Duke and foul shots (and water is wet)

Mar 12, 2022, 12:15 PM

In honor of the predetermined coronation of the great K’s final ACC tournament championship, I thought I’d take a look at this years Duke stats. This is factual, I am biased against Duke BB and I acknowledge the elite status of K and Duke BB. The last alone should be reason enough for the ACC and the refs not to give them the preferential treatment they always receive.

Anyway, after our free throw debacle I started looking at the disparity in free throws for Duke this year. Some stats I pulled today are below

For the year

Dukes opponents are 260 of 387 from the line (67%)
Duke is 419 of 573 (73%)
They made 32 more than their opponents even attempted

With the equivalent number of 5* players as Clemson football getting 22 5*s every year, it is possible that some teams have to foul out of necessity and certainly the percentage shot is all on the players

But

Away game (11) stats are

Opponents are 106 of 158 (67%)
Duke is 114 of 166 (69%)

Free throws in their 5 losses

Opponents are 63 of 89 (71%)
Duke is 64 of 81 (79%)

This clearly shows that fouls are called evenly away from Cameron and if they are called evenly, Duke has a better chance of losing

Another stat that needs to occur to overcome talent and preferential treatment is turnovers. OSU and UNC played great against them and have history of their own. But in the losses to Miami, FSU and UVA, the opponents won the turnover battle, respectively, 17-5, 15-5 and 15-5.

More fun facts for this year

In Dukes first 14 games, one was at MSG (home away from home) one in Vegas, one at OSU (loss) and the rest at home. During this run, consecutive away games were postponed at Clemson and ND when both were playing well and Duke was having some issues. I realize the stated excuse, but that type of luck year after year suggests a pattern

As all on here know, during our game at Duke, we were 0-1 on a one and one situation and Duke 11-13 in a close game that went down to the buzzer. Apparently, Duke managed to not foul a single shooter for 40 minutes of a highly contested game while blocking 4 shots. Color me skeptical.

I hope VaTech spoils the party. To do so, they will have to win the turnover battle by a large margin and shoot better than Duke, especially from 3. They will have to play 5 on 8 and will have to play well enough to beat them by 10 to win a 1 point game.

I will not miss the foul mouthed, hypocritical, poor losing Coach k. I only hope the coaching hierarchy resets like we did when Dean retired and Dukes coaching doesn’t get an automatic carry forward

Maybe we can play on Saturday in the near future, but that’s a whole other conversation

Go Tigers

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Duke and foul shots (and water is wet)

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