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Official Gameday thread- duke at VT

I'm glad Roach came back. But he was easily the least talented of our top 6 guys last year. He was never a go to guy. He hit some big shots in the tournament, but that was with 5 other first round draft picks teams had to pay attention to. Lively and Whitehead were supposed to be our go to guys, and Flip. Only Flip has been that guy for various reasons. So Roach has been forced into a bigger role.
 
How many games do we play at home? I know two of them are Virginia and UNC. Louisville leads BC by 6 so they may be improving.
 
A few weeks heading into February for a player who hadn’t really integrated himself into the lineup is pretty devastating. Not to mention Whitehead never appeared to have regained the explosiveness he had while in high school.
Totally agree with this. Not sure what anyone would expect him to return and provide if he’s out a few “more” weeks.

He’s nothing more than a standstill three point shooter at that point….if he happens to get hot it may help us but he won’t be taking over any games or attacking the rim or anything like that.

The seasons pretty washed…the only thing that could possibly turn it upside down is if Proctor and Lively just explode onto the scene for us.

Outside of that happening I find it really difficult to think we could be better than 5-6 in our last 11 games before ACC play.
 
On the topic of Roach.......I like him a lot, he seems to be a good kid, tough, plays hard on both ends. I would thrilled to have him back next year if he so chooses. IMHO a ton of pressure was put on him to be the Junior, upperclassman leader among all these freshmen. The freshmen underachieved, and then the injury bug got him, and I think he has really struggled to be the leader this team needed him to be.

The bigger concern looking ahead, to me, is who is the leader next year??
 
On the topic of Roach.......I like him a lot, he seems to be a good kid, tough, plays hard on both ends. I would thrilled to have him back next year if he so chooses. IMHO a ton of pressure was put on him to be the Junior, upperclassman leader among all these freshmen. The freshmen underachieved, and then the injury bug got him, and I think he has really struggled to be the leader this team needed him to be.

The bigger concern looking ahead, to me, is who is the leader next year??
I think it's Jeremy Roach. Hoping Proctor and Mitchell return and provide some extra "veteran" leadership as well. But I don't see either of those guys being our lead leader next year. Proctor is so young. And Mitchell isn't going to have the ball in his hands a lot, and it's harder to be the leader when you don't have the ball in your hands.
 
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Didn’t Jon have to convince Roach not to transfer after last season? And that season went a lot better than this season. I’d absolutely love to have a SR Roach next season.

He would be our 2nd 5-star senior (along with Grayson) since????? Kyle & Nolan?
 
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There’s a lot of people that are getting the word “re class” confused. Any of the kids I’ve checked are the same age as the other freshmen. Proctor is 18, and will be 19 in April. Lively will be 19 next month, and Flip will be 20 in November.

I hear these announcers saying so and so should be in high school. No, somewhere they got held back. It’s so common in high school sports now. I know a parent who’s son plays basketball. He has his son in a private school in the 8th grade again, when he should be a freshman in high school. It’s not because he’s academically challenged either.
 
There’s a lot of people that are getting the word “re class” confused. Any of the kids I’ve checked are the same age as the other freshmen. Proctor is 18, and will be 19 in April. Lively will be 19 next month, and Flip will be 20 in November.

I hear these announcers saying so and so should be in high school. No, somewhere they got held back. It’s so common in high school sports now. I know a parent who’s son plays basketball. He has his son in a private school in the 8th grade again, when he should be a freshman in high school. It’s not because he’s academically challenged either.

The trend of holding kids back became popular with the publishing and popularity of the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. So many kids were being held back so that they could be in the top achievers in academics and sports against younger kids "in their class" that the practice has been banned in many school districts. An extra year at a young age is a huge advantage. The book is worth a read too.
 
I'm not expecting much out of Whitehead this year. Not his fault. But every time this happens it sets him back. If we get him back I think at best we get the Whitehead we have seen so far. I agree that his explosiveness seems to be gone, at least this year. I'm just hoping this team makes the tournament and wins 2 games. That would be a relative success. AJ and Zion were light years ahead of Whitehead and Lively. I guess not all top 5 recruits are created equal. These guys are more on AJ's level. Which would be okay, but injuries plus only one year gets us where we are.
 
Totally agree with this. Not sure what anyone would expect him to return and provide if he’s out a few “more” weeks.

He’s nothing more than a standstill three point shooter at that point….if he happens to get hot it may help us but he won’t be taking over any games or attacking the rim or anything like that.

The seasons pretty washed…the only thing that could possibly turn it upside down is if Proctor and Lively just explode onto the scene for us.

Outside of that happening I find it really difficult to think we could be better than 5-6 in our last 11 games before ACC play.

Lively is starting to show signs of his potential, he could surprise down the stretch! & I agree, that would make a big difference.
 
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And you're naming some great kids, but remember when we had "leaders" like Hurley, Grant Hill, Dawkins, Laettner, Ferry, Battier, etc,etc.... OAD changes EVERYTHING....OFC
 
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You're preaching to the choir man. Even getting Elton Brand back for year two is inconceivable.
 
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And you're naming some great kids, but remember when we had "leaders" like Hurley, Grant Hill, Dawkins, Laettner, Ferry, Battier, etc,etc.... OAD changes EVERYTHING....OFC
It does and you're 100% correct, but having had Tyus and Trey for three of our last seven seasons... I mean we should consider ourselves lucky with the level of leadership we've had in this OAD era.

But holy shit, could you imagine a senior Tyus?!?! I think he'd have made us nearly forget Bobby Hurley ever existed.
 
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It does and you're 100% correct, but having had Tyus and Trey for three of our last seven seasons... I mean we should consider ourselves lucky with the level of leadership we've had in this OAD era.

But holy shit, could you imagine a senior Tyus?!?! I think he'd have made us nearly forget Bobby Hurley ever existed.
When Tyus was recruited, he was not recruited as a OAD. He was supposed to be the leader of the 2016 team, which could have been a title contender with Tyus.

Obviously it worked out with the title and Final4 MOP. After Tyus left, felt like we had 2 years of not a true Pg until Duval, 3 years of not a good true Pg until Tre.
 
I always forget about Duval lol. I couldn't remember who the PG was on that year's team. He could have been very good as a soph. Instead he is in the G league.
 
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The Zion team had 5 or 6 pros. Jones, Zion, RJ, Cam, Jack. And he had decent upperclassmen like Goldwire and Alex and Bolden and DeLaurier. We even had Vrank and Robinson. That year is still a head scratcher. It happens I guess. Zion should have been our go to guy, but it ended up being RJ.
 
It does and you're 100% correct, but having had Tyus and Trey for three of our last seven seasons... I mean we should consider ourselves lucky with the level of leadership we've had in this OAD era.

But holy shit, could you imagine a senior Tyus?!?! I think he'd have made us nearly forget Bobby Hurley ever existed.
You are spot- on, lucky to have had Tyus and Tre as captains. I think back often to that day in Chapel Hill, when Tre pulled the near impossible, and brought us back against the Cheaters.

Then the big dance was knocked out of the water by Covid, and we were all left to wonder how that team would have fared. I think its best basketball was ahead.OFC
 
The Zion team had 5 or 6 pros. Jones, Zion, RJ, Cam, Jack. And he had decent upperclassmen like Goldwire and Alex and Bolden and DeLaurier. We even had Vrank and Robinson. That year is still a head scratcher. It happens I guess. Zion should have been our go to guy, but it ended up being RJ.
Dumbest coaching move in the history of basketball too. Zion coulda averaged 40 easy and we didn’t utilize him enough. Crazy
 
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