BTO’s North Carolina Postgame Report

#76
#76
Stoerner Fumbles said:
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.
Click to expand...
Out of the park
 
#77
#77
I honestly think we will be fine. Vescovi needs to get his head screwed on straight. We will get the defense fixed. You don't play defense, you're going to get sit with Barnes.
 
#80
#80
BernardKingGOAT said:
You? There you have it. We already know you're clueless about the game, but you've confirmed you're not really a UT fan. No worthy UT fan would ever refer to UT as "you".
Click to expand...
Great reply. If you disagree with me I must not be a fan. You are embarrassing yourself. Who has been the scorer for our team this year? Oh it is Knecht.

Knecht has almost double PPG of next player on our team (20.3 vs 11.6)
 
  • Like
Reactions: lefthander and volfan__18
#81
#81
StickMan said:
Another superb writeup. This team is still a little behind the elite teams in terms of having the thoroughbred athletes. In my opinion, behind Knecht, the most important player on this team is Tobe Awaka. North Carolina got every single 50/50 ball tonight. With Awaka playing, that would not have been the case. I also think he's on the verge of developing an offensive game.
Click to expand...
There is a huge dropoff from Aidoo to the freshmen big men and not having Awake made a big difference. We need him off the bench in a bad way.
 
  • Like
Reactions: StickMan
#82
#82
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.
Click to expand...
Where's the size and physicality going to come from?
 
#83
#83
Stoerner Fumbles said:
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.
Click to expand...
So Knecht is really out till January? I think that might help from an offensive standpoint… hopefully it allows other guys to step up to score instead of relying on one guy. Or it could hurt and we go ice cold offensively.
 
#84
#84
The Tall Gguy said:
Great reply. If you disagree with me I must not be a fan. You are embarrassing yourself. Who has been the scorer for our team this year? Oh it is Knecht.

Knecht has almost double PPG of next player on our team (20.3 vs 11.6)
Click to expand...
Why are you mad about Knecht being our best player. Sure, we wouldn't be as good without him. Same can be said for most teams without their best player. Bless Your Heart
 
#85
#85
BernardKingGOAT said:
Why are you mad about Knecht being our best player. Sure, we wouldn't be as good without him. Same can be said for most teams without their best player. Bless Your Heart
Click to expand...
Mad? Why are you trying to distract this conversation away from the main point of you telling me I'm not a true fan because I disagree with you? I'm not mad at all about Knecht...I stated without him we are screwed. That sounds to me like I think a lot of him. Is reading comprehension difficult for you? I would be more than happy to work with you to help with this. Who knows, one day we may even become friends?
 
#86
#86
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
Click to expand...
27 year old here. Went last summer and can confirm, took me around 2 weeks to get fully back on schedule after returning.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DuckInAPen, knoxvol52 and chuckiepoo
#88
#88
CAVPUT said:
Where's the size and physicality going to come from?
Not having ZZ and Gainey out there playing with one post player for one thing, playing two true post together, and of course Awaka getting healthy and playing more when he does are examples of ways of getting more size on the court.
Click to expand...
 
#89
#89
bleedingTNorange said:
Exactly….take minutes and strengths away from JJJ, who has been our 2nd best player so far this year, that’s an interesting strategy imo.
Click to expand...
But if we are gonna be married to small ball we are gonna have to get something in transition. That's suppose to be the trade off and it's non-existant. This is gonna be a long season if we play half court basketball and can't rebound.
 
#90
#90
ColinS said:
But if we are gonna be married to small ball we are gonna have to get something in transition. That's suppose to be the trade off and it's non-existant. This is gonna be a long season if we play half court basketball and can't rebound.
Click to expand...
That’s not the tradeoff in this system. We’re about to win a lot of games playing good defense, small ball and scoring in our half court offense. We just played two of the three best teams we’ll play all year in an upside down time zone and flew back and played an away game against a top ten quality team with the third seven foot POY candidate of the week. Our rebounding will improve with Awaka in against mortal 5’s. We’re fine. Go back to sleep.
 
  • Like
Reactions: berryvol, DuckInAPen, CornbreadVol and 6 others
#91
#91
bleedingTNorange said:
Exactly….take minutes and strengths away from JJJ, who has been our 2nd best player so far this year, that’s an interesting strategy imo.
Click to expand...
Obviously JJJ can play the 3…do you think Knecht can’t defend the 2 since he doesn’t have any problems scoring from the wing?
 
  • Like
Reactions: knoxvol52
#92
#92
ColinS said:
But if we are gonna be married to small ball we are gonna have to get something in transition. That's suppose to be the trade off and it's non-existant. This is gonna be a long season if we play half court basketball and can't rebound.
Click to expand...
That’s not the sole purpose/advantage of small ball, and transition often hurts defensive efficiency…we just put up 90+ against UNC, again I don’t think offense is the issue right now really.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gainesvol82, berryvol, knoxvol52 and 1 other person
#93
#93
walkenvol said:
Obviously JJJ can play the 3…do you think Knecht can’t defend the 2 since he doesn’t have any problems scoring from the wing?
Click to expand...
I definitely don’t think JJJ is most effective at the 3 nor do I think DK would be most effective as a 2…there’s a reason the staff worked DK at the 4 quite a bit in the off season.
 
  • Like
Reactions: knoxvol52 and chuckiepoo
#94
#94
Stoerner Fumbles said:
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.
Click to expand...
Seems like we are at a crossroads on the court and in the locker room. Knecht and Gainey leading the charge offensively now. Santi and Mashack getting a quick pull. Overall lack of effort.

Barnes has always demanded a certain level of effort on the defensive end. Are the older guys mad that Dalton is getting the offense and then also the weak link on defense? I’m not sure.

Other than that, we have some go to scorers on the team. I’d love to see more designed offense and get out of the motion some. Gainey had a lot of high pick and roll highlights. Be nice to see that with Aidoo. Dalton looks great coming off a curl in the mid range. Santi should be able to run a lot of dribble hand off and pin down screens.

I know some of that happens in the offense organically but just thinking out loud.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Volfan1000
#96
#96
bleedingTNorange said:
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.
Click to expand...

Aidoo has played against three of the top big men in the country already this season and his offense is slowly improving.

He could be one of the best bigs in the country at season's end if he cuts back on the fouls and keeps learning how to play bully ball inside.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tn4elvis, knoxvol52 and chuckiepoo
#98
#98
Volfan1000 said:
Aidoo has played against three of the top big men in the country already this season and his offense is slowly improving.

He could be one of the best bigs in the country at season's end if he cuts back on the fouls and keeps learning how to play bully ball inside.
Click to expand...
The bully ball is a curious phenomenon. The 3 bigs Aidoo played against bully by totally displacing defenders. No fouls called for knocking a stationary player backwards by 5, 6, 7 feet or so. That makes the game down low more about strength than skill. There is literally nothing a skilled player can do to defend against displacement.
 
  • Like
Reactions: orangello and Volfan1000
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top