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Duke Thoughts

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Happy with today because we had good ball movement, Boat healed, Rodney looking less injured. Hamilton feeding Brimah. Good fast break. Defensively we can not let Duke shoot 3's at will the way we did today with Coppin, but all in all very good.
 
Honestly, if we lose by less than 20 it will be a moral victory. Keep the loss to under 15 and that's great. Under 10 would be spectacular... Doomed for sure...
 
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ericsandiego said:
Honestly, if we lose by less than 20 it will be a moral victory. Keep the loss to under 15 and that's great. Under 10 would be spectacular... Doomed for sure...
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Duke is good, is a prohibitive favorite, and will probably win. But this is an awful post. Less than 20 is a moral victory? That's horrendous.
 
BigErnMcCracken said:
Duke is good, is a prohibitive favorite, and will probably win. But this is an awful post. Less than 20 is a moral victory? That's horrendous.
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LOL I stand by my post, which was sort of tongue in cheek. But seriously, we lost to Yale. gave up 85 to Coppin State. The players have admitted this team lacks chemistry at this point. Plenty of time to figure it out by March, but we aren't barn burners by any means at this point.
 
ericsandiego said:
LOL I stand by my post. We lost to Yale. gave up 85 to Coppin State. The players have admitted this team lacks chemistry at this point. Plenty of time to figure it out by March, but we aren't barn burners by any means at this point.
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The spread will not be 20, which makes your post pretty nonsensical.
 
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UCONNfan1 said:
I agree. This team is not a good matchup against Duke.
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That's not the point. The notion that it's a "moral victory" if they lose by less than 20 is a farcical idea for a program of this stature. With fans like these . . .
 
UConn's transition defense and getting out to cover shooters is horrendous. Its been bad all year and was bad vs Coppin St (Glen Miller even said so during the post game).

If they don't get that reeled in and corrected for the Duke game it is going to be ugly. Duke is too talented and too well coached to get away with the bad transition defense.
 
We fans are getting over hyped for this game. I'll bet the players are taking it in stride.
 
We REALLY don't match up well with Duke defensively.

-Okafor plays well beyond his years as far as his offensive skill-set/repertoire and basketball IQ. I've seen him play a bit so far this year and he is savvy for his age. He doesn't force things and is a capable passer. I think he's a very tough match-up for Amida who is still inexperienced and foul-prone and not an exceptional rebounder for his height. That being said, we need Amida in the game over Nolan who hasn't given us much at all this year on either end of the floor. If Amida gets in foul trouble, we're sunk.

-Our transition defense is still a problem. For some reason we have a hard time stopping the ball. Coppin State had a few easy transition buckets against us where they got to the rim with ease. They also had a few quick-triggers 3's where we weren't defending close enough 1on1. Even if we do stop the ball, we've had a hard time capably accounting for all 5 guys on defense. A little bit of ball movement and screening from the opposing team and they have been able to find open shooters, which leads me to my next point...

-Our perimeter defense has been a big issue and Duke is shooting very well from behind the arc. They've got a lot of guys that can knock down shots. We have done a poor job of fighting over or around ball screens so far this year leading to a lot of open 3's. Our close-outs have been pretty poor.

-Our defense is not creating turnovers. Boat has a few steals on the year but that's been it for the most part. Our perimeter and pressure defense has NOT been as advertised at all. Our poor transition defense is probably one reason why we have a hard time pressuring the ball and forcing turnovers.

Offensively, I'm actually not overly concerned being able to put points up against Duke despite our early season shooting woes. We moved the ball better yesterday around the perimeter and we need to do that again in order to have any success against a team like Duke. Our guards need to penetrate and make the extra pass. I wouldn't be surprised to see Coach K go zone often. If he does, I think getting Hamilton/Facey touches around the free throw line will be key to our success.
 
Different teams yes, but they lost to Mercer. This place of all places shouldn't buy into the Duke is unbeatable hype.

I expect to compete for 40 minutes and hope to see a win.
 
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August_West said:
Is this a prediction thread?
Duke 217
Uconn 34

doomed



In all seriousness I don't worry so much about our D being like it was today. They will be much tighter on Duke. It's human nature. D is 85 percent effort. Natural to play a bit looser when operating with an 11 point cushion 90 seconds into game. I worry about:
1) our tendency to dig a hole before 1/2 with looser D. We've been an excellent 2nd half defensive team even with the losses.
2). Finding offense other than lobs which Duke will take away.
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Uconn has a real chance if they can put Okafor in early and late foul trouble and Brimah is able to play at least 25 minutes whether foul-plagued or not. The one guy I believe who can challenge Okafor on drives to the hoop is Hamilton who can induce maybe 2 fouls. He's very crafty with high IQ lobs.. Even Nolan might be able to get one one foul off Okafor, too.

Plays should be designed to put constant pressure on Okafor. The guy can implode given that he is freshman. He could have a bad game here and there; nobody is perfect. Hopefully this would happen in the game against us. Other than that, I see not much else in terms of upsetting a very good Duke team. Hamilton could be the hero of this game, maybe not Brimah, but he and Boatright and Facey could play memorable games, too. Hopefully, they all click together against this very good Duke team. If Purvis is healthy, he could use this game to catapult his game before watching NBA scouts. This game could be his biggest opportunity during the regular season.

I am not coach KO, but I want to see Hamilton spelling Boat for PG duties. He would be a phenomenal oversized 2-guard for us. He should be put against that Duke PG. He just might succeed putting him in a straight jacket, why not, given his height and agility. This would do wonders for Boat's energy for the final 10 minutes. I'd like to see the players put together a productive transition game.

The one weakness Hamilton still has to contend with is with his FT shooting. He needs to shore that up because Duke will try to foul against him a lot.
 
PacificStorm said:
The one weakness Hamilton still has to contend with is with his FT shooting. He needs to shore that up because Duke will try to foul against him a lot.
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What does this mean? You think that Duke is going to go hack-a-Shaq on Hamilton?
 
8893 said:
Every time I see this thread title I think of this:

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His freakin' nut wife robbed us of his great talent. The "Bill Clinton in Mc Donalds" skit was my favorite of his.
 
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jibsey said:
His freakin' nut wife robbed us of his great talent. The "Bill Clinton in Mc Donalds" skit was my favorite of his.
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I get upset every time I think about it. I loved that guy. One of the all-time comedy greats with so much more to give.

Love the Clinton McD's skit. Always partial to Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer too.
 
Right now uconn simply isn't good and thats a fact. They still have a high ceiling, but if that gets met who knows. Duke has 1 guy superbly more talented than anybody on our roster: okafor. Everywhere else we match up well physically and athletically. The problem is a guy who we need to be a star (purvis) is simply not game ready and really doubts himself out there. And we really don't have a small ball 4 to take advantage of roaming amile jefferson, facey is so far from daniels offensively its not a joke. Can't believe i convinced myself he could offer some of the same skill set...
 
PacificStorm said:
Uconn has a real chance if they can put Okafor in early and late foul trouble and Brimah is able to play at least 25 minutes whether foul-plagued or not. The one guy I believe who can challenge Okafor on drives to the hoop is Hamilton who can induce maybe 2 fouls. He's very crafty with high IQ lobs.. Even Nolan might be able to get one one foul off Okafor, too. Plays should be designed to put constant pressure on Okafor. The guy can implode given that he is freshman. He could have a bad game here and there; nobody is perfect. Hopefully this would happen in the game against us. Other than that, I see not much else in terms of upsetting a very good Duke team. Hamilton could be the hero of this game, maybe not Brimah, but he and Boatright and Facey could play memorable games, too. Hopefully, they all click together against this very good Duke team. If Purvis is healthy, he could use this game to catapult his game before watching NBA scouts. This game could be his biggest opportunity during the regular season. I am not coach KO, but I want to see Hamilton spelling Boat for PG duties. He would be a phenomenal oversized 2-guard for us. He should be put against that Duke PG. He just might succeed putting him in a straight jacket, why not, given his height and agility. This would do wonders for Boat's energy for the final 10 minutes. I'd like to see the players put together a productive transition game. The one weakness Hamilton still has to contend with is with his FT shooting. He needs to shore that up because Duke will try to foul against him a lot.
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Solid points. One thing I would like to see out of DHam is for him to drop in some runners in the lane from the same spot he is getting to for the lobs. It would help keep good defenses honest for cheating against the lob.
 
Our fearless leader said it best:

“We’ve just gotta be focused,” said Boatright. “It can go two ways: we can play UConn basketball and give ourselves a chance to win the game, or we can go in unfocused and get blown out.”
 
James said:
Right now uconn simply isn't good and thats a fact. They still have a high ceiling, but if that gets met who knows. Duke has 1 guy superbly more talented than anybody on our roster: okafor. Everywhere else we match up well physically and athletically. The problem is a guy who we need to be a star (purvis) is simply not game ready and really doubts himself out there. And we really don't have a small ball 4 to take advantage of roaming amile jefferson, facey is so far from daniels offensively its not a joke. Can't believe i convinced myself he could offer some of the same skill set...
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James don't do drugs its bad for reasoning. Okafor is a good big but not verly athletic or imposing. Skilled big guys like him don't give UCONN trouble. Amida is long enough, athletic enough, and talented enough to hold his own. Brimah isn't some scrub he's a future NBA player himself. Hamilton is very talented and a a point forward who can do many things. He is a future NBA player himself. Boat will take the matchup against Tyus Jones and lock him down defensively and play off the ball and have a good night against Duke. Facey and Amile Jefferson are the same player, and Facey can more than hold his own against him.

We have enough talent to beat anybody. The keys to the game are Boat's defensive pressure on Jones in the halfcourt, running our offense through our bigs, Hamilton playing point forward and continuing to do what he does, and Boat playing off the ball on offense. Lastly, we need to play Duke tough at the three point line especially against Jones, Sulaimon(Samuels needs to be on him) and Cook.
 
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