully Bolden as well but I dunno) we can cut down on the mind boggling miscues that ended our season.

 

[BeerPoisoning]

My biggest thing is, we handed them the game with our turnovers. A near stream of unforced errors. We get a couple of those back, we're still dancing. Shouldn't have been a close game, none of these in the tournament should've been. Oh well. We had a solid season, nothing to sniff at, just wish it could've been special, as this was a special team. Maybe next year with the returning experience of O'Connell, Goldwire, and Javin (hopefully Bolden as well but I dunno) we can cut down on the mind boggling miscues that ended our season.

A few years ago I read a story that Jason Kidd wrote. Describes how he entered the NBA and made a ton of mistakes by ignoring offensive play sets, playing too quick. He said a lot of times he had the mentality that he could take on anyone and would end up caught in traffic throwing a bad pass or shooting a tough shot. Noted that he made some of those shots or got fouled, so he didn’t see the issue with his style of play. Then he says the best advice he ever received was to slow down. Not a slow pace, but not playing rushed and let plays develop.

I think that sums up a lot of this year. I’m not pointing fingers because although they’re all excellent, they’re still freshmen and make freshmen mistakes. It’s just part of the gamble when you trade leadership for “renting” absurd amounts of talent. A lot of rushed possessions and poor decision making.

Quinn Cook was the difference between ‘15 and this year. Was he the best player on the court? No. 2nd or 3rd best? Nope. But he was the leadership that managed all the freshmen and kept them from playing like freshmen.

 

[madrussian]

Yeah
This game was about turnovers.
MSU attempted 10+ more shots than we did
And we still lost by a point

Tough one to swallow

 

[Kingbluedevil]

The one thing I would have done differently is use Goldwire on Winston for 3 minutes each half . We could have played him more physical because we needed to use some fouls anyway in the second half

 

[BeerPoisoning]

Yeah
This game was about turnovers.
MSU attempted 10+ more shots than we did
And we still lost by a point

Tough one to swallow

We’re in the bottom half of D1 schools in regards to turnovers. If you throw out weak non-conf and bottom feeder ACC games, 17 turnovers is pretty average for us. That’s not a good thing, but far from uncharacteristic.

Gave up 44 points in the paint
0 fast break points
Lots of poor shot selections

 

[Mac9192]

Each thread we have is wondering what went wrong. We are going after the best talent every season. The kids we have been getting are only here for a year. So that means we will count on them to do the heavy lifting.

We had 4 this season. One of them one game would carry his share of the load, the next game, he would struggle.

It’s not hard to name the one guy who struggled to score in many games, including yesterday. I’ll give a hint: it’s not Zion, RJ, or even Tre.

Having said this, the disappointment I mostly have is I don’t get to see them play together anymore.

 

[pisgah101]

If you call hacking the post every time and pushing off every time clean then yes MSU player clean

 

[BeerPoisoning]

If you call hacking the post every time and pushing off every time clean then yes MSU player clean

Lots of push offs but Tre choosing to not sell the contact to the officials is on his shoulders. It shouldn’t be that way but flopping is so excessive these days that if a guy doesn’t do it, they assume it’s not enough to whistle.