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Official game day thread- Duke vs NC St

One thing I have liked about foster even though he has been bad of late. He is attacking off the dribble well and is usually good for an assist or two in his minimal minutes. He beats his man pretty easily. And pushes the ball up the floor quickly.
His defense and shooting is worrisome. This team hasn’t looked good offensively (where everyone is contributing) since SMU. I thought foster made a jump that game but seems to not be playing as free since then.
He gets by his man and throws up a prayer two feet from the basket. Scheyer has given him a chance. I don't think Evans played much tonight because his handles are not that good. Keats defense causes problems on weak ball handlers
 
The last two games have felt more late K like. Less assists per basket. Shorter bench minutes. More nba style of getting it to your top 2-3 guys in spots that they like the ball. The offense has not flowed and not looked like 90s K teams.
It's not going to flow when Proctor can't hit an open shot, your center can't score. I don't see Proctor being a pro when he has games he looks scared to death. Cooper knew he had to take over outside of James everyone else was in choke mode
 
It's not going to flow when Proctor can't hit an open shot, your center can't score. I don't see Proctor being a pro when he has games he looks scared to death. Cooper knew he had to take over outside of James everyone else was in choke mode.
Rese has his moments and he’s clearly the better option to Foster. I think he will be okay as most of the year he’s been improved.

But yeah, he doesn’t look like a legit nba player so I do agree. Very well may get a senior year out of him to run the backcourt with Boozer.
 
It's not going to flow when Proctor can't hit an open shot, your center can't score. I don't see Proctor being a pro when he has games he looks scared to death. Cooper knew he had to take over outside of James everyone else was in choke mode

I would say Kon played well tonight

The Bad:

- the 1st half was the worst half played by Duke all season, NC State dissected Duke’s defense

- Styles who was averaging 10 points before tonight, it looked like the majority of the time he was scoring on Flagg or Gillis, wth

- Duke’s guards have to produce more on the offensive end (James, Proctor, Foster, and Evans)

- Maluach need more of an offensive presence from you Sir

The Good:

- Duke’s Defense is Elite, this is why as bad as they played in the 1st half, they were only down 4 points at halftime

- Ngongba has Emerged as a reliable player in the rotation (a rotation of Maluach, Brown, Gillis, and Ngongba in the post, yes please)

- Flagg is a player who is capable of making the right decisions and doing what the team needs at crucial moments of the game

- Zone Defense is a newfound weapon for this group which has shown to stymie the opponent (Wake Forest & NC State)

- Coach Scheyer is still playing 9 players consistently, hope he continues to play 9-10 guys regularly through February so the team is Fresh for the Final Quarter of the season

- Duke won two games in the last 3 days against two physical teams who looked to play bully ball and Duke did not back down. The Wake and NC State Games gave good NCAA Tournament type settings with only having a day of rest in between tournament games.
 
Rese has his moments and he’s clearly the better option to Foster. I think he will be okay as most of the year he’s been improved.

But yeah, he doesn’t look like a legit nba player so I do agree. Very well may get a senior year out of him to run the backcourt with Boozer.
Meh I don’t see much difference in how he looks now than his freshman year. If you go look at his stats, it confirms it.
F 9 ppg 3 ast
S 10 ppg 2 ast
J 10 ppg 2 ast. Just listing a few, but all of them are tit for tat over the years with nothing that jumps out to you improving wise other than maybe his 3 point %, which is
F 32%
S 35%
J 38%
 
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We were just a step slow tonight on defense in the first half . We looked sluggish. Musta partied to hard the night before idk. “too much gatorade” my ass lol
 
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I would say Kon played well tonight

The Bad:

- the 1st half was the worst half played by Duke all season, NC State dissected Duke’s defense

- Styles who was averaging 10 points before tonight, it looked like the majority of the time he was scoring on Flagg or Gillis, wth

- Duke’s guards have to produce more on the offensive end (James, Proctor, Foster, and Evans)

- Maluach need more of an offensive presence from you Sir

The Good:

- Duke’s Defense is Elite, this is why as bad as they played in the 1st half, they were only down 4 points at halftime

- Ngongba has Emerged as a reliable player in the rotation (a rotation of Maluach, Brown, Gillis, and Ngongba in the post, yes please)

- Flagg is a player who is capable of making the right decisions and doing what the team needs at crucial moments of the game

- Zone Defense is a newfound weapon for this group which has shown to stymie the opponent (Wake Forest & NC State)

- Coach Scheyer is still playing 9 players consistently, hope he continues to play 9-10 guys regularly through February so the team is Fresh for the Final Quarter of the season

- Duke won two games in the last 3 days against two physical teams who looked to play bully ball and Duke did not back down. The Wake and NC State Games gave good NCAA Tournament type settings with only having a day of rest in between tournament games.
Good points BullCity. Cooper and Kon seem to be the only two (and sometimes Sion) looking to score. To me, one of our issues is Proctor. Again, he’s a junior and needs to be better on offense.

We need that other person to take a little pressure off Cooper, which will make us more balanced. If not, my concern is getting into the tournament, and having that game where even though he gets 20 or more, the other team makes it tough on him, and he doesn’t get enough help.

And we go home.
 
Meh I don’t see much difference in how he looks now than his freshman year. If you go look at his stats, it confirms it.
F 9 ppg 3 ast
S 10 ppg 2 ast
J 10 ppg 2 ast. Just listing a few, but all of them are tit for tat over the years with nothing that jumps out to you improving wise other than maybe his 3 point %, which is
F 32%
S 35%
J 38%
So who are you starting over him?
 
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I’m less inclined to shrug this off as a “2-games-in-3-nights-against-a-physical-team” issue than others seem to be. I thought they came out with an arrogance that they would win against a crappy team just by showing up, and didn’t put the effort in until their backs were against the wall. There were lazy passes (especially at mid-court, which always bite you), poor shot selection, several shot clock violations or near violations where we clearly had no idea about the shot clock and lots of dribbling instead of the crisp swing passes that have fueled our big wins. I would have thought that after the Wake game (indeed, after the BC game as well), they would understand they’re going to get everyone’s best game this year, and the difference between winning and losing often has nothing to do with talent disparity - it’s who wants it more. And the heavy underdogs on our schedule are playing with house money from the start, so there’s no pressure on them. UNC will certainly come into Cameron that way.
 
A win is a win is a win is a win is a win is a win is a win.
That was the exact type of head scratching loss that Duke teams have had every single year for many years. Thought our defense for the first 8 minutes of the 2nd half won us the game, we were lights out defensively for that stretch. And then of course Cooper...he's Superman. Thought Sion played extremely hard, I don't think he came out in the 2nd half, could be wrong though.

Just about everything else was not good though.
-It's insane how long of a leash Kon gets. Don't get me wrong, we need him. But he just has too many moments where he looks like a freshman. He shoots A LOT, so some games when he scores 15 points he can still be a net negative. I wish he would look to dish more when he gets into the lane.
-Proctor has hit a wall. Rather it be now though than March like the wall he hit last year in the Elite 8. I still believe in him, he just needs to keep shooting, they will fall again. HE DOESNT LET HIS POOR SHOOTING INFLUENCE HIS DEFENSE AND I LOVE THAT.
-Even prior to Maluach throwing up on the court, I was wondering if he was sick. He just hasn't been good for a week now. He isn't grabbing balls, and he is missing too many bunnies around the basket.
-I understood not playing Evans much due to the physicality of the Wake game. But Jon couldn't find 10-15 minutes for him last night with how bad our guards were???
-I just don't know about Foster. I really don't. Should he even be playing at this point??

This team needs a jolt of energy. And I hope that comes in the form of Maliq Brown coming back. Ngongba has been serviceable and I hope he has a long Duke career, but Brown is what turns our defense from great to legendary.
 
I am going to give Maluach a pass - I think he was playing through sickness. I know it is going around at Duke right now. Combine that with Brown being injured we lost a step defensively.

Now combine that with the worst 3 point shooting team in the ACC hitting almost 70% for 21 points from the 3 in the first half and you have a pretty good recipe for an upset.

Duke showed a lot of grit in the second and Scheyer made some good defensive adjustments. We cannot get Brown back soon enough though. He is crucial for March Success.
 
Meh I don’t see much difference in how he looks now than his freshman year. If you go look at his stats, it confirms it.
F 9 ppg 3 ast
S 10 ppg 2 ast
J 10 ppg 2 ast. Just listing a few, but all of them are tit for tat over the years with nothing that jumps out to you improving wise other than maybe his 3 point %, which is
F 32%
S 35%
J 38%
Say what you want about Proctor, but Duke was +22 when he was on the floor last night and +15 vs. WF.
 
I think we are all puzzled about Foster's lack of good play. He just looks lost. I get a little of the criticism coming at Kon, but he's a freshman, and even with what gets said about him, he's our 2nd best offensive player. That's a problem, because he shouldn't be. Proctor should. Yeah, he's very solid on D, but I don't think a junior should be as inconsistent on offense as he is.

I know this may sound crazy, but I'd also like to see Cooper sit a minute or so more than he does. It might make the others be a little more aggressive, whereas sometimes a few of them are too passive when he's in there, expecting him to make something happen.
 
Mac definitely agree Duke needs to get back to moving the ball and being more balanced on the offensive end. How Duke started the game at home against Notre Dame was a thing of beauty. Duke please get back to moving the ball like that asap!
 
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I think we are all puzzled about Foster's lack of good play. He just looks lost. I get a little of the criticism coming at Kon, but he's a freshman, and even with what gets said about him, he's our 2nd best offensive player. That's a problem, because he shouldn't be. Proctor should. Yeah, he's very solid on D, but I don't think a junior should be as inconsistent on offense as he is.

I know this may sound crazy, but I'd also like to see Cooper sit a minute or so more than he does. It might make the others be a little more aggressive, whereas sometimes a few of them are too passive when he's in there, expecting him to make something happen.

Foster's last ten games:

1. G Mason: 12 mins, 0 points, 1 rbd.
2. G Tech: 13 mins, 5 points, 1 rbd, 1 assist
3. VT: 19 mins, 2 points, 3 rbds, 2 assists
4. SMU: 17 mins, 9 points, 1 rbd, 1 assist
5. Pitt: 9 mins, 0 points, 1 rbd, 0 assists
6. ND: 10 mins, 0 points, 0 0
7. Miami: 19 mins, 9 points, 4 rbds, 4 assists
8. BC: 14 mins, 2 points, 1 stl, 1 assist
9. Wake: 10 mins, 0 points, 1 rbd, 2 assists
10. State: 7 mins, 0 points, 1 rbd. 1 assist

130 minutes, 27 points, 12 assists, 13 rbds.

A lot of BAD teams on that list. He's borderline unplayable right now. Want to give him the benefit of the doubt on injury from last year/confidence. I don't think we can expect anything much from him the rest of the season. The ACC stinks, and if you can't even have a minuscule impact in this conference, it's very telling.

Scheyer said that they couldn't do a lot of "physical stuff" Sunday, so they probably were worn down from Wake. But State isn't a top 30 defense like Wake is.
 
Say what you want about Proctor, but Duke was +22 when he was on the floor last night and +15 vs. WF.
The threat of his shot and his defense is very important. He helps give cooper driving lanes. I would like to proctor be more aggressive at taking it to the basket. He was doing that early In the acc season.
 
Mac definitely agree Duke needs to get back to moving the ball and being more balanced on the offensive end. How Duke started the game at home against Notre Dame was a thing of beauty. Duke please get back to moving the ball like that asap!
I agree. But listen to the post game interview with scheyer. It sounds like wake and ncsu were playing the passing lanes hard which impacts moving the ball the way they want. Scheyer mentioned the players were not reacting to that the way he wants them to. I was noticing that state and wake were staying with shooters and not helping too much on the drive
 
Yall are all overreacting. We won against a team that ALWAYS literally ALWAYS plays out of their mind against us to just crumble after. Good win take it and move on. We got some tough game pressure and overcame it
Several have noted how we always struggle against NCSU (including myself). But that doesn't change the fact that Jon reverted to his best 1-2 offensive players going 1 on 1 rather than movement and passing. And that he over-shortened the bench and never really let Evans get going which may have helped with the dearth of 3s. At least try to get him in and set him up on some screens.

When things get tough Jon reverts to the K one on one, short bench fear orientation. That has never really suited the team well. It's not always a problem but it creates too much passivity and too many tough shots. Kneuppel went 5-15.
 
I agree. But listen to the post game interview with scheyer. It sounds like wake and ncsu were playing the passing lanes hard which impacts moving the ball the way they want. Scheyer mentioned the players were not reacting to that the way he wants them to. I was noticing that state and wake were staying with shooters and not helping too much on the drive
I agree with this they were forcing us to drive and that is what Proctor should have been doing. I'm a big fan of Evans but ball handling is something he has admitted he needs work and they were all over him. I love team ball but I didn't trust anyone on our team more than Cooper. Keats said he was the difference.
 
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When things get tough Jon reverts to the K one on one, short bench fear orientation. That has never really suited the team well. It's not always a problem but it creates too much passivity and too many tough shots. Kneuppel went 5-15.
In crunch times, coaches are going to go with what they're comfortable with. Jon is no different. I am not going to criticize Kon as much as some of you guys are. Yeah 5-15 isn't good. But somebody has to shoot the ball. Proctor was 1-6 in 33 minutes, and Gillis was 0-2 in 16 minutes. One was a highly rated recruit that is now a junior, and the other a grad transfer that was decent on a final four team.

Maybe if they looked to score a little more, Kon may not feel he needs to shoot 15 times?
 
Up until the past 2 games, we were an extremely low turnover team, we got careless with the ball the past 2 games though.

Honestly, the main reason we are such a low turnover team is we don't run much offense. Our offense mainly consists of throwing the ball around the perimeter and trying to get a matchup we like then attack. Maybe this is part of Jon's plan, as we don't have a true floor general.

In regards to Kon. He shouldn't have played 35 minutes last night and Evans should have played more than 3 minutes. I don't understand Jon's fascination with having Kon always on the floor. We are going to need Evans to help win us a game against a great team (Auburn for example) especially if our guards aren't hitting 3's.

Kon took 15 shots and I counted 4 of them were shots within the first 10 seconds of the shot clock, and they weren't wide open shots. None of them went in. The guards struggling doesn't mean Kon needs to jack up shots early in the shot clock. That means we just need to run better offense.
 
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In crunch times, coaches are going to go with what they're comfortable with. Jon is no different. I am not going to criticize Kon as much as some of you guys are. Yeah 5-15 isn't good. But somebody has to shoot the ball. Proctor was 1-6 in 33 minutes, and Gillis was 0-2 in 16 minutes. One was a highly rated recruit that is now a junior, and the other a grad transfer that was decent on a final four team.

Maybe if they looked to score a little more, Kon may not feel he needs to shoot 15 times?
This times a million
 
In crunch times, coaches are going to go with what they're comfortable with. Jon is no different. I am not going to criticize Kon as much as some of you guys are. Yeah 5-15 isn't good. But somebody has to shoot the ball. Proctor was 1-6 in 33 minutes, and Gillis was 0-2 in 16 minutes. One was a highly rated recruit that is now a junior, and the other a grad transfer that was decent on a final four team.

Maybe if they looked to score a little more, Kon may not feel he needs to shoot 15 times?
Proctor has to look to shoot and drive more
 
9 guards listed on the roster....6 that could play...minus Flagg who is listed as a guard....so out of 5 we cannot even find one who can run our offense ( if we have one) penetrate with regularity or score consistently.....for a blue chip program full of 5 star recruits this seems like a scouting/coaching fail to me
 
9 guards listed on the roster....6 that could play...minus Flagg who is listed as a guard....so out of 5 we cannot even find one who can run our offense ( if we have one) penetrate with regularity or score consistently.....for a blue chip program full of 5 star recruits this seems like a scouting/coaching fail to me

Proctor and James have had games where they’ve run the team well. Duke runs offense and makes adjustments, Scheyer going to the pick and roll game at Georgia Tech with Kon & Maluach. The offense being displayed at SMU, the start of the Notre Dame Game, against V Tech, Miami, Boston College. Good Coaches adjust throughout games.

Duke’s offense and ball movement do need to improve, but there is a reason Duke is one of the most efficient teams in the country in both Defense and Offense
 
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I’m still trying to figure out what more do fans and posters want from Scheyer? What more do you want him to prove at this junction? I mean he literally is 71 -20 his first three years . If anyone can do better please tell the AD . I’m pretty sure Scheyer will have no issues getting another job . It took K more than three years before his first national championship. Those questioning Scheyer please tell me how you could make shooters hit the open shots they’re missing ? How to make Foster get his confidence back when he’s on the court . How teams front Evans every time he hits the court when Duke shooters aren’t hitting three’s because they know that’s what Evans is going to do and they aren’t going to let him .
The fact of the matter these players were tired and the experience began to show of NC ST. Duke laid off shooters, State made them pay. Players who average four and five points were making shots they never hit against anyone else. This was simply a learning curve for Duke like every other tipped ranked team . Underestimate your opponent they will take advantage of it . At least this team didn’t lie down . They did what every team does in crunch time or come back time . Go to your best player and let him create something. On to UNC and they will do the same thing State did and disrupt the offense and allow for their defense to set .
 
^ if duke dumped Jon he’d be unemployed for about 15 minutes with his pick of jobs. A team like Indiana would kill for Jon. People say we win because we get the best players, well who recruits them? In the nil era no one cares about program legacy, but he still gets the top guys and wins with freshman which is tough as hell. ACC tourney champs year one, elite 8 year two, he’s on the way.
 
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I’m still trying to figure out what more do fans and posters want from Scheyer? What more do you want him to prove at this junction? I mean he literally is 71 -20 his first three years . If anyone can do better please tell the AD . I’m pretty sure Scheyer will have no issues getting another job . It took K more than three years before his first national championship. Those questioning Scheyer please tell me how you could make shooters hit the open shots they’re missing ? How to make Foster get his confidence back when he’s on the court . How teams front Evans every time he hits the court when Duke shooters aren’t hitting three’s because they know that’s what Evans is going to do and they aren’t going to let him .
The fact of the matter these players were tired and the experience began to show of NC ST. Duke laid off shooters, State made them pay. Players who average four and five points were making shots they never hit against anyone else. This was simply a learning curve for Duke like every other tipped ranked team . Underestimate your opponent they will take advantage of it . At least this team didn’t lie down . They did what every team does in crunch time or come back time . Go to your best player and let him create something. On to UNC and they will do the same thing State did and disrupt the offense and allow for their defense to set .

Jon’s agent in the howze! 😜, you’re totally right, 100% but fans like to vent, dissect, analyze, whimper and whine. That’s part of being a fan. He’s 71-20 like you said, an ACC Champ and was 20 minutes from the Final Four last year with the weakest of his three teams. It would be 🦇 💩 insanity to want another Coach. Seems like it was just yesterday when he was holding the National Championship trophy as a player. It’s 15 years this season, hard to believe.
 
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