Posted by emy1013 on 3/18/2012 12:20:00 AM (view original):
Posted by sublightd on 3/17/2012 3:14:00 PM (view original):
I always love these master of the universe coaches getting exposed. Every time a big boy team loses, it's almost always because they had a **** poor game plan against the other teams best player. Last night it was two conference players of the year going off for 26pts/14reb, and the other 30pt/6reb/6assist.
Kudos to Mizz and Dook for not recognizing the best player on the court at the start of the game, or at any point during it. I mean, all the big upsets I can recall, I can name the player involved. Bryce Drew, Harold Arceneaux, etc. How genius of a coach do you have to be to recognize that guy over there scores 24 pts a game, maybe I should gameplan for that!
I for one of many, loved watching Dook take it in the face last night.
Sublightd, pretty obvious from your comments that you're not a Duke fan (duh), but saying that Coach K got "exposed" is pretty much insinuating that he's not a very good coach. Don't think you'll find ANY real basketball fan that truthfully believes that the man isn't one of the best around. Hell, he makes the short list of the best coaches of all-time.
Yes, Duke should have handled Lehigh's star player differently and that was a coaching mistake (or more likely, the fact that Duke's defense this year just flat out SUCKED and they COULDN'T stop him). But again, to suggest that he got "exposed" as not being a good coach is just a silly, ridiculous statement. And you know it, whether you're man enough, truthful enough and unbiased enough to admit it or not.
i dont disagree with you emy. but, ill take this opportunity anyway to offer my general theory of relativity of why duke basketball is always overrated (put the knife down, wait till you get through, i dont think its really that bad) =)
for starters, coach K is a great coach. that is a critical part of this whole thing. also, the media loves duke. so, at the start of the season, while Duke plays schedules that give fluff schedules a bad name, duke is perennially and without fail, presented in an overly favorable light. ITS DUKE! ITS COACH K! LOOK OUT! that whole song and dance (no disrespect). sure, they probably have a good team, but how the heck would anyone know? duke might be 30 in the country, might be 5, might be 1 - but they havent played anybody in the top 200 yet - so typically, unless duke is 1 and deserves that 1, they are always getting overrated early on.
then, duke rolls into ACC play. coach k, being a great coach, recruiting kids who are usually "good" kids - work hard, all that stuff - presents a very consistent team - you know, relatively speaking, even the most consistent college bball teams lay an egg here and there. so duke goes out, performing at a high level given their talent level. especially early and middle of the season - as other teams are generally less mature at this point. to clarify - duke is hard working, has good kids, probably less off the court **** distracting people, and a very proven coach, so they are generally have their **** together more than others. so, they go through the difficult ACC conference play, and over achieve.
so, now its selection time. duke has a gaudy record regardless, because they are always good, and are probably at least like 10-6 in the ACC, with which their perennial 15-0 or whatever from non conf, looks good. PLUS, we all know how the human ranking system works. where you are preseason is huge, and where you are going into conference play is huge. so duke goes in overrated, comes out overrated, and they don't have enough losses to really make everybody think twice.
finally, the tourney starts. the teams who are in are a lot of teams who are hot, who have finally gotten their **** together, etc... duke no longer holds that advantage of being well organized and disciplined early (once u are in the game, i mean). its like when you or i have a 30th in the nation team, give them the perfect schedule, get them set up right early, milk it, and pull a 2 seed. then we lose to that 7 seed who is inexplicably vastly more talented than us! (just an analogy, dont read into it too far). plus, just being in the NT, especially as an underdog against a Duke or Kentucky, you are going to get WAY better than average performance out of most of those underdog teams, at least better than you usually would in the regular season - they are going to consistently be having one of their best games of the year. where as duke, consistently performing at the higher end of their range given their talent, doesnt really have that much more room for upside. so, there are really quite a lot of teams out there in the NT, who, IMO, can really give duke trouble. it helps that those teams are usually put as far out of the way of Duke's path as possible - but there is only so much the selection committee can do!
well, there you have it. there is my attempt at a rational, logical assessment of WHY duke is overrated in the NT, even if they deserve their seed! and then, of course, there is the maybe not so logical side of the story, where the media and NCAA love duke and pander to them ad nauseum, giving them higher seeds than they deserve, and ridiculously favorable conditions in the NT outside of seeding. but that is all on top of the rest of it. so Duke might have the NT quality of a 5 seed, over play, have the season of a 2-3 seed, and get a low 1 seed, along with some very suspiciously well seeded opponents in their immediate path. i think that is a common situation, and it makes people resent duke greatly. but the extent to which duke gets seeds they don't deserve, that is probably blown out of proportion a bit, and the above is my attempt to rationalize why....
3/18/2012 11:37 PM (edited)