Duke and WF men’s basketball in a nutshell so far

All right, let's get to Connor O'Neill at Connor O'Neill underscore di because he's not sure and last night.

It was Deacon's Illustrated and Devil's Illustrated. Let's start quickly with Deacon's Illustrated first loss, you know, so it's not too earth-shattering. What other than not being able to get a stop and allowing Florida State 87 points. What was the issue last night? Um, this team had been really ball secure to like, you know, it's it's hard to say they had any flaws when they win nine straight, but I really hadn't seen that level of turnovers from them since their last loss, which was against LSU in the last game of the Charleston tournament. And, you know, LSU and Florida State, aside from having the three letter abbreviations and with State University, they're both long and athletic. And they get after you defensively and if it's going to be a physical game and the the whistles are going to be swallowed a little bit.

Maybe maybe we've kind of found out that's wakes kryptonite a little bit and they need to be able to handle the pressure a little better. Connor O'Neill is joining us here on the Adam Gold show, even with the loss, though. Would you say that wake is maybe a little ahead of the game knowing that they've got, you know, at least one.

Yeah, I think that it's. Like I wrote coming out of the Charleston tournament. They had no margin for error.

They were two and three. They had three losses to teams that. You know, aren't going to inspire anybody to think they're going to be in the top 20 at the end of the season or anything like that. Um. You know, it's not the end of the world. It's it's something to learn from, right? You're either you're either winning or learning. And so it's a learning experience for him.

And. Yeah, there's still three in one in the ACC. I think that puts them still in the top five in the league.

And I think as long as they stand that top five and win the right games. I don't think they'll have much to sweat about in on selection Sunday. Depending on who you believe, what I mean, not that I pay any attention to Joe Lenardi at this point, but the headline grabbed me about UNC.

So I did go check it out today and I saw he had wake in the first four again. We pay way too close attention to net. And brackets in early January. We shouldn't even look at anything until we have gone at least halfway through the conference season. But I do like what I have seen from the Demon Deacons and it's a long year. There's a lot of games to be played for the Blue Devils yesterday.

Your nightcap Connor O'Neill. You had a busy night. I know John Shire stress defense and I'm not trying to minimize the defense, but that game was rendered. I mean, the unnecessary to watch after halftime because Duke could not miss. It seemed from three-point range. Now, they've got a lot of guys who can shoot. So, and ultimately the numbers weren't gaudy. It wasn't like they were 17 of 25.

They were 11 of 25. When they shoot like that, are they as unbeatable as they appear? When Kyle Philipowski is 11 for 12 and makes all four of his threes, everything else that he does, when you throw in the fact that he's going to shoot over 90% on you and every time he puts the ball up, it's going in. And I don't know how many teams can answer that in the country.

I think it's probably in the single digits. They're playing so well. I mean, you know, you lose guys in transition over help and leave shooters. I mean, Jared McCain doesn't need that much of an opening and how many shots that he had last night where he was the only one in about a 15-foot radius. That's a lethal combination for this Duke team.

It's kind of the opposite of last year. Last year, they really struggled to get outside shooting until the last stretch of the season. I remember being in the ACC tournament and asking those guys, okay, can you guys actually make threes?

Because that changes your ceiling, doesn't it? Well, this team's going to make threes seemingly every game. They're that talented. The law of averages for them is just going to mean that they eventually are going to hit their shots. I think what you have to remember about that game in Atlanta was Tyrese Proctor went down a minute and a half into the game. And I always say, it's easier to play a game when you know that you're going to be missing a piece rather than the game that you lose the guy after a short amount of time.

And you have to adjust on the fly. It's a little easier when you get, you know, three, four, five minutes into the game. It's a little easier when you get, you know, five practices when that guy isn't on the court and you can figure out your roles when, when the bright lights aren't on, you know, you're, you're figuring out your roles in the practice gym instead of at McCamish pavilion. John Shire mentioned on the teleconference on Monday. He feels like over the last month or so of the season, they've gotten more together and they've gotten tougher. And we saw that, you know, they, they ended out a win at Notre Dame. That was a tough win.

And that was something that, you know, they, they couldn't do that in Atlanta. And that was just what five, five weeks prior. They've really, they've kind of come together. They're not going to get all that much credit for it because none of these teams are beating or, you know, contenders by any stretch, but you know, you can, you can only play the schedule that you set up to play.

So they're, they're putting it together. Well, while playing who they're playing and it does appear that the only teams on their schedule are Georgia tech and pit, they play Georgia tech and pit in their next two games. And they'll be done with, I assume that we don't have, they don't have more games scheduled with pit and Georgia tech, right?

I don't think so. It's like, it's an NHL schedule, a little home and home didn't hurt anybody, but you know, you're, you're right about the schedule, but for the blue devils, you know, at times offense looked like it was really hard because I mean, they didn't, they, they still aren't getting necessarily tons of penetration. They did some last night because I don't think pit, I think pit kind of got, we'll just say discouraged defensively because they couldn't stop Duke from knocking down shots, but they against good defense. And I think we're going to see good defense from both teams tonight in Raleigh. They've had trouble breaking down and getting inside of a defense.

Do they need that to be really successful? I think you needed to open things up, but, but I think you can also, you don't need to dribble, penetrate to be inside the defense. You got, you know, you can put flip up at the top of the key and you can initiate offense from a point center position, or you can stick them on the low block and get kick out 15, double him.

Um, John Shire talks all the time now about how good of a passer he has become. So I think, and, and Jerry Roach, I would, I would say, is there, there one guy that you can kind of count on to penetrate and he's got such a, he's a senior guard, so he's got that bag of tricks that he can get shots up. Um, we've seen him, it's kind of, it goes unnoticed, but he has become more, uh, explosive as an athlete in his four years at Duke.

And that has to do with him blowing out an ACL in high school and kind of having to redefine his body and, um, kind of regain his athleticism over the last few years. But yeah, I think, I think you want penetration, but I think Duke has other ways that they can get the ball inside and then work it to the outside. Should be, uh, should be fun to watch this continue to progress. And I can't wait. Uh, you want to pick tonight? It's game, even though it's not necessarily on your beat, the tar, he has and, uh, and the Wolfpack in Raleigh. I love picking games that don't have anything to do with my team. Those are the games that I want to pick. I don't want to tell you, I don't want to tell you who's going to win the Saturday games that I have to cover, but yeah. Um, I would go with the home team. I've, you know, in, in a previous job, I covered a few Carolina state games in Raleigh. I know that that place gets louder for this game.

And just about any other game. And I would, I would seriously lean on how good of a home environment that will be. Should be fun. I think state, while they don't necessarily have any great players.

I think they have a lot of good players. Uh, and this is the ultimate test. And I told somebody the other day, they wanted me to say whether state was good.

And I was like, I need three weeks to make that decision. Yeah. Yeah. I think they have the pieces. It all depends on whether or not they're good. They can come together. I think they have a lot of really good players.

Uh, and I want to see Kevin. I'd love to see Kevin Keats like crank up some pressure on North Carolina to see how, uh, how the tar heels handle that. Uh, but I think North Carolina's defense has been dynamite.

What they did at Clemson was really, really special. Connor O'Neill at Connor O'Neill underscore di devils Illustrated Deacon's Illustrated. You decide, uh, appreciate your time. My friend.

I'll talk to you soon. Thanks, Adam. Thanks, Victoria.

That's right, BC. Thank you. Well, thanks, Connor. I haven't talked to you all year. See, we already did this on the phone. All right. We'll talk to you guys later.