Game Thread - @ Louisville,1/22

[Peacone36]

Thanks for backing me up. Again, nowhere did I say that losing is acceptable or okay.

I don’t believe I said you did. I asked you if the progress that has been made during Pastners tenure was acceptable.

 

[H-Wade]

How about you tell the people who falsely accuse others of being okay with losing and mediocrity to take a few breaths.

We're playing the BEST BASKETBALL IN A DECADE.. yet we've lost 3 in a row. It's no wonder people are depressed if our best in a decade still isn't good enough to do anything meaningful. It's sad AF

 

[Deleted member 2897]

I don’t believe I said you did. I asked you if the progress that has been made during Pastners tenure was acceptable.

"You're out here trying to convince the board that the product on the court is acceptable and that the results of the game are ok because this is the best we have played in a decade."

 

[Peacone36]

"You're out here trying to convince the board that the product on the court is acceptable and that the results of the game are ok because this is the best we have played in a decade."

well there ya go. In my defense, you are doing that making those statements.

 

[sidewalkGTfan]

We're playing the BEST BASKETBALL IN A DECADE.. yet we've lost 3 in a row. It's no wonder people are depressed if our best in a decade still isn't good enough to do anything meaningful. It's sad AF

We better win most of these last 11 conference games we have, cause I'm sick of reading about "good basketball" and yet we are still losing more than we are winning. We are now 4-6 with our full roster...

 

[gtpi]

any fist fights yet? watching a few of you duke it out has to be better than what we are seeing on the court and from smiling sam our laughing coach.

to the players credit. they played their asses off. hats off to them. i wish i had an answer but i dont. than again i dont make 2 mil a year.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

well there ya go. In my defense, you are doing that making those statements.

That's your opinion. But its pretty inflammatory to accuse a fan here of being okay with losing and mediocrity. So unless someone actually says it, its pretty pathetic to take a positive post and twist it into that.

 

[gtpi]

I'm not sure what you expect from fans of a team that is 8-11 and losers of 4 out of the last 5 in a weak ACC.
Fans complain. When they stop, your program is usually in trouble because apathy has set in. We're getting to that point. Look how short the game threads are getting.

bump

 

[Peacone36]

That's your opinion. But its pretty inflammatory to accuse a fan here of being okay with losing and mediocrity. So unless someone actually says it, its pretty pathetic to take a positive post and twist it into that.

And yet......you haven’t answered the question....

 

[gtpi]

Generally speaking, its hard to play bad and win games. So first you need to be playing good basketball. While averaging 20 turnovers and a few other things like that is not good, my eyeballs tell me this is the best quality of basketball we've seen over the last few weeks that we've seen in a long time. Its unfortunate we couldn't close a game out like Notre Dame or even last night. We've only had 1 single game in the last month where inside the last couple minutes we didn't have a chance to win it - at ranked Florida State.

11 of our last 12 games are against unranked opponents (Louisville at home 2/12 is the exception). They are all winnable games. 9-3 nets us a 19-14 final record (11-9 in ACC) going into ACCT and we'd be on the NCAAT bubble. 8-4 nets us 18-15, 10-10. I don't think the committee will take into account the first half of the season with no Alvarado or Usher. I just don't. So to me, that's our margin of error - we have to go 9-3. We haven't finished at 0.500 in ACC play in 14 years (not a typo), so there are some other things to play for too. 8-4 would get us to 10-10.

im still watching. still pulling. still hoping. still doing some bitching. but im here.

go jackets

 

[Deleted member 2897]

And yet......you haven’t answered the question....

I went back 2 pages and can't find a question. The only thing I can find is that you said you asked me a question as to if Pastner has made progress. I can't find that you ever did. Is that what you're wanting me to answer?

I'd say he made a ton of progress in year 1 - coaching up folks like Tadric and Lammers who were both nobodies prior to Pastner's arrival. He's made tremendous progress on Moses Wright, who didn't even play basketball until his senior year of high school. The team's performance in my opinion regressed in between that year and now. A minor portion of which wasn't his fault due to several injuries on the team. I feel like we are playing the best basketball we have right now under his tenure. So I'd describe it as a good performance year 1 (most people thought he might not win a single ACC game that year) and good performance the last few weeks, with a bad trough in between.

 

[gtpi]

I went back 2 pages and can't find a question. The only thing I can find is that you said you asked me a question as to if Pastner has made progress. I can't find that you ever did. Is that what you're wanting me to answer?

I'd say he made a ton of progress in year 1 - coaching up folks like Tadric and Lammers who were both nobodies prior to Pastner's arrival. He's made tremendous progress on Moses Wright, who didn't even play basketball until his senior year of high school. The team's performance in my opinion regressed in between that year and now. A minor portion of which wasn't his fault due to several injuries on the team. I feel like we are playing the best basketball we have right now under his tenure. So I'd describe it as a good performance year 1 (most people thought he might not win a single ACC game that year) and good performance the last few weeks, with a bad trough in between.

bottom line progress. as in wins an losses. at some point pointing to moral victories again and again and again rings bit hollow.

other program successes have already been mentioned in a previous post that im not going to rehash. so why them and not us?

we are in the top conf in the country. we are smack dab in the middle of one of the most fertile recruiting areas in the country. we are in an nba city. we have a TOP QUALITY PRODUCT education wise.

why do we continue to hang our hat on moral victories? we have his best team in a weak acc and so far we are still sinking. we seem to play to the level of our opponents without winning?

im looking for nuggets here but we have gone ofer in duke nd uva ul. and the losses were all of the same pattern. they were all winnable game including duke.

at some point you hold somebody accountable.

 

[GTJake]

im still watching. still pulling. still hoping. still doing some bitching. but im here.

go jackets

Me too ....

 

[majorQ9]

The one consistent under Pastner (credit to Reveno) has been big man development. Lammers, AD, and Wright all improved a ton.

 

[GTbball2016]

The one consistent under Pastner (credit to Reveno) has been big man development. Lammers, AD, and Wright all improved a ton.

Yet our average KenPom offense is 217.5 under Pastner. More than anything else, that’s been his downfall here.

 

[BobintheATL99]

It's been a painful season to watch, but I can't seem to stop watching. Nobody gives up. They seem to be done in by a slight lack of depth, focus, or occasional lapse in coaching, but they are almost there... It's a little frustrating.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

at some point you hold somebody accountable.

In my opinion, ADTS needs to be sending out feelers to see what his coaching options are next year. I doubt we can afford to fire Pastner now. The other thing is who do we hire? Someone decent is going to require a lot of money to come here right now. We're under probation, have recruiting restrictions and possibly a post season ban all still in play. We haven't had a 0.500 season in ACC play in like 14 years. I think we need to let this season play out and then if we find ourselves in the same situation next year we can probably afford it, and if he's done his homework we'll have someone decent lined up and ready. I hope none of that happens, but Pastner's gotta be just about at the end of the rope.

 

[alagold]

Well, another"closeee".We might think Pastner is a "horseshoes" king.
Great effort but looking at stats its obvious we are not getting nearly as much as advertised/hoped for from Usher and Bubba-- Bubba had zero pts in 18 min (but3 assts) while Usher had 7 pts and 5 rebs with 2assts with 3 TOs.(not 4 star numbers.)
Pastner has got to give more minutes to more guys.He's wearing out the team--compare the 2nd half last nite. to first half.So not only wearing down team this yr but taking away exp for next yr.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

as much as ive been unhappy i hold out that by some miracle of fate it all falls in place for the team and for cjp. i dont dislike him at all. i love all the kids n share in their success. we have a good bunch imo.

coach is the youngest coach in the acc by 3-4 years at least. here is what coach k did his first 4 years before the program took off.....

im holding out hope for coach but damn coach toss me an fn bone.

1980–81 Duke 17–13 6–8 T–5th NIT Quarterfinal
1981–82 Duke 10–17 4–10 T–6th
1982–83 Duke 11–17 3–11 7th
1983–84 Duke 24–10 7–7 T–3rd NCAA Division I Round of 32

this started a string of 12 straight years where duke won championships. went to numerous final 4s. id say its looks fairly comparable to where we are at now..... almost. heh

Remember when we lost like 12 games by less than 5 points that one year under Brian Gregory? That frustration and blood pressure spiking ultimately buried him. The irony, is that we also might be about to break through. If we can finish the year reasonably well, I think he buys himself at least the first half of next year. If we bomb the end of this year, I think ADTS might line some things up and have Pastner on super double probation going into next season. Almost every player will be back, and the key one we're losing (Banks) will be replaced by a highly ranked 7 footer. We have more than enough talent to finish 9-3 or 8-4 this year and to win 20+ next year. If we can't do that, no matter how much you like someone and want it to work, sometimes you just have to make a change to try something new.

 

[Connell62]

as much as ive been unhappy i hold out that by some miracle of fate it all falls in place for the team and for cjp. i dont dislike him at all. i love all the kids n share in their success. we have a good bunch imo.

coach is the youngest coach in the acc by 3-4 years at least. here is what coach k did his first 4 years before the program took off.....

im holding out hope for coach but damn coach toss me an fn bone.

1980–81 Duke 17–13 6–8 T–5th NIT Quarterfinal
1981–82 Duke 10–17 4–10 T–6th
1982–83 Duke 11–17 3–11 7th
1983–84 Duke 24–10 7–7 T–3rd NCAA Division I Round of 32

this started a string of 12 straight years where duke won championships. went to numerous final 4s. id say its looks fairly comparable to where we are at now..... almost. heh

Nice post - I think that it sums up the way I feel as well. I like Pastner and have supported him, but it's time to start seeing some ROI.