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Message: [QUOTE="pokercuse08, post: 4987235, member: 6535"] If we end up the 5/6/7 seed, we're going to start with a Q2 or Q3 (or maybe even Q4) game against a team that's not going to be a "resume" win. In a lot of those matchups we probably need a healthy margin of victory to keep our NET ranking from dropping. If we're the 4-seed, we get the winner of the 5-seed vs. 12/13. Assuming it's the 5-seed, that's a Q1 game. So we get a Q1 game that's not against UNC/Duke/Virginia. That's a really good opportunity to boost our metrics and get a strong neutral floor win. Then if we win, it's most likely Q1 games from there unless there are a lot of upsets. I don't think our chances are substantially better going 2-1 with, say, a Q3 win, Q1 win, Q1 loss than just 1-1 with Q1 games. So I'd rather just get the double bye, get the most favorable Q1 win possible, and avoid UNC/Duke/Virginia as long as possible. I wasn't able to watch much of the game today, I was working. But after the NC State game, if I recall correctly, Red made a comment in the presser about slowing down the pace because of the big lead. It made me wonder if iso ball was his call, with the thinking being that if they took 20+ seconds most possessions, they'd be almost impossible to catch. Did they do that today? He also made a comment about telling the players at halftime that NC State would make a run and cut down the lead. That combination of comments concerned me. First, I hate messaging to the players that says the other team WILL accomplish something against them. I'd much prefer something like, "NC State isn't going to go down without a fight, expect them to try to go on a run, it's your job to weather that, match their intensity, and close this out - and don't panic if they get a few buckets." Sending the "This game will get closer," message while trying to coast on offense to waste time all but guarantees margins will shrink. Which isn't my preferred method even if not for NET ranking, but when margins matter, you can't do that. Might also be that he doesn't trust this team to make the types of decisions in the moment that they need to make on what's a good enough shot to take early in the shot clock as opposed to running it down and milking clock. Ideally you run your normal offense, but a bit more selective. [/QUOTE]

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