Duke goes down to West Virginia 73-67

Posted On: March 22, 2008 By: Cliff Comments: (more)

The season ended for the Duke Blues in the second round of the NCAA tournament as the lost to West Virginia 73-67.  Duke played a good first half as they took a five point lead into the locker room, but in the second half they could not make a bucket, and forgot what their lockdown defense was.

The three point shots were not falling for the Blue Devils. After hitting two of them early in the game, then went on a 0-15 streak from beyond the arc.  I thought around the 6-7 minute range, they were pressing too much and jacking up three point shots when they could have continued driving to the basket and picking up fouls.   Maybe it would have been a little bit closer of a game atleast.

It sucks to see Senior DeMarcus Nelson go out like this.  He played a terrible tournament and will take a lot of crap for his gameplay and the way Duke played.  We all know Nelson is a lot better player then he showed late in the season.

All in all, I wish we could have seen the Blue Devils advance but I figured it was a long shot the way they had been playing lately.  Nelson is the lone Senior that the team will lose, so the Blue Devils will have a lot of experience coming back.  That can only take you so far though, they need to get a big man to play downlow if they want to get any better.

We will continue blogging during the off-season and hope you continue to come and leave comments.  Stay strong Duke fans.

Category: Duke Basketball, Duke Basketball Game Notes

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19 Responses to “Duke goes down to West Virginia 73-67”

1. Don't Like Duke Says:
   March 22nd, 2008 at 2:12 am

   Good! It’s always a good day when the Dukies lose

2. John J. Says:
   March 22nd, 2008 at 2:16 am

   Yeah, definitely, a good day. I guess the almost loss to Belmont wasn’t a fluke but showing how lousy this Duke team really is. It’s too bad that they didn’t lose to Belmont and have to live with that infamy.

3. alayna Says:
   March 22nd, 2008 at 2:22 am

   I think the seeding committee needs to re-evaluate their work. Should Duke have deserved a #2 seed if they barely eked out a victory against the 15-seed (friggin’ belmont!) and then lost to the #7 seed? Probably not, just riding on their reputation.

4. Amanda Says:
   March 22nd, 2008 at 3:54 am

   Even though the season ended badly for Duke and the fans, one thing no one can ever take from us is our team spirit and the love we all share during the basketball seasons. Duke is always #1 because we have heart and deep love for this game.No other college has anything close to this. Next season we will prevail as we often have in the past many times.

5. Justin Says:
   March 22nd, 2008 at 5:45 am

   Amanda – that sounds like a bunch of crap, “Duke is always #1 because we have heart and deep love for this game.” I think you’re only #1 when you win something, like the tournament; not when you go out in the 2nd round. Sorry, you may have grown up getting a trophy just because you played and they wanted to make everyone feel good, win or lose. But this is the real world. You just have to face facts, regardless of how much you love your team.

6. Joel Says:
   March 22nd, 2008 at 9:42 pm

   I have been a Duke fan since the early eighties. I have seen Coach K and his players work their magic against formidable opposition. He has devised brilliant game plans over the years. He denied Shaq the entry pass and they beat the Tigers. He shut Glenn Robinson down by putting Grant Hill on him and enforcing good help defense on their run to the title game against Arkansas. He does not make excuses and he loves his players. You have got to love him for that. However, the most disappointing thing of recent years is Coach K’s inability to make adjustments. Pressure man to man does not work with every team we play. Zone defense is a viable option that is rarely explored. Instead, we continue to overplay and get beat by back door play or some speedy guard off the dribble. We have seen this story play out over and over again. We play one style of basketball. That style does not match our personnel in some critical games. We are not athletic enough to play man to man on every single opponent. Our players are smart enough to run an effective zone when a zone is appropiate. Defense is the key to success. We focused on this Phoenix style offense(exciting offense) but why did we not emphasize more defensive packages? You can rely on solid defense and offensively shots can be hard to come by if you are cold. We learned that lesson against LSU, VCU and now West Virginia!
   Zoubek is awful because he is not being trained to be a big man by our coaching staff. How is Wojo going to teach Zoubek how to be a post up player? Where is the player development? Wojo should be ashamed of his final product. Zoubek is no different now then he was from the day he walked onto Duke’s campus. Does it not bother him to here people say that Duke has no inside identity when he stands 7′1″
   and the paint is his territory? Where is the pride? I see a kid who could be a totally different player next season if he wanted to change. If he remains healthy this off-season he should go after it. If the staff will not develop his skills then go to a big man camp or something. Get a personal basketball trainer. Reinvent yourself. How was he suppose to be the next Mike Gminski if he is not developed?
   Our struggles are not completely a result of us not having a big man of importance. A basketball team can win or lose games in many phases of a game. We are not the best rebounding team usually. Is it because of our size? is it because we shoot the long ball? Is it from lack of desire? I don’t know. Their may be some fundamental reason why we don’t rebound better. What I do know is that for our lack of rebounding we can make up for it by not turning the ball over. In our losses this year, we did not protect the ball well. A lot of turnovers were unforced(bad passes, travelling, etc.) We are a turnover machine these days.
   What about Taylor King? Are we going to lose another talented player because he spends more time on the bench than on the floor?
   I love Duke basketball. I love Durham. I love K but where is the flexibility in schemes? Where is the intelligence from years of experience. The glory years are in the past. When the ball is thrown into the air, we still have to lace ‘em up like everyone else. Do K’s understudies(JD,Wojo,Collins) bring anything to the table different? Sometimes a different point of view brings untapped perspective that could enhance what is already a good thing(Duke Basketball). When K coached USA, they said he learned a new offense, a new zone defense, and he became accustomed to playing a deeper bench. As the season progressed, all of the new material disappeared and we went back to the usual which hasn’t worked since 2001. I actually don’t feel that we have to win titles year after year to validate ourselves. Just want to see player development and intelligent coaching decisions. I don’t think when I see a game unfold that this is a well-coached team. It rarely crosses my mind. All I see is pressure defense and three point shooting. When it works it looks great. What do we adjust to when it does not work? I never see us exploit weaknesses like coaches exploit our weaknesses. Coaching is about exploiting weaknesses , playing to your strengths and recognizing your weaknesses and masking them. Did anyone realize that Hansborough was shaking in his boots when Kyle Singler was facing the basket 15 feet away? Kyle could easily get him into foul trouble with his face up game.

7. Jeff Says:
   March 22nd, 2008 at 11:37 pm

   After graduating from Duke in the early 80s I moved to the Midwest and have been here in Bloomington, IN almost 20 years, so I follow both Duke and IU b-ball pretty closely (though much more a fan of Duke), and there have been a lot of similarities between these two teams’ seasons this year. Both did really well for the majority of the season and were ranked in the top 10 most of the year (IU was something like 20-3 and Duke was 21-1). And IU wound up losing five of their last 10 and four of their last five, while Duke went 7-5 over their last 12 games. What happened?

   I won’t go into what happened with IU too much since this is a Duke blog, but basically some of them kind of fell apart after their coach was (deservedly) fired and stopped playing hard, made poor decisions, etc. In Duke’s case, well, the most obvious problem was being so reliant on the 3-point shot and then shooting it very poorly from long range in several of the late-season games. (Similarly, IU’s leading scorer Eric Gordon shot something like 18% from 3-point range the last 10 games of the season.) Add to that the silly fouls and general freshman mistakes of Singler, inconsistency on defense (great in the first half yesterday, not so great in the second half or in a number of late-season games), and it added up to five late-season losses.

   And let’s face it, this isn’t the most talented Duke team ever. They rely on the 3-point shot which is a strength for them, but they’re really not an outstanding outside shooting team, honestly. They don’t even come close to the ‘98 team with Langdon, Battier and Avery all shooting over 40% from long range and four others shooting over 30, and that team had a strong inside game and much better quickness than this team (so they were a lot more successful with pressure man-to-man). Maybe a better question than why they didn’t do well at the end of the season is: How in the world did they win 21 of their first 22 games? For most of the season, this Duke team overachieved.

8. MountaineerNation Says:
   March 23rd, 2008 at 10:56 pm

   Duke is a class act program. Although my Mountaineers basically destroyed them in the second half they kept on fighting like a national power should. Coach K and all of his players were nothing but class in the post game interviews. Gave props to his team and WVU.

   I love duke basketball and enjoy the passion that is put into that program. It felt odd to rout against them on Saturday but my allegiance follows my alma mater. Continued Success Dukies and remember your still got 3 nc titles in your pocket.

9. Harry Says:
   March 24th, 2008 at 12:38 am

   Duke and Duke fans are collective turds,nothing more nothing less. Coach K should go undefeated every year, he gets the best players in the country every year but can only beat Belmont by 1 and loses to an average WV team. Coach K is very over rated.

10. John T Says:
    March 24th, 2008 at 4:21 am

    Duke is a very GOOD team that lost to a better team on Saturday. WVU is not an average team, after all, the players had to adjust to a completely different style from last year, when they won the NIT. As for Coach K, 99% of the nation’s colleges would love to have him as their coach! If he is “over rated”, I’d like to know which college basketball coach in the USA ISN’T over rated! Grow up “Harry”

11. Reed C Says:
    March 25th, 2008 at 3:26 am

    Yes, Duke did over-achieve for the first half of the season. Still, a team with 8 McDonald’s All-Americans should not have a 1-dimensional offense. Hey, all of us (Duke alumni/fans) can use a little humility. WVU certainly gave us a big slice of that–with their play and with their mocking post-game comments. (alum, class of 1984)

12. Cliff Says:
    March 26th, 2008 at 12:46 am

    I agree with others, until Duke gets a big man to complement the guard play, there will not be another National Championship in Durham.

13. Duke grad '94 Says:
    March 26th, 2008 at 2:09 am

    I graduated with Grant in 94. I am a rabid fan, even when we lose. For the first time, I have gotten to the point where I would not be disappointed to see coach K retire or go pro. He was dreadfully outcoached by Belmont coach and Huggins. There is no denying that. I am so tired of seeing 4 guys standing around the 3 point line while our “big” man tries to run up and set a high pick. I will puke if I see another badly executed “weave” at the top of the key. Coach K, we have no player who can consistently create his own shot – can you draw up a play or two? How bout a pick and roll aware from the top of the key. How bout a back door – gimme something!
    And when you get beat off the dribble repeatedly, and you have no one who can help defensively underneath, its a broken record, but just try a zone. I am tired of seeing Paulus get posted up by a 6 foot 2 gaurd, and scheyer just plain getting beat! I think it may be time to ask brey to come back and let K take a chance with the celtics or someone!
    I pine for the final 8 – its been so long.

14. dukekicks098 Says:
    March 26th, 2008 at 9:28 pm

    Ok, all you who say “it’s a good thing that duke lost, and duke is a “fluke” can shut the fuck up. Duke is a very good team, you don’t have a 25-5 record and play in the ACC and be a team that just rides on reputation. I’m not saying that you can’t have your own opinion, but seriously are you actually going to tell yourself that Duke isn’t a good team. yes, they played like crap in the late season, and yes they have no big time inside players. But they still, even though they didn’t have much size, were one of the better teams in the country. I’m a Duke fan and I’m saying, yes, they had trouble, but to say they sucked is ridiculous.

15. Reed C Says:
    March 28th, 2008 at 11:24 pm

    Hello again. I was just reading over the comments from “Joel” and “Duke grad ‘94.” Your quotes made me think back on the 2006 tournament. In the opening round Duke had its hands full with Southern U. Why? Because their coach realized that Josh McRoberts couldn’t stay with any of Southern’s starting five. The coach spread the floor and had the person McRoberts was guarding take him off the dribble. His plan worked very well for a half. Well enough to have me scared. Talk about seeing a weakness and exploiting it!

16. Reed C Says:
    March 28th, 2008 at 11:26 pm

    Oops.. My bad… I may be getting my teams and tourneys mixed up. I was thinking of Shavlik Randolph. I am getting old. The teams and the years are running together. Can anyone help me?

17. Bill W Says:
    March 29th, 2008 at 5:14 pm

    I have to agree with Joel’s comment. This year Coack K actually started to show an ability to make adjustments by implementing the zone defense in a couple of games. It appeared to work well, yet he abanded it in the last few games of the season. For once he went to his bench and actually got some quality playing time from the # 7.8. and 9 players.
    The most disappointing thing over the last few years is the lack of recruits to have great depth on the bench. Our rivials 8 miles consistantly have continued good depth, even before Coach Williams. I do not think it takes McDonald All-Americans to build a quality bench – and it appears they do not want to stay the full four years anyway.
    I hope after Coach K’s Olympic tour, he can settle down and realize there are other defenses than man to man, other ways to score besides the 3 point shot and other player quality young men besides the McDonald’s AA.

18. Stup Says:
    April 3rd, 2008 at 7:54 am

    I feel the pain of all my loyal and long time Duke fans. We have been out coached, out hustled, and outplayed when it matters most for the past 5 years. The team changes in the beginning of the year for the better and as the season progresses we revert back to a short bench and pulling three’s all day. Sometimes it seems the players were lobotomized because they show no emotion during crunch time, when other teams like Tech and BC play physical with our stars we do nothing to defend them. I know they are coached to be robots but this has to change. UNC is developing a dynasty and quickly enlarging the gap in quality recruits, player development, and team chemistry. We can’t rebound and get pushed all over the court, our supposed leader in Demarcus was horrible the last third of the season and shouldn’t have even been on the court the last 10 mins of the WVU game, it was like 6 on 4 out there. Henderson is a beast and the only athletic player we have but just like with Maggette Coach K holds him back. Let them play, show their skills, close teams out, get the killer instinct back and fear factor back that Laetner, Hill and Hurley made Duke famous for, or were destined to be the next DePaul, Kentucky or Syracuse.

19. dook hater Says:
    July 9th, 2008 at 11:22 am

    I cant tell you how pleasing it is to see dook fans anguish about their situation. Well deserved if you ask me. The blue devils are old news. Their arrogance and inability to adapt, especially coach k’s will inevitably result in their permanent downfall. I am glad that this is happening and see a 8-20 record coming up in the near future for dook. Good times for us tar heel fans. GO UNC!

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