Was 2018-19 duke the most overrated team of all time?

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Number 1 overall seed

Yet 3rd in the ACC.
Lost in elite 8.
Needed late game survival in 2nd and 3rd round.
Trailed the 16 seed NDSU with 22:13 left.


No doubt a good team. But closer in the standings to Florida state than to Virginia.
 

No. They were the most talented team. But the most talented team doesn’t always win, especially in a 68-team single elimination tournament.
 


Number 1 overall seed

Yet 3rd in the ACC.
Lost in elite 8.
Needed late game survival in 2nd and 3rd round.
Trailed the 16 seed NDSU with 22:13 left.


No doubt a good team. But closer in the standings to Florida state than to Virginia.

They beat UVa twice. Were they over-hyped? Yes. Over-rated? Not really.
 

Most of their losses in the ACC came without Zion so it's not fair to hold their conference record against them.

I'd say at the beginning of the season they were extremely overrated though. There was debate of whether they'd be able to beat an NBA team. As the season progressed, the hyped died down to a more appropriate level. A lot of the hype was more for Zion than Duke as a team.
 


The hype was the NCAA trying to make as much money off Zion as they could in 1 year since he's a 1 and done.
 

Most over-rated? Virginia was #1 last year and lost to a 16.

Interestingly this year's Duke team was the first Duke I found likeable. Any shot of Coach K brought me back to reality though. I hate that man more than anyone lese in sports. Can't even articulate why but it is what it is.
 

No. They were the most talented team. But the most talented team doesn’t always win, especially in a 68-team single elimination tournament.

They were not the most talented team. They had some of the most talented individual players, but not a team.
 

The hype was the NCAA trying to make as much money off Zion as they could in 1 year since he's a 1 and done.
Its always about the money, don't anyone forget that

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Absolutely! A PG that can’t shoot or drive. I have never seen so much hype for a team that was all about talk not much of a team with so many holes.
 

Most of their losses in the ACC came without Zion so it's not fair to hold their conference record against them.

I'd say at the beginning of the season they were extremely overrated though. There was debate of whether they'd be able to beat an NBA team. As the season progressed, the hyped died down to a more appropriate level. A lot of the hype was more for Zion than Duke as a team.

I'm not even a big Zion fan. He will be the #1 pick in the NBA draft, and deservedly so. But Zion without jumps is just an undersized PF. He's short and will get a lot of his shots blocked in the NBA. I think he'll be good, but I'm not predicting an all-time great...
 


I'm not even a big Zion fan. He will be the #1 pick in the NBA draft, and deservedly so. But Zion without jumps is just an undersized PF. He's short and will get a lot of his shots blocked in the NBA. I think he'll be good, but I'm not predicting an all-time great...

The old "Zion doesn't have skill" argument:clap:

https://twitter.com/Cosmis/status/1112780694420377600
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Most of their losses in the ACC came without Zion so it's not fair to hold their conference record against them.

I'd say at the beginning of the season they were extremely overrated though. There was debate of whether they'd be able to beat an NBA team. As the season progressed, the hyped died down to a more appropriate level. A lot of the hype was more for Zion than Duke as a team.

So which McDonald's all-American filled in for Zion? Sorry, but nobody let Pitino discount his record when several of his best players were hurt.
 

Absolutely! A PG that can’t shoot or drive. I have never seen so much hype for a team that was all about talk not much of a team with so many holes.


It was the first time that I watch Duke and I was surprised. All you hear is the hype and he got beat off the dribble bad several times, lost his guy on defense and was basically a non-factor in the game. Most of his passes were the short around the circle ball movement passes. He has very fast feet, but he wasn't even close to the best PG on the floor.
 

It was the first time that I watch Duke and I was surprised. All you hear is the hype and he got beat off the dribble bad several times, lost his guy on defense and was basically a non-factor in the game. Most of his passes were the short around the circle ball movement passes. He has very fast feet, but he wasn't even close to the best PG on the floor.

Solid junior experienced point guard schooled a highly rated freshman point guard yesterday in a huge game. Not surprising. If anything, it is a clear reminder that experience means something. I remember Eric Harris doing the same thing to freshman Mateen Cleaves. Different era, yes. The Pukes and Kentucky's of the world need to figure out how to blend in some experience with superstar freshmen. Puke had more talent on the floor yesterday, but State had a better team.
 
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I'm not even a big Zion fan. He will be the #1 pick in the NBA draft, and deservedly so. But Zion without jumps is just an undersized PF. He's short and will get a lot of his shots blocked in the NBA. I think he'll be good, but I'm not predicting an all-time great...

Did you know that Pat Connaughton, former Notre Dame 4 year player and NBA journeyman, can get up higher overall than Zion? He's got a 45" vert at 6'5". Top 10 in NBA history.

Did Pat Connaughton destroy college basketball like Zion did? No. Neither did a lot of other dudes who can jump like Zion. Sure Zion's a freak jumper, but he's got tremendous quickness, strength, fluidity, a solid handle, and very good court vision.
 

IMO Duke was an overrated team because 3 of their supposed Big 4 somewhat underperformed. Zion is awesome. Barrett is a dicey option where he's going to go, in the Top 5. He put up big numbers with a lot of usage but rarely dominated. I wouldn't touch Reddish in the lottery with a 1000 foot pole and Tre might have to go back to school to be sure to go Rd1.

Not most overrated of all time though. They delivered this year in a lot of ways. But they were flawed.
 

So which McDonald's all-American filled in for Zion? Sorry, but nobody let Pitino discount his record when several of his best players were hurt.

You beat me to the punch. Saying "some games dont count" is nonsensical. Duke owns it's full record for the season, which was a good season, but also didnt feature a regular season conference title or a final four berth.
 

The 1-and-done strategy gets you a lot of talent but Duke especially has really struggled with depth because of it. Very few talented 3 or 4 year college players are going to want to go there.
 

Don't know and don't really care if they were over-rated. I do know I enjoyed their anguish at the end of the game. An old guy like me shouldn't care but really enjoyed seeing the words "sobbing" and "Tre Jones" in the same sentence in the paper today. They pulled a horse shoe out of their butt the two previous games. Glad it was a heart breaker for TV darling Coach K and his student-athletes yesterday.
 

The 1-and-done strategy gets you a lot of talent but Duke especially has really struggled with depth because of it. Very few talented 3 or 4 year college players are going to want to go there.

It did dramatically improve the number of Duke graduates in the NBA. I remember that for years Duke was way under represented in the NBA for the quality of players they got. It used to be one of the knocks on coach K. Players would learn to play Duke basketball, but it didn’t translate well into the NBA.


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It was the first time that I watch Duke and I was surprised. All you hear is the hype and he got beat off the dribble bad several times, lost his guy on defense and was basically a non-factor in the game. Most of his passes were the short around the circle ball movement passes. He has very fast feet, but he wasn't even close to the best PG on the floor.

Nearly every coach would love to have Jones. Tremendous defender, great passer. On a poor perimeter shooting team he was asked to loosen the defense with too many deep shots. On a team like UVA he would have averaged more like 5 points and 10 assists, no turnovers and defensive player of the year.
 

The 1-and-done strategy gets you a lot of talent but Duke especially has really struggled with depth because of it. Very few talented 3 or 4 year college players are going to want to go there.

Marquese Bolden was a top 20 recruit, Javin Delaurier and Joey Baker were top 40 and O'Connell was a top 70 recruit. They are still getting good 3-4 year recruits but those guys just haven't panned out.
 


I'm not even a big Zion fan. He will be the #1 pick in the NBA draft, and deservedly so. But Zion without jumps is just an undersized PF. He's short and will get a lot of his shots blocked in the NBA. I think he'll be good, but I'm not predicting an all-time great...
Are you joking? He's a matchup nightmare. He'll beat those PFs with his quickness and handles. Not to mention that he has a decent jumpshot. I think Charles Barkley might have a dispute with your assessment.

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IMO Duke was an overrated team because 3 of their supposed Big 4 somewhat underperformed. Zion is awesome. Barrett is a dicey option where he's going to go, in the Top 5. He put up big numbers with a lot of usage but rarely dominated. I wouldn't touch Reddish in the lottery with a 1000 foot pole and Tre might have to go back to school to be sure to go Rd1.

Not most overrated of all time though. They delivered this year in a lot of ways. But they were flawed.


Tre is going to have to go back to school if he even wants to be drafted. He might get drafted in the second round because of his brother and Duke, but he absolutely doesn't deserve to be based on production. Hes a high IQ player who plays good defense but he did not prove that he was an NBA caliber player this year.
 

Most over-rated? Virginia was #1 last year and lost to a 16.

Interestingly this year's Duke team was the first Duke I found likeable. Any shot of Coach K brought me back to reality though. I hate that man more than anyone lese in sports. Can't even articulate why but it is what it is.

Virginia last year didn’t get 3rd in the ACC

No doubt Virginia was a major disappointment in the tourney. But even after the loss, I still thought they deserved a 1 seed.
In retrospect, duke should’ve been a 2.
The ACC should’ve had 1, 1 seed, not 3.
 
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No, they were a tad overrated but no where the most overrated team of all time.

They have wins this year against:
Kentucky
Auburn
Texas Tech
Florida State
Virginia (2)
North Carolina


They are 4-1 against the Final Four team. They lost to a red-hot MSU team. It happens.

To the folks saying RJ Barrett underperformed this year? Umm. . . nope. He had a really similar year as Carmelo Anthony's one season (a great season).
 

Nearly every coach would love to have Jones. Tremendous defender, great passer. On a poor perimeter shooting team he was asked to loosen the defense with too many deep shots. On a team like UVA he would have averaged more like 5 points and 10 assists, no turnovers and defensive player of the year.

Duke shot the 3 worse than we did this year. Really bad fit for Tre. Also shows how hard it is to get knock down shooters
 




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