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An honest assessment of where we are 16 games in

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Trav

Redshirt Freshman
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Nov 3, 2011
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So 12-4 and 3-2 in conference isn't bad at all, but not where we hoped necessarily. I'm not that surprised.. Before the season there was talk of a national championship run by I always thought that was kind of pie in the sky. Here's the good and bad so far:

Good:

- Omier wisely came back and has been unstoppable at times, even adding a decent 3pt shot.
- Pack is still deadly from the outside.
- Wooga got off to a tremendous start and is at times lethal from 3.
- George is turning into a really nice versatile player and is already a marksman from 3 that teams have to pay attention to.
- Cleveland was a crucial addition and has a nice all around game reminiscent of Jordan Miller.
- Watson has provided hustle and defense off the bench.


The not so good:

- Injuries. Wooga and Pack have missed time and especially for Wooga, it's kind of derailed his ascent.
- The bench. Outside of some hustle plays the bench is an offensive black hole. Say what you want about Harlond Beverly and Anthony Walker.. they'd occasionally give you 6 or 8 points off the bench, which doesn't sound like much but can be crucial in close games.
- Nwoko. I firmly believe the plan was for him to be a regular part of the rotation and provide some size and a rim presence. He's light years from contributing right now.
- As good as Norchad has been he's gotten himself into a lot of foul trouble and some bigs are figuring him out defensively.
- Bensley. He's still needed for his hustle and defense but the hope was he'd step up his offensive game at least a little but it hasn't really happened yet.
- George has been a great addition overall but gets us into trouble with a loose handle
- The "go to" guy when needed. Lots are capable, but we don't have a guy like Wong who will consistently make a shot or draw a foul every time it's desperately needed.
- Overall defense. Very under par for what we've been used to. There's a missing element and I'm not sure what it is. Communication? Rotation? Hustle? It seems like they're hustling but we're just not seeing the payoff like we did last year.

The most discouraging part of this team is letting games completely get away from them and getting embarrassed by the likes of very good, but not amazing teams like Kentucky and Colorado. Some of that comes back to the fact there is no bench to speak of. Another is the fact it was much harder to "replace" the Wong/Miller duo than we imagined. And yes we're in the small ball era, but it's still a game where the baskets are 10 ft off the ground. Our starting center is 6'5" and 1/2. Some nights it's just gonna bite us.

I think it may be time to reset expectations with this team. Assuming they can have better luck with injuries going forward, they're obviously a Tournament team, but I think the ACC title and a deep Tournament run might be out of reach. I think we might have missed on some evals of young guys, although it's too soon to necessarily give up on them entirely. But I think it's time to admit this team has taken a significant step back from last season.
 
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Trav said:
So 12-4 and 3-2 in conference isn't bad at all, but not where we hoped necessarily. I'm not that surprised.. Before the season there was talk of a national championship run by I always thought that was kind of pie in the sky. Here's the good and bad so far:

Good:

- Omier wisely came back and has been unstoppable at times, even adding a decent 3pt shot.
- Pack is still deadly from the outside.
- Wooga got off to a tremendous start and is at times lethal from 3.
- George is turning into a really nice versatile player and is already a marksman from 3 that teams have to pay attention to.
- Cleveland was a crucial addition and has a nice all around game reminiscent of Jordan Miller.
- Watson has provided hustle and defense off the bench.


The not so good:

- Injuries. Wooga and Pack have missed time and especially for Wooga, it's kind of derailed his ascent.
- The bench. Outside of some hustle plays the bench is an offensive black hole. Say what you want about Harlond Beverly and Anthony Walker.. they'd occasionally give you 6 or 8 points off the bench, which doesn't sound like much but can be crucial in close games.
- Nwoko. I firmly believe the plan was for him to be a regular part of the rotation and provide some size and a rim presence. He's light years from contributing right now.
- As good as Norchad has been he's gotten himself into a lot of foul trouble and some bigs are figuring him out defensively.
- Bensley. He's still needed for his hustle and defense but the hope was he'd step up his offensive game at least a little but it hasn't really happened yet.
- George has been a great addition overall but gets us into trouble with a loose handle
- The "go to" guy when needed. Lots are capable, but we don't have a guy like Wong who will consistently make a shot or draw a foul every time it's desperately needed.
- Overall defense. Very under par for what we've been used to. There's a missing element and I'm not sure what it is. Communication? Rotation? Hustle? It seems like they're hustling but we're just not seeing the payoff like we did last year.

The most discouraging part of this team is letting games completely get away from them and getting embarrassed by the likes of very good, but not amazing teams like Kentucky and Colorado. Some of that comes back to the fact there is no bench to speak of. Another is the fact it was much harder to "replace" the Wong/Miller duo than we imagined. And yes we're in the small ball era, but it's still a game where the baskets are 10 ft off the ground. Our starting center is 6'5" and 1/2. Some nights it's just gonna bite us.

I think it may be time to reset expectations with this team. Assuming they can have better luck with injuries going forward, they're obviously a Tournament team, but I think the ACC title and a deep Tournament run might be out of reach. I think we might have missed on some evals of young guys, although it's too soon to necessarily give up on them entirely. But I think it's time to admit this team has taken a significant step back from last season.
Click to expand...
Solid post. If casey can ever develop and contribute his 4-6 points per game plus continue solid D and rebounding, this could help miami down the stretch. He seems to be lacking confidence around the basket or just isn't physical enough to mix it up with the bigs. Haven't figured it out yet.
 
Trav said:
So 12-4 and 3-2 in conference isn't bad at all, but not where we hoped necessarily. I'm not that surprised.. Before the season there was talk of a national championship run by I always thought that was kind of pie in the sky. Here's the good and bad so far:

Good:

- Omier wisely came back and has been unstoppable at times, even adding a decent 3pt shot.
- Pack is still deadly from the outside.
- Wooga got off to a tremendous start and is at times lethal from 3.
- George is turning into a really nice versatile player and is already a marksman from 3 that teams have to pay attention to.
- Cleveland was a crucial addition and has a nice all around game reminiscent of Jordan Miller.
- Watson has provided hustle and defense off the bench.


The not so good:

- Injuries. Wooga and Pack have missed time and especially for Wooga, it's kind of derailed his ascent.
- The bench. Outside of some hustle plays the bench is an offensive black hole. Say what you want about Harlond Beverly and Anthony Walker.. they'd occasionally give you 6 or 8 points off the bench, which doesn't sound like much but can be crucial in close games.
- Nwoko. I firmly believe the plan was for him to be a regular part of the rotation and provide some size and a rim presence. He's light years from contributing right now.
- As good as Norchad has been he's gotten himself into a lot of foul trouble and some bigs are figuring him out defensively.
- Bensley. He's still needed for his hustle and defense but the hope was he'd step up his offensive game at least a little but it hasn't really happened yet.
- George has been a great addition overall but gets us into trouble with a loose handle
- The "go to" guy when needed. Lots are capable, but we don't have a guy like Wong who will consistently make a shot or draw a foul every time it's desperately needed.
- Overall defense. Very under par for what we've been used to. There's a missing element and I'm not sure what it is. Communication? Rotation? Hustle? It seems like they're hustling but we're just not seeing the payoff like we did last year.

The most discouraging part of this team is letting games completely get away from them and getting embarrassed by the likes of very good, but not amazing teams like Kentucky and Colorado. Some of that comes back to the fact there is no bench to speak of. Another is the fact it was much harder to "replace" the Wong/Miller duo than we imagined. And yes we're in the small ball era, but it's still a game where the baskets are 10 ft off the ground. Our starting center is 6'5" and 1/2. Some nights it's just gonna bite us.

I think it may be time to reset expectations with this team. Assuming they can have better luck with injuries going forward, they're obviously a Tournament team, but I think the ACC title and a deep Tournament run might be out of reach. I think we might have missed on some evals of young guys, although it's too soon to necessarily give up on them entirely. But I think it's time to admit this team has taken a significant step back from last season.
Click to expand...
Omier missed a game last year and played maybe 5 minutes against Duke in the semis. Pack missed 2. Wooga missed 2 games. Last year Joseph averaged 5.3, Walker 2.8 and Beverly 3.5. That is 11.6 per game off the bench. George has a handful of starts and is averaging 7.0, Watson 3.5 and Casey 2.6. That is 13.1 off the bench. We have 5 conference games in.

Cleveland has been terrific in conference play averaging 19.4. Omier is averaging 15.8. Bench scoring is not completely fallen off although Casey is 1.0 and Watson is 1.5 right now with George at 9.8. Coming of the bench against Virginia Tech he had 6. It's a problem when George had to start which means either Pack or Wooga was out.

All I know is Maryland embarrassed us last year. We lost to a Georgia Tech team that was 0-2 in conference play, beat us, then lost their next 9 conference games. We blew a 25- point second half lead to FSU who lost 3 conference games before us then lost the next 4 after us. That was late in the season, too. We embarrassed them earlier in the year at Tallahassee.

The issue is Omier for us defensively. They are going after him and he cannot afford to get into foul trouble. We are at a deficit on the offensive glass to date. Our TO in conference play have not been poor. We are 11.6 per game. Joseph has been awful. And Wooga in his 3 starts has cooled off. That is partly due to injury. We are an effort team and if we don't bring it every night we can lose to anybody. The FIU game proved that where as horrible as they are they went on a 22-2 run against us. Maybe we ran out of gas, but Louisville was giving great effort and we were coasting and then could not buy at bucket.

We are now the hunted team and everybody with a pulse is going to give us their best shot in conference play. Look at some of the individual performances against us.

You are looking at this team in early January against last year's team primarily in late March. Yes, we have deficiencies. Way too much basketball remaining to determine if we have a significant step back.

FSU is actually playing good basketball. Kids should be up for that one. Big game tomorrow.
 
I agree with alot of what you said. i do not agree with stepping back and resetting expectations unless your expectations were better than sweet 16. This is kind of a transition year but we still have some really great guard play as we have grown custom to as of late. I still think this is a sweet 16 level team barring any injuries. This is still a team that can simply outscore opponents, even really good ones.

-Poplar is a **** dude. He will get back in the swing.
- chad please dont get injured
- woko is a lost cause
- casey would be a formidable option off the bench if he could gain some confidence. really needs a couple shots to go down.
- would like to see more out of christian on the offensive end. This team settles for too many jumpers. Would like to see some more above the rim attack.
- Kyshawn is an incredible player. he will only get better as the season goes on


if we can stay healthy, we will still go on a run.
 
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Trav said:
So 12-4 and 3-2 in conference isn't bad at all, but not where we hoped necessarily. I'm not that surprised.. Before the season there was talk of a national championship run by I always thought that was kind of pie in the sky. Here's the good and bad so far:

Good:

- Omier wisely came back and has been unstoppable at times, even adding a decent 3pt shot.
- Pack is still deadly from the outside.
- Wooga got off to a tremendous start and is at times lethal from 3.
- George is turning into a really nice versatile player and is already a marksman from 3 that teams have to pay attention to.
- Cleveland was a crucial addition and has a nice all around game reminiscent of Jordan Miller.
- Watson has provided hustle and defense off the bench.


The not so good:

- Injuries. Wooga and Pack have missed time and especially for Wooga, it's kind of derailed his ascent.
- The bench. Outside of some hustle plays the bench is an offensive black hole. Say what you want about Harlond Beverly and Anthony Walker.. they'd occasionally give you 6 or 8 points off the bench, which doesn't sound like much but can be crucial in close games.
- Nwoko. I firmly believe the plan was for him to be a regular part of the rotation and provide some size and a rim presence. He's light years from contributing right now.
- As good as Norchad has been he's gotten himself into a lot of foul trouble and some bigs are figuring him out defensively.
- Bensley. He's still needed for his hustle and defense but the hope was he'd step up his offensive game at least a little but it hasn't really happened yet.
- George has been a great addition overall but gets us into trouble with a loose handle
- The "go to" guy when needed. Lots are capable, but we don't have a guy like Wong who will consistently make a shot or draw a foul every time it's desperately needed.
- Overall defense. Very under par for what we've been used to. There's a missing element and I'm not sure what it is. Communication? Rotation? Hustle? It seems like they're hustling but we're just not seeing the payoff like we did last year.

The most discouraging part of this team is letting games completely get away from them and getting embarrassed by the likes of very good, but not amazing teams like Kentucky and Colorado. Some of that comes back to the fact there is no bench to speak of. Another is the fact it was much harder to "replace" the Wong/Miller duo than we imagined. And yes we're in the small ball era, but it's still a game where the baskets are 10 ft off the ground. Our starting center is 6'5" and 1/2. Some nights it's just gonna bite us.

I think it may be time to reset expectations with this team. Assuming they can have better luck with injuries going forward, they're obviously a Tournament team, but I think the ACC title and a deep Tournament run might be out of reach. I think we might have missed on some evals of young guys, although it's too soon to necessarily give up on them entirely. But I think it's time to admit this team has taken a significant step back from last season.
Click to expand...
Short version

We are talented
We are not smart
 
AmherstCane said:
That’s football.

Basketball, we are talented but have limitations. Those limitations can be hid with extreme hustle and following the game plan. We have not yet found consistency in those two areas.
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Yeah we look like a Calipari team. Coach L has been an excellent coach by bringing out the best...and yes, you still have to be a smart team.

I think Coach can get the best out of them, but the best might not include intelligence.

We're not a smart team
 
S.CarolinaCane said:
Yeah we look like a Calipari team. Coach L has been an excellent coach by bringing out the best...and yes, you still have to be a smart team.

I think Coach can get the best out of them, but the best might not include intelligence.

We're not a smart team
Click to expand...
Yes, I know those Calipari teams where the tallest starter is 6’7”. Lol.

A dumb team that doesn’t start a player above 6’7” doesn’t have our record against our schedule. Period.
 
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I think the comment by SC Cane is a little racist. Number 1 you don't get into UM without meeting certain academic standards. No these aren't waived for football or baskeball. 2. whether you win or lose a game on the court depends on multiple players contributing. 3 when you play guys who are stars but hurt sometimes you don't win, it doesn't mean you don't play them. I don't see players lacking "intelligence" causing our losses. In fact, I think our guys play smart. But sometimes we don't win. But NONE of that has to do with the collective intelligance of our players. That comment is just slander on guys you don't know.
 
Trav said:
Yea I hope I'm wrong. I just don't see a Sweet 16 team right now.
Click to expand...
Princeton was a Sweet 16 last year. So were 7 seed Mich St and 8 seed Arkansas, teams that were regular season disappointments.

This isn't college football. It's not about being consistently good all season. It's about improving as the year goes on and peaking in March (and having good luck).
 
SJMPARMAN said:
I think the comment by SC Cane is a little racist. Number 1 you don't get into UM without meeting certain academic standards. No these aren't waived for football or baskeball. 2. whether you win or lose a game on the court depends on multiple players contributing. 3 when you play guys who are stars but hurt sometimes you don't win, it doesn't mean you don't play them. I don't see players lacking "intelligence" causing our losses. In fact, I think our guys play smart. But sometimes we don't win. But NONE of that has to do with the collective intelligance of our players. That comment is just slander on guys you don't know.
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You're out of your mind if you think FBS football players are anywhere near as intelligent as the rest of the UM student body.

They meet the minimum standards, but regular students exceed them.
 
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S.CarolinaCane said:
Yeah we look like a Calipari team. Coach L has been an excellent coach by bringing out the best...and yes, you still have to be a smart team.

I think Coach can get the best out of them, but the best might not include intelligence.

We're not a smart team
Click to expand...
I think guys playing a step too high on the role they should actually be is making us not look as smart as i think we are.

We have good complimentary guys that can give u big nights but they aren’t the guys, jordan and wong were guys. Jordan was an elite glue guy and relief scorer for us, wong was a guy u can rely in to create for himself and break the defense down for others.

I agree with u tho, i think coach can get the most out of this team but i dont think the ceiling is high. Still hoping for the best tho, never 100% know what can happen in march
 
Some thoughts:
-3 guys (Pack, Omier, Wooga) aren’t 100% healthy
-Matt is our best player atm
-George is for real. Needs to be with ball handling though. Should start over Benz sooner than later
-We lack slashers/paint guys like Wong and Miller. Poplar is too content jump shooting and Matt is a different player (at least so far) than Miller. Jordan could create around the basket (either shooting or kicking it out to open perimeter guys)
-this team needs a leader. Can’t say I see one
-Nwoko isn’t the guy. I’d be surprised to see him here next year
-Casey can contribute but he’s still too soft
-Watson seems like he needs minutes to improve/get more confident, but he’s not getting minutes. Catch 22
-starters are playing. A lot. Not that it’s unusual under L but seems too much to me

In the end, I think I overrated things a bit. This is a sweet 16 potential team but I’d think that’s the ceiling.
 
casualcane said:
Some thoughts:
-3 guys (Pack, Omier, Wooga) aren’t 100% healthy
-Matt is our best player atm
-George is for real. Needs to be with ball handling though. Should start over Benz sooner than later
-We lack slashers/paint guys like Wong and Miller. Poplar is too content jump shooting and Matt is a different player (at least so far) than Miller. Jordan could create around the basket (either shooting or kicking it out to open perimeter guys)
-this team needs a leader. Can’t say I see one
-Nwoko isn’t the guy. I’d be surprised to see him here next year
-Casey can contribute but he’s still too soft
-Watson seems like he needs minutes to improve/get more confident, but he’s not getting minutes. Catch 22
-starters are playing. A lot. Not that it’s unusual under L but seems too much to me

In the end, I think I overrated things a bit. This is a sweet 16 potential team but I’d think that’s the ceiling.
Click to expand...
How can we say Nwoko isn't the guy yet when he has barely played and could still develop by his junior year or something? It takes times with some guys, not saying you are wrong, but i wouldn't write him off just yet.
 
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CANEFAN83 said:
How can we say Nwoko isn't the guy yet when he has barely played and could still develop by his junior year or something? It takes times with some guys, not saying you are wrong, but i wouldn't write him off just yet.
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This is just my thoughts but as others have mentioned his body language is arguably the worst I’ve ever seen a player have under L. Unless his minutes start getting bumped I would be shocked if he’s here next year. He already has the I don’t give a **** I’m back channeling look.

Hope I’m way wrong because I believe his ceiling is sky high but there’s no doubt he’s underperformed my expectations I had for him after dominating the all star games he played in late last year
 
Trav said:
So 12-4 and 3-2 in conference isn't bad at all, but not where we hoped necessarily. I'm not that surprised.. Before the season there was talk of a national championship run by I always thought that was kind of pie in the sky. Here's the good and bad so far:

Good:

- Omier wisely came back and has been unstoppable at times, even adding a decent 3pt shot.
- Pack is still deadly from the outside.
- Wooga got off to a tremendous start and is at times lethal from 3.
- George is turning into a really nice versatile player and is already a marksman from 3 that teams have to pay attention to.
- Cleveland was a crucial addition and has a nice all around game reminiscent of Jordan Miller.
- Watson has provided hustle and defense off the bench.


The not so good:

- Injuries. Wooga and Pack have missed time and especially for Wooga, it's kind of derailed his ascent.
- The bench. Outside of some hustle plays the bench is an offensive black hole. Say what you want about Harlond Beverly and Anthony Walker.. they'd occasionally give you 6 or 8 points off the bench, which doesn't sound like much but can be crucial in close games.
- Nwoko. I firmly believe the plan was for him to be a regular part of the rotation and provide some size and a rim presence. He's light years from contributing right now.
- As good as Norchad has been he's gotten himself into a lot of foul trouble and some bigs are figuring him out defensively.
- Bensley. He's still needed for his hustle and defense but the hope was he'd step up his offensive game at least a little but it hasn't really happened yet.
- George has been a great addition overall but gets us into trouble with a loose handle
- The "go to" guy when needed. Lots are capable, but we don't have a guy like Wong who will consistently make a shot or draw a foul every time it's desperately needed.
- Overall defense. Very under par for what we've been used to. There's a missing element and I'm not sure what it is. Communication? Rotation? Hustle? It seems like they're hustling but we're just not seeing the payoff like we did last year.

The most discouraging part of this team is letting games completely get away from them and getting embarrassed by the likes of very good, but not amazing teams like Kentucky and Colorado. Some of that comes back to the fact there is no bench to speak of. Another is the fact it was much harder to "replace" the Wong/Miller duo than we imagined. And yes we're in the small ball era, but it's still a game where the baskets are 10 ft off the ground. Our starting center is 6'5" and 1/2. Some nights it's just gonna bite us.

I think it may be time to reset expectations with this team. Assuming they can have better luck with injuries going forward, they're obviously a Tournament team, but I think the ACC title and a deep Tournament run might be out of reach. I think we might have missed on some evals of young guys, although it's too soon to necessarily give up on them entirely. But I think it's time to admit this team has taken a significant step back from last season.
Click to expand...
Outstanding post. I concur 100%.
 
I agree with OP and appreciate his work in saying it. I will say it again and be attacked. But, even though I love Coach L, he runs an offensive "system" that can, and does, go dry for long spells. That has been a major issue in the games we have lost [over the past 5 years too]. I agree that our defense is not as strong as in the past. It seems to me that the scramble is too often leaving someone open and they are scoring. Nothing that cannot be fixed by better vision and communication. I am excited for the rest of the season and the tournaments!
 
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