Tobacco Road Report

22 turnovers, 36 points off turnovers…game over, Blue Devils win.

Georgia Tech showed their youth on Sunday as the Blue Devils went on a 14-5 run over the last 5 minutes of the first half to get a working margin and a hard fought victory. Duke was led by their guard trio (Paulus-15 points, Nelson- 13 points, Scheyer-14 points) and won the game with the help of Georgia Tech’s fundamental errors.

TRR took the time to list the fundamental flaws of the Jackets, so enjoy:

1. Sloppy ball handling--- 22 turnovers, 16 in the first half (almost 50% of their possessions). Tech looked like a bad city league team bringing the ball up the court.
2. Cannot inbound the ball in the half court set---2 turnovers plus 2 timeouts.
3. Cannot defend the high screen and roll---Paulus had 9 points (on threes) from misplayed screen play by the Jackets. On two occasions, the Jackets had two men covering the screener and no one on the point. Jon Scheyer got more uncontested looks than he has had in recent weeks as Tech botched rotations.
4. Soft with the ball on the box. Tech bigs (except Jeremis Smith) had the ball taken by aggressive Duke players doubling off the ball.
5. Inability to get any set offense in the half court. Duke overplayed the passing lanes and Tech could not get any motion out of their sets. TRR was amazed that Tech ended with 14 assists.
6. The center is not supposed to extend out on the point guard in a 2-3 zone. In a bizarre possession, Tech’s center left the zone to challenge a pick at 20 feet, leading to ball reversal and Scheyer getting a wide open gimme. (TRR note: Scheyer with feet set and no defender within 10 feet is a gimme from 20 feet and in)

Duke shut up the doubters this week with two solid games. While youth on the court affects the offense, Duke is still bringing intensity and defense. With the right matchups in March, they will be dangerous. They simply do not have the post game or future lottery pick to go deep in March, but they will be a tough out.

For Tech, the ACC has four teams clustered from 6-9 in the standings. All have some positives, but all have serious flaws as well. We just can’t see the committee letting in all four. Tech gets a break with Wake coming to town this week, but the last three are against UVa, UNC, and BC. Tech may need three of the last four to get the NCAA nod.

TRR Word of the Day: Flopola

Example in a sentence: Duke has perfected the flopola as Lance Thomas drew three charges from Tech players blowing excessive air on his jersey.