UNC ONLY BASKETBALL 2024-25 SEASON

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If they go down double digits this weekend to GT(who is 4-4 including a loss we they gave up 105 points to North Florida) then UNC basketball fandom may just explode.
 
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One of my coaching principles is that your defense sets the floor on your season performance (and offense sets the ceiling). You can defensively muck your way to be in games all year. A bad defense means you can get run over when your shots aren't falling (like say the Alabama game). Think there are definitely many defensive basics that need to be improved in terms of execution, but a big part of it has to do with lineup composition. We need to either get bigger or more athletic in our lineups.

The structural problems on this team are evident: we are small on the perimeter and the 4/5 spots haven't been very productive. Having RJ, EC and Seth as arguably our best upperclassmen is also a challenge because it makes us incredibly small along the perimeter (without the front court to clean up those mistakes). The fix? Either go bigger by playing Powell at the 3 next to Withers/Jalen/Lubin. Or go more athletic and start Drake at the 4, and put Jackson at the 3. Either one of those moves means sending one of Seth, RJ or EC to the bench which requires some tough conversations and sacrifice.
 
There aren't any easy answers because our front court is such a liability. But in order to shore up the defense on the perimeter I do agree we need to play Powell at the 3. That means either EC or RJ come off the bench. I'd probably bring RJ off the bench as instant offense, but that's a tough pill for an AA from last year. Alternatively you could just keep the starting 5 to make things smooth and whichever player between RJ and EC is having the best game in the first couple of minutes stays on the floor and Powell substitutes for the other one. But you have to make the move early and not allow us to fall way behind like we have been.
 
I always thought that he should have played a little more last year (in the 12-15 range) to get him ready for this year.
 
Enigma94 said:
There aren't any easy answers because our front court is such a liability. But in order to shore up the defense on the perimeter I do agree we need to play Powell at the 3. That means either EC or RJ come off the bench. I'd probably bring RJ off the bench as instant offense, but that's a tough pill for an AA from last year. Alternatively you could just keep the starting 5 to make things smooth and whichever player between RJ and EC is having the best game in the first couple of minutes stays on the floor and Powell substitutes for the other one. But you have to make the move early and not allow us to fall way behind like we have been.
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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.
 
OGtruthhurts said:
Wash is a good player. Hate he has been forced into the 5 position.
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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.
 
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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At this point I'm hoping they try it so we can stop hearing that take
 
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.
 
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