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notashelbyfan said:

Keep in mind this is the same team with a better version on Jackson and Powell not that earlier in the year played Florida, Kansas, Michigan State, and Louisville and had shots to win all 3 of those games

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Would we win those games - or even be close - now? I fear not.

We've seen divergent movements within our team.

Seth and Elliot started the year looking like they had really turned the corner. They looked great, but don't seem to have improved much (if at all) during the year. Good preseason improvement but little in-season improvement.

RJ started off in a shooting snide. And every time he had a decent game, we'd sigh in relief, but he couldn't make it 2 in a row. Until now, with 3 games looking a lot more like the old RJ. Off-season regression, but just lately some in-season improvement.

Ian and Drake started off looking like talented freshmen. With emphasis on the freshman part. Especially Ian, who showed a lot of energy but with poor results. Drake was doing better but still in learning mode. For a while it looked like Drake was going to be the freshman who was going to make it. But then Ian got it and started charging ahead, while Drake continued to improve. They've both improved.

Meanwhile the front court was and is nothing to write home about. Has there been any improvement?

My point in going over the obvious is that we've had some in-season improvement, but not across the board. And not a lot (with Ian being the exception that proves the rule).

Nearly all teams improve over the season. But some teams improve faster and more steadily than others. My sense is that this team would beat our November team. In other words, we have improved some. But my guess is that we've improved as a team less than the average team improves.

If I had to bet, I'd bet we'd lose those same early games against good teams, but the close ones would no longer be close.

Needless to say, I'd like to see this team prove me wrong. Starting at Pitt.

At this time in 2022 we were 12-6, on the verge of a 17-4 run to the championship game. RJ was a freshman on that team.

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Geth said:

To be fair several of those 3's were well contested and a few were of the answered prayer variety. Couldn't have been defended much better.

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Geth, so true, some of those 3s were just insane. Wouldn't it be cool to see some of those prayers going for this team? Honestly tho, they shouldn't have been a position where those prayers could be game winners.

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I watched Nate Oates keep Sears an All American on the bench the entire second half yesterday because he felt there were better players to put on the court to win. When did Hubert ever pull Love when he was playing hero ball or RJ for taking pull up 3’s on a 3 on 1 fastbreak?


Reality is Hubert does not have control of the team and players arent held accountable for poor play or lack of effort.

poor coaching, poor system, poor rotation, poor roster, poor game management, poor (no) adjustments. FIRE HUBERT. he isn’t nor was he ever the right guy.

One positive is the return of Seth's offense. I just hope it's for real and not because of the low level of competition.

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It’s just a really inconsistent team. I’ll disagree that this is a supremely talented team. I think it’s talented in some parts but very inadequate in other parts.

But this is what inconsistent teams do. They have head scratching wins, losses, and everything in between.

I don’t think this team right now is above squeaking by bad teams. They barely beat Georgia Tech and other every mediocre teams. I don’t think they’re above playing a really bad team closely on occasion. It’s just where this team is right now.

But that inconsistency might turn into some surprisingly good performances against the meat of the schedule here. I’m not going into these games with any expectations either way though. This team is way too unpredictable minute to minute for me to have a firm grasp on anything.

At this point, they can’t be choosy on style points. They need to simply stack wins no matter how uncomfortable those wins may be. You earn having disappointing wins. This team hasn’t earned that.

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I'm glad he's okay. When I saw him laying on the floor, holding his knee like that... I was sure he was done for the season.

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Geth said:

To be fair several of those 3's were well contested and a few were of the answered prayer variety. Couldn't have been defended much better.

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Absolutely, well defended, late in the shot clock prayers, especially by Hand in the last six minutes. 🤭

I don’t see how we can take any danm positives out of yesterdays win… Is this really where we are at now as program??? Barely scrapping by against a team 1-7 in the league in a game that was a must win for us … it’s downright embarrassing… coaching is pathetic, certain players lack of effort is pathetic.. how many players on this team are actually better now then they were at the start of the season.. the chances of even going 2-2 in the next 4 are beyond slim at best. So now we are going to resorting to needing to win a bunch of games in the ACC tourney to have to sweat it out on selection Sunday..

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al would said:

We let BC shoot 60% from three.

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To be fair several of those 3's were well contested and a few were of the answered prayer variety. Couldn't have been defended much better.

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