King will get his reps, he'll definitely be in the rotation.

Strykur said:

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pingpong2 said:

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Cal88 said:

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King will get his reps, he'll definitely be in the rotation.

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But presumably so will Hamper…

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Exactly so what's the rub here?

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I like seeing players who can hang onto the dimes that JKS drops. Presumably JKS likes that too.

I went back and rewatched every Hamper catch and drop. Here's what I found.

He is 0/3 on perfectly placed deep balls that requires him to catch the ball over his shoulder.

On medium-to-long passes where he is able to turn his body to the ball and catch it with his hands, he's been consistent. 3 for 4, with the lone drop coming from when he was fairly well covered (albeit the pass was still catchable).

He's 9/10 on short catchable balls (the one drop was thrown behind him).

Given this, I would rather see him in the slot as a possession receiver rather than having him go vertical, which King has had better success doing.

bearsandgiants said:

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OldPhiKap said:

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Hey now! Duke fan here and a moderator on the DukeBasketballReport someone linked above.

First, welcome to the ACC.

Second, go to Hell Carolina. It just has to be said.

Third, I wanted to reach out and get y'all's thoughts on the game since we are likely not too familiar with each other's teams. Your defense looks pretty strong across the board (especially run defense and scoring defense, although passing defense is also impressive). Sorry to hear about the injuries to Isaiah Crosby and Ryan McCulloch (no one wants to see college kids get hurt), curious as to how y'all think that may impact the defense.

Our offense has been good at times (ranked 14th in passing yards and 10th in yards per play) but dumb penalties and fumbles have been killing us at times. Uncharacteristically undisciplined. Special teams have also been "mid" at best. We also start slow but finish stronger. We will need four strong quarters to pull this one out.

All in all I think we should be underdogs in this one. We will need to really play more disciplined ball if Duke has a chance.

Curious as to how y'all see it. Feel free to visit our site and discuss if you wish (and of course we're open for other sports as well as you can tell from the name).

Anyway, again good luck and welcome to the conference. Go to Hell, Carolina. Hoping both teams come through the game without injury.

OPK

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Welcome! I hope you're going to the game and if so, have a great time. Memorial Stadium and Berkeley in general, are experiences not to be missed and you'll have a great time. Others who know a lot more about football can likely better speculate, but l think you're right in that it really comes down to discipline. Before our defensive injuries (which are indeed significant) I would have put money on the Bears in this one, especially if you get free points, but I feel like it's really a tossup a this point. So far this year, we've struggled on offense, with receivers dropping passes, inability to create holes for the run game, and inability to crash holes that are made, for big gains. All of that seemed to improve last week vs BC, but the defense fell off a bit, with missed tackles and missed assignments, and yielding some chunk plays. We do tend to pick off bad passes, so that's one thing to watch out for, but we have had trouble all year getting pressure on the QB (exacerbated by rushing only 3, but that decision has freed up our more athletic defensive backs and has probably led a few of those interceptions). If we put it all together, we can be a very good team. If we bring our lack of focus like we did to SDSU, you'll smoke us. I do think the late start time will be a factor, even though yes, teenagers stay up late. Late is late, and late after a flight is even worse. This factor really plays into these games, and I think it's worse coming west, just like it would be terrible to do a noon kickoff if flying east. If it's a slow game (and since it's on ESPN it likely will be), if we can keep it close, I think we have a chance to wear things down in the last quarter when everyone wants to go to sleep. I feel like our QBs are similarly talented, but ours is more raw, with incredible potential. The fact that we've started to catch all of our passes and our run game improved a bit last week gives me more hope. I really have only seen the highlight reel from Syracuse and they looked TERRIBLE so just based on that, I feel like we know what we need to do to improve (hold onto the ball, stay home on run coverage, tackle well and don't telegraph passes). I think we can do all of that, and Wilcox will have us prepared. I think it's going to be a great, close game, and both of our teams are nicely match. I'm super excited about it. What are you guys thinking over there, and do you have any key injuries?

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Thanks for the nice response! From the Duke side, I think most of us see this as a pretty tight and even game.

On offense, QB Mensah has been fairly accurate and mobile, distributing to a number of folks. The running game has been better than expected although not spectacular. The O line has been solid, and Cooper Barkgate at WR (transfer from Harvard) has been solid. Play calling has been good generally.

Our defense has been surprisingly ineffective at times, something most of us did not expect. Vincent Anthony at DE has been great, and we are good at tackles for loss. Chandler Rivers (CB) is solid. Safety Caleb Weaver leads us in tackles.

Special teams have been an adventure.

If we play disciplined and hold on to the ball we have a chance. Obvious I guess, but really true with this team. Dumb penalties (odd for us the last few years) and bad turnovers are why we are 3-2 instead of 5-0. Someone upthread said it well we are a nice but not spectacular team.

Everyone is happy with Manny Diaz as coach and (generally) his staff. Will enjoy it until he gets hired away by a bigger program.

As far as injuries, we have a banged up team like everyone but most listed as questionable. So who knows what that means these days.

Most of us do not have much familiarity with y'all, both because we've been in different leagues and because of the time difference. (I certainly don't mean that in an "East Coast bias" way, just the reality that the slate of games start at noon out here and we just do not get a chance to see the late games out there after a full day of drinking and couch surfing). And most Duke fans have PTSD from the time that Steve Spurrier left as coach in 1989 until Cutcliffe came about ten years ago we went years as one of the worst Div-I teams out there. So you won't find a lot of irrational exuberance when it comes to football.

Seems to me like we should be slight 'dogs or pick'em at best. I assume the line is based in part on us curb-stomping Syracuse last week on the road after they beat Clemson, but Syracuse had to play a back-up QB against us and their early errors doomed them. So I don't take a lot from that.

Again, thanks for the thoughtful response and best of luck. Hoping for no injuries for either team. And, of course, hoping to see Clemson beat the dog poo out of the Tar Heels. While unhealthy, that matters a lot in this neck of the woods as well.

I look forward to learning more about all of your sports teams over the next few years. Peace.

OPK

Highlight clip JKS.

Rushinbear said:

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OldPhiKap said:

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Hey now! Duke fan here and a moderator on the DukeBasketballReport someone linked above.

First, welcome to the ACC.

Second, go to Hell Carolina. It just has to be said.

Third, I wanted to reach out and get y'all's thoughts on the game since we are likely not too familiar with each other's teams. Your defense looks pretty strong across the board (especially run defense and scoring defense, although passing defense is also impressive). Sorry to hear about the injuries to Isaiah Crosby and Ryan McCulloch (no one wants to see college kids get hurt), curious as to how y'all think that may impact the defense.

Our offense has been good at times (ranked 14th in passing yards and 10th in yards per play) but dumb penalties and fumbles have been killing us at times. Uncharacteristically undisciplined. Special teams have also been "mid" at best. We also start slow but finish stronger. We will need four strong quarters to pull this one out.

All in all I think we should be underdogs in this one. We will need to really play more disciplined ball if Duke has a chance.

Curious as to how y'all see it. Feel free to visit our site and discuss if you wish (and of course we're open for other sports as well as you can tell from the name).

Anyway, again good luck and welcome to the conference. Go to Hell, Carolina. Hoping both teams come through the game without injury.

OPK

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I checked out your depth chart (as much as you reveal) and it looks like both lines are a little under 300, on average. has that been a prob late in games? You've got stars at LT and Edge, any other we should know about?

The loss of our DE and S would have been worse last year, but we've got some depth this year, so the drop off shouldn't be too bad.

I worry more about Sheppard than Mensah, which means that we've got our hands full. The Sheppard name is familiar. There was a fine wr with that name a few years ago. Any relatiion? Hope not, but in any event, your kid is good.

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Anthony and Williams are good defensive line edge rushers. Rivers and Moore were both second-team all conference players in the secondary last year and are back. We are pretty good at tackles for loss, but have given up some really sloppy long plays. Third and long continues to be our nemesis when we need to get our defense off the field.

And stop dumb penalties on both sides of the ball, particularly the defense.

Offensively, Sheppard and Castle have been good in the backfield, which sets up Mensah to run or pass. We were excited for Moore to return to the backfield from injury last year as well, although he has not quite broken out. He was a very exciting player last year before he got hurt.

Seems to be a very even match, and I think y'all should be getting a line of about -3.5 or so for home field advantage. I'm pulling for my Devils of course but if I was a betting man and I am I think picking Cal to at least cover (let alone win) is the smart money.

OldPhiKap said:

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Rushinbear said:

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OldPhiKap said:

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Hey now! Duke fan here and a moderator on the DukeBasketballReport someone linked above.

First, welcome to the ACC.

Second, go to Hell Carolina. It just has to be said.

Third, I wanted to reach out and get y'all's thoughts on the game since we are likely not too familiar with each other's teams. Your defense looks pretty strong across the board (especially run defense and scoring defense, although passing defense is also impressive). Sorry to hear about the injuries to Isaiah Crosby and Ryan McCulloch (no one wants to see college kids get hurt), curious as to how y'all think that may impact the defense.

Our offense has been good at times (ranked 14th in passing yards and 10th in yards per play) but dumb penalties and fumbles have been killing us at times. Uncharacteristically undisciplined. Special teams have also been "mid" at best. We also start slow but finish stronger. We will need four strong quarters to pull this one out.

All in all I think we should be underdogs in this one. We will need to really play more disciplined ball if Duke has a chance.

Curious as to how y'all see it. Feel free to visit our site and discuss if you wish (and of course we're open for other sports as well as you can tell from the name).

Anyway, again good luck and welcome to the conference. Go to Hell, Carolina. Hoping both teams come through the game without injury.

OPK

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I checked out your depth chart (as much as you reveal) and it looks like both lines are a little under 300, on average. has that been a prob late in games? You've got stars at LT and Edge, any other we should know about?

The loss of our DE and S would have been worse last year, but we've got some depth this year, so the drop off shouldn't be too bad.

I worry more about Sheppard than Mensah, which means that we've got our hands full. The Sheppard name is familiar. There was a fine wr with that name a few years ago. Any relatiion? Hope not, but in any event, your kid is good.

---

Anthony and Williams are good defensive line edge rushers. Rivers and Moore were both second-team all conference players in the secondary last year and are back. We are pretty good at tackles for loss, but have given up some really sloppy long plays. Third and long continues to be our nemesis when we need to get our defense off the field.

And stop dumb penalties on both sides of the ball, particularly the defense.

Offensively, Sheppard and Castle have been good in the backfield, which sets up Mensah to run or pass. We were excited for Moore to return to the backfield from injury last year as well, although he has not quite broken out. He was a very exciting player last year before he got hurt.

Seems to be a very even match, and I think y'all should be getting a line of about -3.5 or so for home field advantage. I'm pulling for my Devils of course but if I was a betting man and I am I think picking Cal to at least cover (let alone win) is the smart money.

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Smartest Duke fan I've come across. Not because you picked us to cover and/or win but because you gave us any credit at all. Every California fan knows that our kryptonite is any semblance of outside expectations so just by the fact that you expect anything of us you have now cursed us.

Real 4D chess move right there. I respect it Dukie

Negabear3000 said:

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TouchedTheAxeIn82 said:

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MiZery said:

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Does Duke have a free board?

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This seems to be the recommended board:

https://forums.dukebasketballreport.com/index.php?forums/elizabeth-king-forum.2/

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Football posts on a basketball board???

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Have you seen Duke's football stadium? It's very clearly a basketball school

It doesn't look that bad, a bit small in terms of capacity at 35k, but hardly a DII stadium.



Interesting piece of trivia: Duke hosted the Rose Bowl in 1942, following the December '41 Pearl Harbor attack.

For those interested, a preview of the game from one of our moderators:

https://www.dukebasketballreport.com/duke-football/81372/duke-cal-game-preview

Any thoughts are welcome, and of course you can post directly on that thread as well (I think).

It may be small, but it's also half-empty.

Our alum base is pretty scattered geographically, and most locals are either UNC or NC State fans. I would love to tell you that we keep it small to pack 'em in (like we do with Cameron) but I'd be lying.

Duke football was truly one of the worst programs in the nation from about 1990 until about a dozen years ago. And even then, we're not world-beaters. It's a tough draw.

OldPhiKap said:

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Hey now! Duke fan here and a moderator on the DukeBasketballReport someone linked above.

First, welcome to the ACC.

Second, go to Hell Carolina. It just has to be said.

Third, I wanted to reach out and get y'all's thoughts on the game since we are likely not too familiar with each other's teams. Your defense looks pretty strong across the board (especially run defense and scoring defense, although passing defense is also impressive). Sorry to hear about the injuries to Isaiah Crosby and Ryan McCulloch (no one wants to see college kids get hurt), curious as to how y'all think that may impact the defense.

Our offense has been good at times (ranked 14th in passing yards and 10th in yards per play) but dumb penalties and fumbles have been killing us at times. Uncharacteristically undisciplined. Special teams have also been "mid" at best. We also start slow but finish stronger. We will need four strong quarters to pull this one out.

All in all I think we should be underdogs in this one. We will need to really play more disciplined ball if Duke has a chance.

Curious as to how y'all see it. Feel free to visit our site and discuss if you wish (and of course we're open for other sports as well as you can tell from the name).

Anyway, again good luck and welcome to the conference. Go to Hell, Carolina. Hoping both teams come through the game without injury.

OPK

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OldPhiKap, I just wanted to say that I appreciated you including "Go to Hell Carolina" twice in your initial post. Not that I really care one way or the other about Carolina, but sometimes I think that we here at Cal have gotten a little too "mellow" about our relationship with our archrival, Stanfurd. The rivalry seems to have dissipated some, over the last 25-30 years or so (many, many reasons, most of them lame).

And college rivalries are fun! The Cardinal be damned!

Win or lose this weekend - hope you guys root for us against UNC

BearBoarBlarney said:

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For our Duke visitors, I've often wondered about why Duke basketball (and Notre Dame football) are such hated programs. Both schools take academics seriously, both schools graduate their student-athletes, and both schools seem to be well regarded in professional and academic circles.

Yet more times than I can count, I have heard even the most casual college sports fan exclaim, "I absolutely hate Duke hoops." What gives, from your perspective? Maybe just a case of "They hate us because they ain't us." Or maybe derived from the same long-held prejudice that still defines Cal-Stanford, where we see those pr!cks as the rich preppy finishing school.

Just trying to hear the perspective from your side on the seeming dislike/hatred for Duke in many circles.

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It starts with the fact that Christian Laettner was extremely hateable. Then JJ Reddick was. Then Grayson Allen was. Part of it is that we had some players that were easy to see as villains. And I will be the first to say that a small but vocal part of our fan base can be insufferably braggadocios. (True for all schools I know, but your description of Stanford is often applied to our student body as well). It didn't help when we played the Fab Five in '92 and it turned into a cultural/racial thing to some people (egged on by some comments from Michigan players that don't bear repeating).

Part of it is that we won a lot, and folks thought "Dukie V" and ESPN were making us out to be better than everyone else on and off the court. Folks got tired of hearing about us and the press' sanctification of a program that is no better than a bunch of other schools. We went from being a plucky underdog story to the Death Star.

Part of it is that we beat a lot of teams in the NCAAT and ended their March Madness dream. I get it and respect that.

And of course in the State of North Carolina, we're known as the University of South New Jersey. A lot of us ain't from around there. Not as big a deal today as it was in the late Twentieth Century.

Tl;dr lots of reasons, some legit and some not so much,

Big C said:

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DoubtfulBear said:

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Big C said:

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OldPhiKap said:

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Hey now! Duke fan here and a moderator on the DukeBasketballReport someone linked above.

First, welcome to the ACC.

Second, go to Hell Carolina. It just has to be said.

Third, I wanted to reach out and get y'all's thoughts on the game since we are likely not too familiar with each other's teams. Your defense looks pretty strong across the board (especially run defense and scoring defense, although passing defense is also impressive). Sorry to hear about the injuries to Isaiah Crosby and Ryan McCulloch (no one wants to see college kids get hurt), curious as to how y'all think that may impact the defense.

Our offense has been good at times (ranked 14th in passing yards and 10th in yards per play) but dumb penalties and fumbles have been killing us at times. Uncharacteristically undisciplined. Special teams have also been "mid" at best. We also start slow but finish stronger. We will need four strong quarters to pull this one out.

All in all I think we should be underdogs in this one. We will need to really play more disciplined ball if Duke has a chance.

Curious as to how y'all see it. Feel free to visit our site and discuss if you wish (and of course we're open for other sports as well as you can tell from the name).

Anyway, again good luck and welcome to the conference. Go to Hell, Carolina. Hoping both teams come through the game without injury.

OPK

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sometimes I think that we here at Cal have gotten a little too "mellow" about our relationship with our archrival, Stanfurd. The rivalry seems to have dissipated some, over the last 25-30 years or so (many, many reasons, most of them lame).

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I never really got the feeling that the rivalry was mutual. We always seemed to care much more while Stanford kids barely cared about football at all, let alone the Big Game. Even when I was a high school student touring both schools, there vibes were very different at the farm

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1-800-beatkal

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Yes, there's also stanfordrejects.com. But those are passion projects by a select few. The vast majority couldn't care less. The fact that even Harbaugh, Luck, and McCaffrey couldn't put butts in seats says all you need to know about their apathy

Game day!

Good luck to all, hoping for no injuries. Enjoyed the nice discussion. I'll circle back when we face off on the hardwood.

Peace out. OPK