Key stats and stuff - Miami game (w/ a vital link)

[gary-7]

Well, a game of 'almosts' that worked out well, and would have worked out better had the zebras been willing to call a damned foul on borderline sexual assault under the basket:

*Roy almost convincing JP that he needs to be a 3 (listen to the presser concerning that effort) not a 2, and when that took Good-JP showed up, but when it didn't Bad-JP reared his head.

*An almost fundamental shift in minutes at the guard slots (that could/should have gone further)... the result of which was that although five different combos were used, only two had enough minutes for the numbers to be significant.

Paige alone (21.24) 1.76 PPM
Berry/Paige (11:10) 2.25 PPM

*Best team number: 42-28 rebound advantage

*Worst team number: 15 TOs (Bad-JP and uncharacteristically bad passing by Meeks the biggest culprits)

*Worst zebra number: Our Bigs only got to the line twice all damned game (despite us pounding the ball inside) and one was a late-game foul on purpose. Un-friggin-believable.

*Oh, and Adam Lucas' column linked here is a must-read for a good glimpse as to what I've been hammering on for these many weeks (despite the typo on minutes played). In the second half of the column Adam captures some of the subtleties this ol' coach too often bores you with.

a little sample:
...like a quarterback going through his reads while the pocket dissolves
around him, he waited for the play to develop, eventually allowing
Paige to come off a pair of screens and wriggle free for the
three-pointer that gave Carolina a lead it would never relinquish. Go
back and watch the play again; Berry actually moves the ball with his
dribble to give Paige the room to work around the defense.

"I waited until he set his man up," Berry said. "I knew he was going
to be on that side. I tried to deliver it right in his shot pocket, and
he knocked down the shot."...


Lucas on Berry

 

[Ford_corners]

Good stuff Gary! I think JBII is a lot stronger guarding the high ball screen as well. Going to be hard to keep him on the sideline for extended time!

 

[HeelFan58]

If you are expecting a well officiated game in the ACC , please don't hold your breath.

 

[gary-7]

Originally posted by HeelFan58:
If you are expecting a well officiated game in the ACC , please don't hold your breath.

Hell, at this point I'd settle for "not terrible"...

 

[ChiShankCity]

Turnovers were a bit misleading. We turned it over a few more times because it was a high possession game. Realistically, if we committed 1 or 2 fewer turnovers, we were pretty much at the season TO% number.

Miami's been kind of a lucky team all year. They have the 13th best "Free Throw defense" in the country. Opponents shoot 64% from the line against them, but we went 16-21 and that was huge.

 

[mikeirbyusa]

Gary, by now everybody knows you've wanted Berry in there. As many of us have, but Roy has a knack of doing it when it's BEST for THE TEAM. It was coming sooner if not for the injury-sickness. Look at the time Britt got yesterday. Berry IS our future just like many of us have said. He had some struggles and will have some more but he is getting there. LOVE IT!

 

[gary-7]

Originally posted by mikeirbyusa:
Gary, by now everybody knows you've wanted Berry in there. As many of us have, but Roy has a knack of doing it when it's BEST for THE TEAM. It was coming sooner if not for the injury-sickness. Look at the time Britt got yesterday. Berry IS our future just like many of us have said. He had some struggles and will have some more but he is getting there. LOVE IT!

Pretty sure you're right it was coming sooner. After the dook game it was obvious what needed to happen and rumor was that JB was set to start vs GaTech. It makes me sick (no pun intended) that a stomach virus may have precluded that.

I also found it encouraging that the other big thing (JP needing to act like a 3) was a point of emphasis from Roy the past couple of weeks. The need for that also was obvious from the dook game.

Yes Mikey, Roy does have a history of making the right adjustments, even late in a season, but as big a fan of Roy as I am, I can't let him totally of the hook. The season-opening lineup decision, honestly, enabled the Bad-JP because Justin was not a comfortable 2 (he played more like a 2 yesterday when JP wasn't dicking around on the perimeter). And I'm going to be blunt: Taking the ball out of Berry's hands down the stretch at dook probably cost us that game. He had spent most of the night Quarterbacking a suddenly well-oiled machine, but alas, old habits die hard with Ol' Roy, bless his heart, and he had Nate run Point in the three-guard set and, well, everything gummed up.

I don't know if Roy will make a starting lineup switch now with only two regular season games left, but the most important change --- starting or not --- is Berry's role and minutes. Adam Lucas invited readers to go back and appreciate the nuances of one play. I would invite Carolina fans to go back and watch the glaring improvement in spacing and floor balance when JB is at PG. That in and of itself makes us a better team (not to mention JB's defense on the ball).

The bottom line is this: the more minutes Joel Berry and Marcus Paige spend together in the backcourt, the more chance this team has of having the sort of post-season.we've been hoping for.

 

[BillyL]

Originally posted by gary-7:

Originally posted by mikeirbyusa:
Gary, by now everybody knows you've wanted Berry in there. As many of us have, but Roy has a knack of doing it when it's BEST for THE TEAM. It was coming sooner if not for the injury-sickness. Look at the time Britt got yesterday. Berry IS our future just like many of us have said. He had some struggles and will have some more but he is getting there. LOVE IT!

Pretty sure you're right it was coming sooner. After the dook game it was obvious what needed to happen and rumor was that JB was set to start vs GaTech. It makes me sick (no pun intended) that a stomach virus may have precluded that.

I also found it encouraging that the other big thing (JP needing to act like a 3) was a point of emphasis from Roy the past couple of weeks. The need for that also was obvious from the dook game.

Yes Mikey, Roy does have a history of making the right adjustments, even late in a season, but as big a fan of Roy as I am, I can't let him totally of the hook. The season-opening lineup decision, honestly, enabled the Bad-JP because Justin was not a comfortable 2 (he played more like a 2 yesterday when JP wasn't dicking around on the perimeter). And I'm going to be blunt: Taking the ball out of Berry's hands down the stretch at dook probably cost us that game. He had spent most of the night Quarterbacking a suddenly well-oiled machine, but alas, old habits die hard with Ol' Roy, bless his heart, and he had Nate run Point in the three-guard set and, well, everything gummed up.

I don't know if Roy will make a starting lineup switch now with only two regular season games left, but the most important change --- starting or not --- is Berry's role and minutes. Adam Lucas invited readers to go back and appreciate the nuances of one play. I would invite Carolina fans to go back and watch the glaring improvement in spacing and floor balance when JB is at PG. That in and of itself makes us a better team (not to mention JB's defense on the ball).

The bottom line is this: the more minutes Joel Berry and Marcus Paige spend together in the backcourt, the more chance this team has of having the sort of post-season.we've been hoping for.

I'll disagree here, this team plays so much better at both ends collectively with only one guard. When Marcus has to play the 2 spot, we get eaten alive on the defensive end, as he simply is not big enough to handle the opponents shooting guards, he lacks the strength and length to be able to play any sort of effective defense. Throw into that mix that he lacks mobility this year because of his injury limiting his foot speed and guards blow by him almost at will. As I said in our GT, the weakest defensive link of this team is our 3 guards, none of them have been able to stay in front of their man. It just absolutely kills me to see Roy play all 3 together for anything other than the last minute of the game for having his best FT shooters available.

The ball movement may be minimally better on the offense with our 2 guard sets, but, man do we give it up right back on the other end. Then one of our bigs tries to help out on the driving guard and he'll foul him more often than not.

jmhho

 

[Tigertown_a_Rick]

Gary, I have to agree, and to prove your point there were a couple plays yesterday that kinda showed why Berry needs more PT...I remember him coming off the bench and knocking-down that 3pt shot late in the 2nd half when the team really needed it....Big shot, but a bigger sign that Berry is starting to emerge as more of a confident college player, and that's a big plus for the team moving forward for all the reasons that have already been mentioned....As for Britt, he comes into the game, and throws the ball right to the defender by telegraphing the pass, which resulted in a Miami dunk on the other end....Thankfully, I didn't have my shoes on, or I might have thrown them through the TV when that turnover happened because these type of turnovers, are just inexcusable from a guard. when all he had to do is take a couple of dribbles to improve the passing angle....A guard has got to take better care of the ball even if the defense is overplaying, and your teammate isn't working as hard as he should to get open, which was probably part of that turnover situation too, but Britt's just got to be more of a floor general than that IMO, which is probably another reason why Berry needs to play more at the point....

As for the officiating yesterday, I knew when I seen Jamie Luckie what to expect!

 

[mikeirbyusa]

Britt ain't alone, Berry had one of those too and he looked horrible in the moou game, but his ceiling is much higher as PG than Britts.

 

[gary-7]

Billy, all I'm gonna say is that if you think the improvement is minimal, well... if night-and-day better is "minimal", then ok...
Does it make us small in the backcourt? Yep. There are always trade-offs. But I'll take this one all day.