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[QUOTE="Cuse All-In, post: 3852302, member: 8149"]
I honestly think part of the D's problems are the machine-like precision of ND and UNC offenses - Chris Gray has transformed the UNC offense since his arrival in 2020 and Kavanagh likewise.  They immediately expose every weakness and consistently execute the high percentage play with amazing accuracy.  
I also think that Cuse has suffered a loss of confidence as a result of the ND and UNC demolitions - the players are almost waiting for something bad to happen.  I think mental and physical fatigue have also hurt them - hard to play when you're constantly under pressure and the offense has less possessions.  To add to the mix, we have looked slow against UNC and ND - we may simply lack speed or it may be a combination of all of the above.

And its not only Cuse.  I thought Duke looked a bit overwhelmed by UNC's speed and dazzling offense last Sunday.  They have a suffocating ride and seemed to have an extra gear.  Similarly, Duke had to pull off a ridiculous comeback against ND earlier when ND had simply dominated them for 3 and a half quarters.  It seems a bit hard to believe with Duke's talent, but UNC and ND have dominated them recently.  It is also safe to say that ND and UNC's defenses have been very strong, a surprise in UNC's case based on pre-season assessments.  Given the consensus view that Duke's D is stronger than ours, it shouldn't be surprising that we are losing by bigger scores.  In our one match-up with Duke, we played a very solid 2nd half defensively with Porter keeping us in the game in the first half.

One final thought - the coaches may simply not know how to deal with several blowout losses having never really had them before.  I don't get the sense that the Cuse coaches are big on motivation, psychology etc. as they have never needed to.
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