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Quick stuff (dook game)...

gary-7

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Jan 27, 2003
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...and that one was totally about us --- good and bad.

First off, look... that was a welcome and overdue win, and yes, I'm as ecstatic about that as any fan --- and trust me, I was reverse-jinxin' as hard as I could (you're wlecome) down the stretch, but this analysis is gonna be straight coach-speak, i.e., there were no positives that weren't countered by negatives that frankly kept dook in a game we should have cruised in. Fortunately the balance of good vs bad (and of course, good vs evil) tipped our way just enough...

- We came out with energy (helped by an early Scramble) but we didn't always put out what I call "grunt work" energy --- exerting that last extra bit of effort to snatch a contested rebound or loose ball. As a result we didn't clean the glass in the first half. I suspect that was a point of emphasis at halftine and the improved result showed.

- Roach demonstrated why I wasn't upset about losing that recruiting battle, especially his propensity to take the ball into no-man's land, and he couldn't do anything with Caleb. That said, we can't have nice things and CL damn near negated his own career night by going utterly brain-dead in the last 5 minutes. Son, you can't pat yourself on the back --- get yore ass back on defense, and where the hell were you taking the rock in the last few sets? You're starting to "get it" --- just keep your head in the game.

- speaking of that latter point, this is dook at dook --- they're gonna foul and foul and foul some more (and maybe a third will get caled), so assume that and be strong with the ball. Guards need to be sure on every dribble, Bigs need to "chin" the ball on defensive rebounds, and on offense go up THROUGH them if necessary ($1 to Psycho-T). Bacot's offensive energy was negated by some weak moves. You also CANNOT afford to be loose wth passes off rebounds. For all Sharpe's beastliness tonight, that untimely giveaway to Goldwire was a damned momentum-killer.

- speaking of fouls, this wasn't the ideal crew if we were looking for whistles inside, but we got enough to cruise --- that is IF WE MAKE OUR DAMNED FTs. Jeez. Thing is, though, INSIDE was the key. Roy's game-plan was spot on (and also, rolled out a nifty new wrinkle on a late-first-half OB play). Despite letting some rebounds get away, Brooks was aggressive on both ends (and got a HUGE defensive rebound down the stretch). Also a nice find on the diagonal to Plates on the break for a 3.

- speaking of 3s, that was the unsung consequence of the game-plan --- we were actually getting looks playing inside-out and in transition, and those rhythm-3s are high-pct shots. We also got the best of the key match-up issue and got Hurt in foul trouble early.

- Leaky came through with some timely mid-range pull-ups (that's his game) and 2 big FTs to seal it, but Lordy, some of those fouls --- especially the dumb one up 5 late. Come on now. And AP was 6/7 on stops and flat stoned Moore when he tried to post him, but then turns around and makes a bad assumption pass to give it back. Come on now. Walton came out knocking down his looks but as I warned previously, opponents have scouted us now and they've going after him on the other end, and hoo-wee, that aspect was NOT pretty tonight. Ant keeps playing with energy but his tendency to get out of control is starting to catch up to him ---time to take a breath and let things slow down, partner. And rough offensive night for RJ, but he did take care of the rock.

Anyway.... fortunately, the late defensive subbing paid off, and Roy made judicious use of giving fouls (and thank you Wendell for that last travel, BTW:p). And make no mistake, we NEEDED that win (for every reason imaginable!)... but there's still growth and clean-up needed if we're gonna make any noise in March (which we're thoroughly capable of). No time to celebrate --- gotta turn around and defend the Dome on Monday!...:cool:
 
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...and that one was totally about us --- good and bad.

First off, look... that was a welcome and overdue win, and yes, I'm as ecstatic about that as any fan ..... Fortunately the balance of good vs bad (and of course, good vs evil) tipped our way just enough...

- Roach demonstrated why I wasn't upset about losing that recruiting battle, especially his propensity to take the ball into no-man's land, and he couldn't do anything with Caleb.

For all Sharpe's beastliness tonight, that untimely giveaway to Goldwire was a damned momentum-killer.

- speaking of fouls, this wasn't the ideal crew if we were looking for whistles inside, but we got enough to cruise --- that is IF WE MAKE OUR DAMNED FTs.

- Leaky came through with some timely mid-range pull-ups (that's his game) and 2 big FTs to seal it
,

Come on now. Walton came out knocking down his looks but as I warned previously, opponents have scouted us now and they've going after him on the other end, and hoo-wee, that aspect was NOT pretty tonight.

(and thank you Wendell for that last travel, BTW:p).
1. As happy as I am for the W, it also pains me we didn't win by double digits. I really thought we would be rolling at this point of the season.:confused:
2. The so-called gurus who thought Roach was better than Love are clueless.
3. Dayron SHOULD NOT play more minutes than Bacot, period..... Let me repeat that "Dayron SHOULD NOT play more minutes than Bacot, period".
That TO he threw to Goldwire was the single dumbest pass by any Heel this season. He literally saw Goldwire there, hesitated, then threw the pass anyway. WT...:mad:
4. I never thought I would imagine this, but did TV Ted do Roy Williams a solid tonight?😲
When is the last time we shot 22 FT's and dook shot 7?
5. I'm calling it right now, Leaky Black 2nd team All-ACC next year.
6. Walton can't guard my 74 year old mother, and she's blind.
7. Hero turned G.O.A.T, and I'm talking Billygoat. You knew it was only a matter of time before Moore and the other Billygoat(Baker) did something to make us glad neither are wearing Carolina blue.
Just in the nick of time. 🤣
 
I was texting with buddies at halftime that Bacot needed to get active, it seems like Roy got that message across to him in the locker room. He was much more active, but left a lot of meat on the bone with weak finishes.

Leaky got 3 silly fouls in the 1st half, which really hurt. Then the brain dead foul late. Those hurt because he was rock solid tonight in his role. (4-4 from the field, 1 -1 from 3, 3 -4 from the line, with only 1 turnover). Rock solid.

Walton crucial 4-4 from 3, really struggled on dee, but that level of marksmanship is SO needed for this roster.

10-15 from 3 as a team, opens things up. That equals a 91 point night. I am of the belief we are always trying to go inside out, but geeze you have to make some of the "outs" to prevent the sagging amp up with each clank. Tonight we did, and it doi g so it opened up room to operate.

Caleb had room to operate, he stroked jumpers with far less erratic body drifts. He played with a rhythm tonight. The two awful late turnovers he fell back to no rhythm, it seemed like he was just trying to get to a spot to wait on the big flashing baseline on the block, as Dook tried to prevent or delay both to those spots. He was mechanical, single minded on both positions and was harried into awful turnovers with nothing going. HE WAS HUGE in this game overall though.

I hesitate to mention this because of all the heated sides taken on the kid, but I cringed a bit when Platek was in. He turned it over at a high rate, seemed almost given backdoor cuts since he had little chance to finish unless zero weak side help arrived at the rim, when they did the shot was almost like a turnover, easily batted away. I was hoping along with my buddies at halftime to see much more Ant Harris in those minutes (which was the case), and really hoped Leaky would not pick up a early 4th foul to remain on the court as much as possible.

Free throws were atrocious, rebounds subpar, but in a game that should of been a double digit win we left the door wide open for yet another last minute theft from Dook. Thankfully they did not snatch this one.
 
Shot it surprisingly well from 3 tonight, which is a pleasant change. Brooks played well. Especially on the defensive end against Hurt. Caleb had a decent night shooting the ball. I see Davis's minutes really shrinking. He just dribbles around the perimeter going nowhere. Seemed like we were really about to blow Duke out in the first half until he came in the game and momentum totally shifted. At least they hit free throws when it counted down the stretch. The missed free throws prior made this game closer than it should have been.
 
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I was texting with buddies at halftime that Bacot needed to get active, it seems like Roy got that message across to him in the locker room. He was much more active, but left a lot of meat on the bone with weak finishes.

Leaky got 3 silly fouls in the 1st half, which really hurt. Then the brain dead foul late. Those hurt because he was rock solid tonight in his role. (4-4 from the field, 1 -1 from 3, 3 -4 from the line, with only 1 turnover). Rock solid.

Walton crucial 4-4 from 3, really struggled on dee, but that level of marksmanship is SO needed for this roster.

10-15 from 3 as a team, opens things up. That equals a 91 point night. I am of the belief we are always trying to go inside out, but geeze you have to make some of the "outs" to prevent the sagging amp up with each clank. Tonight we did, and it doi g so it opened up room to operate.

Caleb had room to operate, he stroked jumpers with far less eradict body drifts. He played with a rhythm tonight. The two awful late turnovers he fell back to no rhythm, it seemed like he was just trying to get to a spot to wait on the big flashing baseline on the block, as Dook tried to prevent or delay both to those spots. He was mechanical, single minded on both positions and was harried into awful turnovers with nothing going. HE WAS HUGE in this game overall though.

I hesitate to mention this because of all the heated sides taken on the kid, but I cringed a bit when Platek was in. He turned it over at a high rate, seemed almost given backdoor cuts since he had little chance to finish unless zero weak side help arrived at the rim, when they did the shot was almost like a turnover, easily batted away. I was hoping along with my buddies at halftime to see much more Ant Harris in those minutes (which was the case), and really hoped Leaky would not pick up a early 4th foul to remain on the court as much as possible.

Free throws were atrocious, rebounds subpar, but in a game that should of been a double digit win we left the door wide open for yet another last minute theft from Dook. Thankfully they did not snatch this one.
Sorry, but that "cringing" was just misplaced... unless it was at getting hammered with no call.
 
I just couldn't wait for the ball to leave his hand tonight. I felt much more likely a negative result would occur then a positive one when he had the rock. I don't want this to spiral into AP bashing at all, just what I saw and felt tonight. There is going to be contact, Love was bodied much more on every hedge and with Goldwire all night, AP can't look for calls with that level of contact he needs to be stronger with the ball. Stroked that 3ball nicely on the cross court feed though!
 
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I just couldn't wait for the ball to leave his hand tonight. I felt much more likely a negative result would occur then a positive one when he had the rock. I don't want this to spiral into AP bashing at all, just what I saw and felt tonight. There is going to be contact, Love was bodied much more on every hedge and with Goldwire all night, AP can't look for calls with that level of contact he needs to be stronger with the ball. Stroked that 3ball nicely on the cross court feed though!
His 3 hit nothing but net, and the other 3 went in the rim and came out. I wish he got 5 attempts per game.
He was clearly fouled on that last drive to the basket. The lead official at the time swallowed the whistle when dook was trying to make a run late.
 
Not going to go down this rabbit hole. I was happy with the halftime adjustments with playing time by Roy.
 
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Still surprised why people are so shocked by our 3s. Duke gives up 37% from 3. For 301st in the nation in 3pt d. And it was over 41% not too many games ago.
 
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It's always a treat to go to sleep with a smile on your face after beating dook. Carolina still tends to underperform at times and could eventually give Roy an ulcer, but a win at HIS is always glorious.
Hitting shots is such a cure-all; it makes our unforced turnovers less glaring. Now that Caleb has turned the corner offensively we are at this point in the season: IF we do not make stupid mistakes with the ball and IF we can make FREE THROWS, we can beat every team left on our schedule. Value the rock and we won't beat ourselves.
Side note: this is the worst dook team K has ever had. His grandson needs to enter the transfer portal, he will never get one second of playing time with this Grandpa as his coach, and that is just sad.
 
I'm a bit confused by that. There are only 20 minutes in the 2nd half ?

There are 200 minutes in a game, 40 min game x5 players. In theory, you could have 20 guys play double digit minutes (10 min each), so having 9 do it is not that hard. Hope that helps.
 
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Thanks Gary, good overview of the game.

We won and we needed this win to build our resume.

Don't know about any of the rest of you guys, but to me..., this entire season, that is, every single game, has been fatiguing both mentally and emotionally. In other words..., this team is not a fun watch at all. I don't want that statement to sound like an indictment of this team, it's just that it really can wear on your nerves to watch players play, at times, some great Carolina basketball (ie.), playing hard, playing smart, & playing together.

Then, all of a sudden play soft, play stupid, and refuse to play together. To be sure..., this game should never have been as close as the final score. A litany of TO's, missed FT's & missed defensive assignments allowed dook to keep the game close. All season we have had these types of games where we get a working margin and just get complacent and give it up, game after game and that's tiring to watch.

Undeniably, we have improved our play since January, however, playing as I have described is just not good enough for us to win even half of the 7-8 games left on our regular season schedule as those will be mostly against the better teams in the league once we get past Monday's game with Miami and BC later on, even those games cannot be counted as wins if we do not improve in consistency in our play. This far along in the season, we should have dispensed with some of our tendencies for poor play as mentioned in the first and second paragraph, we just haven't.

There...., I have exorcised the demons that have been plaguing me.

Now...., anytime we win and dook-UK-KU-Arizona lose, it's a good day the way I see it.
 
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A LOT more good than bad to take away from this game. Beating dook at HIS is always nice and hanging 90+ on them(50 in second half after that awful performance at clemson) is great. Kerwin's early 3's opened things up for Brooks inside and allowed Love room to drive. 6 guys in double figures shows the balance we need. 20 assists was nice and a major reason for that was shooting 50+% from the field.

Mentally the Heels have a lot of work. You have to be able to hold a lead, and UNC let double digit leads slip away in both halves. Rebounding was disappointing, should have been a much bigger margin. Dook got a lot of long rebounds off missed jump shots just cause they out hustled the Heels to the ball. Last 5 minutes were a heart attack waiting to happen for me. When was the last time Roy used all his time outs? I was actually hoping that would not come back to bite us on some of those in bounds efforts.

Won't dwell on the negatives in a win over dook but damn not having a crowd is really hurting college basketball. I was hoping someone would dive for a loos ball and take out those cardboard cut outs along the side.
 
Thanks Gary, good overview of the game.

We won and we needed this win to build our resume.

Don't know about any of the rest of you guys, but to me..., this entire season, that is, every single game, has been fatiguing both mentally and emotionally. In other words..., this team is not a fun watch at all. I don't want that statement to sound like an indictment of this team, it's just that it really can wear on your nerves to watch players play, at times, some great Carolina basketball (ie.), playing hard, playing smart, & playing together.

Then, all of a sudden play soft, play stupid, and refuse to play together. To be sure..., this game should never have been as close as the final score. A litany of TO's, missed FT's & missed defensive assignments allowed dook to keep the game close. All season we have had these types of games where we get a working margin and just get complacent and give it up, game after game and that's tiring to watch.

Undeniably, we have improved our play since January, however, playing as I have described is just not good enough for us to win even half of the 7-8 games left on our regular season schedule as those will be mostly against the better teams in the league once we get past Monday's game with Miami and BC later on, even those games cannot be counted as wins if we do not improve in consistency in our play. This far along in the season, we should have dispensed with some of our tendencies for poor play as mentioned in the first paragraph, we just haven't.

There...., I have exorcised the demons that have been plaguing me.

Now...., anytime we win and dook-UK-KU-Arizona lose, it's a good day the way I see it.
Agree 100%
 
Thanks Gary, good overview of the game.

We won and we needed this win to build our resume.

Don't know about any of the rest of you guys, but to me..., this entire season, that is, every single game, has been fatiguing both mentally and emotionally. In other words..., this team is not a fun watch at all. I don't want that statement to sound like an indictment of this team, it's just that it really can wear on your nerves to watch players play, at times, some great Carolina basketball (ie.), playing hard, playing smart, & playing together.

Then, all of a sudden play soft, play stupid, and refuse to play together. To be sure..., this game should never have been as close as the final score. A litany of TO's, missed FT's & missed defensive assignments allowed dook to keep the game close. All season we have had these types of games where we get a working margin and just get complacent and give it up, game after game and that's tiring to watch.

Undeniably, we have improved our play since January, however, playing as I have described is just not good enough for us to win even half of the 7-8 games left on our regular season schedule as those will be mostly against the better teams in the league once we get past Monday's game with Miami and BC later on, even those games cannot be counted as wins if we do not improve in consistency in our play. This far along in the season, we should have dispensed with some of our tendencies for poor play as mentioned in the first paragraph, we just haven't.

There...., I have exorcised the demons that have been plaguing me.

Now...., anytime we win and dook-UK-KU-Arizona lose, it's a good day the way I see it.

So very much on point. Exactly what I was saying while watching. At any given moment in the game (and this can be applied to both teams, really), you either saw some extreme athleticism and brilliance (beautiful 3-pt shot, follow up dunk off missed shot, great drive to the basket, etc.) or some bonehead, ridiculous middle schoolish type play (dribbling yourself into a corner, bad passes, driving into traffic, brick FT's, etc.).

As a Tar Heel fan, I think we are just flabbergasted to really almost never see a fast break let alone the guys looking up to push the ball. And I'm sorry to be "that guy" who says it (again), but Platek should never drive to the basket - EVER - even if wide open. It is almost a guarantee that his shot will be blocked and he does not have anywhere near the athleticism to score that way. Plus he made one of the worst passes I've seen that got taken the other way for an easy steal and score.

Plain and simple, my heart and hope as a lifetime Tar Heel fan now is geared towards hoping the majority of the team stays for next year, and that they become (next year) the team we hoped they might be this year. Using our heads and not our hearts, it feels the best we can hope for in the tourney will be a win or two. There is no reason to seriously believe (again, differentiating from WANT) this team can pull together a full game against the upper echelon teams.

Still love the team and will root my heart out in every game for them. But it is what it is.
 
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Interesting takes on this game for sure, from the tone of things it would seem as if we just barely beat BC at the Dome? Guys, we beat duke at cameron, kids rushed Franklin st, we scored over 90 for the first time this season, we just made it much harder for duke to get to the NCAAT? So why all the glum??? To do all of this and realize that this team can play much better than what they did last night puts a big time smile on my face!

Great to see Love have a really effective game, sans the TOs it was very special night for the kid and kudos to him for that. I especially enjoyed watching Hurt be handled so effectively. WE beat a duke team that was bringing in 5 star players off the bench, a duke team that beat clemson bad yet we could only muster 50pts for the whole game tuesday night?

For the record, I enjoy this team, the play may not always be what we are accustomed to but I enjoy watching kids and the team develop and get better and I see that nearly every game, really every game since Roy adjusted the starting line up with the Clemson game being the lone exception.

What I do hate is the lack of fans in these games, it isn't the same, the excitement factor is just so diminished. But this is the best we have ad that for me beats the off seasons of waiting for basketball time to finally get here. So pardon me for enjoying the fact that we beat duke and cameron last night and for wanting to hold on to that joy for a few days!
 
Interesting takes on this game for sure, from the tone of things it would seem as if we just barely beat BC at the Dome? Guys, we beat duke at cameron, kids rushed Franklin st, we scored over 90 for the first time this season, we just made it much harder for duke to get to the NCAAT? So why all the glum??? To do all of this and realize that this team can play much better than what they did last night puts a big time smile on my face!

Great to see Love have a really effective game, sans the TOs it was very special night for the kid and kudos to him for that. I especially enjoyed watching Hurt be handled so effectively. WE beat a duke team that was bringing in 5 star players off the bench, a duke team that beat clemson bad yet we could only muster 50pts for the whole game tuesday night?

For the record, I enjoy this team, the play may not always be what we are accustomed to but I enjoy watching kids and the team develop and get better and I see that nearly every game, really every game since Roy adjusted the starting line up with the Clemson game being the lone exception.

What I do hate is the lack of fans in these games, it isn't the same, the excitement factor is just so diminished. But this is the best we have ad that for me beats the off seasons of waiting for basketball time to finally get here. So pardon me for enjoying the fact that we beat duke and cameron last night and for wanting to hold on to that joy for a few days!

I agree it was good for them to step up and win in spite of giving Duke more chances than they deserved to make it to close for comfort.

It was nice to see the offense break out (pun intended) hopefully this will build some IQ memory moving forward

It is great for the team and the fans to enjoy the win (I know I am) however the players need to recognize the issue and fix it - the staff cannot do it; at this point it is on the players

87 points and 16 turnovers while letting bench players like Baker go off - not a recipe for success

This group wont' hunt when they face better teams unless they correct the core issues
 
Really odd playing at Cameron with no fans/students. Sort of felt like I was watching a rec league game. Of course all the games have been different this year with covid but this one just seemed more odd.
 
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Love was coached in AAU basketball by the father of former Duke player Jayson Tatum. Asked if he talked to the elder Tatum, Love replied, "I told him we were going to beat them. And then I talked to Jayson, and I told him we were going to beat them."
💪
 
Thanks Gary, good overview of the game.

We won and we needed this win to build our resume.

Don't know about any of the rest of you guys, but to me..., this entire season, that is, every single game, has been fatiguing both mentally and emotionally. In other words..., this team is not a fun watch at all. I don't want that statement to sound like an indictment of this team, it's just that it really can wear on your nerves to watch players play, at times, some great Carolina basketball (ie.), playing hard, playing smart, & playing together.

Then, all of a sudden play soft, play stupid, and refuse to play together. To be sure..., this game should never have been as close as the final score. A litany of TO's, missed FT's & missed defensive assignments allowed dook to keep the game close. All season we have had these types of games where we get a working margin and just get complacent and give it up, game after game and that's tiring to watch.

Undeniably, we have improved our play since January, however, playing as I have described is just not good enough for us to win even half of the 7-8 games left on our regular season schedule as those will be mostly against the better teams in the league once we get past Monday's game with Miami and BC later on, even those games cannot be counted as wins if we do not improve in consistency in our play. This far along in the season, we should have dispensed with some of our tendencies for poor play as mentioned in the first paragraph, we just haven't.

There...., I have exorcised the demons that have been plaguing me.

Now...., anytime we win and dook-UK-KU-Arizona lose, it's a good day the way I see it.
Amen to that brother, and yeah, watching thru coach's eyes can be painful. That being said, the good side of that --- the reward, if you will --- comes with those increasingly long stretches in which the "Carolina basketball" part emerges. As you know, that is the journey each season. When you played there was usually continuity in place to reload from the previous version, but in these days of college hoops Roy more often has his work cut out for him.

I'll tell ya, Monday will be telling as to how the younguns react to their first dook win. Do we come out and build on it and take care of business?... or do we repeat the cavalier Clemson effort?
 
There are 200 minutes in a game, 40 min game x5 players. In theory, you could have 20 guys play double digit minutes (10 min each), so having 9 do it is not that hard. Hope that helps.
My comment was about halftime adjustments with playing time though, which I was happy to see. A 20 minute second half does not realistically allow for 9 players getting double digit minutes in the second half, even with every entrance being rounded up to a full minute, even if only subbed in for the defensive position late, and immediately taken out after.

Thanks, for the help.
 
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My comment was about halftime adjustments with playing time though, which I was happy to see. A 20 minute second half does not allow for 9 players getting double digit minutes in the second half, even with every entrance being rounded up to a full minute, even if only subbed in for the defensive position late, and immediately taken out after.

Thanks, for the help.

Not trying to be smart ass just don't know all the stat/time keeping rules, but if full game has 200 minutes wouldn't a half have 100? 9 players at 10 per would be 90 so numerically it could work, but clearly many played more than 10 in 2nd half. My guess id the poster made comment about second half adjustments and then overall comment on balanced playing time not specific to second half.
 
There are 200 minutes in a game, 40 min game x5 players. In theory, you could have 20 guys play double digit minutes (10 min each), so having 9 do it is not that hard. Hope that helps.
Not trying to be smart ass just don't know all the stat/time keeping rules, but if full game has 200 minutes wouldn't a half have 100? 9 players at 10 per would be 90 so numerically it could work, but clearly many played more than 10 in 2nd half. My guess id the poster made comment about second half adjustments and then overall comment on balanced playing time not specific to second half.

If there are enough dead balls to mass sub on every one then it is possible, that clearly was not the case last night. The comment was clearly stated for halftime adjustments to playing time.
 
- speaking of 3s, that was the unsung consequence of the game-plan --- we were actually getting looks playing inside-out and in transition, and those rhythm-3s are high-pct shots. We also got the best of the key match-up issue and got Hurt in foul trouble early.

Walton came out knocking down his looks but as I warned previously, opponents have scouted us now and they've going after him on the other end, and hoo-wee, that aspect was NOT pretty tonight. Ant keeps playing with energy but his tendency to get out of control is starting to catch up to him ---time to take a breath and let things slow down, partner. And rough offensive night for RJ, but he did take care of the rock.

Gary;

I meant to make a comment concerning Walton and his defensive lapses and hesitancies. I remember well a player from Gray, Ga. who reminds me very much of Walton's overall play. Al Wood was one of the purest shooters to ever come thru our program, and @ 6'6" he was long and lanky and after his freshman year was very difficult to guard one on one, and he vastly improved his defense from year 1 to year 2 as that was what DES told him along with his offensive skillset would get him vastly more playing time.

Over the years, I have not seen any player that one could compare to Al until Kerwin. There are some obvious differences of course as Al was much slimmer than Kerwin coming into the program, but defensively, they are very similar when comparing their freshman to freshman year. Both are around the same height, with Kerwin being much beefier. As we know, the most noticeable improvement in individual players comes during that Freshman to Sophomore leap as it did with Al, I also expect the same will be true with Kerwin.

If Kerwin dedicates himself over the summer to losing a few of those chubby pounds, increases his lateral speed and his foot speed, and learns to take and make shots off the bounce, he will be a real force to deal with. All of these things are already being mentioned to him, and I think he will work hard on those this off-season. I recall vividly that Al worked diligently to improve his defense and he did just that or DES would not play him. Kerwin has been a wonderful surprise for most, however, the staff sees a much better future ahead for him if he can improve in just these few areas. I agree with them.
 
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Man oh man, foul them out before us. And we came real close to losing a piece I thought was pretty ill afford. Leaky ended up w 4 fouls being the primary defender on Moore. Even though he saw the mpg he gets in our previous losses, he cashed in on the time he was out there. Solid line at 12/4/3, hitting a 3, clutching up from the line to ice the game, and a BIG stop on a driving Moore within the final possessions. This was the lowest number of min Leaky saw in a win this season since the NCCU game. Usually in wins like this, he doesn’t have much of an impact. But, he really turned out in a huge way! Playing them straight up got Hurt in foul trouble early and he was pretty much a non factor for much of the game. Great win to get the ball rolling in the right direction again!
 
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- speaking of 3s, that was the unsung consequence of the game-plan --- we were actually getting looks playing inside-out and in transition, and those rhythm-3s are high-pct shots. We also got the best of the key match-up issue and got Hurt in foul trouble early.

Walton came out knocking down his looks but as I warned previously, opponents have scouted us now and they've going after him on the other end, and hoo-wee, that aspect was NOT pretty tonight. Ant keeps playing with energy but his tendency to get out of control is starting to catch up to him ---time to take a breath and let things slow down, partner. And rough offensive night for RJ, but he did take care of the rock.

Gary;

I meant to make a comment concerning Walton and his defensive lapses and hesitancies. I remember well a player from Gray, Ga. who reminds me very much of Walton's overall play. Al Wood was one of the purest shooters to ever come thru our program, and @ 6'6" he was long and lanky and after his freshman year was very difficult to guard one on one, and he vastly improved his defense from year 1 to year 2 as that was what DES told him along with his offensive skillset would get him vastly more playing time.

Over the years, I have not seen any player that one could compare to Al until Kerwin. There are some obvious differences of course as Al was much slimmer than Kerwin coming into the program, but defensively, they are very similar when comparing their freshman to freshman year. Both are around the same height, with Kerwin being much beefier. As we know, the most noticeable improvement in individual players comes during that Freshman to Sophomore leap as it did with Al, I also expect the same will be true with Kerwin.

If Kerwin dedicates himself over the summer to losing a few of those chubby pounds, increases his lateral speed and his foot speed, and learns to take and make shots off the bounce, he will be a real force to deal with. All of these things are already being mentioned to him, and I think he will work hard on those this off-season. I recall vividly that Al worked diligently to improve his defense and he did just that or DES would not play him. Kerwin has been a wonderful surprise for most, however, the staff sees a much better future ahead for him if he can improve in just these few areas. I agree with them.
Agree, and as I have posted before, Kerwin seems to have the basketba;ll IQ to turn himself into an at least passable defender over time. That ain't happenin' this season but obvious first step will be a summer with Jonas and beaucoups footwork and lateral quickness drills. Now, I dunno if he has the physical tools to round into as complete an offensive threat as Al became, but he should be able to get to the point of not being a defensive liability while continuing being a designated marksman.
 
Agree, and as I have posted before, Kerwin seems to have the basketba;ll IQ to turn himself into an at least passable defender over time. That ain't happenin' this season but obvious first step will be a summer with Jonas and beaucoups footwork and lateral quickness drills. Now, I dunno if he has the physical tools to round into as complete an offensive threat as Al became, but he should be able to get to the point of not being a defensive liability while continuing being a designated marksman.

I don't think we will see an Al Wood clone for sure, but as you mentioned above, improvements in those areas will make him much more valuable on both sides of the ball, particularly on offense if he can learn to shoot on the move. To improving his quickness, losing some baby fat will help somewhat, but you can't change DNA huh?
On defense, I think it will also help him to a degree. What will help make him a better defender is film study, playing PU during the summer, and learning to anticipate his opponents tendencies while playing defense.
 
I don't think we will see an Al Wood clone for sure, but as you mentioned above, improvements in those areas will make him much more valuable on both sides of the ball, particularly on offense if he can learn to shoot on the move. To improving his quickness, losing some baby fat will help somewhat, but you can't change DNA huh?
On defense, I think it will also help him to a degree. What will help make him a better defender is film study, playing PU during the summer, and learning to anticipate his opponents tendencies while playing defense.

If Kerwin is half the player Al Wood was that is fantastic. Now if Roy can just bring in another Phil Ford to run things ...
 
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