Quick stuff (St. Augustine ex)....

[alabamaheel]

FWIW, I was told we could have beaten #10 FAU by a good bit more in the scrimmage had we not let off the gas late.

I know they were missing a lead guard but these boys can score. Good to hear. Thanks

 

[NorCalTarheel]

.... But when it gets down to the nut cutting, your best players play....

I would imagine a LOT changes when it gets down to nut cutting! 😆😜

Sorry, definitely not the typo police here, just gave me a locker room, sophomoric giggle. 😂

 

[alabamaheel]

I would imagine a LOT changes when it gets down to nut cutting! 😆😜

Sorry, definitely not the typo police here, just gave me a locker room, sophomoric giggle. 😂

Lol. It wasn’t a typo and yes I’d imagine a lot would change

 

[DaveChapelle]

Hey @gary-7 - any fire to the latest Ian Jackson smoke? Supposedly Pitino and Cal are still pushing hard to get him to decommit.

Ian will be taking his senior year Official Visit to UNC this weekend.

 

[HoopsCoach42]

...and that was fun.
OK, as it was your typical exhibition vs an overmatched opponent, some observations as to what this team is gonna bring:

- Any remaining questions as to approcach should be moot. We are going to run. More than half our points came in transition, including 50 (!) from the Secondary Break.

- Defensive approach --- base 21.5 (high gap with top switches) w/ some 23 and 24 flashed. General reinforcing of Dean's sideline/baseline force principles. "No middle" has been a mantra in practice. Anxiously awaiting some Scrambles.

- We only saw it a couple of times due to their offense, but watch for this moving forward: I really like the way we're attacking high ball screens this season. I call it "pushing" (some call it "icing") the screen, but basically it means forcing the dribbler hard sideline, making the screener have to chase him laterally, negating the impact. I've been wanting to see this for a while.

- Yeah, we shot the lights out in the first half, but can't count on that every night -- the long-term key is TRANSITION, TRANSITION, TRANSITION and sharing the rock. We scraped the bottom of the league last season in shooting pct and Assists --- those two things are mutally dependent. That ain't happenin this season.

- Dayyum, we are legit DEEP. Seems everyone who goes in plays with confidence and effort. That depth will allow us to run some good teams outta the gym on a good night. Buh-bye and good riddance to the iron 5 nonsense.

- Ingram is the transfer that has intrigued me most. I love having a wide-body hybrid with long arms. He's gonna be a problem.

- Boy, High just screams for PT -- so active, and he and Oko together makes for some major rim protection, huh? And any more questions about Washngton's offensive chops? Hope not. And Withers hasn't even played yet. Guys, we are DEEP on the front line.

- I like the way guys are blending seamlessly flipping between postions depending on lineup. Ryan is so much better as a 2/3 motion man than he was being on-ball so much at ND, and Woj's game ain't exactly pretty but he's a tough 2/3 glue guy.

- I also say good riddance to that awful 5-out nonsense. Love the recommitment to early entries, and the way our motion is creating space for Mando, et al, to post.

- Lebo... you can only hope to contain him! ... but seriously, he can give us meaningful minutes if needed. Nice luxury.

- Say what you want about "size", but the EC-RJ backcourt is stoopid dynamic.

- Finally, speaking of EC, folks, he is THE essential ingredient if we're gonna get to the promised land. The difference with and without him is already palpable. With Cadeau at Point we scored 48 transition points (!). With RJ at Point we scored 9. And BTW, 30 of those 48 came with RJ with him at the 2 (speaking of dynamic backcourts).

As I posted last week, EC's only achilles heel is foul trouble, and young fella needs to correct that ASAP. Again, it comes from footwork and getting over his HS tendency to ball-hawk (gotta pick yer spots). The good news is he has the BBall IQ to play with 4 fouls, but still, good teams are gonna bait him. I'll guarantee you it won't take long before opposing coaches get aload of what he means to this team and getting him off the floor will be a priority.

Anyway, fun preview of what should (thankfully) be a fun season...

@gary-7 Do you think he'll continue to bring EC off the bench in favor of Woj? A) I don't understand it, and B) you know recruits see that

 

[gary-7]

@gary-7 Do you think he'll continue to bring EC off the bench in favor of Woj? A) I don't understand it, and B) you know recruits see that

Optimistically, no. The question, from what I hear, is WHEN he starts. The biggest issue right now is staying out of foul trouble, but personally I'd rather him work thru all that vs the Radfords of the world.

Contrary to what some like to say, it MATTERS who starts, particularly with UNC PGs. We saw the self-inflicted damage from not starting Butter and Berry. From day-one we were a different and miles better team with a Freshman Butter on the floor, as we were with a Freshman Berry on the floor... and now with a Freshman Cadeau on the floor. It's as obvious as obvious gets.

The PG sets the tone and tempo., and I don't wanna wait for EC to come off the bench to get our transition game going at an optimum level. Hell, we saw that even in an exhibition. And you're right: recruits see that. I've posted several times of the negative recruiting in AAU world playing on JB not starting. I would rather not have a repeat of that, especially given that we need to be recruiting EC's successor as we speak.

 

[tarwhiz]

I think folks are sleeping on UNC this season and I think they are out of the remaining question that can not be answer until well in to the season. That question being a concern with how this team will accept coaching from this staff and the quality of that coaching. I think we have seen things in Hubert's first 2 seasons that deserve a degree of concern, for example it is fantastic that we are going back to amping the tempo and have our vaunted running game back, yet the question of why it disappeared remains. Why structure an approach that requires big time jump shooting when you do not have the jump shooters you need and not adjust to a approach that fit the talents you had? Why call so many set plays, watch them break down and we have to free lance yet not practice free lance? This is just to name 3 but there are more and that was discussed this off season. Not looking to rehash those now but offer these as examples of why there is remaining concern that can not be addressed for a while.

This is a really deep team now with the new comers and we need to effectively use that depth as a weapon. I don't think anyone could look at our front court and not realize it has been very seriously upgraded. We have watched Bacot go down with very serious ankle issues at the end of the last 2 seasons and frankly, we didn't have anyone ready or able to step in to that void, we not only do now but we have multiple guys that can. The back court, it now starts with having a solid PG rather than trying to cover the spot with converted 2s, Caleb is gone but I would offer the back court chemistry was "forced" to fit and never really did and that effected the whole team, it looks now to be round pegs in to round holes as opposed to what we have seen. Gone is Caleb and Demarco replaced by Elliot and Ryan, seems like a great trade for all concerned, at least at this point. RJ so far looks absolutely fantastic, much better than at any point prior and Bacot is still Bacot, 2 really nice talents to start with but the new comers do look much better than what we lost.

A very serious question form the last 2 seasons has been effort and intensity coming out for the opening tip, we watched far to often the other teams come out and play with more effort and intensity than we did from the opening tip. One advantage you have with a really deep line up is that your starters know, they can not come out half hearted because there are multiple big time talents on your bench ready and more than willing to step in and provide that effort and intensity. The intensity we played with vs a very out matched St Aug team was impressive, it is teams like that where some may feel we really don't need to be that intense, may feel they can slack a bit and we didn't do that, very important!

Lots of great points here David. I think we are going to have a really good team this season because of the way Hubert has constructed this roster. The question remains, until he clearly answers it, " Can he coach it at the same level this fanbase expects and demsnds"?

 

[DSouthr]

Lots of great points here David. I think we are going to have a really good team this season because of the way Hubert has constructed this roster. The question remains, until he clearly answers it, " Can he coach it at the same level this fanbase expects and demsnds"?

My exact same question Whiz, wish I had the answer but I don't yet...

 

[dtodd4475]

As other have stated I believe a "deep" bench is situational. Having more then 8 "rotational" guys 9 max can be counter productive even if your deeper bench guys are solid. If you have clear top performers you want those top guns in action.

There is more then 1 way to skin a cat, and coaches should adjust to each particular roster. The top end of a roster is as important to the bench usage as the quality depth available on the bench in my opinion.

Foul issues in a game, matchups, nagging injuries, people out, etc. varies. But to have set minute ranges in mind is extremely tough to pull off without it being more detrimental then helpful in many cases when you want more guys to "get significant run".

 

[TPFKAPFS]

Dude, never get your argument from SDung, he will lead you astray! He has once again (hopefully it was intentional) misrepresented an argument and taken it to a ridiculous extreme! Playing a deep bench has nothing to do with playing your most effective 5 at crunch time of a single game or using a situation to determine who plays in the moment! I was referring to crunch time of the season! Every coach in the world knows this! The premise was peeps seem to think that you have to intentionally stop playing peeps past #7-8 during the latter portion of the season for some unknown reason. This so called conventional wisdom presupposes you don't have 11 effective peeps, but what if you do?

Shorten up the rotation is seldom necessary, but sometimes you will have to reduce or extend minutes based on the situation. It is a semantic issue so for clarity: I mean 10-11 peeps should be in the rotation from today until they prove they are not worthy! During crunch time, winning time, or whatever you call it during a single game the most effective 5 should be on the court! In some games, peeps might not play, but all should be ready. In some games all 11 might play, but in every case, the best 5 should get the most time together. In the 1st half of the Natty game, I would expect to play everyone who has proved worthy just like the first half of the game tonight! THat way, if a matchup or game situation demands an Iron 5, we have the legs to handle it AND we are still ready to survive a tweaked ankle!

 

[DSouthr]

Ya know TP, I find it really funny how folks see things now days? I watched Roy's teams for years and frankly it always looked to me that it was more important to Roy and his teams to beat duke and the wuff wuffs (those smelly, un-brushed pound puppies in Raleigh) than to win the ACCT. Why, because his team was already well seeded for the NCAAT, why wear your team out in the ACCT. You have seen Roy allude to just that many times, he wouldn't come out and say he didn't give a crap about the ACCT but you always knew if he would trade the ACCT game for beating duke and the wuffs twice he would take the deal in a minute!

They call it tightening up their line up, you see many coaches doing this, I read calls right here in every single season of fans calling for Roy to tighten up his line up for the post season. Yet have you ever noticed the 2 teams that do end up playing for the ACCT title game, especially if it is a upset team that makes it in, they look like the walking dead out there, like they can barely heft a shot up. But note how the teams play in their opening ACCT game, full of spirit, like a brand now start, those fresh legs sure do help them. But get to the title game and those legs are worn down, the shorter their bench the worse it is typically. After you just played 35mins and someone demands you play the next 2mins with flat out total sell out effort, yeah right, these are kids not robots.

When your legs are gone 3 really bad things happen to your team.

1) They can't defend as hard, that explosion isn't there like it was supposed to be, players will begin to rest on the defensive end.
2) You shots tend to come up short, even free throws are a challenge for a great shooter. And those rebounds, funny how the ball hits hit the floor, rather than cleanly rebounded, a lot when you see 2 really tired teams out there.
3) You foul because you reach rather than moving your feet and you see injuries tick up because guys don't have that solid foundational base.