I know I've been down on this team lately, but how can we not be? Forget about losing close games or having off shooting nights. Tonight it felt like the guys didn't even come to play. We are playing North Carolina on national TV at home and the guys were sleep walking. Other than Hanlan and Odio, did anyone else give off the impression that they were ready to play and thought we could win? Worse I don't know what Donahue can and should do at this point. He mixed up the lineup and minutes tonight and it didn't work. Clifford has been good change of pace lately but only played four minutes tonight. The apologists can talk about how young the team is or the holes in the roster Donahue inherited, but that doesn't matter now. Guys need to get better. Effort needs to get better. Coaching needs to get better. We have another chance Saturday. Let's hope things start to click. Other thoughts on the game...
Likes
-- Hanlan's aggressiveness. I think he needs to drive on every possession. The motion around the perimeter is not leading to good shots.
-- Odio's blocks. He'd be a great asset as an energy guy on a decent team.
Dislikes
-- Van Nest's near the basket. I was hoping he'd be a spark, but he wasn't tonight. We need front line minutes but he's got to be more aggressive and grab more boards.
-- Anderson settling for mid range shots. I am sure he's getting worn down, but he's at his best on the low block.
-- Lonnie Jackson chucking it. We know he's streaky but today it felt like he just threw some of them up there.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
11 comments:
We will have a tough time in any game that we play Rubin and Van Nest significant time. We were showing signs of improvement with a short bench a few weeks ago. Maybe its not sustainable to do for the entire duration of the season, but with the pieces we have thats where we are.
Agree on Hanlan, our offense is at its best with him taking the ball to the basket, creating, and finishing or distributing.
Anderson wants to be the go to guy, and I respect that, but he continues to do things that arent best suited to his skill set. And if he doesnt work on fixing his midrange jumper, he isnt going to take his game to the next level. Also, I would like to see less shots with him fading away from the basket.
The entire team also needs to work on its strength and conditioning, UNC looked like a different species out there compared to our kids.
I'm one of the Donahue pessimists, but this game didn't bother me nearly as much as the UVA game. Carolina's a lot more talented...this isn't news. I'm not sure I feel the same way about no one coming to play. We jumped out to a lead, then Carolina flexed their athleticism. The one area where the effort level was abysmal was on blocking out. There was a long stretch in the first half where it seemed like Carolina was scoring on every possession thanks to all their putbacks.
This is very simple. The players are not good enough for this level. Hanlan and Anderson are the only players that should be ACC starters. Rahon is OK, but probably should be a 4th guard on a good team, not 37 minutes. Jackson is too slow to play 2 at this level, and can't create his own shot. Clifford, even if healthy, is only OK. Odio's basketball skills (dribbling, shooting, footwork) are very subpar.
Donahue needs to step up the recruiting or he has to go. He coaches them up pretty well, but this level of talent (even when they are seniors) will never make a strong team. Remember that Virginia beat BC with 4 Freshman playing key roles. The youth excuse is over for me.
Donahue needs to go. Talent isn't there and it's not on the horizon either. Time to admit that firing Al and passing on Cooley/Coen was a mistake. Donahue is building a mediocre Ivy League team.
BC is ranked #130 by Sagarin.
Where is the next win coming from? Maybe Wake... that's about it. G'Tech...maybe
Our projected season record? --10-22. Not good. What says you Brad Bates??
-------------------------
N.C. State L 73-78
Virginia Tech W 86-75
at Wake Forest L 72-75
Miami (FL) L 59-60
at Maryland L 59-64
at Virginia L 51-65
North Carolina L 70-82
Feb 2 Clemson [Sagarin -- #65]
Feb 5 at (14) Miami (FL) [Sagarin -- #12]
Feb 10 (5) Duke [Sagarin -- #4]
Feb 13 Wake Forest [Sagarin -- #124]
Feb 16 at Florida St [Sagarin -- #66]
Feb 19 Maryland [Sagarin -- #48]
Feb 24 at (5) Duke [Sagarin -- #4]
Feb 27 at (19) N.C. State [Sagarin -- #20]
Mar 3 Virginia [Sagarin -- #39]
Mar 5 at Clemson [Sagarin -- #65]
Mar 9 Georgia Tech [Sagarin -- #84]
ed cooley is 10-10, and we beat Providence this year. so i'm not sure if hindsight really dictates Cooley being "the guy."
regardless, i've been saying for the past 2 months that Donahue needs to get a real coaching staff. he has a bunch of Ivy League and Hobart guys, none of whom have ever played or coached at competitive D-1 level. its ridiculous. you get what you pay for, and currently we are paying for an Ivy league/Hobart coaching staff and hoping that they can find ACC talent.
Love Hanlan, he's better as a freshman than Austin Rivers was, and Rivers was a lottery pick last year (albeit only because he went to Duke and his dad is an NBA coach). Anderson is good but needs to figure out what sort of player he wants to be. if he's going to be in the post, he needs to get a helluva lot stronger. he looks like a high schooler against ACC competition. if he wants to be a strech 4, he needs to shoot it better.
those are the only 2 quality ACC players on the team. the rest of the guys -- Rahon, Clifford, Odio, Heckmann, Jackson -- they'd all be nice as like the 5th guy in the starting line up or preferably as bench players, but instead we ask them to start, play major minutes, its just not gonna work.
and again, like so many have said, where is the talent that is coming? Dragicevich was an OK player at ND, why is he going to be a heckuva lot better in a BC uni? Garland Owens looks like a very good athlete and will probably start right away, but likely has some skills that need to be refined. we have zero coming into the front court, and will continue to be smaller and weaker.
we can't have an Ivy-D3 staff and expect good D1 results. this team needs better training, better identification of players to recruit (the recruits we have lost out on are nothing special, which is probably as damning as the fact that we haven't gotten many good ones), and a better job closing the players we target.
Donahue has given out 9 schollies in the last 2 years and we have 2 good acc players.
Another dislike: this being a de facto home game for the Tar Heels. I wasn't there, but my friend who was sent me a picture and there was a gross amount of Carolina blue. Apparently there was a shade over 7,000 in attendance. Have to think nearly if not more than half of that were UNC fans. Disgusting. Way to go BC.
Half is a gross exaggeration, as is "de facto home game." Maybe a quarter were Heels fans. You could easily tell by the noise level. BC fans absolutely drowned out Heels; crowd was surprisingly into it, even as our team was not. Keep in mind that BC fandom isn't prone to wearing loud school colors. If it were, you'd have a better visual sense of the true breakdown.
That said, most games this season have been poorly attended and until we get a winning product on the court, that will continue. Such is the fickle nature of ours.
I find the Virginia hate here surprising, did you not notice them knock off NC State last night?
Anyway, I continue to be optimistic. Rahon has hit a rough patch, but has showed promise. Hanlan has as well, and their our two true freshman. Donahue HAS to bring in some support for down low next year. If he does that and lands the former Missouri PG commit, I think we'll be happy with this coach.
This is year 3 for Donahue and there has been minimal to no progress. His recruiting has no teeth to it - no stand out player. And the incoming hopefuls are wild cards at best. We own this problem and the only solution is letting him go but it will not be until he takes the program down for another year. Bates needs to be all over this situation because this should be a revenue gernerating sport. And right now we probably cannot cover the cost of the uniforms. Bates also needs to realize that this ACC Baskeball - the equivalent of SEC & BIG TEN Football. This is not the MAC. This isn't even close to ACC Football - this is the real deal. We cannot afford to make another mistake with our next hire. When Donahue was hired the last 2 National Champions were Duke & UNC - from our conference. And what did Gene do? He hired an Ivy League coach who hired Ivy League assistant coaches. What was Gene thinking? Just like when Spaz hired Gary Tranquil as the offensive coordinator and should have been fired on the spot for such a bone headed maneuver, so should Donahue have been fired when he started filling out his staff with Ivy League coaches. We got exactly what we hired - an overrated Ivy League coach. Brad Bates - Please come to the rescue!!!!
Donahue proved he can coach when he took the '09-'10 team (15-16 overall, 6-10 in conference) and got them to go 21-13, 9-7 in conference in '10-'11. It was essentially the same team minus Rakim Sanders and Tyler Roche. He made Biko and Reggie Jackson a lot better players YoY. That being said, he has not at all proven he can recruit, and that is (more than) half the battle
Post a Comment