Uninterested

[UNC Blue Hup]

I’m really glad we have Caleb Love but man he just plays when he feels like it. He is FULL of gifted talent but doesn’t have a motor. It seems he has everything but the mental aspect to lock in and play hard all the time. He could be the best player on the court 99% of the time but I just don’t get it. Glad to see Dunn get run but I still don’t know if Hubert knows his bench roles/rotation and we’re in ACC play ..Go Heels

 

[gunslingerdick]

Thanks for the great shooting at the end of last season but it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if he went pro. Today.

 

[heels05champs]

It seems pretty simple really. If he’s missing shots he is pouting because his stats are more important to him than the way the team plays. If he’s hitting shots and scoring points then he is locked in and giving effort. Basically his individual play dictates what type of effort he’s going to give.

 

[Bubspub88]

RJ and Caleb go 8/20 (2/8 from 3) in 70 minutes of play.

 

[DrJaaay]

It is what it is. We're gonna live and die by how our guards play/shoot. At least we've had a chance in every game we've played. I'm not giving up on us. Go Heels !!!

 

[Heelicious]

Thanks for the great shooting at the end of last season but it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if he went pro. Today.

You mean - like in Kubakistan or Qatar or something? No way is he a drafted pro in US; I wonder about Europe. But yeah - who isn't ready for him to move on. I'll take a lesser talented guy who at least tries all the time and works to get better, and you know you'll get consistent effort through the game.

It's like Hubert has to have Love out on the court and Hubert in his mind is probably begging for even like 50% effort, 90% of the time from Love. So bogus. Have him not start, and he earns more playing time, based on how he hustles in limited 3-4 minute stretches. NFW has he earned an automatic 35+ minutes a game. He needs to start over and earn even 10 minutes a game and go from there.

 

[UNC Blue Hup]

I’m just pissed it seems we have elite talent but something is off and has been all year. Hubert had some serious work to do and I hope he’s up for the challenge because he hasn’t done shit all year about it, and I mean if you don’t give effort you sit on the pine. It’s too bad he has to discipline for effort..that’s on the players

 

[midline]

I got questioned by many a week, or so, ago in wondering when Hubert was actually going to take control of this team and be the head coach. I stand by that feeling today. I guess Hubert wants to be the "players coach" where they play loose and free. But at some point some discipline needs to creep into the picture. Sad. They had several times where they had the chance to put their foot on Pitts neck and take total control of the game. But then they seem to lose any type of focus. With as much talent as this team supposedly has on it, what we are getting is pretty pathetic. Some folks are good head coaches. Some are good assistants. When that line gets blurred it is a problem. I continue to hope that isn't where we find ourselves with Hubert. But I am doubting it more every day

 

[Heelicious]

I got questioned by man a week, or so, ago in wondering when Hubert was actually going to take control of this team and be the head coach. I stand by that feeling today. I guess Hubert wants to be the "players coach" where they play loose and free. But at some point some discipline needs to creep into the picture. Sad. They had several times where they had the chance to put their throat on Pitts neck and take total control of the game. But then they seem to lose any type of focus. With as much talent as this team supposedly has on it, what we are getting is pretty pathetic. Some folks are good head coaches. Some are good assistants. When that line gets blurred it is a problem. I continue to hope that isn't where we find ourselves with Hubert. But I am doubting it more every day

I agree, and I wonder about Hubert, and motivating. But I think there are other coaches that don't have to work as hard as Hubert does at the grand rah-rah message. Some kids are just born leaders. I don't see that we have any on this team, like a Butter, or Berry, or Paige, or Black Falcon, Tyler, Lawson, Green....and on and on and on.

What is at Hubert's feet are a couple things:
1) his screwed up subbing patterns, where guys while they make their share of mistakes, ride the bench for most or all of the game, while they see guys like Love especially, half-way play, go through the motions, give 20% effort, go 2-18 shooting, play zero defense, have zero leadership, fire, team cohesiveness, leadership....and Love gets the 35+ minutes - where that attitude and play means at least 10-15 of Love's minutes should go to someone else. That has to be super demotivating to other guys on the bench.

Even if Trimble had zero points and zero assists today (about what Love gave us), if he got in Burton's face and locked down on defense and stopped say 3-4 of Burton's scores, again we win going away. What's wrong with trying that? If this makes Love pout / quit on the team, so what? Where is he going to go? Transfer portal? You think NBA wants his attitude? Love's like a McCants minus the results.

2) is there anything unique, value added our assistants are giving us? They are on the staff for a reason, right? Or do they just roll out, wear their UNC alum gear, bounce the balls during practice, and that is all we can expect? I'm sure they are nice enough guys and love the Carolina Family and all that. Great. But what do they add to the team, that makes them worthy to be assistants - good complements / supplements to Hubert?

 

[ChiShankCity]

We’ll be better once Caleb leaves. Sorry to the kid but you just don’t win with fool’s gold players. Thankful forever that he helped close K’s career. But he is what he is and we’ll be better without him. Especially if Dunn and Trimble are legit 2-way guards that every UNC fan is insisting.

Nance is a decent player but he’s more a good player on a bad team. Nothing against him but he isn’t Manek.

So you’re most talented player is fool’s gold. You replaced the difference maker last year with kind of a fake good player and the rest of the core are made up of dudes that missed the NCAA tournament and were 1-and-done in the previous years. Sounds like a pretty untalented group that happened to play the best 6 games of their lives during the NCAA tournament last year. Fluke.

 

[al would]

Not meaning to pile on but nothing about this group/team is really good. The outside shooting is pathetic, Caleb has regressed in a large way and his attitude has become worse than his game, and unless bacot is within dunking distance he has ZERO offensive game. There is nothing resembling a PG so therefore there is no consistent transition game and whatever this 4 or 5 out offensive crap is supposed to do it aint working and UNC has become probably one of the easiest teams in CBB to predict and defend .. NEWS FLASH .. this is a COACHING problem. The offensive movement and spacing most times is terrible and until this motley crew gets their collective heads out of their asses and learn the meaning of "team" then the "run it back" season will go down as one of the biggest flops in CBB.

 

[1heel4life]

We’ll be better once Caleb leaves. Sorry to the kid but you just don’t win with fool’s gold players. Thankful forever that he helped close K’s career. But he is what he is and we’ll be better without him. Especially if Dunn and Trimble are legit 2-way guards that every UNC fan is insisting.

Nance is a decent player but he’s more a good player on a bad team. Nothing against him but he isn’t Manek.

So you’re most talented player is fool’s gold. You replaced the difference maker last year with kind of a fake good player and the rest of the core are made up of dudes that missed the NCAA tournament and were 1-and-done in the previous years. Sounds like a pretty untalented group that happened to play the best 6 games of their lives during the NCAA tournament last year. Fluke.

I agree with it all with the exception of FLUKE part.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

The Pitt game is a pretty good clue to how good we'd be without Caleb. . . . Not all that impressive.

It's also a clue that we don't have someone able to fill his spot.

The good news is that he's occasionally very good. The bad news is that he's only occasionally very good.

Maybe that should be his nickname: Occasional Caleb.

 

[alabamaheel]

The Pitt game is a pretty good clue to how good we'd be without Caleb. . . . Not all that impressive.

It's also a clue that we don't have someone able to fill his spot.

The good news is that he's occasionally very good. The bad news is that he's only occasionally very good.

Maybe that should be his nickname: Occasional Caleb.

How is it a good clue when he’s on the floor for most of the game? A good clue would be with him not out there, which I don’t suggest. But I would like him to sit when the staff sees him pouting and acting like a youth league player not getting his way.

 

[Mistercvr4]

What's crazy is when Kerwin was here he got torched about his defense, let I watch Love get torched just the same yet he still got minutes. It seem Coach Davis is similar to Coach Williams, in that certain players have more leave way than others. For which, is something that I really hate seeing. Maybe Coach Davis should've gotten a SG out the portal and maybe it would've lit a 4ever fire under Love rear. Between him and RJ, they seem to do good one game and awful the next two. It's like other team guards have circled the match up against our two lead guards because they really bring their best game unlike ours. I like to say, our 2 lead guards are like a box of sorted chocolates, you never know WTH you're going get.
I'm going makes sure tomorrow at church, I get a bout a 5 min pray for our 2 lead guards. SMH. GO HEELS

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

What's crazy is when Kerwin was here he got torched about his defense, let I watch Love get torched just the same yet he still got minutes. It seem Coach Davis is similar to Coach Williams, in that certain players have more leave way than others. For which, is something that I really hate seeing. Maybe Coach Davis should've gotten a SG out the portal and maybe it would've lit a 4ever fire under Love rear. Between him and RJ, they seem to do good one game and awful the next two. It's like other team guards have circled the match up against our two lead guards because they really bring their best game unlike ours. I like to say, our 2 lead guards are like a box of sorted chocolates, you never know WTH you're going get.
I'm going makes sure tomorrow at church, I get a bout a 5 min pray for our 2 lead guards. SMH. GO HEELS

You aren't wrong, but Caleb has the ability to take charge of a game and win it for us. You wish he would be more consistently "on" but you don't sit a guy who has that gear.

 

[gunslingerdick]

Not meaning to pile on but nothing about this group/team is really good. The outside shooting is pathetic, Caleb has regressed in a large way and his attitude has become worse than his game, and unless bacot is within dunking distance he has ZERO offensive game. There is nothing resembling a PG so therefore there is no consistent transition game and whatever this 4 or 5 out offensive crap is supposed to do it aint working and UNC has become probably one of the easiest teams in CBB to predict and defend .. NEWS FLASH .. this is a COACHING problem. The offensive movement and spacing most times is terrible and until this motley crew gets their collective heads out of their asses and learn the meaning of "team" then the "run it back" season will go down as one of the biggest flops in CBB.

Harsh, but accurate.

 

[dtodd4475]

You aren't wrong, but Caleb has the ability to take charge of a game and win it for us. You wish he would be more consistently "on" but you don't sit a guy who has that gear.

Kerwin is getting very little time at Texas Tech as well. Two different coaches same decision. Strange comparison for playing time with Caleb.

 

[DSouthr]

I have been in discussions for many years around the question of how good the UNC head coaching job really is. Most fans dream of that job, most feel it is one of if not the best jobs in college sports. And it just may be the best job in college sports but only for the few that can handle it, most will not be able to. Hubert is trying to do the same job that the man the UNC locker room is named for, for a man the UNC basketball court is named after, and the man the whole building is named for, good is never good enough. We saw what it did to Matt, it basically destroyed his career, the pressure was to much, the wall was to high to climb.

The bar is firmly set at consistent greatness, nothing less will be accepted nor should it be. I am almost white knuckled holding on to the belief that Hubert is a great fit but doubt is creeping in. But frankly, doubt is creeping in to my mind, not based on wins or losses, based on decisions being made that I just don't understand. For example, there are more but vs Pitt, their 2 guard is absolutely torching us, making Caleb look foolish, making Dunn look foolish and yet your best back court defender who is usually put in at the 2 when he gets in to games, gets 5mins in this game? A guy that has been out for a month gets 20? Limit Burton and we win that game by 20, heck just get in his way and we win by 10?

Last season at this time things were not much different, it was a legit question for most of last season if UNC would actually be able to make it in to the NCAAT, they caught fire late season and rode that all the way to the natty game where they crumbled in the second half and lost. IN that natty game, our starting 2 guard hit 5 of 26 shots, he was allowed to take 26 shots and he was allowed to continue to take them? ALLOWED to, not took that many shots but was ALLOWED to? It was not what Caleb did in the natty or fri vs Pitt that concerns me, it is what he was ALLOWED to do. It is the head coach that controls what a player is allowed to do, that is his job even if it is not easy.

 

[DSouthr]

You aren't wrong, but Caleb has the ability to take charge of a game and win it for us. You wish he would be more consistently "on" but you don't sit a guy who has that gear.

Caleb is a double edged sword, yes on the one hand he can win games for you but he can just as quickly lose them for you. When a player is wetting the bed you do NOT leave that player in the game, you pull him, get his head refocused, Caleb loses focus really quick, it is maybe the worst case of basketball-ADHD I have ever seen. When you see it start, losing focus, you have to pull him because it is going to get bad, really bad if you don't. And with Caleb you always know, if he is not scoring he is not defending so you get torched both ways, he heat checks a bad shot the other team rebounds and they blow right past him on the other end and the game swings by 4-6pts in the other teams favor on just 1 possession.

 

[dtodd4475]

I have been in discussions for many years around the question of how good the UNC head coaching job really is. Most fans dream of that job, most feel it is one of if not the best jobs in college sports. And it just may be the best job in college sports but only for the few that can handle it, most will not be able to. Hubert is trying to do the same job that the man the UNC locker room is named for, for a man the UNC basketball court is named after, and the man the whole building is named for, good is never good enough. We saw what it did to Matt, it basically destroyed his career, the pressure was to much, the wall was to high to climb.

The bar is firmly set at consistent greatness, nothing less will be accepted nor should it be. I am almost white knuckled holding on to the belief that Hubert is a great fit but doubt is creeping in. But frankly, doubt is creeping in to my mind, not based on wins or losses, based on decisions being made that I just don't understand. For example, there are more but vs Pitt, their 2 guard is absolutely torching us, making Caleb look foolish, making Dunn look foolish and yet your best back court defender who is usually put in at the 2 when he gets in to games, gets 5mins in this game? A guy that has been out for a month gets 20? Limit Burton and we win that game by 20, heck just get in his way and we win by 10?

Last season at this time things were not much different, it was a legit question for most of last season if UNC would actually be able to make it in to the NCAAT, they caught fire late season and rode that all the way to the natty game where they crumbled in the second half and lost. IN that natty game, our starting 2 guard hit 5 of 26 shots, he was allowed to take 26 shots and he was allowed to continue to take them? ALLOWED to, not took that many shots but was ALLOWED to? It was not what Caleb did in the natty or fri vs Pitt that concerns me, it is what he was ALLOWED to do. It is the head coach that controls what a player is allowed to do, that is his job even if it is not easy.

The post reminds me of a Lou Holtz quote about fans, boosters, etc. and thier support. He said they let you know "Coach, we are with you win or tie". 😆

Everyone loves a winner, but lose and the support can quickly turn you into the villain in many of their minds. That same school he was at, Notre Dame, loved a coach when he won a National Title for them in the 70's, but when they lost, and he was questioned on his decisions he then found his dog dead and for sale signs being placed in his yard. "Remember Coach, we love you win or tie" !

Players are in the same boat, win and win big, the adulation is heaped onto you. Struggle and the figurative knives come out, yer a bum. Nasty phone calls/messages, threats, from some of those die hard fans are way to common. Some Ohio State football players got them after the Michigan loss. I'm hoping their kicker can handle what will come his way after his miss in the playoff game.

Another quote I like is from Angelo Dundee. "Pay attention to who is in your locker room after you lose, not after you win."

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Kerwin is getting very little time at Texas Tech as well. Two different coaches same decision. Strange comparison for playing time with Caleb.

At first glance this season it looked like Kerwin was in a better place. Sad that that doesn't seem to have panned out for him.

We saw what he could do as a freshman. He needed to go somewhere where he could be that guy while he improved on other aspects of his game. He was trying to do that as a soph for us, but didn't fit Hubert's game style well enough to get the PT he needed.

Maybe it would have been better for him to move to a lower-ranked team that likes guys who can produce from outside.

Makes me wonder what the Tech coach told him that made him think that was a good fit for him.

His scoring stats aren't bad - better than here last season, averaging about the same minutes per game - but he's only taken 33 shots in 13 games.

He was a likeable guy for us and gave more than expected as a frosh. I'm sad for him that things haven't worked out better.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Caleb is a double edged sword, yes on the one hand he can win games for you but he can just as quickly lose them for you. When a player is wetting the bed you do NOT leave that player in the game, you pull him, get his head refocused, Caleb loses focus really quick, it is maybe the worst case of basketball-ADHD I have ever seen. When you see it start, losing focus, you have to pull him because it is going to get bad, really bad if you don't. And with Caleb you always know, if he is not scoring he is not defending so you get torched both ways, he heat checks a bad shot the other team rebounds and they blow right past him on the other end and the game swings by 4-6pts in the other teams favor on just 1 possession.

Sad but true.

I really thought Caleb had turned that corner by the end of last year. And while he backslid badly in the off season, he seemed to be getting back on track a couple of games ago. So . . . what happened in the Pitt game?

We'll all be happily eating crow if he becomes Mr. March (or, preferably, Mr. February) and carries us deep into another NCAAT. But why can't he do that sooner?

 

[DSouthr]

The post reminds me of a Lou Holtz quote about fans, boosters, etc. and thier support. He said they let you know "Coach, we are with you win or tie". 😆

Everyone loves a winner, but lose and the support can quickly turn you into the villain in many of their minds. That same school he was at, Notre Dame, loved a coach when he won a National Title for them in the 70's, but when they lost, and he was questioned on his decisions he then found his dog dead and for sale signs being placed in his yard. "Remember Coach, we love you win or tie" !

Players are in the same boat, win and win big, the adulation is heaped onto you. Struggle and the figurative knives come out, yer a bum. Nasty phone calls/messages, threats, from some of those die hard fans are way to common. Some Ohio State football players got them after the Michigan loss. I'm hoping their kicker can handle what will come his way after his miss in the playoff game.

Another quote I like is from Angelo Dundee. "Pay attention to who is in your locker room after you lose, not after you win."

Yeah but what I look to do is simply call the balls and strikes as they are. For me it is about the last game you played and how you are playing in the game you are in, nothing else really matters all that much. Caleb played awful vs Pitt, I felt he played really well in the game before Christmas against Michigan, actually he was better vs OSU. But he wet the bed vs Pitt and I have to talk about how that smells. Caleb and Hubert had very similar games vs Pitt...

 

[dtodd4475]

Yeah but what I look to do is simply call the balls and strikes as they are. For me it is about the last game you played and how you are playing in the game you are in, nothing else really matters all that much. Caleb played awful vs Pitt, I felt he played really well in the game before Christmas against Michigan, actually he was better vs OSU. But he wet the bed vs Pitt and I have to talk about how that smells. Caleb and Hubert had very similar games vs Pitt...

I missed the Pitt game, but have seen the deferring Caleb in the past, he can't do that with these past two years rosters.

I try to do the same, but in the end winning covers all the warts, while losing shines a spotlight on all blemishes. And the fan base, not saying you, absolutely acts accordingly afterwards.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Caleb and Hubert had very similar games vs Pitt...

Good point.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

I have this image from a few games back. Maybe the Va Tech game. I wish I'd had the foresight to pause and take a picture of the tableau. The camera angle was from the side and looking down...

On the left side of the screen was Hubert pointing and yelling at the guy on the right side of the screen.

On the right side of the screen was the bald dome of one of his assistants (couldn't tell which), yelling back.

In the middle and standing back as far as he could get was RJ. His face was easy to read "get me out of here!"

I used to worry when Roy yelled at his players - although obviously that worked with some of them (like Brice) if not others (like Tokoto). But at least Roy was yelling at the player. What kind of message does it send the players when their coach and assistant are yelling at each other in the middle of a hard game?