the roster makeup sucks bottom line. but put this group under a better staff and there’s adjustments and better sets being run, etc. jay wright literally made a living with rosters that were dominated by 4 guard lineups. Hubert is incapable.
Jay Wright had big guards so I doubt he would've ever recruited Cadeau and RJ to begin with(?). Doesn't seem to really fit his strategy of posting up guards. It's a great strategy because guards aren't used to defend in the post so if you can develop that, then that's a huge advantage. I've been asking for UNC guards to develop playing off 2-feet in the paint for a while, but that's not really a UNC thing. The last guard I recall doing it well was McCants and that guy was built like a tank for a college kid.
A big issue so far this season is that Cadeau's jump shot is improving IMO, but he's not a willing shooter. Seth's jump shot has improved but he isn't a willing jump shooter either. Also, Cade Tyson and Jalen Washington being relative non-threats this season really hurts. I can't imagine three of those things were part of the plan going into this season. Hubert made it sound like Cadeau was going to be an All American this season. Then there's no way they were anticipating Cadeau and Washington to basically be non-factors.
I know this will sound somewhat sacrilegious here. But I thought UNC played a lot better in the UCLA game and that was not a ridiculously up tempo game. And this season, they've been good at only one thing consistently offensively and that's getting to and making FTs. And if you compare this team to the really good really small teams of the past (2005 Illinois, 2021 Baylor, and those Nova teams).... None of those teams played fast. All of them played slow and played fewer than 70 possessions per game.
It's not apples to apples. That Illinois team had 3 dudes who could shoot and make a ton of 3s. That Villanova team could post up huge guards and those guards could also make 3s without hesitating. That Baylor team lead the country in 3PT percentage.
The hard question to answer right now is if Cadeau and Seth aren't willing shooters, then what are the answers for this team? I think there's a chance that it's to play slower, get into the bonus and make it a FT game. It's the only thing they do well offensively. The other factor is this team doesn't defend well and it took UCLA's big getting into foul trouble to get some stops. If you can't defend at all, why do you want to run?
This is the other problem with having 0 size in the backcourt. I don't really care about the bigs. At this point, they are who they are. But if you're going to focus your strategy around your guards. If they're really small, they better be able to shoot the lights out (2021 Baylor, 2005 Illinois). If you have really big, physical guards, it gives you more options to be versatile offensively.
