Jack is still a bit slow on D. For now, if he’s going to play decent interior help D, I’ll take the potential of Ques’s blocked shots, with Jack being an excellent bench piece to come in against the other teams’ bench.
***DUKE VS ARMY OFFICIAL GAMEDAY THREAD***
- Thread starter krzyzewskiville
- Start date
Jack is still a bit slow on D. For now, if he’s going to play decent interior help D, I’ll take the potential of Ques’s blocked shots, with Jack being an excellent bench piece to come in against the other teams’ bench.
Your original statement was hardly coherent and sounded like you seem to think we are unbeatable which is ludicrous which defines many of your statements. Also dont tell me what to do. I can also guarentee you I am not excited. and yes, "we" as in Duke.
Hangover game and win by 20+, I'll take it. If I were to poke holes, I'm concerned with the focus on D by some, and we need a 5 to step up, although Bolden is getting better.
Cam and Zion looked really, really good. Goldwire had strong backup minutes too.
Cam and Zion looked really, really good. Goldwire had strong backup minutes too.
STARTERS MIN FG 3PT FT OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
R. BarrettF -- 9-19 3-9 2-2 0 6 6 2 1 0 3 23
C. ReddishF -- 9-21 7-13 0-0 2 5 7 3 2 0 2 3 25
Z. WilliamsonF -- 11-14 0-1 5-8 6 10 16 4 1 6 1 2 27
R. BarrettF -- 9-19 3-9 2-2 0 6 6 2 1 0 3 23
C. ReddishF -- 9-21 7-13 0-0 2 5 7 3 2 0 2 3 25
Z. WilliamsonF -- 11-14 0-1 5-8 6 10 16 4 1 6 1 2 27
I think we see more from Delaurier in the coming weeks. His injury could have thrown him off his game.
Thoughts after watching this game: The Blue Devils need to toughen up on 3 point defense. They allowed Army to make a lot of 3 pointers. Also, there were instances where Duke did not get back on Transition defense and allowed the Army Guards to get into the lane at will resulting in uncontested layups. Williamson and Reddish had very great games. I agree it seemed like Barrett was pressing too much in this game. I believe he was called for 3-4 walks in the game and forced some of his shot attempts. To add to that it seemed like a lot of the Duke players made a lot of boneheaded turnovers. The 2nd half was definitely better than the 1st half and it still resulted in a 20 point blow out win, but heck of a game by Army. The Cadets were an experienced bunch that executed their game plan well for the first 30 minutes of the game. Our Blue Devils are still not a finished product, they still have to improve in the man to man half court defense (keeping the opposition out of the lane) as well as getting back on defense when they miss a shot or turn the ball over. On the offensive end, I hope they remain unselfish and remember that they each have teammates who can score when said player is off whether it be Barrett, Williamson, Reddish, Jones, or any other Blue Devil. Williamson’s motor and energy is very entertaining to watch. He is willing to dive for lose balls and never stops playing hard. It’s a long season guys, enjoy the evolvement of this team, it’s only November 11th. Happy Veterans Day to all of you Veterans and Thank You for Your Service and Sacrifices to this great country!
Did I not predict 1 loss before the season.....I guess that’s unbeatable lmao. I’m not even going to explain it to you anymore than that....
Bolden's presence on defense is helpful because when teams get in the lane he can make them alter their shot. That was helpful until Zion started blocking everything LOL.
I'm still waiting on Javin to show up and give us quality minutes. He plays hard, but he just doesn't seem to ever be where he needs to be.
I'm still waiting on Javin to show up and give us quality minutes. He plays hard, but he just doesn't seem to ever be where he needs to be.
And you used “we” as in people on this board buying into sport center hype blah blah ....no, maybe you!.. ludicrous
. Annoys the hell out of me when people do that speaking for other people based on their(( own)) damn feelings. Good day, gotta go now.Yea I love it that a uk fan is over here posting on our game thread. I believe it is US that is in HIS head.
You're such a hopeless clown. Not liked at the UK,UNCheat, or Duke board. Yet you lurk.
Quite a life you have carved out.
Look at it from their point of view. Since Calipari was hired at KY, Duke has more national championships, is destroying Calipari at recruiting (Calipari’s best feature) and is responsible for KY’s worst loss of the Calipari era. Duke is going to own a lot of real estate inside the minds of KY fans after all that. Duke has effectively made KY their *****.
Dudes a damn idiot
Yep Duke has won the last 8 out of 10 and now sits just two games behind in the overall series and Coach K is 6-2 against UK. Really should be 6-1. Should have never given up that 17 pt lead in 98.
Transition defense was awful. Definitely need to work on that in practice. Not gonna get away with that against a team like Gonzaga in Maui.
It was pretty good against Kentucky and they were pushing the ball consistently. I’m thinking it was more of a focus issue.
It went unremarked in the UK game that the kittens essentially quit about 8 minutes into the game. They kept trying to score, because BB players never stop trying to score, but they ceased doing anything else pretty quickly. That allowed Duke to excel in non-scoring aspects because the other guys weren't really putting up any opposition.
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Plus, UK wasn't as good as advertised. Still top 15, and probably top 10. But probably not top 5. Some of their returning guys haven't progressed that much skill wise, and their newcomers have varying weaknesses. UK is where Duke has been in recent years, with team full of talented players who don't really mesh that well together. The elite 8 might be their ceiling. They were overranked, though their ranking was reasonable, in the pre-season. Some of their returning bigs haven't progressed as much as was reasonably expected. Further, they can't shoot. Herro can shoot, but he doesn't do anything else. He's a poor man's Luke Kennard, freshman version. Herro can shoot, but not as well as Luke. And Herro is worse, and in some instances, MUCH worse, in every other aspect. Unless he's stroking it you can't have him in the game. I like Keldon Johnson, a lot, but he isn't getting much help. The Stanford Grad Transfer doesn't play D. UK, for all their problems, have played good D in the Cal era. Herro and the Stanford transfer aren't just "bad" at defense, they don't try. I'm not sure how well Cal can integrate these players.
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Point being, the UK game was a "false" positive. Or really, it wasn't as much of a positive as we thought. UK, while plenty good, isn't quite as good as expected. And they quit.
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Plus, UK wasn't as good as advertised. Still top 15, and probably top 10. But probably not top 5. Some of their returning guys haven't progressed that much skill wise, and their newcomers have varying weaknesses. UK is where Duke has been in recent years, with team full of talented players who don't really mesh that well together. The elite 8 might be their ceiling. They were overranked, though their ranking was reasonable, in the pre-season. Some of their returning bigs haven't progressed as much as was reasonably expected. Further, they can't shoot. Herro can shoot, but he doesn't do anything else. He's a poor man's Luke Kennard, freshman version. Herro can shoot, but not as well as Luke. And Herro is worse, and in some instances, MUCH worse, in every other aspect. Unless he's stroking it you can't have him in the game. I like Keldon Johnson, a lot, but he isn't getting much help. The Stanford Grad Transfer doesn't play D. UK, for all their problems, have played good D in the Cal era. Herro and the Stanford transfer aren't just "bad" at defense, they don't try. I'm not sure how well Cal can integrate these players.
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Point being, the UK game was a "false" positive. Or really, it wasn't as much of a positive as we thought. UK, while plenty good, isn't quite as good as expected. And they quit.
You go Show. If someone told me what you just told Jakari I would know I'm not wanted and stay away. But that's me. Jakari is a different breed. He hides behind that keyboard just pushing it to the limit. He will continue to post until he is banned or we all just ignore him. He's got to be a loser. He probably hacks face book accounts and who knows what else. OFC
As far as the Army game, I'm afraid we'll see our team play to the level of their opponent this year. Vs good teams, we'll be focused, hungry, and deadly. Vs bad teams, we'll be looser, less focused, and a little more selfish. Even so, vs the bad teams our talent will carry us. The danger games will be vs the mediocre teams. If those teams play one of their better games, and we penis around too much, we could be in trouble.
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RJ is what he is. He's too aggressive sometimes. He doesn't always take great shots. Neither did Kobe, nor do KD, Curry, Harden, or their ilk. When a few more of those shots fall, he'll look like he had a sublime game. When a few more don't fall, he looks "selfish" and out of sorts. That is his game, and he'll be a perennial MVP candidate starting in 4-5 years. Till then, he has to learn when to go and when not to, and that is part of what his time in college is going to be about.
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As for Cam, everyone wants him to be more assertive. That means he'll make some mistakes and over assert himself at times. Again, that is part of the learning process that will take place at Duke this year.
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As for the team negatives...….. Well, they are what we thought they'd be. The perimeter shooting is likely to be problematic all year. Yes, we shot 42% from 3 today, but we shot like 80% for the last 8ish mins of the game wrt 3pters. Until then, it wasn't a great day shooting. But we don't need to be 40+% 3pt shooters this year. If we can reliably be above 36% for the year, we are FINE. Today, we took some selfish shots from 3, and that hurt a little. Our kids are smart, with what appear to be insane learning curves, so I think this will work out.
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The D is problematic. Lost in our mastabatory glee from the UK game was that UK scored 80 points. Which isn't good from a defensive standpoint. Sure, a lot of that was in the second half vs our bench players, but 41 points in the first half vs our starters is not good for Duke. Our half court D is decent, but it requires true half court set ups. AKA our guys have to get down, find their assignments, and then get a look around to see what the situation is. If the other team hurries into their own half court set, our guys don't always get set before they have to engage on D, and that could leave some weak spots in the D.
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And the transition D is a dumpster fire, and the dumpster was full of rotting seafood, dead hookers, and used diapers. If we turn the ball over in live ball situations, the other team will either get a very good shot in transition, or get into their half court set before our guys get comfortable in their own half court defensive assignments. Bad misses on our own shot attempts, especially if the shot was a dumb one of the long 2s or too early 3s, will possibly lead to run outs.
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And that transition D won't be sorted this year. All we can hope for is that our O gets smart enough to limit these chances.
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Which, and we need to prepare ourselves now, means that UNC will be more difficult than we'd like. We're still better, and I expect to win both games, but they likely won't be the blowouts we'd like them to be. UNC gets out on O very well, and their rebounding will take advantage of our own relative weakness on the boards. We'll beat those tool bags, but it won't be by the 20+ we'd all love it to be (unless we stretch out a lead late, but it won't be the wire to wire annihilation we expect).
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Plus side, we'll destroy UVA. That molasses slow offense they run will let all our guys get set, woe unto them.
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RJ is what he is. He's too aggressive sometimes. He doesn't always take great shots. Neither did Kobe, nor do KD, Curry, Harden, or their ilk. When a few more of those shots fall, he'll look like he had a sublime game. When a few more don't fall, he looks "selfish" and out of sorts. That is his game, and he'll be a perennial MVP candidate starting in 4-5 years. Till then, he has to learn when to go and when not to, and that is part of what his time in college is going to be about.
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As for Cam, everyone wants him to be more assertive. That means he'll make some mistakes and over assert himself at times. Again, that is part of the learning process that will take place at Duke this year.
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As for the team negatives...….. Well, they are what we thought they'd be. The perimeter shooting is likely to be problematic all year. Yes, we shot 42% from 3 today, but we shot like 80% for the last 8ish mins of the game wrt 3pters. Until then, it wasn't a great day shooting. But we don't need to be 40+% 3pt shooters this year. If we can reliably be above 36% for the year, we are FINE. Today, we took some selfish shots from 3, and that hurt a little. Our kids are smart, with what appear to be insane learning curves, so I think this will work out.
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The D is problematic. Lost in our mastabatory glee from the UK game was that UK scored 80 points. Which isn't good from a defensive standpoint. Sure, a lot of that was in the second half vs our bench players, but 41 points in the first half vs our starters is not good for Duke. Our half court D is decent, but it requires true half court set ups. AKA our guys have to get down, find their assignments, and then get a look around to see what the situation is. If the other team hurries into their own half court set, our guys don't always get set before they have to engage on D, and that could leave some weak spots in the D.
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And the transition D is a dumpster fire, and the dumpster was full of rotting seafood, dead hookers, and used diapers. If we turn the ball over in live ball situations, the other team will either get a very good shot in transition, or get into their half court set before our guys get comfortable in their own half court defensive assignments. Bad misses on our own shot attempts, especially if the shot was a dumb one of the long 2s or too early 3s, will possibly lead to run outs.
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And that transition D won't be sorted this year. All we can hope for is that our O gets smart enough to limit these chances.
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Which, and we need to prepare ourselves now, means that UNC will be more difficult than we'd like. We're still better, and I expect to win both games, but they likely won't be the blowouts we'd like them to be. UNC gets out on O very well, and their rebounding will take advantage of our own relative weakness on the boards. We'll beat those tool bags, but it won't be by the 20+ we'd all love it to be (unless we stretch out a lead late, but it won't be the wire to wire annihilation we expect).
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Plus side, we'll destroy UVA. That molasses slow offense they run will let all our guys get set, woe unto them.
I'm surprised you don't have carpal tunnel man lol. Just messing with you. Nice observation I think. Reading in spurts.
RJ and Cam lack awareness on defense. Zion was caught with his arms down a few times too. Those three need to tighten it up on the close outs and switches against good passing teams.
Bolden did great today. It was the plays where he didn’t come over the top that were impressive.
Bolden did great today. It was the plays where he didn’t come over the top that were impressive.
Hats off to Army. They played great. Really well coached and executed on offense and defense. Great game for the whole team to learn from. Perfect team for us to play.
The training and what these kids are preparing for means that a basketball game is for damn sure not going to intimidate them
The Fab Four of Williamson, Barrett, Reddish, and Jones have averaged 83 points a game between the four of them in their first two college games
Maybe instead of saying unbeatable, maybe the sentiment should be that this season, Duke should be favored in all of their games. At this point, that’s true IMO.
That beatdown that we gsve Kentucky has really gotten in the heads of the posters on RR. They’ve got a 4 page thread on our game against Army and I’m going to go ahead and predict that they’ll have a multi page thread on our game against Eastern Michigan on Wednesday night.
I think the Cleveland Cavaliers would beat us 29 out of 30 times. But Tuesday night would be the one we would beat them.
We played well enough to win. That W is all that matters. It was pretty obvious from the beginning that we were playing down to the competition. It happens with young teams. We were more engaged and talking against Kentucky because it was under the big lights. This game everyone (except Zion) were just going through the motions on both offense and defense. This game looked just like the Virginia Union game. Next game we came out dialed in and won by 70+. So lets be calm. We KNOW that all 5 starters can play defense when they are really focused. All 5 are plus defenders on focused nights.
It’s pretty obvious perimeter shooting isn’t our weakness. We have shot the ball really well from 3 in these 4 games. Only thing that can beat us is lack of focus in a game. We will be favored in every game this year. The question is will we play up to our full ability every night...I doubt it but I know when we’re focused we can be unstoppable
It’s pretty obvious perimeter shooting isn’t our weakness. We have shot the ball really well from 3 in these 4 games. Only thing that can beat us is lack of focus in a game. We will be favored in every game this year. The question is will we play up to our full ability every night...I doubt it but I know when we’re focused we can be unstoppable
Kentucky was a high possession game. That’s why they were able to score a lot of points. It was technically an NBA game. Also, they had almost 40 free throw attempts.
For some here it may be good to listen to K's press conference. He mentioned the guys are upset at their performance. All I needed to hear to confirm Duke is just fine.
There is a long way to go this season. I don’t believe anyone that says we definitively won’t be good at something this year. We have all the talent and physical attributes to be anything we want to be. Just because previous teams lacked the ability to guard man or lacked the coachabilty to get better or lacked the chemistry to blend together doesn’t mean this team can’t.
Will we have the necessary will and desire to get better? I’m confident but there are no guarantees. But no one can say we can’t be something, this team is beyond capable of anything, last Tuesday put that on full display.
Will we have the necessary will and desire to get better? I’m confident but there are no guarantees. But no one can say we can’t be something, this team is beyond capable of anything, last Tuesday put that on full display.
I hope it makes Barrett mad at himself to watch the film of himself playing transition defense. He was making new guy mistakes tonight. Learning moment for him.
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