12/7 - MBB @ North Carolina

MWBATL

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UNC is not as good as their reputation this year. Not sure they’ll be dancing even.

playing them close isn’t a great result, per se.
 

Root4GT

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MWBATL said:
UNC is not as good as their reputation this year. Not sure they’ll be dancing even.

playing them close isn’t a great result, per se.
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Hard to judge this UNC team. They have no real inside presence but have a bunch of good to very good perimeter players. Their 4 losses are to Kansas, Auburn, Alabama and Michigan State . Collectively last poll they were #1, 2, 10, and most votes not in the Top 25. Very tough schedule to start the season.

With out Reeves and McCullum we clearly lack 3 point shooting and guys who can beat their man off the dribble and penetrate to the basket.
 

YlJacket

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The good
Our defense was actually reasonably good. Not great but staying in front of people was pretty good against a perimeter based team

It was good to get a Ndongo sighting. Still holes in his game and he needs to make free throws, but there was an explosion in his game today I haven’t seen

Lance Terrie was the man today. But even he forced it a fair amount.

The not so good

Obviously the headline is the shooting. Got to make open shots

But IMHO it is as much about the way we are running offense right now. The ball is sticking in Nate’s hand and not moving much at all. Most of our shots today came off of 1 or 2 maybe 3 passes which means somebody at the end of that pass was doing a 1 on 1 play. UNC knew Nate was not going to look to score and played accordingly. We have to get more ball movement
 

cpf2001

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Defense looked much more solid. Ndongo might be turning it back on.

But not a lot of people moving to get open and not a lot of guys who can win iso ball consistently. The Celtics - as the super-obvious reference point - have quite a bit of iso with their stars, but they also have better movement overall.
 

Root4GT

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YlJacket said:
The good
Our defense was actually reasonably good. Not great but staying in front of people was pretty good against a perimeter based team

It was good to get a Ndongo sighting. Still holes in his game and he needs to make free throws, but there was an explosion in his game today I haven’t seen

Lance Terrie was the man today. But even he forced it a fair amount.

The not so good

Obviously the headline is the shooting. Got to make open shots

But IMHO it is as much about the way we are running offense right now. The ball is sticking in Nate’s hand and not moving much at all. Most of our shots today came off of 1 or 2 maybe 3 passes which means somebody at the end of that pass was doing a 1 on 1 play. UNC knew Nate was not going to look to score and played accordingly. We have to get more ball movement
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On offense today we had 3 guys who could score. Nate, Ndongo and Terry. The rest just took up space. Powell and O’Brien can’t hit 3 point shots. Big O has no offensive game and Mustafa is raw as it can get. He has talent but it needs time.

McCullum and Reeves are needed.
 
Connell62

Connell62

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jbix80 said:
Guys played hard, but we need scorers. Reeves and McCollum out really hurts. We go in these long stretches where we just can’t score, and we have no one to get us out of them. Baye played much better.
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We’ve got 20+ ppg sitting the bench with injury. Missing those two is really hurting us right now, but you can clearly see the guys getting better.

Great defensive effort from our guys today. Knock down a few more threes and this is a dub. For a while there in the second half, I thought they were gonna give us another great GT basketball memory.

Still a great trip to the Dean Dome. They had more students at the game an hour before tip, than we have total fans for a game. Insanity!
 

YlJacket

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No argument we would be better with our injured players. However I would argue about Nate is a scorer and Obrian can’t hit a 3.

Today Terry was the only one who could really get his own shot. All the more reason you really need to get more ball movement to give both the scorers and others the ball in position to score. it was painful watching Terrie tried to do too much And watch Nate pound the ball looking for the single pass that would lead to a basket Instead of starting a series of passes and off the ball movement that might help get folks open and in rhythm to score
 

GT33

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We didn't rebound well & our shooting was atrocious, yet we had a chance. Was fearful this year would be unwatchable, but the last 2 games have given me hope. The pieces will come together, perhaps not in time to notch double digit wins which will be unfortunate.
 
spdrama

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Connell62 said:
We’ve got 20+ ppg sitting the bench with injury. Missing those two is really hurting us right now, but you can clearly see the guys getting better.

Great defensive effort from our guys today. Knock down a few more threes and this is a dub. For a while there in the second half, I thought they were gonna give us another great GT basketball memory.

Still a great trip to the Dean Dome. They had more students at the game an hour before tip, than we have total fans for a game. Insanity!
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Those missing 20+ppg also add 3-5 more lineup rotations. Nait & Lance having to play 38/39 out of 40 minutes makes them easier to defend & hampers defense at crunch time. Not giving anyone credit for a loss, but 40, not 30 minutes of toughness & a #11 that resembles last year’s Baye Ndongo was nice to see. O’Brien not looking like a fit yet. Different role than at Colorado, partially because of injuries to others. Getting McCollum back can fix a number of problems. But getting him back & having him ready to play are two different things. Nait, Baye, Terry, Jaeden & Powell play together like a team should. That encouraging enough to get my NY-Atlanta flight for 5 games in 4 days:
Dec 18- GTW v Rice
GTM v UMBC
Dec 20- OTE Cold Hearts w Akai Fleming
Dec 21- GTM v Duke
GTW v Nebraska
 

57jacket

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alagold said:
Only saw the highlights--it sure looked like the points they got were a lot less difficult than the pts we got. Too bad this is not horseshoes.
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Yeah, our turnovers turned into fast break layups. BTW UNC is not that good. I expect Davis to be gone next year.
 
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