
Duke vs. Kentucky: A learning experience
MARSHALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Life Is full of lessons. The funny thing about both of those words is that they start with the letter we aren’t really used to as Duke Basketball fans, “L”. The other night, we caught a fat “L” but keep your heads up people, not all is lost.
While it’s great playing unranked teams and opening a 113-ounce can of whoop-ass upon them, we got away with a lot of stuff that we simply cannot do against elite competition. This loss to Kentucky is a learning experience much needed by our young team.
During the Siena and Bryant games, we saw just how good some of our players could really be, especially Grayson Allen. Watching his highlights, it looked as if Adam Morrison got a haircut, took a shower, and transferred to Duke. The similarities were uncanny.
Grayson was all over the court and all over the other team. Like Morrison, Allen was really good at drawing the double and also like Morrison, Allen was really good at not giving a shit about the double team and getting buckets regardless.
What Grayson learned during the Kentucky game was that he should probably start giving a shit about the double team.
While the players on Siena and Bryant are incredible athletes, compared to the giants on Kentucky, like Skal Labissiere, Marcus Lee, and Issac Humphries, they were scrubs. One thing about elite teams like Kentucky is that their big men are very welcoming in the paint, because they’re eager for their next meal.
C’mon man
First quarter Grayson tried and tried and tried, while Marcus Lee ate and ate and ate. It got to the point where Grayson was 0-9 towards the end of the 1st quarter and Duke fans went bald from pulling their hair out.
What Grayson should learn from that game is that there are two huge difference between him and Gonzaga’s golden boy: 1). Morrison is 4 inches taller than him. 2). Morrison was a small forward, Grayson’s a POINT GUARD.
Point guards (with the exception of Russell Westbrook) draw the double and dish out dimes. Once Grayson started doing this 2nd quarter we got some great open shots off. Now, our young guys need to get those in the hoop. Also, once Grayson started taking a different offensive approach and started working his way around the perimeter, Voila! Points!
For Luke Kennard, Brandon Ingram and Chase Jeter my best advice would be to take a page from Matt Jones’ book and calm down. While the boys were putting up shots most of them just weren’t finding the inside of the hoop and that’s OK. It’s the beginning of the season and a freshman hitting their stride this early is extremely rare.
There was some promise shown throughout the game. Ingram showcased some smooooooth ball handling against Kentucky’s Alex Poythress and Chase Jeter’s block give us hope that we might have a defensive monster on our hands.
While there was a few bright spots in their first big performance you could see the frustration in their eyes with their lack of points, which ultimately led to foul trouble. All in all I wouldn’t be worried because once they get a bit more experience against big teams, that ball will fly into the hoop, they just need to start having fun out there.
Now if I were to tell you that Marshall Plumlee were to have the best game of his career against Kentucky, you’d probably think I was stupid, but low and behold it happened last night.
While our initial shots kept bouncing out the rim, Marshall Plumlee brought out the big guns and raked in offensive rebounds and put back points to end the night with a double double. The man looked like Godzilla in the paint.
With Plumlee in the starting center position for Duke, many thought that he couldn’t fill up the hole left by Big Jah’s absence but last night he looked phenomenal. In the Halftime interview, Kentucky’s coach John Calipari was noticeably stressed out about the number of second chance points we were getting and worried that they were all coming from Plumlee.
If Marshall can keep this up during the season our game in the post is going to be a real problem for the rest of the NCAA.
The resemblance is uncanny
Seasoned vets Matt Jones and Amile Jefferson also played great against Kentucky, both with 16 points a piece. Matty Ice hasn’t lost his touch going 3 for 6 at the three making all 9 of those points with contested shots.
Amile Jefferson made himself real comfortable in the paint with 15 rebounds and also having his fair share of putbacks. The older leadership provided by our three captains Jones, Jefferson, and Plumlee will be critical for these early games as our young talent begins to come into their own.
The 3 is still cold
Last but not least is Derryck Thornton with 7 points and 3 assists. A solid game in my opinion when considering this is he first time he’s played a team of this caliber. What was so great about his performance last night was his balls-to-the-wall play style. Clapping in Tyler Ulis’s face everytime he touched the ball and never letting Ulis get a second of peace is the type of basketball Duke is known and hated for. That fearlessness paired with his quick first step will prove to be a deadly combo for anybody guarding him in the future.
In conclusion we learned that Grayson will excel once he fully commits to his point guard role, the freshman just need a little more experience with high caliber teams but show immense promise, Amile and Matty Ice are still crucial point scorers, and Plumlee is a monster.