Quotes & Notes - February 21
at Syracuse; vs. Louisville
After every game I do three things: watch the press conference, read the quotes, and study the box score. Quotes & Notes is my wrap-up of the most recent games of the Duke season, including postgame quotes, stats, and other thoughts.
Quotes
“I thought overall we just made the right play and shared it. I don’t think it’s more complicated than that. We didn’t do anything crazy on offense in terms of X-and-O wise. But it was more about playing fundamentally sound. When we left our feet or we just made passes without moving it, they turned the ball over. And look, in the first half, 15 of their 27 points were off turnovers. That was the difference to the game. And you come out in the second half, you only have two turnovers until the final two minutes, we made that adjustment. Proud of our group for doing that in-game. And also, this is our first time seeing their zone. Their zone is different. They have really good athletes. They anticipate well. They have active hands. So once we got accustomed to their zone, I thought we settled in and just made some really nice plays.”
- Coach Scheyer on Duke’s offense at Syracuse
“I thought it was a big time win for our team. We’ve been in this situation two other times where we play Saturday-Monday, so to come out here and to get the win was really important. Louisville has been playing their best basketball, especially as of late. Just happy to get it done. I do want to say it’s an honor to have C.B. Claiborne here. He came to our shootaround today. Just really special to have him back, and just what he’s done for every single person here at Duke – Duke Athletic Department, Duke Basketball. Incredibly grateful for him being here and honoring him. I thought it was one of Dariq [Whitehead’s] best games actually. I know he didn’t shoot the way he has been, but he didn’t let it impact his game. He made some really nice passes; I thought his defense was really good. Our bench, Jacob Grandison came in and hit three big threes. Ryan Young – [we were plus-24] when he was in the game, I guess that’s on me. Him and Dereck [Lively] have a great one-two punch. We have two great guys there. Then Jeremy [Roach], to close, I thought he was really good. I could go on and on about each of our guys, they all stepped up.”
- Coach Scheyer on the win against Louisville
Stats
After turning the ball over 10 times in the first half at Syracuse to give the Orange 15 points, Duke only committed 10 turnovers in their next three halves of basketball for just 6 points off turnovers. I haven’t talked about rebounding in a while but the boards continue to be a plus for Duke - they currently lead the ACC in rebounding margin in conference play at +6.1 per game. The Blue Devils combined for 22 offensive rebounds in the two games, leading to 11 second chance points at Syracuse and 16 second chance points against Louisville.
Notes
I love Duke continuing to share the ball. The Blue Devils have now assisted on at least 64% of made field goals in three straight games, including 73.3% against Syracuse, which marks their second highest assist percentage of the season. With 41 combined assists against Syracuse and Louisville, Coach Scheyer talked about the continued improvement after the Louisville game, saying “...we’re getting a feel for each other. Early in the year, we’ve had to do a lot of different things when you talk about the roles that guys are playing, and the continuity; so just the experience of playing with each other, understanding who’s going to be where, and then just understanding the value of every play.” I could choose from plenty of other plays in either game, but here are four straight buckets from last night. Passes like these are what make basketball beautiful.
I still love NBA All-Star Weekend. Admittedly, the Saturday night events and All-Star Game itself have become less competitive over the years. And while I would still rather see the biggest names in the dunk contest, a more traditional 3-point shootout, and some actual defense in the game itself, it is still fun to see the best players in the world together in one place. For me, it is similar to the World Series in that it reminds me of being a kid and watching in awe at something that seemed larger than life at the time. Jayson Tatum set a new scoring record for the All-Star Game with 55 points, earning him MVP honors - it has been so fun to watch Tatum blossom into a mega-star in the league. I enjoy following all the former Blue Devils and RealGM has a great rundown of the active Duke guys in the NBA. One highlight of the weekend for me was Coach K’s sit down with Lebron that aired before the game Sunday. If you missed it, here’s the full conversation.
Thanks for reading, Go Duke!
Sources