Lowering Expectations Saves Lives

[What Would Jesus Do?]

I enjoyed that game. Not the outcome, of course. But it was an exciting game to watch. Until the very end I never got that sinking feeling that we couldn't win it. I loved going to OT - just so I could watch more. I was rooting for a 2nd OT for the same reason.

That said, that was the game that has finally led me to adjust my expectations.

We're good. Don't think otherwise. But we're not great. We're not as good as we had hoped. But if we are honest, we're not as bad as we might have been. There was no reason to expect Luke to get this much better. Our freshmen could be even less ready. We've had a couple of injuries that hurt us - to Cam and 7th - but imagine if certain other players had been injured. I won't mention names.

We knew this could be a rough ride. We lost a lot, including an unexpected loss (Tony).

Most of us were prepared for a down season. Many said they were perfectly fine with that because we won a championship. Not a viewpoint I share, but many said that.

Then we got some last minute help with the late additions of Cam and Garrison.

And then we saw unexpectedly good improvement from Luke and an additional step forward by Kenny.

And Sterling looked more ready than most expected.

So we got hopeful. And excited.

We are 22 games into the season. Barring something unexpected - a late breakout by Jalek or maybe BRob, for example - we know exactly what we are. A good team. A team that will almost certainly make the NCAAT. But this is not the year that we briefly imagined it could be when we were discovering how good Luke was becoming and how we could win games against good teams.

We have a terrific backcourt. And Luke is still almost too good to believe. Despite front line losses, we still excel at rebounding. But we have big holes. We depend too much on outside shooting. Our defense is more baffling to fans than to opponents. The front line simply has trouble with too many teams. And other teams seem to be able to shoot and drive against us too easily.

We are what we are.

Time to stop beating up on our players. They are doing their best. Their best simply isn't as good as we want it to be. I'm sure it isn't as good as they want it to be, either. But it isn't like they aren't trying. And they are good. Just not great.

 

[Archer2]

Well stated. I think your assessment is spot on. And like you, I’m still enjoying the season. But then again, I was one who said I expected a down season and was okay with it because we’d just won Roy’s third title. I’m still okay with it.

 

[ohio tarheels]

I am another who lowered my expectations after April 2017 for this year even when Joel and Theo announced they were coming back(Think about if they didn’t). We have beaten some teams we should of struggled more against and lost some games we could have won. This season is like playing poker with house money to me and you never know what could happen in a 6 game tournament in March. We have shown we can play with almost anyone(excluding MSU and UVA).

Just a side note, I am a Pittsburgh Penguin fan for hockey as well and did the same thing after winning Back to Back Stanley Cups so their struggles this year hovering right around the wildcard spot isn’t bothering me either

 

[NCAAUCoach]

We are 16-6 (72.7%), which would rank 3rd all time in college basketball history. Our down years most programs would take in a minute.

Some friends and I had the conversation last year about taking a Title if meant we had a down year the next year. Without a doubt I’ll take that. I think we finish the year with 12 losses, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have our banner from 2017.

 

[Archer2]

I think S16 is our ceiling and put our chance of repeating at very near zero. But I hope to see our upperclassmen lead us to a strong finish and perhaps a 5-6 seed.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

We are 16-6 (72.7%), which would rank 3rd all time in college basketball history. Our down years most programs would take in a minute.

Some friends and I had the conversation last year about taking a Title if meant we had a down year the next year. Without a doubt I’ll take that. I think we finish the year with 12 losses, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have our banner from 2017.

12 losses sounds about right.

 

[dtodd4475]

The season is about what I expected, a bit better then expected. Luke and Kenny were a revelation at the start of the year, incredible improvements. Said then this was going to be a fun year to watch the young guys develop, with a ton of toss up games. Could knock off anyone if shooting it well, and could get knocked off by anyone if not so much...lol.

Tough finishing stretch to the season, each game will be interesting. Hope they can win more then they lose.

 

[heelmanwilm]

Well we’ve played two legit final 4 teams and looked totally out of our league in both games. And we were. We’re a good team thats gonna cause probs when we’re shooting the 3 well. But given this teams ability to just not play hard for stretches, go stone cold shooting, and zero post resence....well brace yourselves for an esrly tourney exit. State is not a good team. We were rested and at home. No excuses. We gonna fight to stay at .500 in conf. We could find ourselves as a 7 or 8 seed and gettin out of first rd could be tough as hell.

 

[uncfan in ky]

I didn’t have high expectations coming into the season. Once Bradley went pro, I figured we would struggle.
One thing I didn’t expect was our defense would look this bad. To give up wide open 3 after wide open 3 is totally inexcusable.
One motto of Carolina basketball is Play Hard,Play Smart,Play Together. I don’t see any of the 3 a lot of the times.
I’ve always been a HUGE Coach Williams fan & supporter. The way he is handling Jalek is a real head scratcher. Jalek is our future PG, as in next year. I don’t understand the lack of PT when next year we’re going to relay on him to run the show.

I can handle a loss, getting beat has never bothered me. I can’t stand watching us get outplayed & out coached & the last few games, that’s what I’ve watched.

 

[CTTarHeels23]

1st Let me start by saying I do not think this team can win a National Championship this season. I repeat I do not think they can win it all this season!

Ok now that is out of the way let me tell you who this team reminds me of. They remind me of the 2013/14 UConn Huskies.

I am a Die Hard UNC Fan living in the middle of UCONN Country. After watching the game yesterday and talking with my father in law who went to UConn even he said to me that this team can do what UConn did in 13/14.

So I went back and took a look at UConn that season. They started that year 9-0 with a big win's against Indiana and Florida then they struggled during conference play finishing 12- 6 in the AAC.

They made the tournament as a #7 seed and they were led by a do it all Senior Guard Shabazz Napier, a Junior Guard who sat out the season before in Deandre Daniles and then they had a Freshman Center who played his best games in the tournament by the name of Amida Brimah.

UConn that season had 3 guys who shot 40% + from 3 point land and a freshman Center who played only 1/3 of the minutes that Napier played. So do they remind you of any team currently playing?

Plus this season is a prime example that to win it all in March its going to be the Hot Team!

Did I hate how they lost yesterday Yes..... Am I mad at how we played this week and the last month Yes........ but can this team get it all together come March? I think they can, and I sure Hope they can!!!!!

Please tell me what you think

 

[DSouthr]

I enjoyed that game. Not the outcome, of course. But it was an exciting game to watch. Until the very end I never got that sinking feeling that we couldn't win it. I loved going to OT - just so I could watch more. I was rooting for a 2nd OT for the same reason.

That said, that was the game that has finally led me to adjust my expectations.

We're good. Don't think otherwise. But we're not great. We're not as good as we had hoped. But if we are honest, we're not as bad as we might have been. There was no reason to expect Luke to get this much better. Our freshmen could be even less ready. We've had a couple of injuries that hurt us - to Cam and 7th - but imagine if certain other players had been injured. I won't mention names.

We knew this could be a rough ride. We lost a lot, including an unexpected loss (Tony).

Most of us were prepared for a down season. Many said they were perfectly fine with that because we won a championship. Not a viewpoint I share, but many said that.

Then we got some last minute help with the late additions of Cam and Garrison.

And then we saw unexpectedly good improvement from Luke and an additional step forward by Kenny.

And Sterling looked more ready than most expected.

So we got hopeful. And excited.

We are 22 games into the season. Barring something unexpected - a late breakout by Jalek or maybe BRob, for example - we know exactly what we are. A good team. A team that will almost certainly make the NCAAT. But this is not the year that we briefly imagined it could be when we were discovering how good Luke was becoming and how we could win games against good teams.

We have a terrific backcourt. And Luke is still almost too good to believe. Despite front line losses, we still excel at rebounding. But we have big holes. We depend too much on outside shooting. Our defense is more baffling to fans than to opponents. The front line simply has trouble with too many teams. And other teams seem to be able to shoot and drive against us too easily.

We are what we are.

Time to stop beating up on our players. They are doing their best. Their best simply isn't as good as we want it to be. I'm sure it isn't as good as they want it to be, either. But it isn't like they aren't trying. And they are good. Just not great.

Yeah, I agree, look, I think most of us deep inside knew we could find some struggles this season. It was the fan in us that dreamed of more and allowed those dreams to become expectations, expectations that we now see as un-reasonable, respectfully. I have tried to warn folks about getting their expects up to much because this team has less margin for error than we usually have, lot of inexperienced guys we are having to depend on and none of them are 1&D level talents. We will be fine down the road once our front court (our area of most concern) develops but I am not expecting them to drastically become big timers till next season or the year after. So, we are going to take some lumps this season, no way around that and we will get better this season because that is what Roy's teams do. I do think we can get to the elite 8 but past that I don't see.

 

[Hoops244]

Not good. . .average. Very average.

 

[Archer2]

1st Let me start by saying I do not think this team can win a National Championship this season. I repeat I do not think they can win it all this season!

Ok now that is out of the way let me tell you who this team reminds me of. They remind me of the 2013/14 UConn Huskies.

I am a Die Hard UNC Fan living in the middle of UCONN Country. After watching the game yesterday and talking with my father in law who went to UConn even he said to me that this team can do what UConn did in 13/14.

So I went back and took a look at UConn that season. They started that year 9-0 with a big win's against Indiana and Florida then they struggled during conference play finishing 12- 6 in the AAC.

They made the tournament as a #7 seed and they were led by a do it all Senior Guard Shabazz Napier, a Junior Guard who sat out the season before in Deandre Daniles and then they had a Freshman Center who played his best games in the tournament by the name of Amida Brimah.

UConn that season had 3 guys who shot 40% + from 3 point land and a freshman Center who played only 1/3 of the minutes that Napier played. So do they remind you of any team currently playing?

Plus this season is a prime example that to win it all in March its going to be the Hot Team!

Did I hate how they lost yesterday Yes..... Am I mad at how we played this week and the last month Yes........ but can this team get it all together come March? I think they can, and I sure Hope they can!!!!!

Please tell me what you think

I like the cut of your jib.

 

[mikeirbyusa]

Only game we have not been in was UVA. No telling what will happen going forward. We playing with house money right now. GO HEELS!

 

[toophly1124]

I like the cut of your jib.

One of my favorite sayings.

 

[RoseHeel]

Like said earlier this year, this is the "honey moon" season for us. Losing to teams like State or Virginia Tech is certainly frustrating, but I see no reason in getting too stressed out when we won the title less than a year ago and had to replace much of our experienced upperclassmen with 3-4* Freshmen.

We're about where I expected us to be before the start of the season. "Good, but not great" seems to be the theme this year. At best, we may sneak into the E8, but I think that's as far as we go. And I'm okay with that.

The class we've got coming in next year has the potential to be better than the 2014 class was. Pair that with a year of experience already on board, and Roy will have us in contention yet again.

Just enjoy the ride, folks.

 

[ChiShankCity]

There are two streaks I hope stay in tact through the end of Roy's career...

#1. Roy being undefeated in the first round of the tournament
#2. Undefeated home record against Clemson

I think if this team loses in the second round... as long as they don't lose to a Cinderella, I'll consider it a "meets expectations" season.

If they get to the second weekend, I'll be really happy with what they accomplished.

Anything further and it's by far the most unexpected March run in Roy's tenure... Which UNC really hasn't had a "Wait a minute... THAT team UNC team made the final four???" kind of run since 2000?

 

[dtodd4475]

There are two streaks I hope stay in tact through the end of Roy's career...

#1. Roy being undefeated in the first round of the tournament
#2. Undefeated home record against Clemson

I think if this team loses in the second round... as long as they don't lose to a Cinderella, I'll consider it a "meets expectations" season.

If they get to the second weekend, I'll be really happy with what they accomplished.

Anything further and it's by far the most unexpected March run in Roy's tenure... Which UNC really hasn't had a "Wait a minute... THAT team UNC team made the final four???" kind of run since 2000?

It may be unlikely, but it is possible.

 

[j-doolsheels]

There are two streaks I hope stay in tact through the end of Roy's career...

#1. Roy being undefeated in the first round of the tournament
#2. Undefeated home record against Clemson

I think if this team loses in the second round... as long as they don't lose to a Cinderella, I'll consider it a "meets expectations" season.

If they get to the second weekend, I'll be really happy with what they accomplished.

Anything further and it's by far the most unexpected March run in Roy's tenure... Which UNC really hasn't had a "Wait a minute... THAT team UNC team made the final four???" kind of run since 2000?

I'd feel fortunate if this team made the S16, but I also think they could make the final four if they got their s**t together and... got a decent draw.

 

[Tru Blu Tar Heel]

State is not a good team.

They've beaten #2 Arizona, #2 Duke, #10 North Carolina, and #19 Clemson. I dunno man, you beat three top ten teams in one season, you HAVE to be doing SOMETHING right. Look, I'm not singing their praises, but the woofies have some quality pieces.

 

[Steat]

It's a good season when Duke does not win an NCAA title.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

1st Let me start by saying I do not think this team can win a National Championship this season. I repeat I do not think they can win it all this season!

Ok now that is out of the way let me tell you who this team reminds me of. They remind me of the 2013/14 UConn Huskies.

I am a Die Hard UNC Fan living in the middle of UCONN Country. After watching the game yesterday and talking with my father in law who went to UConn even he said to me that this team can do what UConn did in 13/14.

So I went back and took a look at UConn that season. They started that year 9-0 with a big win's against Indiana and Florida then they struggled during conference play finishing 12- 6 in the AAC.

They made the tournament as a #7 seed and they were led by a do it all Senior Guard Shabazz Napier, a Junior Guard who sat out the season before in Deandre Daniles and then they had a Freshman Center who played his best games in the tournament by the name of Amida Brimah.

UConn that season had 3 guys who shot 40% + from 3 point land and a freshman Center who played only 1/3 of the minutes that Napier played. So do they remind you of any team currently playing?

Plus this season is a prime example that to win it all in March its going to be the Hot Team!

Did I hate how they lost yesterday Yes..... Am I mad at how we played this week and the last month Yes........ but can this team get it all together come March? I think they can, and I sure Hope they can!!!!!

Please tell me what you think

Point taken. A few hot games at the right time and you never know....

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

They've beaten #2 Arizona, #2 Duke, #10 North Carolina, and #19 Clemson. I dunno man, you beat three top ten teams in one season, you HAVE to be doing SOMETHING right. Look, I'm not singing their praises, but the woofies have some quality pieces.

Yeah, they have some very good pieces. Like us, they are inconsistent. Hard to tell if they will be able to put it together down the stretch. The game against us is definitely a feather in their cap. The question is whether they can keep up that level of play. After the Arizona win they lost the next 2, so their next couple of games will be a test whether this was a fluke or a progression.

 

[Archer2]

They've beaten #2 Arizona, #2 Duke, #10 North Carolina, and #19 Clemson. I dunno man, you beat three top ten teams in one season, you HAVE to be doing SOMETHING right. Look, I'm not singing their praises, but the woofies have some quality pieces.

Agreed. You don't beat that many ranked teams if you don't have a good team. As stated above, consistency has been their problem, as it has ours.