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?
Quick stuff (TN game)...
- Thread starter gary-7
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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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 !!
Ingram is our swiss army knife - dude can do so many things well.
EC is our ginsu knife - he can slice through anything with his vision and passing.
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.”
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!
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.
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.
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.
Well Wojcik isn’t good. So that’s part of my wanting a “short” 8 man rotation in March.
Spread the minutes out in November and December, have experienced back-ups in March…. Pretty simple formula, one of Roy’s best.
Really? Perhaps someone should inform Pax as to your brilliant analysis.
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!
He works hard, establishes good defensive positioning, rebounds on the weak side, rotates well, hits some shots, and contributes to winning in limited minutes!
Exactly what does that even mean? It sounds more like a thing you would hear on a play ground at recess?
