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We were thoroughly beaten by a very good team.

Outmanned, outgunned and outcoached. Sadly we got the runt of he Izzo litter.

BackstreetBuzz wrote: We were thoroughly beaten by a very good team.

UNC is not 'very good' this year. They're solid but not one of their better teams.

BackstreetBuzz wrote: We were thoroughly beaten by a very good team.

We were thoroughly beaten by a very average team.

We don't match up well and couldn't shoot the basketball tonight. Not much to say.

Need to practice pick and roll defense.

We let McAdoo do too much. Why we kept jumping out to double up, while leaving him alone, I could not figure it out?

The UNC fans were congregating outside, hours before the game started.

There is quite a bit of difference in athleticism, so to beat them, we had to shoot very well.  Our missed shots were like turnovers.  That plus their quick hands doomed us.  We just don't match up well with them this year.  Hopefully we will recruit more athletic players and improve our shooting.  We're just not there yet.

Late night getting back from he game. Some random thoughts ...

Sitting in the stands, we concluded the team gave up halfway through the second half. Curiously, the coach said he really liked the great effort, but it wasn't enough to overcome turnovers and poor free throw shooting. Not sure what to think. Saw Udofia, Holsey and Carter each try to play 1 on 4 at some point after the 10 minute mark, with the expected result. I can more easily give the freshman a pass. He was really frustrated.

Rebounding was good. I thought Miller had an off night, but ironically he pulled down 12 boards. Bolden drove into the lane with success more than once. He shot 50%. Kam made 4/6 free throws. The rest of the team went 0/5.

Turning the ball over 19 times, including 14 steals is ridiculous.

The free throw shooting is as bad as I have seen. It has to be a mental thing by now. Somebody call John Smoltz' sports psychologist.

The Poole brothers need a reset, too. They combined for 0-7 from the field in 13 minutes. Shot selection was disappointing.

How did it play on TV? Hoping we get back in the win column on the road again this weekend.

gthawk wrote: 
How did it play on TV? 

About the same.  I think our game plan was to limit Bullock and Hairston, which we did pretty well, allowing 9 and 10 pts.  We didn't do too well with Leslie McDonald, who had 15 pts and who averaged only 5.2 pts in ACC play before last night.  We also didn't do a good job rotating over on McAdoo and gave up a few dunks.  But I think what allowed the game to get out of hand were the 14 steals we gave up.  We had a lot of unforced turnovers at CH, and last night we did better.  But we just gave up a ridiculous number of steals.

So Poole had a pretty bad game.  I was hoping he'd be farther along by now.  His decision making has a long way to go.

83bee wrote: There is quite a bit of difference in athleticism, so to beat them, we had to shoot very well.  Our missed shots were like turnovers.  That plus their quick hands doomed us.  We just don't match up well with them this year.  Hopefully we will recruit more athletic players and improve our shooting.  We're just not there yet.

Bingo,....love our young guys, but we've got to get more athletic. Same reason why we got swept by Clemson. Need bigger, stronger, quicker, faster. Would also help if we could hit an open jump shot every now and then too. Frustrating!

Plus, outsmarted, outhustled, outmaneuvered....at just about every turn;
CBG's status quo approach was totally outmatched.  No big surprise!  Next!

DadeCtyDave wrote: Outmanned, outgunned and outcoached....

First 5 minutes started out pretty great. The guys were really slowing things down on both ends of the court and not allowing UNC to run. We imposed our will and the scoreboard reflected that. 

We subbed in Solo and it pretty much all went to heck from there. Aparently the rest of the game only the starters had really understood the gameplan and how to execute it. Despite a great start and solid gameplan to force UNC to play left-handed, Solo comes in and starts pressing and pushing the ball up the floor, taking poor quick shots that lead to fast breaks, and basically whipping the game up into a frenzy. We never really recovered from that point on. Stacey had the same problem, tons of energy and effort, except it just didn't mesh with what the rest of the team was trying to do.

The other glaring problem was right about the same time CBG subbed Solo in, BBC's legs, energy, and will gave out. He was just done. Once UNC got up just a few points, everybody started to look REALLY tired and lethargic. The only folks not tired weren't really playing the gameplan. It just slowly fell apart from there.

HotRodWreck wrote:
We subbed in Solo and it pretty much all went to heck from there. Aparently the rest of the game only the starters had really understood the gameplan and how to execute it. Despite a great start and solid gameplan to force UNC to play left-handed, Solo comes in and starts pressing and pushing the ball up the floor, taking poor quick shots that lead to fast breaks, and basically whipping the game up into a frenzy. We never really recovered from that point on. Stacey had the same problem, tons of energy and effort, except it just didn't mesh with what the rest of the team was trying to do.

Agreed, but after Solo took those two bad shots CBG brought Mfon back in who immediately commited two bad turnovers.  Poor PG play all around last night.

gthawk wrote:
How did it play on TV?

Will just add that it was quiet.  I can't complain because I was in my living room about 10 miles away, but even when the game was close it seemed very quiet with only a hundred or so students making any noise.

Didn't get to watch a minute of the game, but I could probably write a general recap: not enough muscle in the paint, poor shooting, generally good D, inadequate PG play, and too many missed FT's. Am I right?

The same things every night indicate to me a talent issue, IMO. We're just getting beat by the better, and some equal, teams because we just lack certain players. We have a solid group of FR and the upperclassmen are doing their best to hold the fort till the help arrives.

We can still win 2-3 more games (@UVA, UMD, @BC) and end up with 6-7 ACC wins. If we go 3-2, and finish at 17-13 (7-11), that would match wins with the 2009-10 team that had Favors and Lawal and went to the NCAAT. Even a 2-3 finish at 16-14 (6-12) is another improvement year. So I'm a bit frustrated, but encouraged, too. I had few expectations for this year anyway.

HotRodWreck wrote: First 5 minutes started out pretty great. The guys were really slowing things down on both ends of the court and not allowing UNC to run. We imposed our will and the scoreboard reflected that. 

It wasn't much fun after that. I think we're 3 years from being a good team, but I wouldn't count on some of this year's team being a force at that time. We've got to recruit and coach better. One of the funniest moments last night was the reaction of some of the UNC fans around us when the crowd cheered after we made a free throw.

DadeCtyDave wrote: Outmanned, outgunned and outcoached. Sadly we got the runt of he Izzo litter.

Where was your wonderful insights after the Wake game?

ejgcba wrote:

DadeCtyDave wrote: Outmanned, outgunned and outcoached. Sadly we got the runt of he Izzo litter.

Where was your wonderful insights after the Wake game?

For real. People just don't seem to realize how low and out of balance the program had gotten under Hewitt. It took years to get there, and unfortunately it will take another year or two to exit.

tech1997 wrote:

gthawk wrote:
How did it play on TV?

Will just add that it was quiet.  I can't complain because I was in my living room about 10 miles away, but even when the game was close it seemed very quiet with only a hundred or so students making any noise.

This was my biggest disappointment.  At this time the young team feeds off the energy og the crowd,  GT could not even muster enough energy to keep the tar heel chant down.