Biorhythms for UNC @Stanford: 9 pm Tip on ACCN

Sure, teams will players that go off against us. The issue is, when team after team has players that go off against us, it's an "us" issue. The defense is fucking horrible. Much worse than last year. Guard play is not good. This team is playing well below their talent level, in several aspects of the game. (You could also view it as, we're drastically overpaying for the return we're getting.) This is not a new phenomenon in the HD tenure. I just don't understand how anyone can see enough things in this staff that has them optimistic that he's the right person for this job right now.
 
Heelsandeers said:
Veesaar/Wilson only missed one shot combined in the second half

As a team UNC shot 65% in the second half (with a lead coming out of halftime)

And lost
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That is what happens when you have the third worst defensive performance in the last 29 years (according to Kenpom). Ironically, the second worst was SMU. So, that is 2 of the 3 worst performances in the last 29 years, in a week and a half. (The fourth worst was another HD-coached team, 2024 against Syracuse).
 
Okorie’s first made FG was a wide open 2 point jumper without a defender in maybe 10 feet

Seth switches off of him in a fairly obvious manner and absolutely no one even looks to pick him up. I think it was either Evans/Boga in the vicinity

I knew it was going to be an extremely long night after that
 
Partly anecdotal/partly factual take here - this team misses a lot of FREE throws. The best foul shooter on the team is Dixon, at only 80%, with a relatively low number of attempts. Only two others in regular rotation shoot better than 70% at the foul line (Bogavac & Stevenson). That's not good. FREE throws should be FREE points. They help you bank/stack points when you're rolling, protect a lead when you're fading, and win a game at the end. I'm getting to the point where I don't trust that ANY of these guys can sink a FREE throw. According to stats, I'm right over 30% of the time.

michael jordan nba GIF
 
We’re a better program than Duke. Yet they aren’t struggling like we are with recruiting and with playing the damn game. These are Hubert Davis problems.
 
ZZLPHeels said:
We’re a better program than Duke. Yet they aren’t struggling like we are with recruiting and with playing the damn game. These are Hubert Davis problems.
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How is it Hubert's problem when they have outrecruited us tremendously for the last 12 years?

Just as an aside, can you show your math on how Duke is outrecruiting us, outplaying us, (apparently) outcoaching us and yet we're a better program? Without me arguing a single point, explain this in some way that I ever bother with your opinion again.
 
finesse said:
How is it Hubert's problem when they have outrecruited us tremendously for the last 12 years?

Just as an aside, can you show your math on how Duke is outrecruiting us, outplaying us, (apparently) outcoaching us and yet we're a better program? Without me arguing a single point, explain this in some way that I ever bother with your opinion again.
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You seem to be pretty optimistic about HD being able to turn the program around. What exactly have you seen (sets, schemes, motivation, anything really) has you feeling this way?
 
finesse said:
I don't know that they'll play in the NBA but I'm not the one thinking someone lucked into a DI scholarship and ended up an important player. The fact that they did and are pretty much negates your argument. It's almost like talent scouts at the DI level came to an entirely different conclusion than you did. After what I saw last night, I trust them more than you. The point is I trust my eyes. They may never play like that again but if you think we got beat like that by players playing poorly, one of us is seriously mistaken.

Oh,btw, unless something seriously changes, only one player guarding them last night has much of a chance at playing in the NBA, either.
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To be clear, I wasn’t making an argument with my initial post regarding this. I was just pointing out some facts that are frustrating to know.

But also, the fact that at least one of them looked really good against us isn’t necessarily reassuring. I mean, if you watch a bad team look good against you, there’s reason not to feel good about that game. It’s not like the take from that should be, “Well they looked good against us, so they must be good.” And I don’t think those “lucked into” getting DI scholarships. Regardless of whether they earned it, however, we were still playing a team that payed two guys who spent their previous three years in vastly less competitive college divisions for significant minutes.

All that said, I don’t think Stanford is a terrible team. And Okorie is really, really good. Losing to them on their home court, by itself, is not a sign of doom and gloom to come. But when you look at how we played and also consider the context (it was the second loss in three games, and the one win of those three was a very narrow home win over a pretty bad team), it’s a bit concerning.
 
stankeylegjones said:
You seem to be pretty optimistic about HD being able to turn the program around. What exactly have you seen (sets, schemes, motivation, anything really) has you feeling this way?
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I don't think I've ever said that. I have repeatedly said that I believe it was best if he were able to turn the program around. I also think that the program's problems are not nearly as centered on his coaching as you do. I think circumstances like Covid, NIL and being a public university in ill favor with it's overseers are also a factor. I think there's a good chance that I'm the most pessimistic poster on the board that Hubert will make it. That's not even counting the rise in overt racism in current society. At least there should be less shuffling of the feet, side glances and denials about that still mattering.
 
Icky Mettle said:
To be clear, I wasn’t making an argument with my initial post regarding this. I was just pointing out some facts that are frustrating to know.

But also, the fact that at least one of them looked really good against us isn’t necessarily reassuring. I mean, if you watch a bad team look good against you, there’s reason not to feel good about that game. It’s not like the take from that should be, “Well they looked good against us, so they must be good.” And I don’t think those “lucked into” getting DI scholarships. Regardless of whether they earned it, however, we were still playing a team that payed two guys who spent their previous three years in vastly less competitive college divisions for significant minutes.

All that said, I don’t think Stanford is a terrible team. And Okorie is really, really good. Losing to them on their home court, by itself, is not a sign of doom and gloom to come. But when you look at how we played and also consider the context (it was the second loss in three games, and the one win of those three was a very narrow home win over a pretty bad team), it’s a bit concerning.
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Considering that the other guy who went off in that stretch was Boopie Miller who is having a year and not just a game ( and remember they played Duke a pretty tough game with him out with the flu), it's not that hard to admit that they just had great games. Iow. you're looking at streaks and I'm looking at games. I guess that's okay for a fan but that's a sorry way to be a competitor. I sure hope they stay focused on what they have to do and not what they did.
 
ZZLPHeels said:
We’re a better program than Duke. Yet they aren’t struggling like we are with recruiting and with playing the damn game. These are Hubert Davis problems.
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We’re not a better program than dook. They’ve passed us up in every way other than historical success, and they’ve greatly closed the gap there too.

At this point, it feels like we’re also being passed up by Brad Brownell/Clemson for that perennial #2 spot in the ACC.
 
GoHeelsweeeehoooo said:
I don't think there's any question that Duke has passed us by - I think that's part of the frustration - We've struggled under Coach Davis while duke hasn't skipped a beat
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Giving us the benefit of the doubt, we are talking about a small sample size. Hubert is in just his fifth year. His first year (2022), Duke was the better team for most of the season, but we got the best of them in the end that year. In 2023, Duke was clearly better. In 2024, we were about even. We swept Duke and they went one game farther in the NCAAT. Duke was clearly better last season. They do look much better thus far this season.

But even in the K/Dean Smith era and the K/Roy era, there were ebbs and flows as to which team looked like they had passed the other by. In 1992, a lot of folks thought Duke was passing UNC by. In 1997, people thought UNC was passing Duke by. In 2009, people thought UNC has passed Duke by. In 2015, it looked like Duke was passing UNC by.
 
stankeylegjones said:
Sure, teams will players that go off against us. The issue is, when team after team has players that go off against us, it's an "us" issue. The defense is fucking horrible. Much worse than last year. Guard play is not good. This team is playing well below their talent level, in several aspects of the game. (You could also view it as, we're drastically overpaying for the return we're getting.) This is not a new phenomenon in the HD tenure. I just don't understand how anyone can see enough things in this staff that has them optimistic that he's the right person for this job right now.
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The weird thing is that through the FSU game, we were (statistically-speaking) playing good defense.

Using KenPom's numbers, we our Defensive Rating before the SMU game was 96.4, good for 18th in the country.

3 games later, our (season-long) Defensive Rating is 101.4, which is 51st in the country.

It's like the entire team got neuralyzed by the MIB between FSU & SMU and totally forgot how to play defense.
 
finesse said:
Considering that the other guy who went off in that stretch was Boopie Miller who is having a year and not just a game ( and remember they played Duke a pretty tough game with him out with the flu), it's not that hard to admit that they just had great games. Iow. you're looking at streaks and I'm looking at games. I guess that's okay for a fan but that's a sorry way to be a competitor. I sure hope they stay focused on what they have to do and not what they did.
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I was definitely not bothered by the SMU loss when it happened. We didn’t play a great game, but I didn’t consider it a bad loss or a sign of things to come. But then you start seeing how things unfold after that and you wonder where things are going. Things can change too. I remember 1997. And while this team has nowhere near the overall talent of the 1997 team, neither do most teams (if any) in college basketball these days.
 
ZZLPHeels said:
We’re a better program than Duke. Yet they aren’t struggling like we are with recruiting and with playing the damn game. These are Hubert Davis problems.
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I wish that was true. I want so bad for that to be true, but I don't think that it is. I hope I'm wrong. Go Heels!
 
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