TarHeelIllustrated - Daily Drop: Are the Tar Heels Legit Contenders for a 1 Seed?
With North Carolina rising in the national polls, on KenPom and the NET rankings, the Tar Heels are positioning
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Daily Drop: Are the Tar Heels Legit Contenders for a 1 Seed?
- Thread starter andrew jones
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#4 in the country certainly sounds legit to me, lol!
Will they continue to put forth the same level of effort? Will our extreme defensive intensity translate into more efficient offense? Will peeps start hitting their shots? Will we get the big head once we start getting praised, IE positive noise? Will we stay healthy? Will our 9th and 10th guys develop and increase our already deep bench? Can we handle big, strong guards? Will someone knock off UConn and Houston for us? Will fans turn as soon as we lose one?
Who knows, but it sure is fun watching us figure it out!
Will they continue to put forth the same level of effort? Will our extreme defensive intensity translate into more efficient offense? Will peeps start hitting their shots? Will we get the big head once we start getting praised, IE positive noise? Will we stay healthy? Will our 9th and 10th guys develop and increase our already deep bench? Can we handle big, strong guards? Will someone knock off UConn and Houston for us? Will fans turn as soon as we lose one?
Who knows, but it sure is fun watching us figure it out!
Yeah, I think when you look up and see us ranked top 4 at this time of the season that you already are a #1 seed contender? Does not mean you are a lock but you darn sure are a contender. I would say there are about 10 teams that I would call contenders for a 1 seed and as much as I hate to say it duke and Ky are in that group, Caleb's team is as well.
The question is more simply are they that kind of team? Alabama was No. 1 in the nation in late January several years ago and didn't even make the tournament. Thus, is it real.
2 of the more crazy things in the world of sports is that teams can go on amazing hot streaks and teams can go on amazing slides. Who saw the "Miracle Mets" coming in baseball, who saw the UNC Tar heels coming year before last, who saw that UNC team slide from #1 to not making the NCAAT the very next season? These kind of things, at least in my opinion defy logic. Is that the case with that Alabama team you refer to? I want to make 2 points:
First, a contender now in my opinion should be considered a contender for the end game, I think that is true until they prove they are not. Maybe injury changes things, maybe a player leaves the team aka Garcia or Ant, consider Perdue without their big man, Uconn without Clingman, just a couple examples. Maybe the ball just for unexplainable reasons stops dropping, that can be infectious.
Second, a contender may have to show that it has the depth to cover the non-expected out of the blue problem. Example, if we were to lose RJ, can we over come that without season altering drop off? I recall 2 seasons while Roy was our coach that injuries just decimated us, the more recent was Bacot's frosh season. There is no team in the country built to be able to withstand that. But I do believe we could withstand a injury to a key guy, it would not be easy but I do think more than most this team can. I really hope we do not have to find out.
I actually think with this team has a lot of room to improve and that is what contenders need at this point of the season, that ability to grow to an even higher level rather than playing at near their ceiling now, simply because other teams are getting better the more they play. Ryan and Ingram have not been shooting the ball consistently but we all know they are solid jump shooters thou streaky both. I think at times Bacot plays better than at other times, there is a ton of improvement on the way for Cadeau, I personally think the production from JWash and Jwit will play a key role moving forward and takes us to another level if we can get them more consistent playing time. Point of course is that this team has not peaked, I think they seem to improve in noticeable ways every game.
Consider how we have been winning this season, of course RJ has been mostly steady in his offensive production in every game but it has been different players that seem to really step up big every game. Last game it was Jwit, but in other games we have seen Ingram, Seth, Bacot, JWash, Ryan, and Cadeau all step up with key production that led us. Point being the production from this team is spread around more than just being focused on RJ or Bacot or Caleb last season.
Defensively, while teams watch us on tape, they used to watch Dean's teams to, they knew what his teams were going to do but as long as we executed knowing what we were going to do didn't help them. Teams are searching our game tape looking for flaws they can exploit, any defense can be beat with execution so you have to look for those same vulnerabilities and tweek them. A very hopeful sign is that Hubert saw teams had figured out how to attack us when we did that switching 5 deal, Hubert tweeked it back to switch more when you must as opposed to the just switch need it or not. So the point is Hubert is making solid tweeks to keep what we do harder to defeat.
Finally, this team has shown the grit to handle adversity as it comes during games, example the start of that second half vs Lville, they didn't panic, they didn't seem to play with any nerves at all when that 20pt lead started to melt, as you offer same when we beat Tenn. The point being, as Tyson said, they all got a plan before they get hit in the mouth, well this team has been hit in the mouth at times and they have shown the ability to get back up and punch back even harder. This team is seasoned by having such a hard schedule, this is not a paper tiger like Clemson was, this team has been playing quad 1 teams consistently and they have won on the road in the ACC, they have won on neutral sites, and they have won at home. We lost to both Villinova and Ky by 2 and UConn solid beat us by 11 but our defense has been much better since then. This team was always going to drop some early games, it had to with all the new faces on this team, we only had 4 guys on the team that were there the prior season, you have to expect losses early as they learn to play together, the surprise may be that we didn't drop a couple more games than we did.
Sure seems to define a now contender to me! Look at our football team, was that team built to win in the post season, now clearly they were not but ask that question directly following that Miami game, you would not have found many that thought that team was not a major contender. But I think many of us, myself for sure saw our defense was not a championship level defense, our offense was championship level but needed help from the defense. A contender has to find consistency on defense because offense does not always travel 1 game to the next, it at times does not travel 1 half to the next but defense does tend to travel. This team seems more focused as a defensive team for a change and the offense comes as it comes. Tuff natured guys like Seth, Ingram, Bacot, Ryan, and RJ really set that tone early on. This team has played and beat several different styles, we have played really physical teams, really good jump shooting teams, really big teams, and really well coached teams, we have beat them on the road or at home.
All this screams contender for me!
First, a contender now in my opinion should be considered a contender for the end game, I think that is true until they prove they are not. Maybe injury changes things, maybe a player leaves the team aka Garcia or Ant, consider Perdue without their big man, Uconn without Clingman, just a couple examples. Maybe the ball just for unexplainable reasons stops dropping, that can be infectious.
Second, a contender may have to show that it has the depth to cover the non-expected out of the blue problem. Example, if we were to lose RJ, can we over come that without season altering drop off? I recall 2 seasons while Roy was our coach that injuries just decimated us, the more recent was Bacot's frosh season. There is no team in the country built to be able to withstand that. But I do believe we could withstand a injury to a key guy, it would not be easy but I do think more than most this team can. I really hope we do not have to find out.
I actually think with this team has a lot of room to improve and that is what contenders need at this point of the season, that ability to grow to an even higher level rather than playing at near their ceiling now, simply because other teams are getting better the more they play. Ryan and Ingram have not been shooting the ball consistently but we all know they are solid jump shooters thou streaky both. I think at times Bacot plays better than at other times, there is a ton of improvement on the way for Cadeau, I personally think the production from JWash and Jwit will play a key role moving forward and takes us to another level if we can get them more consistent playing time. Point of course is that this team has not peaked, I think they seem to improve in noticeable ways every game.
Consider how we have been winning this season, of course RJ has been mostly steady in his offensive production in every game but it has been different players that seem to really step up big every game. Last game it was Jwit, but in other games we have seen Ingram, Seth, Bacot, JWash, Ryan, and Cadeau all step up with key production that led us. Point being the production from this team is spread around more than just being focused on RJ or Bacot or Caleb last season.
Defensively, while teams watch us on tape, they used to watch Dean's teams to, they knew what his teams were going to do but as long as we executed knowing what we were going to do didn't help them. Teams are searching our game tape looking for flaws they can exploit, any defense can be beat with execution so you have to look for those same vulnerabilities and tweek them. A very hopeful sign is that Hubert saw teams had figured out how to attack us when we did that switching 5 deal, Hubert tweeked it back to switch more when you must as opposed to the just switch need it or not. So the point is Hubert is making solid tweeks to keep what we do harder to defeat.
Finally, this team has shown the grit to handle adversity as it comes during games, example the start of that second half vs Lville, they didn't panic, they didn't seem to play with any nerves at all when that 20pt lead started to melt, as you offer same when we beat Tenn. The point being, as Tyson said, they all got a plan before they get hit in the mouth, well this team has been hit in the mouth at times and they have shown the ability to get back up and punch back even harder. This team is seasoned by having such a hard schedule, this is not a paper tiger like Clemson was, this team has been playing quad 1 teams consistently and they have won on the road in the ACC, they have won on neutral sites, and they have won at home. We lost to both Villinova and Ky by 2 and UConn solid beat us by 11 but our defense has been much better since then. This team was always going to drop some early games, it had to with all the new faces on this team, we only had 4 guys on the team that were there the prior season, you have to expect losses early as they learn to play together, the surprise may be that we didn't drop a couple more games than we did.
Sure seems to define a now contender to me! Look at our football team, was that team built to win in the post season, now clearly they were not but ask that question directly following that Miami game, you would not have found many that thought that team was not a major contender. But I think many of us, myself for sure saw our defense was not a championship level defense, our offense was championship level but needed help from the defense. A contender has to find consistency on defense because offense does not always travel 1 game to the next, it at times does not travel 1 half to the next but defense does tend to travel. This team seems more focused as a defensive team for a change and the offense comes as it comes. Tuff natured guys like Seth, Ingram, Bacot, Ryan, and RJ really set that tone early on. This team has played and beat several different styles, we have played really physical teams, really good jump shooting teams, really big teams, and really well coached teams, we have beat them on the road or at home.
All this screams contender for me!
dook ??? Losing at home to Ptt put some humble pie on them. They'll probably only move up 1 spot after that one.
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