So duke fans? whats your opinion of next years team do you think we will be better, worse, or the same... ?
Me personally i think we will be better.. sure we dont have a low post and king left but we have a solid starting 5 and a deep bench and a mastermind of a coach there's no way we wont make it to the sweet sixteen next year.. Any opinions....?
A lot of our success next year depends on how Coach K utilizes our bench. The starting 5 will be Paulus, Henderson, Williams, Thomas, and Singler, and he will have Smith, Pocius, Zoubek, McClure, Czyk, and Scheyer all coming off the bench. Early in the year this season, they were firing on all cylinders because Coach K was utilizing his bench and nobody was getting tired. As the season went on however, his bench was receiving very little minutes. This year he will have 11 guys he can use, and he needs to use all of them. Nobody on this team should be playing more than 30 minutes a game, maybe only 25.
This team will be better, cause theyre all a year older, and their only loss is Nelson, and Williams is the same type of player, he might even be better. I look for a little more success in the tournament next year, but probably not much passed the Sweet 16.
Lets go Coach K. LEARN TO USE THE BENCH THE WHOLE YEAR
Better, yes.... how much better remains to be seen, I agree no that everyone is healthy time for Coach K to work that bench more so the boys aren't so worn down by March
I think the fatigue came more from having undersized players being asked to bang the boards with more physical/bigger opponents all year long as opposed to flat out just being asked to play too many minutes, which has been an ongoing issue over the last 5 years or so.
DukeBlueDevils3 i agree with you a hundred percent you have to use your bench. When you shoot alot of 3 pointers and then you get tired you might as well give up on shooting 3s cause they will always fall short , as to next year i think we will be alot more productive im excited to see what happends
Not only does Coach K have to utilize his bench more, he also needs to learn to develop the one big man he does have. I don't know about you guys, but Zoubek needs to put in a few hours a day just on his damn footwork. If Zoubek improves he gives Duke an added prescense in the low post not just a large body, which Duke at this point desperately needs! Duke will again have another deep bench, but I'm not sure Coach K will change his coaching philosophies and how he utilizes his talent. He needs to put these guys in pressure situations during the year, and yes, that does include his bench so when the time comes down the stretch in tight games, he's not hesitant to put in anyone! I think right now he only has faith in maybe 7 of his players, he needs to have faith in all of the players he utilizes regardless of the situation. Only then will Duke get past the round of 32. Coach K is a great coach, I'm just not sure he's a guy who is willing to change his coaching style/philosophy. With great success comes a feeling that you know everything and that you're never wrong. I just hope that's not the case with coach. I guess we'll see what happens next year! I have faith.
K needs to bite the bullet and potentially sacrifice a few wins during the regular season so that he develops a few more players and doesn't leave the team exhausted when March rolls around. I'd prefer them as a #3 or #4 seed with a few more losses but as a deeper and more rested team capable of going further in the NCAA Tournament. Any all-around superstar big man would be great to have, but being as realistic as possible, he needs 1 or 2 decent big/physical guys that can simply defend in the paint and grab rebounds on a regular basis without fouling out in 5 minutes. That frees up the guards and wing players to do their thing without getting as fatigued battling for rebounds inside against bigger/more physical opponents.
