OOTB Carolina Basketball Discussion Thread
- Thread starter carolinablue34
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As I said in the game thread, I have full confidence in Coach Williams. It's his team, and he knows exactly what he's doing. I don't understand it, I never have. But, I know that HE understands it.
It's November... I'm not worried in the least. I'm not expecting this team to be a Final Four team, anyway. They lost Joel and Theo, and the seniors that replaced them aren't anywhere near the same. I love Luke and Kenny, but they're not Joel and Theo.
Coby White is a beast. It's a shame we only get one season to enjoy him at Carolina. Nassir Little is... going to be really good? White is far better, in my opinion.
We'll see. No low-post players will make it hard. I hope they can beat KY or Gonzaga, but I don't think they'll win both, and they could easily lose both.
It's November... I'm not worried in the least. I'm not expecting this team to be a Final Four team, anyway. They lost Joel and Theo, and the seniors that replaced them aren't anywhere near the same. I love Luke and Kenny, but they're not Joel and Theo.
Coby White is a beast. It's a shame we only get one season to enjoy him at Carolina. Nassir Little is... going to be really good? White is far better, in my opinion.
We'll see. No low-post players will make it hard. I hope they can beat KY or Gonzaga, but I don't think they'll win both, and they could easily lose both.
Yeah, once I saw the Huffman/KJ Smith deadly duo in the game I turned it off.
Don't be ridiculous. The starters were getting completely handled and had looked that way for a good 15 minutes of game time by the time Roy pulled them. They'd had ample opportunity to get their heads out of their asses and obviously nothing was working. It's not like they were about to climb back in that game if they'd just had a little more time.
There were plenty of things that you can point to that cost us that game; sitting a group of starters for a few minutes who were getting their asses handed to them anyway isn't one of them.
This was a wakeup call about offensive execution and defensive consistency. Hopefully it'll be the only one this squad needs.
We never (or at least we shouldn't have) expected this to be a team that blew through everybody on the way to a 40-0 national championship season. We're missing some key components (like any semblance of a real post presence) and there's inexperience at other key spots. It's going to be a learning and growing experience over the course of the season, and there are going to be some losses and WTF moments along the way. Focus on the long game. IF Roy can get through to them about playing hard and smart all game, every game, then this team has great potential. It's silly to get upset when Roy does what Roy has always done in pursuit of those lessons.
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That’s a great poast. It’s always been about “the long game” for Roy but even more so as he ages. This team will be fine and will be a well oiled machine by March. Still Final Four bound. #notworried
I like when he pulls starters...but at the same time I'll agree with the poast above that he sat them for too long.
He pulled them at 51-39 with 15:40 left. When he put them back in over 4 minutes later, the score was 63-45. You can win a game down 12 with 15:40 left...very tough to win one down 18 with 11:20 left.
Roy is fine sacrificing that game if his point gets through. We’ll see if it did during our next game. Also, I think Roy likes to see how his guys respond when down 20. I’m not saying he purposely tanks to get us down 20. But I think, in these early season games, he likes seeing how the team responds to certain scenarios. And if that means we lose a game here or there because of it, I think Roy is fine with that.
I won't argue that. It goes right with him not calling a timeout when Michigan went on a 17-4 run in the first half...he wants our guys to learn how to play through and stop a run.
I had no problem with pulling the starters. But leaving them on the bench for over four minutes while the lead went from 8 to 20 was not a good move.
I’m not one of the lunatics on radar questioning whether or not Roy Williams is one of the greatest of all time. But the man isn’t infallible either. He said himself it was one of the worst jobs he’d ever done in a game. I still wouldn’t trade him for a single coach at any level
I'm not going back to the box score to verify, but someone else said the deficit was 12 when they went out and 18 when they came back in, which is probably better than what the starters had done over the previous four-minute stretch.
I agree with Roy that he didn't have the team ready for what they'd face in this game. They didn't adjust to the P&R, they failed to get any offensive rhythm against a hardnosed D, and they were obviously rattled by the atmosphere, none of which should have been the case because none of it should have been unexpected.
But my point was that sitting the starters for four minutes wasn't what lost us that game. I don't see any reason to think that leaving them in or putting them back in sooner would have changed the outcome.
I agree with Roy that he didn't have the team ready for what they'd face in this game. They didn't adjust to the P&R, they failed to get any offensive rhythm against a hardnosed D, and they were obviously rattled by the atmosphere, none of which should have been the case because none of it should have been unexpected.
But my point was that sitting the starters for four minutes wasn't what lost us that game. I don't see any reason to think that leaving them in or putting them back in sooner would have changed the outcome.
And it's not like they still didn't get a lot of playing time. Luke played 33, Cam 30, Kenny 29, Brooks 22 and Coby 25.
Roy pulled them after a couple horrible def possessions and made em sit back and watch the carnage. Then put them in when the game was lost. They did play mich even rest of the way fwiw. But roy def sacrificed any chance of winning for a learning moment. Does mich typically run the pick and roll? Were we surprised by that? They absolutely abused maye with it.
The roles were reversed last year in Chapel Hill, with us handing them the beatdown. Come March they played for the 'ship after we got bounced the first weekend. Just saying.
That is the only positive that can taken out of what happened last night. Hopefully they will learn more from failure than from any success they've had this season. They need to put a lot of work in to compete against the elite teams this year.
Yup. Roy gon Roy, I guess.
He even admitted he did a terrible job coaching after the game. That was nice. Except we all know he's not gonna change that at all, even though he said he needs to work on coaching better.
In checking the box score, I was surprised to see Robinson only got 10 minutes. It felt like he was out there for 30. Maybe that's because he made enough mistakes in those 10 minutes to last a few games.
Glad we sent that message though (the message to future top-tier recruits watching Brandon Robinson gobble up Nas' minutes). I'm sure that's gonna make UNC a really attractive destination.
I was just glad to see Platek come out on the floor when we were struggling at the end of the first half. Knew everything would be ok then.
So the gist I'm getting from the under 30 crowd is that we should overlook Nas' terrible play and continue to give him minutes because he was a highly ranked recruit but we should shit on BRob because of his underwhelming play because he was only ranked in the 50s. Is that accurate?
Pretty much. If BRob was outplaying Nas, then sure - giving him significant minutes would be understandable, and deserved. If they're playing equivalently, then give the minutes to Nas. The reason is two-fold.
First, I have more confidence in the #3 ranked Freshman putting it together, once he adapts to the college game, than I do the #56 ranked Junior having the light come on in his 3rd year after not really showing that ability in his career thus far.
Second, I'd rather have future top-5 ranked recruits saying "hey look at that, Nas is struggling but UNC sticks with him, I wanna go there" than future mid-50s ranked recruits saying "hey look at that, Robinson is struggling but they're still giving him some minutes, I wanna go there"
If Robinson's playing keeps bratty OAD teenagers from considering Carolina, then those f*cking morons don't deserve to be a part of our team anyway. They can go to another school and GFT.
Roy is not going to play someone more minutes (who hasn't shown he deserves more minutes) just for the sake of placating some 16 year old high school kid. I'd stump for Roy to be fired if he did do that.
I don't think anyone's saying that.
What the 30-40 crowd is saying (since you like categorizing people by their age) is that you stick with Nas because you know the talent is there and he will get more comfortable with more minutes, or at least there is a good chance at that with his pedigree.
I've watched BRob play like this for 2.5 years, this is who he is. Why stick with him hoping for better when you can use those minutes on someone more likely to do so?
You call it placating some 16 year old, I call it securing future talented players for your team.
But as @dadika13 alluded to, it was the #1 reason from my poast that you cut out that was a more important reason than the #2 that you quoted. Little has a better chance of being better if given the time to do so. Preferably with 4 of the starters, as opposed to the second unit he was running with last night.
The OAD recruits won't even be a factor pretty soon.
True, and that will be a welcome day for UNC, given our history in getting them.
But as long as there are recruiting classes, there will be players at the top of the recruiting class. Those are the ones we should be hoping to lure to UNC - regardless of if they have to stay 1 year, 2 years, 10 years, etc.
BRob isn’t close to the caliber of Nas so I’d be more than ok Nas getting those minutes. But BRob didn’t make near as many mistakes as you guys are alluding to ..exaggerating to get yalls point across.. I get it...
I know. But, as long as Roy is the coach, we know Roy has a system. And, he's not going to change that system. The system happens to work, when the kids buy-in and fill the roles.
This season, like last season, will be hit-and-miss. All the roles aren't going to be filled. There's just no low-post presence. There's no Hansbrough/Zeller/Meeks player. Roy will still get the most he can out of them, the best way he knows how. I guess it depends on what your expectations are for the season. This is not a 2017 team, not even close, really.
True. I get a little pissy when I realize we're not a title team in a given year. Sometimes, that doesn't come until after we get bounced out of the tournament in March (or April). Unfortunately that realization came earlier this year.
I think it can be a better team than what we saw last night though. The team last year had a few early losses and then hit their stride late in the season. Hopefully this team will do the same thing.
I can’t answer that. Ask Roy. Obviously he has a reason. Or maybe he doesn’t.
I'm sure he does, obviously the guy has forgotten more basketball than any of us will ever know (with the possible exception of the Guru Gary himself of course).
Just wish I knew that reason.
The lockout kept him here. He was a first rounder after his freshman year. I understand you want to see him as this altruistic guy who stayed because he loved it, but without the lockout he's gone. Things have changed since then though. The NBA isn't as concerned with proven talent anymore. They draft based on measurables and potential. That's the only reason Bradley was picked in the first round last year.
