Quote :

"^ I'm sure playing time contributed. I do think there is something to slash and kick guys not finding a groove in our offense because it's so structured. "

Make your open shots and you "fit" a lot better in the offense. Cody obviously needs/needed to improve his outside shooting and Caleb started off horribly and got better as the year went on. But both had plenty of open looks all year as well as having good offensive games. They just needed to bring it more consistently. And for fucks sake...they were sophomores, so it's not like we expected them to score 15 points a game. If they were to get the same amount of playing time next year, I guarantee their numbers would jump rather significantly. Unfortunately for them, Dorn and Henderson were coming in and their numbers were going to drop across the board.

Quote :

"our offense wasnt good this year. the #s added up at the end of the season because we forfeited playing defense even more than normal by crashing the boards for offensive rebounds"

Huh? We "forfeited" playing defense because we were young and undermanned. We also have an out-of-shape center and another big man playing on one leg all year. Cat was an excellent defender his first two years, but he had to sacrifice a little this year because he was being used so much on offense. It had nothing to do with "crashing the boards" more on offense...we're actually a good offensive rebounding team. And hey...that's part of the offense...so fuck it if it "makes our numbers better". And there were couple games where Cat played like dogshit and we still put up good numbers (Clemson for example...Cat shoots 1-12 and we shoot 47% as a team). I know we leaned on him for the majority of the year, but he also made the offense look bad by dribbling around for 25 seconds and then jacking a up a shot (which he often made). Our offense does a good job of generating open and easy looks.

3/28/2016 1:31:46 PM

Well, that's the problem isn't it? Neither Purvis or the twins were good spot up shooters. They thrived when they were driving to the basket or in transition. Doesn't make them or the offense bad necessarily, but it does point to it not being a great fit for them.

To be clear, although our criticism of the offense may align, I am not endorsing tower's arguments and am only narrowly discussing the role of "athlete-first" wing players in our offense.

[Edited on March 28, 2016 at 1:47 PM. Reason : d]

3/28/2016 1:46:32 PM

Brice Johnson will be a 10-15 late lottery pick by the time the tourney is over.

3/28/2016 3:09:49 PM

^^ Eh...you can't recruit great shooters for every position. You can try...but then you'll be wading into the top 150-300 guys.

And you want to have athletic players who can guard and rebound as well. I think every team tries to have a sharpshooter or two (Wood, Turner, Mav, etc), and then hopes their other perimeter guys can develop into better shooters. Cat is obviously an example of a guy who greatly improved his 3-point shot during his time here. Cam Bennerman and CJ Williams were other wing players who became very reliable outside shooters towards the end of their time here. I think coaching staff was hoping that Caleb and/or Cody could do the same (and I do think Caleb was getting there). Unfortunately we'll never find out (or we'll find out that they did it at some other school).

3/28/2016 4:00:39 PM

Brice is an incredible college player but i wouldn't take him in the first round. He doesn't shoot threes and he can't defend. Hes 15 years too late

3/28/2016 4:32:11 PM

^ he right.

3/28/2016 4:57:01 PM

He's in the top 15 in some mock drafts and if UNC wins it all, it will obviously increase his exposure.

Whether or not he should be drafted high is pretty irrelevant compared to where he is actually drafted.

3/28/2016 6:17:11 PM

Quote :

"Brice is an incredible college player but i wouldn't take him in the first round. He doesn't shoot threes and he can't defend. Hes 15 years too late"

Now let's see which of these flaws our PF can do...

3/28/2016 6:33:12 PM

Quote :

"t had nothing to do with "crashing the boards" more on offense...we're actually a good offensive rebounding team. And hey...that's part of the offense...so fuck it if it "makes our numbers better". And there were couple games where Cat played like dogshit and we still put up good numbers (Clemson for example...Cat shoots 1-12 and we shoot 47% as a team). I know we leaned on him for the majority of the year, but he also made the offense look bad by dribbling around for 25 seconds and then jacking a up a shot (which he often made). Our offense does a good job of generating open and easy looks."

I don't disagree with much of this. Gott is a good offensive coach...though it remains to be seen if he can take that to the great level. We put a lot on Cat in terms of scoring and he delivered (a lot via getting to the FT line) but he's also a bit limited in terms of "pure" PG skills. In that way, he was actually a more conventional scoring focus of a college team than the unique ways we did things with Lacey (who just hit a ridiculous number of tough iso jumpers) and Warren (no need to explain here) and typically, unique is good.

I didn't say we were a poor offensive rebounding team. As you said, we are quite good at it (given our bigs aren't good at much else, at least it's something). The staff clearly weighed their options and figured it was worth the downside of worse transition defense to focus on that strength, and that played out in tanking our defense while boosting our offense.

3/28/2016 6:43:17 PM

I wouldn't take Abu in an Nbdl tryout. Just no point in even wasting time watching him play because he can't shoot .

Hes gonna end up in Australia or Latin America or somewhere probably. His game just doesn't fit Europe very well and he's not good enough for China they restrict non Chinese imports.

3/28/2016 6:51:26 PM

Brice Johnson is a shorter John Henson.

3/28/2016 7:04:56 PM

Brice reminds me more of antawn jamison. Just scores in a lot of different ways.

It's just that the nba has really efficient offense now due to high 3pt% and the hand checking enforcement. With illegal defense rules scrapped teams can't afford to utilize post play anymore unless you're trying to play too small or switch smaller guys onto the screener.

Doesn't leave a lot of room for guys like brice to get on the floor until they move the 3pt line back and i think that is years away

3/28/2016 7:26:01 PM

WTF IS THIS UNC BULL DOING IN A STATE RECRUITING THREAD

3/28/2016 9:37:17 PM

We did recruit Johnson for a time

Why do I get the feeling we wouldnt be in contention for a National Championship had we landed him

3/28/2016 9:50:13 PM

Paige withstanding, Roy (or his staff) have done a damn good job developing all the key players on this team. Brice made a huge jump this year, Hicks, James, Pinson, Berry, and Britt have all improved a lot YOY. Meeks kinda got worse partly b/c his usage plummeted, and Jackson is a little better. Overall though this is basically the team they had in 2015 and they are clearly better on both ends.

James and Hicks were basically retarded last year, Pinson was out of control and useless, Berry/Britt were unplayable, Brice was lethargic and lost most games. Jackson and Meeks were easily their best players. Hell Jackson Simmons got regular burn.

I wonder if Tokoto regrets going pro now. Dumbass...

Sorry for more UNC chatter in our "recruiting" thread.

3/28/2016 10:18:44 PM

wtf is wrong with you people?

3/28/2016 11:15:12 PM

oh noes, a thread about obsessing over high school boys is slightly off topic

[Edited on March 28, 2016 at 11:17 PM. Reason : .]

3/28/2016 11:16:51 PM

Lol slightly

3/29/2016 12:57:37 AM

I hate UNC and I hate the NBA. You cant play zone, you cant pressure, you cant closely guard anyone. Might as well just play a game of horse.

3/29/2016 7:58:10 AM

seems to be working out for Syracuse just fine this year

3/29/2016 8:08:47 AM

Cuse has gotten extremely lucky the last 2 games to beat who they beat.

UNC going to beat them by double-digits again this year.

So more actual recruiting news, seems like there was some speculation we'd be talking to the C that is leaving tOSU, but apparently we're only pursuing bigs who can score, not focused on the defense aspect as much, which makes sense given Anya.

3/29/2016 9:44:55 AM

Makes sense given the coach hates defense

3/29/2016 11:26:31 AM

^
:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

3/29/2016 11:48:20 AM

AND HE DOESN'T MAKE THEM PRACTICE FREETHROWS!!!1

3/29/2016 12:05:10 PM

AND ENCOURAGES THEM TO TRANSFER!!1

3/29/2016 4:52:00 PM

Hahaha, wait, are we talking about UNC players improving this year and how Roy helped?

You do realize Pinson was a 5* McDAA that was a top 20 player that is still coming off the bench 2 years later.
Kennedy Meeks was a 4* and 2-year starter that has actually regressed and lost minutes.
Two years ago former McDAA Marcus Paige was a 1st round lock, came back, played 2 more years and now isn't even mocked as a 2nd round pick.
Top 10 player in the 2014 class and former 5* Justin Jackson was thought to be a sure-fire one-and-done...still at UNC, still not mocked in the first 2 rounds for this year.
Top 20 player in the 2013 class and former 5* Isaiah Hicks took 3 years to develop his game.

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a school with a worse track-record of taking 5* guys and having them not get drafted or have to stay in school for 2-3 years longer than projected.

The only player I will say they developed was Brice Johnson, but he's a former 4* player that took 4 years to figure it out, not really earth-shattering work being put in over there. They just have a nice blend of talent and experience with this team. It would have been like Warren staying one more year to play along with Barber and Lacey.

3/29/2016 9:56:35 PM

If it were us they wouldve transferred by now

3/29/2016 10:22:28 PM

^^ nice job actually reading my post. I clearly said that Paige didn't improve and that Meeks regressed. Also my post was how much these guys have improved YOY, not whether they are meeting their potential. Yeah you can make the argument that Roy was wasting all this talent last year, but you cannot really argue that guys like Brice, James, Hicks, Britt, and Berry are not all much better this season.

I agree with you that UNC wastes plenty of 4-5* talent, but so does Duke, Kansas, and even lesser schools. Kentucky seems to get more NBA bang out of their recruits than anyone, but that is solely because Calipari embraces the one and done model whereas K and Roy will sacrifice their players NBA prospects if it gets them another year. Either way fuck UNC.

[Edited on March 29, 2016 at 10:25 PM. Reason : D]

3/29/2016 10:24:49 PM

LudaChris makes some good points about Roy's Player Development.

3/30/2016 9:50:01 AM

Not every 5 star recruit is the same. Theres guys like chase jeter and then theres guys who are given 5 stars because of where they commit.

3/30/2016 12:25:08 PM

Lets celebrate some good news. Made the top 4 cut for Cane Broome...NC State, Cinnci, Seton Hall, and Creighton
With our luck he will probley go with Washington and the twins to Cinnci

3/30/2016 2:22:18 PM

the seton hall dudes seem to think he's theirs to lose

3/30/2016 2:41:10 PM

unofficially visiting in mid-April. Supposedly reached out to us.

3/30/2016 3:02:57 PM

you would think an ACC school would have the edge considering

3/30/2016 3:06:05 PM

Broome reached out to us, and I'm not 100% sure our coaches would take him just yet. If you take him, he has to be "the guy" for your next few years after DSJr, because it'll be hard to land a top PG in the 2017 class knowing they'll have to compete with Broome and Dorn for PT.

Somehow we made the top 5 for 5* SG/SF Terrance Ferguson since his decommitment from Alabama. Think he's trying to setup a visit with us, but no idea what our chances are.

3/31/2016 8:37:19 AM

I know I see a lot of guys still left on the board that are getting looked at by schools that I feel we could compete with and are better than.

3/31/2016 9:15:04 AM

^^
The fact that he's Turd's first cousin could help or hurt our chances. Will probably help.

3/31/2016 9:31:21 AM

maybe he'll be the good cousin.

like the angel rodriguez to our javi gonzalez.

3/31/2016 9:32:50 AM

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/14390188/college-basketball-transfer-list


Caleb top 10?

A lot of grad players to choose from. maybe we can grab one of these big men.

I like J.J. N'Ganga just for the nickname possibilities!

3/31/2016 11:29:16 AM

looks like Anthony Livingston from Arkansas St is another transfer guy we've been looking

3/31/2016 3:54:36 PM

We're out on Broome. Down to Creighton and Cincy

3/31/2016 5:48:32 PM

Also I hear6"11' 220lb Gorjok Gak will be giving us a look. We need it. Was released from his LOI with OSU

3/31/2016 6:14:12 PM

^^^That guy would help a ton. Would probably allow Freeman to redshirt. 6'8" 230. Averaged 15 and 9. Got a Richard Howell feel too him, which is what we desperately need. Shot .859 at the line as well. The incident with punching a freaking police officer might be a red flag, but basketball wise he would be a good one.

[Edited on March 31, 2016 at 6:16 PM. Reason : ^Have to think having Pierre helps there]

3/31/2016 6:15:38 PM

hm yes 6'8 guys shooting 43% in the sun belt are just what we're missing

3/31/2016 6:22:37 PM

ESPN ranked the top 20 assistant coaches in terms of recruiting ability. after hiring Butch Pierre, we now have 2 on that list:

http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/ncbrecruiting/on-the-trail/insider/post?id=15109

Quote :

"15. Orlando Early, NC State Wolfpack Early first rose to national prominence as an assistant coach under Mark Gottfried at Alabama in the early 2000’s and was responsible for bringing Alonzo Gee into the 2005 recruiting class. Early was the head coach at Louisiana-Monroe for five seasons and an assistant at South Carolina for a season before rejoining Gottfried at NC State. He’s been involved with almost all aspects of the Wolfpack’s recruiting ever since and was particularly impactful with T.J. Warren, and most recently, Dennis Smith."

Quote :

"20. Butch Pierre, Oklahoma State Cowboys Although Oklahoma State hasn’t reeled in too many five-stars recently, Pierre still strikes fear into opposing coaches when he walks into a gym. He helped get Tyrus Thomas and Glen Davis when he was at LSU, and also recruited Le’Bryan Nash at Oklahoma State."

3/31/2016 7:34:11 PM

Not sure that convincing Glen Davis and Tyrus Thomas to stay in Baton Rouge and play with other Baton Rouge natives like Marcus Thornton, Garrett Temple, and Tasmin Mitchell 10 years ago is a very good selling point ESPN.

[Edited on April 1, 2016 at 12:07 AM. Reason : N]

4/1/2016 12:06:46 AM

anyone on here still a premium on PP?

Wondering about a recruit's interest.

4/1/2016 12:26:39 AM

Hopefully this guy brings s recruit or 2 with him

4/1/2016 5:04:22 AM

Quote :

"@NCSUFan101 Hearing both Omer Yurtseven (Turkish 6-11) and Cheickna Dembele (6-11 C) could both commit in the coming days to the Pack! Stay tuned"

April Fools?

[Edited on April 1, 2016 at 9:44 AM. Reason : ]

4/1/2016 9:43:59 AM

^probably. sounded like Omer was going to be a long decision while he considers college vs staying home to play pro. seems like we have a legit shot, but highly unlikely we find out anytime soon.

4/1/2016 9:57:32 AM