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Player Marques Bolden

Moral of the story: just dive for balls in practice if you want playing time. Maybe that was Josh Hairston's secret, or maybe he just confused the basketball with a corn dog and dove for that.

Hopefully, Jordan Tucker read that quote.

Indeed. The compete level (based on staff criticism) has been lacking for that man.

Long live the Spirit of Josh. I believe in Josh. Etc.
 
Coach K took some more shots at his motor, btw:

“I can see good and bad in practice. We’re going to get too minute here in what I see and what I don’t see. No, it’s not a breakout, he’s a good player, he should play well every game. I wouldn’t call a 50-point win over this team as a breakout for anybody. But did he play well? He played well. Marques has helped us, we wouldn’t have won the Indiana game without Marques diving for the damn ball. To me, that was more of a breakout. And I have not seen him do that in practice and those are the type of things that we’re looking for, guys trying to do whatever they can to help us win.”

Replace “damn ball” with “dadgum ball” and this reads a lot like a Roy quote.
 
His numbers are pretty good now, in a vacuum. If we're viewing him as a sophomore four-year big man who came in as an average 4-star recruit, then his numbers look very good. If we're viewing him as a sophomore two-year big man who came in as a top 20 recruit, and who has feasted mainly on Portland State and St. Francis (PA), then his numbers are trash.

Good/acceptable numbers:
110 ORtg, 18% Usg, 14% OReb, 17% DReb, 7.1% Blk, 39% FTr

Without looking at any other numbers or considering the fact that he did most of his damage against two terrible tiny/teams, you would think this guy is a really good role player at center.

Bad numbers:
5.8% Ast, 17% TO, 5.6 fouls/40, 57% FT, 50% 2pt, 52% TS

All this tells me is he should be getting the ball less in the flow of the offense. Putbacks are good, but basically any other touches are going to be well below the efficiency standard for the rest of the team. Shoot less. When there's not an open dunk available, pass out of the post quickly without overdribbling, overthinking, taking terrible hook shots, etc. Should lead to fewer turnovers and fewer 50% shots. His default thinking when he gets the ball right now seems to be to put up any shot he can get, when it really should be to pass immediately to the first open man he can find.

Assuming he can be decent not only against terrible teams and his game-by-game numbers have been somewhat coincidental in that respect (this is a big assumption), he can be a good no-maintenance center this season, like all those junior/senior 3- or 4-star big guys at ACC teams who are just kind of there, doing a good job on the boards, protecting the rim and getting out of the way otherwise. Maybe he can be a poor man's Zoubek as a senior, if he sticks around.
 
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Based on how they position themselves, Bagley and Carter often have their defenders finished before the entry pass is made. Contrast that with Bolden standing there flat-footed with one arm up 14 feet from the basket and I'm constantly annoyed.

He is unwilling to fight for that initial position. Root cause of everything seems to be motor/effort.
 
Did his dunk attempts get stuffed by an inanimate object once, or was it twice? That alone doesn't bode well for his basketball future.
Or maybe he just needs his eyes checked. Astigmatism would explain a lot.
 
Did his dunk attempts get stuffed by an inanimate object once, or was it twice? That alone doesn't bode well for his basketball future.
Or maybe he just needs his eyes checked. Astigmatism would explain a lot.

One dunk attempt blocked by rim, a layup blocked by the bottom of the backboard
 
Did his dunk attempts get stuffed by an inanimate object once, or was it twice? That alone doesn't bode well for his basketball future.
Or maybe he just needs his eyes checked. Astigmatism would explain a lot.
I’m laughing at the thought of him getting LASIK and immediately turning into the player one poster here thought he would be.
 
Based on how they position themselves, Bagley and Carter often have their defenders finished before the entry pass is made. Contrast that with Bolden standing there flat-footed with one arm up 14 feet from the basket and I'm constantly annoyed.

He is unwilling to fight for that initial position. Root cause of everything seems to be motor/effort.

Honestly I'm not sure he even likes basketball. Javin was ten times more excited about his and-1 play last night than he was.
 
Did his dunk attempts get stuffed by an inanimate object once, or was it twice? That alone doesn't bode well for his basketball future.
Or maybe he just needs his eyes checked. Astigmatism would explain a lot.
I’m laughing at the thought of him getting LASIK and immediately turning into the player one poster here thought he would be.

If that happened, he'd make a helluva paid spokesperson. "This was me, Marques Bolden, getting my shots blocked over and over by rims, backboards, and tiny little white people". (plays video of Marques Bolden, Duke basketball player) "And this is me now, five time NBA All Star, three time NBA MVP, thanks to the miracle of LASIK." (plays video of Marques Bolden doing basketball things that don't look anything at all like Marques Bolden basketball things)
"LASIK helped me to become a better basketball player and a better person. Call today to schedule an appointment, maybe it can help you, too."
 
We've got a dentist, an ER doctor, an asshole doctor, and I don't know what else on this board, but where's a fucking ophthalmologist when we need one?
 
Based on how they position themselves, Bagley and Carter often have their defenders finished before the entry pass is made. Contrast that with Bolden standing there flat-footed with one arm up 14 feet from the basket and I'm constantly annoyed.

He is unwilling to fight for that initial position. Root cause of everything seems to be motor/effort.

Honestly I'm not sure he even likes basketball. Javin was ten times more excited about his and-1 play last night than he was.
I think it's more likely that Marques knows what was expected of him coming into Duke, and he isn't going to lose his shit over dominating some midgets.
 
Based on how they position themselves, Bagley and Carter often have their defenders finished before the entry pass is made. Contrast that with Bolden standing there flat-footed with one arm up 14 feet from the basket and I'm constantly annoyed.

He is unwilling to fight for that initial position. Root cause of everything seems to be motor/effort.

Honestly I'm not sure he even likes basketball. Javin was ten times more excited about his and-1 play last night than he was.
I think it's more likely that Marques knows what was expected of him coming into Duke, and he isn't going to lose his shit over dominating some midgets.
I will say that he's had really good bench enthusiasm lately. Definitely an improvement from his constant scowl last year.
 
My son is watching the game on the DVR right now and Jason Capel has called Marques a pussy about 5 times alread and there are still 4 minutes left in the 1st half.
 
I think it's more likely that Marques knows what was expected of him coming into Duke, and he isn't going to lose his shit over dominating some midgets.

Yeah, you can tell he won't get excited for scoring on nobodies when he had assumed, a little over a year ago, that he was going to be a lottery pick. That has got to be hard to come to terms with... millions expected and now no guarantee of a professional career outside of the G League.
 
If anything, he's probably embarrassed that his teammates are so psyched to see him finally score after getting rimstuffed on an open dunk attempt.

Even so, dude has improved immensely from last season and everything we've seen from this year should be viewed as a major positive. Hope he can do things against real teams once we get into conference play.
 

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