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I like the idea, but never going to happen. The league doesn’t want their top teams (1) potentially having a bad loss before the NCAA selection (at least one less game reduces the chances) and (2) having to play too many games and then potentially having to play on Thursday/Saturday the next week. They want to protect that teams that will almost always be sure NCAA teams.
I’m not disagreeing that the Lewis/Cat duo is a full-time solution and I agree that we need everyone to step up. It’s just difficult for me to really want Cat in there too much because Buckets benefits greatly (so far) with Lewis running the point more often than when Cat is running it. But I also don’t like seeing the other PG beating Lewis off the dribble either. That’s the frustration I know GOTT is dealing with. No easy answer.
BUT, looking forward in any event to tonight’s game (<-that’s not altogether true…as a State fan, there’s a mix of excitement and terror in a tournament setting. Of all of the teams playing yesterday, Miami is the one I didn’t want to face the most).
And again, I’m only talking about using them as a change up, not the norm. I would just be interested if that could potentially give us a different look for strategic times against these kinds of teams.
^^That’s my point I guess with running Barber and Lewis at the same time. Lee plays good defense, but I think Barber brings more in this matchup (even though that would leave Lewis guarding their 2, but I think worth it). And Barber’s potential offense is higher, and if he doesn’t have to run the offense as much, that may free him up to beat his defender off the dribble and do what he’s good at, driving. I’m not saying sit Turner a ton, but I don’t think we should have to run Lewis/Turner OR Barber/Lee.
They are going to shoot a lot of 3’s if they stick to what they want to do, and I would rather have Lewis chasing their shooter (not their driving PG) than Turner (I just keep picturing him looking lost multiple times on switches that left Paige way too open too often.
Aside from a few times where Dez has hit some big 3’s, would we really be hurting to run both PGs on the floor at the same time? I don’t like the idea of not having Lewis feeding Buckets the ball where he wants it. But having Cat on D would be great. I have yet to see Turner worth the playing time he’s gotten. Unless he’s hitting his 3’s, he doesn’t add much on offense and is a liability on D.
Am I crazy?
That’s what I’ve been saying all year. I like watching Cat play fast and the on-ball defense is fun to watch. But I really like a heady PG who can run the offense (which doesn’t just mean he puts up a number on his hand for the team to run a set play). All of the player seem to talk about how Lewis gets them the ball where they like to receive it at the right time. Outside of a “just give me the ball at the top and I’ll drive it down the lane every time” kind of a player, most guys (shooters especially) want to catch the ball in the spot they like so they can immediately shoot or decide whatever else they want to do (I’m thinking how Scott Wood loved to come off of a screen, catch and shoot all in one motion – it made him tough to guard because he could get that shot up so quickly).
I think of it kind of like a hand off in football between the QB and RB. RB doesn’t look down at the ball. He’s trusting that the QB is putting in the right spot so he can keep his eyes up and make his next move quicker. <- I know it’s not a perfect analogy, but it’s what came to me this morning.
I was listening to Adam and Joe yesterday on my way home and agree that it would be nice if each person was required to always make their votes public, for both the weekly and season honors. I would love to know who gave some first place votes to some of those lower guys. My guess is it’s simply to get those guys more points more than it is they think that a McAdoo is really a first-teamer.
Do you guys agree with GOTT that because of the size of the league, we should be looking at 10 guys for first team? Would that make it too much less of an honor? I’m not sure it would some years, but then others it would, so I’m torn.
I am trying to think about that it wasn’t that long ago that there were about half as many teams, so proportionately, 10 could make sense. What do you think?
Not trying to rub anyone the wrong way, but I cannot in any light see Yow as the conference commissioner. I don’t know if she has the clout around the country (much more around the conference) that the conference would want in its commissioner. I could see a Ron Wellman type (if he wasn’t as old) before several of these other names. The Buz hire has hurt his rep a little bit, but he’s extremely well connected and respected nationally and, by all accounts, very bright when it comes to running a program. I know WF is a smaller school, but really, what does the commish have to do on a day-to-day basis? Probably less than Wellman even has to do on a day in and day out at WF.
To a totally different point, I have recently become friends with someone who moved into the area that was at Alabama near the end of Gott’s tenure there. I do not want to add to rumors or criticize a man’s character, especially if it is unfounded, but there seemed to be rumors when he was down there and I’ve heard some since he’s been in Raleigh that he isn’t a guy that I would want my college daughter (if I had one) hanging around. I want to root for the guy, and I know that we don’t want to fill our blog with hate speech towards our coach, but I also want to root for a guy and team that make me proud to be a State grad. Are there any legs to this, because if not, I want to make sure to squash this when I hear it.
– From a State grad who cares deeply for our school and the role models it produces
A couple of things that come to mind as I read this article in particular: I don’t want lose either of our PGs, but for me, I would rather have a guy who gets shooters the ball in the place they want it at the right time than one who looks to score. Now, that necessitates having good shooters, which we don’t really have this year (not consistent ones at least). As for Lewis on the defensive end, I disagree with many on here that think he’s our greatest liability. I watched the *NC game and watched Lewis at least working hard to play defense. It was Turner to me that looked lost way to many times and has much of the year on the defensive end. Now, I’m NOT going as far as saying that Lewis isn’t a liability, but if the bigs were playing a little better on D with defending screens and such, I would rather have Lewis running my offense.
With that said, I really enjoy watching Cat on defense. He may be the best on-ball defender I’ve seen at State in a good while, and he genuinely works hard to keep his feet in position when he’s guarding someone one-on-one.
I know that many on this site love Gott and think he’s the best we’ve had in a long time, but his in-game management has been questionable to me at several important times this year. I know Lewis shouldn’t have called the last one at the end of the game, but I’m more concerned with the fact that we left the game with one from overtime. 3 opportunities I expected a coach with a timeout at the end of overtime to use his timeout:
1 – before they inbound the ball to Warren before he was mugged and the ball went out of bounds (granted, you would rather have the timeout for the opportunities 2 or 3 following).
2 – once he saw Warrent get trapped in the corner (which we should have learned from Cuse to not throw the ball into a corner with a team that wants to trap at the end of the game). Coaches can yell for timeouts from the bench. Gotta be ready for that.
3 – after TJ makes the second free throw at the end of overtime before Paige’s last drive. I don’t know how many coaches I’ve watched (Roy and K do it all of the time) take a timeout after a made basket at a crucial time to set up the defense. I don’t know how you don’t call it here at the very least having watched Carolina go down the court in a heartbeat and score after a made basket several times this game already.I agree that some calls really hurt us and it feels like we were playing 5 on 7-8. But win or lose, I would like to see some higher BBIQ like
– not throwing the ball into the corner again,
– seeing at least ONE person run to a guy who has picked up his dribble and is in trouble (Lewis at the end of the game when he called the TO and Warren at the end…isn’t this something you learn when you are first playing basketball, make yourself available to a guy in trouble),
– and the timeout being used more appropriately at the end of the game (didn’t have one at the end of Cuse and had one here and didn’t use it)
– running an inbounds play. Really I’ll take any movement at this point.Overall, pleased at the intensity we played with and the fact that the team didn’t look intimidated and really took it to them at the beginning of both halves. Would have like to see Lewis and Barber in together some as Lewis was running the offense better and actually doing okay on defense. But Turner could not keep up with Paige and a quick guard like Barber would have been perfect for that role.
Still hurts, but provided some much needed entertainment last night.
I am never one that wants to put wins and losses on one play, or bad call, or no call, etc. But because I apparently missed it on the last play and since the travel on the last play was referenced above, I thought I’d share this for anyone else here that may have missed it as well (watch around the 2:01 mark):
I appreciate the hours of work you put into these as I very much like the analytical side of life (and sports). As for UNC being undecided, I totally understand what you are saying. From a purely analytical (numbers) position, their in the “undecided” range. Analytically, we have to keep the “ESPN would never let them be kept out” discussion out of it.
Thank you, VaWolf the hard work that so many of us, like myself, enjoy reading when I just need a break from writing this sql that I’m working on (i.e., killing time at work).
Love seeing so many NC guys on this list. I don’t have the time at this point to follow recruiting like so many of you do (and thank you for doing it for guys like me), but I like the sound of a 6-3 195lb safety in Pratt. I don’t know how good he will be, but starting off that size before our coaches even have a chance to work with him…I like the thought of a hard-hitting back end to our defense in a couple of years.
Way to go coach!
To me, besides enjoying watching Lewis get more playing time, as I like watching our offense run with him at the point, I really think Freeman near the end of the first half was huge for us. He NEVER gave up on any play, even the obvious ones where they came down with the rebound and simply look to pass it to their point guard. It helped that the refs seemed to be letting them play a little in the first half (obviously that changed, like normal, in the second). But in any event, I really enjoyed his hustle when we really needed it from a big.
^ I don’t know if it says much of anything either way. They aren’t great, but they at least knew how to beat a lesser team at home in Clemson. We barely escaped GT and I don’t see us matching up well with FSU because we don’t have any shooters. I think that game at *NC doesn’t mean as much as it has in years past (in terms of resume. It always means something to beat them).
I agree that there might be too much Barber bashing, as he’s only a freshman, and I expect mistakes, being out-of-control sometimes and all the rest. But, in my opinion, to put him worlds above TL at this point like some of you and the announcers want to do is crazy. I prefer an offense that has shooters and post players, where the PG’s main job is to run the offense and get several assists. Yeah, score and even take over sometimes when he needs to, but by-and-large, run the offense.
I think the reason everyone talks about how good Barber is, is because the rest of our offense stinks. If we had last year’s team (not the attitudes, but the scoring production coming from multiple places depending on the night), I would be completely frustrated with Cat. I don’t see him driving IN ORDER TO set up other guys.
Now, in all fairness, Cat fits right now because he’s one of the few that can score (except the last few games). And his D may be better, but from what I’ve seen, not enough that TL in the game is going to cost us much more than we’re giving up right now. To me, PG is as much about bbIQ as it is talent. I think TL’s is much higher right now, and his shooting may go up if he played some. But only playing a few minutes and then when he does miss a shot, being taken out of the game, is not going to help at all.
Now, with all of that rambling said, it’s clear to me that the bigger issue is not simply that we don’t have great shooters (and they aren’t great), but that we don’t actually run an offense. My wife, who is a casual fan at best, watched some last night and her first comment was, “Wow, they just stand around a lot. Do they not set screens or run anything?” All I could say was, “Not that I’ve seen.”
Any way to see the number of comments on the home page for each entry? I really liked being able to see if anyone had added to the conversation instead of clicking on the article and then having to click to the last page of the comments to see if there were new posts. I love the new design, however, and really like having the basketball schedule in the right pane. Great work on the whole!
Loved the game tonight and how little the number of fouls called. It was actual basketball. I know it won’t stay like this and we will play more physical teams, but it was still a treat tonight.
Just because the foul thing intrigued me after listening to the end of the U*NC game, I wanted to see how many free throws there were taking a game, because it seems like a ton.
Through 10 games for us and them, we have shot 203 foul shots and they have shot 317!! That’s 10 more attempts a game. That’s a ton. So, just to make sure they lies I always here that they slash to the boards more than most teams, and that’s why they get so many more foul shots, I wanted to see how many of their points came from 2-pointers versus us. They make 24.7 2-pointers/game and we make 24.5/game. That’s basically no difference. So, they “earn” the extra free throws because…
I have enjoyed watching our brand of basketball, but I also am aware of the slow down sludge basketball that is coming once the Swoff (excuse me, ACC) schedule starts. For more information, if you’re bored, you can look at
http://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basketball/team/north-carolina-tar-heels/stats
and
http://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basketball/team/nc-state-wolfpack/stats
for more info
