I have limited time, so let's stop wasting time and get this post going,
Another surprising result in a season full of them. When a team is killed that badly, you wonder how good they are. Well, Miami beat Purdue early this season. They have had a series of heart breaking 1 or 2 point losses but had won 2 of their last 3, including a win against a decent NC State team in Raleigh and a win at home against UL (they were ranked #16 at the time).
They miss Lykes a lot. Losing a senior PG is always a big blow. But he has been out since the first two games of the season. Still, you can tell they lack a leader running the half court offense. They did not do a good job attacking the zone.
Good to see the backcourt playing well again. Might be the first game all 3 guards played well. Hope to see more of that. It seemed like things started to roll when Kadary came in and JGIII was moved to the 2. He can attack defenses from the wing playing the 2, can get the ball closer to the basket, making it easier for him to get looks from the paint...in short, he has a lot more freedom to try and get open in places where he can score. And Kadary looked for him and get him the ball in those places. We need to see more of that. There was chemistry there that I don't see a lot with JGIII and Buddy.
Alan seems to have games where he is just not there mentally. This was one of them. He just stood around on the perimeter when he was in, and jacked a couple of bad 3s, where he was either too far from the basket or had someone in his face. Air balls. He comes back in and almost immediately throws a really risky pass to a player underneath, but reads the cut wrong and the pass goes to no one. Just mindless, awful basketball. I think he was frustrated at getting pulled early and let it affect his play. He has to work harder to get open. Can't just force bad shots from the perimeter and expect to do well.
Marek was again not himself. Didn't even take a shot until late in the game. I think he had 2 rebounds late in the game. Barely even touched the ball. Since he was hit in the face by the Georgetown kid, he has not been the same.
UNC 35 minutes, 2-3 from the field, 2-2 from the FT line, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 6 points
Pitt 39 minutes, 4-6 from the field, 6-8 from the FT line, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 14 points
Miami 27 minutes, 0-1 from the field, 0-0 from the FT line, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 0 points
He has taken 10 shots in 3 games. He should be doing that for every game. He has 10 rebounds in 3 games. Edwards had 6 in 23 minutes last night. Hope he gets his mojo back. We need him to score and rebound the ball.
It looked like there was some effort made to get the ball to Quincy down low. I think this is becoming a point of emphasis, which is great to see. Kadary in particular is good at finding him open down low.
Edwards is not a great rebounder. He is going to be in position, get his hands on the ball and get it knocked loose a lot. He is going to get knocked on his butt a lot. Just doesn't have the strength he needs. I so hope there is a major change in the way the players work during the off season where they can be introduced to weight training to gain muscle mass and strength. We have to have the worst weight training program in the country and it is costing us a lot of victories. I hope this is not by design (and that we want the weakest team in the country every season). Please, make the players lift weights, eat right and develop bodies comparable to the rest of the teams in the ACC. Please.
That said, Jesse has some athletic ability. He is long, noticeably longer than Marek to my eye (think wingspan) and when Miami got the ball into the paint, Edwards affected some shots. He was only credited with 1 block (I think they might have missed one or two) but this was the first time this year I have missed opposing players show some concern over taking shots inside (they should be concerned about the great weak side help Q is providing a couple of times each game as well).
Good to see Kadary playing with confidence again. He was still a bit more tentative than I would like but he is clearly our best guard passing the ball, especially down low, and he is a major disruptive force up top in the zone. I will be very interested to see what kind of numbers he puts up for blocks and steals when he starts playing 30 or more minutes a game.
Glad Buddy and JGIII are feeling better. I suspect the bad UM defense was also partly responsible for their major improvements but good to see them making a lot of shots, and I was happy with Joe's shot selection (only one suspect shot, a very long 3 at the start of the shot clock which he made). Sad Braswell played so little in a game where Alan was a non factor. Did we really need to play Buddy at forward so much in the 2nd half?
I am wondering though if the reason this was done was to see how well things went with JGIII, Buddy and Kadary all playing at the same time. It might be something he is going to use more as the season progresses. Because that 3 guard grouping was very effective on offense and not bad rebounding or defending.
Alan better step up his game or his minutes are going to be going down.
