okay, duke finished 22-11. of those 11 losses, 5 of them were by 5 points or less. the other losses? 11, 11, 6, 12, 8, 14. so we had a legit chance of winning at least 7 of our 11 losses, although really, we had a decent chance at winning them all if we played smart, hard, and consistent. thats why im disappointed in this season's play, we simply did not play DUKE basketball for an ENTIRE game once all season, win or lose. we need that duke intensity and passion. IMO, the player that showed the most passion: the underrated marty pocious. idk why coach k doesnt play this guy more, it aggravates me. he better get more time next year.
<div class="quote_poster">hoops4life Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">okay, duke finished 22-11. of those 11 losses, 5 of them were by 5 points or less. the other losses? 11, 11, 6, 12, 8, 14. so we had a legit chance of winning at least 7 of our 11 losses, although really, we had a decent chance at winning them all if we played smart, hard, and consistent. thats why im disappointed in this season's play, we simply did not play DUKE basketball for an ENTIRE game once all season, win or lose. we need that duke intensity and passion. IMO, the player that showed the most passion: the underrated marty pocious. idk why coach k doesnt play this guy more, it aggravates me. he better get more time next year.</div> I think a lot of the blame has to lie on Coach K's recruiting and minute distribution. Yeah, he recruited an entire roster of HS All-Americans, but they're not the right HS All-Americans. When you're a team like Duke, you don't recruit, you select, and you need to be able to select the players who will fit your system the best, something that you can't say for players like Josh McRoberts and Greg Paulus. They need a more physical interior presence and a more athletic point guard who is an actual threat offensively, like a Boozer/J. Williams combo or a S. Williams/Dockery combo. I agree about Pocius too. Him, Thomas, and Zoubek deserve more playing time. Tonight they played a combined 27 minutes. That's less than played by just Scheyer alone.
<div class="quote_poster">Voodoo Child Wrote</div><div class="quote_post"> * Btw, you seem to have made some nice picks in your bracket. All except the Duke one IMO. GW won't hurt your points in the next round.
<div class="quote_poster">Voodoo Child Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I think a lot of the blame has to lie on Coach K's recruiting and minute distribution. Yeah, he recruited an entire roster of HS All-Americans, but they're not the right HS All-Americans. When you're a team like Duke, you don't recruit, you select, and you need to be able to select the players who will fit your system the best, something that you can't say for players like Josh McRoberts and Greg Paulus. They need a more physical interior presence and a more athletic point guard who is an actual threat offensively, like a Boozer/J. Williams combo or a S. Williams/Dockery combo. I agree about Pocius too. Him, Thomas, and Zoubek deserve more playing time. Tonight they played a combined 27 minutes. That's less than played by just Scheyer alone.</div> yeah, we could definitely use another big man down low. zoubek just isn't ready yet, altho i think he will eventually be. every time i see him play, he either travels or fouls. hopefully it was just a bad case of freshman nervousness and he'll be alright next year. while paulus isnt that athletic, he is pretty fundametally sound, which is a better aspect for a point guard to have than athleticism, imo. athleticism is more of a sg thing. plus, he has been very consistent as of late and left everything he had on the floor. if i could pick a season mvp for duke, i'd go with paulus (towards the end of the season anyway).
<div class="quote_poster">Voodoo Child Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Not down w/the ORLY Owls? Posted: 10:40 Reply: 10:42 Video Length: 3+ minutes </div> lol! Yeah, yeah, I lied. I watched most of it. Up to the "funny" parts you mentioned anyway. Just not my thing. I'm sure you know what I mean. Anyway the owl thing was annoying in the beginning, but I guess it has become your staple. So again, where's the matching sig and avy? I also noticed Umair's picks, just straight away through the entire tournament. lol! All #1 picks into the final four. I didn't check who you picked to win it all, I'll have to see that.
Ha, I was looking at random people's brackets today. It seems like most people are scared to pick upsets. I think I looked at 10 brackets before I saw something lower than a 10 winning.
<div class="quote_poster">M Two One Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">lol! Yeah, yeah, I watched most of it. Up to the "funny" parts you mentioned anyway. Just not my thing. Anyway the owl thing was annoying in the beginning, but I guess it has become your staple. So again, where's the matching sig and avy? I also noticed Umair's picks, just straight away through the entire tournament. lol! All #1 picks into the final four. I didn't check who you picked to win it all, I'll have to see that.</div> I'm a lazy avy/sig updater... I stole the whole ORLY Owl thing from Schaddy anyway. I can see how it can get annoying, but it's just kinda one of those internet tradition things... I picked Ohio State to win it all, but I think I picked too many upsets around the way. The Umair strategy (er... if you call it a strategy, I think he was seriously favoring all of the higher seeds) is actually effective in a contest like this. The guy winning it now (don't know his name on JBB) has the perfect bracket imo. It's almost never all 1's or high seeds in the Final Four, so having Louisville is one of those crazy-but-might-happen kinda things. If that does, in fact, go down, that guy deserves a spot on ESPN... <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Duke pick must've hurt, VC.</div> I'm not gonna lie. I cried. In a lot of respects, Duke was actually the underdog in that game. So many people had VCU winning, and no one expected Duke to do sh!t. So even though having Duke go really far in my bracket looks like a real conventional move (and it normally would have been), this year that was going out on a limb... <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Ha, I was looking at random people's brackets today. It seems like most people are scared to pick upsets. I think I looked at 10 brackets before I saw something lower than a 10 winning.</div> I noticed that too. I think the seedings actually have a lot to do with that. The committee matched up a bunch of my "upset special" picks with a bunch of my Final Four favorites, like in the Texas/New Mexico State matchup. Then they paired teams that I saw as overrated, early-outs together, like Xavier/BYU.
<div class="quote_poster">Voodoo Child Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I'm a lazy avy/sig updater... I stole the whole ORLY Owl thing from Schaddy anyway. I can see how it can get annoying, but it's just kinda one of those internet tradition things... I picked Ohio State to win it all, but I think I picked too many upsets around the way. The Umair strategy (er... if you call it a strategy, I think he was seriously favoring all of the higher seeds) is actually effective in a contest like this. The guy winning it now (don't know his name on JBB) has the perfect bracket imo. It's almost never all 1's or high seeds in the Final Four, so having Louisville is one of those crazy-but-might-happen kinda things. If that does, in fact, go down, that guy deserves a spot on ESPN...</div> Yeah you're going on about Thrash Talker, right? I just noticed that bracket a couple minutes ago and he's perfect right now. I really thought that GW was going to win that game today though. I'm doing fairly well so far, though I didn't get to change my final four. I just picked them randomly late at night and when I went to change it before the deadline I was just too late.
<div class="quote_poster">44Thrilla Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Ha, I was looking at random people's brackets today. It seems like most people are scared to pick upsets. I think I looked at 10 brackets before I saw something lower than a 10 winning.</div> What do you think about my bracket
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Voodoo Child:</div><div class="quote_post">I'm not gonna lie. I cried. In a lot of respects, Duke was actually the underdog in that game. So many people had VCU winning, and no one expected Duke to do sh!t. So even though having Duke go really far in my bracket looks like a real conventional move (and it normally would have been), this year that was going out on a limb...</div> Yea I know how you feel. I didn't really get the sense that a lot of my upset picks would be considered a surprise. I think it has to do with the popularity of making brackets during the tourney: there's more of an emphasis on making sure you have a certain number of upsets (I know I made this mistake a little). btw, I noticed that you have Indiana beating UCLA in the next round. Does the Bruins performance tonight change your mind and how does Indy stack up against them (I haven't really had the chance to watch them this year)?
<div class="quote_poster">Chutney Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Yea I know how you feel. I didn't really get the sense that a lot of my upset picks would be considered a surprise. I think it has to do with the popularity of making brackets during the tourney: there's more of an emphasis on making sure you have a certain number of upsets (I know I made this mistake a little). btw, I noticed that you have Indiana beating UCLA in the next round. Does the Bruins performance tonight change your mind and how does Indy stack up against them (I haven't really had the chance to watch them this year)?</div> Yeah, on Duke, I think I just wanted to be different. I knew everyone was going to take VCU, and even though in the back of my mind I saw that happening, I wanted to have a really distinguishing pick this season, and I figured if there was any team to put all my bracket's hopes on, it'd be the team with six or seven McDonald's All-Americans. Hindsight 20/20 though... I still stick with my Indiana over UCLA pick. If anything, I'm more confident after today, with the way that UCLA struggled early on against Weber State and with the way that Indiana handled Gonzaga. The Hoosiers are a very underrated team. Their style is typical Big Ten: scrappy, defensive-minded, and very physical. They're basically the exact opposite of UCLA. It's going to be a very fun game to watch, because it'll be a clash of two different styles. There's no real science to it, but in the end my gut just tells me Indiana because of their style of play.
<div class="quote_poster">GatorsowntheNCAA Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Yay, I'm the only legit person to be able to hate Duke!</div> No you're not Called this upset in my bracket, and the tourny is now around 20 times sweeter without seeing those Blue Devils there.
I hope the Gators win it all now, just for the fact that I could get a bracket t-shirt with Duke out in the first round.
The excuses and/or criticism (depending on the media spin) being tossed out for Coach K was his intense involvement with Team USA basketball the past summer.
GOSH WHAT A GOOD GAME! I watched it from the beggining to the end. So DUKE lost in the first round...no surprise to me cause they have not been a good team. Everyyear they end up getting beat by a no name school. Great Job VCU!
