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Official game day thread- Duke vs Cuse

Nice win, but it feels like we are Gonzaga blowing through the WAC. It's getting boring. Still, 20 and 3 and looking like a one seed.

Chris,

I understand what your concern is, but those Gonzaga teams really only had themselves and maybe Saint Mary’s make the NCAA Tournament as the only representatives from the WAC.

Duke and Louisville should both make the tournament. Clemson and Pitt are playing for their NCAA Tournament lives. As bad as the ACC is this season, it’s never been at the level of the WAC.

We cannot ignore Duke will have played a tough non conference schedule and secured wins against

Arizona (currently in 2nd place in the Big12)
Auburn (currently in 1st place of the SEC)

Illinois is still on the schedule later this month.
 
It’s pretty amazing to follow-up Saturday with such a dominant performance on the road. The passing of the basketball is tremendous, the defense, the rebounding, the assists, the shooting, what don’t they do well? Best Duke team in 10 years and it’s not close. The great Zion team was a 30% 3-point shooting team. A severe fatal flaw.

Don’t get caught up in the old tropes like worrying that they need a loss or something to have some kinda Jedi-esque growth process. They lost a couple early. They’ve grown quite a bit. The old saying “winning is contagious” applies too! 16 in a row can easily carry on ad infinitum. Just enjoy it, This is a really nice group of players!

Georgia Tech really did Duke a solid recently in giving both UL and Clemson a 2nd loss in the league race. Insurance is never a bad thing.
 
I don't know if we will beat a couple of the SEC teams (I think Auburn would be a very different and difficult opponent), the tournament is always risky, but man, this is the most pleasurable team I've watched at Duke in a long, long time. Jon is doing great using the bench. I really appreciate that in him. Helps that we are dominating early and he can use it. But it helps those players become more acclimated if we need them - experience is important - but also, the bench is solid and vital.

Also gotta say, the players we landed in the Portal have turned out to be just awesome. I love those guys. All three. THey are competitive.

Malik Brown is such an amazing player. He's like a college Dennis Rodman on the defensive end and boards. And such a nuisance on the defensive end! Amazing player.
 
I don't know if we will beat a couple of the SEC teams (I think Auburn would be a very different and difficult opponent), the tournament is always risky, but man, this is the most pleasurable team I've watched at Duke in a long, long time. Jon is doing great using the bench. I really appreciate that in him. Helps that we are dominating early and he can use it. But it helps those players become more acclimated if we need them - experience is important - but also, the bench is solid and vital.

Also gotta say, the players we landed in the Portal have turned out to be just awesome. I love those guys. All three. THey are competitive.

Malik Brown is such an amazing player. He's like a college Dennis Rodman on the defensive end and boards. And such a nuisance on the defensive end! Amazing player.

Brown is my favorite player of These Bkue Devils

Auburn & Alabama are the SEC’s Best IMO. I like a Healthy Duke’s Chances against any team in the country
 
Rough 8 game stretch to finish the regular season for the Illini:

@ Minnesota
vs UCLA
vs Michigan State
@ Wisconsin
vs Duke (at MSG)
vs Iowa
@ Michigan
vs Purdue

Brutal schedule, none of those games are givemes for them. Illinois just lost to Rutgers tonight and depending how they do to end the regular season they may play their way out of the NCAA Tournament.
 
Nice win, but it feels like we are Gonzaga blowing through the WAC. It's getting boring. Still, 20 and 3 and looking like a one seed.
This team is better then any the zags ever had and this ACC is better then any conference they ever played in. Don’t fall for this line, could we lose before the final four? Sure anything can happen but realistically Duke and Auburn are a leg up on every other team in the nation and we already have a W on them. We’d beat Kentucky and Kansas now by double digits
 
I recently watched Syracuse/Georgetown from the mid 80s. Patrick Ewing was the Georgetown center. Pearl Washington hit a jumper at the buzzer for the win. The talent on the floor was scary. The crowd threw oranges at the backboard while Ewing was shooting a FT and JB had to tell the crowd to settle down
Those Big East battles were legendary in the 80s. Against SJU with Mullin, Wennington. Can’t remember if Mark Jackson’s career overlapped with theirs or not. Against Cuse and Nova and even BC had some good teams back then. Helped grow the sport.
 
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True but comp. is important. Not Duke's fault.

Yep, Chris you know since you ran Track at St. John’s athletic game schedules are made out YEARS in Advance. Like you said it’s not Duke’s fault the conference is down this season. Coach Scheyer doesn’t schy away from playing tough non conference opponents.

Also, how many times have we’ve seen in recent years, “the big 10 is the best conference in men’s college basketball because they got 10 or 11 teams into the tournament”, but by the time the tournament gets to the 2nd weekend, only 1 or 2 big ten teams would be left in the tournament with none of them making the final 4.
 
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