Call me crazy but...

I know I shouldn't post this until after the Marquette game, but I wanted to hear what some of you guys think. Do you start De La Rosa for the first few minutes of the Duke game? My reasoning is this: Foul trouble for Obekpa is obviously a concern playing against Okafor, so letting him watch the flow of the game and see how the refs are calling fouls could help a lot. Some games the refs let them play and others they call every little bump.

Teams have had success bringing the double-team early, and then recovering after Okafor gives up the ball.   
That would be my strategy.
Just make sure you recovery quickly and run shooters off the 3pt line.

Teams have had success bringing the double-team early, and then recovering after Okafor gives up the ball.   
That would be my strategy.
Just make sure you recovery quickly and run shooters off the 3pt line.

It is pick your poison with Duke. Don't double Okafor & he kills you. Double him & hope perimeter guys are off. In my opinion Okafor, in addition to be exceptionally skilled & efficient, is best passing big man I have seen in ages. Can't see how we can beat them unless they shoot like us.

I know I shouldn't post this until after the Marquette game, but I wanted to hear what some of you guys think. Do you start De La Rosa for the first few minutes of the Duke game? My reasoning is this: Foul trouble for Obekpa is obviously a concern playing against Okafor, so letting him watch the flow of the game and see how the refs are calling fouls could help a lot. Some games the refs let them play and others they call every little bump.

I've said this a few times during the season also. Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to matter. By the time Obekpa got in the game, we'd be down 15. But we will be down 15 with Obekpa starting too. Worth a shot

Quote from: desco80 on January 20, 2015, 10:56:10 AM

Teams have had success bringing the double-team early, and then recovering after Okafor gives up the ball.   
That would be my strategy.
Just make sure you recovery quickly and run shooters off the 3pt line.

It is pick your poison with Duke. Don't double Okafor & he kills you. Double him & hope perimeter guys are off. In my opinion Okafor, in addition to be exceptionally skilled & efficient, is best passing big man I have seen in ages. Can't see how we can beat them unless they shoot like us.

Such a good passer, its nice to see.

The only weakness I've seen in a couple of Duke games is that they sometimes look a bit slow in getting back on transition defense.  Other than that, it is just to pray that they are ice cold from 3 and we hit ours.

The only weakness I've seen in a couple of Duke games is that they sometimes look a bit slow in getting back on transition defense.  Other than that, it is just to pray that they are ice cold from 3 and we hit ours.

I'll piggyback you here, simply....  They're man defense has been topsy-turvy, as well.  NC State and Miami killed their man defense.  That is partly the reason they went zone against Louisville.  The other part was Louisville can't shoot. 

I hope Coach K is stubborn and goes back to man against us.  I have a feeling we'll see zone and man. 

I think we need huge games from Pointer and Jordan ti have a shot

Over the last 3 games StJ has been out rebounded by an average of 16 rebounds a game.  I know Lavin doesn't think much of this stat, but if you give a team that averages 50% fg pct another 16 possessions, this won't even be close ... even with a healthy Harrison.  They are gonna need a full fledged miracle to win.

Quote from: ayon25 on January 20, 2015, 10:53:03 AM

I know I shouldn't post this until after the Marquette game, but I wanted to hear what some of you guys think. Do you start De La Rosa for the first few minutes of the Duke game? My reasoning is this: Foul trouble for Obekpa is obviously a concern playing against Okafor, so letting him watch the flow of the game and see how the refs are calling fouls could help a lot. Some games the refs let them play and others they call every little bump.

I've said this a few times during the season also. Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to matter. By the time Obekpa got in the game, we'd be down 15. But we will be down 15 with Obekpa starting too. Worth a shot

I hope it doesn't get that bad! Like you said, It is worth a shot.

I know I shouldn't post this until after the Marquette game, but I wanted to hear what some of you guys think. Do you start De La Rosa for the first few minutes of the Duke game? My reasoning is this: Foul trouble for Obekpa is obviously a concern playing against Okafor, so letting him watch the flow of the game and see how the refs are calling fouls could help a lot. Some games the refs let them play and others they call every little bump.

I just got a chill flashback to last year's gtown road game.  Why not take it a step further and start two of the walkons, your choice?

Teams have had success bringing the double-team early, and then recovering after Okafor gives up the ball.   
That would be my strategy.
Just make sure you recovery quickly and run shooters off the 3pt line.

I've watched three Duke games this season. In all these games, they will have 4 players on the perimeter unless Amile is in with Okafor or Plumlee.  I think Desco is correct - in the beginning double down, and hope for the best that they're off a bit on 3s in the beginning - but I hope the 3s are at least contested hard on almost all of them.


At some point, Obekpa will need to man up and find a way to minimize Okafor's damage on his own.  It's in MSG, and we need to hope the home crowd saves a bump or two from being cheap fouls. Those will be deadly to a depth starved team in this type of game.

Call me crazy but.....this game will be an absolute blowout. Call me crazy but....Duke has superior players at every position, except D'Lo.  Call me crazy but....I'm going to the game and rooting for SJU, rather than selling my tickets out on the sidewalk for $200 (or whatever)

Call me crazy but.....this game will be an absolute blowout. Call me crazy but....Duke has superior players at every position, except D'Lo.  Call me crazy but....I'm going to the game and rooting for SJU, rather than selling my tickets out on the sidewalk for $200 (or whatever)

We've seen it for 100s of games before...."the better team didn't win" ~ Patrick Ewing, 1985

Duke has had better teams before . If we play well we could win. But we are playing like shit.

Duke has had better teams before . If we play well we could win. But we are playing like shit.

I agree with you. If we play the way we played early in the year, I think we have a great chance. That fire doesn't seem like it's there right now. Dom was playing out of this world and flying to every loose ball. You never know, we had that great run with our last group of seniors and I believe it was sparked by a Duke game as well. (Or maybe slightly before that).