Duke Preview/Review

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

This is what all Auburn fans looked forward to when we hired Bruce Pearl. A nationally ranked and relevant basketball team playing in high profile games. It doesn't get any bigger in terms of early season play than this game right here. Let's jump right in. 

Simply put, Duke is outstanding. They check every box, athletic, skilled, they score, they defend, they rebound and they share the ball. In my opinion, they are one of the best teams I can remember seeing on a college basketball court. Time will tell as the season goes on, but they are loaded. 

We had an up and down game vs Xavier and couldn't put it away until late. Hopefully, we learned some lessons that will carry over today. We cannot match up against Duke in terms of talent, but we do some things that could pose them problems. Additionally, if there were a circumstance where a vastly superior team drops a game, I think it is in these early season tourneys with games on back to back days with young teams. 

From watching Duke they haven't had to face much adversity and we haven't seen anyone do anything that gave them much trouble. For us to win this game, I think we need to play to our strengths and force them to alter what they want to do. It will be interesting to see if CBP goes small or big in this game. I would expect us to try and go small (as going big isn't big enough). I would expect us to press off made baskets and do everything we can on misses to limit transition baskets. We will need to shoot a high percentage to have any chance what so ever, and limit Duke's percentage by speeding them up and creating havoc with ball pressure defense. We need this game to feel like we are controlling the tempo, speed it up then slow it down, or the reverse. 

In the half court we will have to get the ball inside to get open shots, as they will press the perimeter and have length that will be hard to simply just shoot over. Inside out is our best option, forcing the defense to shift and switch and communicate. Harper must be a problem for their point defender and needs to look to create for others early in this game. Brown needs to play within himself, and be more willing to pass the ball inside to Okeke. Wiley has to kick the ball out of the post some to keep defenses honest and utilize another move other than the right-hand jump hook. Duke allows teams to shoot ok percentages, but their real success is in turning teams over. We have to limit our turnovers. 

When on defense we have to rebound the ball. They are monsters on the glass and rebounding will be our biggest challenge. Dunbar may see more minutes at the 3 in this game for his edge and rebounding. Limiting their 2nd chance points (and points off turnovers) will be a big deal in this game. Zion is a beast, but the guards our my biggest concern. We need to pressure the ball so they are not in comfortable shooting positions. They have not played small quick guards like us yet, and it's possible that our quickness gives their big guards problems on the perimeter.  Hopefully, our experience helps us out in this one. It would also help if every ball bounced our way. 

Rebounding and turnovers will keep us in the game or get us run out. 

 

War Eagle!

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

Should have added that I think we could get Zion in foul trouble with some simple pump fakes down low. He goes after every block opportunity and some pump fakes early, could at least make him hesitate later in the game. 

[cole256 17,043]

My main concern is tempo now. They are better than us in our game and to beat them I think you have to slow them down and I don't know if we can be any good doing that.

And they pretty much nullify our mismatches Okeke at 4 is the size of their 3. He's not a mismatch this game

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

12 minutes ago, cole256 said:

My main concern is tempo now. They are better than us in our game and to beat them I think you have to slow them down and I don't know if we can be any good doing that.

And they pretty much nullify our mismatches Okeke at 4 is the size of their 3. He's not a mismatch this game

I don't disagree that they are good uptempo, probably better than we are. However, I think we have a worse chance in a slow down game. I think we could press them some and bother their guards with our defensive quickness. Turn them over and we go up tempo, limit our turnovers and limit their tempo. 

I think our best offensive matchup if Harper can beat his man off the dribble and create for others. We need him to have 12 assists more than we need him to have 20 points. 

[doverstutts 1,643]

1 hour ago, JwgreDeux said:

. In my opinion, they are one of the best teams I can remember seeing on a college basketball court. Time will tell as the season goes on, but they are loaded. 

obviously, you are young and never saw those UCLA teams under john wooden......they won  7 or 8 NCAA's in a row and 10 out of 11, if i remember correctly.....this duke team is good but at least 6 of woodens teams were better....lew alcindor( karem abdul jabbar) and bill walton would laugh at them in the paint....NOW, if these guys would stay put until they are seniors?.....very well might be mentioned in the talk of "best ever"....lol, i remember going crazy when notre dame broke their 88 game winning streak....the first "game of the century" was between them and houston in the astrodome....oh man,what a game....read about it in the link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_of_the_Century_(college_basketball)

[doverstutts 1,643]

4 minutes ago, JwgreDeux said:

I don't disagree that they are good uptempo, probably better than we are. However, I think we have a worse chance in a slow down game. I think we could press them some and bother their guards with our defensive quickness. Turn them over and we go up tempo, limit our turnovers and limit their tempo. 

I think our best offensive matchup if Harper can beat his man off the dribble and create for others. We need him to have 12 assists more than we need him to have 20 points. 

chuma has got to be bigboy today, and wiley has to get it going with rebounding...i mean hell, everyone of them has to come with an A+ game tonight....defense and rebounding, plus playing smart( i feel sick) basketball is crucial for any chance of winning

[Tiger 8,819]

I don't like our chances in the halfcourt because Coach K is going to do everything he can to take Harper out of this game because I'm sure he knows he is the catalyst for everything for us. Lets see if he has improved against going against defenders significantly taller than him

[doverstutts 1,643]

i found this interesting,although i am not as optimistic as the writer.....another nerve wracking game would just about do me in...

 

LAHAINA, Hawaii -- The best possible semifinal the Maui Invitational could produce was always going to be Duke-Auburn. On Monday, it produced it. So now we'll have a matchup of top-10 teams on Tuesday here at the Lahaina Civic Center. It'll be the team ranked No. 1 (Duke) in Tuesday morning's Top 25 And 1 vs. the team ranked No. 10 (Auburn) in Tuesday morning's Top 25 And 1. Tip is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET. Tickets on the secondary market are expensive.

The cheapest ticket via SeatGeek on Tuesday morning was around $500.

A courtside seat was priced at $2,700.

"We recognize that [Auburn] is capable, definitely capable, of beating us," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said after Monday's 94-60 win over San Diego State in which his four freshmen starters combined for 63 points. And, technically, he's right. 
KenPom's projected final score is Duke 82, Auburn 76. That's not a big difference. And, remember, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl went 3-1 in two seasons at Tennessee against Billy Donovan's teams that won back-to-back national championships at Florida -- and he beat John Calipari's top-ranked Memphis team at FedExForum in February 2008. In other words, Pearl is historically good in these spots. So this should be the Blue Devils' toughest test to date -- a game against an Auburn squad that still has six of the top eight scorers from last season's team that shared an SEC regular-season title. And if the Tigers actually do pull off the upset, absolutely, there will be a new No. 1 in Wednesday morning's Top 25 And 1.

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

Today is a celebration of Auburn Basketball. I think no matter what happens, we are witnessing the fact that Auburn Basketball is back. A top 10 prime time matchup against the best team in the country in Maui. This is fantastic for recruiting, especially if we compete, and can only help us in terms of our NCAA resume. If we win tonight, we’ee A lot farther along than anyone ever thought we would be at this point. If we lose, we are still a big contender and our program is moving in the right direction. Tonight is a no lose night in my view. 

[Vhsco88 46]

I want to see this game but on the other don't want to see it. As much as I love Auburn, I have been a big fan of Duke basketball since the 80's. I wish their was some way that both teams could win.

[mustache eagle 2,397]

I want the win no matter what.

... but I really really hope we play well ... no deer in the headlights stuff.  Hopefully we got the neutral court, spongy rims, damp floor junk out of our system.

I worry most about whether our back court has the legs after last night.  we will see.

[cole256 17,043]

2 hours ago, JwgreDeux said:

I don't disagree that they are good uptempo, probably better than we are. However, I think we have a worse chance in a slow down game. I think we could press them some and bother their guards with our defensive quickness. Turn them over and we go up tempo, limit our turnovers and limit their tempo. 

I think our best offensive matchup if Harper can beat his man off the dribble and create for others. We need him to have 12 assists more than we need him to have 20 points. 

I can't remember the thread but whatever one they said worry about Xavier and not Duke I said the same thing as far as Harper. The bad thing about that is he doesn't have a back up. This is where when we talked I said we'd miss Davion

[cole256 17,043]

1 hour ago, Tiger said:

I don't like our chances in the halfcourt because Coach K is going to do everything he can to take Harper out of this game because I'm sure he knows he is the catalyst for everything for us. Lets see if he has improved against going against defenders significantly taller than him

If I was him I'd put reddish on him

[Tiger 8,819]

4 minutes ago, cole256 said:

If I was him I'd put reddish on him

My thoughts as well. Gonna be interesting to see how Harper deals with it. We really need Samir to step up today we are going to need his ball handling. I don't want Bryce dribbling very much

[doverstutts 1,643]

3 minutes ago, Tiger said:

My thoughts as well. Gonna be interesting to see how Harper deals with it. We really need Samir to step up today we are going to need his ball handling. I don't want Bryce dribbling very much

he really does not handle the ball very well, never has and never will it does appear....does it not look like he dribbles too straight down and is out running the ball?....it may be these old eyes but he does look a little bit uncoordinated (lack of a better word) when he runs with the dribble.....he is just not smooth

[bigbird 60,500]

22 minutes ago, Tiger said:

My thoughts as well. Gonna be interesting to see how Harper deals with it. We really need Samir to step up today we are going to need his ball handling. I don't want Bryce dribbling very much

If Harper can curl off the screens and hit some mid-range jumpers rather than trying to drive into the bigs or settle for the Curry-3's that would go a long way in softening up their D. It can also potentially pull the defenders off the corner shooter for easy looks

[Tiger 8,819]

4 minutes ago, doverstutts said:

he really does not handle the ball very well, never has and never will it does appear....does it not look like he dribbles too straight down and is out running the ball?....it may be these old eyes but he does look a little bit uncoordinated (lack of a better word) when he runs with the dribble.....he is just not smooth

Assuming you're talking about Brown... Yup. Each game last year he was good for at least one possession where he dribbled off his leg or just lost the handle without any pressure. And he has done that a few times this year already. He's a pure SG in a PGs body. He's just not a natural ball handler but we need him to at least try to get to the rack a few times per game to put pressure on the D or get him to the FT line though IMO

[Tiger 8,819]

Just now, bigbird said:

If Harper can curl off the screens and hit some mid-range jumpers rather than trying to drive into the bigs or settle for the Curry-3's that would go a long way in softening up their D. It can also potentially pull the defenders off the corner shooter for easy looks

Agreed. He had a clutch mid range shot yesterday and also he had a nice floater that was huge for us. If they know he's a threat from deep as well as this it will stress the D and then the extra pass will give us some open looks from deep 

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

1 minute ago, Tiger said:

Agreed. He had a clutch mid range shot yesterday and also he had a nice floater that was huge for us. If they know he's a threat from deep as well as this it will stress the D and then the extra pass will give us some open looks from deep 

They know who the threats are. What his drive does is get the ball inside and force the defense to turn their heads and possibly lose some of our other guys for open spot ups. 

[AUGoo 2,659]

1 hour ago, Vhsco88 said:

I want to see this game but on the other don't want to see it. As much as I love Auburn, I have been a big fan of Duke basketball since the 80's. I wish their was some way that both teams could win.

I grew up in ACC country and have admired Coach K.  But the invention of the One-and-Done era has dimmed my respect for the Blue Blood programs in general.  Mom was a UK grad and I used to enjoy Wildcat Bball, but Calipari has made a career out of playing these one and done all star type teams.  Gone are the days of building a program and a team and watching kids mature and improve.  Now seems the top teams are "buying" these guys for a year and it denigrates the game considerably to me.  I am disappointed that Coach K would fall into this mindset.   Duke needs to go down and go down hard!

[AUGoo 2,659]

The wildcard in all this is the officiating.

 Based on yesterday's game, I fully expect our bigs to be ticky-tack called fouls to where they are unable to play.  Remember this is THE Blue Blood program of today.  It will be like playing Bama in FBall.  The officiating will be against us.  I'm hoping to show well early, but I expect the officials to take us out of our game in the second half.

[SumterAubie 3,031]

6 minutes ago, AUGoo said:

The wildcard in all this is the officiating.

 Based on yesterday's game, I fully expect our bigs to be ticky-tack called fouls to where they are unable to play.  Remember this is THE Blue Blood program of today.  It will be like playing Bama in FBall.  The officiating will be against us.  I'm hoping to show well early, but I expect the officials to take us out of our game in the second half.

Right. I expect touch fouls to be called on Auburn while Duke gets away with genocide.

[jared52 4,354]

Duke is favored by 10. I’ll be thrilled if AU plays well enough to cover. If they lose by 15-20 (or get down that much late in garbage time) I’ll be disappointed. AU needs a decent showing for this game to be meaningful in the national landscape. If Duke runs away with it, or AU just never makes a game of it, then it won’t have the effect it should. 

I’d love for AU’s experience to make the freshmen look more like freshmen. 

[doverstutts 1,643]

1 hour ago, SumterAubie said:

Right. I expect touch fouls to be called on Auburn while Duke gets away with genocide.

yeah, official get way too much leeway for honesty and integrity......i really think they should undergo lie detector tests every 3 months or so for college sports....you know they bet on games, not most, but some

[KolchakAU85 430]

I'm concerned about Harper playing a second day in a row, after playing an entire game plus overtime yesterday.

I'm concerned about Doughty disappearing like he did yesterday.

...

OK Bruce Pearl, this is the day you and we have been waiting for: a chance to make a national statement.  Win or lose, make a positive national statement about Auburn basketball.  Many recruits will be watching.