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Something has to change. What is it?

CaneinBroward said:
Hopefully Coach L is pondering whether he still has the energy and motivation for the job and if not, does the right thing at the end of the season. IMO, no way should they fire the guy after all he's done here (ACC title, Final Four), but last year looks like it was not an anomaly.

I hate to be ageist, but traditional recruiting, practices, and games would take up anyone's time. Add to that recruiting from the portal and the workload is even worse for a 75 year old.
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Why many programs have hired a "General Manager" to take a lot of work load off the coach.
 
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CanesHoopsman said:
There are 3 players that seem like they care: Johnson, Mccray, Divine. I would add Huie, who seemed to desperately try to get teammates going during breaks. The rest are going through the motions.
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Anyone know how far Huie is from seeing the court? Days, weeks, months?

I never figured him in as a significant contributor this season but the way we're getting pushed around inside has me rethinking that.
 
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Matt should have been revived by moving back to the 3. Trouble is Brandon Johnson seems to just be a better rebounding version of Sam Waardenburg and not a power 4.

Those two on the court at the same time just don't seem like a good fit
 
Its reductive sure, but Larranaga's teams come and go with the play of the point guard. If we have a point guard that can respectably hit 3s, drive the lane, finish at the rim, and find the open man when the defense collapses, we're in business.

Our best teams have always had a PG that can do all 4 of those things - Larkin, Angel, Charlie and Zay
Our mediocre teams had a PG that could do a couple of those things - Newton
Our trash teams had a PG that could only do one of those things - Lykes, Lecomte, and now, Pack

The answer is pretty clear to me; Pack can't be the point guard. The only guy on the team that's shown he can do at least 3 of those things is Divine. Start him.
 
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TwentySix said:
I am genuinely lost by anyone saying we need to play Kidd more, or run offense through him. He’s awful. It was so clear to anyone that actually watched his games at VT and didn’t just look at per 40 numbers, literally all he can do is catch in the post make a quick move and score. The problem is he’s too weak to get consistent positioning, so even that isn’t reliable (on top of being a severely outdated way of playing basketball). He’s not good enough to be an offensive hub, yes he makes a nice skip pass out of the post every now and then but it’s not consistent. He gets bodied in the post defensively (if you think it’s been bad so far this year go toss on some tape against ACC teams with size). He’s tall so he gets some rebounds but he’s not a strong rebounder, it’s not surprising to anyone that took the time to watch his games and watched Johnson at ECU that Johnson is our leading rebounder, he gets solid position and actually attacks boards.

The eye test has shown it and the numbers back it up, our offense tanks when he’s on the floor. Our ORTG and TS% both drop off a cliff, and the number of mid-range jumpers we take spikes. It’s clear the latter is because he’s not an outside threat so teams are able to sag off high ball screens and clog the paint, that’s a MASSIVE issue when you have a bunch of small guards. He’s the only guy in the top 6 of the rotation with a negative net rating.

We have to play small. There’s no way around it. We are going to have to out score teams and the only way we do that is playing 5 out. Johnson needs to be more of a focal point, he’s a better shooter than he’s shown in the past 3 games, he was a good shooter on pretty high volume the past two years and has the kind of range to space a defense. I’d personally like to see more 3 guard lineups with Cleveland (if he can pull his head out of his ***, he’s a solid enough rebounder and has the length to play the college 4) or Djobet at the 4.

But I know. SIZE. Whatever.
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I agree with pretty much all of this. Kidd exists solely to kill teams that don't have a big body to bang with him. If they do, he's booty. The Jalil Okafor archetype hasn't been viable in 15 years, and Kidd is Dollar General Okafor to begin with.

Despite having taken 3 senior 'bigs,' I think you're right, back to small ball for us. Starting front court of Johnson, Cleveland and Stanton-McCray, hemorrhage offensive rebounds but run teams off the floor.
 
IncaneInTheBrain said:
Its reductive sure, but Larranaga's teams come and go with the play of the point guard. If we have a point guard that can respectably hit 3s, drive the lane, finish at the rim, and find the open man when the defense collapses, we're in business.

Our best teams have always had a PG that can do all 4 of those things - Larkin, Angel, Charlie and Zay
Our mediocre teams had a PG that could do a couple of those things - Newton
Our trash teams had a PG that could only do one of those things - Lykes, Lecomte, and now, Pack

The answer is pretty clear to me; Pack can't be the point guard. The only guy on the team that's shown he can do at least 3 of those things is Divine. Start him.
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Pack knows his pro career is solely at the PG position. I'd be surprised if that wasn't a key subject of discussion with Coach L in the off season.

I don't see Pack agreeing easily to move from the position where his future livelihood lies.

As for Coach L, I suspect he'll defer any changes for at least another couple weeks. Six games may not be enough of a sample to pull the plug and go with a true frosh.
 
IncaneInTheBrain said:
Its reductive sure, but Larranaga's teams come and go with the play of the point guard. If we have a point guard that can respectably hit 3s, drive the lane, finish at the rim, and find the open man when the defense collapses, we're in business.

Our best teams have always had a PG that can do all 4 of those things - Larkin, Angel, Charlie and Zay
Our mediocre teams had a PG that could do a couple of those things - Newton
Our trash teams had a PG that could only do one of those things - Lykes, Lecomte, and now, Pack

The answer is pretty clear to me; Pack can't be the point guard. The only guy on the team that's shown he can do at least 3 of those things is Divine. Start him.
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Bingo. Been preaching this for years. His offensive system is the most dependent upon a scoring PG that can create his own shot I have ever seen. I love the system when we have that personnel but unfortunately he has failed miserably with this pack experiment.
 
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IncaneInTheBrain said:
I agree with pretty much all of this. Kidd exists solely to kill teams that don't have a big body to bang with him. If they do, he's booty. The Jalil Okafor archetype hasn't been viable in 15 years, and Kidd is Dollar General Okafor to begin with.

Despite having taken 3 senior 'bigs,' I think you're right, back to small ball for us. Starting front court of Johnson, Cleveland and Stanton-McCray, hemorrhage offensive rebounds but run teams off the floor.
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I think Kidd also exists to give us some ability to defend P5 bigs. Although Kidd is absolutely terrible at helping and is NOT a rim protector, I think he’s decent defending his man in the post.

I think your earlier post re: PG position is hard to argue or disagree with.

Pack does not appear to have developed the ability to penetrate and dish/finish that is essential to how we run the high ball screen offense.

Also - beating a dead horse - I can’t see a world where Pack and Jalen work together as a starting backcourt against high level comp.
 
Expect to see a lineup change for the next game and a shorter bench.

I tihnk Coach L feels like he gave everyone a chance to show what they can do and now is prepared to make changes. Let’s see if this works, but at least the staff is making the decisions.
 
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hotshot said:
Pack knows his pro career is solely at the PG position. I'd be surprised if that wasn't a key subject of discussion with Coach L in the off season.

I don't see Pack agreeing easily to move from the position where his future livelihood lies.

As for Coach L, I suspect he'll defer any changes for at least another couple weeks. Six games may not be enough of a sample to pull the plug and go with a true frosh.
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This is almost unquestionably true, politics is the primary force preventing change right now. At this point though, I would hope Nijel sees the writing on the wall; he's too small and too slow to play in the NBA. But like, he's done a **** of a job maximizing his potential, and he'll make a nice living overseas.

I would imagine Blackman isn't going to be thrilled with whatever solution they land on either. Hindsight's 20/20, but I'm really struggling to see why either side thought this was a good fit. He and Nijel look more identical on a basketball court than the Cavinder twins.
 
Allabouttheu95 said:
Bingo. Been preaching this for years. His offensive system is the most dependent upon a scoring PG that can create his own shot I have ever seen. I love the system when we have that personnel but unfortunately he has failed miserably with this pack experiment.
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And, on the court at least, Pack at PG is failing for EXACTLY the same reasons Lykes at PG failed.
 
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IncaneInTheBrain said:
This is almost unquestionably true, politics is the primary force preventing change right now. At this point though, I would hope Nijel sees the writing on the wall; he's too small and too slow to play in the NBA. But like, he's done a **** of a job maximizing his potential, and he'll make a nice living overseas.

I would imagine Blackman isn't going to be thrilled with whatever solution they land on either. Hindsight's 20/20, but I'm really struggling to see why either side thought this was a good fit. He and Nijel look more identical on a basketball court than the Cavinder twins.
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Pack and Jalen can be effective together with a true PG on the court with them. And ideally a tall PG like Bethea who can guard an opposing 3. Then you can play with 3 guards and 2 bigs and play small ball, which is what Coach L is best with anyways.
 
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AtlAtty said:
Pack and Jalen can effective together with a true PG on the court with them. And ideally a tall PG like Bethea who can guard an opposing 3. Then you can play with 3 guards and 2 bigs and play small ball, which is what Coach L is best with anyways.
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Bethea is not ready to play PG.

I would run with

Divine/Blackmon
Pack/Blackmon
Bethea/Mccray
Johnson/Djobet
Kidd

Include Huie somewhere in there if he ever returns but those 8 are the guys that should play.

Bench Cleveland and send a message. Tired of this bull****.
 
CanesHoopsman said:
Bethea is not ready to play PG.

I would run with

Divine/Blackmon
Pack/Blackmon
Bethea/Mccray
Johnson/Djobet
Kidd

Include Huie somewhere in there if he ever returns but those 8 are the guys that should play.

Bench Cleveland and send a message. Tired of this bull****.
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I would not mind Divine either as the PG. He’s shown the best ability to get to the rim. Now can he drive and dish and run the offense? Can Bethea do that either?
 
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Mack Brown’s firing show that even legends have an expiration date. Coach L’s was two years ago.
 
Saw where Javon Small PG for WVU went off for 31 today in upset of Gonzaga. We brought him in on a visit before he went to WVU in portal.

That seems like the create your shot, get to hoop PG we needed? Wonder what his asking price was?
 
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