What’s you’re favorite?

Preview for tomorrow night, focusing a bit on Dereck Lively II.

Programming: I'll be there with full coverage.

Predictions:

WF is going to come out and play with its hair on fire after back-to-back 2-point losses (Duke has to be ready to handle that).

Duke is going to get big defensive minutes out of Jaylen Blakes, on either Appleby or Hildreth.

Dereck Lively II hits another 3, but as we're coming to expect, makes a bigger impact on defense and rebounding.

Additionally, here's what Scheyer said about Dariq Whitehead today:

"He had a really good day yesterday on the court, but he's not quite there yet. I'm going to get an update here this morning but if he can't practice, he's not going to play. We'll make that determination here in a little bit."

I'll do my best to figure out if he practiced today or not.

The way he acted it looked like Achilles issue

Let, here it. I miss the gif of ole Roy riding a donkey

5 of Duke’s 8 games in January are on the road. We will LEARN a lot about the Blue Devils in the month of January. It’s time to Grow Up Blue Devils.

1/4 @ NC State (tough place to play)
1/7 @ Boston College
1/11 vs Pitt (Scheyer vs Capel)
1/14 @ Clemson (tough place to play)
1/21 vs Miami (will be a tough game, Miami is Good and they have a solid coach)
1/23 @ Virginia Tech (tough place to play and they are well coached!)
1/28 @ Georgia Tech
1/31 vs Wake Forest (already beat Duke once this season)

I will be satisfied if Duke finishes with a 5-3 record in the month of January, Happy if Duke finishes with a 6-2 record, and ECSTATIC if Duke finishes with a 7-1 or 8-0 record in the month of January.

How do the rest of you see The Blue Devils performing in January?

As a message board, we have been very pleased with the top tier HS studs coming to Duke. Regardless if they were one and done or stayed awhile the results have been good. Does Duke continue to prioritize the top 25 players or look for players that may stay a while. Do Duke prioritize two to three top tier transfers that can produce immediately?

This season has been an eye - opening reality.

It is not as bad as it appears considering all the elements involved. Every year the first true road game Duke plays poorly because it usually comes right around the 10 day break during exams. I often wondered why the scheduling works out that way. The Clemson loss was a bit puzzling being Duke out played them most of the game, but ended up with five true freshman on the court in the closing minutes without Roach. VT caught on fire hitting threes in the first half and more than questionable officiating in the second half. NC State played out of their minds and Duke was not prepared to counter attack at all. This is the one that is most alarming of all the road losses considering most of the other games could have gone either way.
There is not a Zion or PB on this years team even though Flip is coming into his own lately the Freshman class has under performed.
Usually, about this time of the year the Freshman are not Freshman any more so let’s hope that translates to wins on the court

Lots of reaction here:

When it comes to moving the needle, there's Duke...

Then everyone else.

Another day another need for a win.. this is one of the “easier” games we have remaining. That being said it’s in Atlanta and we all know how awful we play on the road. Game is scheduled for a 3pm tip on ACCN. At writing we are an 8 point favorite.


GT is 8-12 with their only good win coming against Miami. Tech is coach by Josh Pastner in his 7th year at the helm. Previously the head coach and assistant coach at Memphis. Josh played at Arizona where he won a national championship.

Until this team proves it can win on the road I dont care if we’re playing western Carolina I’m
not predicting a win.

Duke-72
GT- 74

Preview for tomorrow afternoon's game.

Programming: I won't be making the trip and I'll be covering another game (N.C. State-WF is at 1), so I'll be doing my best to track this one and have a quick story up soon after it ends.

Predictions:

Flip goes for another 18+, 12+ game.

Lively scores in double figures (would be the first time since he had 11 against Ohio State, his only double-figure game).

Jaden Schutt gets a few spot minutes.

If you saw the Cheaters-State game, or highlights you no doubt saw the foul (slap to the face) Leaky Black committed on Terquavion Smith. A Flagrant Two and ejection, and Leaky exited. Officials got it right.

However the worse part of this was not the foul in my opinion. Smith had celebrated a recent Pack win prior to the Cheaters loss sporting shades, and Armando Bacot stooped even lower than a UNC player normally does.

After watching Smith carted off on a stretcher, Bacot proceeded to conduct HIS OWN post game comments wearing shades. He even acknowledged it was a dig at the injured Smith, not knowing his condition at the moment. I suppose Hubert missed this too, like he missed the "F- you" chant hurled at Coach K.

OFC

I really have not been around as much the last couple of seasons in the group due to being a 24/7 caregiver for my father for part of the time and other family health situations.

Anyway - I realized most of my posts have been negative. mainly because I have posted on gamedays.

As Duke fans we have not had new Coach blues for over 40 years. I'm in my 50's and barely remember Bill Foster, and if my father had not been a Sports Editor at the time, probably would not have remembered K's first few seasons all that well. We have seen many schools go through the new Coach malaise, but our experience is pretty much nil unless you are a charter member of the OFC.

So I wanted to make this post, that I am all in for Scheyer. Sure it is easy for me to sit back and and rest on the Laurel's of my two-time Lazyboy ArmChair Coach of the Year Awards and criticize the job he is doing, but he has come into the most difficult environment (in terms of expectations) of any Coaching job in the country.

We all know he bleeds blue. We all know he has an incredible amount of determination. Whether we felt he should have been chosen or not he is our Coach and deserves some support along with the critiques. He deserves 3-4 years to give it his best shot, and I for one am going to watch and cheer during every game.

So if you do see a negative post - or 5 - from me, remember I love Scheyer for all he has given to Duke in the past and hope for a future that involves him having incredible success at Duke for many seasons to come.

After Saturdays game I’m looking forward to this one plus I like quick turnarounds! Todays game is scheduled for a 7pm tip on espn. VT at home is currently favored by 2.5 points.

We have appeared to be playing better basketball over the last two games, even the Clemson game in a L we looked like we had improved. Tonight gives us a chance to see if that can continue in another hostile environment. VT is 11-8 and currently on a very bad 7 game losing streak. Im sure they want to put a stop to the bleeding asap. They are coached by Mike Young in his 4th season. He has made the ncaa tourney 7 of the last 12 years, quite a feat for a coach that spent 8 of those years in a one bid league with wofford in the socon!


I think duke actually handles business today.

Duke-72

VT-68

Kinda surprised to hear this

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It's been a while since I saw a post from him. I know he was fighting cancer. The same type that Mike Irby the thr mod had . OFC

Preview for tomorrow night's game.

Programming: I'll be there with full coverage.

Predictions:

Hardly bold but I think Flip gets another monster stat line, something like 18-14.

Dariq Whitehead breaks out of a mini-slump and has at least 15 points.

Mark Mitchell starts out on Cattoor and takes him out of the game.

A monstrous win on Saturday could be the turning point for JS and this version of a very young Duke team . If Duke would have lost than it puts them in the middle of the ACC pack and down to 9 seed as well as a huge confidence builder beating a very good Miami team, other than the cheats twice it looks like their second half of the schedule lightens up a little bit. Keep in mind two of Duke’s losses come from top five teams.

I think realistically some where around a three seed. You know Duke will end up with the best one seed in their bracket but you never know in a one and done deal

Big time win today for the good guys in dark blue. Roach coming back was so huge for this group. I didn't expect him to play 27 minutes. I wonder how much he plays on Monday? Anyway, I loved the fight I saw out there today. That said, can we please start closing out the half strong?

A monstrous win on Saturday could be the turning point for JS and this version of a very young Duke team . If Duke would have lost than it puts them in the middle of the ACC pack and down to 9 seed as well as a huge confidence builder beating a very good Miami team, other than the cheats twice it looks like their second half of the schedule lightens up a little bit. Keep in mind two of Duke’s losses come from top five teams.

Won't have the preview ready for a couple of days, but do have something ...

Small feature on where Duke's growth stands.

I've talked earlier in the season about Duke, for as long as it's going to have the large, super-talented freshman classes, is always going to have an uphill battle when it comes to growing pains and learning curves. Tried to essentially give an update on that here, getting up to speed on energy/effort with games against BC and Pitt, but Saturday's loss showing that's not going to be enough to beat good ACC teams on the road.

Also, to add from the other thread: Jeremy Roach is 50-50 to play Saturday, as of last night. We're scheduled to have interviews on Friday, so there could be an update then (or sooner if something leaks).