Duke Thanks Belmont For Gift

very solid write up Kat. man, I was getting really nervous, well actually nervous for the whole second half. Duke needs to play some defense, but Duke won and they move on to play Saturday.
It was a real good game tho.

Thanks, TC. It was a good game. But in the end, Duke has the experience to know how to put a game like that way, and it showed. Last near-compliment of the tourney for the Dookies from me.

Lucky!!!! That about sums it up.

well i don't know if its more luck than just bad play by Belmont at the end of the game

The inbounds pass by Belmont at the endwas terrible. That did them in.

T.C. You watching Mavs/Celts? It's a barnburner

not watchin it, but i'll switch over and check it out

Terrible coaching from Belmont. Terrible.

The inbound play call was fine...the dumbass just didnt execute

I'm not talking about the inbound play. I'm talking about what KatKat wrote about milking the clock... playing scared.

yea i meant to reply to fiverings' post, my bad

A win is a win. I don't care how we do it, just keep winning.

Yeah, did anyone else notice that the series of missed transition 3s really hurt them in the long run? Belmont really thought that they had that shot down, but they didn't. I'm sure there were at least 3 consecutive misses during fast breaks from long range when Belmont was close. Plus the inbounds was a joke.

and i think belmont just was happy enough to be that close to winning...they would get a rebound and come down and jack a quick 3....they did it about 3 times in a row it seemed liek they just didnt wanna win it they werent valuing their posessions

Perhaps since Belmont is such a good shooting team, they thought they could hold till 9 secs and make a few quick passes and get a nice open look and they had confidence they would knock it down? and perhaps that inbound lob play was an attempt to catch Duke off guard? Once you get behind on Duke, sometimes you have to try some things like that type of inbound play to catch em off guard, cause Duke is clearly a better team. Why you feel the need to throw the entire Belmont coaching staff under the bus baffles me. They obviously game-planned very well, but it wasn't meant to be. Rather than putting all these negative conotations with a hard fought game you should just be quiet and let the men analyze the game. I guarantee there is a reason the coaches at belmont are in the NCAA tournament and you are at home armchair quarterbackin it up. Your hindsight ability amazes me, I think you should change your name to Ms. Cleo... I'd love to pay you to tell me whether or not my past decisions were good or bad, and why they worked or didn't work after they've already happened. Even the best aren't perfect... that is why Mikey K and the Dukies were down in that game cause they made some mistakes.

I dunno, that inbounds lob looked like it was aimed right at Demarcus Nelson.

well when u are that close and it comes down to basic fundamentals like an inbounds pass where u can easily be safe and get an open shot off to give yourself a chance and you throw the ball away in somethin as easy as an inbounds pass u will get criticsm what are u a belmont fan? if they lost the game off a missed jumpshot it would be different but they lost after being given chance after chance to get a good shot off or draw up a good play...the coach called what 3 timeouts with under a minute left and still it came down to a half court prayer...u gotta close games and u have to be better then that...the eagles outplayed the pats in the superbowl and poorly managed the clock at the end...did anyone every say oh lets give them credit on a great game to hang around with clearly a better team...NO...all u heard was critiscm of mcnabb and the coaches....so im doin the same thing to belmonts late game mishaps

4.4 seconds left and inbounding under your own basket. "u can easily be safe and get an open shot off" ... Good call idiot. You're 4 feet away from your basket so you run a play for a layup - one that forces Duke to fight through screens or switch onto mismatches. Duke did a great job switching and the inbounder f'ed up. He should have hit the safety man, but tried to force it to the wrong person.

HA HA! Well, the MEN analyzed and they agreed with me. So there. And, by the way... you will live a long and happy - although somewhat delusional - life.

Love, Ms. Cleo.

FYI, the reply was meant for you, Sandlansd.

Finally someone with common sense! A 15 seed plays the 2 seeded Dukies to the wire and the coaching staff did a terrible job? Of course they are going to run out the clock! The less chances you give Duke to play on O the better. Because Duke is down, when they get the ball back they need to go for a quick shot and Belmont will have a chance to come back if Duke hits (this is exactly what happened).
THE INBOUND PLAY - Inbound plays are the hardest plays to stop. A few feet away from the basket - if one player gets hung up on a screen it's a layup. The play worked to perfection. Look at the replay, the entire middle was cleared out. What went wrong was that the pass was off and the screener didn't hold it long enough. That's just nerves. They probably ran that play a million times for layups during the year.

Webkid30, the coaching staff did a GREAT job... for 39:30. My OPINION is that they should have played the last seconds the way they played the rest of the game. All of sudden they got scared and decided to hold the ball. Had they took an early 2, they would have been up by 3. Was Duke hitting 3s? Nope. Had they missed (and had Duke scored on the other end) they would have been in the EXACT same position, except with more time to come back and score. THINK! Too bad there's not a statistic to see exactly how many times running out the clock works in end-of-game situations. I'd venture to say it fails more often than it works. And I tell ya, as a former college coach, I'd much rather be on the defensive end of those plays than the offensive.

As far as the inbounds play is concerned - and as you clearly pointed out - it didn't work. Wrong play against the wrong team. Sure it worked in the ASC. But not in the ACC. As I said before, too big and too athletic. Love your passion though! And really wanted Belmont to pull it out.

How do you let a guy go coast to coast like that?

u play lazy ass defense haha

I was really disappointed about that inbound man. But there is a saying ''WIN AND ADVANCE!'' That's what they did. As horrible as it was they did one more thing that Belmont couldn't do... That was win. Now Roy and the Boys need to handle Business Friday.

Well said.

Everybody knows....DUKE BLOWS!!!!

man was I going for BELMONT!!!!! I was on Shane Dansby's high school team,(#2). I was in shock the whole game. What a great game...

Duke won't make it very far this year. I've watched them all year, nearly every game, and frankly they -- along with the entire ACC minus UNC -- are overrated. Duke shouldn't even be a #2 seed. The same way they shouldn't have been a #6 seed last year. Ratings, ratings, ratings.

WVU will knock 'em out!

Go Big East!

Agreed...Duke won't have an answer for Alexander

And sorry to the Pac 10...but the BIG EAST is the BEST conference this year...deal with it

"You won't hear any of our players say we overlooked them." — Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski

"We kind of overlooked them and you can't do that." — Duke freshman Kyle Singler

HA HA! Obviously, Singler and Coach K didn't get together regarding game comments. Good pick up, DTRIK19.

lol! Word that was kinda funny.

heh heh

Duke squeaked!!! It was amazing the post game though, he talked like he was playing UNC