How to beat Duke

[Danzz]

My game plan:

Protect Amida and play him off Okafor early, let Okafor get his. If AB tries to guard JO in the post early he's out of the game by the under 16 timeout.

Limit possessions, pressure on the ball when it crosses mid court.
Establish Hamilton early, he needs to have a hello world performance for us to be in it.
Play more Tsam then Sam I Am, defense first, attack the rim.

Less Tsam more Sam Jr. We are going to have to put points up because we are not going to be able shut down Duke. At least with Sam Jr. we have the chance to score from outside otherwise Duke will just pack it in Tsam's drives will be negated. If Sam Jr. is missing we have no choice with Tsam.

 

[GlastonTim]

Omar

 

[60'sfan]

The big diff here is that last year's wins came on the back of a yearlong trial by fire. The team had taken some beatings over the course of the year and finally came together at the right time. This year's team is far from gelling at this point; they haven't yet adjusted to big losses in personnel, and new pieces are still getting their flow back. Both of those factors have been further compounded by injuries.

It will be very tough to win this game. Not impossible, but very tough. Win or lose, it will be interesting to see how UCONN plays.

What history has shown us is that Duke always starts out strong and does not get much better. Uconn usually starts off disorganized and gets much better. I would actually like to see us play Duke in an early round of the NCAA tournament. I am sure that Krzyzewski would be worried about that match up. Now, not so much.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport.../coachs-corner-duke-mike-krzyzewski/20272441/

 

[Bonehead]

visine in their pregame meal might help...

 

[CL82]

A lot of pent up frustration is going to be unleashed tonight. This team is better than it has show so far. I think our guys are going to be on a mission to show that.

 

[8893]

A lot of pent up frustration is going to be unleashed tonight. This team is better than it has show so far. I think our guys are going to be on a mission to show that.

I hope they save something for tomorrow night.

 

[FartMan69]

A lot of pent up frustration is going to be unleashed tonight. This team is better than it has show so far. I think our guys are going to be on a mission to show that.

I hope they do nothing but get a good nights sleep tonight

 

[FartMan69]

Oh Boo-urns someone beat me to correcting his mistake

 

[OkaForPrez]

Less Tsam more Sam Jr. We are going to have to put points up because we are not going to be able shut down Duke. At least with Sam Jr. we have the chance to score from outside otherwise Duke will just pack it in Tsam's drives will be negated. If Sam Jr. is missing we have no choice with Tsam.

My premise is hope we can bloody the game up with Tsam on the defensive end and get enough scoring out of D Ham and Boat and hopefully a reasonable amount of production out of Amida.

I think Amida can be successful against a high major big like Okafor, he just needs to see 1 or 2 of his early moves go through the hoop.

 

[Kitaman]

Two elite teams playing? Peeked at the dook boards and there is perhaps one uconn thread among the two. On this board there's more than 10. Just saying....

 

[RipCity]

We have to attack Okafor. He's a solid rim protector, but you have to hope you can draw a couple of fouls on the big freshman, making Okafor miss out on minutes rather than Brimah. Hope Boat and Brimah step up and realize if they get Okafor in foul trouble they're taking Duke's gameplan away from them.

 

[TheRogers]

We always play to the level of our competition. Have we heard this story before: Awesome freshman guard vs experienced point guard (2014). Unstoppable center vs average center (1999). I'm not saying the pups are favored, All I know is that the other team will have their share of battle scars...maybe even a little bit more than the pups!

 

[mauconnfan]

My premise is hope we can bloody the game up with Tsam on the defensive end and get enough scoring out of D Ham and Boat and hopefully a reasonable amount of production out of Amida.

I think Amida can be successful against a high major big like Okafor, he just needs to see 1 or 2 of his early moves go through the hoop.

It's so tough to decipher who gets the minutes from TSam, SamJr and now maybe Omar. Sam is the best defender no doubt but does that make up for the fact he's a liability on the other end, especially against what will probably be one of the better man-to-mans he will see? Sam Jr is slower, better with the ball and still will make them think about him making shots but he can't guard one of Cook, Jones, Jones, Sulaimon for long. And Omar, well we jus don't know anything.