Underachieving this year?

[DukeJim99]

I kind of felt, even before the UVA loss, that Duke was underachieving a little this year. The losses to Miami and FSU and UVA, with two of those at home... Not great. But, in fairness, they've established themselves as a top-10 team and preseason would I really have thought top 10 = underachieving? Probably not. But after the KY and Zags wins, maybe the bar got raised.

Anyway, I was trying to think who on this team is underachieving. I'm not sure too many are.

I think Paolo is every bit as good as we'd hoped even though his last couple of games haven't been great.
Mark Williams has been a bit inconsistent, but that's expected and overall I'm not at all disappointed in his play.
Wendell hasn't played quite as good in conference as he did in the prior games, but I don't think anyone would say he's underachieved this year.

Keels has played reasonably well, I don't think many would say he underachieved. Same with Theo John. Bates Jones has probably overachieved.

AJ Griffin underachieved to start the season, but that was injury related. I fully expect him to have more 20+ point games going forward and more games where he scores 4 points on 5 shots and feels like a non-factor. But for a guy who wasn't a top 25 recruit, I don't think you could call AJ's season a disappointment. (As an aside, i'm not seeing the sort of talent from AJ that others are seeing to justify saying he should be a top-10 pick in this year's draft but there's a reason they're scouts and I'm not, so good luck to AJ!)

I do think Joey Baker has underachieved a little again this year. But nobody was claiming our season would rise or fall based on Joey Baker's 14 min a game. And it's not like Joey has massively underachieved, I just wish he would have shown a bit more improvement.

So that leaves Jeremy Roach. Has he underachieved? I don't think so. He stepped up big when Keels went down. Unless you were thinking Roach was going to be more of a scorer, I can't see being disappointed in his season. I don't think he's overachieved, but I wouldn't argue he's underachieved. Solid player, for sure.

So why has this season felt like a bit of a disappointment at times? I'm thinking it really is because we let all four of our losses get away from us. If the UVA kid misses that 3, if we make one more shot against Miami, one more shot against FSU... we are sitting at 23-1 right now, with our only loss a road game against a top 25 team.

I think rather than blaming this on certain players underachieving, I need to accept that sometimes you lose close games. Luck is a factor. And Duke, for sure, has room to improve when it comes to closing out close games. We are 2-4 in close games. But they're kids, we can't expect them to be perfect. We just need to hope they play another couple of close games in the regular season and maybe the ACC tourney and get used to winning those close games. We go into the NCAA tourney having won our last 2-3 close games, I'm going to feel a lot better about our chances.

Anyway, thus ends my rambling. Go Duke!

 

[pisgah101]

We’ve been underachieving for a long while now and it’s not any certain players fault typically

 

[christophero]

3 freshman in our top 6. And 2 sophs. 20-4 sounds about right. It is all in how we finish.

 

[df64]

I think the sense of underachieving comes from how amazing we look when we are on. And, the impression that when we slump, it appears to mostly be a result of sloppy turnovers and poor shot selection.

 

[The_Only_Blue]

With freshman you'd think we would be better at home but it's been so far the complete opposite. I guess that's good since the tourney's are technically all away games.

 

[geddoughton23]

20-4 is never underachieving. I understand that Duke fans were disappointed to lose by 1 to Virginia, by 2 to Miami, etc. You should not be. You're ten points from 24-0. You're improving. Watch the Virginia game again. Virginia is brilliantly coached. They played great. Virginia was 2 of 12 from three mostly because of good defense. Virginia was composed on the final possession. Tip your hat and move on

 

[acc hoops]

You come across as being too lucid to be a UNC fan . Did you go to school there or just go over one night to Crook’s Corner for dinner ?My first ACC gme was Duke at home vs UNC 1963. I believe Cunningham may have had 43 points in a win vs Heyman and Mullins,

 

[christophero]

21-4 now.

 

[ioliva]

We’re under achieving because the acc really sucks and we shouldn’t have lost more than 1 game at this point in the conference

 

[Mac9192]

We aren’t underachieving. Premature to say they have. First place in the conference, and a young team that is 21-4.

I think you can say this team underachieves if they don’t win the conference, and don’t make it to at least the elite 8.

 

[IFaZe]

We aren’t underachieving. Premature to say they have. First place in the conference, and a young team that is 21-4.

I think you can say this team underachieves if they don’t win the conference, and don’t make it to at least the elite 8.

I think the sweet 16 matchup will tell the tale . We win that, we’re winning it all ! 😛

 

[IFaZe]

My over and under is - we win the Acc regular season outright and the Acc tournament and make it to the elite 8. Or - we Win the Acc regular season outright, lose in the Acc tournament, but cut down the nets .A F4 I’d be disappointedly neutral. Guess that would be the Even in the Over/Under. UNC taking 1-3 trumps all and is underachieving. They’re sniffing right now 😂

 

[geddoughton23]

You come across as being to lucid to be a UNC fan . Did you go to school there or just go over one night to Crook’s Corner for dinner ?My first ACC gme was Duke at home vs UNC 1963. I believe Cunningham may have had 43 points in a win vs Heyman and Mullins,

I graduated from UNC. Shockingly, I never dined at Crook's Corner. It looked too expensive for my budget at the time, and I was not fond of some people who raved about the place. One night, I made it to the door, but it had a bad odor that night

 

[kingbluedevil]

I graduated from UNC. Shockingly, I never dined at Crook's Corner. It looked too expensive for my budget at the time, and I was not fond of some people who raved about the place. One night, I made it to the door, but it had a bad odor that night Are you Ged Doughton or related to the basketball player?

 

[geddoughton23]

Kingbluedevil. I am not Ged Doughton. I've never met him. I wish that I had not used the name of a person still active in the area. He might not like his name being used on a Duke board

I selected his name because it gave me a better chance not to be banned at the UNC site. It didn't work. I was incredibly polite, but I'm banned again. I don't know why. The very first day I was accused of being a "blasphemer" for using 23 because it was Michael Jordan's number. Those critics never heard of Ged Doughton, and didn't know that he was #23 before Jordan

 

[geddoughton23]

You made me remember a game in which Ged Doughton played brilliantly in relief of an injured Phil Ford at NC State. My crush on the beautiful redhead in the office was broken the next day when she said that she could not stand the player with red hair for UNC. It was mind blowing

 

[geddoughton23]

Goldwire made the game tying shot tonight vs. Texas. He's much thicker than I remembered. Oklahoma had a chance to win at the buzzer. They took a good shot, but not enough time to rebound. Goldwire waited 3 seconds too long

 

[Mac9192]

I think asking if Duke is underachieving is not a good label to put on this team, or any of our oad teams the last 5 seasons. Too many people fall for the hype of these kids. Banchero may be taken in the top 3, but he's soft at times, and disappears for stretches. This iso ball we play, which is similar to the pro game, isn't always the best option for our team. The kid is 6-10, 240. He should play more from 10ft in, than hovering around 15-20 ft away. Keels isn't a smart player, but I guess he will make millions next season. In a perfect world, he would be a very good sophomore at Duke, as would Griffin.

I think we have to be honest and realize we aren't title teams. Watching the game last night is what we've seen all season. Sharp for stretches, then very bad for stretches.

 

[christophero]

And we reset every year with a new team. It can be fun, but it also can be frustrating. Buckle up for next year, we will be even younger.

 

[Grizbanker]

I understand the frustrations with Duke this year. But, in the end, Duke is still 22-4. At the beginning of the year I thought, If Coach K can get to 1200 wins we will have had a very successful season. We need to get 30 wins this year to get Coach K to 1200. Duke is now 8 wins shy of this 30 win season with 5 regular season games remaining. I could easily see Duke winning all 5 of these games, but probably realistically, they drop one somewhere along the way. (perhaps at Virginia) Man, I hate the thought of losing to Virginia twice in one season. Anyways, 4-1 would put them at 26-5 heading into the ACC tournament. At this point I would probably be surprised if Duke doesn't win 30 games. That is pretty impressive. I agree, at times Duke looks tremendous and then at times they look lost and without a leader on the floor. Duke's 4 losses have been by a combined 9 points. (5, 2, 1, and 1 point) You could argue they could or should easily be 25-1 or even 26-0. They are obviously a very good team and hovering on being a great team. It is unnerving this team has lost a few close games they should have closed out. While they pulled out a close win last night I am not sure that close win gives anybody a lot of confidence in their "closing out games" abilities. I am not sure what will happen in the Big Dance but I do know I will be cheering my face off hoping Duke can pull out 6 wins in a row and cutting down the nets for this team and sending Coach K out with a bang like he deserves. I feel Duke has all the pieces to get this done. Just need to get hot, stay confident, and hit a few big shots in big moments. Go Duke!

 

[johnl1219]

I understand the frustrations with Duke this year. But, in the end, Duke is still 22-4. At the beginning of the year I thought, If Coach K can get to 1200 wins we will have had a very successful season. We need to get 30 wins this year to get Coach K to 1200. Duke is now 8 wins shy of this 30 win season with 5 regular season games remaining. I could easily see Duke winning all 5 of these games, but probably realistically, they drop one somewhere along the way. (perhaps at Virginia) Man, I hate the thought of losing to Virginia twice in one season. Anyways, 4-1 would put them at 26-5 heading into the ACC tournament. At this point I would probably be surprised if Duke doesn't win 30 games. That is pretty impressive. I agree, at times Duke looks tremendous and then at times they look lost and without a leader on the floor. Duke's 4 losses have been by a combined 9 points. (5, 2, 1, and 1 point) You could argue they could or should easily be 25-1 or even 26-0. They are obviously a very good team and hovering on being a great team. It is unnerving this team has lost a few close games they should have closed out. While they pulled out a close win last night I am not sure that close win gives anybody a lot of confidence in their "closing out games" abilities. I am not sure what will happen in the Big Dance but I do know I will be cheering my face off hoping Duke can pull out 6 wins in a row and cutting down the nets for this team and sending Coach K out with a bang like he deserves. I feel Duke has all the pieces to get this done. Just need to get hot, stay confident, and hit a few big shots in big moments. Go Duke!

I would agree with all of this. The record is actually pretty good, when comparing the last few years. The tough part of those 4 losses is that two of those were at home and Duke was leading both inside a minute left...and with Virginia, inside of 7 seconds.

I can live with a few losses, it's just the ones where Duke falls asleep at the wheel that bothers me. Against Virginia, Roach gets the ball stolen and gets called for a foul and they hit the free throw for a 3 point play. If that doesn't happen, Duke wins.

I feel that if Duke can get past the first weekend, they can go far.

 

[christophero]

We have usually been in close games the second weekend. That is what worries me. We have no pg, so we are rudderless at the end of close games. Still time to improve.

 

[GAAP]

Looking back at various preseason rankings, we’re right about where people expected us to be.

 

[Devilinside]

20-4 is never underachieving. I understand that Duke fans were disappointed to lose by 1 to Virginia, by 2 to Miami, etc. You should not be. You're ten points from 24-0. You're improving. Watch the Virginia game again. Virginia is brilliantly coached. They played great. Virginia was 2 of 12 from three mostly because of good defense. Virginia was composed on the final possession. Tip your hat and move on

Cannot possibly say we are improving. Watch the last 6 minutes of the WF game. Players do not know when to shoot or hold the ball. Sloppy ballhandling. We were outrebounded by WF. Our "star" player is getting worse, and apparently is easy to defend. No way to have any consistency on offense if we keep changing PG's. Moore and Keels have shown that they cannot run the team. Why do we still seem not to know what to do in the last 2 or 3 minutes? Are we running any set plays at the end? Does not appear that we are. We gave the games to UVA and Miami, and almost did it again with WF. Poor play at the end of games is an unfortunate trend. Either the players are neglecting to do what they are told, or they are not being told what to do in various scenarios. 20 - 4, when viewed in a vacuum, is not evidence of an underachieving team; however, the repeated loss of control at the end of games against clearly inferior teams does constitute underachieving, at least in those games.

OFC

 

[christophero]

True we were in the 8 to 10 range in preseason polls, so a 2/3 seed is about right.

 

[IFaZe]

Cannot possibly say we are improving. Watch the last 6 minutes of the WF game. Players do not know when to shoot or hold the ball. Sloppy ballhandling. We were outrebounded by WF. Our "star" player is getting worse, and apparently is easy to defend. No way to have any consistency on offense if we keep changing PG's. Moore and Keels have shown that they cannot run the team. Why do we still seem not to know what to do in the last 2 or 3 minutes? Are we running any set plays at the end? Does not appear that we are. We gave the games to UVA and Miami, and almost did it again with WF. Poor play at the end of games is an unfortunate trend. Either the players are neglecting to do what they are told, or they are not being told what to do in various scenarios. 20 - 4, when viewed in a vacuum, is not evidence of an underachieving team; however, the repeated loss of control at the end of games against clearly inferior teams does constitute underachieving, at least in those games.

OFC

I think we run the table in our remaining games . We get rest throughout in-between games. We also have some revenge games with guys hurt in those games. We have no big game after big game with little rest in-between. No gAme after UNC. The one before shouldnt be a problem. All sub par teams remaining. I like us to win out. That Syracuse matchup is my only concern after the UVA hopefully NOT a battle game. We saw how they’re gonna attack us and defend us we should better prepared. Syracuse can get hot from 3. We’ll see

 

[christophero]

USA Today's bracket if the seeding were today has Duke as a 2 seed to Kansas in the South. Wisconsin and Tennessee are the 3 and 4. That sounds like a good region, but we'd probably have to play a whole lot smarter at the end of a game to beat Kansas. Duke Wisconsin would be a nice rematch. I imagine our actual bracket will be more difficult than that.

 

[bleediteveryday30]

I think no matter the seeding this team is so jekyll and hyde that I could see them going to the final weekend or losing in the first. That goes for just about every other top team too. There's around 12-15 teams I've watched that I could see cutting the nets down. Should be a fun tournament. Hopefully it's more fun for us Duke fans.

 

[AlanInNJ]

Agree 100% bleedit! I can't recall a season with so many upsets and up and down teams. We definitely are not alone with our inconsistent play. I do believe there is plenty of time for us to gel and get on a run going into the ACC tourney and then the NCAA tourney.

 

[christophero]

Wrong thread