Duke Women's Basketball 2023 (22-12)

[devildeac]

27 Turnovers in tonight's horror show of a game vs Louisville. Only one player (Okananwa) in double digits.

33% shooting, the team overall looked clueless against the Cardinals defense.

61-44 was the final, and it wasn't that close. (Helped by a 4 point 2nd quarter)

At the end of Q3, Duke had 23 TO and was a stunningly bad 1-15 from 3-land and trailing by about 23 points, 54-31, or something close to that.

[Phredd3]

27 Turnovers in tonight's horror show of a game vs Louisville. Only one player (Okananwa) in double digits.

33% shooting, the team overall looked clueless against the Cardinals defense.

61-44 was the final, and it wasn't that close. (Helped by a 4 point 2nd quarter)

At the end of Q3, Duke had 23 TO and was a stunningly bad 1-15 from 3-land and trailing by about 23 points, 54-31, or something close to that.

Yes, the offense was bad, and yes, we absolutely need to do something about the turnovers. But we shot just 44.7% from two, 10.5% from three, and 44.4% from the dang free throw line. A lot of those threes were open looks, we just didn't get them into the bucket on our first road game in a month. If we had shot 37% from three (which was almost exactly our season average coming into the game), this would have been a two-point game. Add only two more free throw makes for just 67%, and we're taking them to overtime. Our front court was a combined 6-17, or just 35%, and that's from in close. Most of our looks from three were pretty open. We just missed them.

Yes, we absolutely need to clean up turnovers. But we also caused 19 turnovers again. We also held them to shooting that was nearly as bad as ours. In the end, we held Louisville almost 15 points under their season average yesterday. We had a decent opportunity to put up at least 62 points. Don't let a horrendous shooting night let you conclude that the team is bad (and I realize nobody actually said that). We need to practice shooting in unfamiliar spaces, and we need to work on valuing the ball, but that was still a winnable game if we had brought our normal shooting on the road with us.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Yes, the offense was bad, and yes, we absolutely need to do something about the turnovers. But we shot just 44.7% from two, 10.5% from three, and 44.4% from the dang free throw line. A lot of those threes were open looks, we just didn't get them into the bucket on our first road game in a month. If we had shot 37% from three (which was almost exactly our season average coming into the game), this would have been a two-point game. Add only two more free throw makes for just 67%, and we're taking them to overtime. Our front court was a combined 6-17, or just 35%, and that's from in close. Most of our looks from three were pretty open. We just missed them.

Yes, we absolutely need to clean up turnovers. But we also caused 19 turnovers again. We also held them to shooting that was nearly as bad as ours. In the end, we held Louisville almost 15 points under their season average yesterday. We had a decent opportunity to put up at least 62 points. Don't let a horrendous shooting night let you conclude that the team is bad (and I realize nobody actually said that). We need to practice shooting in unfamiliar spaces, and we need to work on valuing the ball, but that was still a winnable game if we had brought our normal shooting on the road with us.

Your post highlights why the multitude of turnovers were so horrendous. Every team is going to have a bad shooting night. If we don't continuously hand the ball to the other team, we are at least in the game. Duke was never in this game after the 1st quarter.
Turnovers, like bad shots, happen. But Duke is habitually making way too many.

[gadzooks]

Every team is going to have a bad shooting night. If we don't continuously hand the ball to the other team, we are at least in the game. Duke was never in this game after the 1st quarter.
Turnovers, like bad shots, happen. But Duke is habitually making way too many.

Exactly. I couldn't even watch past the 2nd quarter, it was so painful seeing them pass the ball to their opponents over and over. I absolutely give Louisville credit for forcing some of those TOs, but way too many were just poor decision making. This team has so much talent, it's incredibly frustrating to watch them play so poorly.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Every team is going to have a bad shooting night. If we don't continuously hand the ball to the other team, we are at least in the game. Duke was never in this game after the 1st quarter.
Turnovers, like bad shots, happen. But Duke is habitually making way too many.

Exactly. I couldn't even watch past the 2nd quarter, it was so painful seeing them pass the ball to their opponents over and over. I absolutely give Louisville credit for forcing some of those TOs, but way too many were just poor decision making. This team has so much talent, it's incredibly frustrating to watch them play so poorly.

I didn't give up until the lead hit 20. What's maddening is the back and forth this team has. Hang with Stanford then lose to Davidson. Hang with SC then play like we don't know what we're doing against Clemson. Put on the best shooting performance since 2016 against BC and go cold and clueless against Louisville. Sigh.

[gadzooks]

I didn't give up until the lead hit 20. What's maddening is the back and forth this team has. Hang with Stanford then lose to Davidson. Hang with SC then play like we don't know what we're doing against Clemson. Put on the best shooting performance since 2016 against BC and go cold and clueless against Louisville. Sigh.

It's just...AAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHH. I have no idea what's going on behind the scenes, but whatever it is, I really hope they figure out how to fix it soon. I hate being a fair-weather fan, but watching them gives me the agita right now.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Duke plays UVA at noon today. This should be a winnable game, if we don't keep giving them the ball.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Duke back to .500 in the conference with a tough road win today. Wasn't a thing of beauty, but it was a winner.

[Phredd3]

Duke back to .500 in the conference with a tough road win today. Wasn't a thing of beauty, but it was a winner.

This team really needs practice in other facilities. We tend to completely forget how to shoot in games that aren't played in Cameron. I don't know if it's just nerves, or what, but we could have blown out UVa is we just shoot an even vaguely normal percentages. We are getting plenty of open looks. It's the second road game in a row where shots just didn't fall from anywhere outside ten feet, including the free-throw line.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Duke back to .500 in the conference with a tough road win today. Wasn't a thing of beauty, but it was a winner.

This team really needs practice in other facilities. We tend to completely forget how to shoot in games that aren't played in Cameron. I don't know if it's just nerves, or what, but we could have blown out UVa is we just shoot an even vaguely normal percentages. We are getting plenty of open looks. It's the second road game in a row where shots just didn't fall from anywhere outside ten feet, including the free-throw line.

Awhom and I were chatting and I mentioned to him that the only reason we were winning is that as bad as our shooting was, UVA's was abysmal. Our D helped with that of course, but if they had been shooting higher than 25% those 4 small point leads we had at times would not have been leads.

[CameronBornAndBred]

With today's 84-46 beatdown of a good Georgia Tech team, Duke moves into the positive win column in ACC play.

[Phredd3]

We put an absolute shellacking on Georgia Tech this afternoon, clobbering them 84-46. In garbage time, our new Beligian player, Louann Battiston, who arrived over the holidays, got some game time, and while her first shot in Cameron was an airball, she had two assists in just three minutes, including one very impressive bullet pass to the post. I don't think she ready to play Kara's defensive schemes, yet, but she can play point guard, for sure. Really nice game.

ETA: CB&B beats me to the punch.

[CameronBornAndBred]

In garbage time, our new Beligian player, Louann Battiston, who arrived over the holidays, got some game time, and while her first shot in Cameron was an airball, she had two assists in just three minutes, including one very impressive bullet pass to the post. I don't think she ready to play Kara's defensive schemes, yet, but she can play point guard, for sure.

Very surprised to see her redshirt burned today, but I imagine she was not only on board with it but looking forward to being on the court. That shot was ugly, but those two assists were both things of beauty! Can't wait to see more from her.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Duke has a tough game tonight against 14th ranked VT. At least it's at home where we've shown we shoot better.

In other news, this tidbit about a Duke superstar.
Best wishes to Jasmine as she embarks on her path to the next play!

Former Duke women's basketball standout Jasmine Thomas announced her retirement from the WNBA on Thursday following a 13-year professional career.

"As I transition into this next phase of life, naturally, I've reflected on my exciting basketball journey," said Thomas. "My time at Duke prepared me to succeed on and off the court. I'm truly grateful for the continued support from the amazing Duke fans over the years."

https://goduke.com/news/2024/1/18/women ... D8pG9zDqM4

[CameronBornAndBred]

DWBB with the blowout win over #14 Virginia Tech!

It started as ugly as ugly could be, with Duke down 13-1 at one point. By the 4th quarter, we had a 20 point lead.
Hell yeah!!

63-46 final

[Phredd3]

Yeah, that was about as impressive a comeback win as you could ask for. I think closing the gap before the half gave us the confidence we needed to give them that third quarter swarm. Our defense in this game was absolutely incredible. They were averaging 80 points per game on offense, and we held them to 46, which is 13 points lower than their previous low. That was in their game against Kansas, who held them to 59 points back in November. But Tech can play defense, too, so Tech still won that game. State held them to 63 two weeks ago, and Tech still won that game. Their lowest scoring loss was against LSU, but we held them 18 points below even that.

I will grant you that Amoore's concussion was huge in this game. She's big for them on both ends of the floor. But even before the injury, we had held Amoore to 6 points on 2-of-8 shooting with no assists, and forced her into 4 TOs (in the amount of time she played, she "should" have scored 12 points and had four assists, against just 2 TOs). I don't think Tech is all that much closer, let alone wins that game, even if Amoore plays every minute.

That was an impressive performance by this Duke team.

[CameronBornAndBred]

But even before the injury, we had held Amoore to 6 points on 2-of-8 shooting with no assists, and forced her into 4 TOs (in the amount of time she played, she "should" have scored 12 points and had four assists, against just 2 TOs). I don't think Tech is all that much closer, let alone wins that game, even if Amoore plays every minute.

That was an impressive performance by this Duke team.

I said the same thing to Awhom in our chat, that even with Amoore, Duke doesn't lose that game. Speaking of injury induced court leavings, shout out to Emsbo for filling in nicely for KB while she was off the court getting her nose put back in place.

For the first time in seemingly forever, Duke is moved off of the bubble in Creme's Bracketology, and up to a 9 seed.

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story ... rojections

[lawgrad91]

Woo to the hoo!!!!!

[gadzooks]

For the first time in seemingly forever, Duke is moved off of the bubble in Creme's Bracketology, and up to a 9 seed.

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story ... rojections

Niiiiice!

[CameronBornAndBred]

For the first time in seemingly forever, Duke is moved off of the bubble in Creme's Bracketology, and up to a 9 seed.

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story ... rojections

Niiiiice!

Well they are getting blown out by NCSU right now, so expect a move back.