COACH K COMMENTS ON DUKE DEBACLE

I was on Duke tonight/last night for a variety of reasons. 1st off I believed they were the superior team at every position and when a team is giving 11-12 pts they essentially have to outscore their opponent by 1pt every 3 minutes. Shouldn't be too hard being a superior team?? Secondly, I looked at the past games for St. Johns at home against "Duke caliber" teams and they were all close games in the 1st half, but got outscored by DD in the 2nd half. Duke should be able to do the same thing, right? Granted they never got beat by more than 14 at home, but it was the 2nd half let downs which triggered me.

Third, I knew that Duke is notorious for getting out to fast starts and with the exception of WF, Clemson and Miami (I guess you can throw Michigan in there too) they had held true to form all season and the Johnnies aren't WF, Clemson or Miami. After the Miami game, they got back to Duke ball and getting out to fast starts leading NC by 8 at half and BC by 5 at the half. Where they stumbled was the 2nd half. They couldn't "finish". I was pretty confident they were going to come out strong like they always do and be up at least 8-10pts at the break tonight. They did just that leading by 11. The next thing that I was counting on was Coach K to get his team to "finish" the game and play a full 40 mins. I thought that would be a point of emphasis being they just dropped 2 games b/c they couldn't "finish". And against St. John's they should have been able to do that for 3 reasons....1) St. John's had a tendency to falter in the 2nd half against superior competition, 2) They shoot pretty decent from the line and have numerous ball handlers to protect the ball and 3) They are simply better and what better way to get back on track then playing a full 40 minutes against an inferior St. John's team?!

They should have been able to slowly stretch their 11 point lead in the 2nd half while playing sound basketball but keeping their foot on the pedal. And they did that for the first 10 minutes...they slowly built a 16pt lead and looked like they were starting to take control. THEN...they completely shit the bed! They made 4 fg's in the last 10:02 and 0 fg's after the 4 minute mark. Their last FG came with 4:02 I believe. And they only attempted 2 fg's after that! They were still up 14 with 3:15 left and then got outscored 14-7 while making 5 of their next 10 FT attempts. ONLY 3 of 8 between the 0:51 second mark and 22 second mark....not putting it out of reach. It was Henderson 1-2 (75%), Scheyer 1-4 (85%) and Singler 1-2 (71%) taking the FT's too! Their failure to convert at the line allowed the Johnnies to drive and get quick, fairly easy and uncontested 2's . They didn't need 3's, but if Duke had hit the FT's the Johnnies would have had to launch them, most likely missing and allowing Duke to extend a "should have been" 11-12pt lead out to 13-14 with about 20 seconds to play. From there it would have been up to fate I suppose, but the lack of aggressiveness and inability to finish from the 10 minute mark was the downfall and even more so from the 4 minute markl!!

Since this is now becoming a trend with this Duke team...especially on the road...I firmly believe this team will drop at least 3 of their last 5 games. I don't see them winning at VT which will be their 4th game in 9 days, 2nd road game in a row and their 3rd road game of that 4 game stretch. Not to mention VT looking for revenge and being "on the bubble". I don't see them winning in Chapel Hill the last game of the season for obvious reasons. And I don't think they can sweep WF at home, Maryland away (3rd game in 6 days, game after WF, with Mary in a revenge spot and possibly still being in contention for an at large bid) and lastly FSU at home who will be fighting tooth and nail for a higher seed. I see them dropping at least 1 of those games due to their lack of focus, inability to put teams away, situational and motivational factors all strongly favoring their opposition. Their last home game against FSU might favor Duke situationally since I believe it will be Senior Day and their last home game, but aside from that things don't look pretty for this team.

Sorry for the rant, but this game really, really pissed me off! Could it have been because they were looking ahead to Wake? Possibly, but a first half let down would have been more likely if that were the case. Could it be the fix was on and they shut it down at the 10 minute mark and just plain quit shooting the ball the last 4 minutes and decided to hit 50% from the line when the guys shooting it were far better than that? Doubt it, I don't believe it was fixed. I believe it is b/c this team just is not mentally tough enough. After seeing this team fail to "finish" yet again I cannot find any other reason. They have talent. They have coaching. They just don't have it mentally.

With the exception of the Miami (4-8 in the ACC, 10th place) comeback and OT win...ever since the WF loss this team doesn't seem to have the confidence down the stretch. They play not to lose instead of putting teams away. Ya, they put away Virginia (3-8 in the ACC, 11th place) after the WF loss, but we're talking about Virginia and it was in Cameron. Same goes for Miami. They are a decent team, but 4-8 in the ACC and in 10th place. Those are teams Duke SHOULD beat by DD at home! Put this team on the road in a pressure situation down the stretch and they have proven time and again they will fold. See 4 road losses....Michigan, Clemson, BC, and WF. Also see FSU where they blew a 19pt lead with 9 minutes to go. Were up 13 with 3:20 left and were only up 6 with 20 seconds left. SOUND FAMILIAR???!!! As a matter of fact, the only road game this side of Christmas that Duke has extended their lead after the 10 minute mark in the 2nd half was against GT...who consequently is 1-11 and in last place in the ACC! FADE THIS TEAM ON THE ROAD BOYS!