What a season! I watched every single game and I have to say, I loved watching this team. I felt connected to this team and feel like I got to know more of these players than past Duke teams. This team seemed to play so connected and together and had great attitudes. I am proud to say I am a Duke fan and thoroughly enjoyed following this team this season. I am from Montana and made it to Raleigh for the 1st and 2nd rounds and it was awesome to be able to watch Duke in person. I spent some time on the off-day, Saturday, touring around the campus for my first ever trip to Durham. I was in awe and felt like a little kid with Christmas morning excitement walking around and checking everything out. I even had diehard UK fans and other basketball fans who normally HATE Duke say they enjoyed watching this team play. I was so disappointed when this team fell short Saturday night. I am not here to criticize any coaching or players. I was so shocked and speechless when that epic collapse came to fruition. We were shocked and devastated in our household. Being a coach and a parent of athletes I can't help but think about the coaches and players and their parents. I was shell-shocked and speechless watching from my living room. I try to take a step back and put myself in their shoes. I can't imagine how devastating that loss felt to Coach Scheyer and all the assistants. I can't imagine how devastating that loss felt to every single player on the roster from Cooper Flagg all the way to Spencer Hubbard. I was devastated when my oldest finished his HS basketball career last year in a very tough loss giving up the lead in the last few seconds so I can't even begin to fathom how those parents feel watching the game. Being a passionate fan brings out a lot of feelings. It's fun to be passionate and being fully vested can bring exuberance and euphoria but with that also comes heartbreak and anger and frustration and sadness. Sometimes the better team doesn't win. Sometimes the best team doesn't win. I believe Duke was the best team in the country this year and I am so thankful to have been along for the ride from my couch this season. I will look forward to next season and cheer and care with just as much passion and gleeful energy. I love the bond and connection I have with my sons following and rooting on OUR Duke Blue Devils. (and somewhat with my wife and daughter but they don't have the same passion and devotion we do) I know this is long but mostly just want to say Thank You to the whole program including the Administration, Coaching Staff and Trainers, NIL and Booster Supporters, Managers, Players, Parents and their family members. I can't even imagine the pain they have felt since that game ended. Everyone keep your heads up as I wish all of our players the best going forward with whatever their future brings. Let's Go Duke!

A guy who can design an inbounds play comes to mind.

The question I have is will next year's team address our issue this year... Rebounding and guard play. Moreso rebounding

Maybe, maybe not. Both those teams were preseason top 10 teams with a lot of talent so that was not an insult. A lot went right for us this year. We are losing 4 starters at the very least. Guys like Cooper and Kon don't grow on trees.

Who do you'll think Jon will reach out to as an assistant coach?

Within the brotherhood?

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Throw it all at coop

christophero said:

To my eye next year's team would more resemble the teams of Jon's first two years than this years, but it is too early to tell. We could still get a portal guy or two. I really like Brown but given his multiple injuries we might need some frontcourt insurance.

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How? Boozer is better than anyone he had those 2 years. Pat is a legit big, brown plays better D then anyone of those teams and if proctor returns he’s a senior. Next years team is head and shoulders better then either of those first two years

christophero said:

Wright is 6-2 and averaged 11.5 points and 4 steals in 29 minutes. The statement from Baylor sounds like his decision caught them off guard and they thought he was staying. He had 24 points and 6 assists against Kansas. I say hell yeah. Not if it drives Proctor out the door but that decision may already be made.

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too small

1Catmantoo said:

The ACC was the weakest in the last 25 years. Kentucky beat Duke on a neutral floor and they finished 6th in the SEC. Duke was good, but they definitely were not the best team in the country.
I do think Scheyer is a good coach, but then again he had the best talent in the country.

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You’re an idiot. Duke would have boat raced Kentucky in march

sheyduke said:

Robert Wright the second just hit the Portal. That’s the pg Duke needs. He’s tough, attacks the basket and shoots the three.
Flagg might want to put a call into his old team mate. And he plays defense .

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Yes to him and go hard after the Wilkerson kid from Sam Houston St

christophero said:

I think guys were tired, and when you are tired you make mistakes. Their pressure was relentless. A lot of the criticism I see is why we did not use the bench more. And unfortunately we resorted back to give Cooper the ball instead of running the offense.

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I’m Monday couch point guard coaching, would have loved to have seen a 2 man game between Knueppel and Flagg (the two guys who delivered all game)

The biggest gripe from me is Coach going away from his bench which imo led to the fatigue physically which led to the fatigue mentally which led to the turnovers, failure to box out, failure to defend the 3 point effectively.

Wright is 6-2 and averaged 11.5 points and 4 steals in 29 minutes. The statement from Baylor sounds like his decision caught them off guard and they thought he was staying. He had 24 points and 6 assists against Kansas. I say hell yeah. Not if it drives Proctor out the door but that decision may already be made.

To my eye next year's team would more resemble the teams of Jon's first two years than this years, but it is too early to tell. We could still get a portal guy or two. I really like Brown but given his multiple injuries we might need some frontcourt insurance.

Robert Wright the second just hit the Portal. That’s the pg Duke needs. He’s tough, attacks the basket and shoots the three.
Flagg might want to put a call into his old team mate. And he plays defense .

Good read. Duke has an interesting structure that funds its athletic scholarships as well. If I am correct on what I've been told by former players, the athletic scholarships can be cashed in at any time, so when players leave early, they can come back and finish their degree. I believe that it was a singular group funding it.

The frustrating thing is if any one of 10 things go our way late we would have won. We got tight/tired is the only explanation I can think of. Houston smelled blood in the water and at that point we were playing not to lose.
Edit: ha the post above said the same thing.

The_Only_Blue said:

It still burns me inside that we lost the other day. Keep playing those last few possessions in my head over and over again. 😢

Sampson been coaching nearly 40 years and he finally is getting his chance tonight. Izzo been there many times in 40 years and only won once. Although Geno Auriemma has won a bunch of championships, until yesterday he hasn't won one in 10 years. He said something to the fact that he wasn't sure if he made the right decision to keep coaching.

Point being is that we're going to feel the pain of the other night many more times in our hopefully very long lifetime. I'm sure it's hurt Jon more than anything that he's gone through. Hopefully he learns from this and continues to learn.

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i agree with all of this. In the last few minutes of the game there was a string of several bad things that happened, all of which went in favor of Houston. In thinking back on it, if any one of those things had gone our way, we would have won and there would be a different tone to our discussions.

christophero said:

Or get Kon the ball. You have to be able to make free throws in the last minute. They did, we didn't.

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I think I would have changed it up and went to Kon on the possession Flagg shot the fade away. Everyone knew Flagg was getting it made it easier to defend

Or get Kon the ball. You have to be able to make free throws in the last minute. They did, we didn't.

HES said:

What about the kid from Harvard
Xaivian Lee

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I've seen his name floating around. Wonder how is his defense

The_Only_Blue said:

Yup especially after they gave us great minutes the first half.

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That is a legit complaint. I would have played Pat more because Maluach was having terrible game

christophero said:

Jon had accolades and praise all week. He can take a little criticism about what happened. He is in the big chair making the big money. You blow a 9 point lead in 2 minutes there are going to be questions. Jon will learn from this. But I agree it is staggering how the press turned on us. But to be fair it was a very public and dramatic meltdown. I still think we had a great year, but that was a painful end. The year UNLV boat raced us in the finals was painful as well, but we won it the next year. The difference is we had 4 starters back. Jon's job now is to keep the team from scattering to the 4 winds, besides the obvious NBA departures.

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I'm sure Scheyer would have liked Proctor to pass the ball to Flagg . I believe Flagg would have scored or if he was fouled would have made the free throws. Scheyer was upset for the defense giving up the three pointers they were giving up too much space

christophero said:

I think guys were tired, and when you are tired you make mistakes. Their pressure was relentless. A lot of the criticism I see is why we did not use the bench more. And unfortunately we resorted back to give Cooper the ball.

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Yup especially after they gave us great minutes the first half.

I am okay with Proctor, Foster and Boozer in the backcourt. If one leaves then we need a portal guard. Likely one of Foster/Proctor leaves.

What about the kid from Harvard
Xaivian Lee