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Duke will be playing Ohio State at noon on Sunday, I'll be in chat.

CameronBornAndBred wrote: ↑

March 22nd, 2024, 4:25 pm

Duke survived a horrendous 2nd quarter (scored 5 points) to overcome Richmond 72-61 and advance to face Celeste Taylor and Ohio State on Sunday.

My own feeling is that the horrendous quarter was the first one. We allowed 26 points in that one quarter. That's a pace to allow 104 points in a full game. That is unacceptable. But we allowed just 35 points the entire rest of the way. We were able to survive our offensive drought in the 2nd quarter because by then our defense finally showed up to the game. And we got plenty of open looks in the second quarter, we just didn't hit them. We had just one three-point bucket and two free throws in the quarter, but the looks were there. We got back to nailing our shots in the third, and the defense stayed, too.

While I'm happy with the outcome, we'll have to be ready to play from the opening tap at noon tomorrow. tOSU will not forgive mistakes the way Richmond did.

In one game Duke went from getting smoked to domination!

Sorry, not sorry, Celeste. As they say in Cameron....Ahhhhhh Seeeeeeeeeya!

12 point victory over OSU on their home court!

Woo hoo! I’m at church for an Easter Egg hunt. Saw just a bit of the game, on the TV at lunch. Then got busy, and decided I’d come here to see how things went.

It's not every day that you see a team post a 18-point turnaround when it matters most. Keep dancin', ladies!!!

I love that at the end of Scheyer’s post-game press conference, he made a point of giving a shout-out to the ladies and to Reigan.

OPK wrote: ↑

March 24th, 2024, 8:33 pm

I love that at the end of Scheyer’s post-game press conference, he made a point of giving a shout-out to the ladies and to Reigan.

That's so cool!

Duke will be facing UCONN on Saturday. They are 100% beatable, and have been five times this season.

Bring 'em on.

Game is set for 8PM on ESPN.

CameronBornAndBred wrote: ↑

March 25th, 2024, 8:14 pm

Duke will be facing UCONN on Saturday. They are 100% beatable, and have been five times this season.

Bring 'em on.

I'm not optimistic, I'm afraid. But UConn only has two losses since mid-December, and those came to Notre Dame and South Carolina, neither of whom we could beat, even on our home floor. Her Hoops Stats has them as the #3 team in the country. Not a #3 seed, the #3 TEAM. And I think that's pretty much right. They have had a ton of injury problems, but with Bueckers back at full strength and a fairly easy conference schedule to rip through, the pieces are fitting. UConn absolutely punishes mistakes, and we still have a major tendency to turn the ball over (16 against tOSU, and averaging 17per game on the season). We also have been starting very slow on defense, allowing 20 points in the first quarter to tOSU and 26 to Richmond(!). If we get down double-digits to UConn, we're going to have a problem. They have the 5th best defense in the country.

My hope is that we can keep it close. If we can do that, anything can happen. But this game scares me, I'm not gonna lie.

Phredd3 wrote: ↑

March 27th, 2024, 8:42 am

I'm not optimistic, I'm afraid. But UConn only has two losses since mid-December, and those came to Notre Dame and South Carolina, neither of whom we could beat, even on our home floor. Her Hoops Stats has them as the #3 team in the country. Not a #3 seed, the #3 TEAM. And I think that's pretty much right. They have had a ton of injury problems, but with Bueckers back at full strength and a fairly easy conference schedule to rip through, the pieces are fitting. UConn absolutely punishes mistakes, and we still have a major tendency to turn the ball over (16 against tOSU, and averaging 17per game on the season). We also have been starting very slow on defense, allowing 20 points in the first quarter to tOSU and 26 to Richmond(!). If we get down double-digits to UConn, we're going to have a problem. They have the 5th best defense in the country.

My hope is that we can keep it close. If we can do that, anything can happen. But this game scares me, I'm not gonna lie.

I'm not "scared", the rest of the season is all gravy to me. We've made it further than I expected, so I'm just enjoying the ride from here on.
That being said, UCONN is beatable. Syracuse proved it, they could have won that game. It was only a 3 or 4 point game under two minutes. The problem for them was that they had UCONN in the bonus, and the Huskies had fouls to give, and that only favors one team. The Huskies could play smothering defense without fear, while Syracuse would send them to the line simply if the ref thought they looked at UCONN funny.
I have more faith in our team in that situation if it gets there.

Another big factor is playing in Portland and not Storrs. Fans love upsets, so at least half of them will be on our side, even if they aren't there for Duke.

CameronBornAndBred wrote: ↑

March 27th, 2024, 9:50 am

I'm not "scared", the rest of the season is all gravy to me. We've made it further than I expected, so I'm just enjoying the ride from here on.
That being said, UCONN is beatable. Syracuse proved it, they could have won that game. It was only a 3 or 4 point game under two minutes. The problem for them was that they had UCONN in the bonus, and the Huskies had fouls to give, and that only favors one team. The Huskies could play smothering defense without fear, while Syracuse would send them to the line simply if the ref thought they looked at UCONN funny.
I have more faith in our team in that situation if it gets there.

Another big factor is playing in Portland and not Storrs. Fans love upsets, so at least half of them will be on our side, even if they aren't there for Duke.

If Sarah Strong had already committed and didn't have both Duke and UConn still on her list, it probably wouldn't scare me, either. As you say, to some extent, we're playing with house money. We're the lowest seed left in the Tourney and the only team not seeded as at least a 5. We are "supposed" to lose this game, just like we were "supposed" to lose the last one. But UConn is a better team than Ohio State, IMO, and the Ohio State game wasn't decided until crunch time.

Still, if we play our best game for 40 minutes, it is certainly possible for us to keep dancin'. I'm sure hoping that we do!

Another thought, Duke now has two tourney road wins under our belt. UCONN has none. We're going to Portland as the more experienced team in that regard. The last decent team that UCONN faced was 'Cuse, which they of course beat at home, but as I said, it was a close game. Prior to that, you have to go all the way back to mid February before UCONN even faced a ranked team. UCONN did handle 21 Creighton well, but I'm not sure that's saying much.
I'm not saying UCONN's not good, I'm just saying they aren't a team that Duke should be holding on a pedestal. Respect them, then beat them.

Duke picked the worst game to forget how to play basketball. UCONN didn't beat Duke, Duke beat Duke.

The 4th quarter was at least worth hanging around for, and it looked like we might actually make a miracle happen, but 23 turnovers plus being down 13 late was too much to overcome.

Lots to be proud of this year, though, and Kara's building a winning program that should have lots of success next season.

In the good news department, 6'2" guard Riley Nelson, rising sophomore from Maryland, is transferring in to Duke. She was regarded as a top-tier shooter in her high school days, but didn't really demonstrate it in limited action last season for Maryland. Her last game was on January 9th when she suffered a season-ending ACL tear. (Normal recovery time suggests she is likely to be ready by the start of the season, but there's a chance she is not.) She seems to care about doing the little things to win games, and everything I've read about her suggests that she is a top-tier person off the court, too.

Welcome to Duke, Riley Nelson!