Is Duke that good or was it the game of their season

[Tony DeFranco]

They really played well - hitting timely shots all night and Carey and O'Connell played great - every time it looked like we could get right back in it they made a big shot - yeah, I know Hughes didn't have a good game and Buddy got locked up by superior athletes but we played well enough to win

 

[FloridaFan]

Shot like 22 percent better FT’s then normal. That was 11 extra points.

 

[TinyManInside]

They really played well - hitting timely shots all night and Carey and O'Connell played great - every time it looked like we could get right back in it they made a big shot - yeah, I know Hughes didn't have a good game and Buddy got locked up by superior athletes but we played well enough to win

They’re not that great but the ACC is garbage this year so in comparison they look good.

 

[PauliePeppas]

I know for sure it was Oconnells best game...mister 5 ppg against everyone else

 

[Zelda Zonk]

They’re not that good, but they’re solid all around. Carey was beastly.
We still don’t have enough talent/athleticism, so not hitting from 3 made it way too difficult to overcome some obvious disadvantages. Crazy game, though, to score so many points yet our main three still seemed to struggle to get anything easy.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

They had 19 turnovers ...otherwise the way they shot, they’d have won by 20

 

[CorduroyG]

They had 19 turnovers ...otherwise the way they shot, they’d have won by 20

they were on their way to winning by 20. but we went trunk monkey, sped up the game, got a couple turnovers and hit some 3s down the stretch to make the score more respectable. but at no point in the 2nd half did i think we were winning that game.

 

[syrBossHogg]

Shot like 22 percent better FT’s then normal. That was 11 extra points.

Even if they shot 77% from the FT line, which is still well above their average as a team for the season, it could've been a one possession game at the end.

Credit to them

 

[cuseattle]

they were on their way to winning by 20. but we went trunk monkey, sped up the game, got a couple turnovers and hit some 3s down the stretch to make the score more respectable. but at no point in the 2nd half did i think we were winning that game.

The press was pretty effective. More please.

 

[cuseguy]

We were just trading baskets the last 3-4 minutes. I wouldn’t get too hyped about our 88 points. We just couldn’t stop them. They’re jus a lot more talented than us.

 

[EnviroSciGuy]

Their free throws this evening were a huge statistical outlier, but that's why they play the game...

 

[SUOrangeSU]

Buddy of mine who is a HUGE duke fanboy said if Duke shot their normal FT%, we would have won. Take it FWIW

 

[CorduroyG]

We were just trading baskets the last 3-4 minutes. I wouldn’t get too hyped about our 88 points. We just couldn’t stop them. They’re jus a lot more talented than us.

i feel like they either scored, got fouled or turned it over every possession the last 25-30 minutes. very few times did they miss a shot and we got the rebound. literally could not stop them.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

The press was pretty effective. More please.

It’s effective and then It’s not once they adjusted .. we should have called it off down 5

 

[orangezen]

we need more monkey

 

[hungrychuck]

They have better athletes and better basketball players.

That’s a tough combination to overcome.

 

[orange79]

They had 19 turnovers ...otherwise the way they shot, they’d have won by 20

It's tough to play that game.

If we shoot our normal 3 pt percentage, we score 9 more points. Then the game is a tossup.

 

[jdubs30]

Buddy of mine who is a HUGE duke fanboy said if Duke shot their normal FT%, we would have won. Take it FWIW

Duke shoots 68% from the line in ACC play. They were at 88% last night. We shoot 77% from the line in ACC play. We shot 76% last night.

 

[jdubs30]

I think the bigger issue for us (besides the missed 3s) -

Duke had 12 offensive rebounds, we had 14 defensive rebounds. We had 2 guys who each played 40 minutes that got 1 defensive rebound each. Every time Duke missed a shot they got it back half the time. Just too give to a good offensive team.

Duke shot 67% from 2pt, which is absurd. They are an ACC-best 58% from there during ACC play. Were also the 2nd worst team in defending the paint, allowing opponents to make 52% from there, only Miami is worse. But that’s 10% higher than their average combined with 20% higher from the line. Duke actually came into the game #1 in defending the 3 during conference play (29%).

 

[Chip]

They’re not that great but the ACC is garbage this year so in comparison they look good.

They're going to look really good against teams with no interior defense.

 

[kingtidge]

I know for sure it was Oconnells best game...mister 5 ppg against everyone else

Anatomy of classic syracuse loss...

Some yeoman, low point scoring opposing player breaks out of nowhere with a huge, career performance and we have zero plan b to adjust tactically.

Both losses this week fall into this category, tho duke was simply the better team of course.

Clemson we should have won if we could have adjusted better... That one was there for the taking and hurts.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

Anatomy of classic syracuse loss...

Some yeoman, low point scoring opposing player breaks out of nowhere with a huge, career performance and we have zero plan b to adjust tactically.

Both losses this week fall into this category, tho duke was simply the better team of course.

Clemson we should have won if we could have adjusted better... That one was there for the taking and hurts.

So what adjustments would you have made in each of those two games?

 

[721Comstock]

So what adjustments would you have made in each of those two games?

He would have stopped that Random Bench Guy from scoring a lot - duh!

 

[kingtidge]

So what adjustments would you have made in each of those two games?

We all know the adjustment needed when a team effectively rips apart the zone from top or mid-key position and scoring from there or dishing to the baseline for open layups if the slides double you...

It's a style of defense that all other teams play but that's not in our wheelhouse.

Hence, the "classic" syracuse loss where the zone is the problem and being exploited effectively. Plan b is, oh well, no-count will have the game of his life then.

We prolly would have lost to Duke either way - they are just the better team.

Clemson was the zone-getting-exploited forcing foul trouble, no-plan-b loss that we always see a few of every season tho. It might be a little exacerbated this year as Sidibe is a fouling machine on a good night and Marek has to foul more often since he's undersized for center and has to foul more than he'd like, I'm sure

It is what it is. We've seen it plenty of times before and we'll see it again.

 

[Col. Bleep]

A lot of this cam down to free throws.
We shot about our average...but Buddy Boeheim missing 2 of 3 after he got fouled on a 3-point shot really hurt.
Joe Girard missing two in one game.
And Duke hitting almost everything from the line.

When you play a team with better all around talent you've got to make free throws.