The only baskets coming off those High post screens are accidents
Quick stuff (ND game)...
- Thread starter gary-7
- Start date
Bit of an enigma on D --- he actually holds up pretty well when bigger guys try to bully him down low, but yeah, if he's any distance from the block he tends to fix his feet too soon and around they go.
I'll tell ya what --- I liked Brown getting the nod as our 3rd 5-man in, if nothing else for the length and movement. I may have mentioned it, but I saw James play a couple of games in AAU and then I was thinking, "uh-oh, this kid is at least a year away just because he was so skinny", but damn, young fella has put on some good weight pretty quickly under Jonas, and moving better to boot. IF we can keep him outta the damned portal, we might just have something moving forward...
I have been saying since the Summer that I wanted JB to red shirt this season. I had no idea our frontcourt would be this ineffective. Now that a RS is no longer an option, I too would begin spoon feeding JB some time each game. I don't care to see much Withers or Claude moving forward.
I think JB is a tremendous "Carolina guy" and will be a really nice player in two years. His length and lefty game remind me of raw versions of Brandon Wright or Ed Davis.
I can see him being our 4th or even 3rd big next season. I really hope Zayden High is back next year too.
I was about to "Like" this post until the last line!
I take issue with the idea that Hubs must have no cajones if he doesn't sit either EC or RJ. This is silly to the max, especially in the UNC context! There are HOF examples who decided not to play younger peeps because it would cause chemistry problems that would outweigh the positives! (Withdrew is the poster child for this and it caused exactly what was thought) There are plenty of others too. This is not a video game where you plug in those with the best stats or ratings and let them play. This is an organic system that needs chemistry to maximize and sometimes, this means understanding the individual psychos of players! RJ deserves his position and his presence opens up a lot of what is happening with Cap! Remove RJ and Cap's weak handle just becomes more glaring! A coach cannot create confidence, but he can show he has confidence! Starting JWash and continuing to play Tyson IS showing extreme confidence. Exhorting them to shoot and taking them out when they are soft is good coaching. You cannot run a Pick N Pop for a guy who will not even look at the basket and that same guy has not once set up strong on the block, held his position, and put up a confident hand to receive a pass so he can't be used as a traditional big! JWash has an almost unguardable turn around jumper, but he refuses to set a strong base and hold position long enough to get the ball. (part of this is our guards don't give ontime and consistent entry passes but that is chicken/egg stuff!) I find it hard to believe that a coach who described JWash as the best shooting Big he has ever seen is suddenly telling him not to shoot-seems stupid! The flash in zone O must look at the basket in a triple threat position but not everyone will so it limits our options. EC vs RJ is not worthy of discussion! JWash and Tyson have all the physical tools to play and be effective. They both lack confidence and JWash needs to buck up and take it personal if he is being pushed off his spot or peeps are swiping at the ball!
Things changed due to circumstance, but here's what I CAN tell you comng out of Fall camp:
The guys who would've likely started at Memphis would've either been EC, RJ, Seth, Tyson & Wash or Withers instead of Seth if we wanted to go big.
RJ was out so we went with Withers and Seth both starting
After RJ came back we kept Withers in the lineup (which I thought was a mistake) and honestly, that never worked out, and had the added flaw of relegating Tyson just when we needed him to be getting comfortable with his team.
Meanwhile, Seth showed that he warranted starter minutes. Bad news was it made us so dang small.
I've always thought Seth should be our 6th man extraordinaire --- he's our only guy who can sub in at all three perimeter spots so he'd still get the minutes, and coming off the bench would allow him to give max effort on D during his shifts. As he has said himself, he runs out of gas at times as a starter.
Now that Ian is breaking out as a scorer, he gives us a bit more size as either a 3 or 2, and both Powell and Tyson can man the 3/4 hybrid role. RJ finally backed away from forcing shots Saturday and benching Eliot would be a self-inflicted crime (and for the record, his TO spell is WAY more a result of opponents scouting a bad scheme than his errors).
At this point, it's still not clear if Seth plays Tuesday, but if so, I think it would behoove us to have him coming off the bench.
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