Just some thoughts to share with the board after watching the game live yesterday.
We were inside and near seats right at an hour before the tip so plenty of time to observe
Warm ups and pregame
Cade hit 9-10 3s in a row - we need him and I’m not giving up on him yet.
Assistant coaches were on the court most of pre game but not really involved with any of the guys. Just letting them do there thing. Bubba was walking around and shaking hands with people as well.
Hubert didn’t come out of the locker room until literally 2 minutes before anthem and intros.
Our post guys are what they are - 6’8 6’9 at best none of them really play above the rim.
Roy and his buddies walked down the steps right by us when we first got to our seats- nobody else within prob 100 feet but a couple of ushers. Out of respect I didn’t ask for a picture (I have been fortunate to get a picture with him in the past). I did say “good to see ya Coach” and he smiled and said “let’s get a win today”
Several former players were in the house - I passed Marcus Ginyard and Shea Rush was behind me in the concession line.
Seth and his family were sitting 20 feet from us at the gate in the airport this morning.
A lot of UNC fans in attendance too - when we were waiting to go thru security these 2 UCLA fans were behind us and one said “I don’t understand all the UNC fans - Manhattan is a long way from North Carolina”. I kept my mouth shut but obviously these guys didn’t realize the connection with UNC and NYC over the last 70+ years.
Lastly - I’ve been lucky to go to a lot of UNC games in my life and I’ve seen them play many different venues/tournaments. Yesterday was different - if you ever get a chance to see the Heels in MSG then I highly recommend you find a way to make it work and go. Bucket list item!
As for the game and I’m not going to be overly negative here. A huge win that we needed but we still have some glaring flaws that should be and need to be fixed.
How many unforced turnovers yesterday ? How many times did we step out of bounds when receiving a pass ?
Yesterday wasn’t a bad start imo but then on 2 straight possessions we let there best guy - #34 - stroke back to back wide open 3s. He did it again in the 2nd half. We can’t allow the best players on the other team to get lost on the court - transition D was blah.
Speaking of D - Seth is our best defender hands down - he made several plays yesterday at timely moments.
When we scramble and pressure with our quickness is when we are best and it allows us to get out and run. I’m no coach but I feel like we need to press more and earlier in games to establish some confidence and momentum.
Ian Jackson - he was a dog yesterday. He needs 25+ minutes a night and the green light. He is our second best offensive player behind RJ
EC - he came up huge yesterday in timely spots - outside of those 3-4 moments he is frustratingly inconsistent.
Officials - we did shoot a lot of FTs early in the game but as the game went along several blatant no calls against us and then they’d jump all over us at the other end with a touch call. I honestly was just waiting for the whistle on the last possession. Ayers wasn’t too bad other than the offensive foul on RJ and then the block on RJ - those calls should have been the same. The bald dude was atrocious. Hubert never shows any emotion with the officials - I’m not saying that’s bad but every time there was a questionable call in the last 5-6 minutes he showed no reaction.
Bottom line - we have some athletes and when we want to play we look impressive. We are just too inconsistent on D and if we go into a half court offense - look out. Paint will dry. We lack height and we can’t do anything about that mid season but what we can do is start playing more to our strengths. I’d like to see us ramp up defensive pressure and play faster in conference play.
Sorry for long post - I had time to kill on the flight.
As always - #GDTBATH!
We were inside and near seats right at an hour before the tip so plenty of time to observe
Warm ups and pregame
Cade hit 9-10 3s in a row - we need him and I’m not giving up on him yet.
Assistant coaches were on the court most of pre game but not really involved with any of the guys. Just letting them do there thing. Bubba was walking around and shaking hands with people as well.
Hubert didn’t come out of the locker room until literally 2 minutes before anthem and intros.
Our post guys are what they are - 6’8 6’9 at best none of them really play above the rim.
Roy and his buddies walked down the steps right by us when we first got to our seats- nobody else within prob 100 feet but a couple of ushers. Out of respect I didn’t ask for a picture (I have been fortunate to get a picture with him in the past). I did say “good to see ya Coach” and he smiled and said “let’s get a win today”
Several former players were in the house - I passed Marcus Ginyard and Shea Rush was behind me in the concession line.
Seth and his family were sitting 20 feet from us at the gate in the airport this morning.
A lot of UNC fans in attendance too - when we were waiting to go thru security these 2 UCLA fans were behind us and one said “I don’t understand all the UNC fans - Manhattan is a long way from North Carolina”. I kept my mouth shut but obviously these guys didn’t realize the connection with UNC and NYC over the last 70+ years.
Lastly - I’ve been lucky to go to a lot of UNC games in my life and I’ve seen them play many different venues/tournaments. Yesterday was different - if you ever get a chance to see the Heels in MSG then I highly recommend you find a way to make it work and go. Bucket list item!
As for the game and I’m not going to be overly negative here. A huge win that we needed but we still have some glaring flaws that should be and need to be fixed.
How many unforced turnovers yesterday ? How many times did we step out of bounds when receiving a pass ?
Yesterday wasn’t a bad start imo but then on 2 straight possessions we let there best guy - #34 - stroke back to back wide open 3s. He did it again in the 2nd half. We can’t allow the best players on the other team to get lost on the court - transition D was blah.
Speaking of D - Seth is our best defender hands down - he made several plays yesterday at timely moments.
When we scramble and pressure with our quickness is when we are best and it allows us to get out and run. I’m no coach but I feel like we need to press more and earlier in games to establish some confidence and momentum.
Ian Jackson - he was a dog yesterday. He needs 25+ minutes a night and the green light. He is our second best offensive player behind RJ
EC - he came up huge yesterday in timely spots - outside of those 3-4 moments he is frustratingly inconsistent.
Officials - we did shoot a lot of FTs early in the game but as the game went along several blatant no calls against us and then they’d jump all over us at the other end with a touch call. I honestly was just waiting for the whistle on the last possession. Ayers wasn’t too bad other than the offensive foul on RJ and then the block on RJ - those calls should have been the same. The bald dude was atrocious. Hubert never shows any emotion with the officials - I’m not saying that’s bad but every time there was a questionable call in the last 5-6 minutes he showed no reaction.
Bottom line - we have some athletes and when we want to play we look impressive. We are just too inconsistent on D and if we go into a half court offense - look out. Paint will dry. We lack height and we can’t do anything about that mid season but what we can do is start playing more to our strengths. I’d like to see us ramp up defensive pressure and play faster in conference play.
Sorry for long post - I had time to kill on the flight.
As always - #GDTBATH!
