Must win games remaining in regular season..

[sheyduke]

With Clemson looking like a good win seeing as how they defeated three teams with in the top 25, the only remaining teams Duke will face in the top 25 are Virginia and Louisville.

Those two teams are crucial in Duke making a bid for the tourney outside of winning the ACC tourney. How confident are we that they can pull out the wins with our taking two more losses also UNC’s front court presents a problem for Duke.

 

[christophero]

FSU and UNC are borderline top 25 teams that will present a challenge.

 

[sheyduke]

FSU and UNC are borderline top 25 teams that will present a challenge.

FSU is in the top 25 but I don’t think we rescheduled that game and given this season I don’t think we will play them unless in the ACC tourney .

 

[Liftee]

I don't understand. Perhaps you guys can explain this to me.

Duke is rated 26 by KenPom and 36 by the BPI. Duke has 8 games left not including makeup games and ACC tournament games. If Duke wins 6 of 8 (losing let's say to Cheat U and UVA) plus an ACC tournament game their record is 14-8. That makes our conference record 11-5 and puts us 4th or 5th in the conference. That doesn't get us in the tournament?

 

[christophero]

Considering we just lost 3 of our last 5 that hardly seems like a probability. But we are trending upwards. (for certain if we win Monday) We need to beat some ranked teams, as right now our best wins are unranked GT and Clemson.

 

[geddoughton23]

No must win games yet. The Committee will not snub both UNC and Duke; so I think that the UNC games are slightly more important than the other games

 

[sheyduke]

Duke has to beat the remaining two ranked ACC teams it has left to make the tourney. Look at Clemson. The eye test says it’s s good win for Duke seeing how they beat three teams with in the top 25 something Duke has not done this season.

One would put Clemson as their best win of the season so far and they aren’t ranked.

Lunardi currently has Duke out the tourney and everyone else has us at 19 percent of making it. The last two ranked teams are crucial wins imo.

 

[bullcity gamer]

Duke has 10-12 regular season ACC games left

Our next 5 are all winnable

@ Miami
Unc
Notre Dame
@ NC State
@ Wake

I would like to see Duke go 5-0 or at worst 4-1 during our next 5, because our 2nd 5 games are

Virginia
Syracuse
Louisville
@ G Tech
@ UNC

Good news is Duke will be hosting UVA, Cuse, and Louisville all at home. Then will travel to G Tech and Unc for two road games.

Then our last 2 if they get made up.

Pitt
@ Florida State

I don’t see there being conference tournaments this season but who knows? Imo Duke certainly has a great opportunity to go on a run these next 6 weeks and punch their ticket into the tournament. All of Duke’s remaining games are winnable and The Blue Devils control their own destiny.

Let’s Go Duke!

 

[500HP_Devil]

Duke is -9.5 @ Miami - hopefully we play well.

 

[BOOGIEMAN1914]

With Clemson looking like a good win seeing as how they defeated three teams with in the top 25, the only remaining teams Duke will face in the top 25 are Virginia and Louisville.

Those two teams are crucial in Duke making a bid for the tourney outside of winning the ACC tourney. How confident are we that they can pull out the wins with our taking two more losses also UNC’s front court presents a problem for Duke.

GTech win looking better with their win over FSU

 

[dukiejay]

It’s important people don’t get caught up in how things might have looked in past seasons. Take that out of the equation. You might see borderline .500 teams making at-large trips to the tournament.

I agree that the next five games are pretty crucial. If we go 5-0 during that stretch, I believe we’d be comfortably ‘in’ at that moment....and would need to avoid something like a 2-3 finish.

I know the old adage of “taking it one game at a time” kind of gets overused, but it really applies to this group. They’re talented, but they’re not good enough to assume victory over anybody right now.

Lastly, damnit....I wish one of those late three’s had fallen against Louisville. I can’t remember which site I saw it on (wasn’t kenpom, but an analytical look), but right now our chance to make the tournament is like 18.7% according to their formula. Had we beat Louisville in that first game? Slightly over 50%. Goes to show you how just one missed, or made shot, can change the overall complexion of something.

 

[BlueDevilStop]

A win over Virginia would be huge. Very winnable game against Miami tonight, and then Duke has five out of seven at home. If Duke can protect home court, they should be in good shape. A win at home against Louisville would be a good resume win as well.

 

[sheyduke]

Miami was 2-9. Duke had a 21 percent chance of making the tourney prior to this game it probably just dropped to 15 percent . It was a bad loss.

 

[VaBlueDevil33]

Miami was 2-9. Duke had a 21 percent chance of making the tourney prior to this game it probably just dropped to 15 percent . It was a bad loss.

Should drop to zero....we aren't making tournament...we are pathetic

 

[bullcity gamer]

Terrible loss, no effort, horrible turnovers, and zero defense played by the blue devils tonight

 

[tripleb71]

Terrible loss. That one was deflating to any postseason hope.

 

[germantondevil]

I believe they would have to run the table now. It’s February and after Saturday we are 500 again. We also will not run the table so there you go. We would have to win the ACC tournament and that will not happen this year either. I would bet the farm on that!!

 

[dukiejay]

It’s a bad loss. No way to explain it away.

Big game Saturday.

 

[christophero]

We have to beat UNC after tonight. We can't drop down to 500.

 

[geddoughton23]

I've never liked the Kenpom rankings. Even after losing to # 125 Miami, Duke is at 34, UNC 36, and Drake is all the way down at # 50 with a perfect 17-0 record

 

[germantondevil]

Just run across the teleprompter on the Okla-TT game that Duke is at 27% chance to make the tournament.

 

[christophero]

I've never liked the Kenpom rankings. Even after losing to # 125 Miami, Duke is at 34, UNC 36, and Drake is all the way down at # 50 with a perfect 17-0 record

In what world could we possibly be better than North Carolina right now?

 

[bleediteveryday30]

In what world could we possibly be better than North Carolina right now?

I think we see a much better all around effort on Saturday. Watching K's presser should quell any doubts by the arm chair coaches that K or the staff doesn't care. Having said that, Carolina is better right now and even with a better collective game by this team they just might come up short on Saturday. I won't pick against them, especially against the holes.

 

[VaBlueDevil33]

I think we see a much better all around effort on Saturday. Watching K's presser should quell any doubts by the arm chair coaches that K or the staff doesn't care. Having said that, Carolina is better right now and even with a better collective game by this team they just might come up short on Saturday. I won't pick against them, especially against the holes.

Of course...he can say what he wants in a presser to please the fan base

 

[sheyduke]

I’ll watch the game but as far as a win I’m not counting on one. All you have to do on Duke is pack the lanes make them shoot jumpers and attack the basket at will. Duke is not guarding five feet with in the basket. Which is where UNC thrives.

 

[VaBlueDevil33]

Carolina will beat us by double digits and we still won't have a win against a team with a pulse

 

[denverexpat]

Of course...he can say what he wants in a presser to please the fan base

The presser is revealing but also misleading - what steps in-game did we try to change the effort? It certainly wasn't benching the ones giving a soft effort...give those kids on the bench a chance to add something...the definition of insanity comes to mind....remember the days we benched the whole starting 5??

 

[sheyduke]

I remember K benching Ingram for his soft play but the issue with this team is you’d have no choice but to bench six players who have yet to grasp the concept of team basketball, being strong with the ball or help defense.