FSU 65 Duke 100 The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Good
That listing the good won't take long at all.
The fact that Leonard Hamilton will likely never have to experience a drubbing from Duke like that again.
Jamir Watkins with 21 points marking the 17th time he has scored more than 20 points in his FSU career and 51st game in double figures. Thanks for sticking around another season. Man, I do not know what FSU would have done without him.
Jerry Deng with 12 points with a couple of nice three pointers.
Plays of the game: Taylor Bol Bowen deflects a pass, gains control of it, and fires a lengthy pass to Watkins for the fast break layup and put FSU on the board. Duke already had 5 by that time. Christian Nitu with the offensive rebound and slam dunk putback, 14-6. Had to mention that one because they do not happen all that often for the 'Noles. My fav basket by Deng tonight was him going sky high and corralling the sidearm one handed pass from Watkins from the left corner all the way to the right corner and nailing the three as a defender was rushing towards him, 14-9. Watkins two FTs that gave FSU a 7-0 run to trail 14-11. Bol Bowen with the three just to the right of the key and had all day to do it as the defender for some inexplicable reason left him all alone to guard someone else, 16-14, Duke. A twisting Deng and the fade away jumper, 45-25. AJ Swinton finding the right spot to beat the 2-3 zone connecting on the three from the right corner. Credit whoever it was who got him the ball, 47-30. The brief amount of hope as FSU closed the gap to twelve early in the second period, 47-35. Watkins with the nice turnaround jumper in the lane, 62-37. Watkins' lob that probably was a pass but ended up going in the basket, 64-39. Deng with the long three from the right wing, 68-45.
The Bad
FSU's record now drops to 16-13 Overall, 7-11 ACC and is perilously close to dropping down far enough to not get a bye at all and possibly play on Tuesday at the start of the ACC tournament. Coming into the game, FSU had two total wins all time at Cameron Indoor. Leaving the game, FSU had two total wins all time at Cameron Indoor.
Malique Ewin being out for this game severely put a dent in FSU's offense and rebounding abilities. Alier Maluk started in his place. More on that later.
Duke was favored by short term investment brokers by 23.5 points. Duke covered that by 3:56 into the second half.
Duke obviously showed they are more than FR sensation Cooper Flagg. If you didn't know that already that is. Flagg left the floor at the 9:42 mark of the first period for a substantial amount of time after taking a forearm in the face from Bol Bowen. Duke showed no signs of missing him.
This was the 540th sellout of a Duke game at Cameron. That is somewhere in the vicinity of 25 years. Gee, you think they were good or something.
If you have watched Duke enough, you know what they are going to do on defense. They are going to hound you and push you away from the basket. Which is exactly what happened. That FSU was able to make 7 of 21 (33%) from the arc was actually kind of amazing considering the distance where many of those threes were taken.
The score was 16-14. Next thing you knew, it was 30-14 almost in an instant. That is something else we have seen from Duke over the years. Are we sure Coach K retired?
Duke led the whole way. But you knew that already I am sure.
Leonard Hamilton in his postgame interview lamenting FSU's continued rebounding problems. He liked what he saw out of the defense and getting stops. But not so much in getting the defensive board. Duke by halftime had 12 offensive boards and finished with 21. Overall the Blue Devils pounded the backboard 49-32 over the 'Noles.
Watkins being hammered taking a three above the key and getting no call whatsoever. The refs must have figured the game was over so why call it.
Memo to Bostyn Holt: I appreciate you trying to stop Khaman Malusch, who had just stolen an inbound pass, from making a basket. But if you are going to foul him, at least make sure he doesn't make the basket. At least get your monies' worth out of the foul.
The Ugly
Admit it, you knew it was going to be ugly before tip off. And it was. But the Seminoles are not alone in getting a beat down from the Blue Devils. Since Duke lost at Clemson, the margin of victory has been 21, 36, 43. 18, 43. 37, and now 35. That is an average of 33.2 ppg. I am thinking Duke covered in most if not all of those games.
Even their walk ons were better than FSU's. Who BTW entered the game with 3:29 left. It was that bad at that point and only got worse. Duke was up by 28 and you know what the final score was.
Which leads me to Mrs BFT's comment during the game when she said that maybe FSU might get within 30 of Duke. I'm not sure that is good goal to have. Hey, we held them to them beating us by only 27!!! Of course I was having the totally false hope of covering that 23.5 point spread.
At least FSU tied Duke in FT shooting. Both teams shot 82.4% from the stripe. Of course FSU was 14 of 17. And Duke? They doubled us up in attempts and conversions, 28-34. Something else we have seen over the years that Duke does well. Especially at home.
And speaking of Maluk. What a heck of a setting to start your first ever college game. And it was not a good one as Maluk took one shot (he missed), had one rebound, turned the ball over 3 times and picked up 4 fouls in fourteen minutes of playing time. He picked up foul #1 just 1:14 into the game. Foul #2 4:18 into the game. 2:49 into the second half, foul #3 occurred. Then with 11:34 remaining, his 4th. And that I believe was the last we saw of Alier. The fouls included two illgal screens and three of the four were outside the arc.
Oh, that 12 point deficit at 47-35, turned into 62-35 in a matter of 2:43.
The only thing Duke did not do well was shoot threes. Just 8 of 30. That is 27% for those of you keeping score at home.
Up Next
For FSU's last road game of the season, they will travel to Virginia for a Tuesday night 9 PM (oh joy) tip to be broadcast on the ACCN. When we last saw the Cavs (14-15, 7-11 and not to be confused with Cleveland), which was earlier today, we saw them outscored by 18 in the second half by Clemson in losing 71-58 after leading by five at the half. The chances for Hamilton to reach 200 ACC wins is running out. This game would be a good time to do it.
The Good
That listing the good won't take long at all.
The fact that Leonard Hamilton will likely never have to experience a drubbing from Duke like that again.
Jamir Watkins with 21 points marking the 17th time he has scored more than 20 points in his FSU career and 51st game in double figures. Thanks for sticking around another season. Man, I do not know what FSU would have done without him.
Jerry Deng with 12 points with a couple of nice three pointers.
Plays of the game: Taylor Bol Bowen deflects a pass, gains control of it, and fires a lengthy pass to Watkins for the fast break layup and put FSU on the board. Duke already had 5 by that time. Christian Nitu with the offensive rebound and slam dunk putback, 14-6. Had to mention that one because they do not happen all that often for the 'Noles. My fav basket by Deng tonight was him going sky high and corralling the sidearm one handed pass from Watkins from the left corner all the way to the right corner and nailing the three as a defender was rushing towards him, 14-9. Watkins two FTs that gave FSU a 7-0 run to trail 14-11. Bol Bowen with the three just to the right of the key and had all day to do it as the defender for some inexplicable reason left him all alone to guard someone else, 16-14, Duke. A twisting Deng and the fade away jumper, 45-25. AJ Swinton finding the right spot to beat the 2-3 zone connecting on the three from the right corner. Credit whoever it was who got him the ball, 47-30. The brief amount of hope as FSU closed the gap to twelve early in the second period, 47-35. Watkins with the nice turnaround jumper in the lane, 62-37. Watkins' lob that probably was a pass but ended up going in the basket, 64-39. Deng with the long three from the right wing, 68-45.
The Bad
FSU's record now drops to 16-13 Overall, 7-11 ACC and is perilously close to dropping down far enough to not get a bye at all and possibly play on Tuesday at the start of the ACC tournament. Coming into the game, FSU had two total wins all time at Cameron Indoor. Leaving the game, FSU had two total wins all time at Cameron Indoor.
Malique Ewin being out for this game severely put a dent in FSU's offense and rebounding abilities. Alier Maluk started in his place. More on that later.
Duke was favored by short term investment brokers by 23.5 points. Duke covered that by 3:56 into the second half.
Duke obviously showed they are more than FR sensation Cooper Flagg. If you didn't know that already that is. Flagg left the floor at the 9:42 mark of the first period for a substantial amount of time after taking a forearm in the face from Bol Bowen. Duke showed no signs of missing him.
This was the 540th sellout of a Duke game at Cameron. That is somewhere in the vicinity of 25 years. Gee, you think they were good or something.
If you have watched Duke enough, you know what they are going to do on defense. They are going to hound you and push you away from the basket. Which is exactly what happened. That FSU was able to make 7 of 21 (33%) from the arc was actually kind of amazing considering the distance where many of those threes were taken.
The score was 16-14. Next thing you knew, it was 30-14 almost in an instant. That is something else we have seen from Duke over the years. Are we sure Coach K retired?
Duke led the whole way. But you knew that already I am sure.
Leonard Hamilton in his postgame interview lamenting FSU's continued rebounding problems. He liked what he saw out of the defense and getting stops. But not so much in getting the defensive board. Duke by halftime had 12 offensive boards and finished with 21. Overall the Blue Devils pounded the backboard 49-32 over the 'Noles.
Watkins being hammered taking a three above the key and getting no call whatsoever. The refs must have figured the game was over so why call it.
Memo to Bostyn Holt: I appreciate you trying to stop Khaman Malusch, who had just stolen an inbound pass, from making a basket. But if you are going to foul him, at least make sure he doesn't make the basket. At least get your monies' worth out of the foul.
The Ugly
Admit it, you knew it was going to be ugly before tip off. And it was. But the Seminoles are not alone in getting a beat down from the Blue Devils. Since Duke lost at Clemson, the margin of victory has been 21, 36, 43. 18, 43. 37, and now 35. That is an average of 33.2 ppg. I am thinking Duke covered in most if not all of those games.
Even their walk ons were better than FSU's. Who BTW entered the game with 3:29 left. It was that bad at that point and only got worse. Duke was up by 28 and you know what the final score was.
Which leads me to Mrs BFT's comment during the game when she said that maybe FSU might get within 30 of Duke. I'm not sure that is good goal to have. Hey, we held them to them beating us by only 27!!! Of course I was having the totally false hope of covering that 23.5 point spread.
At least FSU tied Duke in FT shooting. Both teams shot 82.4% from the stripe. Of course FSU was 14 of 17. And Duke? They doubled us up in attempts and conversions, 28-34. Something else we have seen over the years that Duke does well. Especially at home.
And speaking of Maluk. What a heck of a setting to start your first ever college game. And it was not a good one as Maluk took one shot (he missed), had one rebound, turned the ball over 3 times and picked up 4 fouls in fourteen minutes of playing time. He picked up foul #1 just 1:14 into the game. Foul #2 4:18 into the game. 2:49 into the second half, foul #3 occurred. Then with 11:34 remaining, his 4th. And that I believe was the last we saw of Alier. The fouls included two illgal screens and three of the four were outside the arc.
Oh, that 12 point deficit at 47-35, turned into 62-35 in a matter of 2:43.
The only thing Duke did not do well was shoot threes. Just 8 of 30. That is 27% for those of you keeping score at home.
Up Next
For FSU's last road game of the season, they will travel to Virginia for a Tuesday night 9 PM (oh joy) tip to be broadcast on the ACCN. When we last saw the Cavs (14-15, 7-11 and not to be confused with Cleveland), which was earlier today, we saw them outscored by 18 in the second half by Clemson in losing 71-58 after leading by five at the half. The chances for Hamilton to reach 200 ACC wins is running out. This game would be a good time to do it.
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