Just Can't Figure It Out....

[diehard34]

Last night why we were in such a jerk and such a big hurry like we were playing with a 10 second shot clock. I mean just looked like we have a hot potato and weren't getting into our sets at all in the second half. I know Arky has a really good aggressive defense but I was like damn slow down. We did t handle the press worth a post either but it was so so nice to get one of these wins. I think that will help their confidence to say the least to know we can come back. (Helps mine ) Go Heels!

 

[Archer2]

I used the "hot potato" analogy last night as well. I understand the desire to play at a fast pace, but getting high quality shots should be the overriding concern. A bad shot is the equivalent to a TO. Taking a bad shot very early in the shot clock makes it an even more egregious mistake. Again, something Roy needs to stress.

 

[adwood81]

I hate to admit that Seth Davis ever gets anything right but he in a moment of lucidity after the game said we seemed to have panicked in the second half. I don't know if that is the right word but there have been a few times this year: at Miami, Virginia and in Brooklyn against dook that we did not play our game. We were very fortunate to right the ship and survive to play again. I don't think we will have that much margin of error if we are to continue a run to a championship.

 

[Heeelz46]

Roy teaches them to go fast fast fast. This can be great when things are running smoothly but if you have a weird lineup on the court or the players are allowed to just jack up ill advised shots with no intervening to tell them to stop, things can spiral out of control quickly.

 

[angelo_sellers]

I know my screaming "you don't need a 3" at the tv last night belies what I'm about to say, but I didn't have a huge issue with most of the shots in the 2nd half. I was simply amazed at our inability to hold onto the ball. How many bazaar moments where we just didn't catch the ball and it bounced to a Hawg - and it usually resulted in a 3.

On the flip side, though, let's talk about our D over the last 10 minutes. Arkansas claims that the last 10 minutes of the game is theirs. Well, during their time, they only scored 3 points against UNC's set defense. They scored a few more on fast break opportunities, but when they had to go against a set defense, they only made 1 basket and that was a desperation 3 at the end of the shot click - after they recovered a blocked shot.

Our defense over the last 10 minutes was amazing.

 

[heels05champs]

We panicked and played tight in the second half. Making simple passes became difficult. Not what I expected out of a veteran team but thankfully we got the win.

 

[bleeduncblue]

If I was Butler, i would be installing a press into my lineup over the next few days. yikes!!

 

[Heelicious]

If I was Butler, i would be installing a press into my lineup over the next few days. yikes!!

yes - but there were some instances that I just have to believe (hope) were out of character for this team. 17 TOs - uncharacteristic and unacceptable. A couple times it looked like 8th grade basketball - passes to nobody but the center of the court.... kicking the ball when reaching down to get it.... turning a 4 on one going our way to a 4 on one going the other way, in the blink of an eye.....we panicked, or played soft, tired, rattled a lot. ( I will say that Seventh didn't look terrible on either end, except for the one shot he took....I don't think he should take any shot right now except right at the rim).

Ark's high-contact aggressive pressure rattled us for sure. I don't know if Butler has that style of play in their repertoire. But for sure they have other strengths we need to overcome.

 

[Carolina Way]

Kenny Smith made a good point in the pre-game. He said he hated being a #1 seed because the 1st game of the tournament is so easy, and then you turn around and generally play a very competitive 8/9 team.

I think this is somewhat what happened to us yesterday. We cruised vs Texas Southern and we got out to such a great start against Arkansas... I think we expected to coast again! When Arkansas came back and "hit us in the mouth", it was clear that we weren't prepared for the fight and panicked really badly. Hopefully it's a wake up call for us.

 

[soap - new and improved]

We did have some unforced TO's for sure. We also were hacked hard and run thru a number of times without call. Those uncalled fouls were counted as TOs.

1st Half Luke had the ball and was hit in the face twice and had his arm swiped from behind by a 2nd "defender" and the ball came loose - but no foul call. That one we did get back as it went OOB off of Arky. But it is one example of the way the Hogs "force" a lot of their TOs.

We were very fortunate last night to have a crew that understands the difference in our styles of play and was not afraid to call a decent number of the plethora of fouls by Arky. With some of the officiating crews we faced this year we would have dropped that game.

 

[dadika13]

Survive and advance. Roy will have plenty to get on them for this week and we need to come out ready to play our game on Friday.

Again...survive and advance.

 

[gary-7]

Last night why we were in such a jerk and such a big hurry like we were playing with a 10 second shot clock. I mean just looked like we have a hot potato and weren't getting into our sets at all in the second half. I know Arky has a really good aggressive defense but I was like damn slow down. We did t handle the press worth a post either but it was so so nice to get one of these wins. I think that will help their confidence to say the least to know we can come back. (Helps mine ) Go Heels!

I don't believe that pace was the issue. In fact we were at our most effiecient in the first half when we scored almost all of our points on the Secondary Break. The problem in the second half was more in gathering ourselves under their press and not making unforced errors, or not missing wide open shots.

 

[Heeelz46]

"survive and advance" is great and all but damn we are making it a lot harder on ourselves. Had Miami dead to rights. Same with Dook. ANd now Arkansas. Lets hope if we build that lead vs Butler we finish them off, It will come back to bite us if it continues.

 

[ChiShankCity]

It's not a great sign we struggled against Arkansas... The style that Arkansas wants to play should fit into our hands. But the problem is we have 1 natural point guard. Nate really isn't a PG. He just plays PG because he has to. Nate played well against Arkansas and we don't win if he isn't there, but if you cut off Berry, this is a team that can reasonably lose to any team in the tournament minus 15 or 16 seeds.

Also, this isn't the highest basketball IQ team Roy has had. Paige had a pretty poor year, but he was smart. Johnson didn't have great basketball IQ, but compared to Hicks, Johnson is a basketball genius. We all love Theo, but he'll give the opponent maybe 7 free points per game just off bad passes or bad shots that lead to fast breaks.

IMO, this team has overachieved this season. We replaced a first team all american with Hicks... Hicks is fine, but he isn't a first team all american. We replaced Paige essentially with Pinson... Give me Paige 10 days/week.

I'm really fearing the Butler game. Chris Holtmann gets 5 days to prepare for us... They're disciplined and won't give us anything for free.

 

[CrazyHeel]

Just like in the ACC tourney, we went ice cold from the outside and kept launching up shot after shot. When we go cold like that I want to see JJ or JB drive and get layups or have our bigs get those short rebounds and stick it back in. Those outside shots equals long rebounds and takes away from what we do best. Abuse teams in the lane and on the glass

 

[Heelicious]

It's not a great sign we struggled against Arkansas... The style that Arkansas wants to play should fit into our hands. But the problem is we have 1 natural point guard. Nate really isn't a PG. He just plays PG because he has to. Nate played well against Arkansas and we don't win if he isn't there, but if you cut off Berry, this is a team that can reasonably lose to any team in the tournament minus 15 or 16 seeds.

Also, this isn't the highest basketball IQ team Roy has had. Paige had a pretty poor year, but he was smart. Johnson didn't have great basketball IQ, but compared to Hicks, Johnson is a basketball genius. We all love Theo, but he'll give the opponent maybe 7 free points per game just off bad passes or bad shots that lead to fast breaks.

IMO, this team has overachieved this season. We replaced a first team all american with Hicks... Hicks is fine, but he isn't a first team all american. We replaced Paige essentially with Pinson... Give me Paige 10 days/week.

I'm really fearing the Butler game. Chris Holtmann gets 5 days to prepare for us... They're disciplined and won't give us anything for free.

Some of your post has merit, but overall I sure don't think getting to Sweet 16 (beating a 16 and an 8 on a nearly home court) is overachieving. Winning the ACC by 2 games maybe is an over-achieve but that has more to do with Duke underperforming.

Paige didn't have a poor year last year. He just didn't. He struggled midyear with shooting, was hurt early, but recall in the ACC and NCAA tourney he was basically locked in and unstoppable. When it mattered most.

I agree with you for the most part comparing Brice to Isaiah. I'd rather have Brice, straight up.

But - you have totally ignored, overlooked, failed to mention what we have this year vs. last year.
*ACC POY JJ : vastly improved in every aspect of the game vs. last year
*A better overall, more experienced Joel Berry (when healthy)
*A giant leap in the productivity of Kennedy Meeks. This change is larger maybe even than JJ's upgrade.
*Tony Bradley. Who was our Tony Bradley last year, who could come in when Isaiah got his third foul in 10 minutes of playing time in the first half.
General improvements just due to year-to-year growth and experience, for Luke, and even for Pinson; and Britt; knowing when to shoot or not shoot, playing smarter defense.

For the record I have us going out at hands of UCLA in Elite 8. Not sure if that makes us a lesser team this year. We just have a harder path this year IMO. I don't remember who we beat last year to go to Final Four (maybe Indiana?) but I don't think we had to beat teams like Butler and UK/UCLA winner to get there.

 

[Tom79]

The original post reminds me that we do get too fast and a bit careless with the ball at times....like the steal, re-steal and layup for UA. We had three guys on the floor, Nate/Theo and JJ(?) diving for a 50-50 ball and we did not wrap it up.
For this team to win and advance, they need to all be ready to "get after it".

 

[Heeelz46]

Some of your post has merit, but overall I sure don't think getting to Sweet 16 (beating a 16 and an 8 on a nearly home court) is overachieving. Winning the ACC by 2 games maybe is an over-achieve but that has more to do with Duke underperforming.

Paige didn't have a poor year last year. He just didn't. He struggled midyear with shooting, was hurt early, but recall in the ACC and NCAA tourney he was basically locked in and unstoppable. When it mattered most.

I agree with you for the most part comparing Brice to Isaiah. I'd rather have Brice, straight up.

But - you have totally ignored, overlooked, failed to mention what we have this year vs. last year.
*ACC POY JJ : vastly improved in every aspect of the game vs. last year
*A better overall, more experienced Joel Berry (when healthy)
*A giant leap in the productivity of Kennedy Meeks. This change is larger maybe even than JJ's upgrade.
*Tony Bradley. Who was our Tony Bradley last year, who could come in when Isaiah got his third foul in 10 minutes of playing time in the first half.
General improvements just due to year-to-year growth and experience, for Luke, and even for Pinson; and Britt; knowing when to shoot or not shoot, playing smarter defense.

For the record I have us going out at hands of UCLA in Elite 8. Not sure if that makes us a lesser team this year. We just have a harder path this year IMO. I don't remember who we beat last year to go to Final Four (maybe Indiana?) but I don't think we had to beat teams like Butler and UK/UCLA winner to get there.

Good post except I disagree that Britt has improved. In fact hes regressed. His FT shooting number alone is staggering the drop off percentage wise. As I said in another thread, the loss of Kenny Williams should NOT be hurting this teams rotations like it does..But it is, and theres a big drop off when Britt has to play extended minutes.

 

[Heeelz46]

Keep in mind when we lost to Butler the other last 2 times they were early November games. I am as nervous for this game as anyone but March UNC vs November UNC is *Usually* a different beast entirely.

 

[adwood81]

It is very simple against Butler, as is was against Arkansas. We play our game, going inside, pounding the glass to set up our outside game, play strong defense, take care of the ball and we win. We have more weapons than they do, more size, more speed, more depth. If we fail to play our game and show the panic and lack of discipline we did for 20 minutes, like we did Sunday and we can join dook and start talking about next year.

 

[ACokeForRoy]

Most of that was when Nate was in for Theo. He likes to play "hot potato" with the ball which creates multiple turnovers. His passes were not crisp.

 

[Heelicious]

Most of that was when Nate was in for Theo. He likes to play "hot potato" with the ball which creates multiple turnovers. His passes were not crisp.

True - but you want to talk "hot potato?" Lets talk 7th. My metaphor for him is (sometimes) a hot rod car with the throttle stuck down, and no steering and no brakes.

The way he is loose with the handle, and the herky jerky one hand / no look / over his head, etc hook or lob passes - and when he drives full speed into multiple defenders and either gets the ball stolen or throws it up for a 50/50 random "free for all"...

it makes me wonder if he played that way in high school. My guess is 7th has / had the pure raw superior athleticism where he could get away with (and even thrive at) doing some no-fundamental, no-discipline, no-control stuff, that just doesn't get it done in D1 major conference basketball.

Its not him ALL THE TIME, but often enough that I am just nervous as heck when he has the ball against top flight aggressive defenders (like Ark) - not wondering IF something bad will happen, just wondering WHAT bad thing will happen, and WHEN.

 

[TarHeelNation11]

True - but you want to talk "hot potato?" Lets talk 7th. My metaphor for him is (sometimes) a hot rod car with the throttle stuck down, and no steering and no brakes.

The way he is loose with the handle, and the herky jerky one hand / no look / over his head, etc hook or lob passes - and when he drives full speed into multiple defenders and either gets the ball stolen or throws it up for a 50/50 random "free for all"...

it makes me wonder if he played that way in high school. My guess is 7th has / had the pure raw superior athleticism where he could get away with (and even thrive at) doing some no-fundamental, no-discipline, no-control stuff, that just doesn't get it done in D1 major conference basketball.

Its not him ALL THE TIME, but often enough that I am just nervous as heck when he has the ball against top flight aggressive defenders (like Ark) - not wondering IF something bad will happen, just wondering WHAT bad thing will happen, and WHEN.

This entire poast describes Theo a lot of the time too, it seems. Not to the same extent, mind you, but the description is still apt.

 

[Ozheelfan]

This entire poast describes Theo a lot of the time too, it seems. Not to the same extent, mind you, but the description is still apt.

Disagree. Theo does get loose with the ball and is good (bad) for 3-4 dumbass plays per game but he's a very good post feeder, he can be a very good defender too.

I think Theo's weakness is that he gets caught up in the excitement of the game. He'll speed up to the point of losing control.

 

[TarHeelNation11]

Disagree. Theo does get loose with the ball and is good (bad) for 3-4 dumbass plays per game but he's a very good post feeder, he can be a very good defender too.

I think Theo's weakness is that he gets caught up in the excitement of the game. He'll speed up to the point of losing control.

You said you disagree, but you just agreed with me! :]

Note, I said @Heelicious' description of 7th describes Theo too, just not to the same extent.

 

[Ozheelfan]

Yeah, I just prefer to give Theo more credit than 7th... and that's not a knock on 7th - he'll be a very valuable Heel for years to come, but at the moment he's 'scary' while I think Theo can be occasionally reckless.

 

[TarHeelNation11]

Yeah, I just prefer to give Theo more credit than 7th... and that's not a knock on 7th - he'll be a very valuable Heel for years to come, but at the moment he's 'scary' while I think Theo can be occasionally reckless.

Oh no doubt, Theo does a lot of things right and can be a real catalyst for our team in certain games. But unfortunately, the "hot rod in top gear with the brakes cut and the steering wheel torn off" analogy still describes Theo too much of the time, IMO. The whole description Heelicious used certainly applies to Theo some -- but not all -- of the time. He boots the ball too much and takes too many wild runner/floater things.

 

[Ozheelfan]

Oh no doubt, Theo does a lot of things right and can be a real catalyst for our team in certain games. But unfortunately, the "hot rod in top gear with the brakes cut and the steering wheel torn off" analogy still describes Theo too much of the time, IMO. The whole description Heelicious used certainly applies to Theo some -- but not all -- of the time. He boots the ball too much and takes too many wild runner/floater things.

Yeah, I'll agree he loses control, though it's usually when the Heels are on a run and the hype is lifting - almost like the gets carried away with the excitement.
That said, his defense in the last 3min vs Arky was tremendous.... maybe Theo is at his best when the Heels are level, or behind on the scoreboard!

 

[TarHeelNation11]

Yeah, I'll agree he loses control, though it's usually when the Heels are on a run and the hype is lifting - almost like the gets carried away with the excitement.
That said, his defense in the last 3min vs Arky was tremendous.... maybe Theo is at his best when the Heels are level, or behind on the scoreboard!

The Heels' defense from the 10:00 mark of the second half onward was incredible. The defense carried us to the victory, which we cannot often say.

 

[Archer2]

If we take advantage of our strengths of rebounding and scoring points in the paint, we will continue to advance. If we fall into the trap of settling for quick threes, we will not. It's not rocket science.

When we start to "settle for threes", for goodness' sake, call a set play Roy. If the opposition goes on a 10-2 run, call a TO. Basketball is a rudimentary game. If it required a lot of smarts, half the guys playing at the upper levels wouldn't be eligible.

 

[ohio tarheels]

For the record I have us going out at hands of UCLA in Elite 8. Not sure if that makes us a lesser team this year. We just have a harder path this year IMO. I don't remember who we beat last year to go to Final Four (maybe Indiana?) but I don't think we had to beat teams like Butler and UK/UCLA winner to get there.

Florida Gulf Coast
Providence
Indiana
Notre Dame
Syracuse
Nova

Providence had Dunn and Bentil last year so probably more talented then Butler, Indiana was tough but Yes no one like UCLA team from this year