Wheat/"/"/" weighs in...*long

Hello to all my Duke friends. My apologies for not spending enough time around here this season.( Some of you probably appreciate that:) I have been checking in, just no time to post much these days...
Some ramblings...
Don't sweat your team. You guys have solid players. Nobody will be looking forward to playing you in the tournament. You don't have the overall talent that you've had the past few years, but nothing lasts forever, ask us UNC fans about how to survive an 8-20 season if you think this season sucks.
About the G and Hans thing. Stuff happens. IMO, G was frustrated and it was a frustration/hard foul. Packer is an idiot. It was a defending his teams honor type deal. I wish some more UNC guys had that mentality, personally. It was clear to me that his arm was accelerating, not being pulled back. He wanted to send a strong little message, and things went awry when the other player blocked the shot first. At any rate, I don't think it was a premeditated type foul, or really meant to hurt Hans, I just worked out that way. G's going to be a very good player for you and should not be labled a Thug as I have seen around the net. I hope this can be forgotten and laid to rest...although I know it will never happen among the juveniles on both sides of this rivalry.
K's handling of it all was...let me be kind here and say typical. I've admired his accomplishments and his toughness, but he is always lacking in the believability department to me. The PC coach K and the real coach K are not the same, and sometimes the real guy seems to slip through. This was one of those times.
Paulus gets an attaboy star for his season. He'll never be all ACC, but he can play and is tough. He seems to be a solid leader and you get max effort from him. All you need is a little more talent around him and he'll be able to take the team up to the next level.
I like the Schyer kid. I call players like him sneaky good. All ACC as a junior, if not sooner. People are sleeping on him.
McRoberts seems to play young, physically and mentally, which of course he really is. He would really benefit by sticking around another season. He does have a lot of open floor talent and sees the court well. He would be a different player...seem much more talented... if you had a banger/low post player to play along side him.
Va Tech reminds me of some of the old Louisville teams...springy, active, long, aggressive. The Dowdell kid is a player, and has tournament star written all over him. A little bit of luck and they could be final four. You heard it here first.
I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see a player with the leadership to take UNC all the way. A championship team really has to have that one guy...
Don't get me started on Terry and his mental game after four years. He's certainly not a Noel. I recognize that he seems to try hard, but some players just don't have the court awareness they should, and sad to say probably never will.
BTW...never believed that Noel could make it in the NBA with those stone hands. Glad he proved me wrong. Being a great athlete has its place in the NBA, I guess.
Back to the team...Lawson has the talent and will have the ball, but he' doesn't seem to have the intangibles that Felton had leading UNC to their last title. At least he hasn't proven it to me yet. A little too much me and not enough we it seems from young Mr. Lawson, and I mean that in a teammate sense, not an unwillingness to share the ball when he's on the floor....
Wright needs another year and then I think he can be a monster, NPOY contender. He's ready to blow up and could be a wild card for UNC and prove me wrong this year...an aggressive " I am the man attitude" and look out.
There's lots of talent everywhere, but you can't say this is a smart, crafty, savvy bunch of players Roy has. Focus has been a problem. I'll give them a break because they are so young overall.
To me, it's like a Ol Roy's cooking the sauce and when he puts the wooden spoon to his lips...he just can't seem to get a grasp of whats missing. I can tell him...its SALT!
...Pun intended.
Best ACC Player?....FSU's Al Thornton by a mile. Hans gets the nod for second due mainly to simple hard work.
Anyways, good luck in the tournament It would be interesting to see UNC/Duke one more time this year wouldn't it?. I'll try to respond to this thread the next few days if anyone wants me to.
Wheat/"/"/"

Welcome back, Wheat. Long time, no see.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree with you on most counts. Al Thornton is for sure the best player. He looked like Kevin Garnett out there against Clemson.

Good luck, and I hope we play you again, too, 'cause that would mean we'd have won a few in the big one. Don't be a stranger.

Wheat! Welcome back! DBR isn't the same w/o you. How's the fishing?

Great and thoughtful indight!

Glad to see you back!!!!

Totally agree on Thornton...He was totally gassed today and still tried to life FSU by himself. I look forward to him having a long and productive career playing for pay.

yeah, good to hear from you.

I actually mentioned you by name in another thread started by another carolina fan. Glad to have you back, even if only occassionally.

Blubones stole my question! How IS the fishing?

Hey all! Almost like the old days around here:)
Fishing is up and down...truth is I've been in a slump lately on the bass tour, lakes just haven't seemed to line up for me over the past year to suit my style. Things can change in a hurry on the water so I'll keep at it. I did win over $30,000 tarpon fishing last year so all was not bad.
Here's something that might entertain you guys...

Part 1) http://link.brightcove.com:80/servic...ctid=240035965

Part 2) http://link.brightcove.com:80/servic...ctid=240035965

On hoops...you've got to feel good if you love the ACC with what Lowe has done at NC State. The future looks good over there.

I'll try to get around more often...

Wheat/"/"/"

I've been wondering about you...great to see you pop in.

I'll second those who responded previously and welcome back your input on the Heels. If it was ten years ago and Williams had the opportunity to work with your freshmen and sophs for another 2-3 years, I'll wager that many would be talking about the potential for one of the best Carolina teams of all time. Things being the way they are, I suspect that you will lose some underclassmen in the next couple of years.

It will be interesting to see how far the Heels go in the NCAAs. They are young and have unexpected off nights. Actually, I think that all the ACC teams that make the tournament could potentially be upset in the early rounds. A lot depends on the matchups.

Do you have any thoughts re Williams' use of his bench? Many have criticized him and suggested that he toghtem his rotation (the opposite of many on this board over the years).

gw67

Glad to have the time to hang out for a couple of days....
Julio, You, Bos and James must really love your hoops to stick with this site all these years and devote as much time to it as i know you do for no real $...props from me!

About the bench...
What I can't seem to get is with such a deep bench of quality players, they should be in the other teams grill on D every time up the floor...and they just don't seem to get the importance of that.
I think such a deep bench does make it hard to find offensive flow, but if they played harder defensively, like Roy wants them to do, they'd be dunking enough in transition to not worry about it.
Roy is not Dean. Dean would have this team down to a 8, maybe 9 man rotation. But thats OK, Roy believes he will wear you down, and he's been sucessful so far.
I like it that they are not shy about getting it inside to Hans, for me, offense should always be inside out when you have a great post player...except in transition.
What I really would like to see are more back door screens and ally oops in the 1/2 court...what happened to that play at UNC, we used to live by it See: Carter,Vince..Stackhouse, Jerry..even Noel, David...how come we don't see that very often for Wright and Terry? Probably because this is not a team with great court awareness...
FWIW, I think only Wright is likely to head to the NBA, and only because they might offer him so much money that he has to go, like Marvin Williams. I think that there is an outside chance that he might stay one more year and work on his game...he knows he needs it, but he won't be able to walk away from th big $ if they offer it, and they probably will.
Wheat/"/"/"

Hiya Wheat!

What about K's handling of the incident perturbed you so?

He made one comment about how the starters should have been out. This was blown way out of proportion and twisted all around. Besides that, what gripes do you have? I do appreciate your reasonable assessment of the actual incident.

Every public person is somewhat different in private. Like everyone that isn't me, K has personal faults, but he still seems a decent guy.