Not to toot my own horn, but I think my preseason predictions were pretty close. We're clearly deeper, more athletic, and have better flow as a team than last year. Singler is a polished, complete player. We don't miss McRoberts much, although rebounding can be an issue at times.And unfortunately, I was right about Zoubek so far, too. Although he'll get some rebounds and blocks, I just cringe every time he tries to make any kind of move. I'd much rather see the team play small and run.
And while I don't think we have as much size or pure talent as a UCLA or UNC, I think we can hang with anyone and win on a given night. Team play, defense, hustle, and decision-making are so important in college sports. Plus, 3-point shooting is a great equalizer. All of these factors will play to our strengths this year.
It's been fun watching the Devils so far this year. Let's hope they keep building and improving, then peaking at the right time. Go Duke!
Any UNC thoughts out there?
7 comments:
Brian, I share your early enthusiasm. Singler is definitely what we needed. Finally we have a team with some athleticism. McRoberts leaving is the best thing to happen to our team. Who know's what he's doing now. But our up-tempo style of play is awesome to watch. Zoubek is basically Casey Sanders reincarnated, but he is useful when we go to that new zone defense. I'm holding my impression of Lance for now. He's shown some ability to score around the basket, but he's still so raw. Now, Gerald, he's someone to watch. I swear he reminds me of Kobe. The best thing about our team is we finally have depth. Scheyer off the bench? Before this year, I thought we would be lucky to compete in the conference, but we can hang with any team, and that UNC battle doesn't seem like a blowout waiting to happen. Can't wait.
Eric - I think the Chicago cold has done some damage to your brain. I agree that Duke has looked quite good this year - far better and more athletic than last year. BUT, to compare Henderson to Kobe - PLEASE, brother, the only thing similar is maybe their shoe size. Kobe is the best player in the NBA. Henderson won't even be a 3rd team All-American. He may have had some high-light dunks, but let's keep it real.
That said, Duke will be a very dangerous team this year that can beat any team on any night (if they make their 3's).
objectively (or as objective as i can get...) speaking... duke's offense potential is impressive. they could nuke ANY team in the country by 20 pts if those shooters catch fire. Scary because you have so many outside threats... and besides you have another stupid tall white boy that shoots threes... (so much for the objectivity)...
went and saw unc play against iona... we blew them out by 40+ pts, but sad thing was, we still didn't look fluid on offense. Dont really care about stats (the whole scoring at 100+ click /game) right now. Seeing them live, we still have a lot to learn and grow before we will contend with anyone significant
watched the UNC vs OSU game last night... sorta like watching caleb play jacob... wouldn't care who really won that matchup, but would be sorta sad if my 3 yr old beat my 7 yr old... so i was glad to see UNC win... but it wasn't pretty. i do believe that osu has a much better team than people realize. and with next year's recruiting class, we'll be national contenders again (sorta scary on what thad matta is doing in regards to recruiting... don't know how he is getting these players... :) )
UNC will ride on the shoulders of the guards... lawson and ellington... tyler is tyler... and we know what we'll get from him... but basically, he's getting minimally double teamed every game... so everything will be dependant on the guards...
we'll see how things roll this year for the heels and buckeyes... right now... id be happy if oklahoma loses missouri in NCAA FB so i don't have to waste another month of my life stressing out over another national championship game with my buckeyes... last years football and basketball losses to florida cost me a pretty penny in antidepressants...
I was wondering what you were thinking with regards to OSU, Ed. Although you always root for your team, it would be hard to see them try and chase West Virginia's jackrabbits around in another title game.
OSU v USC would be a great Rose Bowl, but I don't know who I would root for. And they play each other the next 2 years, anyways.
I guess I'm just rooting for all hell to break loose so that a playoff is put in place soon.
we'll win the national championship this year (if we get a chance)... dont care who we play... feel confident about that... USC is the HOTTEST team right now... now that they are healthy...
should be a fun next 2 yrs watching OSU vs USC.. :)
In my opinion, the jury is still out on how good Duke will be. It is still cupcake city out there. My thoughts:
a) Against Marquette, I think that the game was pretty evenly matched. I don't think that we were clearly better than Marquette at this point. It is easy to catch the fever when the commentators are so Pro-Duke. I will have to say that while the number of calls were not from an absolute perspective significantly higher, still they really came at key points of the game an broke momentum. So in my opinion, this was not one of those "the game was not as close as the score".
2) Against Wisconsin, we were certainly more athletic. But that isn't too hard to say when you are playing against a team full of white Herman Munsters. Not to mention the fact that all of their big guys got in foul trouble pretty early on in the game. We looked pretty good against UConn when Okefor was on the bench. I know, I was there.
3) I still don't see many signs that we can stop dribble penetration. And yes, installing the 2-3 zone will help a lot with this weakness. It remains to be seen how Duke will use this new capability.
4) This level of is somewhat similar to what I saw last year that reached a frenzy until we proceeded to fade down the stretch as teams figured out how to play us. Also contributing is that Coach K insists on only going 7 deep. Yes, yes, we are so much deeper this year. Yes, yes, Coach K absorbed so much from the offensive genius Mike D'Antoni blah blah blah. We play Henderson, Paulus, Singler, Nelson, Thomas, Freshman white boy no conscience about shooting like David Yoo #2, John I need to some fried chicken Scheyer, and Smith. So far, Zoubek and McClure have played all of 3 minutes and Pocius must be hurt again, must be all the steroids. So really, we aren't really playing 10 guys. We are playing 7 and a half.
So let's see how we look once we get into the meat of the ACC regular season. Until then, I remain skeptically optimistic
All right, Jin, didn't mean he played as well as Kobe. I meant he looks like him and has a similar shooting form. GH has a long way to go, but with a little help, he could become a star at the next level. He's got some talent, though.
And, Brian, a playoff in college football would be so great, but I can't see it happening with those in charge. USC probably could beat just about anyone in the country right now, but losing to Stanford really hurt. I'm actually rooting for OSU to get in from the back door. Missouri/WVU final seems pretty boring. I actually would like both to lose their conference championships so the BCS really would be busted.
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