Prior to turning the page to the Elite 8, hats off to Roy and Luke Maye.
Turned a fringe top 100 player into a champion and all-conference guy. Good kid who is a throwback to a forgotten age of college hoops.
Best of luck to him in the future.
On February 8th, 2012 Austin Rivers knocked down a buzzer beater at the Dean Dome to win.
On February 8th, 2020 Tre Jones knocked one down to go to overtime and Wendell Moore followed up with one in overtime to win it.
Thank the basketball gods.
No, not because UNC is losing though that’s part of it. The reason is that we don’t have to worry about a Duke-UNC final.
Because I do NOT want that. Ever.
UNC admin: “We’re not going to do anything to honor K. No gifts, nothing.”
Hubert: “Let’s start the game by covering Banchero with Bacot and then let’s have Manek try to guard AJ Griffin”
UNC admin: “we said no gifts"
It's worth noting that UK heavily recruited Barrett, Williamson, and Reddish. Missed on all three. He did get a good look at them last year as Duke won by 34. Duke then put three kids in the top 10 of the draft before this guy was able to show up at 12.
More power to him
We don’t promote two guys and push everyone else to the curb. This is about all these kids becoming their best version. As this team succeeds, we all become our best version. BIG TEAM, BETTER ME. And yes, we trademarked that.
Hey, it occurs to me….
Duke can win true road games. Even without going to powerhouses like Wofford and Elon in the pre-ACC schedule.
Impressive to do so with such incredible early tests.
State has flipped a switch and earned a final four berth.
Duke’s inconsistency was ultimately their undoing.
Lots of interesting roster decisions coming up.
Priority 1,2, and 3 should be getting McCain to consider a super sophomore year.
Flips gone. Some bench…
Getting a sophomore season from McCain should really be Scheyer's top priority right now.
Make him Luke Kennard next year. And find a big in the portal.
Capel will likely win it (and should) but Scheyer has a case for COY:
23-8 overall
14-6 in ACCC
Should be at least 24-7 if not 25-6 (thanks ACC officials in Virginia)
Did it with 11 new players. 1 returner with experience. 7 freshmen.
His team defends and competes.
Coach K says defense will be this team’s calling card and identity…
Through two games Duke has forced 46 turnovers.
Through those same two games, Duke opponents have made 41 field goals.
Worth noting….
Duke has lost once all year long when all four freshmen are available and playing. That loss was by two to Gonzaga.
They’ve gone 3-1 against the top seeds with their freshmen available.
They couldn’t shoot for most of the year. FTs too. Still, one loss
Duke was in the double bonus before the shot was taken. Some clips of Proctor’s drive.
And then one of Mitchell winning the jump for the ball and being Joe Montana to Hall’s LT.
What’s wrong with Cameron Indoor Stadium and this Duke team?
We looked at some advanced stats via Torvik and here’s some shocking data:
At Home Duke’s offensive efficiency ranks
#8
while defense eff was 95th.
On the Road and Neutral:
Off was
#1
and Def was
#8
Duke has almost assuredly secured the top recruiting class in the country for the class of 2023.
And we haven’t even started the first weekend of the 2023 recruiting cycle.
@JonScheyer
is on a historically absurd recruiting run these days.
This is the kind of game where K would get back to Cameron and locker rooms would be locked.
So how does Scheyer handle this? He has some real questions to ask of his three sophomore starters.
With the commitment of five star PG Tyrese Proctor, Duke’s 2023 recruiting haul has a score of 68.88.
If they add Mackenzie Mgbako tomorrow afternoon….it’ll be a 70.39.
That’s better than Memphis in 2021, Kentucky in 2020, Memphis in 2019. Just shy of Duke in 2022.