UNC ONLY BASKETBALL 2024-25 SEASON

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Mulberry Heel said:
I think our lack of height finally caught up with us last night, as did our habit of slow starts. It's hard to come all the way back against a deep, athletic team like Auburn. Having said that, I thought I chances last night were not great, mainly because just one day before we managed to dig deep and come back from an 18-point halftime deficit, and that takes a lot out of a team. It doesn't surprise me that we didn't seem to have the same energy and competitiveness that we did the night before. Hopefully we still have something left in the tank for Michigan State. At least this grind is good preparation for the NCAA tournament, and I still think that overall we're in good shape.

And for what it's worth, I ventured over to the IC free basketball board after the game and was not surprised at the overwhelming negativity. There was even a "UNC" poster (and obvious dookie troll, imo) who pointed out yet again that we're becoming Indiana or UCLA. And comparisons between our football and basketball programs both being poorly coached and going downhill. No mention, of course, of our great comeback the night before against Dayton. That board is simply filled with chicken littles - even when we win they're miserable and hate Hubert. LOL.
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This team is talented and will be "fine" but there's no getting past the program's failure to land an NBA type big man in the offseason. We need a thorough after action report on this since we had 12 months of advanced notice of our need and we knew the fmv of big men in the NIL market. For our Blue Blood program we couldn't land the ONE piece we needed for a championship run? Going forward, we need to decide whether we're satisfied with a top 15ish program that makes it to the 2nd weekend in the Tourney OR if we want to field championship teams.
 
Mulberry Heel said:
I think our lack of height finally caught up with us last night, as did our habit of slow starts. It's hard to come all the way back against a deep, athletic team like Auburn. Having said that, I thought I chances last night were not great, mainly because just one day before we managed to dig deep and come back from an 18-point halftime deficit, and that takes a lot out of a team. It doesn't surprise me that we didn't seem to have the same energy and competitiveness that we did the night before. Hopefully we still have something left in the tank for Michigan State. At least this grind is good preparation for the NCAA tournament, and I still think that overall we're in good shape.

And for what it's worth, I ventured over to the IC free basketball board after the game and was not surprised at the overwhelming negativity. There was even a "UNC" poster (and obvious dookie troll, imo) who pointed out yet again that we're becoming Indiana or UCLA. And comparisons between our football and basketball programs both being poorly coached and going downhill. No mention, of course, of our great comeback the night before against Dayton. That board is simply filled with chicken littles - even when we win they're miserable and hate Hubert. LOL.
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IC is at its absolute worst during bball season. And it’s pretty awful during the off season.

IC in general sucks ass now.
 
The lack of a big for offense, defense and rebounding means the Heels need to force turnovers so they can get transition baskets, and they need to be able to hit a good number of 3s, too. If one of those things are lacking they are probably not going to win against good teams. They have shown they are capable of doing thise things, but it's going to be hard to do that every time against good teams.
 
What we need and can hope for is drastic improvement from Washington throughout the season. If we don’t get that, I’m not sure we’ll have what it takes to go far. Withers is a 5th year senior, so I’m not sure we’ll see much improvement from him. He will be what we have seen. I like Lubin’s game, but he’s not going to grow 3 inches.
 
Ramrouser said:
This team is talented and will be "fine" but there's no getting past the program's failure to land an NBA type big man in the offseason. We need a thorough after action report on this since we had 12 months of advanced notice of our need and we knew the fmv of big men in the NIL market. For our Blue Blood program we couldn't land the ONE piece we needed for a championship run? Going forward, we need to decide whether we're satisfied with a top 15ish program that makes it to the 2nd weekend in the Tourney OR if we want to field championship teams.
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Agreed about not landing a big man, but I remember watching UNC back in the 80s and while we brought in top recruiting classes nearly every year we didn't make a single Final Four between 1983 and 1990, or win an ACC tournament between 1983 and 1989. There was a lot of criticism of Coach Smith for not winning more titles with the talent, and when we failed to make the Final Four in 1989 I remember some sports article sarcastically commented that we didn't make the Final Four again, which wasn't really a surprise anymore. All of which is a way of saying that I'm not at all sure that we've "settled" for just being a Top 15 program or if Coach Davis is still navigating and learning his way around the new NIL and transfer playing field. Not getting a decent big this year was a big miss, but Coach Davis has generally done a good job of bringing in the pieces we needed. In his first three years we've made the national title game, had one bad season, and last year we won 29 games and the ACC regular season title. I think overall he's done a good job and hasn't settled for anything.

ETA: I should add that I loved Coach Smith, and his record of making (at least) the Sweet Sixteen every single year in the NCAA Tourney during the 80s remains amazing. It was like clockwork. I had no idea of how rare that was or of how spoiled UNC fans were thanks to his coaching. The sports world has certainly changed since then.
 
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Peppers49 said:
I don’t consider myself a Hubert hater, but man, his teams have a penchant for just not showing up ready to play and falling way behind early.
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That Florida St home game comes to mind last year, but it seemed like they jumped out to a lot of big leads against the good teams they beat and it was mostly end games that were an issue

But I hear you, it is a concerning trend with this group to start the year. Giving up and going on 10+ to 0 runs will be a regular occurrence

I do think the half court offense can improve a lot vs what we’re seeing now which will help early
 
grimes70 said:
Should not be in the form of a question.
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I agree. The real question is how did Coach Smith end up in need of a comeback effort?

Not trying to be disrespectful here but I am trying to remember accurately the game-to-game, season-to-season historical context.
 
Icky Mettle said:
In related news, the IC basketball board is a miserable place to be right now.
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They were bad after a loss 5 years ago. It's getting worse and worse, now the free board is pretty much always negative, even after a win and especially in the off season. It is also feeding over to the premium board the since Roy's retirement.
 
Randomly I had a conversation last week with a former UNC basketball payer. (I'm just gonna let him remain nameless.) I didn't know who he was at the time and we were just making small talk while standing around at the dog park. During the course of the conversation he told me that he wished that the players had more access to mental health treatment and that the toll of social media and public scrutiny can be pretty rough on them. I can only imagine. I hope they NEVER go to IC.
 
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Icky Mettle said:
In related news, the IC basketball board is a miserable place to be right now.
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yeah, i checked it out earlier. absolute dumpster fire of "fire HD" and "i'm quitting college sports" crying and dramatics.

absolutely miserable place to be right now but to be fair, there's always been a large contingent of emotionally stunted, mouth breathing idiots. the sky is falling every single time we lose.
 
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