Stats and stuff - Live from McCamish Pavillion...

[gary-7]

Snagged last-minute tix from a buddy at the radio station and made it just in time for tip-off... so this one's gonna be more "stuff" than stats. However.......

Starting/big lineups (1 guard) - 1.39 PPM (55.6 PPG)
2 guard lineups w/ Berry at PG - 2.46 PPM (98.2 PPG)

But I digress. I took more notes than stats this time. There's not a bad seat in the renovated "Thriller Dome" and I was right on the front of the balcony looking right down on the court. Pretty much the same angle I used to video my practices. GREAT view of everything happening off the ball as well as on!
BTW: The crowd was maybe a 55-45 split between GT and UNC fans. Wow. Met some nice Carolina folks.

Anyway, without further ado, here's some stuff:

- S P A C I N G ! ! ! Being able to watch the whole court, the spacing and floor balance improvements with JB at Point are astounding, and the improved results that follow are thus quite predictable

- Great to see all the walking wounded get in the game! Theo, Stilman, Luke.... I'm sure Roy is a happier camper.

- I really wish we would attack and trap more on D. We can be pretty good at it and create turnovers... maybe we will now with more depth available.

- We were slack on the defensive glass at times after we got a lead, as well as on help-side post D.

- Good to see Nate have some good minutes after his debacle in Coral Gables. He still got taken to the rack a couple of times and did a few "Nate" things, but by and large gave a nice contribution tonight and took better care of the ball, and played pretty well at the 2 when he was on the floor with Berry.

- Press offense, especially with Berry in the game, was clicking. Love seeing us "attack" the press.

- Brice couldn't buy a bucket, BUT he played hard on D in spite of it.

- Bad-JP shows up way less in 2-guard lineups. Jes' sayin'.....

- We passed ahead better tonight and the Secondary Break was the better for it.

- Jackson was in constant-motion mode and "Walking Buckets" earned his scoring ops from that motion.

- We got several samples of what Joel Berry can bring to the table. 3-pt threat, scoring off strong drives to the rack or on pull-ups, going coast-to-coast against pressure, strong on-ball and help-side D (and caused 2 take-aways that didn't show up on the stat sheet) and even elevated to block a lay-up (negated by JP fouling on a reach), precise entry passes, the instincts to maintain floor balance: Carolina PG 101.

- I can live with a rotation like this, except... 14:26 in the big lineup is still too much, and 7:54 of Berry/Paige is still not enough. We'll be better off if those numbers flip Saturday night........

 

[mikeirbyusa]

Berry was awesome! Brice kept playing HARD in spite of his bad shooting night. That is a BIG improvement! He still snagged what 8-9 boards?

Joel James just keeps improving.

GREAT to see Theo and all our walking wounded get some burn.

You done good down there gary, I swear it looked and sounded like we had as many Tar Heel fans there as yellow jacket fans.

Who will be coaching the jackets next season?

 

[HeelFan58]

Brice Johnson's scoring the last 3 games has been 2 , 22 , 2 ??

 

[BillyL]

Absolutely the best I have seen Joel Berry play this year . . !

Justin Jackson again with a productive game, providing us with 13 points to compliment JB's 15 . .

It was good to see Theo, Stilman and Luke all get in the game, which also means we're back to having plenty of players to conduct a solid practice.

Great game, Heels . . !

 

[DSouthr]

One thing I noticed us doing last night that we have not done a great job of this season is when the ball went to a GT big man, we waited for him to turn and commit to the dribble before we dropped a guard down to harass the dribble looking for a strip. Many of those 1st half TOs were a direct result of this. To often this season we did not wait until the big man committed to his scoring move, we would double down but leave a passing lane, last night we waited until he had committed to his scoring move before we dropped down a stripper, worked great. You could see they (Heels) were focusing on when to bring down the stripper because on a couple of those strips the drop down guy actrually released his man but still held his position, setting up the big man & rather than allow the baseline as we usually do we closed off baseline and forced the move back to the middle and when the big man turned we attacked the dribble. We did that 5 or 6 times successfull in that first half and the timing of the drop down, what I like to call the stripper is the key, has to wait until the big man totally commits to the scoring move and can not spot an outlet.

Truth is can't say I loved our second half, we gave them a LOT of open looks, no prob vs GT cause they can't shoot but we can't give those type of looks to duke sat night and our interior defense went from pretty darn solid in the first half to allowing a lot of easy baskets by bigs no where near as talented as a Ochafor. To me Berry is our best guard defender (not counting our wings, just speaking to 1 & 2s) , Marcus IMO would be better if he were healthy but he has trouble planting with that foot and to me it is more evident on defense than on offense. The Paige Britt back court is to me rather weak on the defensive end, the paige Berry back court isn't nearly as weak. And guys, that is the real key to this team winning, how well our back court scores on the offensive end and defends on the defensive end. We allow way to many guards to have career shooting nights against us because we allow way to many wide open looks. You have guys working all year shooting balls off of racks, given a wide open look a solid jump shooter will nail bettre than 50% of those, especially those from up top where they can step in to the shot totally on balance. When you make a 3pt shooter have to catch/turn and then shoot their % drops like a rock, that means force the pass to go from the top to the jump shooter and not from the inside back out.

One thing that drives me nutzs thou is this need for the hard hedge on the top screen, I noticed Issiah get picked off 3 different times and recover back way to late, it only cost us 1 time that I can recall but Meeks made a great play to block one and GT just didn't see another but when we hedge out hard up top like that, a smart well prepared team will roll the screener down on a quick pick & roll and nail us. Most teams show & recover back, we hard hedge and tend to hold it to long to be able to recover back in time and not need base line help. Pretty much every team in the country runs this pick & roll high screen action now to free up the ball handler, just not a fan of how we defend it. Stockton & Karl Malone would have a field day with the way we defend the screen & roll and if I had a Ochafor on my team that is what I would have him working to do nearly every trip down court.

 

[TarHeelNation11]

Originally posted by mikeirbyusa:
Berry was awesome! Brice kept playing HARD in spite of his bad shooting night. That is a BIG improvement! He still snagged what 8-9 boards?

Joel James just keeps improving.

GREAT to see Theo and all our walking wounded get some burn.

You done good down there gary, I swear it looked and sounded like we had as many Tar Heel fans there as yellow jacket fans.

Who will be coaching the jackets next season?

Tons of Tar Heel alumni live ITP Atlanta (ITP = inside the Perimeter). Atlanta is known for having some huge non-Georgia fanbases (Auburn, Florida State, Tennessee), but Carolina sneakily has a lot of boots on the ground in Atlanta, if you will.

 

[gary-7]

Originally posted by DSouthr:

One thing that drives me nutzs thou is this need for the hard hedge on the top screen, I noticed Issiah get picked off 3 different times and recover back way to late, it only cost us 1 time that I can recall but Meeks made a great play to block one and GT just didn't see another but when we hedge out hard up top like that, a smart well prepared team will roll the screener down on a quick pick & roll and nail us. Most teams show & recover back, we hard hedge and tend to hold it to long to be able to recover back in time and not need base line help. Pretty much every team in the country runs this pick & roll high screen action now to free up the ball handler, just not a fan of how we defend it. Stockton & Karl Malone would have a field day with the way we defend the screen & roll and if I had a Ochafor on my team that is what I would have him working to do nearly every trip down court.

Good points. That action was very apparent live. Joel James' biggest defensive weakness us on the hedge (more like a "tree" with him) and help side recovery. Hicks also tends to get himself off-balance out there and not recover quickly enough. Another factor, however, is how the Guard plays the screen (anticipating and taking efficient angles). This is another area where Berry makes a difference. He gets back to his man more efficiently. The key is for the Big to stay "below the ball" on the hedge and the faster the Guard recovers to his man the faster the Big can recover to his.

 

[DSouthr]

Originally posted by gary-7:

Originally posted by DSouthr:

One thing that drives me nutzs thou is this need for the hard hedge on the top screen, I noticed Issiah get picked off 3 different times and recover back way to late, it only cost us 1 time that I can recall but Meeks made a great play to block one and GT just didn't see another but when we hedge out hard up top like that, a smart well prepared team will roll the screener down on a quick pick & roll and nail us. Most teams show & recover back, we hard hedge and tend to hold it to long to be able to recover back in time and not need base line help. Pretty much every team in the country runs this pick & roll high screen action now to free up the ball handler, just not a fan of how we defend it. Stockton & Karl Malone would have a field day with the way we defend the screen & roll and if I had a Ochafor on my team that is what I would have him working to do nearly every trip down court.

Good points. That action was very apparent live. Joel James' biggest defensive weakness us on the hedge (more like a "tree" with him) and help side recovery. Hicks also tends to get himself off-balance out there and not recover quickly enough. Another factor, however, is how the Guard plays the screen (anticipating and taking efficient angles). This is another area where Berry makes a difference. He gets back to his man more efficiently. The key is for the Big to stay "below the ball" on the hedge and the faster the Guard recovers to his man the faster the Big can recover to his.

Physical strength and really a more defender strong mindset are to me reasons Joel is better at the recover than his counter parts.

Speaking of Joel, have to comment and maybe get your being there view of Berry defending his man on one trip, where it looked like the fans there seemed to feel Joel got his ankles broken by their PG, he didn't, actually Joel stop him dad on 2 attempts and at the spot where Joel fell, h actually forced that PG in to 3 of our defenders. Just struck me as funny because the crowd seemed to roar in a near "he got them ankles broke" mode yet Joel won the battle. Just curious what they were saying in the stands.

 

[gary-7]

Originally posted by DSouthr:
Physical strength and really a more defender strong mindset are to me reasons Joel is better at the recover than his counter parts.

Speaking of Joel, have to comment and maybe get your being there view of Berry defending his man on one trip, where it looked like the fans there seemed to feel Joel got his ankles broken by their PG, he didn't, actually Joel stop him dad on 2 attempts and at the spot where Joel fell, h actually forced that PG in to 3 of our defenders. Just struck me as funny because the crowd seemed to roar in a near "he got them ankles broke" mode yet Joel won the battle. Just curious what they were saying in the stands.

Yeah, I was right above that side of the court. It was some crowd ado about nothing that came mostly from their band and students at the other end of the floor. JB actually beat him to the spot on the initial drive attempt, and when the GT guard spun way from that (it looked like he pushed off as well) JB just got his feet tangled in the melee in the paint. And as you said, all that did was push the guy right into our Bigs. So yeah, it was a win for Berry.

There was another sequence on the same end I mentioned before where their PG tried to squeeze Berry off a foul line clusterf**k and take it to the hole, but Berry recovered and showed some impressive hops and got a clean block on his lay-up attempt (it's a shame Tokoto reached in). Had that play been in Chapel Hill it would've gotten some big woofs from the crowd.

 

[Tigertown_a_Rick]

Originally posted by mikeirbyusa:
Berry was awesome! Brice kept playing HARD in spite of his bad shooting night. That is a BIG improvement! He still snagged what 8-9 boards?

Joel James just keeps improving.

GREAT to see Theo and all our walking wounded get some burn.

You done good down there gary, I swear it looked and sounded like we had as many Tar Heel fans there as yellow jacket fans.

Who will be coaching the jackets next season?

This^!

Berry had the look of a confident player last night as soon as he stepped into the game....Nothing but good things ahead for this young man and the team if he can remain healthy....

Joel is giving us some good minutes, but have to agree with DSouthr and Gary7 that he drives me crazy at times when he hedges on the ball around the free throw line or higher, and would much prefer that he and Hicks protect the middle more, because both do seem to have trouble getting back to their man at times, which creates fouls on both players for trailing the play, or their player has an easy gimme shot to make....Other than those minor misgivings, both those guys are starting to give the team a lot of help off the bench, and that's going to be needed if the team is to progress in either of the upcoming tournaments?

Also thought that Justin Jackson got off to a great start last night, and don't remember him taking any of those off-balance floaters that many of us fans have criticized him for this season?....Looked and Played more under control last night it seemed, and when he plays like that he's seems to contribute more to the team on both ends of the floor...

Still would like to see some head or ball fakes by Meeks and Johnson in the future, but both guys kept playing hard last night in spite of their struggles early in the game....That's very important for this team for those guys to keep their heads in the game, and both did last night, so Kudos to them!

Paige seemed to have more mobility and poise last night with several great passes and key buckets at times....

Also agree with Gary's take on how JP and Britt played last night, and hope both those guys can take care of the basketball, moving forward!

The team really needed these last 2 wins, and the fact that the walking-wounded has returned will certainly make us a deeper and more dangerous team headed into the tournaments....

Especially glad to see Pinson not only return, but knock down that 3 pointer to boot....He and his infectious enthusiastic nature is like a breathe of fresh air to this team for this late in the season, and he's quickly becoming one of my favorite players on the team....

And finally like others, I would definitely like to see us trap and press more, since it looks as though we'll now have the depth to do that with all the injured players returning?

 

[imajericho]

Originally posted by Tigertown@Rick:

Originally posted by mikeirbyusa:
Berry was awesome! Brice kept playing HARD in spite of his bad shooting night. That is a BIG improvement! He still snagged what 8-9 boards?

Joel James just keeps improving.

GREAT to see Theo and all our walking wounded get some burn.

You done good down there gary, I swear it looked and sounded like we had as many Tar Heel fans there as yellow jacket fans.

Who will be coaching the jackets next season?

One of his first shots was that floater but he made it.
This^!

Berry had the look of a confident player last night as soon as he stepped into the game....Nothing but good things ahead for this young man and the team if he can remain healthy....

Joel is giving us some good minutes, but have to agree with DSouthr and Gary7 that he drives me crazy at times when he hedges on the ball around the free throw line or higher, and would much prefer that he and Hicks protect the middle more, because both do seem to have trouble getting back to their man at times, which creates fouls on both players for trailing the play, or their player has an easy gimme shot to make....Other than those minor misgivings, both those guys are starting to give the team a lot of help off the bench, and that's going to be needed if the team is to progress in either of the upcoming tournaments?

Also thought that Justin Jackson got off to a great start last night, and don't remember him taking any of those off-balance floaters that many of us fans have criticized him for this season?....Looked and Played more under control last night it seemed, and when he plays like that he's seems to contribute more to the team on both ends of the floor...

Still would like to see some head or ball fakes by Meeks and Johnson in the future, but both guys kept playing hard last night in spite of their struggles early in the game....That's very important for this team for those guys to keep their heads in the game, and both did last night, so Kudos to them!

Paige seemed to have more mobility and poise last night with several great passes and key buckets at times....

Also agree with Gary's take on how JP and Britt played last night, and hope both those guys can take care of the basketball, moving forward!

The team really needed these last 2 wins, and the fact that the walking-wounded has returned will certainly make us a deeper and more dangerous team headed into the tournaments....

Especially glad to see Pinson not only return, but knock down that 3 pointer to boot....He and his infectious enthusiastic nature is like a breathe of fresh air to this team for this late in the season, and he's quickly becoming one of my favorite players on the team....

And finally like others, I would definitely like to see us trap and press more, since it looks as though we'll now have the depth to do that with all the injured players returning?

 

[Tigertown_a_Rick]

Originally posted by imajericho:

One of his first shots was that floater but he made it.


Also thought that Justin Jackson got off to a great start last night, and don't remember him taking any of those off-balance floaters that many of us fans have criticized him for this season?....Looked and Played more under control last night it seemed, and when he plays like that he's seems to contribute more to the team on both ends of the floor...

Must have happened when I went to the bathroom, but glad to hear that he made it!

Overall, I thought last night was one of JJ's better games in recent weeks, but that too is just an opinion!

Hopefully, it will carry over to this saturday's game against Dook!

 

[DSouthr]

Originally posted by Tigertown@Rick:

Originally posted by mikeirbyusa:
Berry was awesome! Brice kept playing HARD in spite of his bad shooting night. That is a BIG improvement! He still snagged what 8-9 boards?

Joel James just keeps improving.

GREAT to see Theo and all our walking wounded get some burn.

You done good down there gary, I swear it looked and sounded like we had as many Tar Heel fans there as yellow jacket fans.

Who will be coaching the jackets next season?

This^!

Berry had the look of a confident player last night as soon as he stepped into the game....Nothing but good things ahead for this young man and the team if he can remain healthy....

Joel is giving us some good minutes, but have to agree with DSouthr and Gary7 that he drives me crazy at times when he hedges on the ball around the free throw line or higher, and would much prefer that he and Hicks protect the middle more, because both do seem to have trouble getting back to their man at times, which creates fouls on both players for trailing the play, or their player has an easy gimme shot to make....Other than those minor misgivings, both those guys are starting to give the team a lot of help off the bench, and that's going to be needed if the team is to progress in either of the upcoming tournaments?

Also thought that Justin Jackson got off to a great start last night, and don't remember him taking any of those off-balance floaters that many of us fans have criticized him for this season?....Looked and Played more under control last night it seemed, and when he plays like that he's seems to contribute more to the team on both ends of the floor...

Still would like to see some head or ball fakes by Meeks and Johnson in the future, but both guys kept playing hard last night in spite of their struggles early in the game....That's very important for this team for those guys to keep their heads in the game, and both did last night, so Kudos to them!

Paige seemed to have more mobility and poise last night with several great passes and key buckets at times....

Also agree with Gary's take on how JP and Britt played last night, and hope both those guys can take care of the basketball, moving forward!

The team really needed these last 2 wins, and the fact that the walking-wounded has returned will certainly make us a deeper and more dangerous team headed into the tournaments....

Especially glad to see Pinson not only return, but knock down that 3 pointer to boot....He and his infectious enthusiastic nature is like a breathe of fresh air to this team for this late in the season, and he's quickly becoming one of my favorite players on the team....

And finally like others, I would definitely like to see us trap and press more, since it looks as though we'll now have the depth to do that with all the injured players returning?

That game to me showed both the good AND the problems with Joel James, I think he is a great kid by the way, but we all loved him showing off his mid-range shooting stroke, he also showed that on a limited basis last season but the last 3 or 4 games he has shown the confidence in it to go to it more & more. I am beginning to believe that his mid range jumper is more consistent than Brice's or Meeks. But also on display was the slow feet, one play in particular, don't recall which GT big it was, may have been Mitchel but he flat footed Joel for an easy lay in, Joel in great position but just couldn't move his feet and got blown by. I think we can expect to see more of the sweet mid rage shots (don't really want to see him take another one from near the 3pt arch) but his feet, we just going to have to accept that, just like it looks like we are going to have to accept that Meeks just is not going to have the explosion to power up and thru contact, I just do not believe that will change for either.