The Downside - North Carolina | Syracusefan.com

The Downside - North Carolina

SWC75

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- It’s really, really hard to overcome a -17 deficit on the boards with a -3 deficit in turnovers. That’s 20 more possessions for the other team. UNC puts you between a rock and hard place: They recruit big, strong guys and they fast break a lot, which means you can’t send five guys to the boards to combat them. I wish we still did those things. UNC does send everybody to the boards: nine guys had at least two rebounds. We had six. We’ve been out-rebounded by 16, 16 and 17 in our three losses. We’ve won the boards in each of our 7 wins. Get the damn ball!

- I think the turnovers hurt us even more than the rebounds because they came at a key point of the game. We led 56-51 and you could smell an upset. We lost possession after missed UNC shot leading to a jump ball. Joe Girard got his pocket by RJ Davis picked and fouled trying to get it back. It was called flagrant, (even though Joe got poked in the eye The Heels made two free throws and scored again after an offensive rebound. Davis then stole it from Buddy Boeheim and made a lay-up on the other end. It was the beginning of a 0-13 run and we never led again.

- Also, lose balls needs to be a stat, (no jokes!). Any time the ball hits the floor and isn’t in anyone’s possession, that’s a lose ball and the player and team who winds up with it should get credit for it. UNC would have had a similar edge there. The Tar Heels didn’t have tar on their heels in this game.

- Buddy Boeheim had a great game in the first half with 18 points. That’s what he finished with. I don’t blame him. Roy Williams put his best defender, Leaky Black, (who wasn’t leaky) and Black, who is 6-8, got help the whole second half. The problem was that we didn’t take enough advent age of our other four guys being guarded by three guys.

- Boeheim mentioned Marek Dolezaj, who, in our last three games has played 115 minutes and attempted 15 shots, one shot every 7-8 minutes. He’s not as muscular as the guys he’s going against but he is quicker and he should be able to use that. He’s also gotten 7 assists in those three games, so it may be a problem that we aren’t getting him the ball enough – or he’s not coming out to get it.

- Listening to his news conference, it’s obvious that Jimmy is really pissed about the situation with his centers. We have four centers on this team and we keep trying to win games with nothing but guards and forwards. Bourama Sidibe CAN’T PLAY. No explanation except “I’m not a doctor.” Frank Anselem is “out for at least two more weeks). John Bol Ajak is “too small” (?!?) and Jesse Edwards “doesn’t compete on the boards.

- It was a valiant effort. Unfortunately you team record is wins and losses. They don’t count ‘valiant efforts’.
 
Bruising UNC Big Guys sure, but UNC is NOT a good team. Tied 3" to go -SU didn't make plays to win.
Would have been a nice W -unfortunate that the opportunity allowed to slip away.

UNC's bricks (5/24 3's) seemed to favor them with long caroms that added to their already huge rebounding advantage. No excuse tho.
 
- Listening to his news conference, it’s obvious that Jimmy is really pissed about the situation with his centers. We have four centers on this team and we keep trying to win games with nothing but guards and forwards. Bourama Sidibe CAN’T PLAY. No explanation except “I’m not a doctor.” Frank Anselem is “out for at least two more weeks). John Bol Ajak is “too small” (?!?) and Jesse Edwards “doesn’t compete on the boards.

Then JB has got to stop recruiting 6'10", 200lb kids to play the post. Or he gets an assistant coach
who can teach post play. As this has been one of his consistent complaints for years, one would
think he might try to remedy it. I get that the 6'10", 240 lb AA isn't going to SU. Well, I mean, maybe
one would, if SU would recruit Jai Smith, but that's another story. But there is a range of players between
the AAs that the top programs get, and the 6'10", string beans that SU finds who apparently can't play.

That might require sacrificing the center having to get out to clean up the messes of the wing defenders,
and focus a little more on rebounding. For example, that Myles Johnson kid from Rutgers was like the
350th ranked recruit in HS. And he's good enough to take SU for a double-double, and at 6'11', 250
would probably look pretty good in the middle of the zone. But he probably cannot get out to cover
3s when all of SU's wing players are out of position.

Kev
 
I don’t think it was a valiant effort .. valiant effort would be .. despite our weight disadvantage (cause they aren’t taller than us ) we battled them on the boards and had a respectable deficit ..

Many of those boards were just effort rebounds
 
I don’t think it was a valiant effort .. valiant effort would be .. despite our weight disadvantage (cause they aren’t taller than us ) we battled them on the boards and had a respectable deficit ..

Many of those boards were just effort rebounds
They have six players 6’10” or taller. Our front line runs 6’10, 6’7”, and 6’6”. How can you possibly say they “aren’t taller than us?”
 
They have six players 6’10” or taller. Our front line runs 6’10, 6’7”, and 6’6”. How can you possibly say they “aren’t taller than us?”

UNC heights are seriously embellished and ours are actually about right (except for Girard) marek was taller than their 6’10 guys and Edwards was not shorter than their supposed 7-1 dude .. but the height wasn’t the problem anyway .. it’s our utter lack of strength
 
UNC heights are seriously embellished and ours are actually about right (except for Girard) marek was taller than their 6’10 guys and Edwards was not shorter than their supposed 7-1 dude .. but the height wasn’t the problem anyway .. it’s our utter lack of strength
Ummm, okay.
 
The center situation has been ugly since Rakeem. The offense even longer.

I get the attraction to Griffin to replace Hughes, but besides the three, Griffin isn't anywhere close to the same player as far his skillset. He's a 2G. So is Joe. So is Buddy. Marek is a skinny PF, not a center, and he would thrive as the guy at the ACC logo against a zone defense. Q is a SF with a PF game.

Square pegs, round holes, a reactive ISO offense with just enough talent to outscore opponents occasionally.
 
Maybe it will dawn on someone eventually that we won't win consistently in the ACC with skinny toothpicks along the front line. Every game against UNC (well except for 2 since we joined the ACC) looks the same. It's the Charles Atlas front line kicking sand in our face and getting 2-3 offensive rebounds every possession. Unless you shoot the lights out you can't overcome all the 2nd chance 2's UNC gets. And how often do you shoot the lights out?
 

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