Duke Coaching

[bdotling]

Late game coaching was an issue but it’s hard for me to stay mad at the staff. It’s like they read everything we posted here.

Play zone and cut out aggressive m2m overplay - check
Play bench - check
Play Duval less - check

It’s basically everything we have asked for. Concerning trends remain limiting turnovers and offensive rebounding. I feel like at least the latter should be solvable given we have done it well before.

We also need to get more experience protecting a tight lead, this and maybe BC are the only two times that come to mind where we have had a situation to do so.

 

[aiw]

It’s basically everything we have asked for. Concerning trends remain limiting turnovers and offensive rebounding

OR% 40.6%

 

[bdotling]

Yes

It’s basically everything we have asked for. Concerning trends remain limiting turnovers and offensive rebounding

OR% 40.6%

I responded to this in the other thread

 

[CMon85]

K partly blamed being tired lol.

 

[childress22]

Krzyzewski was too tired to sub Duval out?

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Played Grayson 40 minutes. “Too tired.”

 

[torontoduke]

Even though they played Saturday night, not a great excuse by any means. I blame the inopportune TD foul shot and the turnovers.

Sub AOC for TD in late games (even though AOC only shoots 70% from FT)

 

[DukeCrow]

It's okay to have one poor FT shooter in the game late. However, it's not okay when he's the PG and will instinctually run towards the inbounder bc either he can't follow instructions or is just that dumb. Would much rather have had Carter on the floor as the homerun pass/release valve/last option vs. duVAL running towards fellow bball savant Bagley.

 

[ZackM]

It's okay to have one poor FT shooter in the game late. However, it's not okay when he's the PG and will instinctually run towards the inbounder bc either he can't follow instructions or is just that dumb. Would much rather have had Carter on the floor as the homerun pass/release valve/last option vs. duVAL running towards fellow bball savant Bagley.

It almost looked like a set play to get the ball to Duval. Was so bizarre to watch, but also so predictable.

 

[DukeCrow]

It's okay to have one poor FT shooter in the game late. However, it's not okay when he's the PG and will instinctually run towards the inbounder bc either he can't follow instructions or is just that dumb. Would much rather have had Carter on the floor as the homerun pass/release valve/last option vs. duVAL running towards fellow bball savant Bagley.

It almost looked like a set play to get the ball to Duval. Was so bizarre to watch, but also so predictable.

Yeah, Grayson didn't even start moving until it was already too late.

Or maybe K was giving TD one last chance to prove himself before getting even tighter reigns put on his game. The Master.

 

[krsmith16]

It's okay to have one poor FT shooter in the game late. However, it's not okay when he's the PG and will instinctually run towards the inbounder bc either he can't follow instructions or is just that dumb. Would much rather have had Carter on the floor as the homerun pass/release valve/last option vs. duVAL running towards fellow bball savant Bagley.

It almost looked like a set play to get the ball to Duval. Was so bizarre to watch, but also so predictable.

It was bizarre because it was the rare occasion where both teams were trying to accomplish the same goal...get the ball to Duval.

 

[CMon85]

I'm still annoys two hours later. Yeah, Allen chocked in the last few minutes, maybe he was tired. K made some boneheaded decisions late. But if they call that goddamn hold they did on Carter then he's going to the line. Probably missed it but we'd have a shot at the reb.

 

[CMon85]

K said that we've had a few losses because of missed 1 and 1's. That's he's not blaming Duval but that you have to make those, they're winning plays. Surprised he had the balls to say it. Feel like Duval and Carter have both choked on 1 and 1s late.

 

[Slap the Floor]

Coach K was absolutely horrible in the final few minutes. The end of game offense was horrible and poorly scouted/planned. Repeatedly putting Grayson into side ball screens was a mistake. Grayson isn't dumb, but he's not a high IQ player, and asking him to operate exclusively out of ball screens in the closing minutes is putting him in an unfair situation. This sounds insane but if you're going to put someone in that ball screen do it with Duval. He at least has the ability to turn it and get to middle of the paint, opening up the rest of the floor. Again, that's not ideal, but the Allen ball screens were just really ugly to watch.

If we are going to kill the game down offensively and essentially play out of a 10-15 second shot clock, I'd rather see the offense run through the high post for Bagley and Carter and everyone clears out. One on one for one of them in the high post with the option to either drive it or post-up I feel like ultimately would be better than pumping Allen into a ball screen every time down the floor. Neither one is ideal, but at least with Bagley/Carter getting high post touches I think it probably decreases potential turnovers as they will get off a shot near the basket, and at least provide a rebounding opportunity.

 

[CMon85]

I wonder if K slowing this offense down is what's led to the pure garbage offense we play now.

 

[Slap the Floor]

I wonder if K slowing this offense down is what's led to the pure garbage offense we play now.

Our offense regressing and us going to zone full time is not a coincidence. The pace of the games have drastically dropped. This is often the case when you play packline/zone. The tempo of the game's just drop. I don't think us going zone full time entirely explains why the offense has regressed, it's a partial reasoning why. There are other factors here as well- teams have adjusted to the high/low game between Carter and Bagley, we haven't adjusted and keep trying to run it, and both of them have become the center of scouting reports now. We aren't adjusting well. We are running a lot of the same stuff we ran earlier in the year, and the new stuff we are hitting heavy with, such as entering Allen into repeated side ball screens late in the game, are failing experiments.

I'm not sure what happened to the motion offense we were seeing earlier in the season and that K was talking about before the season, but it's non-existent right now.

 

[LastHearth]

I am convinced that in physical games such as tonight Bolden actually is more effective than Bagley. Mainly because he's bigger, bulkierm, and stronger so all the physical play doesn't knock him off his game. He can hold position much better than Bagley because of this. Bagley is too much of a finesse player.

 

[rhfarmer]

I've been saying for weeks that the playbook to beat Duke is to play super physical under the basket. Duke clogs the lane on offense, so you can't see all the grabbing and shoving.

 

[Devilsforlife]

For fun, I looked at the season-by-season splits of K's career at Duke. He had two truly "dominant" stretches: 1986-1994 (seven Final Fours and two titles, with one S16 loss and another second round defeat) and 1998-2006 (nine consecutive Sweet 16 appearances, three Final Fours, one title, while earning eight one seeds in those nine years). 1995-1997 was a weird down period, with no significant tournament success and the total dumpster fire that was 94/95, but if you look at 1986-2006 all together, there were 10 FFs, three titles, and 16 Sweet 16 appearances in 20 years. Really an insanely successful two decades.

Post 2006? Two Final Fours, two titles, one Elite 8, and three Sweet 16s, with two second and three first round exits, with two being the embarrassing Lehigh and Mercer losses. K has undoubtedly been far more prone to flaming out early in the last decade, and has been incredibly fortunate to cash in both deep tournament runs for titles. I think that five titles is about right for K, given his overall body of work, but one could argue that he underachieved in only winning three from 1986-2006 (definitely should have won in 86 and 99), and has overachieved in bagging two post-2006.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that for the better part of 20 years, you could basically pencil Duke in for the Sweet 16, with them having a 50/50 chance to advance to the Final Four from there. We sure as hell weren't sweating facing a 15 seed in the first round. The tournament has been much more stressful in the last decade.

 

[LastHearth]

The thing is, no one stays on top forever, or really for much longer than a decade. Wooden won all his titles from 1964-1975, 11 years. Bob Knight won his from 76-87, against 11 years. Rupp won his 4 from 48 to 58, 10 years. Calhoun from 99 to 2011, 12 years, Roy from 2005 to 2017, 12 years. Branch McCraken managed to win his in 40 and 53, 13 years.
Then there is Pitino who actually managed 17 years, but his 2nd was vaccated. The peak for a coach is about 10-12 years, then they enter the decline phase of their career.

K has managed to win titles 24 years apart, that's basically double of everyone on this list of multiple title winner, that's kinda why people call him the GOAT.

But even the GOAT has to slow down, and K clearly has. As you noted, he has been in his decline phase for sometime now. It's just that he's so good even his decline phase is still outstanding by most measures and he's still occassionally winning championships in his decline phase. You only really notice the decline when you compare him to his peak.