It's up, and as usual, Gary doesn't disappoint. And he wasted little time in attacking the refs. God bless this man.
- I normally don't get a chance to read anything before I write these, but I looked at Adam's Rapid Reactions, and we were thinking on the same lines I'm sure many of y'all were: I didn't think it was possible to play as badly as we did vs Mich St. back in December --- so much for that notion.
- Maybe I jinxed us by posting in the game thread yesterday, but as I feared, their size was particularly hard on this year's team. As I said, with last year's UNC team I wouldn't bat an eye at these guys, but this version needed to make shots. Again, so much for that.
- Here's where I'm gonna depart from Adam --- the issue wasn't transition. In fact we scored 20 of our 28 first half points in our transition game, mostly off the Secondary (the transition numbers Adam cited came from an NCAA stat keeper who doesn't have a clue about our system). The issue on offense was not converting open looks ---- both in the paint and from 3. We were rushing shots inside (or serving up easy blocks), and we couldn't buy anything from deep. Losing formula.
- I didn't like our energy. However, JB came to play and was driving the tempo, but even he couldn't knock down his 3-balls either. Following a really bad charge call on Joel (that resuted in a 4-pt turn-around) we just seemed to fall into a shell for the rest of the half. In general, Cam and Kenny were rushing shots and the young Bigs were deer in headlights. Sterling missing that beautifully executed OB lob play before the half was par for the course. Theo played hard but was making bad decisions in shots. Luke was the other guy who came to play but the zebras wouldn't let him stay on the floor. We got yet another open look on a set play to start the second half but missed again, and that was the omen for the rest of the day. It just wasn't to be.
- There's not a bigger fan of Roy than yours truly, but neither the game plan nor the substitution patterns made much sense honestly. We sometimes found ourselves with little firepower on the floor (and why Platek wasn't the first Guard off the bench is a mystery), and sitting back in base half-court defense and letting these guys just throw the ball into their behemoths was not a winning proposition. This was a game we needed to be more multiple and more aggressive early IMO. But hey, even HOF coaches have off days too, and I'm not sure anything could overcome that bad an offensive performance --- and hell, one time when we did trap, Brooks abandons his "goal-tender" paint position to go after a damn pass to the key (??). Open dunk.
- Tthe only thing else I can add is the Dance is always a crap-shoot (as we've seen in spades this weekend), and in many ways this particular game worried me more than any we might have faced afterward because of the size match-iup issue. Still, it's heart-breaking to have Joel and Theo go out like that in what was practically a home game. Those two have been such a blessing for the Tar Heel Nation --- way beyond the Natty --- to the point that it's hard to imagine a UNC team without them in uniform. Thank you Joel Berry, Theo Pinson (and Justin Jackson) for following your hearts to Chapel Hill. I was hoping somehow Theo could do something in this tourney to get his jersey in the rafters with the other two, and Dog will move on to the NBA as the most successful --- as well as in the argument for the second-best all-around --- PG in the history of Point Guard U...
Welp, more than one of us on here said that if we could knock down shots, we liked our chances of repeating. Unfortunately, the flip-side of that was on display today. 33% FGs and 19% 3s will lose most nights in the regular season, much less in the NCAAT.
- I normally don't get a chance to read anything before I write these, but I looked at Adam's Rapid Reactions, and we were thinking on the same lines I'm sure many of y'all were: I didn't think it was possible to play as badly as we did vs Mich St. back in December --- so much for that notion.
- Maybe I jinxed us by posting in the game thread yesterday, but as I feared, their size was particularly hard on this year's team. As I said, with last year's UNC team I wouldn't bat an eye at these guys, but this version needed to make shots. Again, so much for that.
- Here's where I'm gonna depart from Adam --- the issue wasn't transition. In fact we scored 20 of our 28 first half points in our transition game, mostly off the Secondary (the transition numbers Adam cited came from an NCAA stat keeper who doesn't have a clue about our system). The issue on offense was not converting open looks ---- both in the paint and from 3. We were rushing shots inside (or serving up easy blocks), and we couldn't buy anything from deep. Losing formula.
- I didn't like our energy. However, JB came to play and was driving the tempo, but even he couldn't knock down his 3-balls either. Following a really bad charge call on Joel (that resuted in a 4-pt turn-around) we just seemed to fall into a shell for the rest of the half. In general, Cam and Kenny were rushing shots and the young Bigs were deer in headlights. Sterling missing that beautifully executed OB lob play before the half was par for the course. Theo played hard but was making bad decisions in shots. Luke was the other guy who came to play but the zebras wouldn't let him stay on the floor. We got yet another open look on a set play to start the second half but missed again, and that was the omen for the rest of the day. It just wasn't to be.
- There's not a bigger fan of Roy than yours truly, but neither the game plan nor the substitution patterns made much sense honestly. We sometimes found ourselves with little firepower on the floor (and why Platek wasn't the first Guard off the bench is a mystery), and sitting back in base half-court defense and letting these guys just throw the ball into their behemoths was not a winning proposition. This was a game we needed to be more multiple and more aggressive early IMO. But hey, even HOF coaches have off days too, and I'm not sure anything could overcome that bad an offensive performance --- and hell, one time when we did trap, Brooks abandons his "goal-tender" paint position to go after a damn pass to the key (??). Open dunk.
- Tthe only thing else I can add is the Dance is always a crap-shoot (as we've seen in spades this weekend), and in many ways this particular game worried me more than any we might have faced afterward because of the size match-iup issue. Still, it's heart-breaking to have Joel and Theo go out like that in what was practically a home game. Those two have been such a blessing for the Tar Heel Nation --- way beyond the Natty --- to the point that it's hard to imagine a UNC team without them in uniform. Thank you Joel Berry, Theo Pinson (and Justin Jackson) for following your hearts to Chapel Hill. I was hoping somehow Theo could do something in this tourney to get his jersey in the rafters with the other two, and Dog will move on to the NBA as the most successful --- as well as in the argument for the second-best all-around --- PG in the history of Point Guard U...
Welp, more than one of us on here said that if we could knock down shots, we liked our chances of repeating. Unfortunately, the flip-side of that was on display today
. 33% FGs and 19% 3s will lose most nights in the regular season, much less in the NCAAT.
