Quick stuff (NCCU game)...

[gary-7]

...and this one was about us.

What I mean by that is this was a game we picked up at the last minute with little time to scout. They're not a bad team at all for their level and they're very well coached, and scouting UNC is easy because we're on TV... like always. That said, UNC should be able to function and win comfortably nonetheless, so this is a classic game that is less about the opponent and more about us. Welp, what we saw in the proverbial mirror was not pretty at times --- early and late, to be specific --- so it unfortunately took a surge of actual Carolina basketball in the middle to bank a safe margin (which we needed).

- the outset was yet again marred by indifferent effort --- lazy footwork and bad angles on defense and inability to "move" their defense interspersed with horrible ball security.

- we did pound it inside, but failed to finish thru contact and missed half of our early FT ops. Also 0-fer from 3 in the first half.

- they were well-prepared and spaced for our scrambles but honestly, our backend rotations were friggn awful.

- Bacot's effort was a bright spot

Bottom line was that we only scratched out a halftime lead due to talent.

As for what happened subsequently, allow me to indulge a bit. Caleb was just awful --- and I mean awful (and RJ wasn't much less so) --- in the first half but I was watching closely to see how he would respond. As I posted last game, Caleb has hit an early freshman wall, so do you hang your head or keep plugging? Y'all saw the horrible TO followed by him chasing down the ball and getting a block. Little things like that are important to show the dog in you.

- one of the matras of Dean Smith basketball is to always play "under control", even when you're going fast. After the half Caleb started to "get" that and had a much better start to the second... picking his spots and letting things slow down for himself. In fact, when Platek checked in, instead of Love going to the bench (as has been the norm lately), he stayed and RJ subbed out. That little deal seemed to be a confidence booster and things started to click.

- Speaking of Plates, the game was essentially pulled out of the danger zone over the ensuing 3:45. Specifically, in a decisive span of a minute-fifteen, AP broke the ice from 3, got a steal that triggered the Secondary, canning another 3 on a nice swing pass from Love, followed immediately by Caleb's dive-on-the-floor steal and dish to AP for a fast break deuce. Carolina basketball and a 15 point lead.

- with that said, unfortunately there wasn't much more positive to talk about after that, other than it's good to see UNC Bigs hit a couple of Trail jumpers on the Secondary. We also cleaned up the FT situation, making all but one of them after the bad start (including our Bigs cashing in).

The bottom line is that Roy has a dilemma on his hands in that although Love and Davis are individually our most gifted backcourt players, they together are not by any stretch our best backcourt... at least not as of yet. And even with the wealth of frontcourt troops, Carolina basketball has always been triggered by solid backcourt play. Caleb's stat line has an ugly crooked number in the TO column, but there was a good bit to be encouraged about IF he can continue to get himself as under control as he was in the second half. RJ needs to continue to learn the value of spacing and not talking the rock into no-man's land (especially at his size) and we need Plates to continue to be the adult in the room as the younguns develop.

Anyway, no more time for tune-ups --- it's into the fire from here on out...

 

[2DDIMOND]

...and this one was about us.

What I mean by that is this was a game we picked up at the last minute with little time to scout. They're not a bad team at all for their level and they're very well coached, and scouting UNC is easy because we're on TV... like always. That said, UNC should be able to function and win comfortably nonetheless, so this is a classic game that is less about the opponent and more about us. Welp, what we saw in the proverbial mirror was not pretty at times --- early and late, to be specific --- so it unfortunately took a surge of actual Carolina basketball in the middle to bank a safe margin (which we needed).

- the outset was yet again marred by indifferent effort --- lazy footwork and bad angles on defense and inability to "move" their defense interspersed with horrible ball security.

- we did pound it inside, but failed to finish thru contact and missed half of our early FT ops. Also 0-fer from 3 in the first half.

- they were well-prepared and spaced for our scrambles but honestly, our backend rotations were friggn awful.

- Bacot's effort was a bright spot

Bottom line was that we only scratched out a halftime lead due to talent.

As for what happened subsequently, allow me to indulge a bit. Caleb was just awful --- and I mean awful (and RJ wasn't much less so) --- in the first half but I was watching closely to see how he would respond. As I posted last game, Caleb has hit an early freshman wall, so do you hang your head or keep plugging? Y'all saw the horrible TO followed by him chasing down the ball and getting a block. Little things like that are important to show the dog in you.

- one of the matras of Dean Smith basketball is to always play "under control", even when you're going fast. After the half Caleb started to "get" that and had a much better start to the second... picking his spots and letting things slow down for himself. In fact, when Platek checked in, instead of Love going to the bench (as has been the norm lately), he stayed and RJ subbed out. That little deal seemed to be a confidence booster and things started to click.

- Speaking of Plates, the game was essentially pulled out of the danger zone over the ensuing 3:45. Specifically, in a decisive span of a minute-fifteen, AP broke the ice from 3, got a steal that triggered the Secondary, canning another 3 on a nice swing pass from Love, followed immediately by Caleb's dive-on-the-floor steal and dish to AP for a fast break deuce. Carolina basketball and a 15 point lead.

- with that said, unfortunately there wasn't much more positive to talk about after that, other than it's good to see UNC Bigs hit a couple of Trail jumpers on the Secondary. We also cleaned up the FT situation, making all but one of them after the bad start (including our Bigs cashing in).

The bottom line is that Roy has a dilema on his hands in that although Love and Davis are individually our most gifted backcourt players, they together are not by any stretch our best backcourt... at least not as of yet. And even with the wealth of frontcourt troops, Carolina basketball has always been triggered by solid backcourt play. Caleb's stat line has an ugly crooked number in the TO column, but there was a good bit to be encouraged about IF he can continue to get himself as under control as we was in the second half. RJ needs to continue to learn the value of spacing and not talking the rock into no-man's land (especially at his size) and we need Plates to continue to be the adult in the room as the younguns develop.

Anyway, not more time for tune-ups --- it's into the fire from here on out...

These wrap ups/analyses are so spot on. I wish the people that dog you for the takes they don’t agree with would also have the guts to applaud you for these outstanding post game write ups. Kudos, keep up the good work. I so look forward to these after each game.

 

[FlaTarHeel]

1.I also Loved Caleb's 2nd half "effort" on both ends. He will arrive at some point, this kid is "hungry".

2.AP is the "unsung" hero through 6 games. Anyone who doesn't want to hear that, can go to ......

3. I went to a HS friend's funeral earlier today. I guarantee you he had more life left in him than our lineup the last 2 and 1/2 minutes. What the heck was that?

4. We need at least 2 of 4 bigs having good games each night, today it was Bacot/Sharpe.

 

[gauchoheel]

A little progress, but we need a full game of clean ball handling and at least decent shooting. Next game is a tough one, but 5-2 with two Quad 1 wins seems a heck of a lot better mentally than 4-3 and 1-3 in Quad 1 games. Hope we can pull it out.

Puff, Kessler, and Walton don't quite look ready to play yet, but glad they're getting some run. I think in crunch time so far it looks like an 7 man rotation with Platek and Sharpe subbing for the guards and bigs, respectively. Hopefully Harris adds an 8th solid guy in ACC play.

 

[imajericho]

Who is our best backcourt iyo?

 

[Steat]

Caleb had a lot of careless turnovers. He will get better. This is why you need these tune-up games. Hopefully Harris will get back soon and join the rotation. He showed that he was good outside shooter in the few games he played last year.

Sharpe is a monster.

 

[gauchoheel]

Caleb had a lot of careless turnovers. He will get better. This is why you need these tune-up games. Hopefully Harris will get back soon and join the rotation. He showed that he was good outside shooter in the few games he played last year.

Sharpe is a monster.

Agreed. Really glad we're getting all of our noncon games in.

 

[djnach]

Caleb had a lot of careless turnovers. He will get better. This is why you need these tune-up games. Hopefully Harris will get back soon and join the rotation. He showed that he was good outside shooter in the few games he played last year.

Sharpe is a monster.

It would help our offense if we not force passes to our bigs when they are being guarded 5 on 2. It would help our offense if Roy would vary it once in a while so our guards could get more open shots. It would help our offense if Leaky would actually try to play offense. He only takes about 4 shots a game and rarely does he try to drive to the basket. Our offense is playing 4 on 5.

 

[UNC-75]

Hard to believe but our basketball team outscored our football team by only 11 points today. Go figure.

 

[dtodd4475]

I did not get a chance to catch the game. The 25 for 31 free throws was a very welcomed sight to see in the box score. 0 for 10 almost midway through the second half and 2 for 15 on 3's for the game is still very troubling.

That coupled with another opponent's high 3 %, I think 8 for 19 shooting, has to be improved. Getting massacred from beyond the arc leaves little room for error elsewhere. Seems like if we didn't shoot an abnormally high FT % this game could of actually been a loss.

The learning curve will only grow from here, but the young bucks will settle in and smooth out their games. How quickly is the question for me.

 

[gary-7]

Puff, Kessler, and Walton don't quite look ready to play yet, but glad they're getting some run. I think in crunch time so far it looks like an 7 man rotation with Platek and Sharpe subbing for the guards and bigs, respectively. Hopefully Harris adds an 8th solid guy in ACC play.

That's a good assessment, IMO.
As for the frontcourt, Kessler will play, but as he grows into his body he'll likely be the 4th option amongst the Bigs (which is a luxury even beyond Roy's ideal 3-headed rotation).

And you're right --- Puff and Walton weren't really expected to be major contributors this season, but with Harris still out there was a need for an extra hand. BTW, the reason Walton is ahead of Puff in the pecking order is he has been much more consistent in learning the system and hitting his assignments in practice.

Ideally, we like to have 5 guys in the perimeter rotation, so Walton has been the 5th man there as a 3/2 WIng. His role will likely return to spot duty once Ant returns.

Given that Kessler will be part of the Big mix, we'll likely be a 9-man rotation going forward in conference.

 

[Tarheel75]

Good write up Gary

Don't have much to add to all other posts other than we looked so..... pedestrian in this game. What was this, the 4th straight game falling behind by double digits? Not being able to be at games this year, I miss being able to watch the players and coaches reactions on the bench aside from the game, as you can see and learn so much more about how the team is fairing overall.

That certainly was not necessary as I watched this game. A couple of things stood out to me. We looked lethargic and it didn't appear to me that we had the respect for our opponent that they should have, and did not play focused nor did we exert a lot of effort at times. The only good that come of this game was that we won it.

 

[DSouthr]

First, congrats to coach Moten, I don't think he gets nearly the level of appreciation for his coaching nationally as he should. I have shared before that as close as he is to our UNC program it would be nice to see him on our staff with Roy one day.

Felt going in to this game that it being such a short notice game that it would be a big advantage for us, even given how familiar Coach M is our system as well as players from both teams (at least in non-covid days) played with and against each other a lot in the summers. Thing was that kind of reversed on us, looked like we came out assuming we could walk thru this one sleep walking thru the first 10mins. Yeah, they hit some good shots but that is why their players are on scholarship as well as ours.

Defensively, while we are not the best defense in the country right now, we are defending well enough to win, our issues are more on the offensive end and yes, very specifically guard related. This stinker 1st half followed by a winning basketball second half deal is starting to feel a bit systemic. It is to the point that I think Roy is going to have to shake up his starting line up. We need to begin these games with more energy and IMO a way to do that is to start your best energizer guys and in my view the poster child for that is Sharpe. If Ant were available I would add him as well, their team mates feed off of their energy, we saw that with Ant last season for those few games and we see it with Sharpe now. We simply have to begin these games with more intensity even given how much I would hate to see either Brooks or Bacot have to sit.

As for our back court, you guys know it even if you don't want to admit it, PLatek is ballin, doesn't matter if those in front of him have more talent, they are not playing better and we are used to watching our senior leaders do that. So I think maybe it is time to start PLatek but which of the frosh guards do we sit? As much the RJ fan as I am and even given that Love is setting a new low point TO stat, I think RJ is playing out of position and could well benefit from being able to watch the first few minutes, I don't love him at the 2 (don't love Caleb at the 1 right now either). Caleb at the point, I have seen that movie, it was originally called the Dexter Strickland story. Dex was another 2 guard that had to learn to be a PG when he got to UNC. Recall, Dex was extremely athletic but got a serious knee injury that stunted his development. But there was another very important aspect of Dex, he struggled to shoot treys and he wanted to finish everything at the rim, did way to much 1 on 1 driving in to the teeth of defenses. In time he learned the value of the mid range jumper and working more to set up his mates for easy ops, I think would have been an excellent PG for us had he not had that knee injury.

If we started Platek, it would allow our 2 frosh PGs to have to compete against each other for PT at a single position, keep turning the ball over, keep trying to force things that are not there and your PT gets hit, survival of the fittest. Recall how the bench taught Keeling last season, how much did not starting Joel as a freshman teach him that resulted in that excellent soph season? Time to shake some things up so the message that every second of PT you get has to be respected, you don't get to take it easy at the start, if you do you sit and maybe for the rest of the half. Starting is a reward that must be respected but if you do not start the games with a wide open motor then you should not start these games.

 

[39 Feet Above Sea Level]

Good comments and analysis from fans that love our team - warts and all. Youth will be served and once things start clicking, the Heels could be formidable this season, whatever it may turn out to be. The teams with talent that can also manufacture the needed enthusiasm of playing every game like it really counts and not like a preseason scrimmage will be there at the end. I hope we can be one of them.

 

[DSouthr]

Good comments and analysis from fans that love our team - warts and all. Youth will be served and once things start clicking, the Heels could be formidable this season, whatever it may turn out to be. The teams with talent that can also manufacture the needed enthusiasm of playing every game like it really counts and not like a preseason scrimmage will be there at the end. I hope we can be one of them.

Which does bring up an interesting topic, how much has not having fans packed in the stands and all the excitement that creates effects how we begin games?

 

[trollbaby]

I expected our young guards to struggle early this season and knew it was wishful thinking that Black & Plates would make up for the poor shooting and TOs! Didn’t think it would be this bad at 27% on 3s and 16.5TOs per game. What really bothers me is Brooks demise. He’s never had the greatest skill set but he had the determination, will power and effort. It seems he is feeling a Sharpe pressure from the bench!

 

[gary-7]

Good write up Gary

Don't have much to add to all other posts other than we looked so..... pedestrian in this game. What was this, the 4th straight game falling behind by double digits? Not being able to be at games this year, I miss being able to watch the players and coaches reactions on the bench aside from the game, as you can see and learn so much more about how the team is fairing overall.

That certainly was not necessary as I watched this game. A couple of things stood out to me. We looked lethargic and it didn't appear to me that we had the respect for our opponent that they should have, and did not play focused nor did we exert a lot of effort at times. The only good that come of this game was that we won it.

Yeah, I'd like to think (hope) that the light came on for CL, but I'll tell ya... that opening lack of urgency and effort needs to stop yesterday.

And now that you mention reactions, at least there were several camera pans on Roy, who spent a lotta time looking bilious even thru his mask.

 

[IDUNK4HEELS]

First, congrats to coach Moten, I don't think he gets nearly the level of appreciation for his coaching nationally as he should. I have shared before that as close as he is to our UNC program it would be nice to see him on our staff with Roy one day.

Felt going in to this game that it being such a short notice game that it would be a big advantage for us, even given how familiar Coach M is our system as well as players from both teams (at least in non-covid days) played with and against each other a lot in the summers. Thing was that kind of reversed on us, looked like we came out assuming we could walk thru this one sleep walking thru the first 10mins. Yeah, they hit some good shots but that is why their players are on scholarship as well as ours.

Defensively, while we are not the best defense in the country right now, we are defending well enough to win, our issues are more on the offensive end and yes, very specifically guard related. This stinker 1st half followed by a winning basketball second half deal is starting to feel a bit systemic. It is to the point that I think Roy is going to have to shake up his starting line up. We need to begin these games with more energy and IMO a way to do that is to start your best energizer guys and in my view the poster child for that is Sharpe. If Ant were available I would add him as well, their team mates feed off of their energy, we saw that with Ant last season for those few games and we see it with Sharpe now. We simply have to begin these games with more intensity even given how much I would hate to see either Brooks or Bacot have to sit.

As for our back court, you guys know it even if you don't want to admit it, PLatek is ballin, doesn't matter if those in front of him have more talent, they are not playing better and we are used to watching our senior leaders do that. So I think maybe it is time to start PLatek but which of the frosh guards do we sit? As much the RJ fan as I am and even given that Love is setting a new low point TO stat, I think RJ is playing out of position and could well benefit from being able to watch the first few minutes, I don't love him at the 2 (don't love Caleb at the 1 right now either). Caleb at the point, I have seen that movie, it was originally called the Dexter Strickland story. Dex was another 2 guard that had to learn to be a PG when he got to UNC. Recall, Dex was extremely athletic but got a serious knee injury that stunted his development. But there was another very important aspect of Dex, he struggled to shoot treys and he wanted to finish everything at the rim, did way to much 1 on 1 driving in to the teeth of defenses. In time he learned the value of the mid range jumper and working more to set up his mates for easy ops, I think would have been an excellent PG for us had he not had that knee injury.

If we started Platek, it would allow our 2 frosh PGs to have to compete against each other for PT at a single position, keep turning the ball over, keep trying to force things that are not there and your PT gets hit, survival of the fittest. Recall how the bench taught Keeling last season, how much did not starting Joel as a freshman teach him that resulted in that excellent soph season? Time to shake some things up so the message that every second of PT you get has to be respected, you don't get to take it easy at the start, if you do you sit and maybe for the rest of the half. Starting is a reward that must be respected but if you do not start the games with a wide open motor then you should not start these games.

I agree that maybe Platek starting a couple games might help the young inexperienced guards learn to value the ball and to understand what spacing at the college level is so different than high school. As much as so many people here think Platek is a minus and not a positive to the team I have not seen one of them constant complainers show up during the last two games. The season is still young and maybe having a second senior in the lineup for a few games might settle the team down early in contests where they have had a nasty time recently coming out of the gate and quickly falling behind by double digits.

 

[itstartedwithmj]

I agree that maybe Platek starting a couple games might help the young inexperienced guards learn to value the ball and to understand what spacing at the college level is so different than high school. As much as so many people here think Platek is a minus and not a positive to the team I have not seen one of them constant complainers show up during the last two games. The season is still young and maybe having a second senior in the lineup for a few games might settle the team down early in contests where they have had a nasty time recently coming out of the gate and quickly falling behind by double digits.

You must have missed the post above Gary's. Some of our "fans" never pass up an opportunity to take a shot at Andrew. Some of them obviously aren't watching the same games I am this season.

 

[gary-7]

As much as so many people here think Platek is a minus and not a positive to the team I have not seen one of them constant complainers show up during the last two games.

Unfortunately, some are more wedded to their preferred narrative than to reality. But hell, Plates can't even get a break from our stat keeper. He actually had 2 dimes Saturday --- not 1 --- and shouldn't have been charged with a TO --- perfect pass that Sharpe fumbled --- and even got cheated out of the blocked shot that caused a clock violation -- I mean geez, the damn ref even signaled it. AP musta banged the stat guy's GF...

 

[HoopsCoach42]

...and this one was about us.

What I mean by that is this was a game we picked up at the last minute with little time to scout. They're not a bad team at all for their level and they're very well coached, and scouting UNC is easy because we're on TV... like always. That said, UNC should be able to function and win comfortably nonetheless, so this is a classic game that is less about the opponent and more about us. Welp, what we saw in the proverbial mirror was not pretty at times --- early and late, to be specific --- so it unfortunately took a surge of actual Carolina basketball in the middle to bank a safe margin (which we needed).

- the outset was yet again marred by indifferent effort --- lazy footwork and bad angles on defense and inability to "move" their defense interspersed with horrible ball security.

- we did pound it inside, but failed to finish thru contact and missed half of our early FT ops. Also 0-fer from 3 in the first half.

- they were well-prepared and spaced for our scrambles but honestly, our backend rotations were friggn awful.

- Bacot's effort was a bright spot

Bottom line was that we only scratched out a halftime lead due to talent.

As for what happened subsequently, allow me to indulge a bit. Caleb was just awful --- and I mean awful (and RJ wasn't much less so) --- in the first half but I was watching closely to see how he would respond. As I posted last game, Caleb has hit an early freshman wall, so do you hang your head or keep plugging? Y'all saw the horrible TO followed by him chasing down the ball and getting a block. Little things like that are important to show the dog in you.

- one of the matras of Dean Smith basketball is to always play "under control", even when you're going fast. After the half Caleb started to "get" that and had a much better start to the second... picking his spots and letting things slow down for himself. In fact, when Platek checked in, instead of Love going to the bench (as has been the norm lately), he stayed and RJ subbed out. That little deal seemed to be a confidence booster and things started to click.

- Speaking of Plates, the game was essentially pulled out of the danger zone over the ensuing 3:45. Specifically, in a decisive span of a minute-fifteen, AP broke the ice from 3, got a steal that triggered the Secondary, canning another 3 on a nice swing pass from Love, followed immediately by Caleb's dive-on-the-floor steal and dish to AP for a fast break deuce. Carolina basketball and a 15 point lead.

- with that said, unfortunately there wasn't much more positive to talk about after that, other than it's good to see UNC Bigs hit a couple of Trail jumpers on the Secondary. We also cleaned up the FT situation, making all but one of them after the bad start (including our Bigs cashing in).

The bottom line is that Roy has a dilemma on his hands in that although Love and Davis are individually our most gifted backcourt players, they together are not by any stretch our best backcourt... at least not as of yet. And even with the wealth of frontcourt troops, Carolina basketball has always been triggered by solid backcourt play. Caleb's stat line has an ugly crooked number in the TO column, but there was a good bit to be encouraged about IF he can continue to get himself as under control as he was in the second half. RJ needs to continue to learn the value of spacing and not talking the rock into no-man's land (especially at his size) and we need Plates to continue to be the adult in the room as the younguns develop.

Anyway, no more time for tune-ups --- it's into the fire from here on out...

They were essentially doubling our bigs before the catch, fronting with one guy, and playing someone WAY OVER in help on the back side. It looked like they were content with allowing the skip pass to an open 3, which is not a bad idea right now.

 

[ACokeForRoy]

It would help our offense if we not force passes to our bigs when they are being guarded 5 on 2. It would help our offense if Roy would vary it once in a while so our guards could get more open shots. It would help our offense if Leaky would actually try to play offense. He only takes about 4 shots a game and rarely does he try to drive to the basket. Our offense is playing 4 on 5.

THIS!

 

[TPFKAPFS]

I wish I was a big enough person NOT to say "I told you so" but I'm not! Platek should have been the starter from the jump! RJ has the temperament to not pout if he comes in from the bench so he is the one who should sit! I believe Caleb needs to be out there to take his lumps and learn without his esteem taking a hit. He is getting there but too slowly for some peeps! Platek has proved he has the leadership, hustle, defense, AND shooting to really pump this team up while calming the youngsters down! No matter which of our freshmen he is playing with , the team improves when he is in so.....Bite the bullet Roy! (anyone who still doesn't think Platek belongs reveals way more of themselves than AP!)

Tar Heels are growing and will be a real problem very soon!
With that gritty bball win and the intentional smack down Mack put on Diaz; it certainly is a GDTBATH!

 

[gary-7]

They were essentially doubling our bigs before the catch, fronting with one guy, and playing someone WAY OVER in help on the back side. It looked like they were content with allowing the skip pass to an open 3, which is not a bad idea right now.

Yep.

 

[FlaTarHeel]

I wish I was a big enough person NOT to say "I told you so" but I'm not! Platek should have been the starter from the jump! RJ has the temperament to not pout if he comes in from the bench so he is the one who should sit! I believe Caleb needs to be out there to take his lumps and learn without his esteem taking a hit. He is getting there but too slowly for some peeps! Platek has proved he has the leadership, hustle, defense, AND shooting to really pump this team up while calming the youngsters down! No matter which of our freshmen he is playing with , the team improves when he is in so.....Bite the bullet Roy! (anyone who still doesn't think Platek belongs reveals way more of themselves than AP!)

Tar Heels are growing and will be a real problem very soon!
With that gritty bball win and the intentional smack down Mack put on Diaz; it certainly is a GDTBATH!

Excllent post bro.