Duke/Louisville Elite 8

[Crank_it_loud]

Off-the-wall question: would Duke have pulled out the W against UL two years ago IF K switched to zone, like he has done some this year? Had a convo with a buddy recently on this and Duke was in that game until UL kept driving to the rack the last 1/4 of the game....

 

[OldasdirtDevil]

It's just really hard to say, Crank. Since we lost, it's easy to say in hindsight that using a zone may have slowed them down, but I don't know if that team had even practiced a zone that much...let alone be able to use it effectively.

OFC



This post was edited on 4/3 5:59 PM by OldasdirtDevil

 

[stanleyduke]

Maybe but we just got spent and overmatched at the end. Remember UL had Luke Hancock who was knocking down threes that tournament. But one of the big reasons we lost was Gorgui Deng was on fire with the mid range game which made their pick and roll so dangerous. So I feel like Deng and Hancock would have destroyed a zone in that game.

 

[DiehardDukeFan4Life]

IMHO I don't think any team would've beaten them that night because after Kevin Ware's horrible injury they were on a mission to win it for him and I don't think they would've let any team beat them, fate was on their side that night and the next 2 games.

 

[The Right Blue]

Duke played well that year when Curry played well. Curry didn't play well that night. Neither did Sulaimon, Kelly, or Cook.

 

[pisgah101]

We won if he didn't break his leg

 

[jnastasi]

Doubtful. We got spanked pretty good in that game of I remember correctly.

 

[BuckinElkin!!]

Originally posted by DiehardDukeFan4Life:
IMHO I don't think any team would've beaten them that night because after Kevin Ware's horrible injury they were on a mission to win it for him and I don't think they would've let any team beat them, fate was on their side that night and the next 2 games.

I've always thought the injury was what keyed the win. No way of knowing for sure but I think Duke was going to take it up to that point.

Pitino turned the injury into a positive for the rest of the team.

 

[HuffyJB]

It's obviously impossible to say, but Duke lost that game by 22, so I don't imagine it could have hurt.

 

[Tim1515]

We beat Louisville early in the season in a game where i thought we had too much luck on our side. The man-to-man wasn't working and the same approach seemed like a disaster in the making.

Had Duke tried to switch just for the Elite 8 I think Louisville would've picked apart a bad zone. Had Duke started using zone midway through the season like this year...maybe it works.

 

[pisgah101]

Nah we were n good shape before the injury at least in my mind we were gunna win then that happened..

 

[bleediteveryday30]

Originally posted by pisgah101:
Nah we were n good shape before the injury at least in my mind we were gunna win then that happened..

I agree. Once he Kevin Ware went down I knew it was over.

 

[dukedevilz]

Even when the game was close it felt like Louisville was going to break away from us at any point. They were getting very good looks and we were making highly contested shots. I thought we were fortunate to only be behind by 3 points at the half.