I would suggest things like so much youth but they had more experience this season than most of Kal's teams have had at Ky. One thing that IMO may have been a major factor is that maybe they actually had to much talent on that team to the extent that it tended to step on itself at crunch time. They had been able to out talent every other opponent this season but Whisky was able to match up with them better inside. But was that talent they had ever really able to get in to a flow and have players abale to carry that team? Hard to do when you have so many personalities looking to be the man, lots of chiefs, where were the injuns?
Look at duke, got to give them credit, since K dismissed Soulimon, he has shorted his rotations and the players he goes to have been able to get their heads in the game, rather than have some hockey line rotational pattern with so many guys coming in cold. Take a kid playing really well, the last thing you want to do is pull him out and sit him on the bench for the next 7mins, we have struggled at times with this as well. when you have combinations like the twins, Booker, Lyles, WCS, & Townes out there you have a lot of alpha attitudes, which can be a really good thing if those alpha's don't step on each others attitudes. But if they do step on each other you tend to see a lot of one on one play and not a lot of looking for each other team play.
And yet look at Whisky, 2 team leaders in Kaminsky and Dekker but even those 2 do what they do within the frame work of the team itself. You see a lot of garbage man blue collar work with those whisky kids, look at their 2 man that made life so hard foir marcus, look at Dekker the 6'9" walking mismatch that can put the ball on the floor as a 3, look at even Kaminsky, won all those awards but really when you watch him, he just goes aboput his job in a blue collar sort of way, he plays within his ability and doesn't seem to try to go outside of his comfort zone, cool & calm & collected.
To me that was a match up of talent vs team, team won, this was Villinova vs Gtown, team won. Duke has cobbled together a really good team as well and they have taken advantage of a easy path to the title game but they are also playing together really well right now. This Whisky team showed me, vs us, and yet again last night, they are tuff minded kids and they don't quit just because you hit them in th emouth late in a game, they just get right back up and hit you even harder. Ky wasn't ready for that, not sure if duke will be either, duke is good at hitting others in the mouth but how well they take a team ready willing & able to hit back and not back down will be interesting to see.
I felt Ky was a completely awful matchup for duke, way to much size for duke to handle but whisky not only offers a different type of challenge but those whisky kids have not forgot duke coming in to their house this season and stealing one from them. I don't think Bo Ryan will have a problem with this whisky team looking over this duke team, I have a sneaky suspect that this bunch of whisky players really wanted one more crack at duke to be able to get revenge for that prior loss.
UNless the refs get whistle happy and put the whisky starting 5 in foul trouble, if the refs will let them play or at least call it down the middle, I don't think duke can take this whisky team the way they are playing right now. if the refs don't give it to the dukies those whisky players will take it from them but wondering if the refs will call a game down the middle when duke is involved is a song we have heard way to many times and it always comes out with the same sour note, odd fouls called on the opponents and strange calls & clock issues that tend to benifit duke.
Look at duke, got to give them credit, since K dismissed Soulimon, he has shorted his rotations and the players he goes to have been able to get their heads in the game, rather than have some hockey line rotational pattern with so many guys coming in cold. Take a kid playing really well, the last thing you want to do is pull him out and sit him on the bench for the next 7mins, we have struggled at times with this as well. when you have combinations like the twins, Booker, Lyles, WCS, & Townes out there you have a lot of alpha attitudes, which can be a really good thing if those alpha's don't step on each others attitudes. But if they do step on each other you tend to see a lot of one on one play and not a lot of looking for each other team play.
And yet look at Whisky, 2 team leaders in Kaminsky and Dekker but even those 2 do what they do within the frame work of the team itself. You see a lot of garbage man blue collar work with those whisky kids, look at their 2 man that made life so hard foir marcus, look at Dekker the 6'9" walking mismatch that can put the ball on the floor as a 3, look at even Kaminsky, won all those awards but really when you watch him, he just goes aboput his job in a blue collar sort of way, he plays within his ability and doesn't seem to try to go outside of his comfort zone, cool & calm & collected.
To me that was a match up of talent vs team, team won, this was Villinova vs Gtown, team won. Duke has cobbled together a really good team as well and they have taken advantage of a easy path to the title game but they are also playing together really well right now. This Whisky team showed me, vs us, and yet again last night, they are tuff minded kids and they don't quit just because you hit them in th emouth late in a game, they just get right back up and hit you even harder. Ky wasn't ready for that, not sure if duke will be either, duke is good at hitting others in the mouth but how well they take a team ready willing & able to hit back and not back down will be interesting to see.
I felt Ky was a completely awful matchup for duke, way to much size for duke to handle but whisky not only offers a different type of challenge but those whisky kids have not forgot duke coming in to their house this season and stealing one from them. I don't think Bo Ryan will have a problem with this whisky team looking over this duke team, I have a sneaky suspect that this bunch of whisky players really wanted one more crack at duke to be able to get revenge for that prior loss.
UNless the refs get whistle happy and put the whisky starting 5 in foul trouble, if the refs will let them play or at least call it down the middle, I don't think duke can take this whisky team the way they are playing right now. if the refs don't give it to the dukies those whisky players will take it from them but wondering if the refs will call a game down the middle when duke is involved is a song we have heard way to many times and it always comes out with the same sour note, odd fouls called on the opponents and strange calls & clock issues that tend to benifit duke.
