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[QUOTE="007, post: 4573318, member: 393"]
Duke has plenty of talented, very long, very athletic players at all 5 spots. They play hard on defense and aggressively attack the boards at both ends. This is an inherently poor matchup for the way SU is constructed, practices, and plays.

IMO, part of the problem is SU practices its offensive sets (it's a board myth to suggest that aren't trying to run a structured offense) against players in practice that are essentially not coached or drilled in playing aggressive man to man defense. When you play against teams like Duke and UNC (and apparently Bryant and Colgate) who bring a host of long, athletic players playing pressure defense, the effectiveness of the offensive sets is diminished (they can't really simulate that type of pressure and intensity in practice) and the lack of individual skill sets on offense gets amplified. In the past, JB has always had at least 1 or 2 highly skilled players who could make things happen and/or create for others when the team concepts were taken away.

This is not about a "lack of effort" or game planning. It's a systemic issue that has become increasingly more apparent as recruiting has declined over the past 7+ seasons.
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