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Play the young guys. They need to develop. We suck not playing them anyways.
We also need to use all 12-13 scholarships. Players will transfer out regardless. It means someone else rose to the top.
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Someone needs to introduce Tony’s strategy to his tactics. The strategy — play the younger guys earlier to build cohesion and buy-in — is sound. Now use your tactics to support the strategy.
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The young guys suck. The old guys suck. The transfers suck. I think it is time to accept the fact that the coaches suck. The program sucks.
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Box seats suck! Box seats suck! Everyone sucks! Where my bleacher creatures at?
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Agreed wrt playing the young guys. And we CAN’T play Kihei and Reece together. Reece has higher ceiling because he’s more talented and we can get more out of that spot by pairing him with a complementary SG versus paring Kihei with one. Beeks, Franklin, Igor or Beeks, Carson, Franklin with Kihei off the bench would generate 5 more point offensively while giving nothing up defensively. I’m not sure how many times we’ve seen Kihei’s man score over the top. His defensive abilities are overblown.
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It’s the jerseys. They suck!
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I only know two people from Houston and they both suck.
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This is upper east side humor or something? I don’t understand.
I was just saying that the program is in an utter state of disaster that seems almost impossible given the success that culminated in a championship.
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Trying to remain positive, only because that’s on paper about as bad of a matchup as we could’ve faced. This team needs more time to gel and playing a legit top 10 team with hounding defense on the road was always going to be a recipe for disaster.
I’m holding out hope (for now) that this team can be like the 2019 team with a little bit better offense and a little bit worse defense. I actually thought Houston hit some really tough, contested shots tonight and at times our defense looked really strong. It’s still very much a work in progress but I saw potential for us to be very good on that end once we start clicking.
Positive takeaways:
- Armaan is legit. I think he will continue to play with more confidence but he’s gotta be a scorer for us to be successful
- Kadin’s rim protection was beautiful at times. Had a pretty baby hook too. Would like to see him be more aggressive on that end
- Stattmann hit some shots. We’ll need that from him
- Gardner won’t have many games like this again.
- Igor! My man let’s it fly even if he’s 0-2. Love his confidence
That’s about all I got for now. Obviously not a lot of positives when you lose by 20. I really think this team will start geling by ACC play but you can just tell we aren’t comfortable in our roles yet. Gonna have to win some rock fights in the meantime.
My expectations haven’t really changed that much. This was always going to be a deeply flawed team. Any time I’m down this year I’ll just look at your ‘22 class on 247 and smile. Lot of season left but man these early season blowouts really stink
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We’re a football school damnit
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Never sure If you’re being serious but we won the ACC last year and have been on an absolute tear on the recruiting trail. Would hardly call that an “utter state of disaster”
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At this point I’m in full panic mode and I’m serious.
I don’t want to debate it right now. Maybe tomorrow I wake up with a clearer calmer head.
We are going the wrong way.
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Fair enough
Alright, immediate takeaways (and I’m sure some overreactions):
- I miss when we were the physically imposing team that created mismatches across the board. Now the vast majority of our roster is either undersized or not particularly athletic/explosive if they do have height. We have a great strength and conditioning program, but they can’t just transform the type of bodies our recruits come in with. It’s kind of apparent looking at this team that we landed very few of our priority recruiting targets for four years.
- I love Kihei and think he takes too much flak sometimes, but at the end of the day, teams with big talented guards (see upper echelon teams) can exploit him so predictably. They just shot over him all game today, just like FSU does. There’s not even much he can do about it - that’s just what happens when you’re starting a 5’8 point guard at the high levels of college basketball.
- Reece’s shot isn’t right and it probably is never going to be. He’ll improve marginally with work, but he’ll probably never be a plus jump shooter with that form. The sooner we end up with a team where he is the only guard/wing on the floor that can’t shoot, the better. He does have major upside elsewhere, but he is not being put in a position by the offense or lineups to be the best he can be.
- I like the flashes from Shedrick and think he just needs a ton of time on the court. In a year or so, he could be really fun and productive.
- Gardner played terribly. I like him, and think he’ll give us good production this season, but if we can’t punish teams when they double or triple him in the paint, then it’s going to be a long long year.
- Armaan flashed some good and some bad play. No idea what to make of him yet. Kind of gives me Devon Hall vibes. Could be a very good contributor once comfortable, but probably going to struggle to ever put the team on his back or consistently create for himself.
- This offense is just bad. I know Houston is good defensively and forces guys to create for themselves - which we don’t have the personnel to do - but that’s what good talented teams will do to us. You can’t be at the big boys table if a big physical team can just run you off the floor. I’d also point out we just failed to score for 9 minutes against Navy’s zone. Our actions are so predictable, they’re not putting guys in positions to do anything useful 80% of the time, and it’s just so frustrating to watch. It’s not a coincidence that our best team won a title while running a lot of offense that wasn’t mover-blocker.
- I’m also a little tired of being embarrassed on national TV. UMBC, Purdue, Gonzaga, Houston - every year we’re just getting blasted with a national audience. Does that happen as often to other teams at the tier of college ball we see ourselves at? I don’t know. But it kind of sucks.
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I agree with everything but your Gardner take. He beat a better Houston team last year. He got a lot of defensive attention tonight since Houston knew they could play off of our guards.
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Heh, I know I’m in a bad mood, and naturally a pessimist, but we are a young, inexperienced, kind of small, relatively unathletic team, that can’t really shoot that well, and is a bit short on other skills. Yet there’s some untapped upside here, so I will keep watching and sharing my silly thoughts.
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I to be honest, this team kind of misses McKoy. The guy is seeing zero minutes Carolina. I just don’t get why he transferred
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Same boat. I actually like certain elements of this team and really do think we will consistently get better as the year goes on. Will enjoy watching them develop.
My frustrations are much less with this particular team per say and more with where we find ourselves as a program three years after a national title (looking like boys getting bodied by grown men while playing an offense from the stone age on national TV). But that said, the defense will tighten up, we will improve, and we’ll likely do some fun things come ACC time. We just have a definite ceiling that is well below national contender, which is a bummer following so many years of the highest levels of success. But hopefully we’ll regain our footing soon enough.
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Yea we look more like the negative stereotype after the title than we ever did before the title
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