2018 NCAA Tournament

[Slap the Floor]

Azubuike is a foul machine. If anyone wants to look at a recent game which will mostly resemble Duke, go watch the Kansas- Seton Hall game. Angel Delgado had 24 points and 23 rebounds. Kansas was frequently double teaming in the post when Azubuike was NOT in the game. When he was in the game, he played Delagdo straight up and beat him routinely, including getting him to foul out because Azubuike is a foul machine. Seton Hall played some 2-3 zone in the first half due to foul trouble.

In 22 minutes against Seton Hall, he had 4 fouls, 4-5 for 10 points, 7rebounds, and 2-4 from FT line. Against Clemson he played 25 minutes, fouled out, had 14 and 11 on 7-9 from the field, and 0-2 from the FT line. When he plays he is effective, but he does get a lot of easy buckets because of the penetration ability from the Kansas guards- which will hopefully neutralized by our guards. His biggest threat to us is probably on the offensive glass, but if we get him in early foul trouble it will take care of that.

Carter is much better than Azubuike. I don't think they "cancel" each other out. If Azubuike is guarding either Carter or Bagley and Kansas isn't in a zone or triangle & 2, we should just pull either one to the elbow, clear out and let them go one on one. He has slow feet and can't stay in front of Bags/Carter and this will increase his percentages of getting into early foul trouble.

 

[dukeboy911]

FWIW, in the Elite Eight Coach K is 12-2.

In the Elite Eight, Bill Self is 2-5 and 1-3 against top 25 opponents in the E8.

That's good to see. Hopefully Ol Bill feels the pressure tomorrow.

 

[Slap the Floor]

FWIW, in the Elite Eight Coach K is 12-2.

In the Elite Eight, Bill Self is 2-5 and 1-3 against top 25 opponents in the E8.

That's good to see. Hopefully Ol Bill feels the pressure tomorrow.

However, Bill Self is 5-1 against the ACC in the NCAAT.

 

[dukeboy911]

^I figure the context of the game (ie chance to go to the Final 4) trumps the type of conference a specific team plays in. Hopefully Bill's nerves get the best of him.

 

[StopThePumpFakesShav]

That he is 5-1 in the NCAAT against the ACC, all but one game of which occurred in prior years, is about as meaningless of a stat as there is.

 

[Devilsforlife]

Interesting stat: Duke hasn't beaten a higher seeded team in the NCAA Tournament since the 1994 Elite Eight, going 0-4 since then. Amazing that we've only been the lower seeded team four (now five) times in NCAAT games in nearly 25 years.

The four losses:

1994 National Championship - (1) Arkansas 76, (2) Duke 72
2003 Sweet 16 - (2) Kansas 69, (3) Duke 65
2013 Elite Eight - (1) Louisville 85, (2) Duke 63
2016 Sweet 16 - (1) Oregon 82, (4) Duke 68

Duke is 1-4 overall against 1-seeds during that timeframe, losing to UConn in the 1999 title game, and beating Wisconsin in 2015, in addition to the aforementioned three losses.

 

[sjsj2448]

Rooting for Loyola (+1) and FSU (+4) tonight because I want the biggest spread possible for the natty champer.

 

[Devilsforlife]

Rooting for Loyola (+1) and FSU (+4) tonight because I want the biggest spread possible for the natty champer.

Rooting interests are pretty obvious from here. Loyola, FSU, Texas Tech, and Duke. Lots of heads will explode if those four comprise the FF.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

What you post here can end up being shamed on Deadspin:

 

[CK86]

Maybe Duke should play Alex.

He was making everything during warm ups. It's impossible to overstate how small he is weight wise. He looked like an oversized middle schooler playing on a varsity team. If he's more than 150 lbs I'd actually be legit stunned.

 

[Slap the Floor]

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/jim-boeheim-is-the-new-king-of-march-madness/

1.) Boeheim
2.) Izzo
3.) Roy
4. Calipari
5.) Calhoun
6.) Massimino
7.) Coach K
8.) Rick Pitino
9.) John Beilein
10.) Rick Majerus
11.) Billy Donovan
12.) Brad Stevens
13.) Denny Crum
14.) Thomas penders
15.) Frank Martin

 

[bdotling]

Rooting for Loyola (+1) and FSU (+4) tonight because I want the biggest spread possible for the natty champer.

Rooting interests are pretty obvious from here. Loyola, FSU, Texas Tech, and Duke. Lots of heads will explode if those four comprise the FF.

K State is worse than Loyola

 

[Devilsforlife]

Rooting for Loyola (+1) and FSU (+4) tonight because I want the biggest spread possible for the natty champer.

Rooting interests are pretty obvious from here. Loyola, FSU, Texas Tech, and Duke. Lots of heads will explode if those four comprise the FF.

K State is worse than Loyola

I want to see Duke beat Loyola in the title game with Grayson tripping their old nun out of her wheelchair, as DSon said on chat. Plus they actually beat us in the Final Four in 1963, so it would be nice to get revenge for that loss 55 years later.

 

[aiw]

If Michigan wins this game, it will be the battle of the cripples in the Final Four. If Duke gets to the championship game, we will definitely lose and get blamed when the cripple gets trampled.

 

[aiw]

The fucking wet ass, spring Durham snow has fucked up my DirecTv signal and I can't see the game all of the sudden.

 

[DrKlahn]

I'm trying to figure out why Michigan suddenly has the best defense in the country and all I can come up with is that Beilein, after years of not caring about opponent 3's, is now completely obsessed with them. Michigan's historical defensive 3PA/FGA rank under Beilein:

201
195
154
299
187
194
107
215
218
9
6

Meanwhile, the second best defense in the country owes its success to a 71 year old coach suddenly deciding he doesn't care about opponent 3's. During the same 11-year period, here's Duke:

2
5
11
5
3
24
4
15
20
10
133

The lesson here is if you want good defense, just do the opposite of what you've always been doing.

 

[aiw]

The George Protocol

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

In all seriousness, that was probably the main drawback of the zone that was keeping K from committing to it through years and years of bad man to man.

 

[dukeboy911]

Come on noles

 

[rome8180]

Opponents still can't hit their threes against us. Allowing opponents to take a lot of shots they can't make seems like a good strategy.