Quotes & Notes - January 17
at Clemson
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
“Great environment. Great opportunity for us and I know clearly it meant a lot to them. They (Clemson) played great. Especially in that second half, I think it came down to them getting in our paint too easily. Back and forth the whole way, I thought it was a great game. Both teams struggled to shoot. Disappointed for our guys, thought we were ready to play, thought we fought, thought we were right there. Just learning how to win, and not going to stop for us. Going to continue to go and learn from this and keep building. But, disappointed, not happy. You have to, been in this as a player, an assistant coach, where you have to learn to hate to lose. That’s where I’m at. Disappointed for our guys and we have to learn and grow.”
- Coach Scheyer on the loss at Clemson
“Well, give them credit first of all. They’re really good defensively. They’re physical, their pick-and-roll defense is as good as anybody that we’ve played. And it’s, for us, learning how to play through that. You’re going to play really good defenses, and down the stretch, knowing how to manufacture points for each other, it’s not going to be as much on your own getting one. And we’re still learning that. Thought for the first 30, 35 minutes, we did a really good job. Missed some shots, and we have to finish through some contact but it’s just learning how to score together in those situations against really good defense.”
- Coach Scheyer on Clemson’s defense
Stats
The offensive glass was good to the Blue Devils, as they held a 20-10 advantage in second chance points over the Tigers. I love Duke’s relentless rebounding effort so far this season - it’s been a big boost. Unfortunately, Clemson offset that advantage with a +9 differential in points off turnovers.
Duke had its lowest assist-to-made field goal percentage so far in conference play and Saturday was only the third time the Blue Devils were below 40% on the season. Duke’s last assist came at the 16:04 mark of the second half. Clemson’s defense was terrific so I credit the Tigers for making it difficult to find open guys. I re-watched the second half yesterday, which is something I rarely do during the season, but I wanted to see Duke’s offensive possessions again. I’m not second guessing Coach Scheyer or any of the players - I’ll never do that because I’m not in the locker room or at practice.
The only thing I’ll say from my standpoint is I wish Duke had gotten more ball reversals in the second half. Again, Clemson makes it hard to reverse the ball, so it’s easier said than done. Ball reversal forces the defense to move from helpside to ballside and execute their man-to-man rotations. This provides the offense better opportunities to drive the ball, attack closeouts, and take advantage of switches - all of which can lead to more chances for assists. As Coach Scheyer mentioned, Duke needs to keep learning how to score in those situations down the stretch - it was a disappointing outcome but another learning experience. The Blue Devils also had some good looks that just didn’t go down - that’s basketball and the guys should keep shooting them with confidence. Duke played with toughness throughout the game and I was proud of their effort.
Notes
I loved watching basketball yesterday - there were a ton of games on in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. I don’t get the opportunity to sit and watch basketball as much as I used to, so it was super fun to tune in. I caught the last 5 minutes of Georgetown at Villanova and all of Purdue at Michigan State. I even watched a little of the high school games that were on before I tuned in to some of Heat/Hawks and Grizzlies/Suns. Because I have YouTube TV, Celtics/Hornets was blacked out here in Fort Mill, or else I would have had that on too and watched Tatum go for 50 again.
I don’t love fans constantly criticizing the officiating. This is not in reference to any specific team, call, or game - Duke or otherwise. When it comes to the officials, I’ll say a couple of things. One, the referees have an incredibly difficult job. Basketball action moves quickly and the athletes are increasingly faster, bigger, and stronger. I think refs have to anticipate more than ever and sometimes that leads to a missed call. Two, officiating across basketball can be frustratingly inconsistent. Every game, conference, league, tournament, level, etc. seems to be called differently. The frequency of the whistle can seem to change based on time and score, and points of emphasis seem to become less emphasized as the season goes along. I also think the replay and review system needs to be reevaluated, but I am in favor of having it to some degree. This brings me back to point one, calling a basketball game is really hard - fans should complain less, myself included, but that does not mean we shouldn't also want to improve the officiating where possible.
I love the documentary The Tournament: A History of ACC Men’s Basketball. Last year, I started watching the chronological 10-episode documentary in reverse but had still not gotten to the first four episodes. After writing about my dad last week, I decided to finish watching. The history of the ACC is incredible and learning more about the time period from 1954-1974 was awesome. I knew many of the names and stories already but I definitely learned a lot about the earliest years of the league. If you have access to ESPN+, Hulu, and/or the ACC Network, I highly recommend giving this one a watch.
Thanks for reading, Go Duke!
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