First Nine / Last Nine

[OCESIP]

The ACC/SEC challenge has helped sharpen the focus a little bit
on the relative quality of the league. Overall it looks like there are a
lot of good/average teams, and even the "upper echelon" isn't that
dominent. Lots of 50/50 games.

Having said that, our schedule looks doable in the front half and
brutal in the last half. I would say we need to be at least 6-3 going
into North Carolina just to be a 9-9 team in the league. It's all pretty
subjective, but a slow start could get really tough to overcome.

There will be a lot of teams in our position. The ones who have the
mental toughness to take a loss and come back out with effort the
next night might make the tournament. It'll be an interesting season
in the ACC.

 

[OrangeFoo]

This team is high floor... low ceiling unless they can reduce the variance in offensive productivity. I don't see us having many What the heck games as long as the D effort is there and based on what we have seen so far, I have no reason to doubt that the D will show up every game.

Keys to success:
- Avoid turnovers and that lead to run outs/easy buckets for the other team. With our lack of scoring a couple of turnovers and a mini-6 point run against us is going feel insurmountable. What kept Tennessee in the game in the 2nd half was turnovers. What lead to Iowa State blowing us out was turnovers.
- Avoid tip drill plays where the opponent gets 3/4 offensive rebounds in a play and end up with a wide open 3
- Find ways to get 15 to 20 points a game from easy buckets whether it's off of fast breaks or set plays that lead to an easy shot
- Minimise the 4/5 minute stretches w/o a hoop... Otherwise we will have nights when the other team is hot and we will go 2 for us 3 for them or 0 for us and 3 for them and it turns into an avalanche like happened against Iowa State

For once we are not going to e out athleted... it really comes down to finding some semblance of execution on offense

 

[Cusefan0307]

Not impressed with the top teams in the league. We can have a really good season and for once no game is a guaranteed L.

 

[Surfan06001]

This team is high floor... low ceiling unless they can reduce the variance in offensive productivity. I don't see us having many What the heck games as long as the D effort is there and based on what we have seen so far, I have no reason to doubt that the D will show up every game.

Keys to success:
- Avoid turnovers and that lead to run outs/easy buckets for the other team. With our lack of scoring a couple of turnovers and a mini-6 point run against us is going feel insurmountable. What kept Tennessee in the game in the 2nd half was turnovers. What lead to Iowa State blowing us out was turnovers.
- Avoid tip drill plays where the opponent gets 3/4 offensive rebounds in a play and end up with a wide open 3
- Find ways to get 15 to 20 points a game from easy buckets whether it's off of fast breaks or set plays that lead to an easy shot
- Minimise the 4/5 minute stretches w/o a hoop... Otherwise we will have nights when the other team is hot and we will go 2 for us 3 for them or 0 for us and 3 for them and it turns into an avalanche like happened against Iowa State

For once we are not going to e out athleted... it really comes down to finding some semblance of execution on offense

We erased a late lead against a top five team in a neutral court pretty quick though

 

[Blanko97]

Not impressed with the top teams in the league. We can have a really good season and for once no game is a guaranteed L.

Youre not impressed by duke??

 

[Cusefan0307]

Youre not impressed by duke??

Considering they barely beat a Florida team that’s been very mediocre to start the year no I’m not.

 

[690West]

Youre not impressed by duke??

Duke is very good. He's saying there are no guaranteed L's and its simply a fact. Duke will be favored by very little when we play.

 

[GoSU96]

What happens if they get to 70% from the line and 38% from 3?

 

[Blanko97]

Considering they barely beat a Florida team that’s been very mediocre to start the year no I’m not.

Duke is very good. He's saying there are no guaranteed L's and it’s simply a fact. Duke will be favored by very little when we play.

Thats fair, there are never guaranteed losses in basketball because crazy things can happen. And just looking at the common opponent in Kansas, Duke was in control basically the entire game and when Kansas finally got within 3 they shut them down, much like Kansas did to us. I really think Duke is a championship contender and shouldnt struggle much with most of the ACC

 

[Cusefan0307]

Thats fair, there are never guaranteed losses in basketball because crazy things can happen. And just looking at the common opponent in Kansas, Duke was in control basically the entire game and when Kansas finally got within 3 they shut them down, much like Kansas did to us. I really think Duke is a championship contender and shouldnt struggle much with most of the ACC

Right after Petersen was injured. They hadn’t adjusted. Big step down for them compared to the Flagg team. I think Michigan/Purdue and ick UConn are head and shoulders above everyone else. I might add Iowa State to that too.

 

[Blanko97]

Right after Petersen was injured. They hadn’t adjusted. Big step down for them compared to the Flagg team. I think Michigan/Purdue and ick UConn are head and shoulders above everyone else. I might add Iowa State to that too.

Perhaps yeah. I just think this board has a tendency to call other teams bad or unimpressive before we play them and then call them amazing when they end up beating us.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Perhaps yeah. I just think this board has a tendency to call other teams bad or unimpressive before we play them and then call them amazing when they end up beating us.

I’d never say that. I think the one team people underrating in the conference is Virginia. Their two Euro bigs are going to be a pain.

 

[Eric15]

Duke will be favored by very little when we play.

If Duke is favored by "very little" when we play at Cameron, that would suggest a relatively even matchup on a neutral floor. 690 I adore your optimism, but I'm not sure about that.

 

[Cusefan0307]

If Duke is favored by "very little" when we play at Cameron, that would suggest a relatively even matchup on a neutral floor. 690 I adore your optimism, but I'm not sure about that.

Long way to go before that.

 

[DoctahLexus]

Right after Petersen was injured. They hadn’t adjusted. Big step down for them compared to the Flagg team. I think Michigan/Purdue and ick UConn are head and shoulders above everyone else. I might add Iowa State to that too.

What about Arizona who already beat UConn and is undefeated? Also Duke and UNC beat Kansas more convincingly than UConn did. Not so sure about including UConn with Michigan and Purdue

 

[Cusefan0307]

What about Arizona who already beat UConn and is undefeated? Also Duke and UNC beat Kansas more convincingly than UConn did. Not so sure about including UConn with Michigan and Purdue

UConn was missing its leading scorer against Arizona and I put more weight into winning at Allen FH than I do a neutral or home win. Not to be the bearer of bad news because I absolutely hate Hurley and UConn, but it’s hard not to have more trust in him than anyone else in the sport right now.

 

[DoctahLexus]

UConn was missing its leading scorer against Arizona and I put more weight into winning at Allen FH than I do a neutral or home win. Not to be the bearer of bad news because I absolutely hate Hurley and UConn, but it’s hard not to have more trust in him than anyone else in the sport right now.

Good team, but not Purdue and Michigan good IMO.

 

[690West]

If Duke is favored by "very little" when we play at Cameron, that would suggest a relatively even matchup on a neutral floor. 690 I adore your optimism, but I'm not sure about that.

Ha! Heck I’m not sure either but I’m feeling irrationally optimistic. Let me be!

 

[Cheriehoop]

Youre not impressed by duke??

Very impressed by Cameron Boozer.

 

[orangefog]

Very impressed by Cameron Boozer.

That dude is a beast. So is Ngongba. The two of them together will be hard to handle for our relatively light, yet long, frontcourt.

 

[Blanko97]

Very impressed by Cameron Boozer.

He is insanely good

 

[Cheriehoop]

Good team, but not Purdue and Michigan good IMO.

Michigan’s star center, Aday Mara, was the center last year at UCLA averaging 13 minutes/game but starting only 1 game along with William Kyle who averaged 10 minutes/game and no starts before both transferring out this year. UCLA was loaded at the center position but unbelievably used them only sparingly last year,

 

[OrangeFoo]

We erased a late lead against a top five team in a neutral court pretty quick though

Agree… and even against ISU they erased a big lead in the first half. Unfortunately they lost focus in the 2nd half and made 3 or 4 really bad turnovers in a row and ISU got a 3 on a bunch of them and the bottom fell out. After 2.5 games of insanely high stress game situations the team had nothing left mentally or physically and they are missing a stopper who can take over the game by himself to stop runs. The missing stopper is what limits the ceiling of this team in my opinion.

 

[RedtheGOB]

Michigan’s star center, Aday Mara, was the center last year at UCLA averaging 13 minutes/game but starting only 1 game along with William Kyle who averaged 10 minutes/game and no starts before both transferring out this year. UCLA was loaded at the center position but unbelievably used them only sparingly last year,

They went small ball all year apparently.

 

[Cheriehoop]

They went small ball all year apparently.

Crazy to me, at least. So much talent unused, sitting on the bench. They both though seemed to be well schooled in defense with Cronin.