Stats and stuff (Michigan game)...

[gary-7]

...and obviously we all wanted to see how the guys would come back, and there was an awful lot of good tonight... and where there wasn't, we made some nice adjustments.

- So much of basketball, like boxing, is about match-ups, and at least for this version of Heels, this game was much more favorable than last game. My biggest concern was the big German kid vs our Frosh and he hurt us early. As the game wore on we made a subtle defensive adjustment to interrupt the high post entries --- our perimeter guys were shading the angles, which helped neutralize him.

- My second biggest concern was UM is what I call a 3-for-2 team, in that they have five guys who can shoot from deep, and giving up 2 points by say, not doubling-down, beats giving up 3s. For the first 7 or 8 minutes I was afraid the worst case was coming to fruition --- their guys couldn't miss!... but eventually "their arms got tired"(as the old joke goes) and their shooting came back to earth.

- Luke. I've been talking about his issues with a consistent release, well tonight Luke-Bird was back, baby! That smooth from-the-shoulder stroke was back in order... you could see it on his FTs early, and it continued into his deep ball. GREAT to see!

- Shout-out to Platek for anther solid showing and very good work on Team-D. And the Berry-Williams backcourt is just a damned nightmare for opponents. We opened the second half on a 19-6 run by the Under-12 and it was fueled by perimeter defense. Even though we didn't get that much in transition tonight (see below), what I loved was that we sped them up in their possessions. Dog just wouldn't let them start their offense, and KW and Theo were hawking everything, That made life easier on our Bigs. Speaking of KW, dude's a charge-drawing machine (without flopping, BTW).

- Speaking of Bigs, Brooks stuggled with their guy early, but big Manley did a credible job when he came in. Both had a better time when the perimeter pressure cut off the entry lanes. Noticably, Huff didn't get in til garbage time. Speaking of Manley, I love his potential once he gets stronger.

- ***WARNING*** Referee reference**** They assigned us a high-profile crew tonight with Roger Ayers (whom I'm always relieved to see), and Mike Eades (who has been back on my good side since he helped us out with a couple of make-up calls in the Natty game), along with Driscoll (who's usually decent). Overall solid game by the zebras.

- Nice wrinkle: Dean for years defaulted to Zone on OB situations under our defensive basket --- it prevents most in-bound play shenanigans --- but it becomes limiting in the 3-point era. Roy has been using a nice wrinkle by lining up in Zone then switching to Man off a signal from JB.

- We played one sequence of Traditional (Brooks/Manley) before the Under-8, and a short stint of Small late in the first half, but other than that we stayed Hybrid.

- On the negative side, BRob had a rough outing in general... Looked out of sorts on both ends.

- Moment of the game for the highlight reel: Manley's behind-the-back save to key a Break, ended by Theo's wrap-around lay-up off a nice lead pass by 7th. #SportsCenter.

stats
- As mentioned above, we didn't get all that many transition ops --- UM did a nice job of recovering plus they were challenging our rebounds and outlets. We only had 7 Fast Break and 27 Secondary Break pts the way I track it, but we were very efficient. I only counted 4 Blown Transition ops before garbage time --- very nice.

- The key tonight offensively was sometimes brilliant half-court execution. There was a clinic going on at times. We made the extra pass and shared the rock with 24 Assists on 34 made FGs. That works... as does 54.8% FGs and 46.8% 3s.

- As mentioned above, Luke's stroke was golden again and 27 pts later... well... what more can you say? And kudos to Kenny for another efficient night from deep --- 3/5 from 3.

- And finally, Joel Berry. I've been harping on that hand-wrap, and it was messing wth his ability to gather the ball off the dribble, which limits effectiveness of pull-ups and drives as well as dishes. The first thing I saw tonight was JB with a bare lead hand and the difference was obvious. And speaking of JB, good lordy, what a defensive performance! Even though he didn't get credit for a Steal, Dog was directly responsible for causing 5 of UM's 10 TOs... plus he got credit for 2 Blocks (and got his hand on a 3-pointer the stat guy missed)... all that to go with a 17-5-5 line.

Anyway... I didn't like how sloppy we got at points in the second half --- and the final margin should've been bigger --- but this one was more like it.
Good bounce-back win.

 

[imajericho]

Luke Maye and Kenny Williams both played much better which is very encouraging. The 5 spot was a liability again but barely this game. Perimeter defense is still super strong. Seventh's shot still looks very good.

Still have no idea wtf Brooks was doing on that defensive sequence for Michigan's first basket. That was laughable.

Not too much to complain about. Would really like to see us beat a decent opponent without a barrage of good jump shooting to allay some of my fears of being reliant on it, but I cannot complain if we do have our shots on.

 

[iwish]

Thanks as always. Luke was, well, 2017-2018 Luke. His finesse around the basket and use of his left hand was really pretty to watch. One thought is that anyone not named Joel, Luke or Theo shouldn’t dribble the ball....seemed like everyone else was struggling tonight on that front.

 

[Steat]

B-Rob will loose his minutes when Cam gets back. Did Manley block a shot without jumping? Manley needs to spend 30 minutes each day working on his defense under the basket. The kid is getting close.

 

[gary-7]

B-Rob will loose his minutes when Cam gets back. Did Manley block a shot without jumping? Manley needs to spend 30 minutes each day working on his defense under the basket. The kid is getting close.

I believe so. I have really high hopes for Manley. Once he gets stronger and cleans up the footwork (on both ends) he's gonna be a force.

 

[FranktheHeel]

It was great to be back home!!

The main thing I wanted to see tonight was JB, Theo, Luke and Kenny come out the gates and be ready to go. And that they were.
I wrote in my halftime post that I noticed Joel's facial expression in the 1st half which was totally locked in. I've seen that look of him before and every time things went well for him and the team. There was a reason he was on the court 3 hours before the game getting in extra work, he wanted to get this one. Also, I believe this sets a good example for the young guys of what it takes to really get yourself to the next level.
I thought we did a really good job of playing game at our tempo. It definitely wore them down as the first half progressed.
I noticed a lot more movement off the ball from our guys while also doing a good job spacing the floor opening up a lot more options to run our offense and opening up more drives. We will be very good if we can allow spacing for Theo to be able to drive and facilitate.
The unselfishness of our guys is just unbelievable. 24 assists on 34 made baskets and 16 assists on 20 field goals in the first half.
I'm starting to realize that every win has these two things a Kenny Williams drawn charge and a Luuuke Maye And 1.
I also very much enjoyed Seventh's play in the 1st half. He came in confident and poised. He had a very good half with 4 points and 4 assists in 7 minutes. I saw a stat that we scored 15 points with Seventh on the court. He scored 4 of them and assisted on 9, that's great production coming off the bench. May I also add that is on ball defense is really good too.
Also, you could really see that our perimeter D was getting to Michigan as they starting forcing up contested jump shots and struggled to get any flow offensively.
I think improvements still need to be made defending the long ball and doing a better job working off of screens as they scored a couple of easy buckets. Besides that I love how active our guys are in taking charges and diving all over the floor.

Thank you to the crowd they had some good energy tonight.

Good team win, Go to hell dook and it's a GDTBATH!!

 

[gary-7]

B-Rob will loose his minutes when Cam gets back. Did Manley block a shot without jumping? Manley needs to spend 30 minutes each day working on his defense under the basket. The kid is getting close.

Also just saw a tweet that Sterling stayed behind in the Dome working on post moves with Evtimov after the game. Dedication.

 

[Steat]

Also just saw a tweet that Sterling stayed behind in the Dome working on post moves with Evtimov after the game. Dedication.

I think a lot of people has noticed that this kid has the "potential" to be a force if he can improve his defense. Right now he can't stop any decent big man under the basket. Bagley would go for 40 on him and foul him out. His lateral movement is lacking. I'm the kid's biggest cheerleader.

 

[gary-7]

I think a lot of people has noticed that this kid has the "potential" to be a force if he can improve his defense. Right now he can't stop any decent big man under the basket. Bagley would go for 40 on him and foul him out. His lateral movement is lacking. I'm the kid's biggest cheerleader.

Yep. One of the hardest things for young Bigs to learn --- gotta play defense with your feet, even down low.

 

[FlaTarHeel]

7th and Brooks took steps forward tonight.

 

[Steat]

Gary, what your thoughts on Huffman? Looks like he is falling behind.

 

[soap - new and improved]

I did not keep count but feel like Luke got shorted on rebound count by scorekeepers. They had him with 6. I would have sworn he had 10 or so. But again, didn't count as the game was live.

Super glad to see us get a nice W but wish we hadn't let Michigan battle back to within 14 like we did. That is a 15 point turnaround. That part I did not like.

 

[pln2013]

B-Rob will loose his minutes when Cam gets back. Did Manley block a shot without jumping? Manley needs to spend 30 minutes each day working on his defense under the basket. The kid is getting close.

I kinda feel like Robinson might fall behind Platek in the rotation as we get further into the season. Platek just looks a lot more in control.

 

[gary-7]

Gary, what your thoughts on Huffman? Looks like he is falling behind.

Well... that's an interesting question. My first instinct is to say that it's not so much falling behind as starting out behind, so I'm wouldn't relegate him to the ash heap by any means. I suspect the reason he didn't see any prime time tonight was UM's propensity for high post action. Huff is not yet comfortable (on either end) more than a few feet from the basket.

 

[gauchoheel]

Fun game to attend! I was near the back of the risers. Good win.

Offense was clicking again, great to see. I agree the matchups were much better here. Wagner was the big mismatch and he capitalized, but Theo was able to contain Mathews, Maye shut down Robinson (much MUCH better matchup for him than Jaren Jackson), and Joel dominated their young PG's. Maye's offense was a thing of beauty too.

Manley has such nice touch/moves around the rim. Gary mentioned he practiced after the game, well he also was before. I got into the stadium 1.5 hours before tipoff and Manley and Platek were the two guys shooting (I believe the rest of the team had already done their shootaround). He's still making more mistakes than Brooks, but otherwise I wonder if he's going to ever start over Brooks this year?

On that note, Cam was also out in athletic clothes doing some very light dribbling and moving around. I can't remember if he actually shot at all, but good to see him out there. He was in a suit for the game.

I guess you have to let Pinson keep shooting and hope he gets better, but woof he's been brutal from outside. 2-19 from 3-pt range so far this year.

Still got some students who see an unintimidating white guy and think Platek is a scrub. After his layup today a guy standing in front of me goes "A new career high, 2 points!". I immediately responded "Nah, he had 12 points just last week!". Got a bunch of snickers and the guy just sheepishly muttered "oh yeah" under his breath. Platek looked solid again today, just needs to be a bit more aggressive looking for three's I think.

***WARNING*** Referee reference****

3 more games in the next 7 days. Looking forward to it! Hopefully we can give the bench a bit more run.

 

[gary-7]

I did not keep count but feel like Luke got shorted on rebound count by scorekeepers. They had him with 6. I would have sworn he had 10 or so. But again, didn't count as the game was live.

Super glad to see us get a nice W but wish we hadn't let Michigan battle back to within 14 like we did. That is a 15 point turnaround. That part I did not like.

Yeah, 6 seemed short to me as well. I wasn't keeping that particular number individually so I can't say, but it's entirely possible. The numbers we see post-game in published box scores are done on the fly and are frequently off by one or two here and there. For example JB should have gotten credit for 5 dimes but the box score had 4. The staff will go back and get their own final numbers from the film later.

And I think Roy agrees with you on letting the margin get closer. He wasn't happy in the presser with some of the combinations' performance.

 

[superstar57]

Overall it was nice game. Quick observation positive and negative. KW hitting shots is important, JB needs another option from outside, and KW is it. It's not a bonus when he scores this year it is necessary.

Theo is a all time great Heel, but I still have never seen one offense move he make that makes me feel confident.

Luke Maye is really good against guys his height.

Starting to feel Manley is going to be really good one day.

Woods looked like a player this game (dude starting to get a Nate Britt vibe).

 

[gary-7]

I guess you have to let Pinson keep shooting and hope he gets better, but woof he's been brutal from outside. 2-19 from 3-pt range so far this year.

Still got some students who see an unintimidating white guy and think Platek is a scrub. After his layup today a guy standing in front of me goes "A new career high, 2 points!". I immediately responded "Nah, he had 12 points just last week!". Got a bunch of snickers and the guy just sheepishly muttered "oh yeah" under his breath. Platek looked solid again today, just needs to be a bit more aggressive looking for three's I think.

Ha! That's hilarious. Good job clueing him in.

And yeah, Theo needs to see a couple of jumpers go in. It's been all lay-ups recently --- some very difficult, but still. Theo is not gonna be a 3-pt mainstay, but he does need to be a legit threat or his driving lanes will get scarcer and scarcer. One of the reasons for his recent TO issues is from defenders not respecting his jumper.

 

[gauchoheel]

Yeah, 6 seemed short to me as well. I wasn't keeping that particular number individually so I can't say, but it's entirely possible. The numbers we see post-game in published box scores are done on the fly and are frequently off by one or two here and there. For example JB should have gotten credit for 5 dimes but the box score had 4. The staff will go back and get their own final numbers from the film later.

And I think Roy agrees with you on letting the margin get closer. He wasn't happy in the presser with some of the combinations' performance.

I think he wanted to take the starters out for good at around the 5:30 mark. We had a mass sub-in but then the backups gave up 5 quick points without scoring and he put the starters back in.

I think Cam coming back will be a huge lift to give the bench some scoring. We've got an athletic bench with high potential, but no one who can really score (until the lights go on for Jalek). There were a couple of different combos tonight (only briefly before Roy smartly subbed) where you're just unsure of who is going to score.

 

[Steat]

 

[mikeirbyusa]

Gary, nice report. Wasn't worried about UM getting back into it. Roy played some guys decent minutes that will pay off down the road.

Manley is getting closer and closer to being what we need. Going to need more strength, but that too will come. Huff will be awesome his Jr-Sr season. Brooks shows a lot of promise, looking forward to seeing him improve.

On to Davidson. Hope the boys realize, no matter the opponent, BRING IT!

 

[Archer2]

It was great to be back home!!

The main thing I wanted to see tonight was JB, Theo, Luke and Kenny come out the gates and be ready to go. And that they were.
I wrote in my halftime post that I noticed Joel's facial expression in the 1st half which was totally locked in. I've seen that look of him before and every time things went well for him and the team. There was a reason he was on the court 3 hours before the game getting in extra work, he wanted to get this one. Also, I believe this sets a good example for the young guys of what it takes to really get yourself to the next level.
I thought we did a really good job of playing game at our tempo. It definitely wore them down as the first half progressed.
I noticed a lot more movement off the ball from our guys while also doing a good job spacing the floor opening up a lot more options to run our offense and opening up more drives. We will be very good if we can allow spacing for Theo to be able to drive and facilitate.
The unselfishness of our guys is just unbelievable. 24 assists on 34 made baskets and 16 assists on 20 field goals in the first half.
I'm starting to realize that every win has these two things a Kenny Williams drawn charge and a Luuuke Maye And 1.
I also very much enjoyed Seventh's play in the 1st half. He came in confident and poised. He had a very good half with 4 points and 4 assists in 7 minutes. I saw a stat that we scored 15 points with Seventh on the court. He scored 4 of them and assisted on 9, that's great production coming off the bench. May I also add that is on ball defense is really good too.
Also, you could really see that our perimeter D was getting to Michigan as they starting forcing up contested jump shots and struggled to get any flow offensively.
I think improvements still need to be made defending the long ball and doing a better job working off of screens as they scored a couple of easy buckets. Besides that I love how active our guys are in taking charges and diving all over the floor.

Thank you to the crowd they had some good energy tonight.

Good team win, Go to hell dook and it's a GDTBATH!!

as usual, nice post Frank

Also just saw a tweet that Sterling stayed behind in the Dome working on post moves with Evtimov after the game. Dedication.

Love to hear that.

I did not keep count but feel like Luke got shorted on rebound count by scorekeepers. They had him with 6. I would have sworn he had 10 or so. But again, didn't count as the game was live.

Super glad to see us get a nice W but wish we hadn't let Michigan battle back to within 14 like we did. That is a 15 point turnaround. That part I did not like.

Another learning experience.

 

[shane023]

Thanks for the write up Gary. Going in to this game, I would have been shocked had Carolina not played well. Michigan is a solid team, and Carolina had the lead at 29 at one point in the second half. There will be head scratching games with this team, but one that I think will grow as the season goes.

 

[TPFKAPFS]

Great synopsis of an awesome bounce back win! I am so proud of this team, especially the youngsters, for picking themselves up and playing with maximum effort. Manley seems to get better every game and now we are starting to understand why. KW is becoming the guy those of us with Blue Glasses kept saying he would be. I am quite disappointed by BRob's performance. He looked totally lost out there, hopefully the coaches can figure out whether this is physical or mental. Huff losing minutes is not a surprise, but I suspect his minutes depend on match ups more than him regressing! Brooks recovered nicely and it appears his struggles are confidence and strength based. Hopefully, this game can get him back on track.

I must add: I regret I forgot to congratulate 7th for his contributions. Hopefully this is the sign we have waited for and the light is ON!

Love how our leaders, JB, LM, TP came out confident and determined.
The sky has risen again! NEXT!
Go Tar Heels!

 

[DSouthr]

First, great win, after maybe one of the worst games we have played to come right back out and really nail it was great to see. Michigan was much like Arky in that the match ups didn't kill us and our movement was solid, well up to the point we got that lead up to 29, then we seemed to slip a little in the intensity level.

Have not looked at the box score yet but Joel and Luke were solid, much sharper, could tell their legs were fresher, just needed to get back home. Theo, come on man, got to ease up on the trey attempts, they are becoming drive killers. Yeah, I know, you want the threat of the shot to make his drive ops cleaner but they are not going in, they have not gone in for the last 3yrs, stop taking the bait to shoot treys because there is a reason you are open for one.

Kenny is getting pretty consistent, really like that he is looking to attack more on offense, nice to see 7th hit a couple nice little jumpers, that kid needs his confidence amped and those were IMO confident looks.

PLatek vs BRob, yeah, I do think Platek has passed BRob, Brandan honestly didn't look good at all last night, he seems to have no balance at all and I feel terror strike when he puts the ball on the floor. I heard constantly that the kid had a really good off season, sorry but I just don't see it, that is what I see and not what I wish I could say. I do want to see PLatek get a few spot up trey ops, I think if that kid drops a couple he could be one of those guys that can go on a run of shots that drop. IMO, the guy that needs to put in extra work is Jalek, kid really needs to get shots up out side of game time, I suspect he will finish the season much stronger than he has so far shown.

Manley, again for me it is all about a level of fitness he has to find in order to even know what level of player he can be, I see flashes of big time potential but I as well see flashes of that is not nearly good enough. I do think it is going to be next season before we really see what this kid may become. But we need him now so we will have to take what we can get and hope for the best. Brooks is solid, he is kinda like Deon to me, not a lot of flash or glitz to his game but quietly solid that becomes even more so. Huff is really raw, Walker could even pass him in the rotation but he is the most physically stout of our bigs and he can and we will need him to be situationally productive this season.

 

[trestyles]

7th deserves to be shown more love.

 

[acarter0277]

I believe so. I have really high hopes for Manley. Once he gets stronger and cleans up the footwork (on both ends) he's gonna be a force.

Manley plays way to upright on the defensive end. He has to get big and wide. Guys go around him like it's nothing. Actually, all 3 freshmen bigs do.

Coach gave B-Rob every chance to prove he needs more minutes last night, and he just didn't perform. He took a lot of the minutes Platek had been getting, but I expect to see that even back out in Andrew's favor.

I thought 7th looked good in his short minutes last night. I wish we would just play him a few minutes off the ball and see how comfortable he looks.

I love Kenny. He's like the guard version of George Lynch (had to throw him in since they were honoring 93 team).

 

[heelmanwilm]

Love theo. Except when he shoots 3’s. Anyone know his pct? I’m guessing low 30’s.

 

[gauchoheel]

7th deserves to be shown more love.

He seems to really have the midrange jumper down this season. He did not show that at all last year that I can remember.

 

[gobblercalls]

Great to see this team show up last night. I was worried that there may be bigger problems than we thought after the MSU game. The performance for the first 30 minutes last night gives me a little reason to relax. I sure wish Manley would develop a Rasheed attitude!

 

[notashelbyfan]

How was the refs Gary?

 

[bax4444]

Lol

 

[DSouthr]

Great to see this team show up last night. I was worried that there may be bigger problems than we thought after the MSU game. The performance for the first 30 minutes last night gives me a little reason to relax. I sure wish Manley would develop a Rasheed attitude!

Where I am really concerned is when we play teams that feature long athletic front courts and teams that make it very hard for us to drive and create inside space. FSU, Duke, Miami, LVille are long teams UVa, Syracuse, ND are teams that will make it hard for us to drive in to the paint and finish.

WE have looked good in games that we were able to dictate tempo and feature a lot of penetrating the lane but when that lane is clogged up by a tight tuff zone or we have to deal with shot blocker rim protectors that are athletic it is going to be more difficult for us. That is where we will miss the great hands meeks showed last season or the athletic ability of Hicks or the length of Tony. Luke can create some by stepping outside and drawing a big with him but if he has a off night, as we saw vs MSU, it can get ugly.

Cam returning will add another dimension, especially if Kenny can continue his solid shooting and attacking on the offensive end. Cam would be that 3rd solid jump shooter in addition to Joel and Kenny, gives us a bit of a triangle outside shooting look, makes it hard to double up on any individual shooter in our back court. Now if maybe Platek could get confident as a outside shooter and 7th can keep up how he played last night, we can drop Theo to the 4 with Luke and triangle the outside shooting allowing us to spread the court and create space with good feet and ball movement. That would neutralize those longer teams and draw the packed in defenses out further than they want to go giving us the advantage.

 

[gary-7]

How was the refs Gary?

Try reading the actual OP. It's right there (with a government-approved safety warning).

 

[pln2013]

Love theo. Except when he shoots 3’s. Anyone know his pct? I’m guessing low 30’s.

Low 30s would be a huge improvement. 24.7% for his career, 10.0% on the year.

He's pretty much the worst volume 3pt shooter in school history.

 

[gunslingerdick]

Berry is still not Berry. I hope he will look more himself in the weeks and months to come and I think he probably will. But right now something is off with him.

 

[Archer2]

He broke a bone in his shooting hand.

 

[Archer2]

How was the refs Gary?

Lol

No trolling please. We’re trying to discuss basketball here.

 

[gunslingerdick]

He broke a bone in his shooting hand.

I am aware. If you recall, I had a lot to say about what a boneheaded move it was for him to break his hand because he was mad at a video game. But I won't get back into that.

Does a broken hand change decision making? Does a broken hand change body control. Does a broken hand limit command of the team? He's just not been that tone setter that I was expecting. I think there's a bit of complacency due to the title last year and his MOP performance. It's almost like how some NBA guys don't really wake up until April arrives. I think Joel realizes it's a long season and he's just biding time before having to put in max effort. That's just a hypothesis but if it's not that, I'd be more scared of what it could be.

 

[Archer2]

That was sarcasm.

I think there may be some truth in some of your thoughts. I’ll add another, he may be pressing a little, knowing he has an inexperienced front line. I think he’ll be fine.

But it’s going to be an up and down year.