Duke Game Thread
- Thread starter Jack Williams
- Start date
JackofVirginia
Active member
Agree. When was the last time Stewart was in a game? Is he injured?
stjohnschris
Active member
Amen. he showed promise in Nov/Dec that he could be a valuable bench contributor, maybe 4 - 8 minutes per game depending on the situation. Amar should be another 4 - 8 minute contributor and probably Felix too.
JackofVirginia
Active member
Hopefully we can get off and maintain a big lead against Creighton.This way Lavin will rest D'LO and we get the real Harrison back. It's obvious we really need him.
I tried to post this but my computer went off. DLO w a bad calf, a bad shoulder. and missing easy shots is not 100%. Even if you argue he was, than he was cold and should have seen less action.We don't need the deepest bench ,just a couple of good players. Branch was a top 50 recruit and is a senior. He is also our purist point guard. DLO should never have played so many minutes and Branch should have played more. Lavin just opts to play 5 guys 38 min a game. Roster management definitely affects your record.
montyaloofah
Active member
Around the 8 minute or so mark when Sulaimon picked up 2 quick fouls, Plumlee came in and it changed everything. Although we were still up a lot at that point, it felt like we were going to struggle to score. Our possessions were labored and had no flow whatsoever. The things we were doing with ease the 12 minutes before that suddenly changed at the sight of 2 7 footers in the lane. To me, we picked a bad time to get in one of our funks. There was a stretch where on 4 of 5 possessions, we converted 0 points and they put up 3. I think that move to Plumlee was really the difference. While we did well with Obekpa fronting Okafor and D Lo or Sir Dom playing weakside for the lob pass, putting Plumlee in changed that. We had to mark Plumlee closer which gave Okafor more chances and their guards to penetrate on isolated coverage. In some of those cases, the drive and dish to the corner was there. On offense, we just dried up. Duke was gonna make a run, one way or another and we needed an answer. D Lo was not himself. Rysheed stopped. only so much Sir Dom can do. If Sir dom can develop an outside shot, he would be lethal to guard. But if my uncle was a girl, he'd be my aunt. Anyways, we need to bring our intensity to every game after this and get on a run. We've seen the best player we will all year and held our own. Time to move forward.
Redmen88
Well-known member
Team played hard but 38 minutes each for your top 4 guys wears you down.
They have no legs at the end of the game and miss their shots. It wasn't they simply were missing their shots, they had no legs. See Villanova game. They really needed a quality big man or 2 that can board and play d. He doesn't even have to have an offensive game. The roster has major holes. They can beat anyone on any night but lack consistency is why they are where they are.
They also need to learn to play from the halfcourt set as they can't play helter skelter for a full game with teams in the major conferences. It works before big east play but that's where it ends.
Hopefully the upcoming schedule will help them get on track and get to 9-7 in BE and on to the tourney.
They have no legs at the end of the game and miss their shots. It wasn't they simply were missing their shots, they had no legs. See Villanova game. They really needed a quality big man or 2 that can board and play d. He doesn't even have to have an offensive game. The roster has major holes. They can beat anyone on any night but lack consistency is why they are where they are.
They also need to learn to play from the halfcourt set as they can't play helter skelter for a full game with teams in the major conferences. It works before big east play but that's where it ends.
Hopefully the upcoming schedule will help them get on track and get to 9-7 in BE and on to the tourney.
stjohnschris
Active member
He's not at all a typical walk-on, and he showed flashes of what he could contribute early in the season. and then he sat the bench. I'm not suggesting that he is going to come in and hit a game winning 3, but after watching the team run out of steam on several occasions, it seems that we could make better use of our bench.
Ray Morgan
Well-known member
Everybody here is searching for answers and second guessing the coach. Play more Myles Stewart and Amar. Try JDR against their 2 7 footers. Steward is like a second string quarterback on a bad team (no, I'm not saying we are bad). I have seen enough of him to know that after a few too many threes with 24 seconds on the shot clock the whole board would be on a rant against him. We play hard. True, but that should be a given. There's a reason we are failing in the last 5 or 10 minutes. That's when good teams step up the pressure, and lesser teams revert to bad habits. It doesn't help when you have a team that lacks balance, depth, size, and a star to bail you out. Where's Marcus Hatten when you need him? He could carry a team to victory. D Lo is as close to him as we have, but he is hurting and has less of Hatten's all around game.
Lavin is in charge of the product put on the floor. He has guys playing out of position due to either poor recruiting decisions or just plain lazy ones. He has limited back-ups, none of which can provide offensive spark. The issue with depth really matters here, as this team has to play a fast paced game on both ends to be successful. We are not a half court, shot clock milking team. It's pedal to the medal, especially for Dom and Rysheed. Bottom line is that good teams have room to make mistakes, we don't. We shot the ball really well for the first 32 minutes, and still lost by 9. Good teams and good coaches will exploit our weaknesses. I don't know what the answer is. It's not like we can call up a rookie from the minors or trade for a disgruntled star. Lavin better figure this out soon.
Lavin is in charge of the product put on the floor. He has guys playing out of position due to either poor recruiting decisions or just plain lazy ones. He has limited back-ups, none of which can provide offensive spark. The issue with depth really matters here, as this team has to play a fast paced game on both ends to be successful. We are not a half court, shot clock milking team. It's pedal to the medal, especially for Dom and Rysheed. Bottom line is that good teams have room to make mistakes, we don't. We shot the ball really well for the first 32 minutes, and still lost by 9. Good teams and good coaches will exploit our weaknesses. I don't know what the answer is. It's not like we can call up a rookie from the minors or trade for a disgruntled star. Lavin better figure this out soon.
beast of the east
Active member
Last I heard from fellow poster, they were trying to push afternoon flight up. We'll see.Jack, admire your spirit, but how about just getting a BE road game on Wednesday & go from there one at a time.
Haha. Fine by me paultz. Although I don't know if it will be Wednesday? If team flew out today we are fine if they didn't. Might be postponed. I'm snowed in myself at the moment, which is probably why I have all this pent up energy and am exploding with optimism. I just have a good feeling though. Lose to Creighton though and I will shut up
Had a 12 noon flight canceled. Got all the way to the airport, and en route they canceled it.
Clearly more - or more precisely something, anything - is needed from the bench. But the last five minutes against Dook is a strange time to start looking for it. Had Balamou or Jones or whoever gotten minutes in November they might be able to make some minicule contribution now. But they didn't, because a coach on the hot seat looking for an extension can't afford to lose to cupcakes. If anyone should have played more yesterday it was Branch, despite his awfulness, and if someone's going to chuck up desperation threes it might as well be Greene: chucking is his single skill, besides that he's pointless. Anyway a back court of Greene Stewart and a one-legged Harrison couldn't between the three of them guard a stanchion, much less Cook and Jones.
Class of 72
Active member
Great points. It was already too late with under 5 to play. We had 5 scholarship players on the bench yet only Branch got more than a minute. Totally unacceptable. JDR was banished for a hard foul and, to be honest, I don't even remember Amar in the game even though he was credited with 1 minute. My guess he was in the few seconds I was talking to my wife. The non use of Balamou and Jones are this year's mystery. When Amar stole his minutes in the previous two games it was encouraging but yesterday a chump like Plumlee changed the game because the wizard failed to counter and that is on the entire bench staff who are paid to advise during games. If balding, overweight armchair coaches can see that match up problem evolving during a game what are Whitesell, Hines, Chiles, Keady doing during games?
Not sure it was mentioned but I just heard a snippet of coach K after the game. Believe it or not the guy had a lot of nice things to say. Something along the lines of, we beat a really good team today. And to get this milestone against such a storied program that I respect is special.
Ricky Smith
Member
Got to love those moral victories
Maybe, just maybe, the kids who some of you are expecting to give us minutes against the likes of a Duke haven't shown anything at all in practice to warrant anything more than the few sporadic situational minutes they've been given all season. Remember when Max showed early signs that he could actually contribute at this level and many on here were wondering why he wasn't getting more PT? The answer was simple, Max could not be counted on to contribute even relatively consistently at this level because he was not a Big East caliber player. I've knocked Lavin and crew for a lot of things, but I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt when they decide that any of our top 6 players will perform at a far higher level even while playing exhausted, then any of the other options rested.
