This Week in the ACC: 12/11-12/17

[sagegrouse]

And Arkansas (Kp 26) and Davidson. Davidson and N. Iowa are top 100. I'm careful. Just pointing out one respected rarer gauges the OOC quite differently. Based n the Michigan State game I think I know who can do what at the highest levels. A win at Tennessee is pretty good but The Vols played'em good in Chapel Hill last year.

No problem. I know you were just pointing out a contrary view. And I was just musing on some related matters.

[devilseven]

They NEVER pass my eye test!

9f

And they definitely don't pass the SMELL test!!!

[Green Wave Dukie]

And they definitely don't pass the SMELL test!!!

They don't pass any tests. Don't even take them, for that matter.

[PackMan97]

And they definitely don't pass the SMELL test!!!

You win the internet today.

[UrinalCake]

Anyone else catch the Cheats win over UT in Knoxville? It's hard for the visiting team to get every call to go their way but of course UNC did. UT gave that game away, up one with the ball and just fell apart.

UT had had several leads of 10 or so points throughout the game, but kept letting the CHeats back in it. UT was up three with about a minute left and proceeded to:

- foul Berry (UNC's best free throw shooter) who made them both
- inbounds the ball and then blindly heave the ball down court into the hands of a UNC player
- give up a three pointer to Kenny Williams

A couple possessions later UT is inbounding the ball and Pinson hip-checks his man into the stands, no call and Pinson is credited with a steal. Earlier in the game a UNC player shot an air ball, caught his own miss, landed with both feet, then passed the ball to a teammate. It was the easiest conceivable call a ref could ever made, but was not called. Their bigs STILL go over the back all the time without getting called, yet if a UT player breathes on any of their bigs it's a foul. It's no wonder Roy loves scheduling road games, he knows he's going to get the home court whistle in everybody else's arena.

It certainly didn't help that UT shot 37% from the floor including plenty of good inside looks and wide open threes. Give UNC credit for taking care of business against good opponents, but I'm still not convinced they can beat upper tier teams.

[Wahoo2000]

UT had had several leads of 10 or so points throughout the game, but kept letting the CHeats back in it. UT was up three with about a minute left and proceeded to:

- foul Berry (UNC's best free throw shooter) who made them both
- inbounds the ball and then blindly heave the ball down court into the hands of a UNC player
- give up a three pointer to Kenny Williams

A couple possessions later UT is inbounding the ball and Pinson hip-checks his man into the stands, no call and Pinson is credited with a steal. Earlier in the game a UNC player shot an air ball, caught his own miss, landed with both feet, then passed the ball to a teammate. It was the easiest conceivable call a ref could ever made, but was not called. Their bigs STILL go over the back all the time without getting called, yet if a UT player breathes on any of their bigs it's a foul. It's no wonder Roy loves scheduling road games, he knows he's going to get the home court whistle in everybody else's arena.

It certainly didn't help that UT shot 37% from the floor including plenty of good inside looks and wide open threes. Give UNC credit for taking care of business against good opponents, but I'm still not convinced they can beat upper tier teams.

I think they're going to get SIGNIFICANTLY better when they get Cam Johnson back healthy in a week or two. I'd say he's their second best player at worst (and an argument could be made that he could be better than Berry, maybe not a winning argument, but a semi-reasonable one). He can probably step right in where Jackson was last year without a drop-off of any kind. I think Carolina is going to be right there in the mix for the regular season title come late Feb. I think the biggest question for them will be if they can get any "non-Maye" big to step up, or if Roy can get out of his box and play 4-out-1-in with Johnson or maybe Pinson playing in the frontcourt alongside Maye.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Is this sarcasm?

Yes. I will label it better next time.

Was making a snide reference to a UNC poster who claimed Roy was a revolutionary coach for tinkering with lineups in exhibition games.

[wobatus]

UT had had several leads of 10 or so points throughout the game, but kept letting the CHeats back in it. UT was up three with about a minute left and proceeded to:

- foul Berry (UNC's best free throw shooter) who made them both
- inbounds the ball and then blindly heave the ball down court into the hands of a UNC player
- give up a three pointer to Kenny Williams

A couple possessions later UT is inbounding the ball and Pinson hip-checks his man into the stands, no call and Pinson is credited with a steal. Earlier in the game a UNC player shot an air ball, caught his own miss, landed with both feet, then passed the ball to a teammate. It was the easiest conceivable call a ref could ever made, but was not called. Their bigs STILL go over the back all the time without getting called, yet if a UT player breathes on any of their bigs it's a foul. It's no wonder Roy loves scheduling road games, he knows he's going to get the home court whistle in everybody else's arena.

It certainly didn't help that UT shot 37% from the floor including plenty of good inside looks and wide open threes. Give UNC credit for taking care of business against good opponents, but I'm still not convinced they can beat upper tier teams.

There was a makeup offensive foul call against Platek within seconds of the pass off the missed air ball. At least both announcers thought so.

[wobatus]

I think they're going to get SIGNIFICANTLY better when they get Cam Johnson back healthy in a week or two. I'd say he's their second best player at worst (and an argument could be made that he could be better than Berry, maybe not a winning argument, but a semi-reasonable one). He can probably step right in where Jackson was last year without a drop-off of any kind. I think Carolina is going to be right there in the mix for the regular season title come late Feb. I think the biggest question for them will be if they can get any "non-Maye" big to step up, or if Roy can get out of his box and play 4-out-1-in with Johnson or maybe Pinson playing in the frontcourt alongside Maye.

I think Johnson isn't quite as good from 2 as Justin Jackson. Same percentage last year, although Jackson took more shots, and was more a focal point of UNC's offense than Johnson was at Pitt. Johnson is a better 3 point shooter. By the end of last year Jackson was a very good wing defender.

Maye and Kenny Williams are playing at a very high level. Despite grumblings about Maye against top notch D, and he struggled against Michigan State, MSU is the number 1 2 point FG% D in the country. And berry likewise went 2-11 against MSU. Tennessee is 10th in 2 point FG% D. And Maye, while he started poorly, ended up with 15 points and 8 boards against Tennessee. I'll take it if that is struggling against top-notch D.

The key to the game was Barnes getting ticked off at Alexander when Manley beat him down court for a dunk 2:00 left in the first half, then end of the half Manley jumper. And an o rebound or 2. Alexander got buried by Barnes after that. Despite the fact he stuffed Maye to start the game, and then berry on an early layup, and burned UNC down low early for points and boards. The baby bigs did better later, and pulling Maye outside on O helped as well. This opened things up for Berry in the second half.

Berry's damn good, but shooting under 40% from 2 this year. The injured hand may have something to do with that, but also being more a key to the O with Jackson and the bigs graduated.

Berry may be the indispensable Heel. Felton was really bad yesterday, Woods is hurt and even if healthy isn't Berry of course. Losing him is less replaceable than maye or Williams. But Maye and Wiliams have been playing at a very high level. Williams is UNC's bext perimeter defender. He also is 3rd in the ACC in offense box +/-, 6th in BPM overall, shooting .545 from 3, 6th in O rating. Maye is 4th in win shares, 3rd in BPM, 9th in eFG%, 8th in PER. 9th in rebound %.

Those metrics don't capture everything. Still, I question whether Johnson is the 2nd best player on UNC, or in a race with Berry for 1st, once healthy. Different guys bring different things. Pinson actually leads UNC in assist % and often runs the offense over Berry. And the baby bigs are averaging 16.9 ppg, 12.8 rpg and 1.8 BPG in 37.2 mpg, so not exactly slouches there.

Johnson might not even start for the Heels, although he is a better player than Brooks right now, but i think Roy will usually go with at least 1 trad big with Maye as a stretch 4. Johnson certainly adds to flexibility and even going Maye at the 5 a tad.

[wobatus]

No problem. I know you were just pointing out a contrary view. And I was just musing on some related matters.

Duke's schedule is a bit tougher than it seems. I doubt many realize South Dakota is in the Kenpom top 100 (kenpom 94, T-Rank 76). They've both played 6 teams in the top 100. UNC has played 4 in the top 50 to 3 for Duke thus far, and Bucknell and Stanford are at 101 and 105 kenpom. Stanford is 120 T-Rank and they haven't been very good. Overall the schedules are pretty comparable, the main difference being that Michigan is the 4th highest Kenpom rated UNC opponent at 35, whereas Indiana is Duke's at 74. And that ws a true road game. As was BC at Kenpom 82. Actually, South Dakota is Duke's 4th ranked opponent thus far per T-Rank at 76th.

It's the starkly different results with the one common opponent which separates them. Kenpom has it Duke 5th UNC 8th. T-Rank Duke 6th, UNC 8th. And both have Virginia 3rd. The computers like Virginia.