Tim Brando mentioned it repeatedly, but I really think the game was lost in the last minute of the first half…just like the Clemson game. Against Clemson, the team lost its focus. At Cameron it was more of Dudley getting in foul trouble and having to lay back. Not a pretty game, but winning in Durham is hard under any circumstance. I hate to lose, but this loss did not change my outlook on the season. I still think this team can scrape together enough ACC wins to get into the NCAAs. A few more thoughts…
Likes
-- Tyrelle Blair’s play. I had an up close view of his performance against Clemson. It wasn’t pretty. I didn’t think I would see this sort of improvement all season, let alone in one week against Duke. His individual and help defense was much better. He contributed on offense and actually showed some effort. I don’t know if this is an aberration or a sign of things to come, but the kid deserve credit for stepping up on our biggest stage.
-- Shamari Spears. He took too many shots too far from the basket, but he is also making leaps and bounds in his play. His defense is getting much better as well.
Dislikes
-- Dudley not getting more shots. I know he gets a lot of his points in and around the basket. I know he is playing on a bad foot. But we absolutely need to get him more touches. Even when the other team collapses on him, he generates points.
-- The final minute of the first half. As I mentioned above, these mental lapses are killers for a shallow team. They cannot let it happen against the top teams.
-- Marshall’s production. I am not going to kill him…especially after the last game. He worked hard on the boards. But I’ll repeat my Marshall mantra: when he is not feeling it from outside he needs to drive and cut to the basket.
We’ll need perfect games to beat good teams. This was not one of them.
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The other thing that killed them was rebouding...we got absolutely owned on the boards. Not sure how many second chance points Duke had but they sure seemed like there were a lot of them in the second half.
Regarding Marshall, I hope when you say he needs to drive and cut to the basket you mean without the ball. Ty Rice has much more success than Marshall driving to the hole with the rock, and he's 5 inches shorter. Marshall just cannot finish. He has a terrible handle, can't shoot with his left hand, shies away from contact and shoots on the way down, a toxic combination. Marshall can be effective in the paint on putbacks (he's a pretty good rebounder) or drives for dunks (he can elevate). Other than that, he should stick to the perimeter.
If Blair plays like that, we will be able to compete in the upper tier of the ACC. Making the open dunk/layup, being a force in the middle of our defense, and grabbing some tough rebounds are all I would ask of him. One thing that worries me is he seemed to try and block every shot like Williams. He needs to play within himself and block only shots he can realistically get to.
On another note, I saw our kicking recruit at two parties this weekend and he seems very excited to play for the Eagles. He is a nice guy and not a headcase! THANK GOD.
Al Skinner: "But I was surprised at how physical it was in our end when we were trying to execute our offense. And because of that, at times we didn’t play aggressive enough on offense.”
the last time he talked like that he was whining about those brutes at Holy Cross (who went to halftime LEADING at Duke 28-22 this season)
You think this means he's also going to try and drop Duke in the future?
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