Love need to step up
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That doesn't explain why he gets cooked by every player he guards.
Right now he's being cooked by the white dude on Indiana. To start the game he gave up about 9 straight points to a freshmen, then got subbed out.
No defense, turnovers, tons of bad shots, shooting a terrible %
His body language would drive me the other way as a scout. Literally our best player and worst player. No in between.
He's not doing anything positive for the team aside from occasionally making a tough shot or drawing a foul.
His turnovers, missed shots, and terrible defense are the story here.
Caleb Love absolutely sucks on the defensive end. everything he does for us offensively is net neutral because he gives it away two fold on the other end. pure trash.
Really? Are you looking at the same game. Their entire team are killing us. Cant blame the defense on one player this game…they are punking us for sue….all around
The entire team is playing bad defense. You guys are always trying to dumb it down to one player….because you are looking for the simple answers
4shots in the first half? You want him to shoot more and save us? I though y’all wanted him to shoot less.
Davis lead us with 3 turnovers…..and I saw a lot of guys scoring over our guys……I know you need the simple answer….it was this one guy…..play back the game…we as a team couldn’t guard them….Bacot, Nance, RJ , Love and Leaky too got scored on a lot
He made his permanent mark on the program for what he did last March. But the reality is Caleb Love is the type of player that gets GM’s and HC’s fired.
Hopefully he runs into a good streak when it matters and when it’s a small sample size.
Over the course of a long season, he ain’t it.
Love has been just as bad as anyone with his sloppy turnovers and bricks off the backboard. Whole team is out of sync. Not sure how to fix it but they need to change whatever they’re doing in practice. Need new assistant coaches for sure.
Maybe you just don’t understand how average the other guys talent level is on this team.
RJ, Leaky, Nance, Bacot (lesser degree), the rest aren’t all that talented. They’re just guys who will always be just guys.
Caleb is the only dude who has elite level ability and can be the best player on the floor at any given game.
Does anyone reasonably expect RJ, Leaky or Nance to be the best player on the floor? Hell no. Caleb can, thus he bears the responsibility.
You can bring up other dude’s faults and failures. Fine. But in the end, this team only goes as far as Caleb takes it.
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Would you like to come over and re-watch the game. I can show you play-by-play how Love got cooked by 3 different guards tonight.
First he got abused by freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino for the first 4 minutes of the game (then Love got benched briefly, Leaky/Trimble/Dunn guarded him the rest of the night.)
Next Love got cooked by backup guard Trey Galloway (who got 5 flicking floaters by simply putting Love into a ball screen, and dribbling slowly towards the rim.)
Then it was Xavier Johnson cooking him by simply outrunning him in transition, and putting forward more effort.
No one is trying to dumb it down to one player. RJ Davis was also pretty terrible tonight. Bacot spent the whole offseason pumping up a battle with TJD on social media, and then spent most the game hiding from guarding him.
I know you have this weird obsession with Love, but I can legitimately demonstrate with film evidence that his man has cooked him numerous times so far this season. He isn't dialed in on defense. Dude was diving for loose balls in an exhibition game last month, but now he won't even make the effort to get over ball screens.
Oh and the notion that Caleb Love isn’t playing great because he’s trying to impress scouts… Caleb’s been an extremely erratic and almost irrationally confident player his entire UNC career.
THIS IS WHO HE IS!!! THIS IS WHO HE WILL BE AT UNC!!!!
I’ll be redundant but hopefully he’ll be good Caleb when it counts.
I feel like this happens to me a lot with the teams I support, lol.
Good Rex Grossman/bad Rex Grossman
Good Jay Cutler/bad Jay Cutler
Good Caleb Love/bad Caleb Love
THIS IS WHO HE IS!!! THIS IS WHO HE WILL BE AT UNC!!!!
I’ll be redundant but hopefully he’ll be good Caleb when it counts.
I feel like this happens to me a lot with the teams I support, lol.
Good Rex Grossman/bad Rex Grossman
Good Jay Cutler/bad Jay Cutler
Good Caleb Love/bad Caleb Love
Well Leaky was light-years better than Love defensively. There is a reason half of JHS's points came the first 4 minutes of the game when Love guarded him. Leaky mostly shut him down the final 36 minutes (with occasional help from Trimble and Dunn.)
And to be realistic, Trimble and Dunn outplayed Caleb defensively tonight as well too. They got burned on a couple 3s because their coaches instructed them to help on TJD, but that's a coaching issue. Other than those couple plays, they were good defensively. They didn't allow their man easy drives or easy floaters like Caleb did. They fought over screens way more than Caleb did. They hustled back to try and contest shots when one of our star players committed a turnover.
Puff also played a good game defensively. He was often guarding a bigger player, which can be a problem in the paint (especially if our guards allow uncontested post passes.) But he was denying the ball well, forced a couple turnovers, boxing out for defensive boards.
Love was far and away our worst defensive player tonight. Bacot and RJ were bad too. The big difference is Love has been consistently bad defensively all season. The tape doesn't lie. Nor do the shooting stats that opposing players put up against Love.
dude….RJ Got abused….Bacot got really abused..even Leaky….how in the he’ll you can single out one player? While you are watching the reruns…look at the abuse the other player me got too……oh and wasn’t RJ who killed our momentum with bad shots and turnover at the end?
Dude let me tell you a short family story. Listen up. My ain’t Vicky has been married five times and had several other bad relationships. Point, we finally realized it is my aunt Vickie’s fault. We took up for her but dang, the writing was on the wall.
We expect more out of Love. He can be our best player for sure but he’s waaaay to often our worst player compared to what he should and can do.
Literally everyone on here but you sees this. Wake up. I’ve shyed away from you because you do it for fun. Anyone in their right mind or being serious can’t possibly argue your points.
You are the only poster that barely has any comments on 20 plus posts u create. There is a reason! Stop taking up for Vicky!
I already have said more than once that RJ played bad tonight. But we're talking about defense. And Love was the worst defensive player on the team tonight.
You clearly don't have a clue what you are watching on the court if you think Leaky got abused. Leaky was routinely going over those high screens like they weren't even there. Love didn't do that a single time tonight. Do you realize how difficult it is to play 30+ minutes and never once fight over a ball screen? Heck even the younger players will occasionally get a foul called on them bc they refuse to give up on a ball screen.
Listen man, I can't teach you basketball over the internet. And no matter how I try to point out what Caleb is doing on defense, you don't seem to grasp it. Defense is about effort and technique. You add in athleticism and you have the makings of an elite defensive player. We shouldn't be seeing multiple guys scoring at will against Caleb every game. Caleb ought to be the second best defender on the team, with stretches where he shuts guys down. Instead he's giving up double digit points to a slow white guy off IU's bench, or letting some dude on Portland hit shots in his face.
I'd settle for stepping off, or even stepping away. They're an average team, at best. Love is one of the most selfish players I've ever seen. Give Trimble and Nickel more playing time.
The contrast between last March and now is disturbing.
The contrast between last March and now is disturbing.
We had what 4 or 5 assist total for the game? Love had what 4 shots in the first half? He really didn’t start shooting until we got way behind trying to make something happen.
So seems to me there wasn’t a lot of passing going on.
I told y’all RJ wasn’t a point guard and I also told y’all putting the ball in his hands exclusively wasn’t a good idea.
I can put a couple of the 3's on Love from them helping double TJD. Love should have rotated over to help them instead of standing there watching the kids shoot wife open 3's.
Caleb is going to be Caleb. I think he has spent his while time at UNC trying to impress the NBA more than doing what us best for the team. Now to that end, when he gets hot, it is a difference maker. Like UCLA last year. Somehow that wild stuff he was throwing up was going in. UNC doesn't win that game otherwise. But that play also costs UNC in more games. Cole Anthony did the same thing. They both get that head bobbing back and forth and decide they are going to go one on five and thrill the scouts. Maybe it will turn, I hope so. But this years team to this point isn't nearly as good as the talent would tell you it is. And once again, soft defensively. Not a good combination
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a guys gets hot in like 7-10 games a year and people think he is an NBA Lottery pick. Caleb aint it that guy. Right now I wouldnt draft him based on attitude and decision making. Going in in HS against inferior talent can give you a false sense of achievement. Trying to throw up crap against other d1 type talents doesnt work in D1 basketball. By now he should know this, but his inflated ego wont let him see the obvious. Wish he had left before last season and was REALLY hoping he would leave before this season. I dont think he is ever an NBA player. Japan or Australia for him. Streaky shooting 10% of the time...doesnt scream NBA ready.
You know you was all for Love as he carried us all the way to the championship game. Don’t write him or the team off too soon…cause it will be hard for you to jump back in the bandwagon
I agree- the way Davis and Love are performing, what is there to lose by bringing on Trimble and Nickel? Love, Leakey, and RJ can’t just assume that they can’t be removed from the game so they can audition for the NBA.
I 100% agree with this post! Caleb has all the ability in the world to be a top shelf defender, great size and 7ft reach, athletic? But he takes way to many risks and short cuts and when he does he kills what his team mates are trying to do. I do want to give him credit however, his rebounding numbers as well as RJ have been better than last season and his assists have come up while his TOs are down a bit. But man, that kid's decision making on BOTH ends of the court is just a real problem that I don't see getting much better as long as he plays for us.
Confidence, great thing but as with anything, to much can be a problem, to little is definitely a problem but Caleb's issue in part is to much confidence, unfortunately RJ is in much the same boat. We have 2 absolute alpha dogs in our starting back court that are 100% in belief of their scoring ability but (my opinion) lack over all basketball IQ (that does not mean they are dumb, it is more that how they process information of all the moving pieces in game action results in poor decisions). They both (Caleb and RJ) fully believe what they are doing is dedicated to nothing but winning the game, they do not seem able to understand that what they are doing going one on one so much is taking us out of games and digging holes so deep we can't come back from it.
Funny thing, last season it was RJ that seemed to figure it out, when he began taking a bit of a back seat and focused more on getting his team mates involved this team began to click. And really, when he did that his looks got cleaner and his scoring was more solid. The only time Caleb should even consider being the lead guard is if RJ and Trimble are not available, he is very much in that Russell Westbrook mold where he needs to dominate the ball and I want him to understand that he is not helping us win when he is so ball dominate and feels the need to put up huge numbers of shots even when he isn't hitting them. If this kid would simply allow the offense to flow and work to get his ops WITHIN the flow of the offense, this team would be so much better. RJ and Caleb are not the only concerns but I don't know how you can fix the other issues until Caleb and RJ (our starting back court) figure out that there are 3 team mates on the floor in addition to themselves that can also play this game. MAKE THE FREAKIN EXTRA PASS!
It isn't about jumping on and off band wagons, it is about watching how a guy plays in the current or last game and accessing it. Saying that Caleb or RJ are playing great right now, saying Bacot or Nance are playing great right now is just not paying attention to what is happening. Leaky and Puff are really not just playing great they are playing harder than anyone else (I do see Trimble playing hard as well but he isn't getting the minutes Puff and Leaky are).
Caleb did not take us to the natty game all by himself, you can't expect us to take you serious if you say things like that. What was it 5 for 26 in the natty game? Last season, Caleb did hit some huge shots that helped us close out games, vs duke in that last regular season game for example. But how many games did he shoot us out of early season, how many games did he really hit huge shots near end game but it was close due to the many missed shots he took that game? That is decision making, he has a flare for the dramatic for sure but the drama is the problem.
I don't know how else to say it, when your ball dominant guards are shooting over 50% of the total shots and hitting at a 30% clip you are going to find it hard to win games.
Fair assessment……got to add that Bacot can’t be a black hole either. And Nance got to move some…he’s stiff as a board….please HD start Puff…please baby baby please
He did carry us…..not by himself but without him we wouldn’t have even made the tournament.
But you are right, he and RJ shoots too much. But Bacot don’t pass out of the post, Leaky don’t shoot enough, and Nance don’t move without the ball. The offense if you can call it that is stagnant and predictable. You can see Love just getting frustrated and taking it upon his self to make something happen. Last night he basically took 4 shots in the first half …..a three and 3 drives to the basket. Early first half the team was 2 for 16 from the field. At this point Love only took 2 shots and hit one..the 3. So the rest of the team took and missed 15 shots. There was a lot of bad shots going up and it was a team effort. Hell Nance was 1 for 7 from 3…..who in the bell told him to shoot 7 3’s? Who do he think he is….Nanek?
We are a better "team" without him. Reminds me of Forte. He gonna get his regardless. RJ is about the same in my opinion. Neither will have an NBA career. They are way too inconsistent and liabilities on defense. I know Caleb is your boy, but I wish he wasnt on the team so we could actually see what the team would be. Dribble-apalooza is driving me crazy. When was the last time you saw us inbound the ball quickly and get a dunk at the other end because of passing the ball ahead. I dont know that it has happened all year.
RJ is the point guard bringing g the ball up….so why is t RJ passing the ball ahead? The answer….he don’t want to
Well actually, and Hubert said this in a PC, he actually had them reduce running the breaks because they were not getting much out of the breaks, had them go to the more half court sets. Now I could understand it more last season when we got in to iron 5 mode but not now. I read here from 75 for example, don't worry, they are working on our UNC breaks hard in practice, ok then, why are we still not seeing it in games?
IT has looked to me for 2 full seasons and so far in this one that the duo of RJ and Caleb step on each others game and when they do that they step on the rest of their team mates games. That is exactly why you see guys standing around waiting for someone to do something, which a player actually said after the IU game, you ask Andrew if I am wrong about that!
I may seem like I am picking on Caleb and RJ, I don't feel I am, I strongly feel until we get the Caleb/RJ combo stuff solved we can not solve the other issues but in solving those some of the other thigs will solve themselves. For good or not this team revolves around what Caleb and RJ do and thst is a major issues iof those 2 are not playing well and they are not now playing well.
The only solution I see is to put Love in the PG position and put RJ at the 2. And bring Nance off the bench. Love is a playmaker and I’ll bet you money he will succeed at the point and RJ will thrive at the 2. Roy switch Paige to the 2 and put Berry at the 1. If Roy put Paige at the 2….why can’t RJ a far less player than Paige…be put at the 2?
Nance and Bacot just don’t have chemistry because Nance is a center and is in Bacot’s way.
HD just have to make these changes and watch us take off.
BS .. Davis and Love both suck as guards running this group because they are both me first players. Davis and Love to date have taken 27 more 3pt shots than the entire team and they are shooting less than 30% combined .. wanna splain that lucy ? And Bacot's no better because he's a black hole too that has absolutely zero inside or outside game .. hell, he's lucky to draw iron with any over the shoulder shot more than 5 ft. from the rim and has yet to figure out he can't dribble the ball successfully.
I said it last year about this time and saying it again. This is a coaching problem where roles are not defined and there is absolutely ZERO TEAM BALL. Leaky needs to put some fingers in some chest and get this cluster flop together because there is a serious lack of leadership from the top down.
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