youngman42 said:

Dude. I haven't read what everyone has said about Proctor. But a) fans get angry and frustrated like anyone else. And a board like this is a way to express one's frustrations as well as observations. Better than doing it some other way.

Lighten up.

And, b) Stating the reality that Proctor had a bad game and, frankly, did not perform when Duke needed him to, and expected him to, the most is not "trashing" him. It's a fact. He shot terribly from 3, missing every one (0-4) and they were open 3s, after shooting 41% in the season. And he went 3-5 from the line, but most crucially one of those misses was the front end of a one-and-one. His FT shooting has inexplicably gone from 87% as a freshman (1.7 of 1.9 per game) to 68% as s Jr. (1.3 of 1.9 per game). It's disappointing. If no one cared about that and wasn't frustrated then they wouldn't be a passionate fan.

I feel bad for him, he's been a good team player, but there's no sugar coating the fact that he did not show up offensively in this game the way Duke needed and expected him to. He makes his FTs, or even goes 5-6 including both in the 1 & 1, and shoots 1 of 4 (25%) from 3, we win the game.

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christophero said:

I'm not sure if I posted this, but my prediction for this team was to get to the FF and then lose. It just seemed like we were a little too 3 dependent and our offense could grind to a halt against better teams at times. That changed probably about a month ago as we were rolling teams and I thought we would cut the nets down. Maybe this year was similar to 99, in that we did not play enough down to the wire games to be comfortable in those situations. We certainly did not look comfortable the last 8 minutes or especially the last 2 minutes.

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christophero said:

I saw an interview with Tatum yesterday. He was asked about the South Carolina loss and he said it hurt and he couldn't believe the season was over, but once he talked to his mom after the game he was over it and focused on the draft and taking care of his family. Which is admirable. But my point is he didn't sound like it was something he dwelled on the way the fans did. He is only one example but I did find this interesting.

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christophero said:

I'm not sure if I posted this, but my prediction for this team was to get to the FF and then lose. It just seemed like we were a little too 3 dependent and our offense could grind to a halt against better teams at times. That changed probably about a month ago as we were rolling teams and I thought we would cut the nets down. Maybe this year was similar to 99, in that we did not play enough down to the wire games to be comfortable in those situations. We certainly did not look comfortable the last 8 minutes or especially the last 2 minutes.

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Mr.Scary13 said:

Yep, they should spend big money for a legit PG and SG in the portal next year.

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dukeblue77 said:

Coach Sampson indirectly mocked the ACC. We could have put 80 on them without the absurd drought.

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NCirishman said:

I have no insider info but I just don’t think Jwill will be in coaching.

I’d say Harris is gone and I guess this will be ugly on my part but hopefully Foster is gone as well.

Proctor is unknown, if he’s making decent money now then why not stay one more year and get that degree,

Pat, Brown, and Evans return.

I have no idea about the portal.

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christophero said:

I saw an interview with Tatum yesterday. He was asked about the South Carolina loss and he said it hurt and he couldn't believe the season was over, but once he talked to his mom after the game he was over it and focused on the draft and taking care of his family. Which is admirable. But my point is he didn't sound like it was something he dwelled on the way the fans did. He is only one example but I did find this interesting.

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NCirishman said:

I have no insider info but I just don’t think Jwill will be in coaching.

I’d say Harris is gone and I guess this will be ugly on my part but hopefully Foster is gone as well.

Proctor is unknown, if he’s making decent money now then why not stay one more year and get that degree,

Pat, Brown, and Evans return.

I have no idea about the portal.

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bleediteveryday30 said:

Great post. But what an awful way to lose. It's one of the top five worst losses in Duke basketball history. I slept an hour, tops. I doubt I can sleep at all for a long while. I needed a couple more wins for the positive distraction. Nothing can be done about it. Jon will learn and be even better next year. Unfortunately, this team will look nothing like it did this year.

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The_Only_Blue said:

I think the turning point was when Gillis got the tech. That ended up being a 6 point trip for them which gave them life.

On another note and don't know if this is accurate but I saw on Twitter that Maliq was a +10, Foster+10 and Pat +7 and Mal -20. If true, I just don't get why we went away from them in the second half? At least give our guys a minute before a possible TV timeout for them to catch a break. With it, they probably would get close to 5 minutes rest.

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bleediteveryday30 said:

'99 doesn't hurt me like most because we won in '01 and exercised those demons. '22, '04, '02, '94, and '06 were the most painful for me. This one has jumped to the third most painful. '18 and '19 killed me, but I don't think about those like those others, and this one will stick with me forever. I put too much into sports. And when shit like this happens, it guts me. But a team like this one not winning will hurt more than '99 because at least some of those guys got rings. Battier and James got their one shining moment. Flagg, Kon, Mal, Proctor, James, and Gillis won't. And sadly, I already see the narratives around Jon and these kids, which worsens things.

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christophero said:

That is my feeling this morning. It's not that we lost; it was how we lost. If we make any one of 10 plays in the last few minutes we win. It was a perfect storm of everything going wrong at the worst time. Watching the last 8 minutes it is hard to argue that we didn't panic or play not to lose. Shame because this team was so good all year under some big lights. Still a very good year by our team but a disappointing way to go out.

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Neue Regel said:

That’s two Final Fours where the team with superior guards sent Duke home. Duke may be getting awesome NBA caliber forwards and bigs but the guards haven’t been good enough in either National Semi-Finals. Houston deserves a ton of credit for hitting all those three’s. They seized the moment and I think they will win Monday.

You win Championships with great guards. It’s already tough enough when the other teams guards are 23 years old or whatever.

Duke needs to shift strategy even more toward the portal.

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AlanInNJ said:

I told myself after the game last night I would avoid social media and this board. I went on a long run this morning to try to clear my head. End of the day….that really stung to lose being up 14 at the 8 minute mark. We just imploded. 😞

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