Bad timing for Kihei’s worst game of the season. Was actually a really similar stat line to his clunker last year vs VT (which was worse, because it was basically the same but didn’t have the FTs). But really no one had a good game other than probably Shedrick and iMac.
On the other hand, the defense played great (yeah, Roach scored a lot of points, but he also had a 1:5 A:TO ratio) and the team is in MUCH better shape for the NCAAs than I expected a couple weeks ago. So its not ideal, but its not terrible. On to selection Sunday.
Team fought hard. Talent disparity too great to overcome without some breaks or hot three point shooting.
As far as fatigue, yeah, I do sometimes feel that way. I admire Kihei, I am not sure there are two dudes in the country that have gotten more out of their ability than Kihei and Gardner, but…
Not a hater, but RJ and Roach went off for a reason.
Fought hard and played very well overall during the tournament. Hopefully get a favorable draw in the tournament. Just don’t want a first round loss. As much as I know this has been a great season, I hate the choker narrative, and I very much would like to avoid another early exit.
Joy has been all season. NIT to ACC champs, beating baylor and Illinois in the OOC, and getting to see Ryan Dunn push the boundaries of human ability all season! Not to mention getting to see Reece run the offense and IMac splash 3s
Nothing against Filipowski at all but to be a villain you have to be memorable. That’s the problem with all these one and done guys that pass through Duke…unless they’re Zion elite, even Duke fans forget about them a year later. To me that’s the funniest part about those type of players choosing Duke. It’s the place they’ll be least appreciated.
Even Zion kinda gets a bit lost in the wave of OaD’s they have, he had to share the spotlight with Barrett and Reddish even if he definitely had the lion’s share of publicity. If Zion went to Clemson he would’ve been a god to that fanbase.
No sense in looking at the past now, time to go full speed ahead into March Madness aka the greatest time to be a sports fan.
Assuming we’re locked in as a 4 seed (never know with the committee), the current projected 13 seeds according to BracketMatrix are Toledo, Yale, Iona, and Louisiana-Lafayette. Only ULL has won their conference tourney so far, but if the other three do end up getting an automatic bid I can say right now that Toledo is the team I’d lead prefer to see us draw. They’re an elite offensive and 3 point shooting team though with a highly suspect defense (6th in Kenpom on offense, 287th on defense) and given how we’ve been at defending the 3 this year at times I don’t wanna get into a shooting competition with our first round matchup. Give me Iona so TB can kick Pitino’s ass one last time.
Duke fans dread the day Scheyer has to actually be a coach and not get carried by five star recruits. We will see if he can actually coach against talented teams in the tournament or if he is doomed to the sweet sixteen for his reign at the helm.
