I think Jarrett said 9 of 24

townsonkid wrote:

Couldnt shoot for shiz tonight. Onto Brooklyn. That first game is huge for the Dukes. Fordham or lasalle or GM played us tough each game this year. I assume SJoe is the other possibility.

At a quick glance if the higher seed wins I've got us playing either G.W. or LaSalle and if we win either St. Louis or R.I.

WashPaRick wrote:

townsonkid wrote:

Couldnt shoot for shiz tonight. Onto Brooklyn. That first game is huge for the Dukes. Fordham or lasalle or GM played us tough each game this year. I assume SJoe is the other possibility.

At a quick glance if the higher seed wins I've got us playing either G.W. or LaSalle and if we win either St. Louis or R.I.

I'm kinda hoping SLU beats Bona to put us in 6th place. 6th place allows us to avoid Dayton until the final. Reaching the final would be a huge plus for the program, even if Dayton kicks our teeth in.
 

Westender wrote:

Say what you want about the officials, they earned this loss. They had every opportunity to win this game. Is it me, or do they stink at PPG Paints? They barely beat Fordham and LaSalle. Had an understandable loss to Dayton and losses to GW and Richmond. If they shoot just a respectable % from the field and FT line, they win this game.Does anyone know our record at PPG since KD got here?

Well, they better learn how to win in a pro arena. They'll be playing in one next week, and if they make the NIT, they'll likely be on the road against some major team that plays in a big building. That's the world of big time programs. Man up if you want to be the same.
 

You know, Bill Parcells used to like to say, "you are what your record says you are", and I think that's a perfect statement with regard to the Dukes. Good, but not at that "next level" yet.

phil95 wrote:

duq81 wrote:

You know, Bill Parcells used to like to say, "you are what your record says you are", and I think that's a perfect statement with regard to the Dukes. Good, but not at that "next level" yet.

It took about 22 games but the pressure of success caught up with our squad in terms of foul shooting. Between Sin, TDM, & Marcus they have hit about a dozen clutch foul shots that closed out tight wins. Unfortunately, the rest of the shooting in the second half of the conference season, (including Sin, TDM, & Marcus), has been largely sucktastic.

It is not fatigue or the rotating home courts. It is old fashioned contagious jitters. The good news is that this team has figured out a whole bunch of what it takes to win at a high level & next year they will know more.

Thus is the least engaged I recall having seen Sin. Not the whole game but, at least a third of it he seemed to be going through the motions. I found it quite surprising that with about 9 minutes left he didn't attempt to take the game over as he had done on numerous occasions.

Tonight wasn't the finest example but Lamar had some good things happening.

It's nice that Steele had some success on his Senior Night.

I am anxious to see Steele style actions run for Rotroff for catch & shoot 3s. He has a beautiful stroke and a soft touch. I expect that wrinkle will have to wait until next season but I bet if he got a little positive momentum with those shots, they would become a permanent, valuable part of the game plan for the next 2 seasons.

I can't help think that if the decision to commit to minutes for Rotroff came 5-7 games earlier, that double-bye would probably belong to the Dukes.

Maceo is not a bust. He is a freshman whose transition to big time college basketball was jolted by personal tragedy. He made nice contributions in 5 of the six games if the A-10 stretch run. Every A-10 would be happy to have him.

I too prefer 6th over 5th place for bracket reasons.

Tonight was a perfect example of why I don't want more than 1 or 2 PPG games on next year's schedule. Tonight's crowd in the Coop is an entirely different vibe.

I couldn't resist flying to Richmond on Tuesday & Pittsburgh today. Win that first game in Brooklyn so I czn continue my irresponsible ways!

 
I think it was a question of Rotroff earning those minutes. He basically did nothing when on the floor the first 3 quarters of the season. We may have lost some of those close wins if KD had tried to force feed him. When he started to produce, he got more minutes. I can't argue with how KD handled things. He was trying to win close games, and wasn't going to sacrifice them in an attempt to get Rotroff rolling.

As for PPG, you play there when appropriate. It's a big time feel there when you get a decent crowd, and that can be important when trying to sell the program to people who are used to going out to the Pete. The vibe at the Dayton game was big time to me. That said, right now, only Pitt, and Dayton, and maybe VCU, have the cachet with Pittsburghers to draw a big enough crowd to PPG. Penn St. and WVU have made it clear that they will only play at PPG, so if you get them on the schedule, you play them there as well. Play the rest at the Coop, unless the program develops to the point that you can land a P5/BE home game. Those schools aren't going to play at the Coop, so you play them at PPG.

As for Maceo, he pretty much hit the wall after his personal loss. Way too early to write him off. That said, he certainly has to play better than he did the second half of the season if he's going to be a major part of the equation going forward. You do, or you die, it's that simple. Mike Lewis was a far more established player than Maceo, and when he struggled, his minutes disappeared. KD had to ride with Maceo because he really didn't have any alternative options. If Maceo plays like this to start next season, someone else will be in there, it's that simple.

If you evaluate Maceo objectively, as you would any other freshman, he had a good year. Rotroff, for example, petered out much earlier in his freshman campaign before being injured, go injured, & made virtually no contribution until game 24 of his sophomore year. Nobody is calling him a bust.

Certainly if another player turns out to have a top to bottom better combtribution, that player will get the lion share's of the minutes. That still would not necessarily make Maceo a bust.

He has strong measurables & athleticism. He has wonderful intangibles & as much basketball IQ as anyone currently in the program. He is clearly beloved by the coach which definitely means he will get tins of chances. He also got a ton of freshman minutes that are likely to serve him well as he transitions to year 2.

He is much closer to a future pillar of the program than a bust.

This year Rotrof's production was a very chicken & egg proposition in that he didn't get more opportunities because he didn't do much when given & didn't do much because he didn't have enough opportunities.

I am not arguing he should have played big minutes from the beginning of the season. My point is that the team would have benefited had he been given a second try a few games earlier. This is a hindsight observation. KD has to go with his gut in these matters & chose well in this case but not perfectly.

Great postgame press conference. To me, that's KD at his best!