Quick take

Fun win, but brutal to watch. That can't be what the NCAA had in mind in putting KU vs Duke at MSG to start the season. Fouls were the main story. Just ugly and painful.

Don't care if Duke's freshmen were on the bench. The fouls trashed any game plan by Hawks and we shot horrible from the line and 3. We won an ugly game and dominated for a long stretch of the second half. Many good things out there that will be fine tuned over time.

Frank: Beast mode. Just nails. But we can't keep assuming he will win every game for us. Second game where we just cleared out and let him go.

Josh: Saw Snippets of what is in store. He will be dominant by end of season. Wanted to take over the game, and did for a short period. Fouls ruined an otherwise great night. Has to practice free throws though.

Big men: Really need AZ to learn how to play. We can't have Lucas as our #1 big. He's complimentary at best, like last year, but he converts less than 5% of his chances when we give it to him down low. He also looks unhappy and frustrated. Strange for a guy who is the starting center on a great team.

Bragg: Still has that soft shot, but not sure what his role will be and how Self folds his skill set into the offense. He's too good to get miscellaneous points like he did for much of tonight.

Svi: Officially an average shooter (isn't going to be the sharp shooter we keep hearing about), so needs to play like he did tonight. Energy, rebounding, moving the ball, and solid D.

Graham: Just solid, and played great defense tonight. He fairly quietly just puts in good performances.

Vick: Love the guy and he'll be very fun to watch. As good on D as he was on O. he'll be our best sub.

I enjoyed the game, and loved how we kept Grayson (Nat'l player of the year most likely) under wraps for most of game. We're making solid progress on defense.

Rock Chalk.

I would agree on pretty much everything you posted.

It seemed like overall, aside from that 7-0 stretch at the end and the run they made at the beginning, our defense was vastly improved. I do think that part of the success last night can be attributed to the fact that Duke does not have the same quickness that Indiana has. Our guys did a great job of getting around screens and moving their feet to stop drives to the basket.

Regarding free throws, I found myself cringing every time the ball left their hand. Interestingly, they were 7-10 in the second half, which is a partial reason for their success.

As far as Lucas is concerned, I am wondering if his foot is bothering him more than has been reported. His demeanor, in my opinion is about the same as it was last year. It just appears to be more concerning because of his lackluster play. Not sure, though.

I too, was glad for Svi and thought he was pretty solid on defense. On offense, we did not see him slash as much, which may be important for him to do in order to get into some kind of a rhythm.

As far as Udoke ("Udunkie" - sorry, I know that's lame) is concerned, I am almost glad that he was pressed into some critical action last night. I know that a lot of people are critical of Self not giving young guys minutes, especially when they experience some failures on the court. In this case, the options were slim and none, and yet we see that the sky did not fall as a result of his inconsistent play. He was able to work through it. I do hope HCBS was taking notice and will store that information for days and years to come when it come to Udoke and others.

One last point of interest. If you factor out the 2-17 from three, our guys were 31-48 from two, which is a 64.6% clip. I would take that most anytime.

Personally, I was thinking we would probably go 1-1 on this opening stretch. As difficult as the loss to Indiana was, the win over the devils is much more satisfying. We could have (should have) beaten Indiana, and they have a chance to be there at the end if they continue to play the way they did against our guys.

#Rockchalksatisfied

This yeas we have UDUNKIE!!! I love it!!!

Motion to adopt this new moniker with all props to the newtster,

RC

I second the motion!

One more comment about Josh: He would do well to control his emotions. I noticed that the assistant coaches took turns getting in his face when his temper got him a seat on the bench. It was good to hear HCBS address that in the post game interview.

We want nothing to get in the way of his pending stardom!

SAC, so it shall be,

RC