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Pitt at WF -- 6 pm Saturday ACCN

That's fantastic. They seem like a really tight group.

Go deacs! I'm so fuckin happy for those guys.
 
Awesome clip, clearly Forbes has the team. Still have his message on my answering machine.

As far as the Whitt discussion, my prediction is that the detractors will fall into the 'JoHo is a team cancer' and 'Ish Smith is not an ACC caliber PG' legacy.

Whitt will be the Wake player that other fan bases hate by his Jr/Sr years. Write it down.
 
 
We don't have another ballhandler beside Neath.

Interesting that we haven't seen Mucius in awhile.

I miss the nerves of trying to close out a game that could legitimately propel us to the postseason.

Postseason?
 
I find the anatomy of this game pretty interesting. It's easy to look at Mossoud's line as an outlier - a guy goes for 31 on 80% three point shooting and you win by 1, not exactly a shocker. There are a few things that make this performance look like less of a freak event though.

First is Mucius going scoreless to offset Massoud's night. Their combined scoring makes the offensive output far less of an outlier. Second is how often Jonah and Massoud were on the floor together. Many of us, myself included, have been critical of how one-dimensional both of those guys are, 3 point shooters who struggle to defend and bring little else to the table offensively. But in line with the Forbes mantra to play scorers and teach defense, they can put up points so they're going to play. I think conventional wisdom would put up a lot of lineups without them together so you have one shooter on the floor at all times. When Pitt finally committed to shutting down Massoud from deep, Jonah got some space instead and we kept the scoring going. It's very hard to mark 2 shooters like them, an ultra quick release guy and another with length to shoot over guys. It'll be interesting to see if that pairing becomes part of our identify moving forward.

We also won despite shooting 11 fewer free throws, having a 5 steal deficit, losing the rebounding battle, losing the turnover battle, and being +7 in fouls committed. All combined, those stats speak volumes as to exactly how outmatched we were physically. They got Ody in foul trouble, when we had to put Massoud on Champagnie he dominated him, Daivien and Whitt combined for 9 turnovers, etc. And even with Massoud's hot night, our overall shooting averages were within a few points of Pitt's.

So to me, this isn't a write-off because of a hot night for Massoud. It's a testament to the vast improvement on defense, the development of Okpomo, the willingness to experiment with lineups, and a commitment to a brand of offense that can compete based on our talent level. It'll be interesting to see if this ends up being somewhat of a pivotal game going forward. 6 losses to start is brutal, but away games at UNC, Duke, UVA, and GaTech are all tough. Then Louisville, VaTech and Pitt are 3,4,5 in the ACC standings. We don't see a top half team again until FSU 4 games from now. This was a huge win for these guys, great momentum for the coming stretch.
 
Postseason?

I interpreted that as we had no chance of postseason with our previous 2 coaches. Yeah, we've started off slow and there's a 95% chance we don't make postseason, but we have a team who is buying in and playing their asses off. So, we could catch a heater in Feb-ACCT and who knows..idk
 
Watching Whitt last night against the Pitt guards reminded me of seeing CP3 getting overmatched by Jameer Nelson. I think it helped CP3 understand the importance of getting stronger
 
i’m surprised at some of the whitt commentary as i thought this was by far the best he’s looked. haven’t seen every game but i thought he actually looked useful breaking the press and initiating the offense which was needed as putting pressure on ball handlers was pitt’s defensive strategy. we saw how tough williamson had it when he was the only capable ballhandler on the floor and they would trap him immediately.

i do agree he’s been a bit underwhelming coming in although all the usual caveats are important to keep in mind. and one that hasn’t been mentioned is that whitt was a good recruit, but not a blue chipper by any means, so expectations were probably way too high in general.
 
Awesome clip, clearly Forbes has the team. Still have his message on my answering machine.

As far as the Whitt discussion, my prediction is that the detractors will fall into the 'JoHo is a team cancer' and 'Ish Smith is not an ACC caliber PG' legacy.

Whitt will be the Wake player that other fan bases hate by his Jr/Sr years. Write it down.

Say what? The ACC POY as a team cancer?

I was in school the same years as JHo and I don't remember that feeling at all.

Speaking of Howard, Champagnie's game reminded me a bit of Howard's.
 
I can't believe we try to dribble through presses and traps. The easiest and most efficient way to be presses and traps is by passing.

Last night would have been a perfect example of why passing over presses work the best with Massoud and Antonio being on fire. Once we get the ball to half court one or both of them would have been open for easy threes.
 
Yeah the Whitt critics are a bit ridiculous. It's not even "usual caveats" for young players with him. Even if the plan was to always leave high school early the usual path would be workouts and practices, then a full offseason of prep before taking the court his freshman year. The idea that he can't improve his athleticism, has a low ceiling, won't significantly improve - it's insane. Glossing over the leap from high school to college competition in such a short amount of time is bad enough, but this kid was dunking when he was 2 inches shorter than he is now. Absolutely see him adding strength and quickness, the game will slow down for him, he'll adjust to the length of college players, and he'll improve that set shot (which does remind me of CP3) to keep defenders honest.
 
I’ve been watching Jonah a lot on the defensive end and he’s not nearly as much of a liability there as I thought he’d be.
 
Jonah is one of our better perimeter defenders. He’s not the quickest, but he’s always in the right spots and on the right rotations. He’s always stripping and ripping on dribble drives too. His defensive energy is fantastic.
 
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