Where is that guy who claimed Roy was...

...the best coach of all time? Didn't he feel K was underachieving with 'all that talent'? Have we heard from him lately?
Like the 'new' Inside format.
JStuart

but on the Raleigh 850 the Buzz today, Adam Gold was commenting that he felt Roy may have miscalculated that his team could do well with multiple, multiple substitutions, rather than develop "a shorter bench" so that his players would know who was in the standard playing rotation.

An interesting concept; maybe Coach K has an opinion?

there has got to be a happy medium. You flat out can not win playing 10 guys 20 minutes a game. You cant get into a rhythm at all. You also cant win by playing 6 guys 38 mpg. That will wear you down.
You have to play your stars about 30-32 minutes per game, then you can swap your intangible players out a little bit more frequently.
in unc's case, hans, wright and lawson need about 30 mpg. you can rotate green, terry and ginyard in there to get about 26-30 mpg. miller, stepheson, thompson and that other kid could should basically be out of the rotation unless they can completely take the minutes of the other 8. Thats just me.

I LOVE Duke's rotation right now. Pocius and Zoob are basically playing as one sub, getting a combined 10-12 mpg. Hendo and LT get you the 25 or so mpg which is a nice break for McClure and Nelson. When Scheyer comes out, he can sub in for 3 different positions, just like McClure.

It seems that Duke's rotation now is what most folks wanted at the start of the season. Maybe Coach K and his staff had to actually develop the system to allow this... all in practice... and we all know that practice makes "perfect".

unlv '91 basically only played 6 guys. they didn't win everything but they came pretty close to it.

I think Carolina is just learning what Duke teams have known for over a decade. When you're the top team in the conference and one of the top teams in the country everyone comes gunning for you. Teams that have mediocre seasons will count a victory over your team as the highlight of their careers. Their fans will rush the floor and burn down parts of their town when they win (and sometimes when they lose, if they're in Maryland). You can't ever let down.

UNC hasn't been in that position in a number of years, not even the year when they won their last national title. Now they're getting the message.

But it will be interesting to see what Williams does differently, if anything, in response.

A colleague of mine is a big Maryland fan, and we talk basketball regularly. To illustrate Virginian's point, he was ecstatic following the Twerps' win on Sunday (although that probably also had something to do with the Twerps' having solidified a tourney bid). He has always hated the heels passionately, though, and I shared the following sentiment on this year's kuralonna team. He agreed, and I'm interested to hear the reaction around here:

The heels are admittedly the most talented, deepest, and probably the most athletic team in the country, but they are nothing special defensively, and they can clearly be flummoxed by a team that forces them to play a true half-court game (as evidenced by the first 35 minutes of Duke's first game against them, before the Devils just ran out of gas...one more effective player would have easily done it). Most importantly, however, I think this unc team is quite short on heart/chutzpah/balls/whatever you want to call it. Bobby Frasor was absolutely right in his quotes after the game Sunday, when he basically said it's absurd for this team to have four losses.

Part of me is a bit worried, thinking that recent underachieving will light a fire under the heels' asses, but I think that aforementioned lack of the "champion's mentality" (there's another cliche for you) will make it awfully difficult for them to just flip the switch. Furthermore, having simply relied on superior talent all year, I would say the heels currently have quite an underdeveloped team system. While that run-and-gun can be awfully fun to watch, it's not going to get the job done for six straight games in March, especially when they run into a disciplined, methodical, smart team (which definitely will happen, and there's a good chance it'll happen earlier than expected and/or more than once). There's certainly a bit of wishful/hopeful thinking at work here, but I'll truly be surprised if they win the title.

My take on UNC is they are a talented, quick and athletic bunch.

The down side is they play like freshman, don't know how to play defense and don't know how to win close games. This IS a result of playing so many guys.

Players are not in rhythm late in games because of the lack of minutes, they run up and down the court (because of the deep bench) so much that when they need to play defense they are not use to it (almost look lost) and they make real freshmen like decisions. By this time of the year most players (i.e. Durant) have played enough that many say they are sophomores but because most of UNC freshman haven't played a great number of minutes they are still playing like freshman (Wright hasn't played that much because of a nagging injury).

Duke on the other hand needs a bench that will contribute about 30 minutes a game and about 15 points. I'm hoping for a big input from Zoubek in the next few weeks so he has something to build on in the off season.

Hopefully Duke can get Patterson next year!

A number of folks have put down the Heels' defensive play. Well, the college basketball statsmaster, Pomeroy, ranks all college teams by a number of dfferent categories, including defensive efficiency. For most of the year, the Devils have been #1 or #2. Guess who is #3? UNC!

My take, is that Lawson and Ellington are average defensively at best but the remainder of their perimeter players are good defensive players in the half court. Wright and Hansbrough are good defensive players as well.

Good teams, playing well, can score against anyone (including Duke and UNC) and in an uptempo game, they can score a bunch of points.

http://www.kenpom.com/rate.php?s=AdjDE

gw67