Let's keep supporting this team. No need to panic folks!
- Thread starter TheGLOV
- Start date
Not panicking, but this is the same team as the last two years. With no final four since 2009, watching crap like tonight is getting old. No excuse for how soft these kids are and no excuse for some of the lineups used tonight.
No need to panic, but reason to be concerned.
This is a good but not great ND team and Marcus played well. The outcome should never have been in doubt. It's one thing to lose to Louisville when Marcus isn't playing well, but not to ND with Marcus playing well.
No excuse for not outrebounding them by a good margin.
No excuse for 13 turnovers.
No excuse for 27 fouls.
It would have been one thing if they had beaten us with outside shooting. That's their thing. But they beat us on hustle, aggression and from the foul line.
More worrying, though, is that this is another game we had won and couldn't put away. We lost a 9 point lead in the 3rd quarter and then lost another 4 points and the game in the final quarter.
We have lost the final quarter in every losing game this season. And that probably wouldn't be remarkable but we were told that was the point of emphasis since the last season ended - with signs in the locker room and everything.
OTOH, it's still only 4 losses and these last 2 were against good teams on the road. We weren't going to go undefeated down this backloaded home stretch.
We get a tuneup game against BC. Then we'll see if we have men or boys.
This is a good but not great ND team and Marcus played well. The outcome should never have been in doubt. It's one thing to lose to Louisville when Marcus isn't playing well, but not to ND with Marcus playing well.
No excuse for not outrebounding them by a good margin.
No excuse for 13 turnovers.
No excuse for 27 fouls.
It would have been one thing if they had beaten us with outside shooting. That's their thing. But they beat us on hustle, aggression and from the foul line.
More worrying, though, is that this is another game we had won and couldn't put away. We lost a 9 point lead in the 3rd quarter and then lost another 4 points and the game in the final quarter.
We have lost the final quarter in every losing game this season. And that probably wouldn't be remarkable but we were told that was the point of emphasis since the last season ended - with signs in the locker room and everything.
OTOH, it's still only 4 losses and these last 2 were against good teams on the road. We weren't going to go undefeated down this backloaded home stretch.
We get a tuneup game against BC. Then we'll see if we have men or boys.
the car is in the ditch and the wheels are spinning , but there's no need to panic.
The lack of hustle bothers me the most. Disgusting.
I have said the same thing to. I think with our kids playing and giving there all. We can cut them down. But I said the same thing you did before the season. I don't see how many on here was acting like just give us the title now before the season started. When you had the same kids that played soft and didn't hustle at times. And the said thing there is nothing that Roy or anyone can do. A coach can't give that or do it for you. We still lack a Alpha male. Haven't had one since the kid that got in trouble with cars and stuff and plays for the Hornets. Can remember his name right now. Now this team can cut down the nets. But has to show more tuffness. They have to dig down deep and find it themselves. Coach can't do it for you.
There were quite a few my friend. Acting like a Final Four was a given barring injury.
Unless they get like the "tin man" and get some heart. this team is not going to win anything but some home games against over matched opponents.
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I just said this on the Jackson thread. We need to play with the tuffness and passion every game. Like we do when we play Duke.
Cannot get too high after a win and too low after a loss. Still 2 months left in this season so enjoy the ride and enjoy life...
I have been saying since before the season started that if everyone was healthy we are a lock for the Elite Eight and it's pretty much a crap shoot after that since everybody who gets that far is playing at a high level.
I see no reason to change that prediction. But, as I said above, after the next game we'll see if we really have the right stuff. No easy games after BC for the rest of the season (with the probable exception of the first round of the NCAA tournament).
The problem is that we should have worked out all the kinks by now and be playing at a consistently high level. But we aren't. We're darn good, but we aren't as good as I expected at this point.
Still, we have 8 more conference games to get it right.
Pomeroy projects us winning all but the UVa and Duke road games. And even the Duke road game is close enough to steal. That sounds about right. If so, we win the ACC regular season and almost certainly secure a #1 seed.
But if we don't shape up, there are also some underdogs on that schedule who would happily steal our lunch.
Justin
Kennedy
Theo
These 3 guys are not playing up to expectations.
I look for improvements from all 3. But when?
Justin's offense is struggling. but he's working hard out there. I can't believe his shooting woes will continue. He's stopped trying from deep. And from what one of the announcers said, he's struggling with the trey in practice, too. That's a bad sign. And recently he's had trouble with his nifty and previously reliable baseline floater. But he still moves well without the ball, stays engaged on D, and it looks like the shooting woes are just a fluke. I hope so.
Kennedy is coming off the injury. So I hope that's all it is. But he is NOT working hard out there. I wouldn't worry about it except that this is exactly what we saw last season when he faded after heath issues and he only intermittently showed how good we know he can be.
Theo is no better this year than he was last year. Nobody wants to say it, but it's true. I don't get why. He looked like he was turning the corner last year just before he was injured. Then he seemed to be recovering more quickly than expected this past fall. Ahead of schedule and everything was looking up. Then he seemed to hit a wall. His D is sporadic. Occasionally brilliant, too often absentminded. Again and again I see someone else having to race to cover Theo's man because Theo was looking somewhere else and his man ditched him. Other than against cellar-dwelling BC and VT he hasn't had an ORtg above 85 in 2016. What's going on with Theo?
Kennedy
Theo
These 3 guys are not playing up to expectations.
I look for improvements from all 3. But when?
Justin's offense is struggling. but he's working hard out there. I can't believe his shooting woes will continue. He's stopped trying from deep. And from what one of the announcers said, he's struggling with the trey in practice, too. That's a bad sign. And recently he's had trouble with his nifty and previously reliable baseline floater. But he still moves well without the ball, stays engaged on D, and it looks like the shooting woes are just a fluke. I hope so.
Kennedy is coming off the injury. So I hope that's all it is. But he is NOT working hard out there. I wouldn't worry about it except that this is exactly what we saw last season when he faded after heath issues and he only intermittently showed how good we know he can be.
Theo is no better this year than he was last year. Nobody wants to say it, but it's true. I don't get why. He looked like he was turning the corner last year just before he was injured. Then he seemed to be recovering more quickly than expected this past fall. Ahead of schedule and everything was looking up. Then he seemed to hit a wall. His D is sporadic. Occasionally brilliant, too often absentminded. Again and again I see someone else having to race to cover Theo's man because Theo was looking somewhere else and his man ditched him. Other than against cellar-dwelling BC and VT he hasn't had an ORtg above 85 in 2016. What's going on with Theo?
I can not disagree at all WWJD, Theo, while I agree, he scares me at times, still have to realize that he did not have an off season to be able to work on his game and yeah, it does show. BUT the one thing I will give Theo that I can't really say about the other 2 is that Theo comes to battle, it may not be pretty but the kid does work on the defensive end and he hits the boards. Yeah, at times he will prove that he is a kid that didn't get the off season work in, has many, maybe most of the bad habits he had last season. I give him a bit of a pass for that but I would like to see signs of improvement offensively and handling the ball more than I feel I see.
Meeks was supposed to be cleared to play from that injury, I just don't see our starting center as being totally engaged in the game, he seems to me to be taking it a bit easy. maybe that is lingering from the injury and maybe it is playing to not get hurt because he is still thinking the NBA is ready to draft him after this season. Continued play as he has shown is not helping his draft stock, if anything it should be dropping hard right now. I would sit him and start Issiah.
Jackson, kid's head is totally blown up right now. I think he feels the weight of so much being expected from him for this season, the weight of being widely considered to be late lotto maybe in the next NBA draft. And I think the pressure of all of that has got to him. I saw the kid blow a on balance wide open lay in last night and afterwards bend at the waist shaking his head. I would sit him and let him regroup, let him rekindle that fire he ended last season with, take some of the pressure off the kid. He reminds me a little of brice as a soph, when his offense was not clicking it effected everything he does on the court in a negative way. So I would put Theo in as a starter and sit Jackson, he will still play a lot but let him see if he can get his head in the game from the bench before he begins to play. Sometimes that is all a kid needs, to be able to get in to the game from the bench before he has to go out with the live bullets.
I completely agree that missing part of last year and the off season has set Theo back. But I really thought he was 100% in December and we would see nothing but improvement going forward.
Like most of us here, I thought Theo was going to be a lot like JP, only a little more advanced. Until his injury last year, that seemed to be true. Theo as a frosh looked more like JP as a soph. But unfortunately, that's where he seems stuck at the moment. Athleticism and defensive intensity but too often overshadowed by mental lapses that make him look more like a frosh than a soph.
It's certainly possible that playing him starter minutes would help him turn the corner. But when? We already know he can shine against the hapless BC Flightless Eagles. I think I'd rather use that game to let Justin regain his confidence.
Maybe give Theo the start against Pitt? That might be worth trying.
Who knows, Justin might welcome the chance to learn from the bench. He's started from day one. That's a lot of stress. And now he's struggling. It might be good for him to let someone else take that load for a game. Not as punishment, but to give Theo a boost and, as you say, let Justin regroup.
I have thought this a number of times. Probably our best lineup against some teams.
One of the things that seems to be missing from Kennedy's repertoire recently is his interior passing. I haven't specifically looked at that, so I don't know why. Do you have any idea? Why aren't we running plays that take advantage of that skill?
Hard not to agree with eveyone here, that this is a very soft team, you see it in all the games, espically with jackson and meeks. Both are very talented but they shy away from contact, how many times do you see jackson go up for a soft layup and get it blocked when he should have slammed it done, or see meeks get out hustled for a rebound. Did anyone notice how many times our players were pointing at each other after ND got a offensive rebound? Communication is lacking big time. I am far from an experty X and o's type of guy, but at what point does it fall on Roy to make adjustments or change things up? I am not saying the lack of hustle is his fault, but is there anything he can do to help it. We would almost be better with less talented guys out there that at least hustle 100 percent of the time like Maye and James
They should pretend that every team they play is Duke!!!!!! If they play with that intensity every game. None of us could ever complain. Even after a loss. And I also know it is hard to bring it every game. But even 3/4 of that Duke game intensity will win a lot of tough grind them out games.GO HEELS!!!! BEAT BC!!!!!
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