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Huge win tonight by the Duke women, taking out #9 Iowa in a game they led (by lots) for more than three quarters. It's so fun to watch them playing good basketball again! (Less turnovers would be nice, but still...wooohoo)

One more game to play this Sunday against Penn before likely coming back to Earth against #1 South Carolina. (SC is scary good)

Yeah, I hope we don't have any kind of letdown against Penn this weekend. It's not a P5 team, but we're on the road and they're the kind of team that can get really hot. They take almost 21 threes a game, and they've been hitting that at about a 38% clip. They aren't great, offensively, from closer in, but they block a lot of shots and they rebound well. They also like to play very slowly and deliberately. They do turn the ball over, so if we can get out and run off those to speed them up, the way we did against Iowa, we should be able to take care of business.

But it's both a classic letdown and a classic trap game with South Carolina coming up. It's also the start of the finals study period, so there will be lots of distractions. Time to stay focused and take care of business.

But just a great win last night, with a really good crowd on national TV. The team is fun to watch, and I hope the prime-time game and great atmosphere helps on the recruiting trail, as well. That was a major win for DWBB, for sure!

Phredd3 wrote: ↑

December 3rd, 2021, 11:07 am

They do turn the ball over

Company in misery!

Adding to the good news of being ranked for the first time in forever (at #19), Duke gets this.

Congrats!!

Duke University rookie Shayeann Day-Wilson, along with the Blue Devil women's basketball team, were honored this week by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).
Day-Wilson was tabbed the National Freshman of the Week, while Duke earned the women's national team of the week.

https://goduke.com/news/2021/12/8/women ... v8hrVmWMis

CameronBornAndBred wrote: ↑

December 8th, 2021, 1:34 pm

Adding to the good news of being ranked for the first time in forever (at #19), Duke gets this.

Congrats!!

Duke University rookie Shayeann Day-Wilson, along with the Blue Devil women's basketball team, were honored this week by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).
Day-Wilson was tabbed the National Freshman of the Week, while Duke earned the women's national team of the week.

https://goduke.com/news/2021/12/8/women ... v8hrVmWMis

All very well deserved. Honoring Shy was obvious, but it was nice to see the team recognition for being the first unranked team to beat a ranked one all season.

Huge game tonight, hope to see y'all in chat.

Not a win tonight, but it was still a hard fought game by our women. They never gave up, and had they not started off so badly this one may have gone down to the finish.

I'll take a single digit loss to the #1 team in the country, though. This should provide a lot of confidence going into ACC play.

CameronBornAndBred wrote: ↑

December 15th, 2021, 10:28 pm

Not a win tonight, but it was still a hard fought game by our women. They never gave up, and had they not started off so badly this one may have gone down to the finish.

I'll take a single digit loss to the #1 team in the country, though. This should provide a lot of confidence going into ACC play.

I completely agree with all of that. Also, Lawson's post-game presser is worth listening to.

Phredd3 wrote: ↑

December 16th, 2021, 9:13 am

I completely agree with all of that. Also, Lawson's post-game presser is worth listening to.

I caught a good bit of it last night and was very pleased with her attitude.

Well, that last game stung a little. It was very winnable, but the offense went home about the same time that theirs woke up. They made better adjustments than we did, and could actually hit a shot.

Also, they didn't MOVE THEIR SCREENS!!! Man, am I starting to loathe that habit we have of rolling the screener. Maybe they coach that, but they are going to have to adjust. It gets called time after time. We must have had at least three turnovers in this game on that play alone. Frustrating, especially when the main issue in the game was that they we able to put up nine more shots than we were, including hitting four extra threes (which was more than the difference in the score.)

The next game isn't any easier.

I wasn't too bummed out about that loss, especially since we didn't have everyone playing. I was only disappointed that it got away from them so fast at the end.

If we don't have more healthy bodies on Sunday, State's gonna stomp us flat.

Man, for all that we've looked good when we play good teams, we are looking terrible against the worst team in the league. Down 28-38 at the half. How is this possible? A lot of game to play, but this should have been a ten point lead the other way. It's the worst this team has looked all season.

I'm an eternal optimist, but that loss cost them being in the tourney. Sure, they could have some amazing run in the ACCs, but they won't. I fear that the Heels are going to tear us to pieces.

This team has gone backasswards.

The first game in the ACCT that the team loses will be their last game of the year. (I hope they don't take a WNIT bid, they won't last long in it, either.)

CameronBornAndBred wrote: ↑

February 27th, 2022, 6:20 pm

The first game in the ACCT that the team loses will be their last game of the year. (I hope they don't take a WNIT bid, they won't last long in it, either.)

I disagree about the WNIT, and pretty strongly so. The biggest problem with this coach is that she is inexperienced, and the team chemistry isn't working. Every competitive game we can get into should be savored as a learning opportunity. I don't give a rip how far we progress in the WNIT, so how far we are or are not likely to progress is entirely irrelevant. That's not the point. The point is to get games in against teams that earned the right to be there so we can get better for next year. I'm not so snobbish as to think that Duke is in any way "above" the WNIT, or that WNIT losses would be "embarrassing". What's embarrassing is not having the stones to step up and put yourself on the line in competition. If you get that chance, take it.

I agree with Ph3.

I don't think Duke is above the WNIT at all. I think they are playing so badly that there is a real chance that they will lose in the first round and the experience will do more damage to the team and the program than they will benefit by playing in it.

If we were a bad team to start and trending upward through the season, having missed out on the NCAAT, I'd say hell yeah, keep it going.

But this team is not that. They have gotten progressively worse every game and I've seen no indication on the court that the players themselves have any interest in their season continuing. That's a recipe for a very early exit from a lower tier tourney.

CameronBornAndBred wrote: ↑

February 28th, 2022, 10:09 am

I don't think Duke is above the WNIT at all. I think they are playing so badly that there is a real chance that they will lose in the first round and the experience will do more damage to the team and the program than they will benefit by playing in it.

If we were a bad team to start and trending upward through the season, having missed out on the NCAAT, I'd say hell yeah, keep it going.

But this team is not that. They have gotten progressively worse every game and I've seen no indication on the court that the players themselves have any interest in their season continuing. That's a recipe for a very early exit from a lower tier tourney.

I appreciate this take, but I have two issues with it.

First, the WNIT is seeded and we are likely to be seeded relatively high. Furthermore, UVA aside, we've been very good against lesser-tier opponents. It is easy to forget that the ACC on the women's side is a mirror image of what it is on the men's side: it's a veritable murderer's row. Assuming Charlie Creme's bracket is accurate that BC is among the last four in, UVA is our only loss to a non-tournament team. Every single other loss we've had has been a "good" loss in tournament/ranking terms. So I think it is pretty unlikely we lose early enough in the WNIT to suffer serious morale harm.

Second, we have six departing players, so to the extent that there is any damage, there will be a ton of turnover on this team and next year will likely have a whole different feel to it. Also, the experience factor is as much for the coaches as it is for the players, and there's almost no way an early tournament loss will demoralize the coaching staff. In fact, I would hope this would be a chance for the coaching staff to try to rebuild attitude and get some experience in a do-or-die setting. Even with an early loss, knowing how to handle that could itself end up being leveraged by the staff for next season. So I'm not sure even an early loss would have the damaging effect you hypothesize. It could end up being the Kara version of "here's to never forgetting".

If the team plays, I will of course support them 100%. From the perceived attitude that I've seen on the court and on the bench though, if they are allowed to vote to play or not, my guess is that the majority will be in favor of this season being over with.

I'm afraid I have no idea if this is the kind of thing the coaching staff would hold a vote on. My assumption would be that this is a Duke decision and the players would not be consulted. But I have no idea if that's true. I also have no idea if such a vote would actaully turn out negative. I'm not sure I can read that much in to what I've seen over the course of a few hours on TV and at courtside, although I agree that it has not looked good. Perhaps you're right.