Outside it was! He hounded his man to death, but he still got beat a couple times I can remember..
Quick stuff (Louisville game)...
- Thread starter gary-7
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Outside it was! He hounded his man to death, but he still got beat a couple times I can remember..
You'd have to point out where he was beaten for me to believe that. I watched the game twice and I didn't see that. There were times I thought his help D could have been better, but that's a judgement call. He either helps down and leaves the shooter open for a kick-out, or he doesn't. He did help down a couple of times and the kick-out was made to the guy he had to leave, but the shooter missed the open 3's. And more than a couple of times he helped down and knocked the ball away and we got steals. I'll take the decisions he made last night on D everyday and twice on Sunday.
You and Gary are right, he was flawless.
Moving on to Pitt...............................
Moving on to Pitt...............................
That's pretty weak. I already stated there were times I thought his help D could have been better. So flawless isn't remotely how I'd describe his play. But if he did play flawlessly I'd be sure to let you know.
Beats page after page after page of arguing after a great win doesn't it?
I think JBs D was both flawless and had room for improvement! He got beat like a rented mule and locked down his opponent mercilessly! I was breathless with admiration and disgust!
My name is Griffin and I see all!
My name is Griffin and I see all!
Mikey, my brother. I was gonna use a response to '92's post to expand on a point from last night (before I clumsily f'd it up with two other responses and had to delete it).
Anyway, while watching the game my crew got into a running basketball geek conversation about the differences in our defensive scheme and Louisville's, so much of our attention was on that side of the ball (as well as the action off the ball), and it wasn't long before they were gushing over Berry's play.
Heck, it started early. What was it?... second possession and Justin bites on a back-door clear with no shot-blocker in sight, but fortunately JB had slipped into the paint in his Help responsibilities and had "opened up" to see man-and-ball, and was thus able to beat the driver to the spot and draw a charge. That was text book, and was a dunk otherwise. That's the sort of thing he was doing all game, and he was absolutely dogging his man assignment.
Late in the second half I asked if anybody remembered anyone scoring on JB at all? Then we recalled the first-half drive where the dude bowled JB over and just threw up a prayer from the hip and it went in (should have probably been an offensive foul, honestly). Other than that there just weren't any. And sure enough, when I rewatched at home, in Joel's 35 minutes the man he was guarding at the time scored 2 points. BTW, rewatching with sound, Bilas and Shulman were also gushing over his D. Bilas (as did I) really liked the defense on a drive where JB maintained his side force the whole way, allowing only a weak shot that made for a turkey-shoot for Tony to swat it away in Help. Again, text book.
The only mistake JB made I saw in grading came on a second-half out-of-bounds play where he got caught up in the paint scrum and his man (their little 3-pt specialist that time) slipped out for an open look (fortunately he missed). As for the aforementioned switches, he handled them exactly as taught.
Moreover, meanwhile Joel was helping his ass off and was a disruptor doing so. Rewatching closely, JB was responsible for causing at least 5 of Louisville's TOs, with the charge, steal, deflections and even disrupting a guy's dribble in Help who then just proceeded to push it out of bounds... plus little dog blocked a shot and altered 2 more that missed badly and we went the other way with.
So, honestly Mikey, I didn't say it lightly. I don't go back as far as you
, but that was as good a defensive outing by a Carolina PG as I can remember seeing. We weren't particularly or consistently good offensively last night, but fortunately our defense really showed up... and Joel was the ring-leader.
Joel's D was awesome .......................... just not perfect. Phil-The Jet-King Rice-Phelps-Ray Ray-Ty all played some mean D before leaving Carolina. Comes with the territory.
The best defensive PG I've ever seen at UNC was Derrick Phelps. Joel is very good when he's focused as he was last night though. If he can maintain that defensive focus, indeed if the whole team can do so, we will be hard to beat. That, and rebounding, enable us to offset a very bad shooting night and still beat a very good team.
It's not that the defense hasn't been great lately, it has. It's also fair to say they've been aided by luck though. Lou/UVA went a collective 5-40 or so on 3's? A 12.5% defensive 3-pt pct is not sustainable, and Louisville had quite a few open looks that they just clanked. Did the same on FT's. A regression will make the defense look a lot more normal.
Crowd was electric last night. Really appreciated that. Also Meeks is such a great rebounder, really fun to watch. I thought Roy put Stillman in because we kept turning it over, and he knows if nothing else Stillman is a steady ball handler. Another great win!
Crowd was electric last night. Really appreciated that. Also Meeks is such a great rebounder, really fun to watch. I thought Roy put Stillman in because we kept turning it over, and he knows if nothing else Stillman is a steady ball handler. Another great win!
Couldn't make up my mind if it was Phelps or The Jet. Man the Jet had a LOT of steals-break-out dunks. I'm to lazy, to look it up about steals, somebody needs to do the leg work.
Couldn't make up my mind if it was Phelps or The Jet. Man the Jet had a LOT of steals-break-out dunks. I'm to lazy, to look it up about steals, somebody needs to do the leg work.
195 is what I found. Paige had 203.
I know this much, we will have to bring the defense against Pitt and we didn't exactly do that when we played them earlier season. I am very happy we beat Louisville, it was a big time win, but it is in the history books now. Now it is all about Pitt, now that we got that 2 game lead in the ACC it is about maintaining that 2 game lead and not letting this Pitt team take away what was so hard to earn.
Phelps is #1 on the UNC steals list with 247. The Jet had 195, as Phly said. I've never seen a UNC PG who could shut down opposing PG's like Phelps could. His defense on opposing PG's was instrumental in our winning the title in 1993. He is the only player in ACC history with 600 assists, 400 rebounds, and 200 steals. He was a very underrated player.
Yep. Phelps is the gold standard for defense at that position, and although not much of a scoring threat he ran the show quite well. When that BC thug Abrams cheap-shotted him in 94 it took away our shot at back-to-back Nattys.
As for JB, while folks obviously think of him as a scoring Lead Guard, it's past time he gets appreciated for what he brings game after game on the defensive end. For a guy who is expectd to be one of our main offensive guns to run 35 minutes of defense --- one and off the ball --- at the level he did Weds night is nothing short of remarkable.
A loss against Pitt largely negates a very good win against Louisville. They generally play a pretty physical type of game and shoot the three well. I just hope we're not looking forward to UVA. After the close call earlier at home, we certainly have every reason to take Pitt seriously.
Well, Joel and Theo set the defensive tone for our team. With the loss of Kenny, one of our best if not the best perimeter defender, it is even more important that everyone step up his defense to take up the slack. And I think Theo's increased role will lead us to be a good defensive team down the stretch, his energy is infectious on both ends of the court.
Kenny's loss is not to be underestimated. Theo is still not getting full minutes and leaving Nate out there too long can get sketchy in certain situations. Pitino was running isos at him with Mitchell (as that is still the scouting report) successfully until JB helped off his man and disrupted the drive.
I think we need to increase Robinson's minutes, mainly for defensive purposes and maybe an occasional jump shot when teams double down.
About 10 min a game would help bigtime.
Imo pitt is the toughest game left. Its on the road, we're supposed to win, and we've got a false sense of security about our defense from our last two opponents not being able to throw it in the ocean from a boat.
I think 7th and Brandon both need to play more minutes. Nate has averaged 19.5 MPG this year. I'd like to see those minutes cut in half, with those minutes split between 7th, Brandon, and Theo.
I agree to the extent that I think we'll need Brandon and Seventh to give us some of those hustle plays that Kenny would have if he were on the court. I really would love it if he could get back even for the last couple potential games, although I'm sure even if he could our MO is always super conservative, and rightly so.
