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Pack improves to 1-1 and still has an opportunity to get better vs IUPI on Wednesday before heading to Brooklyn next week to take on Arizona State and
[See the full post at: NC State 88 South Alabama 70]There is one alarming stat after the 1st two games. Cat Barber played 79 of a possible 80 minutes. That is an incredibly disturbing number. Duke and Carolina? Sure. But William & Mary and South Alabama? As a famous baseball announcer liked to say, “Holy Cow”! I’m guessing a big part of that is due to losing Henderson, but I cannot believe we couldn’t squeeze at least 5-8 minutes from someone during the S.Alabama game.
Another concern is this does not look to be a good shooting team. Someone had a good line about Mav. “He has a nice shooting touch. He shoots everything he touches”. But I really can’t blame him. We do need someone to step up and score. Caleb’s 3 point shooting has been a nice surprise, Cat’s poor shooting and reluctance to drive the lane has been disappointing. But if you are never going to take the guy off the floor, I can see how that would happen.
Defense obviously has been not good. It looked a little better last night, but S. Alabama was clearly a much weaker team than W&M.
Gottfried is going to have to do his best coaching job yet to get them to some semblance of respectability. Obviously it’s early, so I am still hopeful they can get it figured out. But at the end of the day, Cat somehow needs to play less minutes.
From the minutes I watched here and there to take my mind off my Broncos’ season going up in flames…we kinda still looked like poop, just against a much lesser opponent than Bill and Mary.
Not having a reliable backup PG is a giant glaring hole that will be exploited. Cat absolutely cannot log those kind of minutes against solid competition and play at a high level consistently.
I’ve watched them both so far and…………well…………it’s pretty rough. Everyone involved in the program — coaches, players, trainers and medical staff — has a lot of work ahead if we’re going to make a 5th straight NCAA tournament.
Roster wise, this is Gott’s weakest team unless someone pulls a TJ Warren and just blows up. Abu is trying mightily, but it’s tough to control a game from the PF position.
Caleb Martin is emerging as a solid contributor. That’s nice to see because we’ll definitely need it.
Rowan is reminding me a lot of Adam Harrington. He can put the ball in the hole, but it’s not efficient. He’s going to have to learn shot selection, and how to guard someone.
It was promising to see some zone last night in the second half during when we pulled away. Of course they hit a 3 and then we seemingly went away from it, which is a shame because having guys in solid defensive position suddenly allowed Anya to control the paint.
We’re going to lament Lacey leaving all year, but Washington’s transfer and Graham going to Kansas (read no back up PG) will probably have just as much impact on this year’s results. When these things happened, the casual fan said “no big deal” but these are the types of situations that give you only 3 serviceable big men (one of which is extremely foul prone) and forces your starting PG to play 38+ minutes per game.
I pointed out these holes in the beginning of the year, which of course was not taken well by certain people.
We lost 53% of our scoring and 70% of our three point shooting. These are what I highlighted and they are still applicable1) Backup PG – In the scrimmage we looked completely lost when Cat went out. The other team made an 8 point run every time he sat down. But running Cat that many minutes is not good. It really increases the possibility of injury.
2) Outside shooting – Henderson did not look very impressive when I saw him. Rowan has a nice looking shot but he has no conscious. Shoots every time but is not hitting many threes. Caleb is the sole bright spot here.
3) Big men – only three and only one can score
4) leadership/ last shot – none that I can see
I will add the defense looks worse than I would have ever imagined. And we are standing around on offense. Something is just not right with this team. I thought we were in for another Gott type year (squeeze into the tourney) but I am not so sure now. He will need to coach his rear off to get this squad into the tournament.
The refs emphasis on calling all touch fouls is a killer as well. While it affects both teams equally, we don’t have the depth to withstand that. Cat especially has to play defense very cautiously. Not making excuses for the poor D, but I think it is a bit of a contributor.
Last night was more of a bricklaying contest than it was a basketball game. Saying that this team looks like it doesn’t shoot well is like saying that Paris doesn’t look real safe right now.
It has always amazed me how some people can throw down acrobatic dunks with defenders all over them yet can’t shoot simple free throws.
I’m not worried about Barber; what he needs is help in the backcourt. Abu needs to sit out the first half and play just the second half until he fouls out. The Martins and Rowan are going to be ok and in fact already are. Maybe Henderson could be redshirted.
If we have as good a class coming in next season as I’ve heard, this team might be really good by February of 2017, good enough to make most of us forget this season.
Good god! Don’t redshirt Henderson. That will be like throwing in the towel on the season. Looking at the schedule, he should be back for the first ACC game against VT. He can defend, rebound, handle the ball, and is a good shooter. I know he didn’t show his shooting touch in the exhibition or the 6 minutes he played against W&M, but he had a solid two years at WVU doing all those things. I honestly think he was just pressing to much since he is a Raleigh kid, and wanted to do well for the hometown.
Everybody other than Cat (with Henderson out) is a forward. So we really can’t guard…guards. This is a problem.
This point guard issue was glaring for a while. I don’t know if we didn’t go all in on a combo/pg or if we went all in and totally whiffed – so this – and the bad d that we are seeing this far are foreseeable and are expected. Unfortunately, we have realized the risk of injuries – with Freeman’s pre-season injury and Henderson’s ankle injury. Of course, this was foreseeable as well.
In other words, thus far, in the high stakes world of college basketball’s card game – we’re on the short stack. Still, gott has managed to play these hands pretty well since he’s been in Raleigh.
Bjd – its called “wings and things”.
Somewhat similar in terms of personnel to another coach we had here a few years ago.
choppack1: While “wings and things” is an accurate description, this roster is far different than what we had with HWSNBN. That’s kind of the implication of using that term.
HWSNBN built a roster of SGs, SFs, and stretch PFs. They could all shoot the three, made their FTs as a team, were fundamentally sound and weren’t the most athletic. They were very soft in the middle, particularly defensively. Outside of the occasional player like Fells or Grant most were a step slow and not good in the open court.
This team has a good PG and an anchor big man defensively. They are very athletic and get up the court quickly. All the bigs are strong on the inside. They’re not standing at the three point line, vacating the line and trying to knock down a three pointer while completely conceding rebounds. We also have fewer shooters — 2 by my count (Rowan and Martin).
My point is that “wings and things” is a loaded term. We may be wing heavy, but this isn’t the “weave and heave.”
Frankly, if you could merge HWSNBN and Gott, you’d have either a fantastic coach or someone completely schizo. Their strengths and weaknesses are polar opposites.
If we had any depth at PG, this team would be one that would be great to trap and press with. Unfortunately don’t. Better to fall back, zone, and use our height and shot blocking.
Hate to say it, but imagine with Jim Boeheim would do with this roster?
Rye – I would not mind zone if it wasn’t so bad. It gives up good looks on the 3 point line and offensive rebounds.
It’s worse than our man to man – which says a lot. Boeheim teaches the zone – it’s his thing, hell, he can probably go on about zone d the way Vince Lombardi went on about the power sweep. Or the way Bobby Knight did about man to man…I don’t think that’s where Gott’s passion lies. (I am not implying anything other than I think he’s an offense first guy.)
I sit up behind the State bench, and couldn’t help but notice how Henderson struggled just to stand up and sit down last night. I’m not nearly as young, but I fractured my leg 2 months ago and getting back to normal has been a struggle. I can’t imagine Henderson playing effectively this season. I think it would be in his best interest to sit out the season and get well. He would be a bigger help to next year’s team as a healthy junior rather than playing as a hobbled junior this season.
Oh, and I agree – these are MUCH more athletic and exciting to watch wings. They can slash and such. And they can at least guard other 3/4s (as HWSNBN’s often could not). But still asking a lot to ask them to guard other guards man to man, and we aren’t leveraging the advantage on the offensive end sufficiently to make up for it. At least not yet.
I think we’re going to see that Gott’s “loose reigns” doesn’t work with this team.
I really don’t feel like they’ve every really committed to the high post Maybe a few plays, but I don’t recall every recognizing us as playing it for a half or entire game. But, it may be that I saw it but didn’t recognize it. Certainly possible.
As the season progresses, we start to play better together, no doubt. The passing gets crisper, we start looking for the great pass or the open man – but it seems like either we make an early entry pass that works, or we take a jump shot. It may be that the guard (s) create some action that frees a wing, but it never feels to me like the offense is flowing.
The majority of Gott’s team’s success has always seemed to rest on outside shooting. TJ was an aberration (a fantastic one!), but it’s seemed to me that we’ve needed a Scott Wood, a Ralston Turner, or a Trevor Lacey to get hot and hit that key shot to win the important games. The mature player that knows when and how to get that score.
Not sure if we have that guy this year. I had hoped it might be Terry, but for now, he’s out of play. Maybe it’s Cat.But I worry he’ll have no legs left by February and that will show in his shooting.
So I think, to reach a high level of success this year, we’ve got to run the offense (or SOME offense). Gott always talks about ‘relying on the offense.’ I think the team can be really good, if it will do that. Lots of talent, but at this point, completely disorganized on both ends of the court. We’re not going to beat anyone of significance until they get this figured out.
They are much more athletic true – but apparently they defend worse. I actually could have seen HWSNBN recruiting the Martin brothers – they fit in that Cam Bemmerman/Fells type mold. Of course, he wouldn’t have given them much offensive freedom as Gott gives his guys.
I don’t think he brings in those guys and Sean Kirk. And we all know that cat doesn’t sign with him either.
A couple of people have indicated that we could red-shirt Henderson and have him back next year.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but outside of the rare NCAA injury waiver, Henderson has already red-shirted because of transfer rules, so if he were to sit out the rest of the season, he would be a senior next year.
Then, after that, maybe, just maybe the NCAA gives him a 6th year. Seems unlikely the NCAA would do us any favors.
These guys all want to play professionally, even if just in Europe/Asia/Middle East. There is absolutely NO reason to even consider redshirting.
It’s a ligament injury, and it sounds like 8 weeks is the conservative timeframe. That’s plenty of time to be fully healthy to be a meaningful contributor.
Henderson is 21 now, will be 22 next year as a senior. That’s pretty much the outer limits for someone with professional aspirations. He would quit and go play in Europe before staying beyond that.
But more importantly, we need this guy desperately for the ACC season. The ACC opener will be 7 weeks from the time of his injury, right between the 6-8 week estimates.
I”m pretty much convinced Gottfried needs a team of veteran 4-5 stars to make a a big run in the NCAA. There’s been a lot here said over the years about the magical jobs he’s done to get some of these teams into the tournament but that’s a crock. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good coach but he’s coasting. Who couldn’t recruit to Raleigh?
In you want a good synopsis of our defense, or lack thereof, read phoenix’s posts this year and last. There is no zone that cures our ills. Maybe a 1-3-1 for now, with a mix of Cat and somebody else not in foul trouble at the top, Anya in the middle, and a Martin on the baseline. All other zones will be destroyed. Not that we can guard in man, but any encouragement to stand around and not have active hands or feet will destroy any incentive for this team to guard. Like BJD says, what is painfully obvious is not only that we have no backup PG, we have no backup SG. We may enter conference play with a losing record. THat’s how bad we look.
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