Game Thread [2022-23] at Virginia

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Saturday, February 11, 4:00pm ET, ESPN
John Paul Jones Arena

Duke can help ACC Coach of the Year candidate, Jeff Capel, win the ACC regular season by handing UVA an unexpected loss. To possibly keep this game close, let alone win, Duke will need to avoid getting massacred in the guard matchup. Duke would likely be a top 10 team in the country if it had UVA’s backcourt.

Reece Beekman is a junior whose offense has caught up a bit to his elite defense and whose draft stock has risen to the fringe 1st round. Duke fans might remember him best for hitting the game winning 3 in Cameron last season, when Duke was a double digit favorite. Kihei Clark continues to enroll in college and is unsurprisingly a good player, having spent almost five seasons in the same well-coached system. Beekman and Clark have incredibly similar advanced stats; they’re basically the same guy offensively. Both are great passers and very good 3pt shooters. Both are very bad shooters around the rim and from midrange. A defense that overaggressively chases these guards off the arc would be ideal.

In his first season as head coach, Scheyer has taken an interesting approach to road games against decent opponents. Like a rational NBA head coach dealing with frequent back to backs, Scheyer has been picking his battles and telling his whole team to take these games off from an effort and focus standpoint. While this may pay off in the long run, time is now running out for Duke to make a stronger case for NCAA Tournament seeding, and Scheyer is faced with the difficult task of motivating his team to attempt to not make a mockery of the sport.

 

[LastHearth]

I think given the thrashing they will be more focused and put up a better fight. But it won't matter as they will not beat UVA on the road.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

There are only two more of these road games against decent opponents. If Duke doesn’t discover how to compete in these until they get to Chapel Hill, it wouldn’t be the worst thing, but I believe they would have a better chance at UNC if they at least know how it feels to not play terribly in this scenario before then.

 

[rome8180]

Duke was pretty good against Clemson and VT. I guess you could argue that VT is not a decent opponent, idk.

 

[childress22]

VT, like so many teams, is waaaay the fuck tougher at home than on the road (health of Cattoor affected some of their losses, too). In addition to beating us and UVA, they had very very narrow losses to Clemson and NCSU there.

They still get Pitt and Miami coming through later this month.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

UVA is favored by 5.5. Duke being this big an underdog is rare, though it might’ve happened a few times during that Matt Hurt season none of us remember watching.

One thing you may have been sick of under K is never seeing Duke win as an underdog in the NCAAT for like 2 decades. Winning as this significant an underdog would be helpful for the perception of Scheyer and Duke’s chances of making a run in the NCAAT.

 

[Devilsforlife]

A signature win opportunity for Jon in year one. I don't see us winning, but we are 6-2 in Charlottesville since Bennett arrived at UVA. It’s not Raleigh/Blacksburg/Miami/Clemson where we rarely play well.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Yeah this is the first game I look forward to possibly watching live. Watching Duke as a favorite never adds value to my life. Watching Duke as a slight underdog in a game you know they’re going to get blown out in is also negative value. This is the kind of game where a win would be more than just a relief and there’s some universe where it happens without requiring a miracle.

 

[Grit]

I'm worried it'll be an ugly loss where Duke can't get anything going against UVA's half court defense and isn't given transition opportunities by UVA's offense. Not that I've actually seen the Cavs play this year.

 

[surfpenguin]

Gonna need Roach to do some heavy lifting this game. Has anyone analyzed his good vs bad games? Has any pattern developed? Maybe every second weekend in February he has an amazing game.

 

[aiw]

When was the last time Duke +6 happened?

 

[aiw]

+6 vs UVA is like +11

 

[aiw]

kenpom 66-60

 

[Slap the Floor]

A signature win opportunity for Jon in year one. I don't see us winning, but we are 6-2 in Charlottesville since Bennett arrived at UVA. It’s not Raleigh/Blacksburg/Miami/Clemson where we rarely play well.

i think we should throw numbers like these out since they occurred under a different coach.

 

[aiw]

OK

 

[Devilsforlife]

A signature win opportunity for Jon in year one. I don't see us winning, but we are 6-2 in Charlottesville since Bennett arrived at UVA. It’s not Raleigh/Blacksburg/Miami/Clemson where we rarely play well.

i think we should throw numbers like these out since they occurred under a different coach.

The struggles in the four gyms we played the worst in during the last decade or so of K certainly continued this year.

 

[rome8180]

It's been really nice not having a game since Monday. It's annoying that Duke has to play a basketball game they will probably lose tomorrow. I work six days a week, and it would be nice to just enjoy my Saturday without a Duke game getting in the way.

 

[physicsfactor]

It's been really nice not having a game since Monday. It's annoying that Duke has to play a basketball game they will probably lose tomorrow. I work six days a week, and it would be nice to just enjoy my Saturday without a Duke game getting in the way.

I have reached the point to where I can completely forget Duke has a game. I had to set reminders on my phone to start the game chats because I wouldn’t even know Duke is playing. It’s really refreshing.

I only visit this site for this dick pics.

 

[rome8180]

Arguably it's you guys who are keeping my knowledge of Duke basketball alive. I come here for the conversation and am rudely reminded of the existence of this terrible team playing this terrible sport. I've tried moving over to dick-forum.com, but the discussion just isn't as good.

 

[torontoduke]

I'm putting hours in at douche-forum.com