MBB Game 18: Louisville @ LJVM -- Saturday Noon -- ESPNU

[PhDeac]

Pilch and D14, you all are acting like the season ends in 2 weeks. There's plenty of time for them to get healthy and come back. Even each playing 5-10 minutes a game would make a difference. Their value would be keeping the starters fresh after two years of key players being worn out come late February.

 

[TheIshThatSaved WakeForest]

looking at the exact same trend for the 3rd straight year and insisting this year is going to be different feels like Lucy holding the football. I hope you all are right, but I would have preferred a better start to the season to give me more confidence we were actually improving.

As mentioned above 2 years ago we did pretty much how you’d expect after Jan except the BC loss, but the outlier OOC schedule kept us out. We scheduled to have a bad team and wound up with a good one that suffered.

Last year our defense was terrible with a small backcourt and 0 rim protection. Those things plus Damari getting hurt ended that season.

This year we didn’t get our rim protection until Dec and we’ve been pretty damn good since then, but we need to get over the hump in midtier road games.

None of this is a trend if you are actually paying attention.

 

[myDeaconmyhand]

I really don’t think we are deeper than the past two seasons. We only have Pfred and potentially Monsanto as real contributors off the bench. Keller really only plays defense.

 

[deacon14]

Pilch and D14, you all are acting like the season ends in 2 weeks. There's plenty of time for them to get healthy and come back. Even each playing 5-10 minutes a game would make a difference. Their value would be keeping the starters fresh after two years of key players being worn out come late February.

As far as Ituka goes, I agree with you. He'll be meaningfully in the rotation by mid-February as long as he proves that he can play at this level.

As far as Monsanto, when a guy is 2 months behind schedule as far as returning from an injury and there's only 2 months left in the season, I'm just not going to bank on anything until I see it. Maybe there's inside scoops on 247 or Conor's site saying that Monsanto is REALLY close to returning and I'm not aware of that.

 

[Haros]

If Ituka can even give us 5 minutes where he doesn't hurt us, buy 1 extra minute on the bench for each of the guards, and take over the designated foul trouble sub role from Canka when we are buying time at the end of the half/game, we will be slightly better.

 

[Deaconblue]

Just need those guys to come in and play about 8 minutes per game. Just enough to get starter minutes down to around 32 per game instead of the 36 - 38 they have been playing. Need may ten points between them so the bench isn't the near zero it has been. Starter exhaustion was obvious down the stretch against State.

If Monsanto is pretty stationary, he still is a statue that had to be guarded because if left open he will hit 50+% of his threes.

 

[Haros]

I really don’t think we are deeper than the past two seasons. We only have Pfred and potentially Monsanto as real contributors off the bench. Keller really only plays defense.

I don't disagree about our bench this year.

My take on last year is we only had 4 reliable players (Tyree, Cam, Monsanto, Carr) at any point in the season. Klintman became the 4th over the last 5 games after Monsanto was already injured. So simply by having 5 (the minimum we need on the floor), we are deeper this year. It's similar to 2022 in that way.

 

[DeacsATS]

I really don’t think we are deeper than the past two seasons. We only have Pfred and potentially Monsanto as real contributors off the bench. Keller really only plays defense.

100% agree that we need more production off the bench.

 

[DeacsATS]

I don't disagree about our bench this year.

My take on last year is we only had 4 reliable players (Tyree, Cam, Monsanto, Carr) at any point in the season. Klintman became the 4th over the last 5 games after Monsanto was already injured. So simply by having 5 (the minimum we need on the floor), we are deeper this year. It's similar to 2022 in that way.

I wrote this basically word for word, saw you already posted it (and said it better), and just moved on with my life.

 

[DeacsATS]

As far as Ituka goes, I agree with you. He'll be meaningfully in the rotation by mid-February as long as he proves that he can play at this level.

As far as Monsanto, when a guy is 2 months behind schedule as far as returning from an injury and there's only 2 months left in the season, I'm just not going to bank on anything until I see it. Maybe there's inside scoops on 247 or Conor's site saying that Monsanto is REALLY close to returning and I'm not aware of that.

No real scoops... It's just that he needs to be cleared. Could happen today. Could happen in March.

But it feels like a sooner than later thing.

Or maybe I'm just really hopeful for no reason.

 

[deacon14]

No real scoops... It's just that he needs to be cleared. Could happen today. Could happen in March.

But it feels like a sooner than later thing.

Or maybe I'm just really hopeful for no reason.

Feels like blind optimism at this point then. There's a reason he hasn't been cleared in the past few weeks even though they've been saying that he's right on the edge of being back. Combining that with how far behind schedule he is, it seems really concerning to me.

I mean if it's not until late February that he's back, this team is going to make or miss the NCAAT without him playing a role in that.

 

[BeachBumDeac]

I looked up a rehab protocol for quad/patella tendon repair (Mass General protocol). Looks like one of their return to sport criteria is a quad index of 90% (meaning that the injured leg can generate 90% of the knee extension force that the uninjured leg can). My guess is this has been the hitch and he is probably somewhere like 88% or 89% on the testing which is why everybody has been communicating that he's really close to coming back

 

[myDeaconmyhand]

Disagree about us not “fading” in ‘22. After January 19th we finished the ACC season (including tournament) 8-5, 61% winning percentage from that date.

If we were to replicate that same winning percentage from today, assume we win the first round of the ACC tournament, we would finish the regular season 22-11 (13-7 ACC) 1-1 ACC tournament.

That would put us firmly on the bubble, in danger of not making the tournament again.

It seems to be that the sports boards consensus is that we are going to finish with a better record than 22-11 (13-7), otherwise you all are hyping up a season that’s exactly in line with what we have done previously.

 

[deacfan123]

If monsanto comes back you can bet your ass the bench scoring won't be 0.

 

[BeachBumDeac]

Disagree about us not “fading” in ‘22. After January 19th we finished the ACC season (including tournament) 8-5, 61% winning percentage from that date.

If we were to replicate that same winning percentage from today, assume we win the first round of the ACC tournament, we would finish the regular season 22-11 (13-7 ACC) 1-1 ACC tournament.

That would put us firmly on the bubble, in danger of not making the tournament again.

It seems to be that the sports boards consensus is that we are going to finish with a better record than 22-11 (13-7), otherwise you all are hyping up a season that’s exactly in line with what we have done previously.

yeah I mean how the fuck dare we try to actually fucking enjoy some basketball instead of checking out 2 fucking months from the end of the season.

some of y'all are just dead fucking determined to be as miserable as humanly possible

 

[deacz]

I don't disagree about our bench this year.

My take on last year is we only had 4 reliable players (Tyree, Cam, Monsanto, Carr) at any point in the season. Klintman became the 4th over the last 5 games after Monsanto was already injured. So simply by having 5 (the minimum we need on the floor), we are deeper this year. It's similar to 2022 in that way.

Plus, Cam and Carr are both much improved.

 

[BarcaDeac]

yeah I mean how the fuck dare we try to actually fucking enjoy some basketball instead of checking out 2 fucking months from the end of the season.

some of y'all are just dead fucking determined to be as miserable as humanly possible

I hope we can make the tournament, but it's been fun as hell actually caring about and wanting to watch basketball again during the Forbes era. toward the end of Manning I refused to watch any game. any win just gave Wellman ammo to keep him.

 

[TheIshThatSaved WakeForest]

It seems to be that the sports boards consensus is that we are going to finish with a better record than 22-11 (13-7), otherwise you all are hyping up a season that’s exactly in line with what we have done previously.

There is absolutely no consensus here and you are creating fake milestones to be disappointed against. 13-7 is the reasonable guess of where we’ll end up, which is one game better than we are predicted to achieve as the currently 37th best team in the country.

That would likely get us a double bye and spot in the semis of the ACCT if we went 1-1. Think we’re on the right side of the bubble there.

 

[BeachBumDeac]

I hope we can make the tournament, but it's been fun as hell actually caring about and wanting to watch basketball again during the Forbes era. toward the end of Manning I refused to watch any game. any win just gave Wellman ammo to keep him.

I'm bummed we didn't make the tournament the last two years but I fucking loved watching Man man and Jake and Tyree. Shit was fun!

 

[BarcaDeac]

I'm bummed we didn't make the tournament the last two years but I fucking loved watching Man man and Jake and Tyree. Shit was fun!

yeah! and I'm fucking pumped for Monday night! it's fun talking shit between the carolina and duke fans at work.