Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
“…Even the cupcakes gave us a run for the money.”
No…No they didn’t. Not by a long shot.
I would also challenge the statement that Jacoby was a shell of his 2014 self:
2015: 237-395; 60%; 6 INTs; 2662 yds; 20 TDs, 205 yds per game; 139-615 yds rushing; 6 TDs
2014: 221-370; 59%; 5 INTs; 2606 yds; 23 TDs, 201 yds per game; 124-763 yds rushing; 3 TDsI think it’s the feeling he was going to be so much better in 2015 that makes it feel like he was worse than 2014. Also impossible to say what his numbers would have been if Bo Hines stayed. That was a big loss in the passing game.
You’re right, it’s not an option. A 6th year medical exemption is only even considered if the player has missed two full years due to injury or other medical condition. His transfer redshirt year doesn’t qualify.
I agree with you on that. I get the impression his passion and drive isn’t the same as in the 1st couple years.
Watching Gott on the sidelines each game, I have to disagree with that. Maybe he tones down his post game comments, but during the game he’s as intense a coach as there is. Just ask any of the players or refs he’s ripping in to. Sometimes it looks like his head will explode.
Regarding DSJ, I’m glad we have a coach that won’t let him on the court until he’s fully healed. A lot of coaches (Fedora) wouldn’t do that.
Here’s how we start the season:
There are easily 4 losses here. Could well be 1-6 or 2-5 starting out, and that may be too much to overcome.
Based on what I’ve seen this year, I have to go with 2 wins tops over the 1st seven games. As you say, it could well be 1-6.
Make shots…Win games.
Exactly! At the half I was thinking that other than Cat, this may be one of the worst shooting teams I’ve ever seen. And they have been for the past five games or so. Hopefully Caleb and Mav can keep it going on Saturday.
Defense wins game too, and our defense was as good as I’ve seen this year. Hopefully they’re finally getting it.
On the negative side, I am hating how Gott is refusing to give Cat any minutes on the bench. I swear this is going to come back and haunt him real soon.
This might be the best team we’ve faced so far. Talented forwards, and a bunch of 40%+ 3 point shooters. I’m hopeful but not overly optimistic.
I think I’ll reserve judgement on Turgeon “building a program” until after this year when two of his top four players declare early for the NBA and the other two graduate. He has had one top 25 recruiting class since arriving at Maryland, and is currently ranked behind us for next year. No question he has a great team this year, but it will take a lot more than that to declare he has built a program.
For me, a big difference between this year and Gott’s previous years is I could always see a foundation for the team to improve, ie there were always two or three players I thought could get this team into the tourney. I’m just not seeing that this year. We have Cat and that’s it. Henderson was a huge loss, and really changed the dynamics of the team. But even taking that into consideration, we needed big steps forward from Abu and Beejay. Unfortunately that didn’t happen, and it doesn’t look like it will.
One way or another, it’s only going to take a couple more weeks to see where this team really stands.
The 5 second closely guarded rule was eliminated. The rationale being it is not necessary with a 30 second shot clock. I always hated that rule, so that is one change I support. I’d also like to see the shot clock go to 24 seconds.
Not only Mav, who is as inconsistent as he can possibly be, but the Martin twins are just as inept. Thought Caleb was bringing something to the table and his shooting is as bad if not worse than Rowan’s. Without any outside assistance to Cat, we’re toast.
Last night was three hours out of my life I will not be able to get back. Just an unentertaining basketball game. I really was hoping a momentum surge into ACC play, and we just seem to only have one player, who fortunately, is one damn good player.
That’s exactly how I felt. I usually really enjoy watching basketball under any circumstances, but last night just wasn’t fun. I left the arena wishing I hadn’t gone. Not something I usually experience.
Unless Mav improves his shooting we’re not going to win many games. In three of the last six games he has gone 3 for 32. This team just cannot survive with that kind of inconsistency, especially since he’s one of our high volume shooters.
Caleb needs to step it up as well. He’s 6 for 34 in the last four games.
When two of our scorers shoot 10% and 20%, that’s not good.
This team reminds me a lot of the VT team a couple of years ago. They had a very good PG in Eric Green who led the ACC in scoring and was league MVP. Despite that, they only won four games in the ACC and finished dead last. Unless something changes drastically over the next few weeks, we are pretty much headed in that direction.
I don’t know if they showed this on TV, but before the game Debbie Yow made a presentation to Gott for his 100th win. The players were in the layup line at the time, and not a single one turned to watch, and none of them applauded at the end. Maybe that’s normal, but I thought it was unusual.
I have sat through every second of every home game, and watched every second of the away games on TV. My prognosis – we are going to get annihilated in the ACC. If we were playing Duke, or Carolina, or Virginia, Louisville, Miami, or FSU, we would have been down by 30 at the half. Our defense is getting better, but unfortunately, other than Cat we have no scorers. We have a few shooters, but they don’t get the scoring part of the shooting. That was a terrible team we just played, and we had to fight like crazy to just eke out a win.
We lost our second best scoring option early in the 1st game of the season, and that is killing us. We can enjoy one more game until the real ugliness begins.
I know it’s been a bumpy ride this year, but considering we lost our 2nd best player seven minutes into the season, I think they have acquitted themselves pretty well. Cat is a lot of fun to watch.
Year 2 was the team I was most excited about going in:
Lorenzo – one of the best PGs in the ACC
Purvis: a top 10 recruit at SG
Wood – one of the best pure shooters in the country at the 3
CJL – potential All ACC at the 4 (based on his previous year’s performance)
Rich – one of the best pure rebounders in the country
TJ and Tyler – Macdonald AAs as back-upsOn paper it looked like a killer lineup, but I feel it was CJL who turned out to be the weak link and brought the whole thing down. Purvis was a disappointment was well, but Gott didn’t do a very good job of managing him. I can’t help but think how that season would have turned out if CJ had gone pro and TJ got all of his minutes.
Ryebread, I definitely would like to see us play more zone for the reasons you mentioned. Cat might not be feeling it now, but he is going burn out before we get halfway through the ACC schedule. In terms of Lacey, the shock part came from assurances he was giving to the coaching staff, and Rowan is more of a replacement for Turner than Lacey. Rowan can take it to the basket, but he’s not a ball handler.
Getting DSJ, Bam, and possibly Alkins was going to be a program changer, and would have given us the ESPN exposure you mentioned. That is obviously not going to happen now, so I agree, the coaching staff is at a real crossroads. It will be interesting to see how 2016 recruiting plays out. Gott has performed some magic tricks in the past, and he may have to do his best Houdini impersonation to sort this one out.
Last year we had 10 solid scholarship players. Two were expected to leave (Turner and Lee), and two were expected to come on board (Henderson and Kirk). I don’t know of many coaches who carry more than that at any one time. You could kind of see Kyle leaving when his playing time dried up, but Lacey was a complete shock. I can guarantee his decision blind-sided the entire coaching staff. This reminds me a bit of how it went with Skip Prosser. Skip was clearly a very good coach, and was consistently at the top of the ACC standings in his 1st four years. Then Chris Paul unexpectedly declared for the NBA after his freshman year, leaving Skip without a PG. He ended up at the bottom of the ACC the following year. I know Gott tried to get some help at the guard position after Trevor’s decision, but it was just too late.
Another point I want to make is regarding the team’s defense. I will preface this by saying this isn’t an excuse, but I firmly believe is a significant contributing factor. The team is struggling mightily with the new rules enforcement. Maybe they could be coached up better in how to deal with it, but with so few players, everyone is being extremely cautious in how they play defense. We simply do not have a lot of fouls to give. Even Cat, who is an acknowledged excellent on-ball defender is playing off his guy a lot more than last year. Throw in Mav’s unexpected surge in minutes played and you have a recipe for defensive disaster.
Like I say, not an excuse, but I think a key contributing factor. Gott’s teams have historically not played good defense, and this is exacerbating the problem
We lost by 7 points. Mav and Abu were a combined 1 for 17. Virtually every one of those shots were wide open looks, mostly set up by Cat. Freeman was 0-3, all layups. If those three guys shoot a combined 40%, we win by double digits. And I’m talking 40% of easy, wide open shots. I thought our defense played reasonably well though.
I think I would opt for more Cody and less Mav tonight. As I mentioned earlier, perimeter defense will be the key to winning. We can’t afford to let M come out of the gate hitting threes, so I will take more defense and give less offense.
I was sure I posted my prediction in this thread, but I cannot find it. Anyway, I predicted we would go 7-5 with losses to Louisville, VT, FSU, Clemson, and UNC. So I was pretty close.
Everyone seems to think VT to the Belk bowl is a done deal…
As far as the game yesterday…here is what I posted to PP:
For me, the game changed on the late hit in the 1st quarter..we had just scored to cut the lead to 7 and had stopped them. Was it a late hit, yes. However, I can’t understand why the two officials who are on top of the play don’t throw a flag…but the official 40+ yards away throws it late. Hell, even the announcer said “the flag came flying in from Chapel Hill.” I’d love to see a different angle with that officials view of the play. They scored on the next play and we were done for after that…
That play happened right in front of me, and it was an absolute BS call. Definitely a momentum changer at the time. But it is not an excuse for the atrocious defense on display in the 1st quarter.
Just my opinion, but with over 25% of D1 coaching jobs available, someone will be coming after our coach. I hope not, and if they do, I hope he stays. We do really need a new D coordinator however. The current guy is not good.
