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NFT: Notre Dame vs. Duke last night

blueblood'11 : 1/29/2015 7:28 am
I don't how many college basketball fans are out there and I don't know how many of you may have watched that game last night but you want to talk about a great basketball game. Wow. It had all the drama of an NCAA tournament game.

My wifes family lives in NC  
superspynyg : 1/29/2015 8:18 am : link
Her uncle is a huge Duke fan. Her niece goes to Duke. I talked sooooo much trash after that win. Feb 7th they play at Duke.
aw, such a pity, Duke couldn't get it done in South Bend  
Greg from LI : 1/29/2015 8:49 am : link
Hey, you know who did win in South Bend?

Can't wait to see the Hoos beat Duke's ass on Sunday.
Was a great game  
Metnut : 1/29/2015 8:56 am : link
last night. Duke had no answers for Grant and wasn't able to get enough easy baskets with their size advantage. Seeing 6'5" Pan Connaughton play the PF and come down with semmingly every big rebound was a joy to watch.

I felt that ND would surprise this year and that their upside was contending for the ACC title. You'd have to pencil them in as a #2 seed if the season ended today and if Duke beats UVA on Saturday, ND would be tied for the conference lead. Mike Brey continues to do a great job for a program that gives him little support.
Greg  
PaulBlakeTSU : 1/29/2015 9:20 am : link
you make people want to hate on UVA. FWIW, a Duke win would have actually been better for us in terms of trying to win the ACC regular season. But this thread isn't about us.

That was a great game last night. Two of the best offenses in the country who both struggle with defense. Interesting that ND decided not to double Okafor in the paint.

That game was a coin flip last night. I don't expect Duke to ever go 10-for-20 from the FT line again, and ND hit that miracle circus-shot to beat the shot clock with a minute left. ND is a fun team to watch. They pass the ball extremely well around the perimeter, Jerian Grant is a potential lottery pick, Connaughton is a great college athlete (even better at baseball), and they didn't end up losing Auguste for the season as once reported. They also have a very easy ACC schedule the rest of the way with just two difficult games left, and it wouldn't surprise me to see them win the conference.
Duke is not coming into JPJ and beating us  
Greg from LI : 1/29/2015 9:23 am : link
Ain't happening. More of a chance of us losing to UNC on Tuesday in Chapel Hill - road game, quick turnaround, coming on the heels of what I expect to be a big, emotion win on Sunday. On the other hand, I think we're a particularly bad matchup for the Heels and they'll be coming off a Sunday game at Louisville.

ND is much better than I ever expected, but ultimately their lack of size and terrible defense will come back to haunt them.
RE: Duke is not coming into JPJ and beating us  
Metnut : 1/29/2015 9:28 am : link
In comment 12114142 Greg from LI said:
Quote:
Ain't happening. More of a chance of us losing to UNC on Tuesday in Chapel Hill - road game, quick turnaround, coming on the heels of what I expect to be a big, emotion win on Sunday. On the other hand, I think we're a particularly bad matchup for the Heels and they'll be coming off a Sunday game at Louisville.

ND is much better than I ever expected, but ultimately their lack of size and terrible defense will come back to haunt them.


It's the defense more than the size that will be an issue. We've seen Villanova teams play 4 guard offense get to the elite 8. ND's small size will hurt them on the glass a bit but bigger teams will struggle to guard them.

ND is a dangerous team that can beat anyone in the NCAA but is obviously prone to an upset because they struggle to get stops when their offense gets cold. I'm just glad that last season was the exception from the norm and the program is back to where it was in the big east. A good tourney run would be icing on the cake but i've been burned too many times there to start thinking about a single-elimination tournament already.
PaulBlake  
blueblood'11 : 1/29/2015 9:43 am : link
It's funny about Notre Dame when talk about defending. I actually think they are a good defensive team when you consider the fact they are usually smaller overall then most everyone they play.

If you notice down the stretch in most of their closer contests they really ratchet up the defense like they did last night in the last ten minutes. You could see them really starting to clamp down on Dukes guards from the outside prior to the ten minute mark and then after that the Duke guards did virtually nothing down the stretch.

It was the same way against N.C. State. They came out fast in the second half and worked their butts off to get the game even and just were in N.C. State's face the rest of the game. It's like they keep something in reserve and let it all out down the stretch.
You're right, their effort isn't the problem  
Greg from LI : 1/29/2015 9:50 am : link
But it's not like you get a handicap for playing a small lineup. The Domers gameplan is to simply outscore the opposition, sacrificing defense for offense, and they've been very successful at it. However, if they hit a bad shooting night they're in big trouble. They're not the kind of team that can survive an off night on offense.

They're very dangerous though.
FWIW, ND is ranked 143 in KenPom's D efficiency rating  
Greg from LI : 1/29/2015 9:51 am : link
By far the lowest of his top 25. Next lowest is #25 Stanford with 99. ND has his #2 offense though, behind only Wisconsin.
RE: Greg  
MetsAreBack : 1/29/2015 10:22 am : link
In comment 12114138 PaulBlakeTSU said:
Quote:
They also have a very easy ACC schedule the rest of the way with just two difficult games left, and it wouldn't surprise me to see them win the conference.


Duke still plays at UVA, vs Notre Dame, and home & home with UNC. Even if the home game with UNC is "easy" ... that's still 3 tough games left, not two, so i'm not getting your analysis.

A home and home with Syracuse isn't a cakewalk either.

Not to mention they lost at home to Miami and got smoked by NC State.

Could they go on a run? sure... but they're more likely a young team that's likely to stay a little inconsistent IMO.
Paul was talking about ND's remaining schedule, not Duke's  
Greg from LI : 1/29/2015 10:26 am : link
.
MAB  
PaulBlakeTSU : 1/29/2015 10:31 am : link
I thought it was clear by the few sentences that preceded the line you quoted, but I was referring to Notre Dame's schedule the rest of the way. I'm not complaining about it, as imbalanced schedules are the reality of an expanded conference. I was just pointing out that as a result of it, I would rather ND have gotten their second loss.
ok  
MetsAreBack : 1/29/2015 10:31 am : link
never mind, need coffee!
btw, since this has become just as much a Duke thread as ND  
Greg from LI : 1/29/2015 10:37 am : link
I see Koach Kourage and his minions are STILL flogging the bullshit story, this time in a column in the News-Observer, about the asskicking they got from the Hoos in the 1983 ACC tournament. For years Krzyzewski repeated the "Ralph Sampson played almost 40 minutes" horseshit, until Dan Patrick confronted him with the boxscore showing that Ralph only played 14 minutes. Now it's morphed into "they left their starters in until the end." Which is still bullshit.

FYI  
Greg from LI : 1/29/2015 4:39 pm : link
K just kicked Sulaimon off the team. Addition by subtraction.
for non-academic reasons  
PaulBlakeTSU : 1/29/2015 6:07 pm : link
I've heard rumors, but will wait to hear more credible information.

I hope it isn't addition by subtraction for Duke. He takes a lot of shots but has been inefficient offensively. I assume it just means more minutes for Jones and Allen but I hope neither are ready for Saturday.
So do the Nix lose more for Okafor  
#10* : 1/29/2015 8:17 pm : link
or should they continue their winning ways?
So far all I'm seeing is that....  
Greg from LI : 1/30/2015 1:32 am : link
....it was some kind of attitude/behavior issue, and something he did on the South Bend trip was the last straw. It's the first time in 35 years at Duke that K has given a player his walking papers.
Had a dream of what happened to Sulaimon  
#10* : 1/30/2015 9:32 am : link
through a Nike commercial.

He's sitting in a dark room against the wall. Camera starts and the right side of his face and slowly works its way to the left as he starts talking. His highlights play in the background against the wall. Finally we see the left side of his face that's black n blue. And he finishes with apologizing about the fight he got into and then looks at the camera and says, "That's why I stabbed you in the neck coach K". Couldn't go back to sleep after that lol.
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