UNC ONLY BASKETBALL 2024-25 SEASON

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superrific said:
RJ is our best player by a considerably margin. Bringing him off the bench seems, um, unwise.

Here's the thing about EC: when he's playing well, the offense really hums. And so people look at that and they think, this team really needs EC on the floor to be successful. Hence your comment that maybe it's better to start him over RJ.

But the flip side is that EC often does not play well. He's turning the ball over a lot. If you take out the games against HI and American (our two weakest opponents), his shooting remains bad (less than 40% FG% overall). He has made a 3 pointer in precisely one game against quality competition.

If anyone needs their minutes cut, it seems to me that EC would be the candidate.
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He's our best offensive player by a considerable margin, although he hasn't played well so far this year and his body language is bad, but it is a small sample size and he's earned the right to play through a slump. But him and EC are two of our worst defensive players and defense has been our biggest problem. Of course I acknowledged in my post that benching him is problematic, so there may be a way to work around it by subbing in Powell for whoever is playing worse between EC and RJ. This addresses the EC inconsistency problem - if he's having a bad game then pull him. Like I said no easy answers, but the defense is so terrible something needs to be done and putting ST at the two and DP at the three is about the only thing I can see that readily addresses it.
 
rodoheel said:
He would not be any more successful as a 4, IMO - he can't guard anybody at that position. His problem is that he is too slow and stiff to be a 4 but he lacks to strength to match up with a lot of 5s. Classic tweener.
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Thats foolishness... he could easily guard a withers i e. Wash has always been projected a 4 by experts even when coming out of HS. Just because our dumbass inexperienced coach forces him to play out of position thats not on Wash so excuses shouldn't be made.
 
OGtruthhurts said:
Thats foolishness... he could easily guard a withers i e. Wash has always been projected a 4 by experts even when coming out of HS. Just because our dumbass inexperienced coach forces him to play out of position thats not on Wash so excuses shouldn't be made.
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Actually in high school, he was considered a center prospect:
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OGtruthhurts said:
Yeah if you just trust 247. Rivals and others had him as pf.

Regardless use the eye test....hes neverhas been nor will ever be a center.
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I also put screenshots from ESPN and Tar Heel Times there. But yes, Rivals does show him as a PF.
 
superrific said:
RJ is our best player by a considerably margin. Bringing him off the bench seems, um, unwise.

Here's the thing about EC: when he's playing well, the offense really hums. And so people look at that and they think, this team really needs EC on the floor to be successful. Hence your comment that maybe it's better to start him over RJ.

But the flip side is that EC often does not play well. He's turning the ball over a lot. If you take out the games against HI and American (our two weakest opponents), his shooting remains bad (less than 40% FG% overall). He has made a 3 pointer in precisely one game against quality competition.

If anyone needs their minutes cut, it seems to me that EC would be the candidate.
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Maybe less mins for RJ AND EC, which should result in less mins with both on the floor together. Keep RJ around 30 and EC just under that. But you're right, EC needs to be a lot better. 3 turnovers/game many of which are flat out careless is inexcusable

I think more RJ/Ian lineups would open things up more for EC (and Seth). Having two players on the floor who can catch and shoot or create changes the way defenses have to play

I'd also like to see what a RJ/Ian/Drake/x/x lineup looks like
 
Whatever gets RJ, Cadeau, Trimble, Powell and Jackson the most minutes will be best. I don't think you can play them all together because they would get killed inside and on the boards even worse than they are now.
 
With all due respect to JWashington, did anybody see his game last year and think hey, this kid is on the verge of becoming a dominant frontcourt presence? That we didn't grab an insurance policy or two in the portal is a fireable offense, imo.
 
BlueSteel said:
With all due respect to JWashington, did anybody see his game last year and think hey, this kid is on the verge of becoming a dominant frontcourt presence? That we didn't grab an insurance policy or two in the portal is a fireable offense, imo.
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yeah, can't believe the staff didn't think to target a C in the portal
 
Heelsandeers said:
Yes. Though it may be a fair critique to say they didn't cast "a wide enough net"

Then again who would think that nobody would sign up to play majors mins for UNC
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My understanding of the situation is that the coaching staff cast a fairly wide net in terms of the bigs they were considering and with whom they would make initial contact. The dilemma with the portal is that it’s a pretty short window. It’s not like recruiting guys out of high school, where you have approximately three years to evaluate prospects, build relationships, and determine whom to prioritize while also having time to go after backup options if things aren’t working out with a prospect. In the portal, you have to figure out whom you want to prioritize quickly, knowing that once you go after one or more players, you might lose out on another option who needs to make a quick decision. And of course different players announce for the portal at different times, so you have to decide if you want to go after someone in the portal now, or wait a little bit to see if someone better enters the portal.

But in terms of looking at players who are in the portal at a given time, a coaching staff might consider 5 guys, knowing that they’ll have to devote more efforts toward recruiting some over others depending on how they prioritize them. And once those efforts become more focused on 3 of those options, they lose the other 2. Then the coaching staff has to decide who to prioritize among the top 3 options and deal with the bidding wars.
 
Regarding going after a big, from what I've seen they did. In fact, they made an offer to Cliff that was on par (slightly higher) than what Bama made, but that there were other asks that were not granted - according to the latest podcast on IC. Who knows what these requests were (guarantee of playing time perhaps, other things?).

Edit: I do feel better about hearing that they matched, at least, offers. I think it's easier to change messaging than it is to increase NIL funds. Hopefully the staff will change it's messaging going forward, if it helps bring in players.
 
Icky Mettle said:
My understanding of the situation is that the coaching staff cast a fairly wide net in terms of the bigs they were considering and with whom they would make initial contact. The dilemma with the portal is that it’s a pretty short window. It’s not like recruiting guys out of high school, where you have approximately three years to evaluate prospects, build relationships, and determine whom to prioritize while also having time to go after backup options if things aren’t working out with a prospect. In the portal, you have to figure out whom you want to prioritize quickly, knowing that once you go after one or more players, you might lose out on another option who needs to make a quick decision. And of course different players announce for the portal at different times, so you have to decide if you want to go after someone in the portal now, or wait a little bit to see if someone better enters the portal.

But in terms of looking at players who are in the portal at a given time, a coaching staff might consider 5 guys, knowing that they’ll have to devote more efforts toward recruiting some over others depending on how they prioritize them. And once those efforts become more focused on 3 of those options, they lose the other 2. Then the coaching staff has to decide who to prioritize among the top 3 options and deal with the bidding wars.
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That's all fair

Also have to consider that bigs are the most sought after position in the portal. There just aren't a lot of good ones to start
 
The GT game tomorrow will tell us a lot. They aren't that good and the optimists keep telling us that losing to top 10 teams is nothing to hang your head about(that doesn't explain falling behind to Dayton by 21 and losing to Elon deep in the second half but whatever).
 
BlueSteel said:
With all due respect to JWashington, did anybody see his game last year and think hey, this kid is on the verge of becoming a dominant frontcourt presence? That we didn't grab an insurance policy or two in the portal is a fireable offense, imo.
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Missing on the center targets in the portal this off-season was disappointing but understandable in a vacuum if we were simply outbid. The real problem is that Hubert has also failed to recruit good post players from the HS ranks during his tenure.
 
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