Yeah he only took 4 threes this game which is a welcome sight (he’s had multiple 6+ attempt games), but those 2 were definitely momentum changers in 2nd half. I wonder if the staff has told him or will tell him to try to pass up those 3s and hunt a midrange shot. I don’t know if that would be detrimental to our overall system and/or his confidence but his midrange game is awesome and his 3 point shooting is essentially a turnover like you said.
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New starting lineup
Papi
Kadin
Gardner
Kihei
Reece
Final 4 here we come.
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Turnovers don’t come with a 26% chance (on our team) to get the ball back immediately.
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Expected points from Armaan 3 pt attempt = 0.67 (this does not include offensive rebound possibilities)
Expected points from a turnover where Carson throws the ball to Kihei and it goes off Kihei’s outstretched hands = 0
So the difference is a 2 points every 3 times each situation happens…
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I don’t get your constant push for more minutes for McCorkle. In my opinion, he hasn’t looked good in his opportunities so far.
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Jerome Meyinsse says, “Hold my beer!” To me, Jerome is the guy who really came out of nowhere to have a really nice last year.
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Shedrick really had a forgettable game.
His LRA podcast interview is a good one. Coach Leitao seemed to legitimately not really like him or see him as a potential contributor. Not shocking that Tony coming in and reevaluating him gave him a shot, and he took full advantage.
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The last time we had reports of a late night post-game shoot around…both players transferred out 
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This. I’m all for playing guys with upside but Carson just looks overmatched anytime he’s on the court. Happy to get him run from time to time but I’m not upset with Tony for only playing him sparingly in a rivalry game.
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Don’t you put that evil on me Ricky Bobby.
Potentially dumb thought but I feel less concerned with international players transferring. Not sure if there’s any truth to them being more or less likely to transfer out but I don’t worry about Taine and Igor. Both will get plenty of opportunities to contribute down the road and both probably are getting as much PT as they could have expected given history.
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To answer your question - basketball is a 5 man puzzle and then a sub puzzle. It’s about fitting the right pieces together while they are on the floor together. I simply believe one of the PG’s (Reece/Kihei) with one of the SG’s (Franklin/McCorkle) and one of the SF’s (Milicic/Murray) would fit better over stretches of games while together.
Last game in 3 minutes Carson was 2/2 FG’s and an assist for the rare Franklin 3 plus a turnover. That is all ACC level production per possession.
7 points produced in 4 possessions.
My quick thoughts in addition to what’s already been said here:
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Shedrick had a tough game and Caffaro played great, but I think folks talking about Shedrick going to the bench are a little premature. Shedrick’s ceiling is still much higher and we need Shedrick to keep developing to reach our team ceiling. Also, while everyone talks about Shedrick fouling a ton (which he does), his foul rate is significantly below Caffaro’s on the season - 5.1 fouls committed per 40 for Shedrick versus 6.7 for Caffaro. Caffaro has earned more minutes when he’s got good match-ups and is playing well like last night, but don’t think folks should get too down on Shedrick.
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Don’t look now, but since the start of ACC play post FDU, Reece is 5-11 from three. I’m not holding my breath and don’t think he’s going to become a sniper or anything, but if he’s semi-respectable from three on low volume on top of all of his other skills, that’s solid. He really has been coming on since the FDU game and it’s exciting to see him settle in more.
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I legitimately don’t understand Franklin’s shooting issues from three. He’s shooting over 57% on two-point jumpers, but his three pointers are all over the place. He’s hitting the neck of the rim, missing iron entirely, shooting short and long. It’s kind of baffling, and unfortunately doesn’t lead me to think he’s just in a slump since there’s not consistency to it.
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That was probably the worst game we’ll get from Gardner on the offensive end. Glad to see he gutted through it and kept up effort all around. Feel like he’ll bounce back strongly.
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Wish we would get some more glimpses of Taine and Igor. I understand why we aren’t, particularly in a game as tight as that one that features mobile dangerous bigs, but I do hope we see them get a few minutes soon, mostly just because I like watching them.
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My point on not starting Shedrick is pretty simple … let him calm down after warmups and let Caffaro start since he is more ground bound anyway and less likely to pick up immediate fouls. Even if Caffaro does - then we are 5 or 6 minutes deep in the game and Shed has 0 fouls. Maybe he is more calm from watching first and can play deeper into the first half without getting his 2nd. Maybe?
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I mean like you said - maybe? Also, Caffaro isn’t less likely to commit fouls, at least if looking at the full season’s data. He’s committing fouls at a significantly higher rate than Shedrick.
Since Shedrick has the higher ceiling (in my personal point of view), I think you start him to try and get the most minutes out of him. Some games he’ll foul quickly, but hopefully he starts to learn and doesn’t and you get a lot more out of him rather than subbing him in later.
But that said, who knows - sports is weird. Maybe putting him on the bench would actually somehow calm him down. My personal guess is that the thing that will calm him down in the long term is just playing more minutes. Bigs especially seem to just need more reps and time on the floor to adjust to the speed of the game. Who knows though.
1 Like
The main thing I enjoyed about last night was giving VT a dose of their own medicine. It seems like they often used to drive to the rim strong against us and get to the line a decent amount. Especially when Buzz coached them. It was always frustrating to watch them run hard at the rim and head snap to get the foul call. I loved that we were the aggressor last night. And not a bunch of head snap flops, just really physical drives and moves inside
TB even mentioned… big guys take longer to develop. Especially with constant injuries which bigs are more prone to have
5 Likes
Big takeaway from one old man last night was that we played both centers together for multiple stretches and it worked. I don’t think this is something we should do a ton, but it is a nice option for CTB to have in his back pocket.
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I think he was actually okay. I’m sure I’m forgetting some key whiffs on Aluma, but I think it was @HoozGotNext that pointed out that we were asking him to do some really hard stuff - hedge super hard to stop the guards from shooting threes, and recovering all the way back to Aluma. Yes, he did foul a couple times when we did that.
We didn’t ask Caffaro to do that. But when Caffaro was in, Young basically switched the game plan to: get Aluma the ball on the perimeter, and have him drive. He would NOT have made that choice with Shed, because Shed is more mobile. But credit to Tony for finding the right adjustment (doubling on drives) and credit to Caffaro for doing his part well enough (particularly defending Aluma in the post) and let’s take credit away from Young who didn’t design any decent sets for Aluma in that sequence.
Yeah, I just don’t find it that baffling anymore. It is what it is. If he gets back to .400? Then, I’ll find that stretch baffling. (Unless of course he gets to 400 when he’s surrounded by better shooters/scorers, in which case I will find it less baffling)
Yeah, aside from Papi’s offensive explosion, that was probably my biggest surprise: that Mutts was such a good defensive matchup.
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Franklin being unable to hit threes is so weird between his proficiency at midrange jumpers and his high FT %
1 Like