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Who was it tonight?

Boxscore

I voted for Mason. He's owned the boards (ala Zou) the last few games and last night was no exception. I just wish he could hit a few more free throws.

MOTM is a tough decision, an argument could be made for Kelly, Curry or Nolan.

I voted for Mason, though I certainly could have made a winning case for Seth, Ryan or Nolan.

My vote was based on that terrific two-handed block he had, and (mostly for) that rebound and perfect outlet pass to Seth for the transition 3.

I do hope his FT's improve, but if he can be the force at the rim that he has showed flashes of being, we will have a lot of happy evenings this season.

Mason for me too. He's become quite a dependable presence on the boards, and interior defense was generally very solid last night too.

Just to be contrary, I voted for Kelly. He FG% was great. There weren't any bad shot choices that I can recall from him. And, his defense was solid.

The team's defense overall, ball theft aside, was about the worst I've seen so far this season. They were pretty consistent at being out of position during their 'on the ball' coverage. This led to far too many allowances of back door cuts and lay-ups. A better team than BC could have really done some damage last night. As it was, BC shot 43% overall for the game.

I don't want to sound like a downer, but this must be spoken of, and game film needs review. Too many times, the Devil defender was suckered on ball fakes. Point of focus on ballhandlers, may be out of kilter. I don't know what they are trained to watch for, but last night it wasn't too effective. Rebounding turned out to be a draw, though BC had 2 more of theirs on offensive glass.

On the bright side, pass anticipation was outstanding. Many steals on bad passes helped to pad the turnover total to 13, for a BC team that have shown to be quite protective of their possessions this year. Fouling the opponent showed improvement, too. Duke ended up committing 14 for the 40 minutes. One glaring example of at least one more foul that should have been whistled on BC came in the first half when Nolan was purposely tripped on a drive from the left wing, and was instead, called for traveling.

More was improved upon, than what was backslid from, last night. It was a win to feel good about.

I voted for Seth. His points were really needed. I guess I sort of expected what Ryan and Mason gave & that's probably not fair to them. They were great.

I voted for Seth, but Mason would've been just as good a choice. As I stated in Chat, Mason is developing into a dominant rebounding force. The one thing I desire to see more of is the outlet pass. Mason needs to fuel the break by kicking those rebounds down the court expeditiously.

Bob Green wrote: The one thing I desire to see more of is the outlet pass. Mason needs to fuel the break by kicking those rebounds down the court expeditiously.

I could not agree more. This feature has been woefully missing since Kyrie's absence and definitely needs to return. Too many times of late, this team is getting outrun down the floor in transition and it seems by design, whether by an intention of teaching, or not.

captmojo wrote:

Bob Green wrote: The one thing I desire to see more of is the outlet pass. Mason needs to fuel the break by kicking those rebounds down the court expeditiously.

I could not agree more. This feature has been woefully missing since Kyrie's absence and definitely needs to return. Too many times of late, this team is getting outrun down the floor in transition and it seems by design, whether by an intention of teaching, or not.

Yeah, other than that one perfect pass to Seth from Mason, none of our rebounds turned into transition opportunities, IIRC.

lawgrad91 wrote:

captmojo wrote:

Bob Green wrote: The one thing I desire to see more of is the outlet pass. Mason needs to fuel the break by kicking those rebounds down the court expeditiously.

I could not agree more. This feature has been woefully missing since Kyrie's absence and definitely needs to return. Too many times of late, this team is getting outrun down the floor in transition and it seems by design, whether by an intention of teaching, or not.

Yeah, other than that one perfect pass to Seth from Mason, none of our rebounds turned into transition opportunities, IIRC.

Certainly, this is all by K's design. Since Kyrie has been out, we have tried to push tempo very little, being satisfied to allow Nolan, Seth and TT to run the half-court sets, sometimes from the point and sometimes from the wings, with Kyle even initiating the play from outside the "elbow" on occasions. This may also be energy conservation for Kyle and Nolan with a bit of decreased depth now so we are not a run, run, run offense, considering they have regularly been playing almost the entire game, except in a blowout. I really like what K has done with the situation, developing Mason, Miles and Ryan up front and Seth, Andre (please get your shot back and lose your pouting) and TT in the backcourt. Several times recently, he has "gone small" with 3 guards, Kyle and a Plum or Kelly on the court. I even recall a rare occasion where he had the 4 shrimps and Kyle on the court at the same time for ball-handling, breaking a press and FT shooting late in a game (yes, I am talking about you Mason).

There could be method here. A team needs to perfect it's ball control offense in a half court setting before it's fast break set. With the fastest wearing an immobilizer and sitting on the bench...

I did notice another, and very effective outlet style, which is, the facing the opponent's basket after rebounding, and handing off quickly in front of you, rather than the turning toward your own downcourt and scanning for an outlet. That reversed view outlet changes anticipation by what are now defenders and allows for the surprise ballhandler to look for the downcourt outlet pass, taking the defense by further surprise. It works well and was used more than once vs BC. Look for it to happen again, against others right away. Watch for it. Some think correctly that the idea is, to be the quickest way to get the ball into the hands of a standard ballhandler, but there is also this aforementioned added benefit.