Game Thread [2021-22] 2 Duke vs. 3 Texas Tech (NCAA Tournament S16)

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Gonzaga beat up Texas Tech pretty badly. Wire to wire neutral court win by 14. Timme and Holmgren were useless on offense, combining for 12 points on 3/8 FG and 4 TO. The key was 9/18 3PT from Nembhard and Bolton. Strawther let them down with a 1/5 3PT line, but when you have 2 guys hitting a combined 9 3s on 50%, you can run away from Texas Tech.

I hope Roach, Moore and Griffin have the green light to pull up for early shot clock 3s whenever they feel good about it. There will definitely be long, painful stretches in this game where in retrospect, the offense would’ve been much better off simply taking a quick semi-open 3 instead of ending up with some ugly, congested jumper at the end of the clock or a turnover. Duke will need to scrounge up a ton of 3s from somewhere.

 

[torontoduke]

Maybe a Baker cameo?

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Texas Tech opens as a 1-point favorite.

Gonzaga -8.5 over Arkansas in the other game.

UCLA -2 over UNC, but by now everyone understands Vegas is severely underrating the non-Duke ACC teams.

 

[aiw]

Approx 10 pm start time

 

[dukebluedevils05]

Their whole thing is to not allow middle drives under any circumstances. They force EVERYTHING to the baseline where they want to bring the second defender and set up a trap and have everyone else pinch in. They go all out to deny middle entry drives.

I was watching some video on their defense a month or so back and it was basically saying that the key to beating their defense is being able to effectively utilize skip passes without turning it over. Use a skip pass, then the extra pass from there and you've created an advantage. A whole lot easier said than done, no doubt.

Have to go and re-watch but I swear I saw ND drive the middle. Maybe it was because ND can shoot so it allowed them to drive due them rushing out to the shooter

Defensively though we need to rebound and force them to shoot. ND mixed in zone with man at times

I'm not saying they don't ever give up middle drives. Of course they do.

What I'm saying is that is their objective and one of the reasons they have the best defense in the country. When they guard the ball around the perimeter, they (heavily) shade the ball handler towards the nearest baseline.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

 

[TyusStones5]

TT's head coach looks like a doofus but it will be better than losing to Brey.

 

[rome8180]

I'd rather play an elite defense than an elite offense. That said, their defense is absolutely absurd. First in D1 by a wide margin.

 

[rome8180]

Did anyone really think we were getting anything but chalk?

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Here’s an article about the coach and his defense:

Meet Texas Tech’s Mark Adams, the architect of the best defense in all of college basketball — robdauster.com

This story was originally published on NBCSports.com on April 5th, 2019. MINNEAPOLIS — The architect of the best defense in college basketball knows better than anyone: You don’t make a lot of money playing minor league hockey. That’s why Mark Adams turned a blind eye when his players would get p

www.robdauster.com

“The way they game-plan is unique,” Luke said. “The original game-plan may be to switch ball-screens, but they’ll have like back-up plans. If that doesn’t work, they’re going to side everything. Then they might trap it, and then they’ll go zone, all based on the adjustment that the other team makes.”

“And they are so well prepared. They know what the other team is going to do.”

Mark Adams says that his process for preparing for an opponent involves watching 20-30 hours of tape. He’ll pour over anywhere between seven and 15 games that their opponent has played, and he will know them as well as their own coaching staff does.

Joke’s on them. The stuff Duke is naturally inclined to do is all pretty dumb. They’re going to be scheming to take away Banchero midrange shots, Keels YOLO 25 footers and Baker doing anything with a basketball. Scheming to force Duke into optimal shots.

 

[Grit]

They'll sell out on keeping Duke out of the paint. It will be up to Griffin, Moore and Roach to take and make enough pull up threes to punish them from going under every screen.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Seems like you’re at a massive disadvantage if you catch TT after a week to prepare, but you have a good shot at them if they only have a day to prepare. Susceptible to losing to any good offense in R2 or E8, but nearly impossible to beat in R1 or S16.

 

[rome8180]

I feel like our best shot is just to hit a lot of shots against tough defense. Needs to be an AJ game.

 

[ChibCU]

I feel like our best shot is just to hit a lot of shots against tough defense. Needs to be an AJ game.

Good thing he’s been saving up his mojo over the last several games. He’s gonna climax all over TTU.

 

[rome8180]

I suppose Big Game Banchero could have a Justise-like homecoming too.

 

[dukeboy911]

Curious if K goes zone at all during the game. Will also need to attempt more 3s this go around, that's for sure.

 

[Slap the Floor]

Their whole thing is to not allow middle drives under any circumstances. They force EVERYTHING to the baseline where they want to bring the second defender and set up a trap and have everyone else pinch in. They go all out to deny middle entry drives.

I was watching some video on their defense a month or so back and it was basically saying that the key to beating their defense is being able to effectively utilize skip passes without turning it over. Use a skip pass, then the extra pass from there and you've created an advantage. A whole lot easier said than done, no doubt.

Have to go and re-watch but I swear I saw ND drive the middle. Maybe it was because ND can shoot so it allowed them to drive due them rushing out to the shooter

Defensively though we need to rebound and force them to shoot. ND mixed in zone with man at times

Yes they drove the middle- Texas Tech's goal defensively is to not allow middle drives- but that doesn't mean they're always going to perfect at it. Over the course of a game they will prevent more middle drives than they allow.

 

[Slap the Floor]

Their whole thing is to not allow middle drives under any circumstances. They force EVERYTHING to the baseline where they want to bring the second defender and set up a trap and have everyone else pinch in. They go all out to deny middle entry drives.

I was watching some video on their defense a month or so back and it was basically saying that the key to beating their defense is being able to effectively utilize skip passes without turning it over. Use a skip pass, then the extra pass from there and you've created an advantage. A whole lot easier said than done, no doubt.

The skip pass is a very difficult way to beat their defense. IIRC, Texas Tech will switch everything in the middle third of the floor, and on the outer thirds, they ice ball screens, which aligns with their defensive philosophy of forcing everything to the baseline. Assuming that they're still switching everything in the middle third, I believe this will be Duke's best attempt at cracking their defense by identifying favorable matchups.

 

[deepdarkblue]

We'll destroy them with Bates Jones.