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This Team's a Big Disappointment

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The only thing that helps is it looks like UNC, Duke, and sadly Fsu are the only teams playing really well. FSU is still tbd.

Everyone is is one good week from being in 4th/5th and one bad week from being in 10th. The Louisville loss and today really stink because despite some sloppy play we prob should have won and we’d be in 4th place and some breathing room to lose a game and not have it kill us. Now we are in that area needing to win basically 3 out of every 4 games left. Which if you look at our schedule is doable. But we could also play .500 ball the rest of the way.

My biggest disappointment is defense. It’s not even coaching to me at this point. If you are playing man it’s just about effort and pride to some degree…and we just don’t have it right now on the defensive side. It’s like we just figure our offense is so solid we will pull games out. Which obviously isn’t the case.
 
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Is our defense that bad, or do teams just play more motivated against us this year?

FSU scored almost 90 against us, I've watched some of their game vs. Clemson, they go stretches where they can't buy a bucket? Clemson did go to a zone I saw in 2nd half some. They have 58 points with nearly 2 minutes left in game.

LVille beats us then loses by double digits at home to N.C. State.

We can't be that bad can we?
 
There are no dynasties in modern CBB.

It's virtually impossible to replicate repeated success at that rate. Even teams like Gonzaga who are always in it every year have an extremely difficult time getting over the hump.

Going back the last 5 years, these are the Final Four teams:

2023 - UCONN, San Diego ST, Miami & FAU

2022 - Kansas, UNC, Duke & Villanova

2021 - Baylor, Gonzaga, Houston & UCLA

2019 - UVA, TTech, Auburn & Mich ST

2018 - Villanova, Michigan, Kansas & Loyola Chicago

Point being, in today's day & age, making it to an Elite 8 & following it up with a F4 is as impressive as it can get for a non-traditional Blueblood school.

Seasons nowadays are pretty much one-offs & most of the time unpredictable, even moreso now with massive Portal transfers taking place.
 
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Memnon said:
There are no dynasties in modern CBB.

It's virtually impossible to replicate repeated success at that rate. Even teams like Gonzaga who are always in it every year have an extremely difficult time getting over the hump.

Going back the last 5 years, these are the Final Four teams:

2023 - UCONN, San Diego ST, Miami & FAU

2022 - Kansas, UNC, Duke & Villanova

2021 - Baylor, Gonzaga, Houston & UCLA

2019 - UVA, TTech, Auburn & Mich ST

2018 - Villanova, Michigan, Kansas & Loyola Chicago

Point being, in today's day & age, making it to an Elite 8 & following it up with a F4 is as impressive as it can get for a non-traditional Blueblood school.

Seasons nowadays are pretty much one-offs & most of the time unpredictable, even moreso now with massive Portal transfers taking place.
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Completely agree. But I don’t think going from the elite 8 and final 4 to the NIT is common.
 
Memnon said:
There are no dynasties in modern CBB.

It's virtually impossible to replicate repeated success at that rate. Even teams like Gonzaga who are always in it every year have an extremely difficult time getting over the hump.

Going back the last 5 years, these are the Final Four teams:

2023 - UCONN, San Diego ST, Miami & FAU

2022 - Kansas, UNC, Duke & Villanova

2021 - Baylor, Gonzaga, Houston & UCLA

2019 - UVA, TTech, Auburn & Mich ST

2018 - Villanova, Michigan, Kansas & Loyola Chicago

Point being, in today's day & age, making it to an Elite 8 & following it up with a F4 is as impressive as it can get for a non-traditional Blueblood school.

Seasons nowadays are pretty much one-offs & most of the time unpredictable, even moreso now with massive Portal transfers taking place.
Click to expand...
Yes agree. What I find to be frustrating about this season is that there have been quite a few games that we no doubt could have and should have won (Louisville, FSU, Syracuse, Wake). This team doesn't need to repeat last year, but it would be nice if we could eliminate these bad losses or at least minimize them.
 
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Gables Canes said:
Completely agree. But I don’t think going from the elite 8 and final 4 to the NIT is common.
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Villanova won the national championship in 2016 and 2018 and then went back to the Final Four in 2022. They went 17-17 and lost in the first round of the NIT a season ago.

UNC got to the title game in '21 and completely missed the tourney last year.

UCLA went Final Four/Sweet Sixteen/Sweet Sixteen and have a losing record right now

Michigan went Elite Eight/Sweet Sixteen in back to back seasons, made the NIT last year and has a losing record this year.

It's way more common than you think.
 
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I’ve said before we’re not as good as many thought (myself included) but we’re not as bad either. We can still do ok.

That being said, I still don’t think the team is listening at times or giving maximum effort. I just don’t see the on court presence I did last year. Maybe it’s me.
 
casualcane said:
I’ve said before we’re not as good as many thought (myself included) but we’re not as bad either. We can still do ok.

That being said, I still don’t think the team is listening at times or giving maximum effort. I just don’t see the on court presence I did last year. Maybe it’s me.
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You are right in many ways... this team is not a "team". Just a bunch of individuals trying to do their thing. .. honestly, their cohesion is more like that of an intermural team.
 
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I dont see it with this squad. Thinking NIT for sure. Just dont have the juice we did last year, its obvious wong was a HUGE piece to this team and i hated not addressing another big man that can run in the portal.
 
Cane44 said:
I dont see it with this squad. Thinking NIT for sure. Just dont have the juice we did last year, its obvious wong was a HUGE piece to this team and i hated not addressing another big man that can run in the portal.
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Unfortunately, it's more than losing certain guys or not addressing 'xyx' need.

- Omier and Pack have maxed out as college players and teams are scheming for their weaknesses. Pack is out of position at the point and this is magnified further by being paired with another small guard in Bensley who offers no legitimate threat as a facilitator or scorer. Omier has been an overachieving, undersized big who greatly benefited last year from being paired with a Swiss Army knife-type forward in Miller, who did his best work 15 feet and in/along the baseline. Cleveland is more of a 3 playing out of position as a 4 which creates more of a true 4 out-1 in offense that teams have had an easier time preparing for.

- L doubled down on Wooga's development as a sophomore and decided not to address losing Wong with another lead scoring guard via the portal which in turn, led to starting Bensley. Poplar does his best work off ball, but he's being asked to break defenses down, which is really not his strong suit given his deficiencies as a ball handler. I'd love to see what a Kyshawn/Bethea/Wooga grouping looks like given their length and versatility.

- Watson and Casey have been incredibly disappointing. We all (staff included) expected similar leaps as sophomores to what Bensley and Wooga, especially, showed last year, which would mean a deeper rotation. The two have been borderline unplayable at times this year and I question if they are high-major players at this juncture.

- The staff had high hopes for Nwoko, and while we saw some glimpses of it yesterday, he is still a ways off from being a dependable backup center in the ACC.
 
I’m going to go out on put most of the blame on L for this year. Has two open spots and refuses to use them on 1 year rentals. Go out and get two big men who are somewhat decent. Instead you are forced to play Nwoko and Casey who just aren’t it at the moment.
 
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