Early Games

[What Would Jesus Do?]

I saw this chart somewhere. Is it accurate? If so, we have a bunch of strong opponents early on. Kansas early and then a loaded Maui? Wow.

This only lists 11 non-conference games. I assume that's because of the ACC expansion?

In conference I saw that we play home-and-away against Pitt this season, in addition to the usual suspects, Duke and State. A total of 21 conference games.

Good news is we don't travel to the west coast this season in conference, and we get Virginia at home. But our away conference schedule is pretty rugged.

 

[TPFKAPFS]

What do you learn beating sorry teams? I would rather play a schedule that can challenge you and enforce what the coaches are preaching! I want to play teams that both incentivize us to play hard + together AND provide good losses if the worst happens!

 

[DaSheed]

Dean always played an intense early schedule. Roy also. Makes their win/loss records that much more impressive.
Meanwhile, the Rat always loaded up on early cupcakes.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Playing Kansas so early doesn't give Hubert much real game time to experiment with lineups.

Back in the old days, when off-season contact was pretty limited, that could have been a serious problem. I assume it isn't so much these days. But still....

This chart uses the starting lineups projected by ESPN.

* = transfer
** = freshman

UNC	Hgt - Wt	2024 Pts	2024 Pts	Hgt - Wt	Kansas
Elliot	6'1 - 180	7.3	8.5	6'2 - 170	Dajuan Harris
RJ	6'0 - 180	21.2	18.8	6'4 - 185	Zeke Mayo*
Ian**	6'5 - 185	--	16.8	6'7 - 205	AJ Storr*
Cade*	6'7 - 205	16.2	12.6	6'7 - 235	K.J. Adams
Ven-Allen*	6'8 - 200	12.3	17.9	7'2 - 260	Hunter Dickinson

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

What do you learn beating sorry teams? I would rather play a schedule that can challenge you and enforce what the coaches are preaching! I want to play teams that both incentivize us to play hard + together AND provide good losses if the worst happens!

I agree . . . but . . . playing a loaded legit contender like Kansas right out of the gate - not to mention @ Kansas - is a bit scary.

OTOH, if we do well, that will be a nice early sign.

 

[39 Feet Above Sea Level]

Dean always played an intense early schedule. Roy also. Makes their win/loss records that much more impressive.
Meanwhile, the Rat always loaded up on early cupcakes.

Easy, Sheed. Loading up on cupcakes is what helped him become the GOAT and get him hooked up in Aflac
commercials with Dawn Staley.
And Face is copying that trend (as well as not giving PT to five stars in blowouts who hit the portal
when the horn sounded against the Wolfpups).

 

[DSouthr]

What do you learn beating sorry teams? I would rather play a schedule that can challenge you and enforce what the coaches are preaching! I want to play teams that both incentivize us to play hard + together AND provide good losses if the worst happens!

There are and has been for a long time 2 schools of thought on this and it can be clearly seen in the best rivalry in the world of sports UNC vs Duke or call it Roy vs K. K played a less challenging schedule, especially early, if he had to play a solid team he tried to get the home court advantage or the friendly to duke court advantage, did all he could to not have to play a true away game in the non-conference. The belief if that a win is always better than a loss so beating a cup cake by 40 is better than losing to Kansas for example in a very early season game. He liked to create a shark feeding mindset with his players so he fed them cup cakes thi8nking that the feeding frenzy would carry over to league play. IN addition, duke adopted the 1&D approach and it naturally takes freshmen a little longer to acclimate and build their confidence, in his view achieved by feeding those cup cakes.

Roy, Dean before him, believe that you forge steel in heat, you build college players by giving them a hard challenge that may not be ready for but they learn from those hard challenges and they improve for later season. And now days NCAAT invites looks at that strength of schedule hard, even early season matchups so playing a harder schedule can get you in to the tourney where a soft early slate could keep you out.

What you believe may be tainted by what program you love, by what coach you love, there is a reasonable case, IMO, to be made for each side, I prefer the UNC approach but I am a Tar Heel fan so my preference is what you expect it to be, my duke buddy may see it different.

 

[TPFKAPFS]

puke's uber talented youngsters often suffered from a few issues. They were frontrunners unused to being uncomfortable on the court AND they all thought they could take over a game and win through sheer will! Neither of these issues leads to a cohesive, battle tested unit that can overcome any obstacle together. Truly strong teams have multiple peeps who can and will step up in a crunch, but they also know that the team is always stronger than the individual! DES, Roy and now Hubs clearly understand the coaching value in testing and sometimes even losing to strong foes, especially on their courts!

 

[al would]

This group should be playing high quality teams early and often. UNC can and should be able to put a really good team on the floor from the opening tip. The talent is definitely there !!

 

[Bubspub88]

Will be very interesting to see how they respond. Last season they weathered a rough ooc gauntlet very well and the confidence carried into conference play. the year before they took a few punches to the face and never recovered.

I am not as concerned with the w/l record after that stretch as I am in seeing whether roles and rotations are defined.

 

[berens007]

Dean always played an intense early schedule. Roy also. Makes their win/loss records that much more impressive.
Meanwhile, the Rat always loaded up on early cupcakes.

Hey now, they would usually play a name opponent at a 'neutral site' like New York or New Jersey lol

 

[TPFKAPFS]

Br'er rat would absolutely hate to have to play at MSG! Please, oh please Mr. NCAA don't throw me into that stadium!

 

[NathanFielder]

I only take away so much from non-conference games and especially games in the first month of the season. They're obviously important for seeding in the tournament so you can't completely ignore them. But teams evolve, improve/get worse, get injured throughout the season. I don't think there's a ton to takeaway from in November/December.

Roy and Dean had a lot of success playing hard schedules in the non-conference. K had a lot of success playing a softer non-conference schedule. I think that means that the impact of November is only so much.

Saying that, it would be really nice to beat Kansas. Even if it's just a November regular season game, they've had UNC's number and caused a lot of pain over the last 15 years or so.