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Duke vs Carolina

I'm too frustrated to write a long post. I'll just say what I have said about this team and this program for years now, that we aren't athletic enough to play the kind of defense Coach K wants to play. Sure, we missed quite a few open shots in the first half. I think that did affect how we played. And people can say we live and die by the 3. But we aren't a 28% 3 point shooting team. If those shots fall like they normally do it's at least a close game.

But that's the thing with modern Coach K teams. We no longer have the athletes who can just use their skills to overcome an unlucky shooting performance. We don't have a Brian Zoubeck who can get rebounds and protect the rim if the other players don't shoot or defend well. We don't have a Jason Williams or Shane Battier than can carry the team on their backs on either end of the court when the team isn't playing well. The Duke teams of old could beat good teams despite not playing well. This Duke team can only beat the Carolinas and Ohio States if they shoot 40% from 3 and play a good overall game. That's not to say we can't go on a run like UConn did last season and go deep into the tourney. But our odds of doing so are worse than those of Carolina's or Kentucky's.

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