When does Pastner feel heat

Root4GT

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,041
When you have players that are talented enough to get things done, but are not then usually I think what may be going on with them from a mental standpoint. Are they truly engaged with what is going on, are they happy, do they feel valued, are they responding to the coach, do they believe in what he is coaching, does he put them in the best position to win, those are my initial thoughts. There is an old cliché that players take on the energy of the head coach so if he is unsure and uncertain about what is working or not then that confusion is translated. Our guards are great shooters, but when they can't consistently from game-game make shots or free throws it is either lack of confidence or mental disconnect. Do our players look eager to play the whole game or just in spurts? It is easy to be full of energy and hustling when all is going right, but when there is adversity how resilient are we. I have watched those guys body language coming out of timeouts and it doesn't signal yes this play is going to work. When your back is against the wall you have to hope/believe that whatever strategy is in place is going to work. We are not successful with our BLOB plays you are right under the basket there should be several plays at least 5 for each scenario...... 1. Man-man, 2. Zone d, 3. man on ball 4. quick hitter for 3 5. Wildcard (something you try that you have worked on in practice but no team have ever seen/remember you running. I mostly see the same BLOB play 4 & 5 double stack at hi-post and Miles or Devion curl off the top in effort to get it on the baseline for a shot, when he doesn't get it, its panic mode I haven't seen the next options. The other is 4 across where the in bounder throws it over the top to the ball side guy on the block and I'm guessing he is supposed to just chuck something up. We have the ball literally under our basket on a dead ball so more options should be going towards the basket and we should have an 50%-65% efficiency rate that close. That is just an example of do they believe that execution will deliver the positive outcome which is ultimately a foul, foul plus basket, or basket. Their body language doesn't show it, in the flow of the game cuts are not hard hell I cringe out of fear of them running into each other, 50-50 balls are not in our favor effort so when your players lack effort its a true sign of not believing in what is happening. So has CJP lost this team??? Do they still believe in this Princeton offense, do they believe it works? We all unanimously feel that it does not fit our players it is outdated and he needs to scrap it. So if we feel that way on the outside looking in I can only imagine what they thing or feel.

So , if CJP is on the hot seat how does that effect his recruiting, will he be able to get anyone to commit with his job in jeopardy? If Blue Cain knows this information now when he committed would he still come here or if he is fired does he still stick by his commitment. If CJP is here until next season, who does he get to commit out of the portal if they have more than a year of eligibility remaining knowing that there could be a coaching change.

Most importantly with current players, knowing he could be gone either this season, but if is next season, that means they would be playing for a new coach their senior season, knowing that, do they enter the transfer portal after this season so that they have 2 seasons at new place or wait and roll the dice with a new coach their senior year who very well may bring some of his own players with him. Something to think about
You had me until - "Our guards are great shooters." No they are not great shooters. They range from bad (Smith) to pretty good (Kelly) with most below average for ACC Guards/Wings.
 

Techwood Relict

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,415
These are all great kids who are better players than they are showing
Sometimes the soup just doesn't come together. I like to root for this group, but the chefs definitely would like another shot at this combination of players.

Sesame Street Cooking GIF by CBeebies HQ
 

daddee724

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
95
You had me until - "Our guards are great shooters." No they are not great shooters. They range from bad (Smith) to pretty good (Kelly) with most below average for ACC Guards/Wings
You had me until - "Our guards are great shooters." No they are not great shooters. They range from bad (Smith) to pretty good (Kelly) with most below average for ACC Guards/Wings.
Wouldn't expect you to agree with me on that part anyhow. Who has elite talent on their roster in ACC? I still haven't gotten that answer. Coaching styles & coaching systems make up how a player thrives in it. "Our great shooters" would shoot really well in the right system/offense. You think our 3 sophomores were just pick of the mill top 100 players. I highly doubt it
 

MWBATL

Helluva Engineer
Messages
6,527
You had me until - "Our guards are great shooters." No they are not great shooters. They range from bad (Smith) to pretty good (Kelly) with most below average for ACC Guards/Wings.
Our offense certainly does not offer them the chance to show how good they might be....so it's hard to tell if they are good shooters or not.
 

LawTalkin Jacket

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
342
I was one who thought we would be a lot better, but it hasn't happened. Why have things gone south for this GT basketball team?

1- We are not a good shooting team. Our percentages are down from last year all over the floor.
2- Neither of our two "bigs" are very effective on the offensive end. So the guards have to play 4 on 5.
3- Our defense has never gelled and no matter what combination Pastner puts on the floor, it isn't working consistently.

But mostly it's the terrible shooting we see night after night. Coleman was recruited because he was a Dennis Scott level shooter. He is hitting less than 30% from outside, less than 40% overall, and less than 70% on FTs. Terry is at least hitting his FTs, but is clearly not an ACC level player. I don't even want to mention Sturdivant's and Smith's poor shooting. These are all great kids who are better players than they are showing. But something is terribly wrong right now. Can it be fixed? If we were losing by two and three points in final seconds I would have more optimism. These recent games have drained that from me.

Given all that, the end of our 2023 ACC schedule is easier than the beginning. But, this "good fan" is not expecting that 13-7 record.
I agree with most of this. But these guys seem to lack confidence and have mental blocks more than just being poor shooters. None of them are the kind of guy who wants the ball when team needs a bucket or who wants to take the last shot. losing a lot seems to further diminish their collective confidence. This has to be put on the coach, as he needs to inspire confidence. Deebo didn't forget how to shoot, he is lacking confidence or not getting open looks. Sturdivant's turnovers lately... woof. after he just had a great 2nd half vs ND too.

I also think that now would be a good time to make a change since we have some young talent in Smith, Deebo, and Kelly. Watching KState last night killed me. They are stacked with big time transfers from NY and Florida. Jerome Tang is his first season ($2.1m salary!) has an amazing team. Can Tech offer Tang $3.5m? I guess he will get a good raise.
 
Last edited:

AUFC

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,851
Location
Atlanta
Deivon kind of makes me laugh. The only time he will release the ball with confidence is if it’s a turnaround fadeaway off the dribble. If it’s in rhythm catch-and-shoot, he is awful.

I think Miles and Deebo are the only true shooters on this team. Jalon can score down low, but I definitely miss the ‘20-‘21 squad where there were 4 guys who could hit an open jumper from anywhere on the court. Bubba Parham had a good enough jumper to be considered a 5th scorer.
 

Root4GT

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,041
Wouldn't expect you to agree with me on that part anyhow. Who has elite talent on their roster in ACC? I still haven't gotten that answer. Coaching styles & coaching systems make up how a player thrives in it. "Our great shooters" would shoot really well in the right system/offense. You think our 3 sophomores were just pick of the mill top 100 players. I highly doubt it
Coleman was #67, Kelly #125 and Moore #214 in 247 composite rankings. One top 100, one near top 100 and one not close. And if you can't see they are not "Great Shooters" then that's on you.
 

Peacone36

Helluva Engineer
Messages
10,500
Location
Maine
Wouldn't expect you to agree with me on that part anyhow. Who has elite talent on their roster in ACC? I still haven't gotten that answer. Coaching styles & coaching systems make up how a player thrives in it. "Our great shooters" would shoot really well in the right system/offense. You think our 3 sophomores were just pick of the mill top 100 players. I highly doubt it
Elite talent? As a collective or individually?

T. Smith at State is elite
Love, Davis and Bacot are at least borderline, I’d say Bacot is elite
Lively, Whitehead, Filipowski at Duke are elite talent but very sporadic. Livelely has actually been pretty disappointing
Virginia as a roster in that system are bordline but their lack of individual “eliteness” sometimes hurts them. I think the Dunn kid could get there eventually
Hell, the Appleby kid (man, super duper senior)at Wake is putting up VERY good numbers

Talent and performance are two very different things. You look at Kadary Richmond at Seton Hall, he’s an elite talent but he’s not a superstar by any measure.
 

orientalnc

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
Messages
9,900
Location
Oriental, NC
I was wondering if my impressions matched the data on our offense. It's a mixed bag. We're ahead of only Louisville in overall shooting % in the ACC. We're in the bottom 1/3 in 3-point shooting.
The surprise I got is that we're not a bad rebounding team. We are collecting about half the rebound opportunities overall. We're a better offensive rebounding team than defensive. We're the #3 offensive rebounding team in the conference and dead middle on the other end.
 

ESPNjacket

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,531
I was wondering if my impressions matched the data on our offense. It's a mixed bag. We're ahead of only Louisville in overall shooting % in the ACC. We're in the bottom 1/3 in 3-point shooting.
The surprise I got is that we're not a bad rebounding team. We are collecting about half the rebound opportunities overall. We're a better offensive rebounding team than defensive. We're the #3 offensive rebounding team in the conference and dead middle on the other end.
Raw numbers are skewed by the total number of rebounds in our games, between our bad shooting and our good 3 point defense.

When you use percentages, GT is 9th in offensive rebounding and 8th in defensive rebounding using data from conference-only games. That is a little better than I'd expect but third didn't seem right at all.
 

orientalnc

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
Messages
9,900
Location
Oriental, NC
Raw numbers are skewed by the total number of rebounds in our games, between our bad shooting and our good 3 point defense.

When you use percentages, GT is 9th in offensive rebounding and 8th in defensive rebounding using data from conference-only games. That is a little better than I'd expect but third didn't seem right at all.
No disagreement from me, but the data I used was all games, not just ACC games (but from the ACC website). Still, I would never have expected us to be in the middle of the conference in rebounding. By rebounding margin we're dead even overall.

A piece of data I would like to see is how well or poorly we do at scoring after an offensive rebound.
 

57jacket

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,482
Wouldn't expect you to agree with me on that part anyhow. Who has elite talent on their roster in ACC? I still haven't gotten that answer. Coaching styles & coaching systems make up how a player thrives in it. "Our great shooters" would shoot really well in the right system/offense. You think our 3 sophomores were just pick of the mill top 100 players. I highly doubt it
I agree daddee. I played Basketball for 20 years, and was a decent shooter. The key is defining an "open" shot. A really good open shot gives the shooter a moment to set his feet and prepare to shoot. Most of the "open" shots our guys are getting do not give them that opportunity. The less time, the less accurate. My personal experience.
 

AUFC

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,851
Location
Atlanta
I agree daddee. I played Basketball for 20 years, and was a decent shooter. The key is defining an "open" shot. A really good open shot gives the shooter a moment to set his feet and prepare to shoot. Most of the "open" shots our guys are getting do not give them that opportunity. The less time, the less accurate. My personal experience.
Deebo had a frustration 3 get packed into his face yesterday. Thought that was representative of his season. I think he has a starting gig at a different P6 next season.
 

Peacone36

Helluva Engineer
Messages
10,500
Location
Maine
Deebo had a frustration 3 get packed into his face yesterday. Thought that was representative of his season. I think he has a starting gig at a different P6 next season.
Is the American part of the P6 now? Not sure the ACC is so maybe they replaced us.
 

bke1984

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,443
Deebo had a frustration 3 get packed into his face yesterday. Thought that was representative of his season. I think he has a starting gig at a different P6 next season.
He has been pretty bad this year. His shots don’t even look like they’re going to go in much of the time.
 
Top