I hate McRoberts...and I think he just scored again.
Not a great night and very little to like. However at the start I would like to rebut the nonsense Vitale and Patrick were pushing: BC didn’t lose because of effort. Stupid, sloppy basketball? Yes. No effort? BS. About halfway through the second half the two started talking about BC coming out flat. What? The teams were tied and exchanging baskets for most of the first half. And then on the 4 on 1, 5 on 1 breakaways. Not the best effort, but with Dudley and Rice in foul trouble they couldn’t get back and commit stupid fouls. Listen, I am far from pleased, but BC was getting killed by the commentators on something completely subjective. Here are my thoughts and there was very little to like:
Likes
-- Sean Marshall’s return. The guy has been MIA since the first Florida State game. He finally showed up and was key to BC clawing back. Unfortunately, we didn’t go to him nearly enough (more on that in a minute).
-- The team fighting back in the second half. They cut the lead to six after being down by as many as 21. Moral victory blah blah blah. Not really hanging my hat on it, but it showed there is still hope.
Dislikes
-- The offense early. Duke’s focus was obvious -- take out Dudley. It is the same thing Coach K did to BC during the Troy Bell years. What BC needed to do was get Dudley the ball and let him find the mismatches, because Duke had no answer for Marshall and Spears' strength. What happens instead? Fucking Johnny Oates ends up taking and missing wide open 3s. Terrible. It is partly on Al for not emphasizing the mistmatches and for not giving Oates the hook. It was also on Oates. Every once and a while this guy wants to be the hero and takes selfish shots. Stop it, John. That is not why you are out there.
-- Not getting Blair more minutes. No surprise on the points in the paint. We’ve always been susceptible to penetration off of good ball movement. But we needed Blair in there to protect the paint. But he was on the bench too long.
-- Not getting into the "tight" flex enough. When things are going bad, you need to get to what makes you comfortable. We never did.
-- Turnovers. Duh. Some were due to sloppy passes. Others due to Duke shooting the passing lanes.
-- Rebounding. Dudley was in foul trouble, so he couldn’t be as aggressive. However, Spears and Marshall didn’t get to nearly enough balls.
The final score does not indicate how bad the game was. Fortunately the team worked their way back. One other thing gives me hope: how we responded after getting smacked down at home last season against NC State. They played better and eventually rattled off a bunch of ACC wins. Let’s see if we can do it again this Saturday against UNC.
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John Oates has got to be the worst "D-I basketball player" I have ever seen. I don't think he even qualifies as a player. I thought Nate Doornekamp was as bad as it gets but he's Michael Jordan compared to Oates. That performance tonight was absolutely disgraceful. Everyone in the arena knew that after Oates hit his first 3, he would continue to jack them up like there was no tomorrow. And that he did, taking awful shots and not even coming close on any of them. And defense, well let's not talk about his "defense." He just stood there in the middle of the key while McRoberts took him to school. He couldn't move his feet and everyone blew right by him. And on offense, I noticed that no one on Duke covered him. They let him sit on the three point line near the sideline. They jammed down low and double teamed Dudley so he couldn't touch the ball as a result.
And by far, this was the worst coaching performance I have ever seen in my life. Al Skinner is truly the worst in-game head coach I have ever seen. He didn't make one adjustment the entire game! In the FSU game, BC was outscored 30-13 with Oates in the lineup and outscored FSU 55-37 without him in the lineup. And then he starts Oates today? Are you kidding me? As Mike Patrick said, Duke probably had more layups today then they did all year. He single-handedly cost them the game. And after the 18-5 Duke run and 12-2 runs, look who's still on the court. It's John Oates! I don't know what game he was watching but a blind mouse would have benched Oates after the first 5 minutes of the game. Guess Al didn't learn his lesson from the last Duke game when McRoberts crapped all over Oates. Once Oates was benched, BC went on a 27-9 run! Duke scored 9 points in 10 minutes and McRoberts didn't score a basket the rest of the game! Al displayed absolute pure idiocy today. His "patience" is costing BC dearly. Give a 3 year old girl the team and she could probably coach better than Al. And now watch Al trot Oates out on the court to start against UNC, and watch Tyler Hansbrough absolutely crap on him again. Watch him get 20+ minutes and watch BC lose as a result. Al is very overrated and shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as the phrase "Coach of the Year." Give BC any other coach in the ACC and I guarantee you that they win tonight by 15 points. What a joke
Oh and also, can someone please explain to me why Marquez Haynes was in the game in the final minutes of the game? That guy is a turnover machine who has cost BC on numerous occasions. And what do you know, he has a costly costly turnover with 3 minutes left, airballs a jump shot, and can't hit a free throw to save his life. Oh and another thing on Al, why the world did BC not foul with a minute left and down by 8? What in the world is he thinking? The object is to extend the game as long as possible and Duke wasn't exactly hitting their free throws tonight. And BC didn't even foul with 20 seconds left, it took them 6 seconds! What a horribly coached performance out there tonight. Hopefully Al gets his act together soon or this could become a very disappointing season very quickly.
A bit of an overreaction, don't you think? You're right on Oates - he is terrible, but I think Al is a much better coach than you give him credit for. The Duke game was poor on many levels, but don't jump ship after one bad loss. This team's done too many good things for that. If, before the season began, someone offered you to have BC, at 9-3 in the ACC, in first place at this point, would you have turned it down?
The thing I couldn't believe was that Al didn't change the defense for the game's first 28 minutes. He stayed with the soft match-up, even when it was getting slaughtered. Jared and Ty couldn't take chances because of their foul trouble. It wasn't even really a matter of putting Tyrelle in because we played the same defense and he didn't have a chance. But, at about the 12 minute mark, we switched to the half-court trap and, BAM, Duke stops getting easy looks. Was that all it took? It was pretty shocking to watch, how easily the new defense shut down Duke. Makes you wonder. More and more I feel like this loss gets pinned on Al. I don't think he's a bad in-game coach. He often makes good adjustments and lets Tyrese and Jared do whatever they need to win games. However, this was just a bad performance from the head coach.
Sir,
We confess, BC let us down last night. But they did show tremendous heart in getting back in it. No, not a moral victory.
Besides, Duke had lost for in a row, a close loss to a sputtering Duke team is no moral victory when you are fighting for first in the ACC.
A fifth straight loss for Duke would have provided hitherto unbeknownst ecstacy for us. Alas, we shall have to wait for another run at the heart of evil.
What I noticed in the first half was Boston College playing a WEAK zone defense. Not sure if it was Oates or who (not too familiar with BC's players yet), but the defenders under the basket weren't doing ANYTHING. They were just standing there with their hands up. They weren't keeping an eye out on all the Duke movement behind them on the baseline. This led to uncontested point after uncontested point in the paint.
Then, what I saw in the second half was more of the same from the first half until Sean Marshall took more of an initiative offensively. When they finally started to cut into the lead, the zone got tighter, but they must have been tired out because they weren't ATTACKING the ball. They were checking up better, but just not attacking Duke and they certainly were not cutting off passing lanes. The Eagles didn't "want it" defensively, they only felt they could finally make baskets offensively.
BUT, It HAS to be said though that we ARE talking about Coach K. He has NEVER lost five straight games...EVER. That's amazing, and he's an amazing coach. To be honest, having watched a lot of Duke this year, I can't believe that they are gonna pull off a 20-win season, especially with absolutely NO playmakers. Just to get this team into the NCAA tournament will say a lot about how skilled Krzyzewski is as a coach.
you got linked on deadspin again. nothing new for a blogging superstar like you bill. good work.
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