Yeah, I just think we are a much better over all team, much harder to defend when we get Hicks engaged and producing early, especially vs teams he has a clear advantage against.
I do get concerned at times when I see both Jackson and Joel take what appear to me to be harder than needed shots. When either of those guys have that game when it is rolling cool, go for it, feed the beast as they say. But that is not always the case and when it isn't rather than stay with plan A that isn't working as well as it does in other games, we need to shift in to the next plan.
Truth is, most of our struggles have come against teams that have got that hot shooter going off on us and we have to find ways to cool down that hot shooter and not go back down to the other end and have a empty trip. IMO, our front court has done a very solid job on the defensive end, better than I would have expected going in to this season and in some games our back court defends like mad men, we turn the other team over and we get off to the races. But it is those games where we see a hot shooter keep getting cleaner looks that do at times hurt us and that needs some tweeking.
Early season, Joel was a beast defensively, you could see it in his eyes, he was locked in, his defense was fueling his offense, for him personally and for this team. I have not seen that in a while honestly, offense can come & go but defense is supposed to be constant, it seems to have slipped a bit. Joel does need to pick it up a little bit on the assist side of things, 1 assist in our last 2 games from our starting PG should be a concern for every Tar Heel fan and I don't want that glossed over is my point. I want to see Joel get some assists from feeding Hicks, I think that takes us to an even higher level.
