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An honest assessment of where we are 16 games in

ALLoverCANE said:
Princeton was a Sweet 16 last year. So were 7 seed Mich St and 8 seed Arkansas, teams that were regular season disappointments.

This isn't college football. It's not about being consistently good all season. It's about improving as the year goes on and peaking in March (and having good luck).
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People forget that we've had much better regular seasons than we did last year.

Regular season performance does not always correlate with post season success.
 
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I'll be kind and call it bad habits although I suspect ulterior (NIL/NBA/PT) motives... seems some of the "stars" err I mean "starters" don't want to do exactly what Coach L and the staff want them to do, at least some of the time. I wouldn't say academic smartness, but such (defiant?) behavior is certainly not smart and won't gain us a Sweet16 if it doesn't shape up.
 
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I wouldn't say the team isn't smart, but they are very lackadaisical or nonchalant at times which leads to some bad turnovers.

We don't have the do anything guy in Miller. Cleveland is a nice player, but he's just like any other guy in that he just tries to out-athlete you because he can jump out of the gym. Miller was quick off his feet and used his body so well to create easy shots and get position for rebounds and put-backs.

The lack of size seems to be more of an issue this year. I don't remember seeing Bensley getting backed down as much last year as I've seen this year and Pack just isn't a great defender.

So far, we look like an inconsistent middle of the pack ACC team. We need guys to get healthy, but not sure that's going to fix our defense and rebounding as those seem personnel related. We've got some bigger guards coming in next year which should help.
 
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The current state of affairs is not really a surprise to those who weren't Final-4 Coach-slurpy happy about how we always get better, have early woes that get figured out, etc etc...
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The portal (NIL) results were also plain ugly... and now we have consequences many recognize as no-dance-likely. The (mostly-sorrowful) bench isn't going to greatly improve no matter how many minutes they (may still) get. If playing in unlimited intra-squad games against (mostly high-talent) starters doesn't get them in gear, nothing really will. At least we have enough (this time) for an intra-squad game. But (with occasional respites) ugly is just plain U.G.L.Y.
 
Da_Lucky_One said:
It would have been nice if someone would have told us 6 months ago that this season would be a rebuild.
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You were not right then and you’re not right now. This season is currently headed toward failure territory but is still far from over.

It was not - and is not - a rebuild. Returning 4 of the top 6 from a final four team and adding an elite transfer starter definitionally make the season not a “rebuild”.

In fact, this is a year that you build to with 5 junior starters (2 4th year guys).

The team is simply not playing to its potential or expectations… and there’s plenty of blame to go around.
 
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I got absolutely reamed by a few of you in a thread before the season for suggesting that I had concerns about Casey's game and his lack of development.

I hate to be right about him but here we are. Let's see if the light ever comes on for him, but it's not looking likely. Big hat no cattle with him.

Also, the fact that he's playing so badly and he's one of the main guys in this 6-7 man rotation and we basically can't play any of Robinson, Djobet, Nwoko, and Watson even just to steal some rest for our front line guys is a major indictment of Coach L and the staff's roster management.

It's looking like we'll have to mail in this year, hope the freshmen next season and an offseason portal splash or 2 to supplement rebuilds us enough to get back to those Elite 8/Final Four heights. Because this team this year? Gonna need a lot of luck to *make* the tournament at this point due to bad losses to bad teams like Louisville/FSU, and blowout losses to UK/Colorado. We were barely in the tournament in Lunardi's Bracketology from Tuesday 1/16, in the Last Four In, and after that FSU loss? I'd say we're solidly out. I'd put us Next Four Out at this point.

I've tried to be optimistic for this season, especially after going up to Blacksburg to watch last weekend's victory, but our lack of defense, rebounding, depth, and intensity is really ******* stark at this point. Our pieces are pretty good but this team is bad. A lot of sunshine pumpers won't want to hear that, but right now it's the **** truth.

In the words of the folks from Letterkenny, figure it out.

turn up drinking GIF by CraveTV
 
EightiesCane said:
Guys look tired. This experiment with a 7 man rotation isn't working imo.
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We have no choice now. When mentioned that we needed a portal big it was said we made it to final 4 with Omier, we good.. Said that we shouldnt depend on one undersized guy who we have to hope never misses a game and cant play defense without being scared of foul trouble.. Now we sit thru every game hoping he doesnt get in foul trouble while layup line to basket.. Good times.
 
The warning signs have been there all along we just kind of choose to overlook them. I think L is gonna have the trust the bench more if only to give guys some rest. His biggest job now is to keep the season from going off the rails. It's not getting any easier. We haven't even seen UVA, NC, NC St, or Duke and right now I don't see us beating any of them.
 
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ALLoverCANE said:
Princeton was a Sweet 16 last year. So were 7 seed Mich St and 8 seed Arkansas, teams that were regular season disappointments.

This isn't college football. It's not about being consistently good all season. It's about improving as the year goes on and peaking in March (and having good luck).
Click to expand...
Yep. Not to mention UCLA went to the final four after being a first four team in 2021. Anything can happen once you get in.
 
Whelp. I picked a bad year to try to go see the ACC tourney. I assume our shot at getting into the NCAA tourney is all but gone?
 
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