Query about Duke in recent times -- Flop or No Flop?

[DobbsRover2]

Question from over on the women's board concerning the Blue Devils. From the early 1990s through at least 2004, the Duke men were famous for flopping whenever you looked at them. Question is, over the last decade, in your view has Duke given up on the use of the fearsome flop, at least limited it more, or is it pretty much at the same level as in the glory years of the Early Fall?

 

[storrsroars]

They had some award-winning flops on Saturday. Not sure if they use them as much, but they can still sell 'em, so they must practice it.

 

[huskyfan224]

Greg Paulus was the worst. The guy was the biggest fairy on the court every time he laced them up

 

[Fishy]

Duke created the modern flop - if it has a father, it's Shane Battier. And if it has a grandfather, it's Coach K. And if it has a great-grandfather, it's 'n Devil.

Now we have a situation where lil Ryan Boatright can bump into someone the size of the Lusitania and that person will hit the ground immediately.

I think we could fix this by making a ten-minute discussion on physics mandatory for all officials.

 

[Kitaman]

Perhaps Phil Nolan always wanted to play for dook.

 

[champs99and04]

Tyus Jones flops more than anybody in the country. But other than him, they're not really any different from anybody else.

 

[Gurleyman]

Duke created the modern flop - if it has a father, it's Shane Battier. And if it has a grandfather, it's Coach K. And if it has a great-grandfather, it's 'n Devil. Now we have a situation where lil Ryan Boatright can bump into someone the size of the Lusitania and that person will hit the ground immediately. I think we could fix this by making a ten-minute discussion on physics mandatory for all officials.

My big beef with officiating is that they almost never call the charge unless you flop (exception for warding off with the arm, or hooking on a spin move). If you stay vertical, they say play on. So they create the incentive for the flop. If they made it a point if emphasis that you couldn't dislodge a defender from the space he occupies, regardless of whether he falls or not, then flopping would happen much less. Because obviously if they swallow the whistles, you can't do much lying on the ground. It'll never change in our lifetimes, though - it'd be a tough call to make without the defender helping with some embellishment.

I feel like Bobby Hurley is in the flop lineage somewhere. Maybe he's the Sugar Hill Gang of flopping, whereas Battier was more of the Run DMC who took it mainstream. Paulus would just be a really bad rapper who everybody laughs at.

 

[Tenspro2002]

I think dook's floppage has reduced in recent years as K wised up to the trends in college basketball -- out went the floor-slapping, skinny, white, 4-year guys (Paulus, Scheyer, Singler), and in came the athletic one-and-done type (Parker, Okafor).

 

[huskyfan224]

This is a disgrace to basketball

 

[Kembacity]

Yeah I agree that I havent noticed it nearly as much as in the past. Seems like after Paulus maybe K decided to change the reputation of his team, good on him

Phil definitely brings that game to us, was so amazing when he got like 3 charge calls in our game against them

 

[Edward Sargent]

This is a disgrace to basketball

In my mind that should have been a technical foul on Paulus. With him lying there like a dead fish the three airborne players have no place to land putting them in jeopardy of injury. Now if that was Crissy Laettner lying there and Our Own Rod Sellers was airborne I know exactly where those ole size 16s would land!!

 

[mauconnfan]

Tyus Jones flops more than anybody in the country. But other than him, they're not really any different from anybody else.

Tyus Jones falls all the freakin time when he goes to the hole and on occasion his prayer is answered by some really crappy referee. It's really pitiful to watch and replay on TV only to find I am usually correct, there was no foul!

 

[mauconnfan]

My big beef with officiating is that they almost never call the charge unless you flop (exception for warding off with the arm, or hooking on a spin move). If you stay vertical, they say play on. So they create the incentive for the flop. If they made it a point if emphasis that you couldn't dislodge a defender from the space he occupies, regardless of whether he falls or not, then flopping would happen much less. Because obviously if they swallow the whistles, you can't do much lying on the ground. It'll never change in our lifetimes, though - it'd be a tough call to make without the defender helping with some embellishment.

I feel like Bobby Hurley is in the flop lineage somewhere. Maybe he's the Sugar Hill Gang of flopping, whereas Battier was more of the Run DMC who took it mainstream. Paulus would just be a really bad rapper who everybody laughs at.

The flop would be best used by any player guarding Okafor as he backs him in but the timing will need to be perfect to fool these guys in the stripes. Then again they may not even call it then!

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Tyus Jones falls all the freakin time when he goes to the hole and on occasion his prayer is answered by some really crappy referee. It's really pitiful to watch and replay on TV only to find I am usually correct, there was no foul!

I don't know how anyone who had the pleasure of watching Kemba and Shabazz for four years can complain about Tyus Jones. Good, smart crafty guards can get themselves to the line.

 

[UConNick]

I don't know how anyone who had the pleasure of watching Kemba and Shabazz for four years can complain about Tyus Jones. Good, smart crafty guards can get themselves to the line.

Easy; he doesn't have UConn written on his chest!

From an unbiased poor of view, you are completely right. Lest we forget, Shabazz was the king of the head jerk.

 

[Tenspro2002]

I think there's a difference between "flopping" on offense and "flopping" on defense.

On offense, it's usually a spur-of-the-moment, selling contact sort of thing. I don't have a beef with that (though it annoyed me to no end on the women's side to see Skylar Diggins essentially make a career out f it).

On defense (and this is what we usually think about when we talk about "flopping"), it's usually a pre-meditated strategy, and it certainly was for dook last decade. That is disgraceful.

 

[OkaForPrez]

I've seen Tyus Jones take full on dives off ball so many times this year that I root against the kid with venom. He did it off ball on Purvis when we were playing him and he did it on the first possession against Gonzaga when he got caught on the wrong side of a switch in the post. He knew he was out of position so he dropped his head into Wiltjer's arm and then hit the floor. Ref's didn't give him the whistle. I've seen him kick his foot way out to catch a run bye defender while shooting a 3. He's an egregious user of the Bazz/Kemba head fake. And that's above and beyond his body searching on drives. On Wisconsin.

 

[mauconnfan]

I don't know how anyone who had the pleasure of watching Kemba and Shabazz for four years can complain about Tyus Jones. Good, smart crafty guards can get themselves to the line.

That's not fair.

Or is it?

Guilty as charged but many of the times he/they used the head jerk, they were making the refs aware of the physical play they were missing. (how does that sound?) whereas Jones is just begging!

 

[huskyharry]

Thus Jones got rewarded for two egregious flops tonight. One where the Wisky players chin hit his swinging elbow when he drove and towards the end of the game when he was covering Kaminsky. The Dook flop legacy lives on!

 

[UConnSwag11]

Find the video of jones running into his man against uconn with purvis guarding him and purvis gets called for the foul. It was on Instagram

 

[huskyhaven]

Easy; he doesn't have UConn written on his chest!

From an unbiased poor of view, you are completely right. Lest we forget, Shabazz was the king of the head jerk.

Shabazz learned from the master Kemba.