"Cormac has to be a solid shooting threat", well guess what, we are now in the second trip around the ACC portion of our schedule and so far this season Ryan has NOT, may I repeat that, NOT been a consistent shooting threat. We all would LOVE for him to be what was expected, he has not been that, at what point do we look at truth and stop with the dreams?
The is a difference between how for example Paxon was used at Brown, he was their primary scorer and yet here he has had to realize that he is buried in our depth chart, that happens when you play with more talent. The same has happened with JWit, #2 option on his team and now not starting for us and yes the same is happening with Ryan, #1 or 2 option for his old team and now he is at best 4th option to score of our starters. These 3 are in some ways under more pressure now than they were because they don't get the total bombs away treatment, the if it feels like leather Caleb Love plan.
You see this all the time with freshmen that were all stars in high school, get to college and have to figure out in college how to mesh their game with the college talents. The same thing is happening in the case of these 3 and we have all watched that struggle. NONE of the 3 have navigated that change successfully this season. With Ryan, he is getting cleaner looks than he ever got last season, when you are a teams primary guy defenses really make your looks as hard as they can, see RJ Davis for proof of that. Bottom line is that we need consistency from Ryan as a starter, he isn't well and I think it has to be addressed. I hope the kid goes off for 20+ tonight but I know better than to expect that now. A guy not making wide open jump shots simply is not a shooting threat.
IF Ryan is going to get his shooting stroke back, I think he needs to be shaken up. I recall a game last season (think it was last season), Leaky was playing a bit less than we know Leaky plays typically, he was benched for the start of a game but in that game Leaky may have played his best game of not just his season but his UNC career. The bench can inspire a guy and has more than once in the past. Maybe he comes off the bench and play inspired ball, maybe he is a guy that really gets our bench scoring up, he has not been a guy to really help us consistently as a shooter in a starting wing role. The notion that he is a shooting threat only works when a guy is making shots, you are not a shooting threat if you are not making wide open looks (he has been getting wide open looks, looks that RJ would kill for), drop the mic on that point.
Fool hearted using JWash and JWit as our 4s and not taking Ingram out of the starting line up is fool hearted in what way? WE have seen them both, we know their weaknesses and we have seen their strengths. Some of Ingram's best moments have come from playing against opposing 3s, they are easier to back down and he has a length as well as strength advantage against them. As for JWash and JWit, if it is so fool hearted now to start either of them then we really have a problem come next season don't we because at least 1 of them will start unless we get a big time big man from the portal that plays at least at Bacot's level. Fool hearted is structuring your defense so that a guy like JWash has to guard a wing or a 2 guard 30ft from the basket, fool hearted is 1-10 in wide open jump shots taken by a so called knock down shooter, fool hearted is doing what you have been doing and expecting different results. I just looked at the season stats, JWash leads the team in shooting % at 68.5%, he is averaging 2.8 boards a game in an average of 8.7mins a game guys, he leads all non-starters at 4.4pts per game and those are value stats this deep in to the season. REyan on the other hand is shooting 36% from the field over all and 28.9% from 3, isn't that less than Leaky, that is the lowest field goal % on the team for any guy getting more than 5mins a game and Ryan is getting 29.4min a game. Still want to talk fool hearted?