ADVERTISEMENT

Quick stuff (TN game)...

Mea culpa. I still think he has what it takes, but he clearly needs work (and PT) to be where I thought he already was.

Withers has a higher ceiling than Wojcik, but Wojcik is a more comfortable fit and plays under better control. Meanwhile, Washington is too easily pushed around, High is a freshman, and Okonkwo looks even more out of sync than Withers.

I do think Ingram is better playing SF than PF, though, so we need to bring someone along at PF if we want Ingram playing most of his minutes at his best position.

I'd like to see Withers get a good run against FSU. It's the easiest game for a while. Assuming we can avoid getting cocky after the good win over TN.
Honest question... What is Withers actually good at? I know he has to play. He plays a position we'll need bodies for. But what is he good at?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Heelicious
I'm guessing RJ and Ingram play fewer minutes if Cormac is 100%, but I don't want to see Iron Man creeping back in.

Agree that Seth and Pax could have played more. IMO, Hubert was a little too quick to pull Trimble when he got a bit cocky after good plays and made mistakes. Smack him, but let him play.

The UConn/UK/OK sequence will let us know if Hubert is actually serious about using his depth. If we need to go Iron Man in Q4, OK, but make sure you don't wear out our starters early on if you intend to play that card.
While I wouldn't play Ingram or Davis for more than 35 minutes... This notion that we aren't going to be good because Ingram plays over 30 minutes is very strange. He is a massive upgrade over Leaky, so he will lead to more wins even if he plays over this magical 30 minutes threshold. Again, wouldn't go as much as he's been playing. But this isn't an apples to apples thing. Ingram is a much better basketball player.

I won't re-hash that the 30 minute limit, or 25 or whatever is largely a myth. Roy's best teams had their best guys oftentimes play more than 30 minutes/game. And in March, the rotations were typically cut to 8 guys playing all the minutes.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Heelicious
I'm guessing RJ and Ingram play fewer minutes if Cormac is 100%, but I don't want to see Iron Man creeping back in.

Agree that Seth and Pax could have played more. IMO, Hubert was a little too quick to pull Trimble when he got a bit cocky after good plays and made mistakes. Smack him, but let him play.

The UConn/UK/OK sequence will let us know if Hubert is actually serious about using his depth. If we need to go Iron Man in Q4, OK, but make sure you don't wear out our starters early on if you intend to play that card.
Here's the thing about "minutes" and depth: We could have RJ, EC, Ryan, Ingram and Mando each average, say, 30 minutes, and that would still leave 50 to divide up, meaning you could theoretically have 5 other guys averaging 10-a-piece. I would call that legitimate depth.
 
Mea culpa. I still think he has what it takes, but he clearly needs work (and PT) to be where I thought he already was.

Withers has a higher ceiling than Wojcik, but Wojcik is a more comfortable fit and plays under better control. Meanwhile, Washington is too easily pushed around, High is a freshman, and Okonkwo looks even more out of sync than Withers.

I do think Ingram is better playing SF than PF, though, so we need to bring someone along at PF if we want Ingram playing most of his minutes at his best position.

I'd like to see Withers get a good run against FSU. It's the easiest game for a while. Assuming we can avoid getting cocky after the good win over TN.
Withers will have the month of December to really carve out a role for himself in the rotation, or on the bench. We desperately need either Withers or High to take those available min at the 4. Ingram is only versatile IF you have pieces around him that allow him to switch back and forth positions.
 
I hope in the film review they butcher anyone who dribbles for more than 5 seconds. With the threats we have, the ball should be moving with the pass to create openings for driving or shooting. Cadeau is exceptional at not being 'sticky' with the ball. Move or drive the darn thing to shift the defense. That is when basketball is fun to watch and UNC is playing best.

I can't stand watching a game where the first 10 seconds of the shot clock is someone dribbling. That is giving a free pass to the defense.

I'm at a loss of what to do defensively other than switching d to break rhythm. I can see shooting over our guards but would think they have the speed to stop dribble penetration more than they do.

All that to say, I think that is probably the most enjoyable games I've seen with Hubert as coach. Very unselfish fast paced offense that 1st half. No one having to bail us out as the shot clock expired.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Heelicious
Can't offer too many negatives, especially offensively. We scored 1.3 points per possession against probably the best defensive team in the country. Tennessee still ranks in the top 3 in adjusted defensive efficiency on KenPom and BartTorvik despite what UNC did to their defense last night.

My concern coming out of the game is Tennessee will struggle to score this year. They came into the game 70th in offensive efficiency and they scored at a high rate when they didn't shoot themselves in the foot. But that isn't a huge surprise to me. I don't think we have the pieces to be a good defensive team. Cadeau and RJ can be targeted against most quality guards and we don't have a natural rim defender.

I don't think we can look at a macro view of our defense game-to-game. I just don't think we'll ever put together 40 minutes of good defense. I think it's more important for this team to get key stops in key stretches of the game. Time and score will dictate a lot of that, but that's how I view UNC's defense.

I do think our depth is being overstated by many. I see Cadeau, RJ, Cormac, Ingram, and Bacot as our clear and obvious 5 best players. Then Washington and Trimble are effective role players who will have good moments and not so good moments like every role player has. I'm waiting to see what Withers is actually good at, but he plays a position where he'll need to give us minutes so he's our 8th guy. Wojcik and High are less than 5 minute specialty minutes guys in massive games like this.

I think there's a little bit of overreaction to Tennessee making it into half a game late. That's a pretty good team that has some pride. They weren't going to fall over and lose by 30. It's normal we're going to try to bleed the clock for a bit too. Also, this core group of Bacot and RJ haven't had much experience playing with 25 point leads in the second half against real teams. Probably a bit of a learning experience, even if their seniors. Hell, Hubert hasn't had much experience with that kind of game either.
Good post. Yeah, I think Tenn did turn their defense up a notch and played with a little pride in second half. They also scored the ball better, so that naturally leads to better defense too, as we see all the time.
That being said, Carolina still scored 39 second half points while not pushing it as much, and really running clock a lot the last 10 min or so.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: TPFKAPFS
We were disruptive early BECAUSE of tempo. We had them totally out of their comfort zone and they got loose with the rock. In other words, TEMPO works to our advantage on BOTH ends.
I posted this in the UNC/TN game thread before tip yesterday and what do ya know ...

"Haven't heard of Ryan's status but I sure as hell hope EC starts. And the way you stop the physical play is with transition, fresh bodies and crisp ball movement. GO HEELS !! "

And for the first half of the game that's exactly what happened. And if the second half was the product of a coaching adjustment then Hubs need to stay on the floor for half-times.

EC continues to impress as he had an excellent over all game in his second start and hopefully he starts from here out. It's just a completely different team all the way around with him on the floor.

Is there not another player on this team that can at least pretend to be a pg for a few minutes so RJ doesn't have to embarrass himself. Love him to death and he's an alpha dog for sure but when he's running point it's like pouring sugar in a gas tank.

Great win against a really good tournament team that will look good come selection Sunday and be beneficial for both ACC and hopefully NCAAT play. GO HEELS !!
 
  • Like
Reactions: gary-7
I posted this in the UNC/TN game thread before tip yesterday and what do ya know ...

"Haven't heard of Ryan's status but I sure as hell hope EC starts. And the way you stop the physical play is with transition, fresh bodies and crisp ball movement. GO HEELS !! "

And for the first half of the game that's exactly what happened. And if the second half was the product of a coaching adjustment then Hubs need to stay on the floor for half-times.

EC continues to impress as he had an excellent over all game in his second start and hopefully he starts from here out. It's just a completely different team all the way around with him on the floor.

Is there not another player on this team that can at least pretend to be a pg for a few minutes so RJ doesn't have to embarrass himself. Love him to death and he's an alpha dog for sure but when he's running point it's like pouring sugar in a gas tank.

Great win against a really good tournament team that will look good come selection Sunday and be beneficial for both ACC and hopefully NCAAT play. GO HEELS !!
And something I said would happen before the season confirmed, from Mando:
“It’s just like having basically a quarterback out there that I know will find me whenever I get open... encourages me to run harder.”
 
I posted this in the UNC/TN game thread before tip yesterday and what do ya know ...

"Haven't heard of Ryan's status but I sure as hell hope EC starts. And the way you stop the physical play is with transition, fresh bodies and crisp ball movement. GO HEELS !! "

And for the first half of the game that's exactly what happened. And if the second half was the product of a coaching adjustment then Hubs need to stay on the floor for half-times.

EC continues to impress as he had an excellent over all game in his second start and hopefully he starts from here out. It's just a completely different team all the way around with him on the floor.

Is there not another player on this team that can at least pretend to be a pg for a few minutes so RJ doesn't have to embarrass himself. Love him to death and he's an alpha dog for sure but when he's running point it's like pouring sugar in a gas tank.

Great win against a really good tournament team that will look good come selection Sunday and be beneficial for both ACC and hopefully NCAAT play. GO HEELS !!
YEP, one of the best ways to handle a team that is bigger is to take the tempo up, get out and run, those big guys don't like sprinting up and down the court! Teams are scouting us right now, they are able to find spots where we switch and force us in to mismatches or catch us in between the switches, and they already know how to exploit that.

Point being is that you have to have a plan B, Dean had a plan F or so, you stop the current plan and Dean had several more he would switch to and you never knew which he would go to and at times he would switch defensive approach within the same possession. That is hard on any offense to figure out how to attack. Most coaches now days stick with their primary base defense and only come out of it when you constantly use the same approach to defeat it and do so successfully, some stay with it even then, Hubert seems closer to the later and his coach taught him better than that.

There is nothing that will kill your breaking game quicker than your big men running the floor and your PG calling off the break well before half court! Basketball 101 says you MUST reward your big men for running the court or they will stop running the court!
 
While I wouldn't play Ingram or Davis for more than 35 minutes... This notion that we aren't going to be good because Ingram plays over 30 minutes is very strange. He is a massive upgrade over Leaky, so he will lead to more wins even if he plays over this magical 30 minutes threshold. Again, wouldn't go as much as he's been playing. But this isn't an apples to apples thing. Ingram is a much better basketball player.

I won't re-hash that the 30 minute limit, or 25 or whatever is largely a myth. Roy's best teams had their best guys oftentimes play more than 30 minutes/game. And in March, the rotations were typically cut to 8 guys playing all the minutes.
To me the minutes question is mainly about 2 things: making sure your key players have gas in the tank down the stretch; and reducing the risk of fatigue-induced injuries. Last year I saw the gas-in-tank problem with RJ and it seemed to reduce his shooting effectiveness late in games. Meanwhile, Armando was the poster child for the injury concern.

What counts as "reasonable" in terms of minutes won't be the same for every player or every game, but keeping it reasonable should reduce those risks.

The flip side, of course, is that a gasping RJ or a hobbling Armando might still be better than the next guy up. It often seemed that way last year. We all hope that won't be true this year.

Caleb has only played over 30 minutes in 2 of his 6 games with Arizona. His outside shooting still sucks, but many of his other stats are better. Is PT the difference? By comparison, last year Caleb played over 30 minutes in every game but 1. Ironically, that 29 minute game was 1 of his 2 MVP games, and his highest ORtg game of the year.
 
The flip side, of course, is that a gasping RJ or a hobbling Armando might still be better than the next guy up. It often seemed that way last year. We all hope that won't be true this year.
Me thinks this year there are much better bench options than last. And if a run is to be made this year someone needs to step in and give RJ some relief .. especially when he ends up the primary pg/handler.
 
To me the minutes question is mainly about 2 things: making sure your key players have gas in the tank down the stretch; and reducing the risk of fatigue-induced injuries. Last year I saw the gas-in-tank problem with RJ and it seemed to reduce his shooting effectiveness late in games. Meanwhile, Armando was the poster child for the injury concern.

What counts as "reasonable" in terms of minutes won't be the same for every player or every game, but keeping it reasonable should reduce those risks.

The flip side, of course, is that a gasping RJ or a hobbling Armando might still be better than the next guy up. It often seemed that way last year. We all hope that won't be true this year.

Caleb has only played over 30 minutes in 2 of his 6 games with Arizona. His outside shooting still sucks, but many of his other stats are better. Is PT the difference? By comparison, last year Caleb played over 30 minutes in every game but 1. Ironically, that 29 minute game was 1 of his 2 MVP games, and his highest ORtg game of the year.
Caleb Love at Duke: 33 minutes
Caleb Love vs Michigan State: 37 minutes

And man, I am shocked Caleb Love didn’t play 30+ minutes in their other games. You know, games where their smallest margin of victory was 32 points, lol. So is Caleb playing too many minutes against good teams?

And I’m not all that concerned (yet). This is a team that’s going to blow some teams out. Those will be games where minutes will get reduced. If Hubert wants to play our best player big minutes in the biggest games, I don’t really mind it. It’s going to be that way in March unless it’s a blowout or foul trouble.

I really don’t get this obsession with playing all 10 of our guys 10 minutes or some other round number. I recall that Ty/Ellington/Wright freshman year, we played like 12 dudes and it was horrendous to play that many. It didn’t help us either. We lost to Georgetown in an OT game and GTown only played 7 or 8.

If you think Wojcik and High are really good, then that’s another thing. I don’t think Wojcik is close to that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Heelicious
Caleb Love at Duke: 33 minutes
Caleb Love vs Michigan State: 37 minutes

And man, I am shocked Caleb Love didn’t play 30+ minutes in their other games. You know, games where their smallest margin of victory was 32 points, lol. So is Caleb playing too many minutes against good teams?

And I’m not all that concerned (yet). This is a team that’s going to blow some teams out. Those will be games where minutes will get reduced. If Hubert wants to play our best player big minutes in the biggest games, I don’t really mind it. It’s going to be that way in March unless it’s a blowout or foul trouble.

I really don’t get this obsession with playing all 10 of our guys 10 minutes or some other round number. I recall that Ty/Ellington/Wright freshman year, we played like 12 dudes and it was horrendous to play that many. It didn’t help us either. We lost to Georgetown in an OT game and GTown only played 7 or 8.

If you think Wojcik and High are really good, then that’s another thing. I don’t think Wojcik is close to that.
If you think Caleb needs to get all those minutes for that AZ team to be at their best, well... bless your heart.

Look, I had high hopes for him here. and I pull for Steve and AZ now, but what I don't get is the obsession with short rotations.
 
If you think Caleb needs to get all those minutes for that AZ team to be at their best, well... bless your heart.

Look, I had high hopes for him here. and I pull for Steve and AZ now, but what I don't get is the obsession with short rotations.
Well Wojcik isn’t good. So that’s part of my wanting a “short” 8 man rotation in March.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: TPFKAPFS
He has already proved you wrong, but that is as easy as proving water is wet! I challenge you to find even one post have from your entire history that is positive about UNC! (Posts that start positive and end with negativity do not count) Your relentless negativity that some refer to as pessimism, but I know is actually long game trolling, means that your bashing of Pax just becomes more white noise from a confirmed troll! It is extreme hubris to even think that any UNC player needs to prove anything to one of us!

He works hard, establishes good defensive positioning, rebounds on the weak side, rotates well, hits some shots, and contributes to winning in limited minutes!
 
To me the minutes question is mainly about 2 things: making sure your key players have gas in the tank down the stretch; and reducing the risk of fatigue-induced injuries. Last year I saw the gas-in-tank problem with RJ and it seemed to reduce his shooting effectiveness late in games. Meanwhile, Armando was the poster child for the injury concern.

What counts as "reasonable" in terms of minutes won't be the same for every player or every game, but keeping it reasonable should reduce those risks.

The flip side, of course, is that a gasping RJ or a hobbling Armando might still be better than the next guy up. It often seemed that way last year. We all hope that won't be true this year.

Caleb has only played over 30 minutes in 2 of his 6 games with Arizona. His outside shooting still sucks, but many of his other stats are better. Is PT the difference? By comparison, last year Caleb played over 30 minutes in every game but 1. Ironically, that 29 minute game was 1 of his 2 MVP games, and his highest ORtg game of the year.

To me the minutes question is mainly about 2 things: making sure your key players have gas in the tank down the stretch; and reducing the risk of fatigue-induced injuries
I would add to this fatigue induced FOULs !
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT