The Downside - Duke II

[SWC75]

- We lost the game because of those scoring droughts that have plagued us all season. We scored on a lay-up by Buddy Boeheim to make it 52-53 with 12:06 left. We didn’t score again until Marek Dolezaj made a lay-up with 7:09 left, a span of 4 minutes and 57 seconds. We were still playing well enough on defense and on the boards to still be very much in it at that point, 54-58, but we could have taken the lead and maybe taken over the game by that point because we’d held Duke to only 5 points in span. When we hit another bald spot at 56 and Duke went on a 7-0 run from 6:43 to 4:28, (2 mines and 15 seconds), the game had slipped away. Duke is going to score and if you expect to beat them, you have to keep scoring, too. We didn’t and we lost.

- It wasn’t that we couldn’t get any shots. We had to work hard for them but the majority of Syracuse’ shots down the stretch of this game were makeable shots, whether 3’s or lay-ups. We just didn’t make them. The players were clearly pressing as the game slipped away and they probably would have made those same shots earlier in the game but couldn’t do it when they absolutely had to. We missed 18 of our last 21 shots.

- We’ve had teams that had trouble making free throws when trying to preserve a lead but this year we’ve missed more free throws than I can ever remember when we were trying to make comebacks. After Battle made two free throws with 2:58 left to pull us to within 5 at 60-65, Battle and Brissett missed 4 of 6 free throws. Those four points might not seem like much in a 10 point loss but they impacted the strategy in the final minutes: we had to press, we had to foul, we had to attempt three pointers sooner and more often than we might have had to do. Those are things that don’t usually work but you have to try them when you are desperate. With through four free throws, we didn’t need to be desperate that soon.

- I think all the work had to do to get makeable shots down the stretch impacted our rebounding. Duke was just a little quicker to the ball and got to 19 of 30 rebounds in the last 10 minutes of the game. SU got 29 of 54 rebounds before that.

- The refs let ‘em play, especially if they were Duke. The Blue Devils were called for one foul in the first 19 minutes and 45 seconds of the first half before Joey Baker, who had NOT PLAYED IN A GAME ALL SEASON, was sent in by Coach K to repeatedly foul Frank Howard in those final 15 seconds, a strategy he was able to pursue precisely because only one foul was called in the first 19:45. Frank finally decided to force up a shot 35 feet from the basket the next time he was fouled. The refs refused to recognize it as a shooting foul to franks’ consternation, as well as that of the coach and 35,642 others. Finally Frank managed to drive past Baker, who chased him to basket and fouled him to prevent the lay-up. Frank ended the half with two free throws and justice finally prevailed.

- Alex O’Connell gets the Kyle Kuric award for playing like an All-American against Syracuse and like a walk-on against everyone else. In 24 games against everyone else, O’Connell is 28 for 69, (.406) from the field, including 14 for 44 from the three point line (.318) and is averaging 3.5 points per game. In two games against Syracuse he is 11/18 (.611), 9/16 (.563) and is scoring 18.0 ppg.

- I really thought we were going to do it.

 

[bballbeadle]

I thought we were going to do it, too. I honestly didn’t know what to expect. A win? A blow out loss? I felt very comfortable in the first half but in the second half when we got down by 6, it seemed the game got away from us. I felt calm then. I continued to cheer, etc. but I felt we were going to lose the game in my heart, and I didn’t feel too badly about it. Beating a #1 team twice? It’s hard to do.

I liked that most of the crowd stayed until the very end and stood and clapped when the game was over. It speaks so well of this community that people seemed to understand that this was about more than a game.

I had my own excitement when the woman behind me fell on top of me and I strategically fell against the strapping young man in front of me, rather than his frailer mother. I was okay and the woman apologized profusely. Don’t think she was drunk but they were students who weren’t supposed to be sitting in our section and the usher kicked them out. It caused quite the buzz and the usher was beside himself, making me talk to a medical person. I was fine. I always worry about falling walking to and from the game, but never thought I would fall IN the game!

 

[SWC75]

I thought we were going to do it, too. I honestly didn’t know what to expect. A win? A blow out loss? I felt very comfortable in the first half but in the second half when we got down by 6, it seemed the game got away from us. I felt calm then. I continued to cheer, etc. but I felt we were going to lose the game in my heart, and I didn’t feel too badly about it. Beating a #1 team twice? It’s hard to do.

I liked that most of the crowd stayed until the very end and stood and clapped when the game was over. It speaks so well of this community that people seemed to understand that this was about more than a game.

I had my own excitement when the woman behind me fell on top of me and I strategically fell against the strapping young man in front of me, rather than his frailer mother. I was okay and the woman apologized profusely. Don’t think she was drunk but they were students who weren’t supposed to be sitting in our section and the usher kicked them out. It caused quite the buzz and the usher was beside himself, making me talk to a medical person. I was fine. I always worry about falling walking to and from the game, but never thought I would fall IN the game!

I once had a woman who must have weighed 400 pound fall on me and she tried to leave. She couldn't get up and I couldn't lift her off me. the ushers had to get her back on her feet with great difficulty. it took several minutes and I thought I was going to die at my seat, crushed to death. I'm over-weigh as many of us are but I vowed it would never get that bad and it hasn't.

Last night I got out to my car in Manley South and was accosted by guy who sounded drunk who thought it was his car. he asked me "Is there more than one C2?" He said he wasn't from around here so he may have been a Duke fan. I hope he got home OK.