Dave & Dunk - I appreciate the optimism and have tried to maintain it thus far as well. I also posted pregame that we shouldn't get our panties in a wad when we get blown out at Duke. Horrible matchup of size and talent on their home floor.
What has really turned the corner on my thinking is that we are on our 23rd game of Hubert's 4th season. We finally saw a zone and a game where we switched defenses. Both slowed dook, at least long enough for them to try to figure out what we were doing.
Size is difficult to deal with on the basketball court, but not impossible. I'll never forget playing against a 7' 2 dude in college (I'm 6'7). You can't just look at the mismatch and walk off the court. You have to figure out how to utilize whatever advantage you have. So I'll ask again, what happened to utilizing our strengths that we talked about before the season began. We knew we were going to be small and we talked about pressing and running waves of people at opponents. What I have seen so far this year is half court sets (actually it's usually just one play) and us pounding the ball into the floor until we have 8 seconds left in the shot clock.
Unfortunately, all of the issues plaguing this team ultimately come down to coaching. From composition of the team, to the way utilize our players, to lineups, to sub patterns, team chemistry, and of course the X's and O's all stop with Hubert.
As I just said in another thread, I take no joy in saying that I believe Hubert needs to be replaced.
First, THANK YOU for such a quality reply, there isn't a single thing in your reply that I can see as wrong. You asked a great question, let me reply,
"So I'll ask again, what happened to utilizing our strengths that we talked about before the season began"
You seem to recall exactly what I was saying pre-season, kudos for that! Full court token to hard press, to hard press and traps for a FULL 40Min of hell akin to Nolan Richardson's plan. I still very strongly believe that would have made a major difference in the results so far this season. The problem Nocal is that was MY THINKING, clearly Hubert saw it differently. Now there havebeen some things that have played in to that, Tyson was/is IMO a buster, RJ slow start shooting, Seth concussion, Cadeau not learning how to stay away from foul trouble and far to risky passes, the same sketchy JWit, Jalen playing so soft far to often played a large part in that but those things if anything may have been helped had we played differently in the way I suggested. Sol where did it go, it din't go any where because it never arrived.
Yes, there are things that can at least help neutralize size but we can agree, that longer guy has a huge advantage, the smaller guy just has way less margin for error. And when it gets to the point that the smaller team has to play mostly half court offense it becomes twice as hard. What does a boxer do when he is facing a much larger opponent, he doesn't go at him straight on and trade blows, he uses his speed, dances, counter punches, he wears down that bigger guy. Not so different in basketball.
To be such a small team we don't have a lot of deadly jump shooters that are consistently deadly, we don't have the guard length to be able to shoot over a lot of defenders, and as a team we are not really quick. To play the way I want you do need a mature developed team, we start 2 freshmen and a soph that honesty needs continued maturation. Can you imagine being a freshman right out of high school, you at 6'7" having to deal with that 7'2" lotto selection in the next NBA draft? You know full well how that will simply wear you down and how it can easily get in to your head.
I am VERY concerned with Hubert's development as a head coach, I expected him to learn from his mistakes more, he may be more hard headed that Roy and that from me is saying a ton. I have not been shy to talk about the short comings I have seen from Hubert, I do not feel he should have got the job, I have been clear about that, UNC just is not a job where we can have OJT for the head coach but here we are, 3.5yrs of OJT and if we stay with Hubert the OJT will still be happening. I said some where over the last couple days that in my opinion it takes about 10yrs of success for a coach to be ready for the UNC job. Your approach to offense and defense have to be solid in your mind, not made up as you go, this is not playing football in a sand lot. But we have started that journey now, should never have been started but here we are, same deal with Matt, hired far to early in his career. UNC has now invested 3.5yrs in Hubert's development, I do feel like we need to be absolutely sure before we waste that investment.
Couple more things I would add, first, I do think we will see a MUCH MUCH different, define that as MUCH BETTER, approach to the portal recruiting, I would at least as I type this like to see what Hubert can do when he is bidding on a more level playing ground. I remain VERY CONCERNED with this staff's ability to evaluate talent and that buck stops with Hubert. For example, I have said for his whole time at UNC that Jalen is a 4, he just is not a guy I want to see defending 5s, just a serous lack of physicality, to easily moved out of position by those big men. Lubin and JWit are much more physical and Jalen can jump shoot when he is confident, he has lost so much confidence playing at a position he is just over-whelmed by. I saw some baby steps in the right direction last night, better late than never, to little and to late for this season, yeah, likely so.
