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Rumors only. Duke beat Villanova in today's scrimmage.

Banchero's statistics will be insane. He's a great player who will play extra minutes due to a short bench
 
To be fair he would play extra minutes no matter how deep we were. He's that good.
Banchero will play all the minutes he can handle in close games. But he will get 5 or 6 extra minutes in blowouts because of the lack of scholarship reserves. Perhaps the difference in averaging 22ppg instead of 20
 
I just saw them. I am now a believer in this team.
1. Keels raining 3s. Joey with a 3.
2. Roach defending and hitting shots in traffic. Banchero and Theo doing the work down low. Banchero showing some nice passing skills. Wendell seemed to be everywhere. Even my man Bates Jones hit a 3. Our bench was standing and seemed really fired up. Theo dunking in a guy's face. Theo looks like a man among boys, and this is a top 10 team. Keels is playing with a swagger.
 
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Now I'm hearing we lost the first scrimmage (first half with starters) by a few points. But still, a good showing by our guys and great experience. I think we won the overall game but that includes the second half with bench players. But it was close.
 
Now I'm hearing we lost the first scrimmage (first half with starters) by a few points. But still, a good showing by our guys and great experience.
I saw less of Roach and Williams in the YouTube highlights and more of Johns and Blake . Haven’t heard from anyone that Duke lost but it’s a scrimmage
 
Duke certainly has top 20 talent...perhaps top five. The Braves tonight provide a great example. It's a long season. Win enough to make the playoffs. Play your best at the end. Embrace the final season of Coach Krzyzewski. It's a wave that the team can ride, or they can let the pressure crash down on them.
 
I just saw them. I am now a believer in this team.
1. Keels raining 3s. Joey with a 3.
2. Roach defending and hitting shots in traffic. Banchero and Theo doing the work down low. Banchero showing some nice passing skills. Wendell seemed to be everywhere. Even my man Bates Jones hit a 3. Our bench was standing and seemed really fired up. Theo dunking in a guy's face. Theo looks like a man among boys, and this is a top 10 team. Keels is playing with a swagger.

I saw less of Roach and Williams in the YouTube highlights and more of Johns and • Blake . Haven’t heard from anyone that Duke lost but it’s a scrimmage
Not seeing Williams mentioned much is a little concerning whether it was due to foul issues or he got off to a slow start and he got pulled early for Theo.
 
Embrace the final season of Coach Krzyzewski. It's a wave that the team can ride, or they can let the pressure crash down on them.
I would liken that philosophy in some ways to UNC. Hubert is still in the "honeymoon phase" but has to be mindful of the Doherty curse. It cannot help but be in back of his mind: Ex UNC player takes over a storied program and bombs.

He can relax, focus and keep his poise OR the Doherty ghosts can be allowed to sneak in. Its up to him.

OFC
 
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I didn't mean that to be negative. we looked great, and I think we can beat Kentucky.
I don’t take what you said as being negative at all. Just realistic. Not seeing big Mark in any of the highlights was at minimum interesting and concerning. I’m not sure what happened there. I wonder if they held back on him strategically. Maybe not. Maybe he didn’t play well. Maybe he wasn’t feeling 100%, but the questions are valid.
 
I did see Mark get a layup and an assist. Maybe he got in early foul trouble and we wanted to incorporate Theo into the line up. There doesn't seem to be much of a drop off when Theo goes in. It seemed like a good time for both teams to experiment; as it doesn't count. Mark looked great at CTC so I'm not concerned. I'm happy we got the experience of playing a top 10 team. The fact that we hung with them should give our young guys confidence.
 
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I did see Mark get a layup and an assist. Maybe he got in early foul trouble and we wanted to incorporate Theo into the line up. There doesn't seem to be much of a drop off when Theo goes in. It seemed like a good time for both teams to experiment; as it doesn't count. Mark looked great at CTC so I'm not concerned. I'm happy we got the experience of playing a top 10 team. The fact that we hung with them should give our young guys confidence.
Villanova doesn't really have a traditional center so perhaps that's why he didn't play much? I don't think he's hurt or anything anything that nature. I saw him at the end of the scrimmage in the handshake line and he was happy and hugging people. I think we just played a smaller ball and if anything, seeing Theo play well in the type game lineup is encouraging. Overall, they looked really good.
 
It’s hard to gauge how people played an entire scrimmage off of just those 4 minutes of highlights. Plus everyone is not going to have a good game every time out so there shouldn’t be concern for any player until we see a full game. I’m sure Mark blocked and changed some shots. I’m just glad that we will always have a center on the court. Paolo can strictly play the 4. We don’t have to worry about a team scoring easier when Mark comes out because we have another center that’s just as good defensively and he can get some points too
 
Villanova doesn't really have a traditional center so perhaps that's why he didn't play much? I don't think he's hurt or anything anything that nature. I saw him at the end of the scrimmage in the handshake line and he was happy and hugging people. I think we just played a smaller ball and if anything, seeing Theo play well in the type game lineup is encouraging. Overall, they looked really good.
Yeah I wasn’t saying he is or isn’t hurt, I’m just wondering why the lack of highlights
 
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It’s hard to gauge how people played an entire scrimmage off of just those 4 minutes of highlights. Plus everyone is not going to have a good game every time out so there shouldn’t be concern for any player until we see a full game. I’m sure Mark blocked and changed some shots. I’m just glad that we will always have a center on the court. Paolo can strictly play the 4. We don’t have to worry about a team scoring easier when Mark comes out because we have another center that’s just as good defensively and he can get some points too
Don’t disagree here
 
I would liken that philosophy in some ways to UNC this year. Hubert is still in the "honeymoon phase" but has to be mindful of the Doherty curse. It cannot help but be in back of his mind: Ex UNC player takes over a storied program and bombs.

He can relax, focus and keep his poise OR the Doherty ghosts can be allowed to sneak in. Its up to him.

OFC
Doherty was 18-0 and ranked #1 until he chewed out Joseph Forte at halftime on a Sunday at Clemson. Roy Williams ' first Kansas team was the best coached November team I've ever seen. They never improved, and lost eight consecutive games to close the season. First seasons are tough. Krzyzewski's first season was tough. His final year will certainly be good, possibly great
 
Doherty was 18-0 and ranked #1 until he chewed out Joseph Forte at halftime on a Sunday at Clemson. Roy Williams ' first Kansas team was the best coached November team I've ever seen. They never improved, and lost eight consecutive games to close the season. First seasons are tough. Krzyzewski's first season was tough. His final year will certainly be good, possibly great
I was talking about Doherty's overall coaching TENURE at UNC. Hubert could well have the same 18-0 lightning strike, and then lose to Howard too in another year.

OFC
 
It’s hard to gauge how people played an entire scrimmage off of just those 4 minutes of highlights. Plus everyone is not going to have a good game every time out so there shouldn’t be concern for any player until we see a full game. I’m sure Mark blocked and changed some shots. I’m just glad that we will always have a center on the court. Paolo can strictly play the 4. We don’t have to mireworry about a team scoring easier when Mark comes out because we have another center that’s just as good defensively and he can get some points too
 
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Could have been a situation like stated that this was a matchup hat favored Mark. Villanova is known for their defense and guard play.
 
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At a point in the season when each team has only been practicing for a couple weeks, I think the best we can get out of this limited information is what the coaches like about our team.

The coaches really like Keels, especially handling the ball, and trust Moore to assert himself as the leader on the court. Also, Paolo is the real deal and the coaches will run a lot of different things to take advantage of his skills. It seems like Blakes is getting some run with the A team although we know when the rotation shrinks his court time will diminish. And as long as John's knees hold out he's too good not to earn a good amount of playing time.
 
I suspect that Duke won comfortably. Williams and Banchero are the best post combo in the country. Add a 5th year supersub in Theo John, and Duke has something special. It's been a long time since Duke looked inside first. If they trust the Bigs, it should be a fantastic season
 
Weren't they running scenarios though? Like Duke down 6 with 4 minutes left. That is what is causing the confusion.
 
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I'm pretty certain that Duke is much better than Villanova this year. Jay Wright is beyond terrific, but I think that they're a bit down this year
 
The important thing is our guys held their own with an experienced team which many people think is a top 5 team.

That combined with the potential we saw on Saturday should make us very excited.
 
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Wow! Blows my post out of the water. I had no idea that Villanova was top five. I now remember that the excellent shooting guard decided to return. Duke will be either really good or great. I would rather have Banchero and Williams than Timme and Holmgren
 
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I think we match up well with Gonzaga. They have 5 or 6 guys with final four experience, but talent wise we stack up.
 
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I realize Timme is very good. Not denying that. But, didn't the Zags get beat up down low in the title game by a guy that was only 6'5"?
 
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I think Kentucky and Gonzaga are very different challenges. Gonzaga might be a bit much for our younger players right now. We all know what the pressures of the NCAA tournament do for a team's toughness and Gonzaga has lots of that experience while Duke has none of it.
 
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Gonzaga wilted against a much stronger, older and aggressive Baylor team. Only PG Suggs competed. Baylor owned the offensive boards.
 
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