11/2 Faulkner Game Thread

[Peacone36]

I'm low-key ready to give up on Justin Moore. He's never going to be a game changer.

Low key would probably not be considered posting it on a public forum

 

[sidewalkGTfan]

Yeah this is like a solidly 12th place ACC team. We'll win the home games we should win against the 8-16 teams, lose the ones against the 1st and 2nd tier, and lose most of our away games. No real playmakers...will be similar to last season minus a lot of the luck factor. Maybe a low NIT seed.

Alvarado will come with his upsides but I won't ever trust the ball in his hands with 25 seconds to go needing to drive the lane and get the go-ahead score.

Well that's definitely a glass half empty take on the team and a player that has yet to play a real college game.

 

[Fatmike91]

Yeah this is like a solidly 12th place ACC team. We'll win the home games we should win against the 8-16 teams, lose the ones against the 1st and 2nd tier, and lose most of our away games. No real playmakers...will be similar to last season minus a lot of the luck factor. Maybe a low NIT seed.

Alvarado will come with his upsides but I won't ever trust the ball in his hands with 25 seconds to go needing to drive the lane and get the go-ahead score.

We must have been watching different games.

I see a very deep team with more talent than we've had at one time since Shumpert was on the roster. I see a freshman Wright who will be an absolute star. Alvarado is much more in control than expected.

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[SteamWhistle]

With all the things going on in the CBB world this season I wouldn’t be shocked to see us make a Final 4 run like South Carolina did last year.

 

[AE 87]

They looked better than I expected, but it's hard to know with the competition.

We had a too familiar let-down in perimeter D at the start of the 2nd half, but it looks like they might be able to develop like last year's team. The opening weeks without Jax and JoshO will likely be rough, but that's why we play the games.

 

[Fatmike91]

He is the starter at the 4.

Wright started at the 3 tonight (I think) although that spot is spoken for once JO returns... I was very impressed with how quick he is - he moves like a guard on the open floor.

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[tbglover]

I'm low-key ready to give up on Justin Moore. He's never going to be a game changer.

Who ever expected Justin Moore to be a game changer? His role is to be a solid contributor who can run the offense, play defense and set other guys up. If you were expecting more than you definitely expected too much.

 

[MWBATL]

Yeah this is like a solidly 12th place ACC team. We'll win the home games we should win against the 8-16 teams, lose the ones against the 1st and 2nd tier, and lose most of our away games. No real playmakers...will be similar to last season minus a lot of the luck factor. Maybe a low NIT seed.

Alvarado will come with his upsides but I won't ever trust the ball in his hands with 25 seconds to go needing to drive the lane and get the go-ahead score.

Do you remember the North Carolina A&T game last year?

"Won't ever" sounds like something you would have said last year. Like that team "won't ever" win an ACC game.

Look what happened.

 

[Silk3]

Moore looked terrible, hopefully Jose gets vast majority of pg minutes.... feel good about my prediction a while back that Jose will be an upgrade at pg(this year) over what weve seen last couple years. Also in stating the obvious we rlly miss JO(d-wade) ...basically 20 ppg good rebounding and best playmaker

 

[ChasonBaller]

Can't believe I was allowed to go back after the game and get a pic with Ben Lammers

 

[YlJacket]

There were a ton of things that had to go right last year and we got more than our fair share of upside breaks. The improvement from day 1 to midseason was mindblowing.

This team has more raw talent but no experience and no defined playmaker without JO. It will require a similar good luck charm for a multitude of things to break right and another breathtaking improvement from now to midseason for this year's team to equal last year's. Again, I think there is more raw talent but the number of things that have to go in our favor are more than I want to think about.

 

[Jumpman]

Wright started at the 3 tonight (I think) although that spot is spoken for once JO returns... I was very impressed with how quick he is - he moves like a guard on the open floor.

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Let me add that from the staff, Wright is the starter at the 4. If Josh O and Tadric had played/started tonight, Wright would have started at the 4.

 

[Connell62]

Yeah this is like a solidly 12th place ACC team. We'll win the home games we should win against the 8-16 teams, lose the ones against the 1st and 2nd tier, and lose most of our away games. No real playmakers...will be similar to last season minus a lot of the luck factor. Maybe a low NIT seed.

Alvarado will come with his upsides but I won't ever trust the ball in his hands with 25 seconds to go needing to drive the lane and get the go-ahead score.

You're just a ray of sunshine aren't you?

 

[ChasonBaller]

Moses Wright gets #grownmanrebounds and is exciting to watch on the glass, to go with those silky mid range J's. Jose is tough as we expected. Evan is playing like I thought he would early, and that he is still getting back in rhythm. I've been kinda disappointed in CGB and Moore in the 1st 2 scrimmages but that can mean nothing as I do think they turn it around and ball out. Not a big fan of AD, and personally, I think the freshman should get most of the minutes.
So our lineup against UCLA is:
Alvarado
Moore(Alston If healthy?)
Haywood
Wright
Lammers
Then when our full squad comes back:
Alvarado/Moore
Tad/Alston
Okogie/Haywood
Wright/Cole/AD
Lammers/Sly
@Jumpman any input on it?

 

[GTbball2016]

Haywood's shoot looks good, he's just barely missing. He's a few steps slow on defense at this time. Alvarado looked really good tonight.

 

[lv20gt]

Missed it in real time. While watching I was trying to watch the freshmen as much as possible.

I loved the way that Alvarado and Wright played. You can tell both are still freshmen, and pre season freshmen at that, but both were playing without fear of making mistakes. Alvarado looks like he will try to make this his team by conference play, and Wright brings a level of energy that the team needs. If Wright focuses on his midrange game, then between that and hustle points he could be a real contributor this year. Not as experienced as Q was last year but a better athlete and more aggressive. I expect both of them to play quite a bit this year if not be the starters before the year ends. Heywood and Cole still need time to adjust some. Both had some nice moments, Cole in some hustle plays, and Heywood on the defensive end. If we were at full strength and it was ACC play I wouldn't expect either to log many minutes. But as it stands I think both will get some much needed experience and hopefully find their stride.

Of course this is just one scrimmage so it's not like anything is definitive yet. Guys can have pretty big swings in production early and considering the increased competition.

Of the others, Ben was Ben. Great defense, great passing, and solid offense. I'd like to see him be a little bigger part of the scoring. Jackson was aggressive and played well. Moore struggled at times, but I saw flashes that make me think he'll be a solid player for us this year. Especially considering we run the offense through Ben, which will take off pressure from him having to handle all the point guard duties when he is in there. Gueye I thought was solid. Good defense overall, and some garbageman type points. Nifty little hook a couple of times as well. Once we are at full strength I think he'll be a good piece in the 4th or 5th option on offense role when he's in there. FT shooting in general needs to be better, and we need to work on defense, especially zone and not over rotating, which led to too many open looks for them.

 

[Jumpman]

Moses Wright gets #grownmanrebounds and is exciting to watch on the glass, to go with those silky mid range J's. Jose is tough as we expected. Evan is playing like I thought he would early, and that he is still getting back in rhythm. I've been kinda disappointed in CGB and Moore in the 1st 2 scrimmages but that can mean nothing as I do think they turn it around and ball out. Not a big fan of AD, and personally, I think the freshman should get most of the minutes.
So our lineup against UCLA is:
Alvarado
Moore(Alston If healthy?)
Haywood
Wright
Lammers
Then when our full squad comes back:
Alvarado/Moore
Tad/Alston
Okogie/Haywood
Wright/Cole/AD
Lammers/Sly
@Jumpman any input on it?

I would fully agree with your synopsis. That’s how it’s set up now. For the suspension games you can interchange Moore and AD. It will depend on the matchup.

 

[Peacone36]

After watching last nights exhibition, I’ll say we are going to miss the **** out of Josh Heath this year.

 

[Fatmike91]

After watching last nights exhibition, I’ll say we are going to miss the **** out of Josh Heath this year.

I watched the game too. Honestly, I didn't give Heath a single thought until I read your post.

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[Peacone36]

I Admittedly only watched the second half

I watched the game too. Honestly, I didn't give Heath a single thought until I read your post.

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