🚨 Official Gameday Thread- Duke vs Kentucky- champions classic 🚨

[The_Only_Blue]

1- terrible play call from Jon having Coop going one on one out of the timeout. Like Bilas said, pick and roll and see what Kentucky does and give yourself a couple options.

2- still think we're better but just not tonight. Shot 17% from 3 and having 2 guys go out and we still had a chance.

3- I don't want to hear the same BS excuse from Jon that we're young at the postgame press conference.

 

[Bmuselding]

Cooper is amazing! But asking your power forward to take it the length of the court w/ 10 seconds left is tough. The play out of the timeout was ugly too. I didn’t really seem like a play. Just give the ball to Flag and see if he can bail us out.

Exactly. Why call your final timeout to set up some NBA hero ball isolation. Run a play. Move the ball. Set screens. Get someone open not just dribble dribble dribble.

 

[sheyduke]

Sometimes an early loss can be good. We won't beat a good team shooting that poorly and we need another guy over 6-8. We need to get Pat up to speed and in the rotation. Seems like when we get an early lead and the other team roars back it doesn't end well for us.

Our the players on the floor should help rebound and box out . You saw three UK players around the basket for a rebound to Dukes 1.5 . It’s simple basket ball . It really is

 

[sheyduke]

1- terrible play call from Jon having Coop going one on one out of the timeout. Like Bilas said, pick and roll and see what Kentucky does and give yourself a couple options.

2- still think we're better but just not tonight. Shot 17% from 3 and having 2 guys go out and we still had a chance.

3- I don't want to hear the same BS excuse from Jon that we're young at the postgame press conference.

This. That excuse has gotten old . I want the shooters they say we have to hit constant shots not just Kon.

 

[christophero]

We better get tougher inside or Auburn will eat our lunch. Still; not the end of the world. We seem to have some holes; this team could go far but we have a lot of work to do. Kentucky had a whole new team so we don't have that excuse. They do have more experience though.

 

[Bmuselding]

I know it’s early but this team is a 2nd round exit maybe Sweet 16. Screenshot this.

Sure any team in the NCAA is going to lose in the tourney shooting the way we did tonight. It’s how upsets happen. We shot god awful, good wide open looks and nothing falling. It’s what makes March madness so difficult. One bad shooting night and most likely done.

 

[denverexpat]

The use of transfer talent was starkly different. UK utilized their experience, whereas JS barely played our experienced players. Gillis could have given us more than Proctor/Foster...maybe give Brown a few more mins too. Give UK different looks to think about. These games would be good to build something...winning is great but this was a loss and a lost opportunity to team build.

 

[kingbluedevil]

Foster and Proctor with another one of their classic no-shows in the 2nd half…

Scheyer totally outcoached again…was there even an offensive gameplan??

I don't have faith in those two guards I'm sorry but Scheyer must not either in a tie game give it to a 17 year old in his 3rd game instead of 2nd and 3rd year guards. He tried to make a play too early in the shot clock

 

[Friction.]

The game changed when Mal went out. Losing Sion to injury didn't help either. I thought he brought another level with his defense. Our backcourt didn't perform well in the second half. Foster missed several open shots. Proctor disappeared after playing so well in the 1st half.

Then we couldn't hit 3s, they hit a bunch of 3s, we couldn't score late, and we turned the ball over in critical times. So we lost. Our youth showed tonight at the worst times. I'm pissed. But I think we will learn a lot from this game. Championships aren't won or lost in November.

Agreed and well said. I’ll also add that with Khaman and Sion being out for extended periods our conditioning really suffered - guys looked tired. Probably will go down as one of our worst offensive games and went to the wire.

But yeah - if the 3’s were falling (and I mean they were wide open looks) we would have created a ton of separation.

Congrats UK. Good team. Also good coaching putting Carr at the 5 and going straight up on Khaman.

 

[Mac9192]

We had 12 assists for the game, and I’d say not many were in the 2nd half. Cooper is the real deal, but we seemed to rely way too much on him.

It doesn’t help that Kon and Foster were 7-29.

 

[Bmuselding]

Foster and Proctor with another one of their classic no-shows in the 2nd half…

Scheyer totally outcoached again…was there even an offensive gameplan??

I wish foster was a no show. Instead he was out there missing wide open shots and free throws.

 

[christophero]

Is Sion's injury serious? I worked late and missed the game. It looked like Brown was MIA.

 

[bleediteveryday30]

He hurt his shoulder, Chris. No word that I've seen yet on the severity. I imagine Jon will be asked about it. Hopefully, he's good. He looked pissed at the end of the game. And understandably so.

 

[denverexpat]

He hurt his shoulder, Chris. No word that I've seen yet on the severity. I imagine Jon will be asked about it. Hopefully, he's good. He looked pissed at the end of the game. And understandably so.

It was a moving screen for sure....no call though as expected

 

[jamsession2]

I don’t know about the physical statement . Duke simply was pretty much one dimensional offensively tonight causing UK to adjust very easily .

Duke missed the 50/50 balls down the stretch, did not impose our 'physical will' to make layups, and made bad passes in the paint that led to turnovers. I Love DUKE Basketball, but I refuse to lie about the Game I love as well. We had that game. Pope and UK came out the 2nd half, and they reminded us that 90 percent of their team are upperclassmen.

 

[dukesince91]

Dont see much change in how JS is going about building a team. Seems very familiar on offense, more about talent and ISO vs posting up, or driving the ball to create space or a called play...we lose our rebounding when Maluach goes out even though we are a big team. Sooo looking forward to the rinse and repeat of the last few years or more...would love to be wrong but this just looks too familiar

I felt like Coach K coached like you just mentioned at the end of his career. Guess who was on the sideline with him then.

 

[christophero]

Just saw the last few minutes. Maybe not fair, but if coach K is on the sidelines we win this game. Some very questionable plays. Live and learn.

 

[dukesince91]

I don’t know about the physical statement . Duke simply was pretty much one dimensional offensively tonight causing UK to adjust very easily .

The second half yes. Didn’t we out score them 26-8 in the paint during the first half?
We kept jacking threes the first 10 minutes of the second half thinking the next one was going in, but it never did.

 

[The_Only_Blue]

I'm going to say it now and maybe I'm overreacting and disappointed we lost but Jon isn't a good coach. Great recruiter but an average coach. He's lucky we get the talent that we do.

 

[jamsession2]

The use of transfer talent was starkly different. UK utilized their experience, whereas JS barely played our experienced players. Gillis could have given us more than Proctor/Foster...maybe give Brown a few more mins too. Give UK different looks to think about. These games would be good to build something...winning is great but this was a loss and a lost opportunity to team build.

Can Pat play this year? If so, Cooper needs to play the 3/SF and allow Gillis and Brown to play the 4. Cooper was being thrown to the floor tonight on a few occasions. I do not want t repeat of Flip.

 

[christophero]

Cooper better get used to it because teams will be physical with him all year. Maybe he should give Flip a call. Pat has been cleared to practice.

 

[pisgah101]

I'm going to say it now and maybe I'm overreacting and disappointed we lost but Jon isn't a good coach. Great recruiter but an average coach. He's lucky we get the talent that we do.

He wasn’t good today that’s for sure. Pope was

 

[denverexpat]

I'm going to say it now and maybe I'm overreacting and disappointed we lost but Jon isn't a good coach. Great recruiter but an average coach. He's lucky we get the talent that we do.

Duke is a tough place to do on-the-job training. The talent absolutely obscures the struggle JS has as a coach. We've seen quite a few end-game snafu's, and you can only chalk so many up to his inexperience before you have to look at the root cause.

 

[pisgah101]

Bad loss… very bad loss IMO

 

[christophero]

When they tied us with 3 to go I knew it was over lol.

 

[Mac9192]

Let’s all hope we can look back on this game and say they learned from it. I’d be lying though if I said I’m not a little worried that Jon doesn’t ride Cooper to the point where the others stand around bird watching. The last part of the game was give the ball to him and pray he scores.

 

[AJG-15]

This is best Duke team I have seen since early 2000s. Very balanced, deep and super talented.
I would not want to play you guys in March or April if Kentucky gets that far.

First half Duke showed how well they prepared the game and talented are. if Calipari would have still been the coach at Kentucky, Duke would have won by 30.

Second half , Pope and staff made some great adjustments especially how they played the bigs and generated the offense , as well showing different defensive looks.

Duke big guy getting injured / cramping made a difference. Surprised the Duke didn’t continue to use the bench in second half . Also , the over reliance on a great but inexperienced Cooper Flagg cost Duke the game.

Great game to watch! You guys look great and are the most talented team in the country!

 

[ioliva]

As others have said malauch out changed the game.

Foster ( I hate autocorrect) was downright awful tonight and scheyer took proctor out when he was hot.

The play were kon fell and lost the ball was absurd. Scheyer with awful coaching not calling a timeout to save his player. Just absurd.

Our vets sucked today. Cooper was the only one who had some grit the last few minutes

 

[dukecorey]

Not a good enough job by Coach Scheyer, he needs to own this loss and get better. The last two possessions were horrible

 

[bleediteveryday30]

I'm going to say it now, and maybe I'm overreacting and disappointed we lost, but Jon isn't a good coach. Great recruiter but an average coach. He's lucky we get the talent that we do.

Man, losses sure do suck. And losing to a team we despise as much as Kentucky sucks even more. Jon definitely made some bad calls late. But I love Jon. He's had two successful first seasons. Of course, the expectations are FFs and NTs at Duke. So, an ACC title and an EE aren't cutting it for many folks. I'll admit losing to State last year killed me. But much like the first year, with time, I have looked back on that EE run with amazement, considering all the team issues.

But time will tell, and I think thus far, he's been a great recruiter and a good coach. 3rd season in the toughest job in CBBALL following the GOAT is no easy task. I tend to think Jon will get there, maybe not K's level, but who could?

Serious question: in the next 5 years, what would you see as success for the program and Jon?

 

[christophero]

So no minutes for Evans and Harris even with 2 guys injured and our shooting woes/fatigue? Not to be a jerk but why even have them on the team? I thought our depth was a strength but we looked gassed the last 5 minutes. Ah well, only one loss, but not a very impressive showing. Hopefully we learn and Sion is not out indefinitely, because he was easily our best transfer tonight.

 

[The_Only_Blue]

Man, losses sure do suck. And losing to a team we despise as much as Kentucky sucks even more. Jon definitely made some bad calls late. But I love Jon. He's had two successful first seasons. Of course, the expectations are FFs and NTs at Duke. So, an ACC title and an EE aren't cutting it for many folks. I'll admit losing to State last year killed me. But much like the first year, with time, I have looked back on that EE run with amazement, considering all the team issues.

But time will tell, and I think thus far, he's been a great recruiter and a good coach. 3rd season in the toughest job in CBBALL following the GOAT is no easy task. I tend to think Jon will get there, maybe not K's level, but who could?

Serious question: in the next 5 years, what would you see as success for the program and Jon?

It's hard to say but with the talent we've been getting and if it continues, I'm hoping a championship or two by 2030. His play calling is just terrible.

 

[pisgah101]

Man, losses sure do suck. And losing to a team we despise as much as Kentucky sucks even more. Jon definitely made some bad calls late. But I love Jon. He's had two successful first seasons. Of course, the expectations are FFs and NTs at Duke. So, an ACC title and an EE aren't cutting it for many folks. I'll admit losing to State last year killed me. But much like the first year, with time, I have looked back on that EE run with amazement, considering all the team issues.

But time will tell, and I think thus far, he's been a great recruiter and a good coach. 3rd season in the toughest job in CBBALL following the GOAT is no easy task. I tend to think Jon will get there, maybe not K's level, but who could?

Serious question: in the next 5 years, what would you see as success for the program and Jon?

I think he has to win a ship in 5 years to be a success after 8 years at Duke. In 5 years it’ll have been 15 years since 2015 if no title before.. that’s a long time

 

[DBM0828]

The last 2 possessions were horrible coaching by Jon. He allowed the "Stardom" of Cooper to trump Good basketball... down 2, and you just give him the ball and stand and watch. BAD BASKETBALL. Run a good offensive set, AND get a good look... We will never shoot that poorly again... Allow Kon to run more offense. And make Brown take a shot. Having him out there hurts the offense if he isn't even looking for a shot attempt... But we will get BETTER from this Loss. I promise you that.

 

[christophero]

My understanding is that Cooper is not really a "give me the ball and get out of the way" type player, and yet he was asked to do that the last few minutes. In fairness to Jon, he recently was telling Brown to shoot the 3 in practice as he could then drive past people. I know down in Florida my dad is rolling his eyes at the end of game iso plays; he hates that. Oh well; good night all and congrats to Kentucky.

 

[kingbluedevil]

So no minutes for Evans and Harris even with 2 guys injured and our shooting woes/fatigue? Not to be a jerk but why even have them on the team? I thought our depth was a strength but we looked gassed the last 5 minutes. Ah well, only one loss, but not a very impressive showing. Hopefully we learn and Sion is not out indefinitely, because he was easily our best transfer tonight.

Couldn't understand about Evans and Harris either. When Sion was on the court injured nobody even went out and checked on him. The HT interview with Scheyer he was so calm and confident

 

[kingbluedevil]

My understanding is that Cooper is not really a "give me the ball and get out of the way" type player, and yet he was asked to do that the last few minutes. In fairness to Jon, he recently was telling Brown to shoot the 3 in practice as he could then drive past people. I know down in Florida my dad is rolling his eyes at the end of game iso plays; he hates that. Oh well; good night all and congrats to Kentucky.

First game I've seen this run with Flagg

 

[dukecorey]

Duke was out scored 24-11 over the final 10:21. Almost a point a minute for Duke. That is horrendous and why they lost. They stopped playing and scoring. It was like the players and coaches got the best of them and got tight.

 

[sheyduke]

The second half yes. Didn’t we out score them 26-8 in the paint during the first half?
We kept jacking threes the first 10 minutes of the second half thinking the next one was going in, but it never did.

When supposedly three to four of your players on the floor are shooters , what do you tell them to do ? Shoot. Plain and simple. Kentucky adjusted . They knew shots weren’t falling for us so they shrinked the paint cutting off driving lanes.
I think everybody who played for Kentucky last night scored . When Sion went out I don’t recall the bench scoring I think Gillis had two points. Brown finished the first half with three fouls and Mal was cramping which I think really caused brown to play back on defense because he was needed on the court for size .
I mentioned this in another thread last week and Cooper hinted in it post game, the offense went stagnant. Got to get help from your bench period it’s killed Duke the last three seasons .

 

[youngman42]

Really disappointed. Yes, it’s early, but the flaws in this team are obvious. And they aren’t things that are going to change because it’s the same thing we have seen from most Duke teams the past couple of decades.

Obviously, we hit a couple of open 3s and we win this game. So many bricks from the guard position. But therein likes a key flaw .

Once again, this Duke team that had so much promise with depth and maturity off the bench and in the backcourt, turns out to be similar to all the other Duke teams. except a bit deeper. Yet it is a Freshmen dominated team with 2-3 of them as the offense, and their sole offensive game plan is to go one on one. As always. Our entire offense was that and it was almost all Flagg and Kon. With Maluach at the basket for tipping or alley oops. If that’s our team we aren’t going any further than sweet 16. Maybe eke out elite 8.

As much potential as they have in the years to come this team isn’t winning a title and Flagg is going to struggle at times as he’s not yet developed. His body has not matured. He is amazing for 17 but he’s not 21 dominating college guys. He wore down trying to carry the team and he’s not a mature shooter yet. We don’t have any mature shooters. And if we did we can’t get the ball to them because we run no offense and can hardly set picks.

Sion had a good game. His getting hurt hurt the physicality and we couldn’t match them. We might have won but even still the flaws were there the whole game. We have the same Achilles heel as always.

* One - We have no offensive system. It’s “spread out and drive one on one and try to react to the D and make a play.” That’s it. That’s our offense. That’s the extent of the offense and largely that is the “system” coach K ran the past decade. Mind boggling that this is what Scheyer is doing. He recruits well but it’s the same thing. There’s no real team movement or offensive system to get a shooter open and we have no real shooters either. Which makes it worse. Great future stars but no veteran shooters with poise and physicality.

* We have no competent shooters. Kentucky was physical and it felt like they had 6-7 guys that could rip 3s. Brea is exactly the kind of recruit we needed in the portal this past year. Last year the prime need was to get some shooters in. As always. And as always … We didn’t. Proctor should be more mature but he clearly has taken a back seat to Flagg. Foster was brick city. Dude just doesn’t have a pure shot. Nor does Proctor. None of these guys are competent enough shooters to rip it under pressure. They just aren’t consistent or confident. Even though Proctor has had a good start this year he isn’t good enough to consistently or confidently hit 3s under pressure. Vs Podunk State they can hit open 3s because they are relaxed. Talent will win. Vs top teams? It’s more of a crap shoot as what we will get - might be hot might be frozen - but that game showed we don’t have pure shooters. Even if Kon gets hot, having one guy do that isn’t going to win the game nor give you a consistent offense.

* Though we matched up well physically in the first half when our bench came in we still struggled to prevent open 3s most of the night and they just wore us down physically. Especially with Sion out. And we are still a freshman dominated team.

* it’s like Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. Deja vu all over again. Team after team the same story:

like with Zion and Barrett;

Bagley and Carter (that team also had Grayson and still could not truly threaten);

Carey & Stanley & Jones as a soph;

Hurt & Steward & Jalen Johnson (he went 11/6 his freshman year and now he’s averaging 19/10 with the Hawks. But he wasn’t developed enough to dominate at the college level);

Banchero, Keels, & Williams. We could go on. It’s the exact same MO virtually every single year:

2 or 3 really talented but inexperienced freshmen who are OAD, who are the only real scorers (there might be one vet hold over - usually a sophomore), but also whose game really has not developed. Nor have their bodies in many cases. Nor has their defensive communication.

The rest of this team might show up here or there. The vets will add defense and physicality but without Flagg or Kon where is the offense going to come from? Gillis can shoot the three but he needs to be open on the wing.

As hyped as Bilas is for Flagg and Kon, they are not capable of leading this team to a title against a bunch of physical seniors and juniors who can ball. Flagg was gassed at the end because he had to carry the team on his back. Just not going to be better than top 8-15. It’s spoiled but it’s also frustrating when you are one of the top programs all time yet do the “wash rinse repeat sweet 16 see ya after one year” story every year. We had one of them win it in 2015 and got to a FF with Banchero - who it turns out immediately put up better numbers in the NBA.

It’s possible they will improve their shooting and mix the bench in more but it’s not anything I’d bank on.