Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Five postgame notes on Duke's win over Davidson

-- The crowd was listed at 13,607 for Duke's 67-50 win and was legitimately loud. About 2/3 of the crowd was for Davidson and the other third for Duke -- no one was neutral, and every basket brought a roar.

-- Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was far more complimentary than he had to be of Davidson coach Bob McKillop after the game, calling McKillop a "treasure" and "really one of the most coveted coaches in the country."

-- Davidson really played well to lose by 17. The Blue Devils defended Mason Plumlee (10 points, six turnovers) and Charlotte's Seth Curry (3-for-11 for six points) about as well as anybody has all season. And Davidson outrebounded Duke 34-33 and was tied with the Blue Devils at halftime. But Davidson could afford no lapses in this game and had one at the beginning of the second half. Duke scored 12 straight points and that was it.

-- Krzyzewski spent about two minutes longer than everyone else on the court at the halftime break to argue about a play Duke was trying to run with 00.3 seconds left. The clock started as soon as Duke threw the inbounds pass, meaning it ran out before anyone touched the ball. Coach K talked with all three officials and a couple of folks at the scorer's table about it, finally leaving with a slight shake of his head.

"Sometimes you have an argument with your mate," Coach K said later with his wife Mickie in the back of the press room. "You know you can't win. You just walk away. She [Mickie] lets me walk away with dignity. They messed that one up.... Thank goodness it didn't have a bearing on the game."

-- Davidson's De'Mon Brooks had an excellent night rebounding (12 boards to lead everyone) but a poor night shooting, missing a lot of shots in the paint and having several others blocked. Jake Cohen (19 points in 19 minutes) was very effective as a scorer but couldn't stay in the game due to foul trouble. That left Clint Mann (2-for-12) to take far more shots for the Wildcats than he usually does, and that didn't turn out well. Davidson's three starting guards also shot 3-for-14 combined and Nik Cochran in particular (three turnovers, three fouls, two assists, two points) never seemed like he could get comfortable against Duke's quick guards.

No comments: