What can we really expect?

[Shatterthesky22]

Problem is, we have some of those shooters. They just haven’t been very good. AOC, Baker and Hurt all came in with the reputation of being good shooters. None of them have showed it consistently.


This is called cherry-picking. You’re honestly going to sit here and say the only developed Duke teams are national champions? My guess is that if Matt Jones doesn’t get ridiculously hot in the Elite Eight or if Zoubs is called for a block against Baylor then K hasn’t developed any teams.

Listen, I’m scratching my heads like others over some things. But I get sick of hearing some of these outlandish theories.

IMO, the biggest area where Duke has lacked the last seven or eight years is mental toughness. That comes from being really young. If we want, we can have a separate argument on whether we should change the recruiting philosophy or not, but that’s what I see most. We were mental midgets against State and totally broke down at Wake. Do we have fundamental breakdowns/issues? Yes, we do. I don’t however feel they’re as glaring as mental toughness.

Even if Matt Jones didn’t get hot we would’ve won. We smothered the Zags that game. I agree though, saying the only developed teams are the championship teams is crazy. Some people just don’t realize how ridiculously tough it is to win them.

This team just doesn’t have mental fortitude it needs to right now.

 

[timo0402]

This team just doesn’t have mental fortitude it needs to right now.

I would agree with this. A smarter team wins the last two games and does so quite easily. A tougher team mentally, same thing. That is the part that is so disconcerting to me.

 

[BlueDaveil]

We’ve had much more talented (individually) teams than this one that played extremely well right before the tournament (4 wins in 4 days?) and then laid an egg to wildly inferior and less consistent teams. All that really matters is how this team plays 6 games in March. I can think of worse things than everyone telling them they have no chance and them playing with a chip on their shoulder like they did for most of the early part of the season. History should tell you that any team with a clutch PG in the tournament has a chance and we certainly have one of those.

 

[Quavarius]

Duke has gone to the Sweet 16 seven times and Elite 8 four times.

 

[duhondukie]

You do realize when we lost with Capel people were coming for his head right? Recency bias at full effect here. Not saying K didn’t make mistakes, he did. But even claiming that Capel not being on the bench as a prime reason is laughable.

I think you are missing the point. I think K would listen to Capels suggestions on stuff like going zone and maybe trying something different. I wonder how much of a voice Scheyer and Carawell have. Are they yes men and just roll with whatever K says or are they able to voice their suggestions and he takes them.

 

[Quavarius]

 

[QC Dukie]

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I’ll still take that

 

[chov1125]

We have a couple winnable games this week and then the ACC tourney. We still have time to build a little confidence going into the tournament. Keep in mind we will not play in our opponent’s home arena again this year.

 

[pisgah101]

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that is a great draw if so

 

[dukiejay]

I think you are missing the point. I think K would listen to Capels suggestions on stuff like going zone and maybe trying something different. I wonder how much of a voice Scheyer and Carawell have. Are they yes men and just roll with whatever K says or are they able to voice their suggestions and he takes them.

K leans on his assistants more today than he did 10, 20 and 30 years ago. Across the board....not just in games.

 

[madrussian]

It is becoming more and more evident especially late in games as to how valuable Jeff Capel was on our bench.

agree

 

[jwill133]

This team has had so many chances to take control of it's destiny. The NCAA is down, the ACC is the worst it's ever been.
I'm sorry but 5 losses with this ACC schedule (bad ACC plus we didn't have to go to UL or FSU, plus UNC is way down) is a failure IMO, this was the year we needed to take the ACC by storm and dominate the regular season.

At this point I'm just hoping for a top 3 seed and to NOT be in Kansas's bracket.

 

[dachampishere2]

We need top level coaching this year and we aren't getting it from the staff so far. We completely went away from what was working with us in the beginning of the year. We don't adjust to stop what the other team is killing us at and we have the most vanilla offense a team can have. These kids haven't got worse. Maybe the motivation tactics need to be changed or something as well. We have gotten outcoached in these games. Now the kids have some blame as well because they are on the court but the staff is failing this team right now. We went from beating half the ACC by 30 to losing to bottom feeders of the conference and Virginia. Coach K has gotten lazy because of the talent he gets. He used to be one that could win it all with the less talented teams. He stepped it up a notch. Now i don't know what he's doing. No GOAT was great forever and some of you have to realize that. We don't have the coaching advantage every night anymore. He just looks confused on what to do with the team. Jack isn't good enough to play against Wake but is against Virginia. Makes no sense. With that being said I think we make a run and win the ACC tournament. I think there's pressure on him now. You can't keep getting these elite classes and losing like this. But I'm going to believe Coach K can dig up some old strategies and get this team prepared. I sure hope so

 

[Friction.]

We have a stretch 4 who played pretty good the last two games and didn’t play one second last night. JRob

You sir are now one of my favorite posters.

 

[rob5894]

You sir are now one of my favorite posters.

Haha, how could you not see it or feel it when he played. Just something about that dude that has good vibes! JROBBBBBB!!

 

[rob5894]

I think it’s time to shorten that bench now. Go Tre, Gold, Cash, JRob, and Vern. Off the bench Moore, Hurt, and I think it should be AOC for the guard sub. Let’s Go Duke!