Winning the ACC Tournament a few weeks ago, a retrospective

[1156jack]

I remember watching the recent Duke win of the ACC tournament with incredibly mixed feelings. On one hand the team laid it all on the line while accomplishing something that no other team in ACC history had ever done, namely, win 4 games to earn the tournament championship. Wow, what a moment the celebration was the championship was won! On the other hand, in watching the faces of the players it appeared that they were exhausted, or another way of saying it, that they were totally spent having, perhaps, peaked too early. Here is a wiki link to the phrase "Pyrrhic victory"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhic_victory.

Was the ACC tournament championship a Pyrrhic victory? In retrospect, did the 4 days of total effort to win the ACC tournament cost the team too much emotionally? If so, how might Coach K handle situations like this in the future, that is, playing to win the tournament, but reserving enough juice for the NCAA tournament?

 

[dukedevilz]

I still think we had a pretty good year. We went 15-3 in ACC Competition when all of our top 7 guys were playing (0-2 w/o Amile and 0-2 w/o Grayson). We beat the national champs twice. We just happened to lose in the tournament to a Final Four team at a defacto road game.

I think one of our biggest issues was the inability to put teams away. We easily could have been up 15+ points against USC. We shot poorly and we turned the ball over liberally in the first half. USC stunk it up big-time in the first half. We needed to put them away early. It was inevitable that the crowd would get them back in the game if we didn't extend the lead. USC kicked our butts in the second half, no doubt. But it would have been nice to have played at a more neutral city.

 

[timo0402]

I still think we had a pretty good year. We went 15-3 in ACC Competition when all of our top 7 guys were playing (0-2 w/o Amile and 0-2 w/o Grayson). We beat the national champs twice. We just happened to lose in the tournament to a Final Four team at a defacto road game.

I think one of our biggest issues was the inability to put teams away. We easily could have been up 15+ points against USC. We shot poorly and we turned the ball over liberally in the first half. USC stunk it up big-time in the first half. We needed to put them away early. It was inevitable that the crowd would get them back in the game if we didn't extend the lead. USC kicked our butts in the second half, no doubt. But it would have been nice to have played at a more neutral city.

Agreed. It had nothing to do with being tired emotionally or mentally and physically from the ACC. Dukes main problem was they couldn't put teams away that they should have. The USC game was eerily similar to the Cuse game at the dome. Both games we should have taken a 15+ min point lead to halftime. If that happens in the tourney, the unc fans at 10pm on a Sunday night leave the arena at half. Instead they stick around, probably say we'll stay till the first tv time out and if it's still a game stick around. The USC inevitably will shoot better in the 2nd half, crowd completely on their side and they take us out and ride that home game momentum to the final 4. Duke had its chance to knock them out and get to what would have been a home like atmosphere in msg. I couldn't emphasize enough when the brackets came out that the game that worrie me was the USC game in SC with unc fans in the building. Oh well.

 

[Laettner]

Agreed. It had nothing to do with being tired emotionally or mentally and physically from the ACC. Dukes main problem was they couldn't put teams away that they should have. The USC game was eerily similar to the Cuse game at the dome. Both games we should have taken a 15+ min point lead to halftime. If that happens in the tourney, the unc fans at 10pm on a Sunday night leave the arena at half. Instead they stick around, probably say we'll stay till the first tv time out and if it's still a game stick around. The USC inevitably will shoot better in the 2nd half, crowd completely on their side and they take us out and ride that home game momentum to the final 4. Duke had its chance to knock them out and get to what would have been a home like atmosphere in msg. I couldn't emphasize enough when the brackets came out that the game that worrie me was the USC game in SC with unc fans in the building. Oh well.

Timo, were you monitoring my texts? This is exactly what I said to my brother the day after loss.

 

[Quavarius]

I have no regrets with winning the ACC Tournament (4 games in 4 days). In hindsight, it's easy to question the strategy, but since this team hadn't had time to play together, this was a great time to see them gel AND beat some tough teams.

I still feel playing a seven seed in a virtual road game had more to do with it than fatigue. That's just my opinion though.

 

[Mac9192]

I don't buy the tired part. They're young. I believe Duke lost because they couldn't match SC's intensity. The physical play of them seemed to take Kennard out of this game. His play in that game to me was all to familiar with JJ Redick during his tournament career.

 

[MyDudeG]

I believe winning the ACC tourney was definitely beneficial to our championship hopes. This was a season of constant dysfunction and the team had yet to have that "Wow. We could be pretty damn good." moment. Winning the tourney was probably huge mentally for this team and showed that they could make serious noise in the tourney. Sadly, we lost a road game to a final four team. Absolutely nothing to be ashamed about with that.

 

[Quavarius]

That (ACC) Tournament run was epic. Could you imagine if Duke had won it ALL? The 30-for-30 crew would have started filming right away!