ACC Thread

[Pushmonkey]

NC offense is something else.

[Sports Guy]

At no point in the second half did I think Duke had a chance to win the game.

Early in the half they had rushed possessions and were throwing up wild shots...Then, when they needed to hurry later in the game, they were taking their time.

UNC played better defense in the second half but their best defense was Duke taking quick and wild shots.

I thought K did a bad job of leaving Smith out of the game too long in the second half, as he is the only guy who has a chance at stopping Lawson.

Pretty amazing for UNC to put up 100 with Hansbrough being a relative non factor.

The funny part of this game was that UNC was tearing Duke up in the post and actually, Zoubek did a good job on Hansbrough, as he did last year but K went away from him as the game had a quicker pace.

[Pushmonkey]

I think K's sub package was a bit of the wear down problem.. I don't recall seeing Plumble or EWill get off the bench. at least get out there for a minute to get some breather... not saying it would have made a difference..

[Sports Guy]

I think K's sub package was a bit of the wear down problem.. I don't recall seeing Plumble or EWill get off the bench. at least get out there for a minute to get some breather... not saying it would have made a difference..

Nope, neither played and they both should have, especially early on. Duke should be looking to try and establish Plumlee in the last part of the season to try and have some more presence inside.

The turning point of the game was when it was 73-69 and Thomas missed a point blank lay up and then fouled TH, who went down and hit a FT...It went from 73-71 to 74-69 and then UNC took off.

And then TH's 3 pointer was the ballgame.

[Sports Guy]

Luckily for Duke, Wake lost tonight as well.

As i have said, 2 of UNC, Duke and Wake will be going to Greensboro...I have no doubt UNC will be one of those teams....So, it will be Duke or Wake.

Duke has a tough stretch coming up...4 of the next 5 at home and I believe the one home game is against Wake. The BC game this weekend is huge.

[Jdan14]

UNC is so talented. They can win any game they want to by 20 points. I am so excited for the ACC Turney this year. Being a VT student I am excited about our potential to make some kind of a run in both turneys this year. It is a shame to watch how bad UMD has been this year. It seems like they won the Nat. Champ. 100 years ago.

[beaner]

Great game as always. We played GREAT in the second half, and Tywon Lawson was out of his mind. As he goes, so go the Heels. Nothing for Duke to be ashamed of, they played really well, especially Singler, who impresses me more every time I see him. He made Hansbrough look foolish on that step back three, very impressive.

I'm just really happy with the way we played in the second half, especially on defense. Tyler and Danny G go 4-0 at Cameron! I love it.

[Jdan14]

UNC is 2-0 on days when Brett Favre retires.

[Dr. FLK]

Lawson is unbelievably quick. He absolutely owned Paulus time, and time again. And, I don't think that's a real knock on Paulus...I don't know who could have guarded him last night. Smith did a better job, but Coach K decided to stick with the same 5 guys for basically the entire game...which probably made it easy for Lawson in the closing minutes when they were all exhausted.

[Sports Guy]

Lots of Duke fans upset with K's recruiting right now.

[beaner]

Lots of Duke fans upset with K's recruiting right now.

They need Mike Brey and his 1 Sweet 16 and TWO America East titles. He'd get the job done there.

[Sports Guy]

They need Mike Brey and his 1 Sweet 16 and TWO America East titles. He'd get the job done there.

LOL...I think it is fair to say recruiting has dropped off recently.

Duke has had some very good and talented teams but they weren't teams built to win championships.

They lost on Monroe for this season and their #1 target for next year, Boynton, chose Florida over Duke.

What K has done is put together teams that could be a sweet 16/elite 8 type team if things went their way but they have had bad matchups in the tourney and that has hurt them.

Now, they are bringing to big guys in next yar and if Henderson comes back to school next year, they should be very good and possibly the favorite to win it all...provided that Smith matures as a point guard.

The month of March should be interesting for Duke....Can they reach the ACC final? Can they get past the first weekend of the tourney?

If they can do those things, I think you would have to call this season a success but in reality, success is measured at Duke in terms of final 4s and championships.

[beaner]

LOL...I think it is fair to say recruiting has dropped off recently.

Duke has had some very good and talented teams but they weren't teams built to win championships.

They lost on Monroe for this season and their #1 target for next year, Boynton, chose Florida over Duke.

What K has done is put together teams that could be a sweet 16/elite 8 type team if things went their way but they have had bad matchups in the tourney and that has hurt them.

Now, they are bringing to big guys in next yar and if Henderson comes back to school next year, they should be very good and possibly the favorite to win it all...provided that Smith matures as a point guard.

The month of March should be interesting for Duke....Can they reach the ACC final? Can they get past the first weekend of the tourney?

If they can do those things, I think you would have to call this season a success but in reality, success is measured at Duke in terms of final 4s and championships.

I think he's done a god job recruiting, he's just fallen behind Carolina right now, and that's what matters most to Duke fans. They still have a ton of talent there. They just need to get a little deeper and bigger. It's killing them against teams like Clemson and Carolina.

[glenn__davis]

Is it recruiting, or development? IIRC Paulus was the top-rated PG coming out of HS. He's been OK, but not a star. McRoberts had a few decent but uninspiring seasons. Scheyer hasn't been all he was cracked up to be. And then you have the inability to develop a real solid inside guy since Boozer.

Of course, for all these "troubles" Duke was still the 5th ranked team in the country until last night.

[beaner]

Is it recruiting, or development? IIRC Paulus was the top-rated PG coming out of HS. He's been OK, but not a star. McRoberts had a few decent but uninspiring seasons. Scheyer hasn't been all he was cracked up to be. And then you have the inability to develop a real solid inside guy since Boozer.

Of course, for all these "troubles" Duke was still the 5th ranked team in the country until last night.

Good points, there are a lot of programs out there that would love to have Duke's "problems". Singler and Henderson are the real deal in my opinion, and Paulus is a really good player as well. They haven't had that superstar, player of the year type since the Redick/Williams class.