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Could this be the problem ??

al would

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Oct 14, 2009
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After watching as much of that (as G7 so accurately said) sh** last night against Marquette as I possibly could I actually felt a bit of affirmation as to what I think the problem with this team has been all year .. and even mentioned it when I saw Bacot doing pre-game warm-ups with his headphones on a couple weeks ago.

This “team” is merely a reflection of these incredibly dystopic times. We (as a world) are now being conditioned to not strive for social interaction and UNITY .. as the back of the jersey says .. we are being conditioned to accept isolation and individualism as normal and it's translating to the court .. and I was actually shocked at the number of times the UNC players forgot their social distancing rules and kept running in to one another on their offensive plays yet respecting it on the defensive side.

For their entire lives these kids have played the game for packed HS and youth league gyms and now after achieving one of their ultimate college goals of playing for UNC in the Dean Dome they come out to warm up in a college basketball palace in front of a bunch of f'n cheap cardboard posters and pictures. I can't imagine how confusing that has to be to a young adult that has worked so hard to achieve a dream just to have a bucket of ice water thrown in their face without even having the chance to experience what should be one of the greatest times of their lives. So when you guys keep bringing up words like “focus, energy and effort” just try and roll back the clock and put yourself in their position because like anything in life .. job, marriage etc. when you lose the excitement the focus, passion and intensity disappear as well. In no way am I trying to make excuses for anyone involved with the University or the program it's just these are things I think about when I'm stuck in a Holiday Inn without a bar... jmho
 
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After watching as much of that (as G7 so accurately said) sh** last night against Marquette as I possibly could I actually felt a bit of affirmation as to what I think the problem with this team has been all year .. and even mentioned it when I saw Bacot doing pre-game warm-ups with his headphones on a couple weeks ago.

This “team” is merely a reflection of these incredibly dystopic times. We (as a world) are now being conditioned to not strive for social interaction and UNITY .. as the back of the jersey says .. we are being conditioned to accept isolation and individualism as normal and it's translating to the court .. and I was actually shocked at the number of times the UNC players forgot their social distancing rules and kept running in to one another on their offensive plays yet respecting it on the defensive side.

For their entire lives these kids have played the game for packed HS and youth league gyms and now after achieving one of their ultimate college goals of playing for UNC in the Dean Dome they come out to warm up in a college basketball palace in front of a bunch of f'n cheap cardboard posters and pictures. I can't imagine how confusing that has to be to a young adult that has worked so hard to achieve a dream just to have a bucket of ice water thrown in their face without even having the chance to experience what should be one of the greatest times of their lives. So when you guys keep bringing up words like “focus, energy and effort” just try and roll back the clock and put yourself in their position because like anything in life .. job, marriage etc. when you lose the excitement the focus, passion and intensity disappear as well. In no way am I trying to make excuses for anyone involved with the University or the program it's just these are things I think about when I'm stuck in a Holiday Inn without a bar... jmho

I'm not exactly sure of the point(s) you are trying to make, although I think some of what you said has a little merit.
Also, I second the poster above that said Marquette players have faced the same issues, so, I don't think I can agree with your position?
 
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when I'm stuck in a Holiday Inn


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After watching as much of that (as G7 so accurately said) sh** last night against Marquette as I possibly could I actually felt a bit of affirmation as to what I think the problem with this team has been all year .. and even mentioned it when I saw Bacot doing pre-game warm-ups with his headphones on a couple weeks ago.

This “team” is merely a reflection of these incredibly dystopic times. We (as a world) are now being conditioned to not strive for social interaction and UNITY .. as the back of the jersey says .. we are being conditioned to accept isolation and individualism as normal and it's translating to the court .. and I was actually shocked at the number of times the UNC players forgot their social distancing rules and kept running in to one another on their offensive plays yet respecting it on the defensive side.

For their entire lives these kids have played the game for packed HS and youth league gyms and now after achieving one of their ultimate college goals of playing for UNC in the Dean Dome they come out to warm up in a college basketball palace in front of a bunch of f'n cheap cardboard posters and pictures. I can't imagine how confusing that has to be to a young adult that has worked so hard to achieve a dream just to have a bucket of ice water thrown in their face without even having the chance to experience what should be one of the greatest times of their lives. So when you guys keep bringing up words like “focus, energy and effort” just try and roll back the clock and put yourself in their position because like anything in life .. job, marriage etc. when you lose the excitement the focus, passion and intensity disappear as well. In no way am I trying to make excuses for anyone involved with the University or the program it's just these are things I think about when I'm stuck in a Holiday Inn without a bar... jmho

So we will play like past UNC teams on Saturday according to this since there will be some fans there. Hope you’re right.
 
I think the problem is the top 12 players are all average. You pick five and then I pick 5 from the remaining 7.. would there be a big difference in which 5 to start? Most years you have at least 4 players that are obvious to play a lot of minutes with a couple of solid guys next in line. If I was the coach I would pick 8 of what I thought were the best of the bunch and play those guys. Maybe being more familiar with each other would improve the team play.
 
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There definitely seems to be something off with the vibe of this team. I won’t wildly speculate, but I’d wager that this isn’t Roy’s closest team by a long stretch.

Winning makes everything more fun, but there must be a certain chemistry that is vital to winning in the first place. I don’t think this team has it, and I don’t know how they’ll attain it in 2 weeks.
 
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Well yes, covid has had negative effects on this season, true for UNC and true for every other team in the country as well. But if anything, Marquette should have had more of a covid struggle in that game than we did. They had not played in what, 3 weeks? They had to travel to us, we had just played great vs a depleted LVille team and frankly, that was not what I would call a good Marquette team even had they been at full strength. So if anything their burden was heavier than ours was.

Look, Roy is a HOF coach, Roy got to 800 wins quicker than any coach in history (including K by the way), clearly Roy has some amazing strengths as a coach but like every other coach he also has his weaknesses. Roy is great at developing players, getting them solid in his system over time. Now for most of Roy's career that allowed him to have extremely experienced teams every season. Notice the nattys we have won with Roy as our head coach, they are very similar. His starters were all Jr or Sr which means he had a very experienced teams. How many final 4s, nattys, or even elite 8s have Roys teams got to with a starting freshman (maybe Ed Davis is the exception but he was wrapped with a LOT of experience around him)? Have not researched it but I don't think he has.

So clearly, Roy wins big with very experienced teams that have a good bit of talent. Just as clearly is the fact that Roy's lesser experienced teams disappoint until they get a good level of experience installed. Roy's strength clearly is not getting freshmen to play up to the level many fans expect big time freshmen to play to. It is IMO OK to admit Roy is not perfection.

I would not call Roy's ability to get his team up to play a team that we are suppose to win as being a strength either, frankly I see it as a short coming. He will get his guys hyped up to play duke and most of the time NC State but we stink early a LOT vs teams we should beat, that is a question of game prep. For example, in the post game Roy said wed night, he noticed our last couple practices were not great, you have to address that they were not, you have to isolate who and you have to address that with who gets the start as well as over all PT. Coach pulling a starter from that starting lineup sends all the message needed, kid used to getting over 20mins a game gets 5 in the next game because he not not bust his butt in practice, promise ya, they either get the message or they transfer, both being a net positive. 2 bad practices prior to playing Marquette, some starter needed to be made the example, maybe even multiple starters if need be. When that tip goes up, you must have 5 guys out there giving you all they have effort wise, can't control if a jumper falls or not but you darn sure can control effort. I was serious, I may have ended that marquette game with KJ, Lebo, and Walker Miller in that game for the last 10mins but I would have 5 guys leaving it all out on that court, win or lose. Our next game, I would not allow a single guy that started vs Marquette start and every one of them would have to re-earn the priveledge of being a starter. BTW, who ever it was that did not run the set Roy told them to run coming out of that TO, would not play a single second in our next game and I don't care if he was a freshman or senior.
 
Well yes, covid has had negative effects on this season, true for UNC and true for every other team in the country as well. But if anything, Marquette should have had more of a covid struggle in that game than we did. They had not played in what, 3 weeks? They had to travel to us, we had just played great vs a depleted LVille team and frankly, that was not what I would call a good Marquette team even had they been at full strength. So if anything their burden was heavier than ours was.

Look, Roy is a HOF coach, Roy got to 800 wins quicker than any coach in history (including K by the way), clearly Roy has some amazing strengths as a coach but like every other coach he also has his weaknesses. Roy is great at developing players, getting them solid in his system over time. Now for most of Roy's career that allowed him to have extremely experienced teams every season. Notice the nattys we have won with Roy as our head coach, they are very similar. His starters were all Jr or Sr which means he had a very experienced teams. How many final 4s, nattys, or even elite 8s have Roys teams got to with a starting freshman (maybe Ed Davis is the exception but he was wrapped with a LOT of experience around him)? Have not researched it but I don't think he has.

So clearly, Roy wins big with very experienced teams that have a good bit of talent. Just as clearly is the fact that Roy's lesser experienced teams disappoint until they get a good level of experience installed. Roy's strength clearly is not getting freshmen to play up to the level many fans expect big time freshmen to play to. It is IMO OK to admit Roy is not perfection.

I would not call Roy's ability to get his team up to play a team that we are suppose to win as being a strength either, frankly I see it as a short coming. He will get his guys hyped up to play duke and most of the time NC State but we stink early a LOT vs teams we should beat, that is a question of game prep. For example, in the post game Roy said wed night, he noticed our last couple practices were not great, you have to address that they were not, you have to isolate who and you have to address that with who gets the start as well as over all PT. Coach pulling a starter from that starting lineup sends all the message needed, kid used to getting over 20mins a game gets 5 in the next game because he not not bust his butt in practice, promise ya, they either get the message or they transfer, both being a net positive. 2 bad practices prior to playing Marquette, some starter needed to be made the example, maybe even multiple starters if need be. When that tip goes up, you must have 5 guys out there giving you all they have effort wise, can't control if a jumper falls or not but you darn sure can control effort. I was serious, I may have ended that marquette game with KJ, Lebo, and Walker Miller in that game for the last 10mins but I would have 5 guys leaving it all out on that court, win or lose. Our next game, I would not allow a single guy that started vs Marquette start and every one of them would have to re-earn the priveledge of being a starter. BTW, who ever it was that did not run the set Roy told them to run coming out of that TO, would not play a single second in our next game and I don't care if he was a freshman or senior.
David, solid and to the point as always
 
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