Quick stuff (Cuse game 2)...

[gary-7]

...and what an unholy crock of crap that was.

There were some otherwise interesting notes to comment on amid the crap, so I'll start there:

- JWash played REALLY well when Mando got a phantom second foul, which was especially noteworthy given Cuse's... um "physical" play. I thought he could've helped us in the second half too.

- We had to overcome self-inflicted setbacks. First, there were spells of too much dribbling in Zone-O, and in the first half Ingram reverted to the bad habit of dribbling in transition into a post-up that resulted in a turnover. He did correct that in the second by giving the rock up to EC and the better result ensued.

- second, we just CANNOT afford to miss those gimme shots vs their Zone. We missed EASY teardrops in the paint --- Eliot, Ryan, Seth, Ingram all short-armed easy ones, and Mando blew some finishes at the rim, and Lordy at the wide-open 3s.

- On the positive front, I had no issue with effort. Great hustle plays by Ingram and Ryan, but geez Cormac, take care of the damn rock.

- the wrinkle of putting EC at the chaser dealing outta the pivot was a brilliant way to negate their length advantage in their Zone, and was a thing of beauty. Just wish we could've knocked down more of the wide-open looks it created.

- They shot out of their friggin minds, and not easy shots for the most part --- OK, that happens, but that banked heave was just crap of the sort that affected the game

Speaking of crap:
- When you see Jamie Luckie show up at a Carolina game, it's gonna be a bad night, and it was catching onto the whole damn crew. Moment: early second half in transition, their guy hits EC with a damned karate thrust to the nose with no play on the ball whatsoever, and not even a damned review??? The zebras flat lost control of the game and it fueled the mayhem where Cuse fouled at will while we can't sniff the bonus. Speaking of moments, a game-changer in a 2 point game, we get a stop with perfect defense, ready to get in transition and Luckie friggin INVENTS a call on Cadeau that wasn't even nearly a foul anywhere but in his wildest imagination. How that lazy incompetent f*** is still allowed to waddle up and down college courts is beyond me.


Anyway, I knew Cuse would be salty after what we did to them in Chapel Hill, but everything had to go their way even at home to have a chance, and unfortunately much of that was out of our control. Nonetheless, gotta suck it up and play well enough the rest of the way to not let those factors influence games...

 

[notashelbyfan]

Our defense sucked!

Cuse is a bad team and we made them look like final four contenders!

 

[gauchoheel]

I was at the game in-person. Not a fun ending. We played crappy on D, and they shot the lights out. Bad combo.

Ryan, man... Rough. Thought he was smart with the ball. Not the last couple games. I'm going to continue wishing we had another capable wing the rest of the year I guess.

Cadeau's foul at the four minute mark was a bad call, but he sets himself up for it. He's too small to actually contest jumpers, so if you're not going to contest then STAY THE HECK AWAY FROM THE GUY'S BODY! He constantly gets his feet right up under the guy so he can land on them, puts his hips forward to take away any extra space, and lowers his arms into the shooting pocket (sometimes he'll raise them back as the guy goes up). It looks like a foul and often actually is. You just have to give the shooter a bit of room if you're that much shorter.

ETA: actually I just watched the replay. It's a fricken foul. Cadeau goes into Mintz's landing space and hits him with his hips. Should be a foul, and it's poor defense.

 

[dtodd4475]

Not going to win many when the opponent goes 30-48 from the field( 8-17 3's) and 9-11 from the line. Mintz and Starling just owned the mid range. Copeland gave them some juice as well. Their big guards were very comfortable and confident.

Had plenty of good looks on offense, wasn't a bad scoring night, but when they are shooting at that clip it's tough to match.

I had no problem with the refs, we were just taking the ball out the nets all night.

 

[berens007]

ETA: actually I just watched the replay. It's a fricken foul. Cadeau goes into Mintz's landing space and hits him with his hips. Should be a foul, and it's poor defense.

To my eye, Cadeau did this exact thing to a three point shooter late in the game against Duke when it was basically supposed to be no 3s and no fouls, near the 30-minute long final two minutes. Everyone around thought it was a bad call and it wasn't. This needs to be coached out of him, hopefully starting with Marcus.

 

[39 Feet Above Sea Level]

And another team wins their Super Bowl, storms their court, and plays on in the NIT, Wrambling Wreck
style.
l’ll tip my hat to Gary, who writes up another autopsy report while the rest of us just grumble
and mutter. Agree on about several points; we could have used more JWash, and Caudeau dishing
from the pivot demonstrated Hubert’s growth as a coach, too bad Elliot pinched several ten footers, that
is a freshman confidence aspect that he will overcome. The late shot clock three bombs the Orange
made underscored the point- sometimes it’s just your night. As dtodd described, their guards were
very confident and comfortable.
Everything we play for is still available and the schedule favors us. Shake it off. Time to start another
winning streak.

 

[dtodd4475]

To my eye, Cadeau did this exact thing to a three point shooter late in the game against Duke when it was basically supposed to be no 3s and no fouls, near the 30-minute long final two minutes. Everyone around thought it was a bad call and it wasn't. This needs to be coached out of him, hopefully starting with Marcus.

Agreed, he angles out not only with his arms at times, but with his body as well, he has shown improvement, and I have noticed a conscience effort at times to stay vertical while contesting, gonna take some time.

While Mintz was getting ready to shoot the free throws it looked like RJ was telling him something along those lines, and he was shrugging and inferring the leg kick was what got him. If he contests like that savy guards will get him every time though.

I just think with his competitiveness it is not natural for him to ratchet it back, especially when he gets a bit frustrated when bigger guards are shooting over him.

 

[tcb22]

I have not looked at the actual minutes played but It appears Hubert is reverting to old habits of not trusting and not playing his bench. Your bench players are caught in a cycle--not playing much, not effective when they play, restricting even more of their time on the floor. Two big results--our starters look tired--hard work but just a tad slower and shots that were falling now spinning out. Closing out on defense is not as sharp as it was leading to opposing players getting in rhythm and burning us. Washington, Withers, Trimble, and Wojcik (yes, Wojcik) have to get some minutes for them to be effective and to rest our starters. It always strikes me that our bench players seem to be on a short leash and yanked or not played if they make mistakes while our starters are never pulled for dumb or lackadaisical plays. How many sloppy plays did Cormac have last night? He is one of my favorites but man, he can have some awful plays with the ball.

 

[IDUNK4HEELS]

Opponents recently have got smart and have taken big advantages over the Carolinas smaller guards. No question next to effort this is the teams biggest area of concern..

 

[ChiShankCity]

Cadeau's next evolution needs to be his floater/layup game. He had a ton of opportunities for a 10 foot wide ass open floater that he almost airballed. He's going to get to that area of the paint a lot throughout his career. That's a shot he needs to finish more consistently.

Syracuse made everything. Not saying UNC's defense was any good, but allowing 70% on 2s will skew everything to look like it's the end of the world. We ran into some good luck with how poorly teams shot against us in conference play. This kind of game was always in play IMO.

An unsurprising 65-possession game. If the opponent makes everything, it's hard to get that up to 75 possessions. Credit to Syracuse for making everything. Hopefully, a good shooting game from Ryan is the start of something for him. The other thing Syracuse did was keep us off the foul line.

Syracuse also had 11 assists on 31 made field goals and I think they had like 3 assists in the 1st half. A lot of isolation basketball that turned into made FGs. I'll live with that kind of basketball and in the long run hopefully that works out in our favor.

I don't want to overreact to a game where the opponent has a shooting game off isolation that they won't have any other time during the season. But there are definitely concerning signs over the last 5 games or so. UNC has always been a limited team, and those limitations are all showing the last few games. But hopefully, Ryan is at least finding his shot. I know he turned it over a ton, but if he's making 3s, it will be a huge factor for this team in March.

 

[ChiShankCity]

I have not looked at the actual minutes played but It appears Hubert is reverting to old habits of not trusting and not playing his bench. Your bench players are caught in a cycle--not playing much, not effective when they play, restricting even more of their time on the floor. Two big results--our starters look tired--hard work but just a tad slower and shots that were falling now spinning out. Closing out on defense is not as sharp as it was leading to opposing players getting in rhythm and burning us. Washington, Withers, Trimble, and Wojcik (yes, Wojcik) have to get some minutes for them to be effective and to rest our starters. It always strikes me that our bench players seem to be on a short leash and yanked or not played if they make mistakes while our starters are never pulled for dumb or lackadaisical plays. How many sloppy plays did Cormac have last night? He is one of my favorites but man, he can have some awful plays with the ball.

I think Syracuse immediately took control of the game in the 2nd half when Bacot had to go out to get treatment. After that, it's really hard to play Washington when you need to get some stops. Also, hard to play Trimble against a zone when you're chasing the game.

Oh, and Syracuse's 2 guards played all 40 minutes and dropped 48 on us.

If I were a fan of any opposing team, I would want Wojcik to play as many minutes as possible, lol. The bench hasn't been all that good this year. Would they be better with more minutes? I say no because I don't think Washington, Withers, or Wojcik are all that good. But I guess that could be a discussion.

 

[2DDIMOND]

I have not looked at the actual minutes played but It appears Hubert is reverting to old habits of not trusting and not playing his bench. Your bench players are caught in a cycle--not playing much, not effective when they play, restricting even more of their time on the floor. Two big results--our starters look tired--hard work but just a tad slower and shots that were falling now spinning out. Closing out on defense is not as sharp as it was leading to opposing players getting in rhythm and burning us. Washington, Withers, Trimble, and Wojcik (yes, Wojcik) have to get some minutes for them to be effective and to rest our starters. It always strikes me that our bench players seem to be on a short leash and yanked or not played if they make mistakes while our starters are never pulled for dumb or lackadaisical plays. How many sloppy plays did Cormac have last night? He is one of my favorites but man, he can have some awful plays with the ball.

We were 9-0 in conference with the bench playing extended minutes, we are 2-3 with the somewhat iron 5 mentality again. Some will argue that the bench is a liability, but it rests the starters and the results were better when they were playing more minutes.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

We had 11 TOs. At least 4 of them - 2 of Ryan's 5 - were on attempts to get the ball to EC when he was playing in the middle.

Made me think we hadn't practiced this enough. Or maybe we just needed an opponent to show us where we need more work.

I assume we'll practice it more, since it definitely looks nifty. But I also assume future foes will get ready for it.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Back in 1966, when Bob Lewis was a junior and Larry Miller a sophomore, they combined for 48.3 points per game. And this was before there was a shot clock to push the pace, and before there was a 3-point shot.

A whole lot of our offense that year was Lewis driving from the key, elevating and either scoring or dishing to Miller on the baseline. In the latter case, Miller would drive the baseline and either score or dish back to Lewis.

Lewis was often fouled on his drives, averaging 10 FT shots per game. He may have led the league in and-one plays. It didn't hurt that he shot 81% from the FT line. [As a freshman, Lewis hit 50 FTs in a row. I assume that's still the record.]

Sometimes it seemed like Lewis would only shoot if he was fouled, and he was great at scoring through contact.

While I suspect some of Bobby's drives might be called charges these days, it was still awesome to watch. And really productive, as the 6'3 Lewis shot 53.0% from the floor, while 6'4 Miller weighed in at 54.8%.

So, if EC is going to be Bobby Lewis, he'll need to put those shots in when fouled and have someone to dish to when not fouled.

He needs to work on putting the shots in, and hitting his FTs.

Ingram seems like the best candidate to fill Miller's baseline role - with maybe Withers on the other side as backup.

 

[thomdrix]

No one is going to mention how poor Bacot was? Laboring like an old man and getting blown by.

Cormac, a ball fake is your friend.

 

[DSouthr]

It is kind of amazing, last 2 seasons I have watched UNC football lay the ground for fantastic seasons only to watch things fall apart at the end. Last football season started off GREAT but as soon as we got to what should have been the easier part of the season wham, all the sudden we couldn't defend. Here we go again, set things up for a historic season yet we get to what should be easier and yet again, fall on our face. Why is it so hard for UNC athletes to handle success?

Last night, with our guards getting torched time after time, RJ played 37mins, Ryan played all 40, Cadeau got 32mins, Seth got 11mins? IN a game where their guards were killing us your best defender gets 11mins? Guys used to play all or most of 40mins from the very beginning of the season, see UNC the last 2 seasons before this one, acclimate to the huge minutes, they still get winded but they can go longer than a kid that is used to getting 5-10mins a game or even 20. In the defense we have to play, because we do not have that guy in the middle that challenges any shot in the paint, that erases a lot of those guards mistakes, our guards have to work much harder to defend. Best way to guard RJ is make him have to work extra hard on the other end for 37mins.

Last night, look at our bigs, Jalen got 10mins (at least that is more than the average of 8 he has been getting) and JWit got 7mins, High did not play? The reason you play your bench deep is to have the fresher legs to close out halves. How many minutes did Jalen and JWit get in that second half again? Don't even ask where our breaks went, they disappear when tired legs show up, why can't our guards defend with tired legs, why didn't RJ or Ryan hit more of those shots, don't ask, you know why. Well yeah but Ryan scored 18 in his 40mins, yes and he also contributed 5 TOs at critical moments, and how many points did he give up on the other end? At what point do you realize, Mintz & Starling are killing us, how about we consider denying them the catch by putting fresh legs on them? Notice how often teams go on those runs against us where we react after the catch as opposed to denying the catch or reacting while the ball is in the air not yet caught? Watch Tony Bennett's teams, they react on the pass rather than the catch, means their defenders are there quicker, we don't. IN todays game you wait till a guy catches the ball you are to late.

Bottom line, they shot 62.5% for the game and 47% from 3, you don't win giving up % like that.

Game ball for this one goes to Ingram with honorable mention to Bacot, those 2 fellas came to play and BTW, Bacot played 30mins and Ingram 33mins. Hubert has to stop letting HIS bad habits sneak back in. All of the sudden we limit our bench, we don't defend a statue, and our UNC fast breaks are MIA along with Hubert calling to many set plays, I have seen this movie, I did not like the ending, due for a script change.

 

[DSouthr]

No one is going to mention how poor Bacot was? Laboring like an old man and getting blown by.

Cormac, a ball fake is your friend.

Excuse me but how could Bacot have been winded when guys like JWash, JWit, and High got so many second half minutes?

 

[thomdrix]

Excuse me but how could Bacot have been winded when guys like JWash, JWit, and High got so many second half minutes?

He looked hobbled to me. You didn't see his labored movement?
He was ineffective.

 

[Heels5150]

In the last 3 games we have committed 12 turnovers in the last 4 minutes of each game. Cormac has 5 of them, Ingram 3, Cadeau 1, Washington 1, RJ 1 and Bacot 1. This doesn’t include fouling guys unnecessarily and putting them on the line instead of playing good defense without fouling and giving up free points. I do not understand playing Cormac for 40 minutes. Our energy to start games against Clemson and Syracuse are concerning. Trimble looked slow and sluggish in his first game back after missing the last 2 games but he didn’t do anything that necessarily hurt the team. When we finally took the lead RJ was starting to get into a groove and Hubert takes out EC over Cormac. EC was starting to dice up players for great shots. But I said this in the game thread. When Syracuse hit the bank 3 pointer (just like in the GT game) I knew it was over because it instantly ignited their confidence once again. In our very next play Ingram missed a three and Bacot hit it back out to Ingram for another possession. Ingram goes in for a contested layup and misses it but RJ was wide open on the wing. Some might feel different but I would much rather have RJ taking a wide open three as opposed to a contested layup. This is a team that has veteran players but down the stretch of the last three games they are making freshman type mistakes. Hubert should have put pressure on Syracuse defensively and used more of the bench. Going back home to NY I thought RJ was really going to be dialed in but he seems very fatigued as of late. He still gives everything that he has on both ends of the floor but you can tell that he is not as fresh as he was a few games ago. I also think that has to do with Seth missing two games. UNC better get back to playing 40 minutes like they are the underdog because clearly that has not been the case in the last 5 games outside of the dook game. These veteran players know that this is it and they have to play every play in every game as hard and as best as they can.

 

[DSouthr]

He looked hobbled to me. You didn't see his labored movement?
He was ineffective.

You didn't notice the sarcasm in my reply? LOL I don't think JWash, JWit, or High played a single minute of that second half, I wasn't disagreeing with you. I had just written my thoughts on this game over all and one of my points was the lack of using our bench in that second half so I assumed what I said in my reply to you would have been seen as my agreement with you rather than not. They did have to work on Bacot during a TO in the last 10mins of that game on a leg issue of some kind, I heard they did but I did not see it. You may have seen me discussing a POSSIBLE ankle concern that has maybe lingered since last season, I don't claim that as fact, I do think it is possible and continue to keep my eye on it.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

It is kind of amazing, last 2 seasons I have watched UNC football lay the ground for fantastic seasons only to watch things fall apart at the end. Last football season started off GREAT but as soon as we got to what should have been the easier part of the season wham, all the sudden we couldn't defend. Here we go again, set things up for a historic season yet we get to what should be easier and yet again, fall on our face. Why is it so hard for UNC athletes to handle success?

Unless this continues, I'm going to assume this is just a standard mid-season bump in the road. True, it's coming a bit late, but we still have 6 regular season games to go. Losing 3 or more would be a very bad sign. Sweeping would be great, while losing 1 would still be a fine outcome. Unfortunately, going 4-2 is quite plausible, and don't know where that leaves us. Still winning or tying for the ACC regular season championship, but with an unsettling end to a pretty nice season.

I'm sanguine, for the moment, because I think we have a really good team. But I worry that other teams are figuring us out and some of them may have more room to grow (Duke, for example, with all their youth). Meanwhile teams like UVa which looked kind of weak early on, seem to be finding their legs.

I also worry that Hubert may be sliding into Iron Man mode down the stretch. And I think that particularly hurts RJ and Armando.

 

[al would]

We continue to struggle, especially defensive, with big guards. Why did Seth not get more PT?

More than once I saw Bacot setting up for (set) offensive plays on the baseline, behind the backboard, and at least once his back foot was OB .. wtf .. but that was on par with bad spacing and lackluster off ball movement. Just a chitty all around game from a group that looked tired and disinterested.

Jwash went 2-2 and 1-1 from 3 and got 10 minutes and his length would have been useful in the lane.

Your letting the guards scorch your ass from 3 and leave your best defender (Seth) riding pine ?? another wtf. I love to watch Seth play D !!!

Another head scratcher of a game. How do you dominate a team earlier in the season and win by almost 40 and lose later in the season at their place by 7 ??? Preparation H (Hubert) ??

For some reason there is trouble in Tar Heel and it's coming at a very bad time of the year. Those guys should be getting better and hitting on all cylinders instead of dropping what .. 3 of the last 5 against teams they should have beat?

This does nothing but build other teams confidence and that is not a good thing because we are down mentally and physically big time. GO HEELS !!

 

[ChiShankCity]

Jwash went 2-2 and 1-1 from 3 and got 10 minutes and his length would have been useful in the lane.

Maybe we were watching different games but I saw Syracuse absolutely hunt Washington in the 1H on ball screens. Like every play they ran a high ball screen until Washington got caught on a switch. Washington was also in the game early in the 2H and Syracuse kept control of the game. His length didn't do anything because Syracuse made a lot of 2-point jumpers.

I also worry that Hubert may be sliding into Iron Man mode down the stretch. And I think that particularly hurts RJ and Armando.

That didn't hurt us against Duke. And playing 10 guys didn't necessarily help us against Georgia Tech. Playing 10 guys didn't help against Clemson. And that great bench contributed 1 point in a win against Miami.

I just don't get the "we just have to play the bench more." I don't know how much more clear this rotation can be, lol. It goes Trimble, Washington, and Withers deep and Wojcik and High are situational players that aren't rotation guys.

To me, the solution is... Whoever the 5 are out there out of the 8-man rotation plays better. The issue right now is there's a bunch of guys that are playing very up and down (Ryan, Cadeau, Seth, Withers, and Washington). Then you're relying on somewhat limited stars like RJ and Bacot who aren't going to be dominant players every night. So the onus is on Ryan, Cadeau, Seth, Withers, and Washington to play more consistently.

There are plays there to be made for them every game. Make those plays.

Maybe it's just me, but I see a bunch of mid-major starters on our bench right now (Withers, Washington, Wojcik, and High). Roy could roll out Ed Davis, Tony Bradley, PJ Hairston, etc off the bench. We don't have that. Our best bench player is Seth, who has had 5 games in ACC play with 0 made field goals.

 

[dtodd4475]

The we had tired legs from an iron 5 mind set takes me a bit by surprise for this particular game. Syracuse basically played 6. The only other big got 6 minutes due to foul trouble in the 1st half as the 7th body to even budge off of their bench.

Mintz and Starling played all 40. Bell 36. But we were "worn down" in this one?

 

[ChiShankCity]

The we had tired legs from an iron 5 mind set takes me a bit by surprise for this particular game. Syracuse basically played 6. The only other big got 6 minutes due to foul trouble in the 1st half as the 7th body to even budge off of their bench.

Mintz and Starling played all 40. Bell 36. But we were "worn down" in this one?

I also don’t buy it because college basketball is littered with time stoppages. Media timeouts every 4 minutes. Use it or lose it timeout in the 1H. Then 3(?) carry over TO in the 2H. Then in the final 2:00, you can always count on at least 1 stoppage for a review. Then you sprinkle in a stoppage during the game to review a flagrant foul.

I would rather not play guys 36+ minutes every game. I’m sure that eventually wears on you. But I question if any bench player has earned 20 MPG every game.

Our offense evaporated when Seth entered the game because Seth couldn't play at the nail like Cadeau could.

 

[alabamaheel]

I also don’t buy it because college basketball is littered with time stoppages. Media timeouts every 4 minutes. Use it or lose it timeout in the 1H. Then 3(?) carry over TO in the 2H. Then in the final 2:00, you can always count on at least 1 stoppage for a review. Then you sprinkle in a stoppage during the game to review a flagrant foul.

I would rather not play guys 36+ minutes every game. I’m sure that eventually wears on you. But I question if any bench player has earned 20 MPG every game.

Our offense evaporated when Seth entered the game because Seth couldn't play at the nail like Cadeau could.

What happened to putting one of your best ft shooters in that spot? I would have loved to have seen someone who could have turned around and make a 8 footer. lol

 

[gary-7]

No one is going to mention how poor Bacot was? Laboring like an old man and getting blown by.

Cormac, a ball fake is your friend.

On rewatch there was clearly something physical going on with Mando. You could really see it on D. I think this was a game in which JWash should've gotten second half minutes.. And yes, Cormac should be taking better care of the ball at his age and experience.

 

[gary-7]

In the last 3 games we have committed 12 turnovers in the last 4 minutes of each game. Cormac has 5 of them, Ingram 3, Cadeau 1, Washington 1, RJ 1 and Bacot 1. This doesn’t include fouling guys unnecessarily and putting them on the line instead of playing good defense without fouling and giving up free points. I do not understand playing Cormac for 40 minutes. Our energy to start games against Clemson and Syracuse are concerning. Trimble looked slow and sluggish in his first game back after missing the last 2 games but he didn’t do anything that necessarily hurt the team. When we finally took the lead RJ was starting to get into a groove and Hubert takes out EC over Cormac. EC was starting to dice up players for great shots. But I said this in the game thread. When Syracuse hit the bank 3 pointer (just like in the GT game) I knew it was over because it instantly ignited their confidence once again. In our very next play Ingram missed a three and Bacot hit it back out to Ingram for another possession. Ingram goes in for a contested layup and misses it but RJ was wide open on the wing. Some might feel different but I would much rather have RJ taking a wide open three as opposed to a contested layup. This is a team that has veteran players but down the stretch of the last three games they are making freshman type mistakes. Hubert should have put pressure on Syracuse defensively and used more of the bench. Going back home to NY I thought RJ was really going to be dialed in but he seems very fatigued as of late. He still gives everything that he has on both ends of the floor but you can tell that he is not as fresh as he was a few games ago. I also think that has to do with Seth missing two games. UNC better get back to playing 40 minutes like they are the underdog because clearly that has not been the case in the last 5 games outside of the dook game. These veteran players know that this is it and they have to play every play in every game as hard and as best as they can.

I have to agree on Cornac. Nothing against him at all, but 25-27 minutes would be better. This may niot be popular, but Pax can give us good minutes.

 

[tcb22]

I have to agree on Cornac. Nothing against him at all, but 25-27 minutes would be better. This may niot be popular, but Pax can give us good minutes.

I don't know why Cormac is getting the minutes he is getting. I know everyone talks about the intangibles he brings to the team, but he has really made some boneheaded turnovers. While he had a decent shooting game at Syracuse, his shooting has certainly hurt us at times. I also agree that Pax should get more time. He gave us 18 minutes of solid play at Miami and didn't even get in the game Tuesday at Syracuse. As far as not playing the subs when the game is close, I disagree. When our starter are obviously tired, they are making mistakes during the last 4 minutes of games that we were not making when the subs were being used more. We always made fun of Coach K for wearing his starters out so they were leg dead towards the end of the season and here we are doing a similar thing.

 

[RP12]

I haven't watched much of this game yet but the little i saw Seth didn't look good at all on D either. Any clarity on his injury or where he stands with it?

 

[gary-7]

I don't know why Cormac is getting the minutes he is getting. I know everyone talks about the intangibles he brings to the team, but he has really made some boneheaded turnovers. While he had a decent shooting game at Syracuse, his shooting has certainly hurt us at times. I also agree that Pax should get more time. He gave us 18 minutes of solid play at Miami and didn't even get in the game Tuesday at Syracuse. As far as not playing the subs when the game is close, I disagree. When our starter are obviously tired, they are making mistakes during the last 4 minutes of games that we were not making when the subs were being used more. We always made fun of Coach K for wearing his starters out so they were leg dead towards the end of the season and here we are doing a similar thing.

Yes, and it starts to look like "playing not to lose". Gotta trust your rotation to set to cruch time.

 

[gary-7]

I haven't watched much of this game yet but the little i saw Seth didn't look good at all on D either. Any clarity on his injury or where he stands with it?

The first thing I heard was concussion but never got comfirmation one way or another.

 

[Heels5150]

The first thing I heard was concussion but never got comfirmation one way or another.

I had also heard that he got hit with an inadvertent elbow during practice and that he was suffering from concussion like symptoms. We really missed Trimble in the two games that he missed. IMO RJ suffered the most by his absence.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

I’m sure that eventually wears on you.

This is my point.

You point out that it didn't hurt us against Duke. @dtodd4475 points out that Syracuse guys played Iron Man minutes, too.

Fair enough, but my point wasn't that going Iron Man will always cost us. Just that we've seen it cost us.

There will be games when Iron Man is needed. Save it for those.

 

[r_u_worthy]

I also don't subscribe to limited bench minutes hurting the Heels in this game. ChiShank notes all the stoppages above, but the pace of this game was terrible, very slow half court to half court possession. And on D, yea- they made some shots but it was a lot of spread out and go one on one. Didn't seem like a lot of excess energy getting spent trying to defend sets with a lot motion. Now, I didn't get to watch all of it, but it seemed like they made everything they threw up and we just didn't finish or start very well. Too much of that going on lately. They need to get that defensive intensity and identity back. Seth will help as he rounds back in, but the effort has got to be better on that end.

 

[DSouthr]

I have to agree on Cornac. Nothing against him at all, but 25-27 minutes would be better. This may niot be popular, but Pax can give us good minutes.

I just am not a buyer on Paxon being a guy that gives us what we need. he does work when he is in but I just don't see him as a ACC level player athletically. He was supposed to be a really good jump shooter but I see miss after miss on wide open looks, I see and now expect the other team to go on a run against us when he checks in.

What does concern me is that that I feel the really needed changes that we began this season with and slowly reverting back to last season bad habits. For all the hype of ripping down the rebound and getting out in to our breaks early on, that has become less and less, even when Cadeau is in. In the half court we were doing such a nice job of not over dribbling, actually moving the ball with the pass rather than so much dribble, as of late I see more and more dribbling and less and less possessions where the ball doesn't touch the floor. How about the good to better to best shot selection? These were not just great concepts but they play in to this teams strengths, I feel a lot of slippage there and that needs to be halted and a refocus in place top get back to these things.

This team has smallish guards in our starting line up and go even smaller with a 2 guard playing the 3. This is not a new problem, we have had this problem all season, teams are not just now figuring out how to play us, they didn't just come up with the grand notion to attack our smallish guards any more than they didn't just decide to set the high screen rubs and force us to switch in to mismatches. Teams didn't just figure out that we don't have a true rim protector that rules everything inside the paint, they have known this since day 1. Ya know there was a time when every team already knew what we were going to do on both ends of the court, they did because it didn't change. We were successful because we executed at a really high level, we did the little things properly, we had 5 moving parts on the floor working all together on both ends. Last seasons offense became to often 4 watching 1 and very frequently it was 2 watching 3 on the offensive end and some one throw up a desperation last second bad shot looks to me like we are slipping back in to some of that born for me from calling to many set plays. I want to know still, really would like AJ to ask this at a PC, how much of our practice time is spent really working on free lance offense as opposed to set plays.

 

[Kool1234567]

I know many on this thread are saying Cuse guys played a ton of minutes to…Maybe it has been mentioned but they don’t have to give up the same energy playing Zone…I watched old Jimmy B do that for years…He would play 6 at most…Lot different than playing man to man the whole time…

 

[DSouthr]

The first thing I heard was concussion but never got comfirmation one way or another.

Yeah, concussion was what I was told, mentioned it in a post, maybe following the Miami game, wanted to see if anyone had heard same. Those things can have some lingering effects after the head aches go away, very common legs feel like lead for a few days. Considering they let him play vs cuse I would expect him to be back to his old self for tomorrow.

 

[DSouthr]

I know many on this thread are saying Cuse guys played a ton of minutes to…Maybe it has been mentioned but they don’t have to give up the same energy playing Zone…I watched old Jimmy B do that for years…He would play 6 at most…Lot different than playing man to man the whole time…

Yeah, the zone does allow them to rest a bit because they are not having to chase as much. But those cuse guards are more acclimated to playing all or most of 40mins. Lets them be more acclimated than a guy used to playing 25mins is when he is called on to play most of the 40.

The other thing is that when things are going good for you, your shots dropping ect, you begin to play on adrenalin and you don't get tired but when things go badly it is amazing how tiring it can be.

 

[dtodd4475]

Yeah, the zone does allow them to rest a bit because they are not having to chase as much. But those cuse guards are more acclimated to playing all or most of 40mins. Lets them be more acclimated than a guy used to playing 25mins is when he is called on to play most of the 40.

The other thing is that when things are going good for you, your shots dropping ect, you begin to play on adrenalin and you don't get tired but when things go badly it is amazing how tiring it can be.

With the exception of Cadeau who averages around 25 all of our starters are acclimated to 30 per though. Ingram 32 and RJ 35 per. Trimble just coming back usually gets 17 was down to 11, so Cadeau got those.

RJ played 37, Ingram 33, Bacot 30, all the norm. Cormac did play 40, as Withers did not get his 8 to 12. Pretty normal usage with Seth limited.

Syracuse on the other hand only has 2 averaging 30 per. Mintz at 33 and Starling at 35. They played the out of the norm extended minutes across the board.