January 09, 2007
Pomeroy On Paulus
If you watched Duke's loss to Virginia Tech on Saturday, you certainly noticed the play of Greg Paulus. Paulus turned the ball over three times on Duke's first four possessions and finished with six TOs in just 18 minutes of play. And that doesn't even count the last possession when he took a Josh McRoberts pass off of his face and then had his last-second three-point attempt swatted into the stunned crowd. Put simply, Paulus was awful. And that's a huge part of why Duke lost.
Ken Pomeroy wrote up a nice (well, unless you're in the Paulus family) piece looking at Paulus' performance this year and pointing out that he's actually not playing much worse than last year. That last part really surprised me. I thought Paulus was a bit overrated last season, but I would have guessed that he's been WAY worse this year. Nope. His turnover rate was pretty damn putrid last season as well.
BTW, while I'm bashing Duke I'll go ahead and voice a thought I had while watching that game. This year's team reminds me of the infamous 1995 team that fell to the ACC cellar. Both teams have a pretty decent array of players but lack on-court leadership and don't play well together. It's a rare Mike Krzyzewski team that is less than the sum of its parts, but that's the case right now for this group. Fortunately for the Blue Devils (who also lost their first home ACC contest to a football school in 1995), I don't think Coach K is going to check into Duke Hospital and hand the reins over to an unprepared assistant this time around (coincidently, current assistants Chris Collins and Steve Wojelvjioahvoihashski were prominently featured on that '95 squad). There's time to right the ship, but they need to get better point guard play.
| Jerry wrote: |
| The title of Ken's post tells me he both saw and enjoyed this: http://www.truthaboutduke.com/dukecourt.jpg |
That's funny. Maybe you're right, but I think it's actually because Ken is a Hokie.
Frankly, Paulus' stats scream "I'm a shooting guard". I could get all hopeful/delusional and say that Wojo sucked until he was a junior, but even if Paulus miraculously changes his game the way Wojo did, it's not going to help this year.
So, what are Duke's options for this year? Either Scheyer can become the main point guard, or they can run the offense through McRoberts. However, they're already doing both of those. And, although he doesn't turn it over too much, Scheyer just doesn't hand out enough assists to be a solid point guard.
So. At what point will Coach K decide that:
A. This season' results are more important than a player's development, and start to shrink Paulus' playing time
or
B. There is no one else, and this is just going to be a mediocre season by our standards
Can he come up with any offensive wrinkles that minimize the need for a point guard? Can he put any more emphasis on winning through defense, since we can't outscore Roy Williams' grandmother?
After Paulus, I think Duke's biggest problem (in terms of living up to their expectations) has been DaMarcus Nelson. Nelson should be Duke's primary scorer and a suitable back-up point, but he's been neither this year. I really expected more of him this season.
Oh, and I think perhaps the most disappointing person this season may actually be K- the offense has been stagnant for several seasons now (perhaps since Williams and Boozer's last season). It doesn't get any better as the season progresses, and (seemingly of late) the talent gets worse. It may be time for him to go outside of the family for an assistant when one of the current batch leaves.
[As far as the gratuitous and idiotic K slam, I shouldn't respond to it, but c'mon- the only meaningful record left for the man is total wins. If he were actually concerned with wins and losses, he would have stolen Gaudet's wins, not stuck him with two losses. (an you tell me how many losses Rupp, Dean, or Knight have? I thought not. No one cares. In contrast, some day, those handful of extra wins might actually matter.]
| tieguy wrote: |
| Dave: don't understimate McRobert's offensive near-disappearance. For such a talented guy, he's just... argh, so passive. Nelson may be found in the dictionary next to charge, but at least he is aggressive. |
I agree, it's just that I personally had higher expectations for Nelson than McRoberts this year. I didn't really understand the media's preseason love for McRoberts. I saw several publications that had him rated higher than Hansbrough!
And I'm with you on K. I was thinking of looking back at my archives, but I think this might be the third year in a row when I had a feeling that Duke was way overrated early in the year and that the team had serious flaws. The previous two years it was defensive quickness and all-around athleticism that was lacking. This year it's those (to a slightly lesser degree) PLUS offensive troubles.
He's got all the physical tools Hansbrough has, except he's faster down the court and has the vision and passing skills of a point guard. (I honestly think that if Zoubek develops and Paulus continues to regress, we could see McRoberts at point-forward for substantial periods of time.)
Hansbrough, on the other hand, actually uses his physical tools. Details. Details.
(And from what I remember about the Gaudet games, Krzyzewski was given no choice by the NCAA on whether the games should be counted on his record as the rules are quite clear on that. Nor has he ever expressed any desire to disavow them. I do think the media at large used Gaudet as a scapegoat for that season. No matter who had the clipboard on the sideline, that team wasn't going to break 0.500 in ACC play, and indeed only managed 8-8 the following season.)
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