When the ACC goes belly up ā¦ our ACC titles will look quaint to others. Weāll still value them but ā¦ Iād rather see some NCAAT success now.
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Too edgy for me. Your TED talk is 
cancelledā:cross_mark:
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We are back to debating which acc championship is better, regular season or tournament?
Thatās it folks.
We are so fucked.
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Weāre also having the ACCT victory vs. Sweet 16 argument!
We need Cuts to publish something NOW
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The vibes right now feel very good. I donāt want to be a downer but I have a nagging voice in the back of my head.
In previous seasons with a lot of new guys, weāve seen a bunch of ups and downs. Really the last 3 years. Started off ok, then things went downhill, then we stabilized and improved, then things got a little shaky the last few weeks. It wasnāt exactly that formula each year (last year a slightly different timeline) but generally ended up with a series of ups and downs.
Are people thinking we will see that again this year? Not to say we will keep winning all games but will we continue at a relatively high level, not let ourselves get broken and collapse, etc etc?
It does feel like the turnaround this year was more dramatic and significant than the last few years. More akin to 2013-2014 (although ceiling for this team is lower). That gives me hope that we wonāt revert as much as in prior years. But I canāt help shake thinking about the past few seasons.
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I know what you mean. Last year, we lost three out of five, then won 11 of our next 12, then lost our next two. In 2020-21, we won 11 out of 12 and then lost three in a row.
By the way, we finished first in the conference both those years. So Iām OK with those kinds of up-and-down.
I just think streaks and slumps are a natural part of every teamās season. But I do agree that this yearās team is the kind that can beat anyone in the ACC ā or lose to anyone in the ACC. So Iām hopeful but not confident about every upcoming game.
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With the general caveat of āwho knows, life is unpredictableā there are a couple of qualitative differences from last season; whether that actually means anything for the future is up for discussion.
- Defense. This seasonās team has an elite side of the ball (and an average side) rather than two pretty good sides of the ball. May or may not be better overall.
- Youth. We were in the top 20% of high major teams in experience last season, weāre in the bottom 10% this season. Maybe that means thereās a higher ceiling later in the season?
- Athleticism. Position-by-position, we are less often at an athletic disadvantage in conference play. I think you could feel it in the Miami game once George was out; we had the longer and/or stronger guy in most of the matchups and they felt us defensively.
That might add up to just be ādifferentā rather than ābetter,ā but thatās what stands out to me.
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Both Dunn and Beekman on the watch listā¦
https://twitter.com/DNeckel19/status/1755286243179433992?t=cjZZrWRbVGzMZ6x1gxxRjg&s=19
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The other difference this year is Reece showing he can take over games. We havenāt had someone with that ability in several years. Hauser and Murphy were great but couldnāt take over themselves. Key and Mamadi the same
Look at these numbers the last several weeks, all American level
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Anyone know leaders on this list? Edey? Shead?
Rutgers guy gets a ton of blocks but Dunn is the āstocksā leader on this list if youāre looking at stats
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Heās averaging roughly 15 points, 7 assists, 3 steals and 2.5 rebounds/game over the last 7 games.
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The remaining schedule is very very tough. I feel like the next 2 games are almost must-wins because it gets really difficult after that. If we slip up in 1 or 2 of the āeasierā games we have left, it could give the appearance of us fading/coming down from our peak because that probably means weād go under .500 the rest of the way
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I think some of that is adjustments and counter adjustments (and maybe health?). I think a lot of people attributed last yearās good start to the Italy tour, but we had another good start this year. Once teams have film on us, they game plan better and we slump. We make adjustments and make our run. Now we have to see how we handle the next adjustments teams make for us. Like, Iām sure Groves is gonna start getting the I-mac treatment and have less of those open rhythm shots.
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Always felt like he actually needed more turnovers due to being more aggressive/ taking over. He has āmoreā this year but also more assists so the ratio is intact and scoring higher
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Wanted to get a pulse on expectations for remainder of regular season. IMO, 4-4 and we are sweating it out on Selection Sunday, though probably on right side of bubble absent a first game loss in ACCT. 5-3 Iād consider most likely and a big time success given the amount of Q1/2 games remaining.
So, how many of the last 8 are you expecting to win?
- 7+
- 6
- 5
- 4
- 3
0
voters
Sam Vicinne thinks itās clearly Dunn. Replies seem to ponder if Shead has the advantage because heās on a top 5 team. I havenāt tracked DPOY but to win national POTY you typically need to be on a top 4 seed so wouldnāt be surprised if DPOY follows the same pattern
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I would guess our guys are pretty close to the top. Shead, McCullar, Edey seem likely to be at the top. Carter maybe too? Feel like Iāve seen some media talk about his defense. Houston bigs as a whole deserve a nod, but hard to isolate which one has been having the most impact.
I get that Ace is on there for his steals, but Penn St is hovering around #100 on defense. I think defensive box scores statistics are limited enough in capturing defensive impact that team success needs to be considered as well (unless you wanna go fancy and consider advanced metrics based on on-off data).
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Next 3 games are massive. I expect a 4-4 down the stretch which is pretty good give the schedule. But we have a huge opportunity to win the next 3 and put ourselves in solid position to win the ACC. On the other hand, I expect all 3 games to be battles that come down to the end.
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