There truly isn't a clear-cut power this year in college basketball. March will be madness.

vball10set;1373542 wrote:There truly isn't a clear-cut power this year in college basketball. March will be madness.

Jayhawks and Meat Chicken

SportsAndLady;1373549 wrote:Meat Chicken

Boo!

FatHobbit;1373555 wrote:Boo!

I know, it sucks. Trey Burke is a baller though.

Plus I didn't want to sound like a homer by just saying KU

SportsAndLady;1373561 wrote:I know, it sucks. Trey Burke is a baller though.

Agreed. They are pretty good this year.

SportsAndLady;1373561 wrote:Plus I didn't want to sound like a homer by just saying KU

Lol, everyone knows your a homer I think, but Kansas is pretty damn good this year too.

SportsAndLady;1373549 wrote:Jayhawks and Meat Chicken

Both have a better chance than most to go all the way, but still not heads-and-shoulders above everybody else. It'll be a great tournament.

vball10set;1373569 wrote:Both have a better chance than most to go all the way, but still not heads-and-shoulders above everybody else. It'll be a great tournament.

Agree w/ that.

So can you give me props from last year when I called Matta "missing" on not recruiting Burke? Come on..

SportsAndLady;1373577 wrote:Agree w/ that.

So can you give me props from last year when I called Matta "missing" on not recruiting Burke? Come on..

I wish we had him, S&L, that's for sure...so yeah, props

vball10set;1373581 wrote:I wish we had him, S&L, that's for sure...so yeah, props

I'm just trying to show you that I'm not a troll. I wasn't trolling back then. I saw how good Burke was going to be, and thought it was crazy Buckeye fans weren't more upset Matta didn't recruit him. I even said KU missed on...names slippin my mind, but he was from Kansas and was a star elsewhere...it happens, you miss kids in your back yard.

I predicted Trey Burke to win Big Ten POY back in preseason. Not sure he will win it given the depth and rigor of the Big Ten schedule but I have been on his bandwagon since early last season. Seems like forever ago Cody Zeller was a unanimous pick for POY.

^^^He's gotta' be the frontrunner right now, with Zeller, Thomas, and a few others still in the hunt.

ACC POY at this point?
Durand Scott, Miami
Mason Plumlee, Duke

Prescott;1373346 wrote:Seth Curry doing it big tonight in Durham. Dell's boy went for 24 points on 6 of 7 shooting from three-point land. On pretty much half a leg. He's a cool customer on the court.

Dell's boy was really a cool customer tonight in Miami. 0-10 in 22 minutes.

Just because Seth had a bad (to put it mildly) showing last night, it doesn't mean he hasn't been great all season long. Mired by injuries, unable to practice during the week and hobbling on to the court on one semi-healthy leg most games, the kid has still put up 16 points points per game and shot 42 of 97 from three on the year (44%). And that's AFTER going 0-10 from the field, 0-5 from three and scoring 0 points against Miami last night. Seth Curry is a player. He just sucked last night. It happens.

I said it as soon as Kelly went down. This Duke team is nowhere near the top 10. The more I see the Blue Devils play sans Kelly, the more I think they're not even a top 20 team without him. Duke still would have lost last night even with Kelly -- that's fairly certain I would say -- but it certainly wouldn't have been by 27. The Duke offense is completely disjointed in his absence, devoid of any flow or spacing and is left with just one reliable outside threat in Curry. Opposing defenses are free to either pack it in in the interior and double down on Plumlee, or harass Curry with constant help and allow no outside shooting. There is nobody else on the perimeter to take away the heat. Without the 6-11 Kelly spacing the court, the driving lanes for Curry and Sulaimon, which were once as wide as airport runways, are completely closed.

Duke is in big trouble. Had Kelly not been available earlier in the season, Duke might have lost 12 games this year. Not sure what that says about the state of the rest of the team, to be that dependent on one player.

So, did this 1:30-4:45am practice really take place in Durham this morning after the Blue Devils got back from Florida?

Heard that Dan Patrick mentioned it on his show this morning and then backtracked, saying he was just joking. I would imagine that K was beyond pissed, so I wouldn't doubt that it actually happened.

The worst thing about it is without Kelly the offense suffers but the defense suffers more. K trying to compensate throws Josh Hariston or Tyler Thornton out there (or worse both at the same time). That essentially puts three offensive players out there for the Devils and two non-factor offensive scrubs. When you add in the fact Quinn Cook cannot be relied upon offensively at this point, you are really playing with just two offensive players on the floor. I don't know how any team can really be a threat with this. They look alot like Georgia Tech when they sport that lineup with Mase, Curry, Thornton, Hariston, and Cook lineup. Amile or Alex Murphy has to emerge offensively and defensively. Otherwise this team is just waiting for Ryan to get healthy and will have to absorb 4-5 losses until he returns.

ironman02;1374009 wrote:So, did this 1:30-4:45am practice really take place in Durham this morning after the Blue Devils got back from Florida?

Heard that Dan Patrick mentioned it on his show this morning and then backtracked, saying he was just joking. I would imagine that K was beyond pissed, so I wouldn't doubt that it actually happened.

I actually had not heard that -- will have to scour the Duke sites tonight and see if there is any validity to it -- but I sure as hell hope so. Never have I been more disappointed in a team of Duke players. I hope Wojo and Collins keyed all of their cars. That performance was f------ unacceptable.

reclegend22;1374005 wrote:I said it as soon as Kelly went down. This Duke team is nowhere near the top 10. The more I see the Blue Devils play sans Kelly, the more I think they're not even a top 20 team without him. Duke still would have lost last night even with Kelly -- that's fairly certain I would say -- but it certainly wouldn't have been by 27. The Duke offense is completely disjointed in his absence, devoid of any flow or spacing and is left with just one reliable outside threat in Curry. Opposing defenses are free to either pack it in in the interior and double down on Plumlee, or harass Curry with constant help and allow no outside shooting. There is nobody else on the perimeter to take away the heat. Without the 6-11 Kelly spacing the court, the driving lanes for Curry and Sulaimon, which were once as wide as airport runways, are completely closed.

Duke is in big trouble. Had Kelly not been available earlier in the season, Duke might have lost 12 games this year. Not sure what that says about the state of the rest of the team, to be that dependent on one player.

Come on man Kelly averaged 13 points per game-he was not a difference maker. Good on defense but very average on offense. We are not a top 20 team? We lost last nite to a good team that would have beat anyone last nite. Regroup, refocus and get back to Duke basketball. We found out last nite what kind of player Alex Murphy is so we will be just fine!

ironman02;1374009 wrote:So, did this 1:30-4:45am practice really take place in Durham this morning after the Blue Devils got back from Florida?

Heard that Dan Patrick mentioned it on his show this morning and then backtracked, saying he was just joking. I would imagine that K was beyond pissed, so I wouldn't doubt that it actually happened.

It did not happen.

Red Rider Nation;1374035 wrote:Come on man Kelly averaged 13 points per game-he was not a difference maker. Good on defense but very average on offense. We are not a top 20 team? We lost last nite to a good team that would have beat anyone last nite. Regroup, refocus and get back to Duke basketball. We found out last nite what kind of player Alex Murphy is so we will be just fine!

If you think Ryan Kelly is not a difference-maker, you have either been drunk during every game or have only watched two Duke games this season. My guess is a combination of the two.

Ryan Kelly's versatility as a stretch four gets mentioned like a broken record, especially so over the past three weeks, but it's completely true. He is the perfect "rover" in the classic Duke offense, which traditionally blends a lot of spacing, picking and popping (a Kelly specialty), driving the ball and hitting three-point jump shots. Although not as naturally gifted, Kelly is in the same mold of a Kyle Singler and a Michael Dunleavy in that respect. Like a queen on a chessboard. Effective from all over offensively, and vastly underrated defensively.

Also, I posted this before, but this sums up Kelly's game nicely:

Ryan Kelly is by far the most efficient offensive and defensive player on Duke's team. Offensively, despite shooting a remarkable 53 percent from three, he's not just a Steve Novak-like bomber. In the interior, Kelly is averaging 1.24 points per post up play, the best mark in the ACC. As an on-ball defender he is holding opponents to 0.53 points per possession on 22.2% field goal shooting, both of which rank No. 2 in the ACC in those categories. His absence kills Duke.

reclegend22;1374050 wrote:If you think Ryan Kelly is not a difference-maker, you have either been drunk during every game or have only watched two Duke games this season. My guess is a combination of the two.

Ryan Kelly's versatility as a stretch four gets mentioned like a broken record, especially so over the past three weeks, but it's completely true. He is the perfect "rover" in the classic Duke offense, which traditionally blends a lot of spacing, picking and popping (a Kelly specialty), driving the ball and hitting three-point jump shots. Although not as naturally gifted, Kelly is in the same mold of a Kyle Singler and a Michael Dunleavy in that respect. Like a queen on a chessboard. Effective from all over offensively, and vastly underrated defensively.

I have always said of you are only as good as one player then your not that good. We can replace him with other McDonalds high school All Americans as most teams cannot! We have the talent but they have to want to play hard and last nite they rolled over! Very un-Duke like! Coach K will fix it but we would not have won either of the 2 we lost with Ryan Kelly so we are where we should be!

Red Rider Nation;1374065 wrote:I have always said of you are only as good as one player then your not that good. We can replace him with other McDonalds high school All Americans as most teams cannot! We have the talent but they have to want to play hard and last nite they rolled over! Very un-Duke like! Coach K will fix it but we would not have won either of the 2 we lost with Ryan Kelly so we are where we should be!

Which, unfortunately, is the reason I think that this Duke team is not very good. At all. At least right now. We obviously disagree on this, but I think Ryan Kelly IS that important to the brand of basketball that this team plays. Without him, the offense is utterly stagnant.

I agree with you that, Coach K will change the game plan and get this team back on track. Curry, Plumlee, Sulaimon and Cook are too talented not to. But we most definitely could have, and probably would have, beaten State with Kelly giving Mason help in the paint against Howell and Leslie. It was a 3-point game with three minutes left.

And we are definitely not where we should be. With the way we were playing with Kelly just three weeks ago, we would not have trailed by five touchdowns at Miami at full strength.

The fact Hariston and Thornton are 1-2 off the bench is reason enough to doubt the longterm success of the Devils. Either Jefferson Murphy or Plumlee 3 need to emerge as scoring threats because Thornton and Hariston have proven they are not capable of doing so. Additionally Jefferson and Hariston must play more valuable defense (meaning quit fouling). They put the other team on the line far too much and easy points are hard to overcome.

Agreed. The Blue Devil bench is by far one of the most offensively inept I've seen at Duke in quite some time, right on par with the 2006 and 2007 teams. The former year didn't really matter, though, because J.J. scored 200 points a game.

This is the point in the season where Andre Dawkins would come in handy. The only bright side to Andre red shirting this year is that with Andre back next year, Duke is going to field one of the deepest and most talented scoring teams it's had in awhile on the wing with Dre, Rasheed, Hood, Parker and Matt Jones. And also throw in Cook, who I suspect will be very good as a junior.