Tuesday's Game

The Duke team that the Hawks will face on Tuesday will be very young, They will probably start 4 freshman and a Sophomore point guard. Tre Jones showed last year that he is a very talented point guard. Though with Barrett and Williamson he was not the focus of the offense as he may be this year. The other guard will probably be Cassius Stanley who we tried to recruit but our pockets are not nearly as deep as the Blue Devils. That is also true of their 4 Matthew Hurt who is said to be a good shooter from deep. The 3 will probably be Wendell Moore Jr. who they say is a lock down defender and ball thief. At the 5 they have Vernon Carey Jr who is another big that shoots the 3. When I was reading a little bit about their team I found it interesting that they got the #13 rated player in the class of 2019 to reclassify and join them last year and now expect him to be a 4 year player.
Hopefully the hawks can work the ball into the paint where I do not think the Durham team has the strength to match up. The question for our defense is if they spread the floor can we play good enough team defense to both bring help on drives and close out on shooters. Another key for us will be controlling the glass. We will need to be the better rebounding team. I expect us to struggle a bit with turnovers but hopefully not too much. I think in the end like most BB games it will come down to who makes shots.

Agree with everything you said. We should have a size advantage in the paint, and I think Dotson is the best PG in the nation.

Pessimistically, if Coach K saw the Fort Hays State tape, he'll have guys collapsing on our bigs, negating the size advantage, which will force us to make shots. If we do, we'll be ok. If not? Well....

For both teams it's a first test against a real opponent on a neutral court, prime time TV in arguably one of the most famous venues in sports. The number of variables involved in that equation makes things very unpredictable. That said, it's advantage KU as most of our guys have been in this situation before, and Duke's freshman-heavy rotation are new to things.

From an optimistic viewpoint, our bigs should be able to handle whatever is thrown at them, and we're no longer powerless when it comes to outside shooting, so Duke will have to defend the now-extended perimeter, which is really more likely to open up the floor more rather than decrease shooting percentages. Again, advantage KU. Cautiously optimistically, I think we have a real chance to put a bigtime hurt on the dookies if everything aligns.

I am hoping we can make shots because that will be big for opening entry passes to the bigs. The real question for me is can our bigs defend at least some on the perimeter. You know all season long folks will be trying to force our bigs out of the lane because if they are in the paint they will make it tough on the other team.