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I told a buddy right before the game I thought we’d put up 30+ but we’d be lucky to hold FSU under 50. Not a fan of defensive schemes so far in year 2, and I recognize there’s a dearth of depth and talent. I just don’t think we play to strengths. The 3rd and long conversion rate is especially perplexing.
^There is no chance of us getting a bid. Zilch, zero, nil. Far, far, the biggest disappointment of this Wolfpack athletic season.
Horrible call at the plate for sure. I don’t care for attempting to steal home in any situation, much less that one, even with Turner and a few successful tries. If you’re relying on that, you’re already grasping. Vintage Avent all the way, all the day. He played hunches, not the odds, and he doesn’t know his personnel. Likely a do or die game, and you’re playing for the big inning behind? Wtf..Punch the run across when you have the chance. BUNT the baseball. Season was lost early on if they don’t squeak in.
^I don’t think CD was quite suggesting that, but having RP host a few BP’s and give a few pointers to some of our hitters would be nice.
A few consistent problems with Avent imo.
1. He doesn’t have a consistent baseball philosophy. Is he a mash guy or is he a small ball guy? He’s Herbesque in this way.
2. #1 might not matter that much if you can adapt/coach/call a game to your players strengths and weaknesses. But he doesn’t do this either. Hitting Turner at #3 early in the year was classic Avent. (I understand why he was doing it. I also knew it was a bonehead decision with the returning lineup). As CD has said many a time, get out of the way.
3. Attention to details distinguishes great teams and rarely have I watched his teams do little things well. You can have all the talent in the world but if you make mistakes, you won’t beat quality teams with comparable talent and better managers. Always plenty of base running mistakes, wtf pitching changes or not, questionable times to sacrifice, etc. Even last year’s great season, you saw some of the same things. We were just that much better in the bullpen most nights than the other guyCD, I admired the way he was handling himself last night. It’s clear he’s there as a fan and father first, not trying to be in the spotlight, the way it should be. Soft spoken and mild mannered during our brief conversation. Palmeiro was a great hitter, the one one guy caught up in the mess that leaves me scratching my head. Unlike most of the others, I genuinely liked him as a player, and after last night, as a person.
Bottom of 7, tied 3-3, runners on 1st and 2nd, with two down, and Austin at the plate. With the 3rd baseman at normal depth, he attempts to bunt for a hit. Why? Not saying this is Avent–probably not–but that’s just stupid, stupid, baseball. Why does a JR hitting 4 bunt in that situation? Every game, I see about 2-3 of these plays, either from the coaches or players.
Count me among the disappointed but not terribly surprised that we aren’t a top 10 team, or top 25 team. THe ACC is always overrated in the preseason, in large part, due to the Baseball America effect. Avent has always been a mediocre recruiter, and his game management is subpar. Add to that equation that we lost a lot from last year, far more collectively than we returned or brought in.
Avent could throw out the bullpen and expect them to put up blanks almost every time out a year ago. He had a stockpile of lefties and righties he could use in almost any scenario, and Holiday to advise him. This year, just doesn’t have the collection of arms or experience. They’ve not been bad but they are in no way comparable to last year’s crew.
Last year’s team wasn’t a great hitting team against top flight competition. They beat up on piss poor teams but struggled against solid arms, but you could afford to struggle because the bullpen was always keeping you in games. Add to that, they lost Senay and a very underrated Adametz, who in my opinion should’ve hit further up in the lineup all year. This year, Turner’s numbers are down, as are a few other returning players, and there’s little gap to gap pop in that lineup. We strike our far too much and simply don’t put it in play. Avent has never, ever, taken advantage of the big improvement in NC high school baseball imo. Lots of good ball being played in-state.
Always easier to put 5 in uniform than 9 or 11. Throw in the 3-pt equalizer, early exits, transfers, roster instability, and media exposure virtually anywhere and you get the democratization of basketball. The distance between the “haves” and “have nots” may still be wide, but not as far apart as it once was, and those in the middle are far more equal. The days of dominant teams are gone.
The NCAA is deservedly under fire, but as long as they maintain 501(3)c status, and the institutions they represent do the same, I see the lot of these lawsuits getting squashed. It doesn’t matter how big the share of the pie is, as long as it’s being divided up in line with 501(3)c. There will be no paying of players, no unionization of players, etc. To allow this is not only bad for college athletics, it would require retooling of the tax code, and it’s not happening.
While public perception of the NCAA is clearly shifting, the NCAA still has the upperhand. The system is broken but unionization and paying players isn’t the answer.
If Lewis didn’t have burger boy beside his name, few would care that he transferred. Cat will be an all-ACC player sooner than later.
Credit to Lewis for helping us win a few during the second half, but without Barber, we would’ve lost even more. When Lewis was on the court, with Turner, Warren, and two bigs, you simply had nobody who could effectively create a shot against man-to-man defenses or zones. Nobody. When the shot clock ran down, good luck. As good as Warren is, and as great as he moves without the ball, he’s not beating many off the bounce. Wells and Cat were our two guys who could beat their man consistently. They didn’t always make the right decisions, but that comes with experience. IF you want to advance in the NCAA tournament, you need solid defense and players with multiple skills, a few role players, and a little depth. Lewis could’ve been a contributor on this team going forward, but he didn’t want to accept his likely role. He jetted. He could’ve worked on his game, improved his jump shot, his strength and quickness, but he didn’t want to. Like lots of Lowe recruits, they didn’t want to Work.
Bigger, stronger, quicker guards bothered Lewis in man-to-man situations all year. Presses and traps similarly flustered him. The Marquette game was just one such example. Barber, on the other hand, turned it over but his turnovers by and large were quite different than Lewis’s. Barber actually beat his man off the dribble regularly, and then made boneheaded decisions with the ball–something not uncommon for extremely talented Freshmen–and he penetrated the zone with the dribble, something you rarely saw with Lewis. Barber’s decision making improved substantially this year. We’re in good shape going forward.
Last year, it was “Why isn’t Lewis playing more?” Then after Brown went down, it was “See, Lewis should’ve played more.” Then after Brown came back, back to “Why ain’t Lewis playing?” In the offseason, there was this debate about whether Lewis and Cat would play together substantial minutes. During the season, all kinds of folks hopped on the Lewis bandwagon in spite of how poorly he played early. Didn’t get it then, still don’t get it. The only reason he ever, ever, got more minutes this year was because teams were zoning the hell out of us, we couldn’t shoot it for chit, and Barber hit the Freshman wall. Barber was always going to be the guy. Always. He wasn’t anointed, he’s just better.
I will add, he ain’t no Iverson. That area puts out some incredible athletes in all of the big 3 sports. My biggest concern about Barber is how Gott uses him. Gott is a system guy. Not sure his system is the best fit for Cat, and not sure how much Gott is interested in adapting.
Help on the way in the form of AROD the II. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/alex-rodriguez-s-nephew-hits-prep-record-eight-home-runs-on-eight-straight-swings-141033630.html
I think the biggest challenge for a coach at a program like NCSU isn’t getting top flight talent. We’ve seen our worst coaches get top players. In addition to coaching, retention is a big challenge. These days, kids are going to leave, that’s a given. In my mind, you don’t minimize that by giving kids playing time or promising time. I think you really have to look at the character of the kid and be upfront with him. It’s tough sitting on the pine if you’ve never done it. I think the defections, so far, are more a result of Sid’s leftovers, or last minute recruits brought in by Gott to achieve some balance and depth. Now that he’s achieved that, I expect there to be fewer defections. The Lewis and Purvis transfers don’t bother me at all, nor do the others. Going forward, it will bother me more. And if I don’t see improvement in defense, the combo of defections and lack of improvement is really a bad omen.
From my view, Barber showed signs of improvement during the home stretch. With a year of experience, I like his upside. If we can stretch the floor a little more with shooters, something we desperately need, it will help Cat out a lot.
Lewis saw the righting on the wall. Regardless of his starter role during the second half of the ACC and increased minutes, the future was/is Cat. Either you accept that you’ll likely play second fiddle, and contribute, you bust your arse and improve the parts of your game that make that decision tougher, or you transfer. He chose option 3. Good luck. Move along.
Haven’t seen the boys play this year yet. What position(s) are racking up all the E’s? Everytime I see a box score, it’s littered with em.
^I don’t have any insight into the Millers relationship with Sendek, but I think Sean’s leaving for Xavier, even if it brought with it an increase in pay and responsibility, speaks volumes. You can respect a coworker or boss, but you can also recognize that some of them have limitations, and there’s a time to hitch your wagon to another horse. He did. And look where he is.
But I agree with Chop, I see some of the same parallels with Gott and Sendek. Gott is a far better coach, but he doesn’t seem to be able to get over the hump, due to own his unwillingness to address glaring deficiencies.
^What’s a PTB? And Bill, what did you allude to several weeks ago when posting the pic of Lutz on bench?
Never really understood how Lutz got the reputation of being a “defensive guru.” His teams at UNC-C, or Charlotte, or whatever they call themselves weren’t really stifling on that end. Very similar to Gottfried’s underwhelming defensive teams at Bama’. As far as zone or man go, we weren’t significantly better in either one this year. There were combinations, of course, who were better equipped for zone than man, but there were also combinations capable of decent man-to-man. Keys or no keys, lineup and foul trouble, imo, more than game planning against opposing offenses, dictated what we played and when we played it. The only zone I liked all year was the 3-2 against UNC, which stuck with too long. Not that our man D was any better, but the zones were incredibly inactive and porous. It’s a testament to how bad offenses are and shooters are that they worked at all.
^Few of the several hundred posts during/after the St. Louis game call for Gott’s firing. Probably 2-3 posters, tops.
Concerning Wichita State, that’s a top 4 team without question. If you saw KY play FL, they looked good in that game. Preseason #1 in a lot of polls, they played their tails off tonight. Wichita State likely wouldn’t have run through a major conference undefeated, but they’d still have found themselves seeded highly. I hate the late game timeout, especially if you’re only leaving yourself 3-4 seconds to get a shot. Early needed to touch the ball.
^Tau, I’ll try to address those points. I’ve been critical of Gott during the season, and some of the end-of-game decisions versus St. Louis. I nonetheless acknowledge he’s the best we’ve had in a long time, an excellent offensive coach, and fatigue and inexperience undoubtedly contributed to the meltdown.
I thought Gott managed the game really well for the first 37 minutes. For me, the carnage began around the 3 minute mark. In hindsight, I was probably too critical about substitution patterns down the stretch. I think the problems we saw were a microcosm of regular season results and some of the last three years. I do think he could’ve done a better job with the bigs, either in keeping them fresh, as he did most of the game, or in going to a smaller lineup earlier, when it was clear the St. Louis strategy was to foul and press. There were multiple chances to do this. He waited. More importantly, this game showed what guards handled pressure the best. Simply check the turnovers. Yet we stayed with a PG who, in spite of playing well in some respects, really struggled with St. Louis’s pressure all night. This isn’t a knock on the kid or his contribution. I also think the five on the court during OT were not the freshest, or the best option. Gottfried actually got away from keeping the bigs fresh. It showed in our rebounding and defense.
More disconcerting were the absolute lapses on defense. St. Louis was among the worst offensive teams in the tournament. I thought we defended them well for 37 minutes. But during the last three, we did not defend the 3-pt line, we did not defend well at all. That has to be a point of emphasis in those circumstances. This, to me, is symptomatic of a bigger problem, and was why we were one of the worst defensive teams to make the tournament. We also allowed St. Louis to hold on to approximately 30-45 seconds by rolling the ball up the court uncontested. I can understand jitters and fatigue. I’ll give a coach credit when it’s due. But he deserves some criticism for his role in that meltdown. It’s obvious we missed a boatload of free throws. What’s also obvious is that the coaching staff, if it really wants to get over the hump, is going to have to pay better attention to detail on the defensive end.
