crazietalk.net

The Regular Season is over and the ACCT is next. We are 27-4 and a Top 10 team but any objective observer has to agree we do not look great right now. Stating the obvious, being Captain Obvious is one of my strengths, we are a 3-point shooting team that is in a shooting slump at the worst possible time - the start of post season play. Singler has been shooting poorly the 2nd half of the season, Dawkins seems to have confidence issues (I still cannot believe he missed all three free throws last night), and Kelly can't hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle. So what is Coach Krzyzewski's next move?

I strongly believe we will see a line-up change on Friday. Ryan Kelly will move back to the bench and either Miles Plumlee or Andre Dawkins will move into the starting rotation. I suspect it will be Miles Plumlee. He scored 7 points and grabbed 11 rebounds against Carolina. I thought the travel call on him that negated a basket in the first half was a bad call. My druthers are for Dawkins to be inserted into the starting line-up to attempt to jump start our perimeter shooting and allow Singler to work inside. We are stagnant and missing shots left and right but if we are going to continue to shoot 3-pointers let's put our best shooters on the court. We need Curry and Dawkins shooting more and Singler and Kelly shooting less. The whole "Dawkins is a defensive liability" thought process is getting a little old. We need to score more points and besides, Dawkins played pretty good defense last night.

As the #2 Seed, we will play the winner of the 7/10 game on Friday at 7 pm. It appears the 7/10 seeds will be either Miami, NC State or Maryland. We have beat all three of those teams twice this season.

It is going to be a long week waiting for the tournament to start but I wanted to get the tournament discussion going so we could get our minds off that horrible game last night (yeah, right).

Bob

Here's what I truly hope is beaten into these kids this week before the tournament:

- Toughness - This means effort in going for rebounds. This means continuation of defensive plays. Too many times have I seen our guys stop after an initial effort on defense or going for rebounds where the other team get the advantage easily by just continuing to fight for the ball.

- Team defense. - I don't know if it is a lack of communication or what, but we are being carved up with our backs to the ball, caught up in screens, poor switching...it is ridiculous.

- We are Duke - We have been here before, fought back from worse losses than against those bastard fucks in Chapel Hell last night...we are a good team, we CAN beat anyone even without a bench player who most likely will not ever put on a Duke uniform again. The coaches have the plan, the players know what to do, by god EXECUTE and BE DUKE!!

robertduke32 wrote: - Team defense. - I don't know if it is a lack of communication or what, but we are being carved up with our backs to the ball, caught up in screens, poor switching...it is ridiculous.

Totally agree. My god. There were multiple unc possessions where we were quite literally just standing around. Several times, unc had a wide open jump shot and there wasn't a Duke player within ten feet. Crazy, given how much defense is beaten into these kid's heads. Honestly, the defense was astonishingly atrocious, especially given who we were playing.

Oh well. Fuck it.

-eJ

Solution: lineup change-style change

Kelly, to the bench. Play both Plumlee brothers. Kelly should be first off the bench to play under the boards. He's 6' 11" for God's sake. Use him for his height.

Seth, to the bench. Tyler, start. A floor general with speed and a good handle so that others can be freed up. Kyrie provided this qualification better than any other that has been here since Jason Williams. Kyrie's out. Look at the roster and see what's left. Tyler, of course, can't do all that Kyrie could but do you think Seth or Andre could? Seth has done better coming in as 6th man than as a starter. Same thing, speaking of Andre.

Don't run Kyle to death, as was the same case at the end of JJ Redick's tenure. He is a better shooter, maybe the best in the land, if he has only just a moment longer to viualize his target before release. I thought he might be able to get that chance last night but....running in cicles around the half-court looking to create his own screen for himself to be free for the shot is too much and not necessary to the flow of the offense.

I need a break from X's and O's for a couple of days. Good grief, did we look like shit last night.

Bob Green wrote:The Regular Season is over and the ACCT is next. We are 27-4 and a Top 10 team but any objective observer has to agree we do not look great right now. Stating the obvious, being Captain Obvious is one of my strengths, we are a 3-point shooting team that is in a shooting slump at the worst possible time - the start of post season play. Singler has been shooting poorly the 2nd half of the season, Dawkins seems to have confidence issues (I still cannot believe he missed all three free throws last night), and Kelly can't hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle. So what is Coach Krzyzewski's next move?

I strongly believe we will see a line-up change on Friday. Ryan Kelly will move back to the bench and either Miles Plumlee or Andre Dawkins will move into the starting rotation. I suspect it will be Miles Plumlee. He scored 7 points and grabbed 11 rebounds against Carolina. I thought the travel call on him that negated a basket in the first half was a bad call. My druthers are for Dawkins to be inserted into the starting line-up to attempt to jump start our perimeter shooting and allow Singler to work inside. We are stagnant and missing shots left and right but if we are going to continue to shoot 3-pointers let's put our best shooters on the court. We need Curry and Dawkins shooting more and Singler and Kelly shooting less. The whole "Dawkins is a defensive liability" thought process is getting a little old. We need to score more points and besides, Dawkins played pretty good defense last night.

As the #2 Seed, we will play the winner of the 7/10 game on Friday at 7 pm. It appears the 7/10 seeds will be either Miami, NC State or Maryland. We have beat all three of those teams twice this season.

It is going to be a long week waiting for the tournament to start but I wanted to get the tournament discussion going so we could get our minds off that horrible game last night (yeah, right).

Bob

The line-up change may depend on match-ups. If we play a bigger team 1st, we may see Miles instead of Andre. If our 1st foe is more perimeter-oriented, we may see Dawkins start, though I still think his diet is still consisting mostly of Milkbones. Ryan, you are 6'11" so play inside and bang the boards and play interior D.

Is anyone forwarding our thoughts/suggestions to Coach K? I know he has read/posted here on rare occasions.

One could only wish. ;)

Here is a link to an ACC Tournament Preview I wrote for Blue Devil Nation:

http://bluedevilnation.net/2011/03/acc- ... preview-2/

Perhaps it will generate some discussion.

Bob Green wrote:Here is a link to an ACC Tournament Preview I wrote for Blue Devil Nation:

http://bluedevilnation.net/2011/03/acc- ... preview-2/

Perhaps it will generate some discussion.

That is well done, Bob. Thanks for the link.

Anyone want to guess the odds that we get the 3 officials who did the St Johns-Rutgers game for our game tomorrow?

I'm thinking whoever loses tonight's game between the twerps and the pack has probably coached their last game at that school. If Gary wins, he may stay on, but he's on super thin ice. I think Sidney has to win the whole thing to save his ass.

Jesus_hurley wrote:Anyone want to guess the odds that we get the 3 officials who did the St Johns-Rutgers game for our game tomorrow?

If we play unc in the final, the chances we get that crew is 100%.

So UVA manages to lose in OT after being up by 9 with less then a minute to play.

Of course Miami is a tougher matchup for unc-ch anyway so I'm happy.

Jesus_hurley wrote:So UVA manages to lose in OT after being up by 9 with less then a minute to play.

Great ghosts of Jason Williams!!

Wake is keeping it close. Down 18 with about 12 to play.

Jesus_hurley wrote:Wake is keeping it close. Down 18 with about 12 to play.

I honestly can't remember any ACC team being this abjectly terrible in all the time I've been watching basketball. Nothing spectacular has happened at either end of the court; it's just another everyday butt-kicking for the Deacs.

I'm really pulling hard for State. I know it won't happen. It's really tough to beat the same team 3 times in the same season. I don't want Mary Land.

captmojo wrote:I'm really pulling hard for State. I know it won't happen. It's really tough to beat the same team 3 times in the same season. I don't want Mary Land.

We have already beaten NCSU and Maryland twice this season. We will beat either one a third time. I stole this info from a post by Reilly on DBR:

"K Era, 2-0 in regular season against the team, how’d we do in the ACCT?

86 – W (WFU), W (UVA)
88 – W (UVA), W (UNC)
89 – W (UVA)
90 – W (MD) L (GT - semis)
91 – L (UNC - semis)
92 – W (MD), W (GT)
94 – W (Clem), L (UVA)
96 – L (MD)
97 – L (NCSU)
98 – W (UVA), W (Clemson)
99 – W (UVA), W (NCSU), W (UNC)
00 – W (Clemson), W (WFU)
01 – W (NCSU)
02 – W (UNC), W (WFU), W (NCSU)
03 – W (UVA)
04 – W (UVA), L (MD – final)
05 – W (GT)
06 – W (WFU)
09 – W (MD), W (FSU)


Under K, we’re 26-6 in the ACC Tournament against teams we were 2-0 against in the regular season. Four of the six losses were in the semis or finals; only two losses in the opening game (96 and 97 when we weren’t particularly strong).

K ERA, when we play somebody we’re 0-2 against in the regular season in the tourney:

82 – L WFU
83 – L UVA
84 – W UNC
88 – W NCSU
95 – W NCSU, L WFU (Not K's games, of course)

If K has beaten you twice in the regular season, there’s an 81% chance he’ll beat in the tourney, too (26/32).

If you have beaten K twice in the regular season, the game is still 50/50 in the ACCT (3/6)."

Sid,

Its been a great 5 years. Good luck wherever you end up.

Jesus_hurley wrote:Sid,

Its been a great 5 years. Good luck wherever you end up.

Maybe he can get a job in Arizona...