Hubert Davis Catch-all
- Thread starter LeoBloom
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You know I agree with you more than I disagree but there comes a time to let the results talk. We've made our case and I think we've made a decent one. If we are less confrontational, there's a hell of a lot better chance they'll pay attention to those results and maybe even what we said. Let's take some of the heat out so we can focus on were we go and not who got who.
Bigs23
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It's not about case making, in my opinion.
It's a UNC message board. It should be at least somewhat about enjoying UNC success.
They'll be back making their cases soon enough.
Point taken but I think cadeau hit at least two, maybe 3 winners. I know he hit the 3 pointér and got fouled against Notre Dame. The problem last year was RJ and cadeau hit caught with the ball late in clock a lot. Did not have a big man to basil them out.
As improbable as it sounds, if we were to lose the next three straight, they'd have one.
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I will say what I said earlier in the thread: my three rough barometers before the season were top 4 NCAAT seed, top 3 ACC seed, and Sweet 16, and I wanted us to accomplish 2 out of the 3 to feel confident in HD moving forward. It appears that we're going to come very close on the first two, and obviously the third remains TBD.
I'm still not confident in HD being the guy to get us back to being an elite program, but no need to lay out the arguments re-hashed earlier in the thread. If we can lock up an ACC double-bye and get an NCAAT 5 seed or better, which looks pretty likely, I would tend to agree with those who say HD isn't getting fired no matter what any of us think. But it's going to put us back in a similar position next year, IMO, when HD is arguably again coaching for his job, and faces the tough task of replacing Wilson, Veesaar, and Trimble.
It would have made things simpler if we were substantially better or substantially worse. But I'm certainly never going to cheer for us to be worse just to make our choice simpler.
I'm still not confident in HD being the guy to get us back to being an elite program, but no need to lay out the arguments re-hashed earlier in the thread. If we can lock up an ACC double-bye and get an NCAAT 5 seed or better, which looks pretty likely, I would tend to agree with those who say HD isn't getting fired no matter what any of us think. But it's going to put us back in a similar position next year, IMO, when HD is arguably again coaching for his job, and faces the tough task of replacing Wilson, Veesaar, and Trimble.
It would have made things simpler if we were substantially better or substantially worse. But I'm certainly never going to cheer for us to be worse just to make our choice simpler.
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That parking lot isn't just used for basketball games. That would create a south campus parking nightmare for 3+ years.
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We didn't intentionally pack the schedule with tough games last season. We just got unlucky to have a historically difficult Maui field when we had a team that wasn't up to our usual standards.
Personally I would rather our non-conference schedules look more like last year's than this year's, which has too many pointless creampuff games. Swap out last year's Maui field for more of an average Maui field and there wouldn't really have been a problem.
I think a problem is people look ONLY at results
This team could be about 28-2 but also could be 20-10 or so. Just a few bounces of the ball could swing either way
Yea, losing 3 straight would certainly bring howls because that would mean first round exit against a team we should best in the tourney.
I wish folks would focus more on what is happening in the program NOW, move on from years 2 and 4. We have seen an incredible coaching job, going 4-0 with Caleb and 1-1 without him and Henri. Recruiting is good with two difference makers coming in. I am very confident in what we will do in portal. But mostly Hubert has shown he has gotten a lot better as a coach, rotations, ATO possessions, defensive intensity, in-game adjustments.
I am not so naive to believe W-Ls don't matter but Hubert is becoming the coach I had hoped he would be but feared he would not be because of how messy a departure could be.
I am really excited about the future under him.
The thing is that with the portal system and NIL you can't actually predict how good someone is going to be. It only takes 2-3 teams drastically improving on your schedule to matter.
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Right (though honestly before the portal/NIL that was still fairly true too). Most programs will fall somewhere within their ordinary historical range but the difference between a team being top 5 and top 20 can be significant. When we scheduled Florida for last season we probably expected them to be somewhere in the 15-25 range, and they ended up national champions.
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To me these two points are contradictory. The fact that an individual season's results can be fluky in terms of W/L is exactly why you can't just focus on the current season when making your assessment. We can't afford to just assume that we have established a new baseline this season and all the other results no longer matter.
As I said above I suspect this season has been enough to make Hubert's job safe. But it has not been enough that I'm convinced we are back on the road to being an elite program, and I really can't see how anyone would be confident in that. I think the way Hubert has kept us winning games without Wilson is extremely impressive, but pending how the Duke game and postseason go (here's hoping for a 2022 redux) I still don't think you can call a season where we get a 4/5 seed an unqualified success.
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What is the end goal for the program? You're 24-6 with an undefeated home record and a win over your blood rival. I think HD has earned some leeway, no? At what point is he not "coaching for his job" every year?
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If I had to sum up this season thus far in one sentence, I’d say that absent that 4 game stretch in January where we went 1-3, we’ve taken care of business. We had an understandable loss at State without our two best players and our entire starting front line, an understandable loss to a solid Miami team at their place playing with an injured Wilson and Veesaar. And there was no shame in that early season loss to what is currently a top-10 Michigan State team.
In pretty much each game vs. competitive opponents, we simply took care of business. We very rarely looked great. And many games looked like they could go either way until the end. We dug ourselves out of a lot of holes to achieve victory.
When we’re full strength, we have one elite player in Wilson. We have another big time player in Veesaar, but he also has his struggles at times, particularly when he doesn’t have Wilson to draw attention away from him. We have a very good experienced guard in Trimble, though he’s mainly a threat as a driver and not so much as an outside shooter. He’s sort of an old school small forward in a point guard’s body. Beyond those three, we have a bunch of role players. Sometimes they play really well and sometimes they disappear. Generally speaking, our guards who aren’t Trimble do just enough to keep our head above water. Dixon does show potential and can be counted on to hit clutch shots.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Wilson comes back and interesting to see how deep of a run we can make. Our guards will really need to step up to keep things going; no disappearing for long stretches.
In pretty much each game vs. competitive opponents, we simply took care of business. We very rarely looked great. And many games looked like they could go either way until the end. We dug ourselves out of a lot of holes to achieve victory.
When we’re full strength, we have one elite player in Wilson. We have another big time player in Veesaar, but he also has his struggles at times, particularly when he doesn’t have Wilson to draw attention away from him. We have a very good experienced guard in Trimble, though he’s mainly a threat as a driver and not so much as an outside shooter. He’s sort of an old school small forward in a point guard’s body. Beyond those three, we have a bunch of role players. Sometimes they play really well and sometimes they disappear. Generally speaking, our guards who aren’t Trimble do just enough to keep our head above water. Dixon does show potential and can be counted on to hit clutch shots.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Wilson comes back and interesting to see how deep of a run we can make. Our guards will really need to step up to keep things going; no disappearing for long stretches.
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What I am saying is focus less on the 24-6 and more on the program' development and Hubert's as well.
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Then you have situations like in the 2023-24 season when we scheduled Arkansas, who was ranked #20 when we played them, and Oklahoma, who was ranked #7 when played them, and neither team made the NCAAT that season. Arkansas finished with a sub-.500 record.
Bigs23
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“This is suppose to be a happy occasion. Let’s not bicker and argue over who killed who.”
Let's not compare a basketball game or season to a life or death situation. I've noticed some differences.