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Message: [QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 5674129, member: 405"] The starters kept it close for the first 12 minutes. Everyone was too timid on offense at the start, except JJ, who got our first 5, or maybe our first 7 points. But then nobody else was brave enough to try to score, and so he had to take 2 or 3 shots at the end of the clock, which predictably were misses. Donnie settled for 3's all game long (until it was no longer 'a game'), because they were simply too big for him inside, and he got intimidated. Period. He only took 4 shots in the whole first half, and I'm pretty sure all of them were threes. George avoided turnovers for most of the first half, but he clearly felt the ball pressure from Duke's bigger athletes. He couldn't really get us into any offense. (Eventually, he gave up 4 TO's, most of which came early in the 2nd half, when they blew it out.) When the starters came out at the 12 minute mark of the 1st half, they were down 2, I believe. When the "Second Line" (Soare, Betsey, Sadiq and Kiyan) game in, Duke outscored us 14-3 in 4 minutes, and then the starters were back in. The starters got it down to 5 with about 3 minutes to go in the first half, but we couldn't get good shots, and we couldn't stop them from scoring inside. Our two "big men" look like SFs next to the Duke players. Kingz took a while to get going, but he gave us his best to try to keep us in the game. Kyle was a beast, and has so much heart. But we just couldn't defend. Nobody had the courage to try to score, except JJ, Kyle, Kingz, and in moments George did score. But man, Donnie is too soft. He's a SF. That was a physical game. We held our own early. Kyle had a couple blocks and we did pretty well on the defensive boards in the first 10 minutes. But Donnie played the whole game - and didn't get to the foul line ONCE. Not ONCE. That's soft. Kyle is great, but we need a 240 pound guy to guard the low post. I thought we got that in Cheffy Diawara (sp), but he hasn't played at all. If you're going to build a roster, you are not going to compete at the top table without some size on interior defense. I said this in the preseason, and many of you said, "That's not the game, anymore. Teams don't need dominant big men. Guards dominate the game today." The North Carolina and Duke games disagree with you. If somehow, we could keep most of this roster together under a new coach, I still think there is a bunch of talent in this group. [/QUOTE]

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