I know it’s been discussed elsewhere, but I’m very curious to see how Duke plays without Foster and Ngongba.
Any analysis I’ve read/hears about it is fairly glib: “as long as as Cam Boozer is still playing…”
That’s a lot of rim protection and floor general-ness that’s now gone. What happens when/if Malik brown has to play 30+? What about boozer foul trouble? Can Cayden boozer shoot enough?
Does Duke defense lose a step if they can’t sub as freely?
All in all, I’d still probably take Duke v the field, but it’s like 51% instead of 75% or whatever.
Georgia Southern, and Southern Miss too, putting on a demonstration that rest = rust. Tearing through the Sun Belt conference. They’re beating teams that had several days off.
I like the idea of trying to protect a likely bubbly 9-seed from an all-downside matchup with a 16-seed and running into your bubbliest team somehow being an 11-seed who now has an all-downside matchup.
I’m very surprised by that pick. Personally I would pick Duke even with their injuries because of their talent level across the board.
I also am not that concerned about what happens in the ACC tournament as long as we don’t drop in seeding. Frankly I would rather the guys get some rest. We’re a four seed regardless unless we beat Duke in the final.
Thanks! Protecting the 9 seed from a bad loss makes as much sense as anything. I think going with 14 or even 12 probably better serves that goal, but I guess you have to try to balance inclusion of as many ticket buying/TV watching fanbases as possible too.
I don’t know, do you think the Tuesday session is an even break even proposition? I can’t imagine ESPN values it very much and ticket sales are sparse. You have to rent the arena an extra day and add a day of production costs and travel costs for 3 extra teams plus an additional night’s stay for 3 other teams.
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