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Quick stuff (Citadel game)...

...and I guess transition makes everyone "smarter", huh?...

Let's start where it ends --- TRANSITION.
Happily, the rediscovery of Carolina basketball continued. Once again, ignore the misleading box score numbers --- on a night that netted biscuits, we scored MORE THAN HALF of those points in transition. Of those, 46 -- count em, 46 --- came off SECONDARY BREAK action!!!
so...

- The next numbers I'm about to give you point up the exact antidote this team needed:
9 - Fast Break (primary w/ numerical advantage)
46 - Secondary Break (note that some of these get counted as FB points in box scores)
31 - Set Plays (half-court and out-of-bounds)
and that leaves only...
14 - Half-court (Freelance/Motion)

Folks, this reflects almost EXACTLY this roster's formula for success. Please embrace this:
The more possessions we spend in that last category, the less our chances are for success.
It's really that simple. Why?
Again, embrace this reality --- WE DO NOT HAVE A LEGIT PG... someone who can wrangle an offense from a stand-still, create space, move the defense --- y'know, all the things that Berry/Butter/Ray/Ed/Jet/Phil......... all our PGU guys could do.

- Ah, but y'see, TRANSITION compensates for that.
It opens up passing lanes, obviating the need for a PG to create them.
It endemically moves the defense, which is recovering, obviating the need for a PG to do that.
It can be drilled to the point that everyone is a potential play-maker.

- On that note, think about it --- after slogging thru games with single-digit Assists, tonight we had 24 on 32 made FGs (!!!). And y'all, IT COULD HAVE BEEN MORE (see below).

Now, some individual notes:

- There were some frankly counterproductive discussions of "basketball IQ" today that largely missed the mark. OK, it's true that none of our guys are basketball geniuses (like our aforementioned PGU guys), but they're not basketball idiots either. Their skill-sets just fit TRANSITION better.
RJ is our worst decision-maker (sorry, that's just a fact) because he sees the court narrowly with what coaches call "blinders", BUT he's a dynamic scorer who thrives at that in a broken floor.
Caleb has a tendency to get out-of-control, but when he keeps that in check, he actually has decent vision. BTW, tonight Caleb was credited with 6 dimes, BUT he had at least 3 blown on really sweet looks. so again, stop scapegoating.
And of course, Seth is an athlete who excels in motion, makes some nice looks in transition, but has no sense of spacing in half-court, non-scripted environments. Unsurprisingly, he did well in this transition-loaded game.

Some more notes:

- Gratifying for sure to see an extended bench (but we should've been doing that earlier). The mysterious missing man, Styles played REALLY well. And speaking of good looks, Dontrez had at least 4 potential dimes on the Secondary that weren't converted.

- I absolutely LOVE Nickel's lack of conscience and "short memory" as a shooter.

- And of course, our man Washington just keeps flashing the future for us.

- DEFENSIVELY though (sigh), I was generally disappointed in three things:
1. slow/late rotations
2. not recognizing what I call "up-down switches"
3. not multiple enough
Speaking of personnel fits, this bunch is NOT suited for straight 21.5 over extended periods, BUT... we are suited for SCRAMBLING. Guess we're gonna hafta wait though --- we ran exacltly one possession of 32 and caused one TO --- hmmm... I think that works out to batting a thousand, huh?...

Anyway, the best news is we didn't backslide from our rediscovery of Carolina basketball, and that's the best news I could've seen... :cool:

NCAA announces Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker as next president

Posted Dec 15, 2022
The NCAA has selected Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker as its next president, succeeding Mark Emmert. Baker, who has been governor since 2015 but will conclude his second term in January, will begin his new post March 1. He played forward for Harvard's basketball team during the 1977-78 season, but has no collegiate administrative experience. (ESPN.com

1st yr FEI offensive improvements under Chip L

I can't imagine Mack (and therefore Lindsey) being around long, so I was curious about immediate impact.

FEI overall offensive ranking (it is opponent adjusted)

So Miss 2014 up from 123 to 105 (Under offense oriented Todd Monken HC [now UGA's OC])

ASU 2016 down from 35 to 79 (Under defense-oriented Todd Graham HC, taking over for Mike Norvell) -- only D-oriented HC

Auburn 2017 up from 31 to 15 (Guz Malzahn's 4th or 5th yr as HC)

Troy 2019 up from 74 to 47 (HC. note they tanked badly in yr 2 and horribly in yr 3)

UCF 2022 up from 67 to 27 (Guz Malzahn's second yr as HC)

The above are probably close to meaningless given things like injuries, OL personnel, whether you have Nate Elliot or Sam Howell, etc. The Malzahn years are slightly interesting in terms of QB dev and perhaps scouting/game prep, but Offense is Malzahn's baby everywhere he goes.

FEI Overall Line ranking - starts up front, this gives some reference for starting point, plus he probably had a little input on OL.

So Miss (no data)
ASU 2016 down 79 to 112
Auburn 2017 down 6 to 25
Troy 2019 up from 113 to 39
Troy 2020 86 big drop
Troy 2021 109 another big drop
UCF 2022 up from 53 to 9th

NCAA announces Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker as next president

Posted Dec 15, 2022
The NCAA has selected Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker as its next president, succeeding Mark Emmert. Baker, who has been governor since 2015 but will conclude his second term in January, will begin his new post March 1. He played forward for Harvard's basketball team during the 1977-78 season, but has no collegiate administrative experience. (ESPN.com

Finally sharing the ball and trusting your teammates

For anybody who watched the game “sharing the ball 🏀 and trusting your teammates” were the keys to the win over Georgia Tech. I have not seen the official stats but making the extra pass lead to at least 15 assists (5 by Love) as the TarHeels with accurate passing got a bunch of dunks and layups instead of settling for a ton of three pointers as the shot clock expired.

The emphasis in getting the ball to Bacot who had a four inch advantage over the tallest defender was a great decision as was the guards going to the hole and scoring or being fouled.

Cannot say enough about the spark that Trimble gave the team as he looked to pass instead of scoring and that lead to a 11 -0 run to end the first half that put Carolina ahead to stay.

This could be a stepping stone for things to come if the team continues to share the rock and to trust each other more and more…
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