Depth and adjustments!

[Haggin_Hall_1983]

What I saw in last nights game was that Duke has 10 elite, and I mean elite, level defenders and rebounders. But UK having 10 players that can all score, and who moved with high energy, wore Duke down. Duke players were gassed at halftime, and that Duke defense was never extended in the second half like it was in the first. Also, Coach Mark Pope made constant adjustments to our defense, and mixed in several zone looks, that really slowed the Duke offense down. As talented as Duke is, it appears that they only have Flagg and Kneuppel to do the majority of the play making and scoring. And Flagg is very vulnerable to getting his pocket picked when we doubled whenever he got to the lane. Kneuppel kind of disappeared in the second half....maybe that was our defensive adjustment?

 

[RobEStacy]

Once Dukes big's got hurt, the adjustment from pope to go smaller, with Carr at the 5, did the damage. We simply wore them down. Which is a hallmark of veteran teams that have 4-5 years of conditioning. Duke relied on there two star freshmen, and they folded at the end, both mentally and physically. We have seen that same pattern play out way to many times in the last 5-6 years.