BTO’s North Carolina Postgame Report

#51
#51
CAVPUT said:
K

Awaka would've helped tonight, but he's an average post player and very limited on offense. Not the kind of player who will get you deep into the tournament. Good enough for the first couple of rounds if the offense is clicking but not much further.
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A funny thing is; seems like when he does shoot, it usually goes in.
 
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#52
#52
---Awaka would have helped us defensively, as Bacot had his way with Aidoo inside. Aidoo is beginning to help us
offensively--he's got a good shooting touch with the ball--but he's thin and he simply isn't physical enough to handle
bigger post players. Bacot just bullied him in the low post a few times for scores--or drew fouls. Bacot had 13 FTs himself, and made 10. That was a bad matchup for us.

---We were not physical enough defensively, especially in the first half. I have a close friend who knows basketball (and is a UNC grad) and that is the first thing he mentioned after the game---"I thought you guys would be more physical defensively." One of the problems was that UNC's starting guards are super-quick, and so they are hard to be physical with. I'm not sure why Barnes didn't play Vescovi much--very weird: was he displeased with his defense? My guess is yes. We really needed the quickness of Ziggy and Gaines defensively to counter their guards.

---Their guards significantly outplayed our guards. Their starting guards had 12 assists and 0 turnovers. Overall, UNC had 19 assists to 9 TOs--that's a very good A/TO ratio. Davis had an excellent game, shot very well, had 27 points. His backcourt teammate, Cadeau, had 10 assists. That's pretty much the ideal balance between a point guard and a shooting guard.

Meantime, for us, Ziggy had 7 assists but was only 3-8 from the floor--and he missed 2 crucial 3s late in the game, when we had a real chance to get close, AND he missed the front end of an important 1 and 1 late. He's not a guy we can depend on for scoring--period. Gainey had yet another poor shooting night--5-15. Not good enough. Gainey is talented: he's quick, he can create his own shot off the dribble, he's got a nice-looking jumper--but he's missing too much. He is a guy we //really// need to shoot better and produce more offensively if we want to be good this year. He's got to be our scoring guard--even more so than Vescovi, because he's quicker than Vescovi and can create off the dribble better than Vescovi. And given Ziggy's limitations and the fact that we get little from Mashack, Gainey is a key guy for us. We need a good, consistent shooting guard to be good, and we need somebody to relieve Knecht of having to carry the offensive load. Gainey, for me, is crucial going forward.

----While we certainly were not good defensively in the first half, it's also very true that UNC just played very well--they moved the ball well, found the open shooters when we tried to collapse on Bacot, and they knocked down most of their open threes in the first half Ingram, their transfer forward, made at least 4 treys in a row--maybe 5. He had most of his points in the first half, much like JJJ for us. And shooting from the 3-line has been a big problem for the Vols: We are not shooting the 3 well enough. We shot 32% from the 3 line, UNC shot 42%--and the discrepancy was much wider in the first half when we essentially lost the game. We shot 3s very poorly in the first half, and UNC shot it very well from deep.

---Ultimately, as with the Purdue game, the difference in the game was all the free throws UNC shot. They got an outrageous 38 free throws and made an equally outrageous 34 of them. We got outscored by 19 at the FT line. Bacot drew a lot of fouls, we fouled a lot in the last two/three minutes--but we fouled a lot throughout the game. We simply can't commit so many fouls and expect to beat good opponents. Yea, playing on an away court is always likely to result in more foul calls against visiting teams; still, we played Purdue on a neutral court and gave up a ridiculous 48 FTs. That game was close only because Purdue shot FTs poorly--while UNC made nearly all of theirs.

---Barnes was clearly pissed in the first half. He was ver animated and intense during our first-half timeouts--and who could blame him. Giving up 61 points was ridiculous.
 
#54
#54
BigOrangeFanatic said:
Even with Knect healthy I don't think this is a Top 10 team right now. They have the potential to be, but they are a looooong ways away at the moment.

I thought having 2 additional scoring guards in Knect and Gainey would only open things up more for Santi but it's been the complete opposite. Now with Knect out for what appears to be a while, Santi has got to step up.

People may think I'm crazy, but we are seriously missing Plavsic this year. Just having another big body to throw in there and beat and bang and foul and hack the other big men is missing. We absolutely have no down low defense and when we play someone who has a decent threat to score in the paint we get dominated.

I don't see any way this team wins the SEC right now. UK looks like the easy favorite at the moment. I don't see us beating them either time unless we get a lot better by the time we play them.
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I've resisted the longing for the days of Uros, but after seeing the post completely disappear on both ends and be a non-factor last night, I'm starting to miss the big guy. I mean, Uros wouldn't go up with authority either, but he did throw some muscle around (stupidly, a good portion of the time) and would try to get a rebound on occasion.
 
#55
#55
SonOfGodVolforlife said:
The defense didn’t show up bc the teams tired. Tn don’t play zone, Barnes would rather man up. I’m more worried about knechts ankle then these last few losses. Proud the team even had a chance in this one with all things considered.
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Tired? They didn't play for a week.
 
#56
#56
If the offense rolls like it did last night in the 2nd half and the Vols commit to rebounding, they will win some of these elite matchups.
 
#57
#57
kckempf said:
The defensive problems in the first half looked to be in part due to bad scouting, with our players abandoning the 3 point line to focus on Bacot. UNC (or anybody else) won’t shoot like that all the time, even unguarded, but when we focused more on perimeter defense in the second half we got stops (UNC shot 9/27 in the second half). It’s essential that we keep this lesson in mind going forward.
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Exactly what I was thinking. After I watched the Vilanova/UNC game I came away thinking that you cannot let Davis, Ingram, or Ryan shoot uncontested 3s. I would have thought that we should just concede Bacot's 22 to 24 points and play him without too much help-defense. But watching the 1st half of the Tennesse/UNC game I kept noticing that we had 4 and sometimes 5 guys with a foot in the paint in order to help out defending Bacot. Welp, that gave Bacot a choice of three deadly 3 point shooters to kick it out to - and they were deadly. Our perimeter defenders were about one step too far away to close-out properly. They seemed less intent on doubling down on the UNC centers in the 2nd half.
 
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#58
#58
oldaaucoach said:
Exactly what I was thinking. After I watched the Vilanova/UNC game I came away thinking that you cannot let Davis, Ingram, or Ryan shoot uncontested 3s. I would have thought that we should just concede Bacot's 22 to 24 points and play him without too much help-defense. But watching the 1st half of the Tennesse/UNC game I kept noticing that we had 4 and sometimes 5 guys with a foot in the paint in order to help out defending Bacot. Welp, that gave Bacot a choice of three deadly 3 point shooters to kick it out to - and they were deadly. Our perimeter defenders were about one step too far away to close-out properly. They seemed less intent on doubling down on the UNC centers in the 2nd half.
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Bacot and Ingram were muscling their defenders and it was an auto two down low without help early on. At that point Barnes is guessing about doing a calculated risk on the deep shots. UNC spaces so well, so covering both options is tough. We were defending pretty much the same in the 2nd half….they just starting missing more open threes.
 
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#59
#59
cardvolfan said:
Bacot and Ingram were muscling their defenders and it was an auto two down low without help early on. At that point Barnes is guessing about doing a calculated risk on the deep shots. UNC spaces so well, so covering both options is tough. We were defending pretty much the same in the 2nd half….they just starting missing more open threes.
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I disagree. Ingram's 3pt shooting (4-8) really hurt. The defense didn't collapse as much in the 2nd half. Replay the game.
 
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#61
#61
KptVFL said:
Below is the stat that jumps out. I really thought it would be 3 pointers when I went back and looked but that evened out pretty close by the end of the game. From 3- 1st half was TN 1-12 for 8.33% and NC 7-16 for 43.75%. In the end TN 9-28 for 32.1% and NC 12-28 for 42.9%.

From the free throw line is the real killer:

TN 13-16 for 81.3%
NC 32/38 for 84.2%

How many games do you win when outscored by 19 at the line?
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The solution to that is have your guards drive to the basket and either get the layup or get fouled instead of pulling up at the free throw line time and time again.
 
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#62
#62
I had to listen to the radio for the 1st half. Wow, I had forgot how little info Bob provides about the game action. You're lucky just to keep up with the score.

Did Santi play that bad in the first half? I was shocked at how little he played in the 2nd half when I was finally able to watch the broadcast.

ZZ seemed to play a little better than last week, but he still has a ways to go.

I'm still puzzled how the one ref called a jump ball when the NC guy grabbed Knecht's arm. I don't know if he ever touched the ball, but he sure hooked his arm.

Thankfully, there aren't that many good big men in the SEC. We just don't match up with a good big man this year, and we ran into 3 of the best in the country over a 3 game span.
 
#63
#63
whobethis16 said:
The solution to that is have your guards drive to the basket and either get the layup or get fouled instead of pulling up at the free throw line time and time again.
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Wouldn't hurt. Their slashing guards are what created all those wide open 3 pointers.

Problem is when we did that we just dribbled it off our leg and turned it over.

Really lacking in point guard play so far! Using Mashack at point shows how weak we are at that position. He's a good defender but far from a point guard.

Hoping as the season goes on ZZ gets back to his old self!
 
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#64
#64
Am I the only one who thinks we are playing too many lineups that are just too small? We lack rebounding, have struggled to guard the post, and just lack the the physicality of recent years.
 
#65
#65
JacketVol said:
Almost all teams coming back from Maui struggle coming back in their first game. It’s called jet lag.
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first time i went to hawaii i was 28 and was into regular (4-5 times a week) circuit training. After coming back with an all night flight, i could only do about 70% of my workout. it took over a week to get back

the hawaii lag is a fact and has impacted teams for yrs
 
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#66
#66
ColinS said:
Am I the only one who thinks we are playing too many lineups that are just too small? We lack rebounding, have struggled to guard the post, and just lack the the physicality of recent years.
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I mean neither Phillips or Estrella in their minutes yesterday did anything to make you say “they need more minutes” imo…it’s quite clear our strengths are in our guards and wings, not posts, doesn’t seem like a great strategy to me. You wanna play your best guys if possible, and that’s what we’ve been doing…as I mentioned, not having Awaka hurt a hit imo.
 
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#67
#67
wmcovol said:
first time i went to hawaii i was 28 and was into regular (4-5 times a week) circuit training. After coming back with an all night flight, i could only do about 70% of my workout. it took over a week to get back

the hawaii lag is a fact and has impacted teams for yrs
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I spent time in Japan on and off for about three years. The lag coming back East is brutal for about two weeks. I even stopped off in Hawaii for a few days on one of my trips back. That made it even worse. I was around 30 at the time and in pretty decent physical condition
 
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#68
#68
This team might be the most perplexing Vols team I can remember. Ceiling is absolutely Final Four, but I have no idea what to expect.

I also can't work up too much doomsday-ism about the UNC game. The defense didn't show up... and that's wierd. Santi didn't show up...and that's wierd. We came back enough to put pressure on them and score 92(!) This isn't a moral victory thing, it's just that this team has so much all over the place statistically and with the eye test that I don't know what will come out on the other side.

At this point, I feel there are 100 possible outcomes.
 
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#70
#70
Lukusw said:
This team might be the most perplexing Vols team I can remember. Ceiling is absolutely Final Four, but I have no idea what to expect.

I also can't work up too much doomsday-ism about the UNC game. The defense didn't show up... and that's wierd. Santi didn't show up...and that's wierd. We came back enough to put pressure on them and score 92(!) This isn't a moral victory thing, it's just that this team has so much all over the place statistically and with the eye test that I don't know what will come out on the other side.

At this point, I feel there are 100 possible outcomes.
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We played with a limited roster last night. Certainly a healthy Awaka could have had a positive impact.
 
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#73
#73
KptVFL said:
Wouldn't hurt. Their slashing guards are what created all those wide open 3 pointers.

Problem is when we did that we just dribbled it off our leg and turned it over.

Really lacking in point guard play so far! Using Mashack at point shows how weak we are at that position. He's a good defender but far from a point guard.

Hoping as the season goes on ZZ gets back to his old self!
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Our guards have to start making shots. We've been hurt by the poor shooting of ZZ and Gainey, especially with Vescovi struggling to find his game and his minutes down. ZZ missed some key shots down the stretch. We certainly shouldn't count on him to be a scorer--not his strength--but he's got to make open shots when they're there--and the same with Gainey.

I loved what I saw from JJJ in the first half last night--he was aggressive, took the rock to the rim a few times, and other times got into the lane for nice pullups that he made. He was very good in the first half. We badly need that from him all game.
 
#74
#74
StickMan said:
I don't think so. And I think they're both going to be solid players. I predict by his junior season Awaka is going to be a double-double machine. He just needs more experience, and he needs to improve his free throw shooting.
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I think he can be very similar to Armando Bacot (6'11''-240 vs Awaka 6'8''-250). Awaka's rebounding is really special he obviously worked on his post moves too.

I got these measurables off ESPN, but I don't know if we can trust them because these have Aidoo at 6'11''-241 and Bacot had 20 pounds on him. (Noticed right before I posted)
 
#75
#75
This team is playing about 2/3 its potential. We have some chemistry issues and neither Santi nor ZZ are playing close to their potential. I’ve heard Santi has had a little bit of a challenge adjusting to Knecht being the scoring alpha. Watching him chase drivers off the switch from behind, reach foul, and not follow his shot, I understand sitting him last night. If he can return to form, and ZZ can regain his shot and play more disciplined defense, we’ll be very good. For those of you who like to lay it all on Barnes offense, he signed two scorers and is letting them play aggressively. You wanted to drive more, we are. Break more? Shoot off the dribble earlier in the clock? Ditto. There are tradeoffs, but he’s letting scorers play. We looked bad last night. We’re not. Our rebounding has to improve, but we just played three POY big candidates in three games. Rebounding will suffer. It’s also common for fouls to be lopsided when you play against a team that scores and rebounds in the lane. Knowing UNC’s drive and kick game, chasing drives by help just looked stupid. UNC is a streaky team, but they can also beat anyone on a good night. They shot well on a night where we played one terrible defensive half. I’m ok with it. I still think we can win 22/23 games if Knecht returns by January, and end up three seed or better. Looking forward to the team gelling and getting healthy.
 
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