As I said before, despite my overall negativity.  There  were times in the first half when our bigs went toe to toe with Kentucky's much better bigs and performed well.  Got to see that carry over to another inferior opponent!

Honestly, I don't get Ferry's 3 guard line-up, but again I don't get much of Ferry's "strategy".  No matter, I think most of us concur there is some talent on the roster.  I would offer the following, TSmith looks like the best PG I've seen TJ and Eric Jackson.  I Mike is the best freshman since TJ and Malquan from a talent and immediate impact perspective (Saunders didn't do much as a frosh I believe).  My view is this team needs to be built primarily around TSmith, IMike and NSanders - MLewis and Littleson can be considered secondary building blocks.  I would include JRob, but Ferry treats him like a liability - and I guess everyone else doesn't see it.  I don't get it, just try JRob Jimmy, what the hell do you have to lose!!!!!  JRob's offensive skill set and athleticism absolutely trump the purported defensive advantage of JLewis.  Either way, JRob and Lewis should be splitting time.  Well back to my point, there is talent here and Ferry has to tap it an mold it.  They need to win all of their non-conference games, outside of Pitt, for me to be cautiously optimistic.  Oh, and one final observation.  If Ferry can land this current recruiting class with the budget and infrastructure as it has remained on the Bluff, why did it take 5 years to do so?  Frankly I think this is an indictment of Ferry, Nash and whoever was leading recruiting the first 4 years.  I said before, if DC and Jeremiah Jones are still starting in their 4th year we have a problem - and one of the Coaches admitted as much to me years ago.  This indicates the staff was never able to recruit over the players that were grabbed in their very first recruiting period, which was very, very short.  This has been part of the problem, no consistent recruiting improvement.  Look at next year's class.  That too looks better than the first 4 top to bottom.  Anyway, have a happy Bird Day everyone!

I just watched GW/UAB and GW made a comeback with a 1-3-1 zone that had 3 6'9" players anchoring it. Do you think three guards are going to get inside on a truly long zone like that?  UAB had real size also and adjusted well after giving up a double digit lead. I agree that it is time to go big, especially since you have Abrahamson coming back in a few weeks. Unfortunately, our coach sticks with his offense that has not changed in his five years. You think opposing coaches, especially in the A10, don't know what to do.against us? Coaches are stubborn and hang their hat on the term "execution." That is great if you have Kentucky talent. The Dukes have to steal games with unexpected strategy (say a hard double team as an example or using the high/low action on offense). We have talent. Kids pick things up quickly. I do not want this coach fired, but without some bigger thinking and some real changes in philosophy, it may be a foregone conclusion.

Last edited by HookShot (11/22/2016 9:49 pm)

Ferry's next adjustment to what another team is doing will be his first.

7pm tip tonight at Palumbo. Per KenPom:
Dukes #201 (2-3) vs Tennessee Martin #240 (4-1)
UT Martin projected to finish 2nd of 6 in the Ohio Valley Conference West division; only loss by 3 at Mississippi.
Game prediction: Dukes by 7, 85-78 - Dukes with 74% probability of a win.

PhoenixRising2 wrote:

Line opened with the Dukes favored by 3.5; now bet up to 4.5 point favorites.

Smart money?

Dukes look really good offensively and defensively in the first. Strong on the boards, limiting the fouls. Mike and Castro leading the way on offense but everyone looks good.

Let's come out fast in the 2nd.

DLewis is beyond bad offensively; we are pooping the bed and Ferry doesn't know what to do. A joke that we are only up by 2 with 4 minutes left.  Pathetic.

You can tell that Jared is starting to question the coaching a bit.  He called out the lack of a big man during our sets.  This is a loss they can't afford.  

One of the worst losses ever. That says alot for this GD team.

To give you an idea of the team we played, their former coach left the program after two years of success to take a job as an ASSISTANT COACH at NC State.  We are in the A10.  This should NOT happen.  Ridiculous.