I really just don’t understand…

[jacketup]

How can we be so inconsistent? do the players even WANT to win?

This team has been very consistent. They can't shoot/score. That fact has been consistent throughout the year. 4 of the 5 starters combined to go 2 for 24 yesterday. That has to be some kind of a record. In the prior game they missed, what, 20 shots in a row? That has to be some kind of record too.

The Duke and UNC wins say more about the opposition than about Tech. Duke, with it's one and done model, was a very young team in December. UNC had a poor shooting night against Tech, starting with 53% from the line. That may be a modern record for UNC. The UNC win was not because Tech was suddenly a great team as much as UNC had an off night.

I'd be starting Murphy, since he seems to be the only one who consistently scores the ball. He was 3/4 and 2/2 yesterday. The player that has been inconsistent is Kelly. He had a good shooting day, but that has been the exception. The rest of the team can transfer and I'd be OK with it.

I still give the coach the benefit of the doubt. I hope he has learned that having guys who can score the ball is the main thing. Great athletes who can't score need to find another sport.

On the other subject, anyone who thinks Cremins was even an average X's and O's coach doesn't know X's and O's. His good teams ALL had a PG that was either a superstar or a coach's son (or both). Those PGs covered up his lack of skill as a teacher of the game. His teams played hard for him though, and that is important.

 

[MtnWasp]

The offense has been inconsistent. In games we are shooting well, we can win. But the defense has been consistently bad.

Our offensive efficiently rating is #241 out of 352 teams (68th percentile), which is not good.
Our defensive efficiently rating is #266 out of 352 teams which places us in the bottom quartile.

We've shown a few flashes, but this is not a good team.

 

[Root4GT]

The offense has been inconsistent. In games we are shooting well, we can win. But the defense has been consistently bad.

Our offensive efficiently rating is #241 out of 352 teams (68th percentile), which is not good.
Our defensive efficiently rating is #266 out of 352 teams which places us in the bottom quartile.

We've shown a few flashes, but this is not a good team.

Correct, this team has lots of holes with the roster. No real inside presence on defense is a huge problem and not a lot of lateral quickness with the perimeter players is a recipe for bad defense. Occasionally we get a good game defensively but it hard with the players we have.

As noted above the 3 gus we usually count on for over 30 points a game Ndongo, George and Reeves gave us 4 points yesterday on 2-17 shooting. We have zero chance when they play that poorly. Ndongo sat a lot due to fouls, George and Reeves sat a lot due to poor play.

Gapare played a lot due to the fouls on Ndongo and Claude. He really is not an inside presence. He can plock shots as an off ball defender but opponents bigs just back him down in the post. On offense, yikes, he is not a good basketball player. He has a ton of potential but really needs a lot of offseason work on every facet of his offensive game to be a solid ACC player.

Louisville is a good offensive team. They are not a good defensive team but they played a solid defensive game yesterday. We were in solid shape with 8 minutes to go then simply melted down on both ends of the court.

I am enjoying the wins over Duke, UNC and at Clemson. Getting those 3 is a rare occurrence for GT.

We need a good Big and another good PG at minimum this offseason thru the Portal of from HS.

 

[gte447f]

I still give the coach the benefit of the doubt. I hope he has learned that having guys who can score the ball is the main thing. Great athletes who can't score need to find another sport.

You hope the coach has learned this, do you? You know his background, right? Listen to him talk. It’s pretty obvious he understands the value of talented scorers.

 

[alagold]

This team is what many thought--a few average players from a bad team last yr put with lots of new "questions" thrown in to make team.With obvious front ct size/talent needs,the rest had to meld SUPER to make a good team.What we got was as pretty much expected-- inconsistency --but to the nth degree. Lose by 30 and next beat the #3 team in US! wow Also-Maybe the coach is as erratic in approach is the team.

 

[gte447f]

This team is what many thought--a few average players from a bad team last yr put with lots of new "questions" thrown in to make team.With obvious front ct size/talent needs,the rest had to meld SUPER to make a good team.What we got was as pretty much expected-- inconsistency --but to the nth degree. Lose by 30 and next beat the #3 team in US! wow Also-Maybe the coach is as erratic in approach is the team.

I was with you until the last sentence about the coach. What do you mean?

 

[alagold]

I was with you until the last sentence about the coach. What do you mean?

He's learning also.--I hope

 

[QuickKick]

Can we just bring in ten transfers from the portal

Can we just be Duke? It's year one of a rebuild. There's going to be a learning to walk process. It takes time to build, to even get the team you have on the same page. It sucks but that's the reality of it. Losing or lack of focus or effort is unacceptable but blaming the coach at this point doesn't help. The team needs our support.

 

[Root4GT]

How can we be so inconsistent? do the players even WANT to win?

FYI - it happens in college basketball. #6 ranked Kansas lost to un ranked Texas Tech last night by 29 points. 79-50.

 

[Peacone36]

Texas Tech is really good though.

 

[majorQ9]

FYI - it happens in college basketball. #6 ranked Kansas lost to un ranked Texas Tech last night by 29 points. 79-50.

When teams play on the road it makes sense. When you go down by 30 at home, that raises a few more eyebrows.

 

[Techster]

Obviously, each coach walked into different circumstances, but always nice to see how our coaches did their first year:

OVERALL - ACC
Cremins: 10-16 (3-11)
Hewitt: 17-13 (8-8) *NCAAT first round
Gregory: 11-20 (4-12)
Pastner: 21-16 (8-10) *NIT Runner-up
*Stoudamire: 10-14 (3-10) *Season still in progress

I think we were all hoping the best case scenario was a Hewitt/Pastner type 1st season for Stoudamire. We know now we won't get it.

However, we've seen the ceiling under Stoudamire...but we've also seen how low it can get. I said it in another thread, Stoudamire HAS TO raise the floor for this program. When we are on, we can play with any team in the country (and beat them). We can also lose to any team in the country. The biggest thing is consistency for this team.

One thing that gives you hope, outside of some of our big wins, is this staff can recruit. We've got a nice class coming in, and Stoudamire has shown he can bring in some nice players via the portal. There's a saying: It always gets worse before it gets better. I think we're going through it "gets worse" phase. You'd like to close this season with some momentum, and we can...especially with the ACC Tourney coming up.

IMO, next year will speak more about the direction under Stoudamire than this year. Stoudamire needs to make some serious decisions over the off season, and he needs to show he's not out of his depth next year or I think any momentum with the big wins and good recruiting class will be lost.

 

[Root4GT]

Texas Tech is really good though.

Prior to the game against Kansas, TT was #38 in NET rankings. For comparison Wake was #35. We are nowhere near Kansas' level. Bad losses happen to good teams much less bad teams which GT is currently.

 

[Peacone36]

Prior to the game against Kansas, TT was #38 in NET rankings. For comparison Wake was #35. We are nowhere near Kansas' level. Bad losses happen to good teams much less bad teams which GT is currently.

Saying Kansas suffered a "bad loss" in a conference road game against Texas Tech is silly.


A bad loss is Georgia Tech losing to 159th ranked UMass Lowell on Tech's home court in a buy game.
Its UNC losing to Georgia Tech.

 

[Steverc]

It is my opinion that the losses to Georgia Tech should automatically disqualify UNC and Duke from the NCAAT.

 

[Root4GT]

Saying Kansas suffered a "bad loss" in a conference road game against Texas Tech is silly.


A bad loss is Georgia Tech losing to 159th ranked UMass Lowell on Tech's home court in a buy game.
Its UNC losing to Georgia Tech.

If you are a top 10 team and you lose by 29 points it’s a bad loss.

 

[GTbball2016]

Kansas was also missing an All American

 

[Peacone36]

If you are a top 10 team and you lose by 29 points it’s a bad loss.

Lacking one of the top 5 players in the nation may have hurt Kansas a bit.

 

[Root4GT]

Lacking one of the top 5 players in the nation may have hurt Kansas a bit.

29 points is more than a bit but not having your star does matter! Still a bad loss. Kansas dropped from 12 to 17 in NET rankings after that game.

 

[Peacone36]

29 points is more than a bit but not having your star does matter! Still a bad loss. Kansas dropped from 12 to 17 in NET rankings after that game.

Still a bad take.