Quick stuff (LaSalle game)...

[gary-7]

...and if you're looking for sunshine here, welp, you might hafta keep looking.

So... we rolled easily in this game largely thanks to a mystery-man who gave us 23 pts, 5 boards, 2 blocks, a dime and a steal in 21 ininutes. Thus, lemme get the few positives outta the way by starting here:

- Cade Tyson returned from the milk carton, and to his immense credit, shot and played with confidence --- and it wasn't just the 3s --- he played a strong floor game on both ends. And yes, I TOLD y'all he can play., and it's not just my eyes. Too many foiks that I trust who have seen him up close and personal clued me in for that to be wrong. If it was back in the day, Cade gets the Holly Farms chicken. Good on him...

- We pulled out 44 early and got a TO and-1. It may have come sooner but we couldn't seem to make a damn FT to set it up. With that said, they adjusted. So... y'know we have different pickup points, right? Like mix in 43 or 42 to counter and keep them off-balance?...

- Defensive cohesion and effort was better today early on, although we coasted some later, and we rebounded as a team more aggressively

- Shout-out to James Brown, who refreshingly acted like a damn BIG, getting to the blocks, posting and asking for the ball. He was thusly rewarded by EC to the tune of 6 points in 5 minutes

- Speaking of Eliot, Jeezus-H, when is someone finally gonna fire the home stat guy? 7 dimes? AYFKM? He had 10 (9 if yer being a complete tight-ass). Honestly, I couldn't blame a blue-chip PG for thinking twice about coming here for that reason alone. These things matter. Sheeesh.

- We did not attack their 3-2 Zone with any real stress. Again, where is the post/short-corner action? As with too much of what goes on lately, it's 3-pointer or squat.

- I, like many, was hoping for an actual "reset". Welp, not so much. Other than mixing in 40, it was too much of the same-old with too damn much 5-out on the other end. Soeaking of which, pretty much all we got outta the Secondary was Cade hitting some 3s. Otherwise it was benign with Bigs again making themselves tits on a boar-hog.

- Finally, as for the aforementioned international man of mystery, Hubert likes to cite the old coach cliche that "players decide who plays". Yeah well... amid the grain of truth in that lies a big ol' cop-out. Ultimately it's up to coaches to assert playing time for guys who need to get it for confidence sake and team-building. Just suppose, for example, that Cade had come in and missed his first couple of shots... would we have seen him again enough to get a rhythm? I would like to think so --- I mean, I would LIKE to think that the staff went into this game determined to get him some run --- but again, forgive me for wondering "what if"?

Anyway, look... it almost physically pains me to have to be this critical. I like this staff and I know they are capable of better --- which makes it all the more frustrating, partially because the key needed tweaks are as simple as they are obvious. Other than that, well, we held serve and got a solid W --- and (hopefully) got a key part of our rotation back from the MIA files...

 

[dtodd4475]

LaSalle was tailor made for this group as a very small team height wise itself with no real front line even for a small mid major.

With that, I take the better rebounding with a grain of salt, we can board against that sized opponent, can we against the big boys? Cade today with an equally large grain of salt. Cade has established he can flourish against that level of competition. Hopefully having a big game against that level of opponent can get some confidence for him. Still has to show he can play with the big boys, couldn't last year or this year yet, fingers crossed he can.

This one, just from the roster makeup screamed no contest even before the tip. Won handily, get ready for Florida.

 

[gary-7]

LaSalle was tailor made for this group as a very small team height wise itself with no real front line even for a small mid major.

With that, I take the better rebounding with a grain of salt, we can board against that sized opponent, can we against the big boys? Cade today with an equally large grain of salt. Cade has established he can flourish against that level of competition. Hopefully having a big game against that level of opponent can get some confidence for him. Still has to show he can play with the big boys, couldn't last year or this year yet, fingers crossed he can.

This one, just from the roster makeup screamed no contest even before the tip. Won handily, get ready for Florida.

Cade can play.

 

[dtodd4475]

Cade can play.

I hope it translates, could sure use it

 

[DSouthr]

Had heck of a time finding a good box core from this game, finally found a good one.

1) RJ shot 4-11, 2-6 from 3, had 5 assists, 5 boards. 13 total pts in his 27mins.

2) Seth 4-7, 0-3 from 3, 8 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals for his 10pts in 29mins

3) Cadeau 7 assist, 1 turn over, for his 4pts in 24mins

4) Cap Jack - 7 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals for 5pts in 24mins

5) Drake 6 boards and 7pts for his 19mins

6) Lubin 10pts, did not miss a shot from the field, 5 boards in his 20mins

7) J Wash, 4 boards, a block and 3pts in his 8 mins

8) James Brown 6pts in his 5mins, nothing else on the box line for him?

9) Claude, 5 boards, 3pts, 1-4 from free throw line in his 7mins

10) Jwit - 7pts, 1 single board, 2 blocks and a steal in his 12mins

11) Cade Tyson finally shows up for 9-14 shots, 5 of 10 from 3, 5 boards, a block, and a couple steals in 21mins in the game he will tell his grand kids about! '"I would have scored more but coach had me sit out the second half we were up by so much" LOL

 

[DSouthr]

LaSalle was tailor made for this group as a very small team height wise itself with no real front line even for a small mid major.

With that, I take the better rebounding with a grain of salt, we can board against that sized opponent, can we against the big boys? Cade today with an equally large grain of salt. Cade has established he can flourish against that level of competition. Hopefully having a big game against that level of opponent can get some confidence for him. Still has to show he can play with the big boys, couldn't last year or this year yet, fingers crossed he can.

This one, just from the roster makeup screamed no contest even before the tip. Won handily, get ready for Florida.

Exactly how I saw it...

 

[JovialMuse]

Hard not to feel pretty pessimistic about how this season is likely going to go from here on out. This was one of the few opportunities to make major adjustments and it seems not many at all were made. With so much talent on the roster, it's hard to believe we're likely looking at yet another season of, "will they make the tournament?" questions and just hoping Dayton remains a Q1 win. Because it seems unlikely they're going beat Florida and UCLA is tough too...and the ACC is again down. Hate being a debby downer but aside from last season and a hot streak in 2022 it's been a really rough road with this staff...

 

[NathanFielder]

Good to see Cade make some shots today. I’d imagine today was a bit of an outlier game for him but hopefully it gives him some confidence where he can provide something positive against good teams. Cade’s a really important piece to this puzzle. I really believe that. I hope this is a positive sign for him going forward.

I think it’s important for this team to play well and win by margin regardless who it’s against. They need some good vibes and some confidence. I’m not going to call them soft but I’ve seen one bad play lead to another lead to another this season so I’m not sure this is a “next play” mentality team. They’ve said that they’ve been tight and stressed. Not the best sign IMO but if that’s the type of team they are, then these performances matter to me.

Always interested to see Hubert’s rotation in big games like Florida and UCLA. He’s basically cut off the rotation at 8 and Tyson has played in the marquee games away from home. He did play a lot against Alabama but part of that were in garbage time minutes. So it will be interesting to see who Hubert trusts.

And I haven’t followed the bracketology at all but Florida and UCLA are basically must wins unless UNC wins like 15 games in conference right? If they go 0/2 against Florida and UCLA, then they probably have to win the ACC regular season title?

Anyway focus on the next game. I do think this team’s best basketball is ahead of them. But it really needs to happen at Florida.

Oh, and let’s make those FTs!

 

[DSouthr]

Some things I liked about this game, some I didn't. I do like that we got James Brown some minutes, I think he can help us in certain situations. Claude played hard but he must have taken the Shaq "how to hit free throws or die trying" course? Jalen is now down to 8mins a game??? Trust me, I have a lot more to say about that but I need to chill out my thoughts on that right now. Lubin, may be the most steady guy on this team not named Seth.

RJ is still in a funk but he does hit the boards and is looking to help in other ways, nice assists and only 11 shots, I am not mad at that. Seth was just a jack of all trades, very little of what he does is not seen in a box score but he is a factor that concerns the other teams every time he steps on the court. Cadeau has regressed back to last year with his jump shooting confidence, his confidence level seems to be overly fragile, I had hoped to see him mature past that. His passing was very solid, 1 TO is fantastic from him.

Tyson, good to see him get his confidence rolling, this team was tailor made for him but he cashed it in and deserves the kudos, he may meet his future wife tonight! LOL

Good to see we didn't wait till we were down 20 to get them in some court pressure and defensively in the first half we played well against an over matched team. Kind of eased back a little in that second half, didn't love that. I did like the scoring balance, the free throw shooting was not good. WE had 22 assists on 36 made shots, really good. For me this was somewhere between a C+ and B- game from us.

 

[trimbornunc86]

Solid win against an inferior opponent. Nothing more than that. Was great to see Cade play. Would it kill Hubert to give brown more minutes!??? I don’t think it can be understated just how big this week is. At absolute bare minimum you need to split and more then likely you need to win both to feel better about making the tourney

 

[NathanFielder]

Dayton beat Marquette so that’s good for UNC.

 

[heelmanwilm]

Hard not to feel pretty pessimistic about how this season is likely going to go from here on out. This was one of the few opportunities to make major adjustments and it seems not many at all were made. With so much talent on the roster, it's hard to believe we're likely looking at yet another season of, "will they make the tournament?" questions and just hoping Dayton remains a Q1 win. Because it seems unlikely they're going beat Florida and UCLA is tough too...and the ACC is again down. Hate being a debby downer but aside from last season and a hot streak in 2022 it's been a really rough road with this staff...

“So much talent on the roster”

Well I’ll say it. At some point you have to decide that maybe there isn’t all that talent but more like players just aren’t as good as advertised. Speed, quickness, athleticism, effort….just aren’t there. You don’t have to be an expert to see that. Unc has missed on some recruits. A lot of recruits. Both by not getting some and evidently miss evaluating some we did get. I’m not gonna name names and get certain people all butt hurt but that box score speaks for itself. Fuking lasalle no less. A game where we desperately needed to right the ship against an inferior opponent and look good for a change. Instead….mehhh. Just mehhhh. That’s unc bball last few years….mehhh.

 

[RP12]

Maybe the failure to get big man commits is that the coach doesn’t seem to know how to use them.

Lots of positivity in the coverage of this one but I didn’t see the fundamental change needed to get the season back on track.

 

[gary-7]

I hope it translates, could sure use it

I mean, being realistic nobody expects him to pop 23 in 20 on a ranked team, BUT, it was widely expected around the Dome after Fall practice that he would start.

OK, so Seth stepped up and grabbed the starting 3, but that's hardly a reason to relegate Cade to (essentially) Blue Steel, and jerk him out after a minute or 2 if he missed a shot. That's just bad personnel management.

Fact is, Cade can play. He may not be an explosive athlete but he gives us a legit deep threat that has to be accounted for --- and with RJ scufflin' that's especially important --- and he is long with a high BBall IQ. There was a reason he was considered such a coveted transfer get. Not using him as a regular part of our rotation was just flat ill-conceived.

 

[gary-7]

Hard not to feel pretty pessimistic about how this season is likely going to go from here on out. This was one of the few opportunities to make major adjustments and it seems not many at all were made. With so much talent on the roster, it's hard to believe we're likely looking at yet another season of, "will they make the tournament?" questions and just hoping Dayton remains a Q1 win. Because it seems unlikely they're going beat Florida and UCLA is tough too...and the ACC is again down. Hate being a debby downer but aside from last season and a hot streak in 2022 it's been a really rough road with this staff...

Well, Dayton did upset Marquette today, so there's that...

 

[dtodd4475]

I mean, being realistic nobody expects him to pop 23 in 20 on a ranked team, BUT, it was widely expected around the Dome after Fall practice that he would start.

OK, so Seth stepped up and grabbed the starting 3, but that's hardly a reason to relegate Cade to (essentially) Blue Steel, and jerk him out after a minute or 2 if he missed a shot. That's just bad personnel management.

Fact is, Cade can play. He may not be an explosive athlete but he gives us a legit deep threat that has to be accounted for --- and with RJ scufflin' that's especially important --- and he is long with a high BBall IQ. There was a reason he was considered such a coveted transfer get. Not using him as a regular part of our rotation was just flat ill-conceived.

I hope so, my doubts pre season was his very poor outings against the few power 4 teams he faced last year, and he struggled against Drake the most athletic team in the MVC. Looked overmatched early this year. Not saying he can't at this level, but he hasn’t yet, hopefully he can, that would be a major plus.

This game didn't do much for me to be convinced yet though. Next two games will be a much better read, at least for me.

 

[JovialMuse]

“So much talent on the roster”

Well I’ll say it. At some point you have to decide that maybe there isn’t all that talent but more like players just aren’t as good as advertised. Speed, quickness, athleticism, effort….just aren’t there. You don’t have to be an expert to see that. Unc has missed on some recruits. A lot of recruits. Both by not getting some and evidently miss evaluating some we did get. I’m not gonna name names and get certain people all butt hurt but that box score speaks for itself. Fuking lasalle no less. A game where we desperately needed to right the ship against an inferior opponent and look good for a change. Instead….mehhh. Just mehhhh. That’s unc bball last few years….mehhh.

Maybe you're right, but there are a lot of teams out there with fewer 4- and 5-star guys and/or less heralded players that manage to play more cohesively and with better results. Some of that I'm sure is player fit and evaluation and want-to/desire from the players, but to my admittedly non-coach eyes it appears to be either the wrong scheme for the players on the roster or that the players aren't executing the schemes correctly. Smaller or similarly-sized teams with less raw talent have managed to have great success in recent seasons.

 

[dtodd4475]

As DSouthr pointed out, my concerns about Cadeau's shooting has increased once again as well. His shot has seemed to have flattened out, inching back toward that hesitant, little confidence, guess I'll take it feel when he does stroke it. Cannot have that.

If Cade can indeed earn playing time and can get his looks that may mitigate it some, like Cormac and Harrison did, but Elliot can't be a leave him alone guy beyond the 3 point arc.

 

[DSouthr]

“So much talent on the roster”

Well I’ll say it. At some point you have to decide that maybe there isn’t all that talent but more like players just aren’t as good as advertised. Speed, quickness, athleticism, effort….just aren’t there. You don’t have to be an expert to see that. Unc has missed on some recruits. A lot of recruits. Both by not getting some and evidently miss evaluating some we did get. I’m not gonna name names and get certain people all butt hurt but that box score speaks for itself. Fuking lasalle no less. A game where we desperately needed to right the ship against an inferior opponent and look good for a change. Instead….mehhh. Just mehhhh. That’s unc bball last few years….mehhh.

How one looks at the games we are and will play I think depends on how you want UNC to play more than how they are actually playing. I am a big man guy, I believe the real difference makers are big men. Others believe, nails on a chalk board for me, that it is all about guards and specifically it is all about 3pt shooting, that the model is what they are doing in the NBA. Some do feel that the very best approach is to spread all 5 guys out past the 3pt line and either take a trey or drive for a lay up, some like me feel the NBA way does not apply to the college game because the college game is taking kids right out of high school and expecting them to be able to play like grown men with a lot of professional development with a lot of experience at the highest level against the most talented players on the planet. Sorry but I wil always believe a 1ft putt is easier than a 20ft putt, I want to take more 1 ft putts because I will make more of those (I do not golf BTW, just using golf as an analogy). But you do you...

But I do as well believe, no matter what camp you may be in, we can all agree that step one for a coach is to decide exactly which approach they prefer and step 2 is to bring in the type of players that fit your preference. Step 3 is to put them in position to play to their strengths that you brought them in for. Has this staff done any of those 3?

Looks to me like Hubert prefers the NBA approach, either take a trey or drive for a lay up, well OK, I don't have to like that to realize it can work some, like Bama does but for it to you must have the players whose strength are jump shooting but handle the ball well enough to drive for lay ups. We have 5 guards that are very strong drivers (including Jack and Drake), we have one knock down jump shooting guard in RJ that is in an extended slump. Our guards do not fit the NBA style, jump shooting by any of them other than RJ is playing to the weakness more than playing to their strength. We have a front court that that is not geared to play against physical big strong opposing front courts, whose strength seems to be more mid range jump shooters but are being used like we used Bacot?

We are now in year 4 of Hubert's tenure, why don't we have players geared toward jump shooting treys, the one real jump shooting guard we have Hubert inherited from Roy? We have a 6'8"starting power forward and a 6'8" starting center and our 2 longest guys sit on the bench, Jalen got 8 mins yesterday and half of those minutes came in mop up at the end, Brown got 5mins? Neither are physically dominating type of players and yet they are playing deep paint back to the basket and setting a bunch of screens? They don't fit the big man model and they are not used in a jump shooting style. There was a concerted effort yesterday to look for Tyson in spots to take treys in a game we had well in hand yet ZERO effort to get Jalen cranked up and playing to his strength of jump shooting mid range jumpers, again he got 8mins yesterday?

Yes, this team can still win and it can win at a big time level but they have to start right now having players play to their strengths and I don't see movement toward that. I look directly to this coaching staff for that. WE do have a LOT of talent on this team but the mix of talent to position is way off. WE can and likely will be a fringe top 25 team all season playing with this mix and as we are and we can upset a stronger team on the right night but we are not built like a team that should win the ACC regular season, win the ACCT, or last past game 2 of the NCAAT. The sad thing is this team could be much better with the players we do have if the style we play were fitted more to the talent we have and it does not appear that is going to happen.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Just suppose, for example, that Cade had come in and missed his first couple of shots... would we have seen him again enough to get a rhythm? I would like to think so --- I mean, I would LIKE to think that the staff went into this game determined to get him some run --- but again, forgive me for wondering "what if"?

Excellent point.

Wonderful to see Cade break out. Fingers crossed that it continues against better teams and against man-to-man. This team desperately needs another outside threat that opposing teams have to respect.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Shout-out to James Brown, who refreshingly acted like a damn BIG, getting to the blocks, posting and asking for the ball.

That was fun. And frankly, if he can do that from time to time, he makes himself useful - and might even have couple of upperclassmen looking over their shoulders when it comes to PT.

I'm not expecting him to become a starter any time soon, but he ain't chopped liver.

 

[DSouthr]

Maybe you're right, but there are a lot of teams out there with fewer 4- and 5-star guys and/or less heralded players that manage to play more cohesively and with better results. Some of that I'm sure is player fit and evaluation and want-to/desire from the players, but to my admittedly non-coach eyes it appears to be either the wrong scheme for the players on the roster or that the players aren't executing the schemes correctly. Smaller or similarly-sized teams with less raw talent have managed to have great success in recent seasons.

To re-enforce your point, Cadeau simply is NOT a jump shooter from trey, his game is built on forcing the defense to react to his drives and finding a open team mate for a clean look. RJ, big time shooter in a slump but at the end of the day he is a 5'11" 2 guard, very tiny by even a college standard now days and he is not the quickest 5'11"guy around. Jalen is a very good mid range jump shooter that can extend out to trey at times, he is being used asd a back to the basket guy that sets a lot of screens? Seth is so far our clear MVP but her is a big time driver that finishes athletically but is a hesitant jump shooter. JWit is a big time finisher at the rim, very athletic but a weak jump shooter, taking to many jumpers from deep corner? Tyson, was supposed to be that long wing that was a great shooter, has he played anything but the 4 this season? Drake and Jack are both big time drive to the rim guys that wil in time be consistent jump shooters but they are not there yet? We are playing guys to their weakness rather than to their strengths and I expect better from a UNC coaching staff than that.

I think a coach at ANY level, be it middle school girls, college men, or NBA that your best chance at winning is to play a style that features the strengths of the players you NOW HAVE and not force guys to play to the weakest part of their game just because you demand a certain style be played, stop forcing square pegs in to round holes, it just messes up the pegs and doesn't help the holes either.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

9) Claude, 5 boards, 3pts, 4-4 from free throw line in his 7mins

I really like Claude. The early knock against him was that he was too short and a foul magnet. But in his last games for us he's been quite good and not a foul magnet.

To my eye, he has one of the best motors on the team, and manages to be in good position a lot.

Can't do anything about his height, but he pushes people around pretty well for a smaller front line player.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

6) Lubin 10pts, did not miss a shot from the field, 5 boards in his 20mins

He's just quietly competent.

 

[DSouthr]

Excellent point.

Wonderful to see Cade break out. Fingers crossed that it continues against better teams and against man-to-man. This team desperately needs another outside threat that opposing teams have to respect.

This Cade Tyson question, I am as well very glad the kid had a really good game yesterday, there are teams he will match up well against but others I don't think he will. Agree or not up to you but I see him maybe more as jump shooting wing that is out of position as a 4, he is playing exclusively as a 4? Well, if he is in fact a wing we have Drake, Seth, and Jack that can all play well at the 3, is it vital that Tyson as a 3 is as critical to our play? OK, so you feel he is a 4 and not a 3, we have JWit, we have IMO Jalen (that IMO may fit the 4 in Hubert's preferred style of play ( I have always felt Jalen was a stretch 4 much more than a 5) and I feel Lubin is more a 4 than a 5. Point being we have much better fits at the 4 than I see Tyson as.

I think it fare more important for this team to get Jalen's game cranked up, to iron out Cadeau's shooting issues, to get RJ back to confident jump shooting, to have JWit making hard cuts thru the lane and looking for hi to finish strong, for Lubin to show off more of that mid range game, AL far more important in my view than Tyson and I do not mean that to offend any one, just sharing my view point.

So yesterday, in a game we had well in hand I would have had much more a focus to get Jalen hitting some shots and getting confident, his offense seems to dictate his over all play. I am pissed that didn't happen, this game was tailor made for that to happen and it didn't, he got 4 minutes of real game time action? He is taken out right after he took a hard pass and finished and got the and 1 and gets back in during mop up?

 

[DSouthr]

I really like Claude. The early knock against him was that he was too short and a foul magnet. But in his last games for us he's been quite good and not a foul magnet.

To my eye, he has one of the best motors on the team, and manages to be in good position a lot.

Can't do anything about his height, but he pushes people around pretty well for a smaller front line player.

I like Claude, he gives you what he has to give but he looks like Shaq at the free throw line and basically his range on his shot is measured in inches rather than feet. He is a under sized guy on a very small team. I just prefer that UNC has a match up advantage physically at at least 1 position on the court rather than a already small team playing even smaller. Tiny back court meets tiny front court and big things are expected? LOL

 

[DSouthr]

He's just quietly competent.

To me Lubin is Garrison Brooks, blue collar, works hard but limited.

 

[DSouthr]

I really like Claude. The early knock against him was that he was too short and a foul magnet. But in his last games for us he's been quite good and not a foul magnet.

To my eye, he has one of the best motors on the team, and manages to be in good position a lot.

Can't do anything about his height, but he pushes people around pretty well for a smaller front line player.

Ooops, that was a typo, Claude was 1-4 from the free throw line and the misses were butt ugly! I changed it but you knew he could not have gone 4-4 from the line and score only 3pts? LOL

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Jalen is now down to 8mins a game???

Lubin, may be the most steady guy on this team not named Seth.

JWash started the first 8 games; Lubin started the last 2.

JWit started the first 7 games; Powell started the last 3.

I'm comfortable with Lubin continuing to start. Not sure if Drake is ready for that yet. A 6'6 freshman at PF is a tough call.

I won't be surprised to see either JWit or JWash start against a taller Florida in place of Drake. But probably not both.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

This Cade Tyson question, I am as well very glad the kid had a really good game yesterday, there are teams he will match up well against but others I don't think he will. Agree or not up to you but I see him maybe more as jump shooting wing that is out of position as a 4, he is playing exclusively as a 4? Well, if he is in fact a wing we have Drake, Seth, and Jack that can all play well at the 3, is it vital that Tyson as a 3 is as critical to our play? OK, so you feel he is a 4 and not a 3, we have JWit, we have IMO Jalen (that IMO may fit the 4 in Hubert's preferred style of play ( I have always felt Jalen was a stretch 4 much more than a 5) and I feel Lubin is more a 4 than a 5. Point being we have much better fits at the 4 than I see Tyson as.

I think it fare more important for this team to get Jalen's game cranked up, to iron out Cadeau's shooting issues, to get RJ back to confident jump shooting, to have JWit making hard cuts thru the lane and looking for hi to finish strong, for Lubin to show off more of that mid range game, AL far more important in my view than Tyson and I do not mean that to offend any one, just sharing my view point.

So yesterday, in a game we had well in hand I would have had much more a focus to get Jalen hitting some shots and getting confident, his offense seems to dictate his over all play. I am pissed that didn't happen, this game was tailor made for that to happen and it didn't, he got 4 minutes of real game time action? He is taken out right after he took a hard pass and finished and got the and 1 and gets back in during mop up?

The experiment we haven't seen yet (unless I missed it) is JWash at the 4, playing more of a Manek role. Yeah, yeah, he's not the same as Brady - but that top of the key stakeout could work for him as well as it did Manek. Makek had a quicker release, but I think JWash's extra length could make up for that.

You and I and AJ and @gary-7 - and probably more of us - seem ready for that experiment. Is Hubert? Is JWash?

I'd love to hear that they are practicing the heck out of that between now and Florida.

JWash has averaged 2 points per game over the last 5 games (which, remember, he started 3 of).

Now maybe JWash will snap out of it. But I sort of think trying him at stretch 4 might be his last chance to make it on this team.

 

[DSouthr]

The experiment we haven't seen yet (unless I missed it) is JWash at the 4, playing more of a Manek role. Yeah, yeah, he's not the same as Brady - but that top of the key stakeout could work for him as well as it did Manek. Makek had a quicker release, but I think JWash's extra length could make up for that.

You and I and AJ and @gary-7 - and probably more of us - seem ready for that experiment. Is Hubert? Is JWash?

I'd love to hear that they are practicing the heck out of that between now and Florida.

JWash has averaged 2 points per game over the last 5 games (which, remember, he started 3 of).

Now maybe JWash will snap out of it. But I sort of think trying him at stretch 4 might be his last chance to make it on this team.

JWash is not going to snap out of this unless he is used differently. I am not even saying he has to be moved from the 5 to the 4, I am saying we cannot keep using him like a back to the basket guy. Imagine had we used Jawad as a back to the basket center and didn't have Sean Maye as our starting center, would we have that natty? Imagine had we used Kennedy Meeks as a stretch 4, do we have that natty?

Does it matter at all how many games Jalen has started this season if he is not being used right in them? WE are now in the conference portion of our schedule, still have a couple non-conference games ahead but it is really late in the season for major change to happen and work. FINALLY yesterday we did seem to try to run some offense inside the paint to out side, at times almost like we were trying to run some version of structured offensive attack on December 14th? Till yesterday it seemed our offense was one of 3 guys driving the paint and we will see what happens or have RJ take another 40' step back jumper over a defender and wonder why he isn't hitting shots.? This is on the staff, not the players.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

To me Lubin is Garrison Brooks, blue collar, works hard but limited.

Fair comparison, I think. Garrison had a stronger motor but Lubin plays more within himself with better offensive efficiency.

Lubin with a strong motor would be fine. Can you teach that?

 

[al would]

EC needed more than 24 minutes in this game and his consistent under use is concerning for a relatively young player and team. By the same token RJ's 27 minutes against La Salle was a positive trending in the right direction for a 25% 3pt shooting guard.

 

[NathanFielder]

I know everyone will talk about the bigs for days here. I guess I'm moving past them. None of the bigs have shown in their careers that they're anything special. They're more specialists and hopefully they can consistently be asked to do the specific things they're good at but I don't think there's a simple solution to quite frankly pretty mediocre big guys. Eventually the hope is one guy emerges to at least play really consistent.

I do think Cade Tyson is really important in this equation. I'd imagine going into the season, the coaching staff expected Tyson to give them consistently 2-3 3PM per game on 40%+ shooting and maybe 9-12 PPG. He obviously didn't provide anything against the good teams on the schedule. So where are you going to get 10 PPG and a few 3s per game from? You're then needing Cadeau and Seth to shoot with more volume because you're not getting it out of the bigs on a consistent basis. And while I think Seth and Cadeau are improved shooters, they are not willing shooters.

Then obviously RJ's major struggles adds an additional layer of issues for this team. Who on this team can step up and replace RJ's inefficiency and Cade's ineffectiveness against good teams? That's why going forward, for me the 2 keys to this team are RJ's efficiency and Cade's productiveness. RJ was never going to have as efficient of a season as he had last year minus the Alabama game. Without Bacot and Ingram, RJ is going to basically be the only option in late clock situations and he's a much less efficient option in those situations than Bacot and Ingram. But you have to assume that RJ will eventually find his reasonable level and maybe he gets to like 40% FG and 31% 3PT by the end of the season. From there, Cade needs to be a threat in every game.

Up to now, UNC is 5th in the country in tempo. UNC is 260th in assist rate (48.5% assisted FG). UNC is 242nd in 3PT rate (3PTA/FGA). So this theory that UNC is just passing it around the perimeter and shooting 3s all the time is a myth. UNC has been an isolation team this year and have been a high volume 2PT shooting team that's been dependent on getting to the FT line. That is not the recipe for this team to be the best version of itself. I know few will agree, but they certainly can't be in the 200s in 3PT rate. They need Cade Tyson to be a threat every game and give them some high volume 3s at an efficient percentage. It is essential for this team going forward.

There's so much talk about the bigs and they're a collection of bigs that have never proven to be game changers and true impact players at this level throughout their careers. What they need is for Cade and RJ to shoot relatively similarly to how they've shot throughout their careers. Now does that mean playing more through their bigs to end up getting better looks in their offense? That's certainly a discussion. But the production needs to come from RJ being more efficient and Cade actually belonging against good teams. That's how this team is built.

 

[DSouthr]

Fair comparison, I think. Garrison had a stronger motor but Lubin plays more within himself with better offensive efficiency.

Lubin with a strong motor would be fine. Can you teach that?

I am actually fine with Lubin's motor, keep in mind, Brooks had a freshman Bacot in his best season, Lubin does not have that. I would like to see what Lubin would be able to do playing beside a top shelf center, imagine him playing beside Broom for example? Lubin is like vanilla ice cream but really good vanilla ice cream, the problem is you are walking into a Baskin Robbins and you just are not going to love that great vanilla ice cream, you are not going to order the vanillas, you are going to order the tootle fruity with sprinkles and love the experience.