Duke Basketball 2017-2018

[Devilsforlife]

What's scary is that Duke could very conceivably have 7 or 8 losses right now. Needed improbable comebacks from double figures down in the final eight minutes to beat such fearsome opponents as Texas, Florida, and Miami.

I almost wish we had lost the Michigan State game, then I never would have gotten my hopes up for this season at any point. Looking back on it, we should have known that result was as meaningless as beating Evansville, given how K always kicks Izzo's teeth in no matter what.

 

[StopThePumpFakesShav]

A reminder that Duke has not been to the final four as anything less than a 1 seed in 23 years.

 

[Devilsforlife]

A reminder that Duke has not been to the final four as anything less than a 1 seed in 23 years.

They also haven't beaten a higher seeded team in the tournament since 1994. For nearly the last quarter-century, no Duke team that has underachieved in the regular season has suddenly turned it around and made a deep tournament run. By early/mid-February, it's usually pretty obvious whether the team is a contender (that is still at risk for losing early) or early round fodder. 2018 Duke is the latter.

 

[bdotling]

In the alternate scenario, fast forward to September, when Allen will think he has found nirvana with no media coverage and almost total obscurity as the 7th man on Spain's 4th best pro basketball team.

He has left behind the Christian values that brought his life to its lowest points and taken on a life of cocaine, vintage scotch, and sleeping with a new smoking hot Spanish lady every night. They think of him as an oddity to tell their friends about - at one point the most hated athlete in America and at all points bearing a striking resemblance to Ted Cruz.

Then, one day, as he is warming up before a matchup with Spain's 5th best pro basketball team in front of roughly 300 fans, he hears it.

"Faggot."

A group of Kentucky basketball fans has traveled to Spain partially for vacation but mostly to heckle him. This becomes an internet meme and international phenomenon. People across the world begin to flock to his games, to call him names like "faggot" and record his reaction, normally with the hashtag "#Gayson."

Allen realizes he has not found nirvana. Far from it. He is haunted forever by his past life as a white Duke basketball player who tripped three players. In December, Allen commits suicide.

probability of this scenario occurring continues to increase after every game

 

[bdotling]

Really excited about 2017-2018. Good things coming our way. I think we'll be MUCH better. If we lose Grayson and Luke, I think it will be addition by subtraction. Luke was so bad defensively, and Grayson was never really the Grayson of 2016. We won't be relying on a 6'8 wing at center. We will have a dynamite point guard.

Number 1 overall seed come March, probably.

Kansas loses a lot. UNC loses a lot. Gonzaga. Louisville's already had 3 guys declare and they're losing Mathiang to graduation. Kentucky will be a top 10 team, but they are not close to the Davis or Wall teams, unless they get Bamba, which I doubt. UVA and Nova lose important pieces. UCLA? Nah. Indiana in Archie's first year? No. FSU loses a ton. Purdue loses Swanigan. Wisky loses Koening and Hayes.

Xavier and Arizona, especially, will be really good. Oregon will be good. Virginia Tech. Missouri and Alabama will be solid, led by stars. Michigan State, Baylor, and West Virginia will be good. Notre Dame will be good with Colson and Farrell.

37-3 with a couple of banners is my prediction. Best team since 1999.

Who is the dynamite PG?

Trevon Duval.

.

Lol

 

[bdotling]

If Bagley happens, I'd like to see Bagley at the 3 with Carter and Bolden down low for a few minutes.

Since you guys didn't like when I said we could call Bamba/Bolden/Carter the Triple Towers, we need a new name.

Is Frontcourt of Death too macabre?

At least this happened today

 

[bdotling]

I'm very disappointed in our baby shit soft OOC schedule this season. We play Michigan State on a neutral floor, then we get Butler/Texas in the semi-finals of the Phil Knight tournament, Indiana on the road and then St. John's in NY. Those games are fine, but, I would have liked to have 2 more tough OOC games. I'm sure we could have set something up with Florida, Xavier, Minnesota, UCLA, or Rhode Island on a neutral floor.

On the other hand, the weak OOC schedule, combined with the most favorable ACC schedule Duke has had in a while, is a gift-wrapped path to a No. 1 seed, with the obvious caveat that we will, as usual, find creative ways to fuck it up.

Ron Howard voice: And we did...

 

[bdotling]

This team looks like a hot mess to me, especially after Grayson gets injured/murdered.

Nailed it

 

[Devilsforlife]

In the alternate scenario, fast forward to September, when Allen will think he has found nirvana with no media coverage and almost total obscurity as the 7th man on Spain's 4th best pro basketball team.

He has left behind the Christian values that brought his life to its lowest points and taken on a life of cocaine, vintage scotch, and sleeping with a new smoking hot Spanish lady every night. They think of him as an oddity to tell their friends about - at one point the most hated athlete in America and at all points bearing a striking resemblance to Ted Cruz.

Then, one day, as he is warming up before a matchup with Spain's 5th best pro basketball team in front of roughly 300 fans, he hears it.

"Faggot."

A group of Kentucky basketball fans has traveled to Spain partially for vacation but mostly to heckle him. This becomes an internet meme and international phenomenon. People across the world begin to flock to his games, to call him names like "faggot" and record his reaction, normally with the hashtag "#Gayson."

Allen realizes he has not found nirvana. Far from it. He is haunted forever by his past life as a white Duke basketball player who tripped three players. In December, Allen commits suicide.

probability of this scenario occurring continues to increase after every game

Holy shit that's some of the most amazing satire I've ever read.

 

[bdotling]

The only thing to expect with a Coach K led Duke team is terrible defense

Also nailed it

 

[bdotling]

From a random guy who was at the Nike Skills Academy and is a basketball trainer:

We always knew but knowing doesn’t make it any less painful

 

[bdotling]

I'm looking forward to the SMTTEM post in late January where we are informed that Duke is scoring 1.12 ppp with a Duval-Allen-Trent backcourt as compared to 1.25 ppp with an Allen-Trent-Tucker backcourt. He could probably just write the post now and make whatever minor tweaks are necessary to get the numbers exactly right then.

D-F Twitter should change its name from "Weird Ant Vrankovich" to "The Duval Theory" now. At least we will look prescient.

Missed opportunity

 

[bdotling]

Fantastic schedule. No excuses (barring an absolute barrage of injuries), for another 11-7-ish ACC record this year.

Right on track

 

[StopThePumpFakesShav]

I'm looking forward to the SMTTEM post in late January where we are informed that Duke is scoring 1.12 ppp with a Duval-Allen-Trent backcourt as compared to 1.25 ppp with an Allen-Trent-Tucker backcourt. He could probably just write the post now and make whatever minor tweaks are necessary to get the numbers exactly right then.

D-F Twitter should change its name from "Weird Ant Vrankovich" to "The Duval Theory" now. At least we will look prescient.

Missed opportunity

I'd like to edit that post to replace Tucker with AOC. Otherwise, yeah.

 

[physicsfactor]

If you look at rebounding numbers of the 4s and 5s, Duke should be a very good defensive rebounding team if the 1-3 shitheads would even bother to try to rebound.

 

[torontoduke]

If you look at rebounding numbers of the 4s and 5s, Duke should be a very good defensive rebounding team if the 1-3 shitheads would even bother to try to rebound.

Trent has been a decent rebounder from the wing for most of the year.

From a rebounding perspective, what the hell happened to these guys lastnight to result in such minimal effort?

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Defensive rebounding, another area where O'Connell would likely help over Duval. 8.4% for O'Connell on the season, 4.8% for Duval. It's not a totally fair comparison to Duval, because he's always theoretically defending the smallest guy, furthest from the basket, but that's enough of a difference where you can conclude O'Connell is significantly better.

If you just took half the difference and added it to Duke's team defensive rebounding%, it would go from 70.2% to 72.0%, which would move Duke's ranking from to #217 to around #128. Basically, with a reasonably conservative estimate of O'Connell's rebounding impact relative to Duval's over 40 minutes, Duke would go from very bad on the defensive boards to fine.

It's pretty aggravating that there is a very simple option to at least test out, and the coaches continue to try to pound a square peg into a round hole. Maybe it fails, too, and this team is just fucked. That worst case wouldn't change where they're headed on their current path, anyway.

 

[torontoduke]

They had their foot on GT's neck, but a combination of poor offence and lazy defensive boards fucked them. Pretty hard to watch.

 

[aiw]

Started off so much fun this year

 

[DurhamSon]

That never happens with Duval