Blakes is a full court defensive player. His best years are ahead of him.
Official Gameday thread- duke at VT
- Thread starter pisgah101
- Start date
The deep bench is not the issue. I'm concern with the development of the players along with the skill set many of them have and don't have. Lively has limited offensive skills. Young has limited athleticism, Proctor is learning to be comfortable with the college game, Mitchell does not have a position, Whitehead is hurt, Roach is still learning to be a leader, Flip is getting better, Blake is figuring out his role, etc... Reeves and Schutt need development.
This stat is incorrect. I looked it up..
Duke is 4-3 in the last 7 matchups (regardless of the venue)
VT is 5-1 in the last 6 matchups in Blacksburg
VT is 6-2 in the last 8 matchups away from Cameron (this includes the VT win in the ACCT last year and our win in the 2019 NCAAT)
You can see the all time history here... VT/Duke
We just really struggle in Blacksburg and it sucks! Hopefully we can turn the tide up there sooner than later.
The Whitehead injury sucks, and not sure we will ever see the real Dariq. However in a weird way, could be a blessing in disguise, the rotation needed to be shortened and offensive roles established.
I think Blake’s court time should get cut next, maybe a few minutes here and there for foul trouble but that’s it. This ain’t the YMCA, produce or sit.
I think Blake’s court time should get cut next, maybe a few minutes here and there for foul trouble but that’s it. This ain’t the YMCA, produce or sit.
I like Roach and think he's out there trying his damndest every minute he plays. But he just isn't that good. He wants to be our GUY down the stretch, the guy we can go to when we need a basket. And as a junior, that makes tons of sense. Every once in a while he shows flashes of that where he drives and pulls up for a nice mid-range jumper or whatever when we really need a basket. But that's rare. He just isn't Tyus or Tre Jones and he never will be. He doesn't have the shot. Doesn't have the court vision. Doesn't have the ice water in the veins.
Jeremy Roach could be a valuable part of a really good, top 10 team if the right pieces were around him. But he just can't be THE GUY on a top ten team. I thought Whitehead was going to need to be THE GUY for us, but that has not panned out as hoped. Flip is doing everything he can to hold this team together, but we're asking a lot of a 7' freshman.
Yeah, I don't care how many he plays as long as he plays enough rotation to give the players adequate rest in-game. Flip looked bad at the end of the game.
I do criticize coaching mistakes (In my very unprofessional opinion - because it is a message board and it is what we do).
We are going to have a lot of head scratching moments with a new coach, especially one with absolutely no experience. I stand by my opinion that Duke is not a program for an inexperienced head coach. Scheyer never should have gotten the job.
But, he is there and he is my coach and he should get at least 3 years to prove himself since he was given the job.
Whitehead injured and another road loss. Not a good night. This team cannot close games on the road. We very nearly gave away the BC game, literally. Young team, young coach, bubble. Is what it is. Wish we were building towards something so it will be doubly frustrating if most of the team leaves. We usually don't enter Feb. with this many losses so we will see what happens.
Lots of hoops left.
Start winning streak in March.
I won't be surprised.
Then I will post here "I told you so"
&
Congrats on the Kansas win last week. Glad to see you post
We just didn't execute down the stretch and VT did. They made shots and FT's in the final 2 minutes, we didn't. They finished the game, we folded. It was a disappointing loss for sure in a game we had a chance to win, tied with under a minute to go. To finish the way it did was just lousy....a weak 3 by Proctor and then to throw away the inbounds pass, booo.
I think the staff was really hoping Proctor would be ahead of the curve and be able to play PG with Roach at the 2 backed up by Blakes/Grandison. He's a talented player, but he's just not there yet, and Roach is struggling to take up the slack IMHO.
We have more games ahead of us. I am not just going to assume that we will turn it around overnight, but we wouldn't be the first team to start clicking late in the season and make a decent run in the ACC tourney and sneak into the field of 68 as a sleeper.
I think the staff was really hoping Proctor would be ahead of the curve and be able to play PG with Roach at the 2 backed up by Blakes/Grandison. He's a talented player, but he's just not there yet, and Roach is struggling to take up the slack IMHO.
We have more games ahead of us. I am not just going to assume that we will turn it around overnight, but we wouldn't be the first team to start clicking late in the season and make a decent run in the ACC tourney and sneak into the field of 68 as a sleeper.
Can someone please explain to me how anyone on this team, besides Flip, and possibly Proctor, go pro? Seriously? Mitchell and Derek aren’t there and Whitehead is already done. What am I missing?
Q, I’m not sure how we would make it. The ACC is going to get 4, maybe 5 teams. We’re not among the best 4-5 teams in the league, don’t have any really big wins to polish our resume. I’m not saying we can’t, but are we going to get by Carolina twice, Virginia, Miami again? Not to mention State? I sure hope so, but I just haven’t seen us play well enough to pull that off. It’s almost February, leaving little time to suddenly blossom.
The mock drafts are all over the place on this. But, for example, this one has Whitehead in the top 10 and Lively and Flip in the top 20. I don't really get it either.
2023 NBA Mock Draft: Michigan's Jett Howard soars into lottery after fast start; Victor Wembanyama goes No. 1
Howard, the son of Wolverines coach and former NBA player Juwan Howard, has been impressive so far
www.cbssports.com
Because the NBA doesn’t give a rats ass about how you look in college. Lively is a 7’1 athletic freak. His best post move could literally be taking a dump on the court and then running away. GM’s are salivating at the thought of taking him, having him play basketball for 4 hours a day over the next 2-3 years, and then see the end product.
He will most likely be a bust, but when you are drafting in the 20’s (probably where Lively will go) it is worth it to take him knowing you maybe have a 20% success rate of him being really good. The sooner our fans understand this, the better.
Has there been a consistency among our players outside of Flip? And even with him, fans and fans of the game see he can do more. I hate to admit it, but this team requires patience.
Yeah, they would of tossed my a$$ after that no call. At some point you just have to let it rip. Lucky it wasn't worse for Flip.
Be careful, the NBA scouts and executives are looking at all of these kids. That transfer portal changed a lot of scouting. The safe bet for a big return are kids who have at least two years of college experience. Those mock drafts are all over the place. Unless you are a freshman dominating the game, there is a soph or junior that is 20, 21 or even 22 the league is staring down.
This team is cooked, we aren’t a top 10 talented team, and we are young. Patience I agree with, but to what extent? This off-season feels super important. I’d give Flip, Whitehead, Lively all a 99% chance of being gone. But can we retain Roach, Proctor, & Mitchell?
Retain those 3 and we are building something, because we got some quality guys coming in next year. If we lose more than the 3 (who should all go) then I don’t see this revolving door ever stopping. Who gets the blame, Scheyer? Duke administration for being behind on NIL? HUGE OFFSEASON COMING
I highly doubt Proctor and Mitchell return. If our guys appear on mock drafts they are likely gone.
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Our PG's had 1 FT between them....1....when was the last time that happened? I'm beginning to realize that the old Duke way of playing basketball is a thing of the past. We dont have good guards on either end of the court, we dont have players who want to dominate inside on both ends either, and we seem to lack the intensity and killer instinct that was our swagger in past year. No one fears playing in Cameron anymore, and they definitely dont fear us on the road. JS hasnt developed his own identity yet, i think he is still holding onto some of coach K's, but its the Coach K of recent past ( last 5 years) vs the Coach K that was a firebrand and demanded more from his teams. I'm hoping we can get back to the old mantra at some point but I fear the changes in the game, the players attitudes and college basketball overall has made that possibility a thing of the past.
What gave me confidence before the season started was the hope that Roach would take the "leap" and we were adding 3 of the Top 5 recruits in the class. Well Roach is actually worse than last year, and Lively and Whitehead are playing more like top 50ish recruits. Throw in injuries and a first-year coach and our struggles make sense. Overall I just don't think this team is very talented...
You may keep Mitchell and Proctor, but Roach is gone. Lively and Whitehead can not take a chance and get injured or their game get exposed. While the pan is hot, go. Young will stay one more year and Reeves will develop.
Where is Roach gonna go? He can’t shoot 3’s and he’s too small to get in the lane in the NBA.
His midrange game is nice but shooting a long 2 will get your butt on the bench in the GLeague or NBA.
I agree, but see DJ Steward. Recruits will force you out.
Ok and who guards the best scorer on the opposing team? Blakes is Dukes best defender so who do you play? Grandison, Schutt ? What has either done ?
Lol . They said the same thing about terry Rozier and Patty Mills. Fred Vanfleet as well .
Mitchell has been shutting down wings all season, he’s our best defender. Whitehead was our 2nd best. Roach and Proctor guard the guards. And if a guard is torching us, then Blakes should get a shot.
Mitchell shouldn’t leave, think we agree on that. He seems like a big swing piece for next year. Get him back and Duke is back baby! He leaves which means everyone probably left and it could be more sad days.
Of course. But there was also 100 other guys that was said for and it didn’t work out. 3 out of 103 isn’t great lol.
Also, Roach is nowhere near the shooter of Vanvleet and Mills. And nowhere near the bouncy athlete as Rozier is/was.
It’s good message board talk, but we need to expect all the freshmen, except maybe Mitchell, are gone after this season. I wouldn’t be shocked if he left though.
There’s too much attention put on the kids that come to Duke. I even think I heard one of the commentators last night talking about the staff telling our bigs they have to learn to defend the perimeter at the next level, or something like that. It also seems like the announcers are always throwing around NBA talk when doing a Duke game. I remember Bilas early last season talking about Keels and his “NBA body.”
As I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again, it’s a blessing and a curse to be a Duke fan.
There’s too much attention put on the kids that come to Duke. I even think I heard one of the commentators last night talking about the staff telling our bigs they have to learn to defend the perimeter at the next level, or something like that. It also seems like the announcers are always throwing around NBA talk when doing a Duke game. I remember Bilas early last season talking about Keels and his “NBA body.”
As I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again, it’s a blessing and a curse to be a Duke fan.
It's more of a curse right now. We might be in for some lean years if we can't convince a few guys to stay.
The revolving door only works when you are getting the absolute best recruits. And it worked from 2017-2022 (spare me the no titles argument, we were a few bounces/calls away from multiple final 4s and multiple titles.) and we had 1 bad year during that stretch.
UK has a monster class next year, they currently have the belt for top recruiting program “right now.” The early reports on Jon’s classes are he seems to still take some stars, but we also will be bringing in more lower tiered 5-stars (Mitchell for example), and 4-star shooters. I love that, IF THEY STAY MORE THAN 1 YEAR. If not, then we will be what UK was while we had the recruiting belt.
Oh, there’s also a chance that during the 2025-2026 season that we are just dominant if we get the Boozers and Cooper Flagg. Just hope we have some 2022. 2023, 2024 guys sticking around to be a complete team.
If Mitchell and Proctor stay, we are good to go. But recent history suggests they won't. Who knows, but I'm tired of getting my hopes up.
There are a lot of little factors why Duke is struggling this year, but let's face it, having 2 top 5 players who are not even starting (and now one is out indefinitely) is the major reason. If Lively and Whitehead had even Cam Reddish level seasons, we would be a much better team and probably have no more than 2 losses.
"Defense wins championships," but not with this team. No wonder Blakes minutes have reduced.This team needs more offense. OFC
Thanks, Q. I would have thought we were a 6 or 7 seed if season ended today, but seeing us a 5 makes me feel better. Seems as though Joe really likes our wins because we have beat some quality teams and that will work in our favor in a major way come selection Sunday. Still a ton of time before that so hopefully we don't fall completely apart.
This is where many Duke fans crack me up. Quick to talk about the 18 team, and the infamous roll around and missed short shot by Allen, but conveniently overlook the following year. Yes, the stacked Zion, Barrett team that could (should) have not made it out of the 1st weekend, had Dawkins made the alley-oop at the end of the game.
And the 17 team? Didn't make it out of the first weekend.
If the talent Duke had during 17-19 had the same results, but were Kentucky or the holes, we'd laugh our asses off at them.
We are 32 on Kenpom, so I'm not so sure we are a 5 seed. We are not really trending upwards either. But I still think we get in, barely. We are out of the top 30, and there are quite a few at large bids. We have some ugly losses. And we tend to lose a few every February.
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We’re just gonna have to disagree.
The 17 team was ravaged by injuries, Tatum wasn’t healthy until it was too late and roles were established: it was Kennards team but it should have been Tatums team. We didn’t really have a PG and Grayson was a head case all year.
18: Graysons miss and the worst charge call ever kept us out the final 4.
19: that’s the tournament, survive and advance. Didn’t our 91/92 teams have super close scares before the final 4? 2022 almost got clipped by Izzo in the 2nd round. But no one ever wants to mention that, the tournament is really hard and really random. Ask Gonzaga who has had championship level talent for a while now but no hardware.
I tend to not use success in a completely random tournament played by college kids as a measuring stick for how good a team was. I prefer to use my eyes. And my eyes tell me that the 18/19 teams were absolute juggernauts who could have won the title but got unlucky. The 17 team though super talented, probably didn’t have the right pieces, but definitely was better than a 2nd round team.
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