Will Coach K let Okafor single cover Rak

[jordoo]

Haha. Last night's game was fun and good to see some players improve but let's not kid ourselves. That's some of the worst perimeter D I have ever seen and one of the most unathletic BC teams or ACC teams I have seen in quite some time except for the stocky guy who had some dunks. Shows how little respect the BC coach (and others) have for the rest of the team if they are going to send the house over to Rak. Nice to see Joseph getting to some open spots but those aren't going to be there imo moving forward. Still, he took advantage. Roberson, good lord. Good to see BJ make some shots. Keep on chuckin'! Mike has been really steady and solid. First half we need guys cutting quicker and more aware of what is happening to Rak. A competent team scores 40+ on those guys in the 1H. We were stuck on 23 with over 6:00 left in the 1H...oy.

No doubt BC sucks and they never waivered in their failed strategy of committing at least 2 defenders to Rak at all time. (And by committing I mean letting whomever the 2nd guy was supposed to be guarding go right by with the bounce.) Still the fact that Kaleb took great advantage of it is a change from what we have seen from him since the Nova game where he seemed to have decided to shut down the aggressiveness. Also he actually attacked the basket with a burst and finished with power. He took a step forward and even if it simply means teams pay more attention to him it helps.

 

[Trueblue25]

Why am I getting myself excited for this game. LGO, duke.

 

[SoBeCuse]

No doubt BC sucks and they never waivered in their failed strategy of committing at least 2 defenders to Rak at all time. (And by committing I mean letting whomever the 2nd guy was supposed to be guarding go right by with the bounce.) Still the fact that Kaleb took great advantage of it is a change from what we have seen from him since the Nova game where he seemed to have decided to shut down the aggressiveness. Also he actually attacked the basket with a burst and finished with power. He's took a step forward and even if it simply means teams pay more attention to him it helps.

No question he reacted better and saw the floor and what was happening sharper. Good stuff.

 

[tbonezone]

K will undoubtably double raxmas and shadow cooney. who wouldn't ? let the shakiest guns in the east beat you from outside. i'm praying that K does indeed flip his D for at least a few possessions just to show JB that it can be done.

 

[Cusefan0307]

The real question is does K zone us with our zone? Duke is not a good Man to Man defensive team. I think we will score some points Saturday, but can we stop Duke? In most of our recent losses our biggest problem has been our Defense and getting key defensive stops. (Pitt, Unc, Miami)

 

[SoBeCuse]

The real question is does K zone us with our zone? Duke is not a good Man to Man defensive team. I think we will score some points Saturday, but can we stop Duke? In most of our recent losses our biggest problem has been our Defense and getting key defensive stops. (Pitt, Unc, Miami)

Duke can be a good M2M if they want to be. They have showed it at times and have the athletes to do so. If they decide to clamp down on us they will. I don't think we have enough guys who can beat them off the dribble in most situations. I say play as many bodies as you can in this one (Chino too!) and see what happens.

 

[Full_Rebar]

What makes you think Winslow can't cover Mike?

I don't think too many college players can stop him from getting to the basket. He's a very tough cover from the top of the key. I'd expect Duke to zone so they can collapse on Rak and they will live with Joseph and Mike taking 3's.

 

[SWC75]

Would be an awful mistake by K.

Anyone want to go ahead and name off the centers Rak has covered in his career?

I've seen Rak, time after time, been thrown up to cover "superior talent" and hold his own.

This is a guy that, thank you again Fabricio, was thrown to the wolves his freshman year and had to guard Sully in the elite eight.

I trust in Rak, he's the least of my worries.

I keep thinking of Rony Seikaly vs. JR Reid. Vitale said that Reid would "make Seikaly cry". Ronnie countered by pointing out he'd gone up against Patrick Ewing and David Robinson. How was Reid going to make him cry?

 

[ClamOtto]

I think they definitely zone us. We can't shoot, have never shown much ability to beat a zone (ironically), and their M2M isn't good this year. Wow, will the announcers have a field day with K using JB's zone against him. Of course they'll present it as another sign of K's genius, when it's really kind of an obvious choice.