GT +8.5 @ NC State

Connell62

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Pea - I know you follow the conference as closely as anyone, any idea who they played in their scrimmages/exhibitions?

I’m shocked that it’s 8.5. I’ll be very surprised if we can play within a couple of possessions, especially if they’re banged up. Based on that article and a couple others, it sounds like Vegas is feeling a revenge factor from our win at the buzzer last year.

I won’t bet on this one either way.
 

Peacone36

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Pea - I know you follow the conference as closely as anyone, any idea who they played in their scrimmages/exhibitions?

I’m shocked that it’s 8.5. I’ll be very surprised if we can play within a couple of possessions, especially if they’re banged up. Based on that article and a couple others, it sounds like Vegas is feeling a revenge factor from our win at the buzzer last year.

I won’t bet on this one either way.

mount olive, state won by 40

Seabron is in a boot, Funderburk won’t play and Hellems is dinged up, plus Harris left. State is pretty thin right now.

the line is already down to 7
 

SecretAgentBuzz

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The game is in Raleigh and NC State won 24 games last year. I'm not expecting an ACC road win to start the season, but I will be rooting them on. A win in Raleigh would be a huge statement and confidence-builder for the team, but again, my expectations are low.
 

MWBATL

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The game is in Raleigh and NC State won 24 games last year. I'm not expecting an ACC road win to start the season, but I will be rooting them on. A win in Raleigh would be a huge statement and confidence-builder for the team, but again, my expectations are low.
Yeah, me too.

Must be the curse of being a GT fan these days. I simply cannot accept that we will win any game until the final whistle blows.
 

YlJacket

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So much unknown about both these teams. Guess it is part of first game of the year :)

Moses and DeVoe may not be 100% for us and State has issues as well. Got a bunch of questions I am looking to see the answer to so looking forward to tonight. Overall I do think I would take the points.
 

LibertyTurns

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Damn I needed someone to give me a warning we had a game tonight. I’ve got to rearrange my whole damn schedule. Got caught unaware. I’m becoming a crappy fan. Need to step my game up.
 

kg01

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Can we get some sidebar game discussion for the non-degenerates?

I'm really excited about this game and this season. I think we'll surprise some folks starting tonight.

Even if we end up losing, I hope folks don't go all negative-mode. You know how y'all are. Not me, of course.

We'll be fine as the team comes together. One thing that's undeniable is, during this current era, we usually play better as the season progresses.
 

kg01

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Damn I needed someone to give me a warning we had a game tonight. I’ve got to rearrange my whole damn schedule. Got caught unaware. I’m becoming a crappy fan. Need to step my game up.

Oh man, Lib got caught with his pants down? :smuggrin:

Don't fret. It was preseason for us fans too.

The timing is a bit early IIUC. Seems like the ACCN wants to kick all seasons off with a GT game.
 

g0lftime

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I am not expecting a win tonight. Our lineup is not really set and we open in a hostile environment. If we turn the ball over and crowd gets into it we could get blown out.
 

lv20gt

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Can we get some sidebar game discussion for the non-degenerates?

There are several things I'm looking out for. The biggest is how do we approach getting more production from the 3 spot than last year. I assume we'll start with Moore there and have Sjolund rotate in. Perhaps Price some. Ideally I think they would be able to provide some production from the spot, but my guess is we'll try and go with a 3 guard line up at time with Jose, Mike, and Bubba to try and put pressure on the other team defensively. That's where Phillips improving will be important so as to still be able to keep Jose and Mike rested more than they were last year.

I'm also wondering if we'll try to push the pace a bit more since we have several experienced ball handlers.

Anyways, this isn't a make or break game, but it's a huge opportunity to get a road ACC win which aren't easy to come by.

We really need Banks to play well and hopefully we try and attack their RS Fr center to get him in foul trouble. I'm hoping we can find Moses crashing to the rim and entice some fouls from him. Not a great matchup because they have the guards to match our back court but perhaps the same is also true.
 

GT_EE78

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There are several things I'm looking out for. The biggest is how do we approach getting more production from the 3 spot than last year. I assume we'll start with Moore there and have Sjolund rotate in. Perhaps Price some. Ideally I think they would be able to provide some production from the spot, but my guess is we'll try and go with a 3 guard line up at time with Jose, Mike, and Bubba to try and put pressure on the other team defensively. That's where Phillips improving will be important so as to still be able to keep Jose and Mike rested more than they were last year.
I think it's unlikely we'll see much of that this year (hopefully that's rare after Usher returns).
It's disadvantageous. 1) no proven depth to sustain 3 guards (phillips/price may or may not be playable versus ACC level competition,hope i'm wrong)
2) Jose/Bubba together on the floor defensively gives taller guards free reign to just shoot over them.
>> I'm not going to be surprised if Usher/Moore get some minutes at 2 this year and Devoe has to play 30-35 minutes, 3 guards may very well be necessary these first 6 games so i just hope we don't have to learn our lessons the hard way.the exception of course is when small ball is to our tactical advantage.
 

YlJacket

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I understand we experimented with man defense a lot in the off/pre season likely to try to increase our pace of play - but I hope we are back in the zone tonight based on the reviews of our man. That is big if we are going to play bubba and jose together.

I am looking for Banks to show some signs of life with a 15 to 18 foot jumper. If we are going to run the high post offense he has to show this. That is why it worked so well with Lammers.

Overall I want to see more 3 point production. Don't care if it is DeVoe or Bubba but we need to stretch the floor. Especially if we are going to play Moses at the 4 someone else has to hit from 3 (please not Moses)

If Moore doesn't make a huge jump this year, I expect we will see a lot of 3 guard offense prior to Usher. With Moses and Banks we should be fine with it but someone has to score from the wing. We may well see 3 guard offense regardless if Bubba is as good as hoped.

We have potential this year - and tonight. But someone has to score with a regularity we haven't had in a while.
 
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