It’s good. Make our players know that they’re a target and they’ll go harder. It would be nice to be underrated and have a chip on your shoulder though
Way-Too-Early Top 25 for 2018-19
- Thread starter dukiejay
- Start date
It’s good. Make our players know that they’re a target and they’ll go harder. It would be nice to be underrated and have a chip on your shoulder though
It makes EVERY SINGLE ONE of my non Duke loving friends say "another year of an overrated one and done Duke team." I'd rather just be ranked 6th.
You tell them that every year that happens, the odds swing further in our favor that we will win it this time.....because we ARE going to win another title, so obviously, everytime we don't, the odds go up in our favor!!
Only one team wins it all at the end of the year. With that blatantly obvious statement comes the next question? Are we watching strictly for championships, or do you watch as a fan of good basketball. If it’s the latter, then watching what K and his staffs have done with so much turnover in the past 7-8 seasons (players and coaches) has been damn remarkable. It’s culminated in “only” one title (not counting 09-10), but that’s enough to prove the man has done some work.
This team coming could be the real deal if only because they have a makeup that K is very comfortable coaching. Guard oriented, perimeter play is his specialty and this team offers that in spades.
I’d say Duke will be one of a handful of teams that come March, is in the smart discussion for a championship. But I’d bet even more that they’ll be a premier team all season long. And I’ll enjoy watching that.
This team coming could be the real deal if only because they have a makeup that K is very comfortable coaching. Guard oriented, perimeter play is his specialty and this team offers that in spades.
I’d say Duke will be one of a handful of teams that come March, is in the smart discussion for a championship. But I’d bet even more that they’ll be a premier team all season long. And I’ll enjoy watching that.
The only thing we have at this point is the pre season number one incoming class,thats it.
I think we are going to see a mass exodus from Nova. Then we'll see what the best coach ever can do with massive turnover. With a bonus that he'll have to play his frosh so much that they'll blossom into OAD players rather than turn into experienced upperclassmen.
Sure, there were other problems in the KU game.
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But do you think the 2-9 on threes, with many of the misses being wide open, was more to blame than the rebounding.
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Keep in mind, by the second half KU was laying off the shooters to clog the paint, which hindered our bigs rebounding.
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I mean, 2-9, in an overtime game, is bad. So was GT and his monster 2-10 performance.
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But GT and the bigs were freshman. We needed Allen to step up and lead. Or at least make big shots. Or at least not completely poop the bed.
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And the reason I, and some others, continue to blame Allen is not "piling of" as some like to say. I can't speak for others, but I'm tired of Allen's horrific shooting being given the same level of blame as freshman bigs not playing elite defense and getting 12 boards a game, or when a freshman has a few more TOs than would be ideal for any PG regardless of class.
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Sure, the freshman made mistakes. But Allen was a senior and far too many in this fanbase want to act like it was everybody else's fault.
Allen was our only Senior. Shouldn’t be too hard for you to understand why Duke fans might have been more loyal to him.
Coach K shared that loyalty. Had Allen played fewer minutes in games where he played poorly for most of the game, Duke might have won more games, including that KU game.
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K shared this loyalty for senior/upperclassmen players, including guys like Tyler Thornton and Greg Paulus, both of which were ruinous decisions.
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And I am not impressed by the concept of going ride-or-die with a player being an excuse for flawed reasoning or making a mistake.
I agree he could have sat Allen more this season. Not just for rest, but also for poor play.
I can buy that, but he doesn't deserve to get trashed by some. No kid deserves to get trashed. Not a single kid that didn't have issues on this team. His happened to be an off shot more than we wanted.
Even with that, we would have lost many more without him.
Fair enough. He also doesn't get a pass for the bad performance, nor is it fair to asses equal blame to a kid that played well for not playing better.
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In the UVA loss in CIS, TD played very well for most of the game. He had a stupid TO late that essentially sealed the loss. Even so, taken as a whole, he had a good game. In that same game, Allen shot poorly and was a defensive liability. He deserves more of the blame for that loss than TD, even considering TD's late brain flatulence.
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In the KU game, TD was our best overall player. Either him or Bags (very efficient O offset by porous D to some extent). But TD had a bad TO late (bad recurring theme, I know) and missed an open 3. But those two bad plays should not count more than Allen going 2-9 from 3 (or GT going 2-10).
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I don't like that people try to include any and all criticism of Allen under the umbrella of "personal attacks" or "trashing him." If I call a 5ft 2inch adult short, that isn't a personal attack, nor am I trashing that person. I am pointing out a reasonably deduced fact.
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By saying that Allen played poorly in the KU loss, I am not trashing him. I am pointing out a fact.
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Nor am I saying he was the solely responsible for the loss. I have gone to great lengths to point out the failings/failures of the rest of the team/coaching staff. But my, and other, posts wherein we assess GA's performance to be the most responsible for the loss are reasonable. We aren't trashing him.
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He played very badly. Others were also bad, but he was worse. GT shot worse, but GT was a frosh and not expected to lead. Jav was bad on O, but we expect that and K should not have had him on the court. We expected Allen, as a senior star, to play (or at the absolute minimum, so SHOOT at a certain level. Him falling far short of that, and us pointing out that fact, does not rise to the level of "trashing." We are simply pointing out that the sky is, in fact, blue.
