Which is why we were fortunate. We gave them too many opportunities with TOs, loose balls, and rebounding.
Syracuse Preview and Game Thread
- Thread starter ZinfanHeel
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17-5 (6-3).
Heels survive self-inflicted 4Q mistakes stereotypical ACC officiating, and a “home” game with COVID-like attendance to defeat a good Syracuse team.
On to the team Raleigh.
Heels survive self-inflicted 4Q mistakes stereotypical ACC officiating, and a “home” game with COVID-like attendance to defeat a good Syracuse team.
On to the team Raleigh.
Izoje for Syracuse is very talented. I expect Mulkey and LSU will come at her hard during the off season.
Whew! Glad to have won but I feel like it shouldn't have been this difficult. We play well at times but can't sustain it. Coaching and execution are iffy at times. Going to the zone was a great move, but trying to run time off the clock with almost 4 minutes left led to poor execution and going 1 on 1 too many times, resulting in turnovers letting them back in the game. Nuff said.
Elina deserves better. I wouldn’t blame her one bit if she chooses to transfer after this season. What is the point of having quality depth if you’re unwilling to use it? Especially when the ones you continue to play are playing awful. Indya was basically a black hole today. When she took out Lanie in the fourth, she should have brought in Elina. After Indya sucked it up and she got benched, she then brought her in again a few minutes later. Brutal.
In the 4Q I had to look at the roster cause it looked like Deja Kelly was back on our roster with us refusing to run any offense and instead just dribble it for 28 second and throw a pass real quick for a horrible shot or TO.
CB is really losing me this season…
In the 4Q I had to look at the roster cause it looked like Deja Kelly was back on our roster with us refusing to run any offense and instead just dribble it for 28 second and throw a pass real quick for a horrible shot or TO.
CB is really losing me this season…
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4th straight ACC win and now 6-3 in the conference. Next up is NC State at their mini gymnasium on 1.2/26.
To me, IN and Trimble are the same player, different genders. Both are uber athletic, but the skill level has never matched the athleticism. Just a thought…….
Think CB should go after her, Nivar replacement? Why do you say Mulkey will pursue?
She is very talented and fills a need for Mulkey and LSU. Not saying she would be interested in LSU if they do reach out, but they are an elite program. I would love her at UNC.
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EA is averaging almost 25 minutes a game for the season. Even with IN faults, she is a valuable rebounder, defender, and athletic presence.
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Syracuse took 21 more shots than UNC today.
I actually Did not see too much deliberate slow down from us this game. Maybe two possessions. Nivar and Kelly actually took some early shot clock attempts I did not like in the last couple of minutes.
But the turnovers were infuriating and hard to explain. Other than Cuse was selling out and overplaying the perimeter every possession while behind. Clearly we did not handle the moment at all.
elina is great at driving and a solid 3 pt shooter (but rarely takes it) but tons of holes in the rest of her game. She is our worst perimeter defender. Her ball handling fails at times Under pressure.
she was playing better than Kelly for quite a while and her minutes somewhat reflected that. But now that Kelly seems healthy she is the better PG. not by a lot, but Kelly should start.
and while Grant has athletic limitations, she is always in proper position, the best at fighting through screens. She is fundamentally the best player on the team, doing exactly what the coaches ask consistently. Coaches love that. And she is on fire from deep. You can’t sit her, especially in this particular game.
minutes per game for the three combo guards:
Grant: 28.2
Aarnisalo: 24.6
Kelly: 24.3
seems like coach sees them as a 3 woman rotation at the 1 and 2?
Nivar is a conundrum. A probable first team all-ACC defender but a liability at this point on offense. Should she play less that her 27.4 mpg? Hard to say.
But more importantly, Nivar and Aarnisalo do not play the same position. When Nivar goes out, usually Brooks comes in. At the 3 spot.
we have 10 women playing double digit minutes. That does not include Thomas at 7 min per game. This team plays deep and no one is playing more than 28 MPg on average. Yes some games are an exception, but overall, it is hard to dole out more.
we can’t worry about who may transfer. earn it in practice and play accordingly. The only player on this team I think appears to need more is Henderson, though she plays at the deepest position. We have 5 ACC starters as small 4s/big 3s
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She is great, but I think The replacements for Harris are already on this team if we can get them to stay.
bradarb08 I am going to say this one last time. A leopard does not change it stripes. When DK was here, all of our PG's were hurt at that time (PP, KM, and RK); therefore CB had no choice but to put DK at the point guard position. We all knew that DK was better at the two guard position. CB had DK doing too much. She wanted her to not only score but also run the PG position. Also, at that time instead of taking DK out and showing her what she was doing wrong, CB elected not to do that. This is the same crap that almost cost us the game today. You had RK, IN doing the same thing as DK which was dribbling to much and turning the ball over. CB should have taken then out, put EA in along with TH. Here again bradarb08, you did not blame CB for this when we clearly know the HC is in charge and can fix this by putting the players in question on the bench. That is what a good coach would do, but instead you want to bring DK in who is not longer playing college ball and who is now playing professionally somewhere. Stop using DK and start putting the blame where we all know belongs. CB coaching down the stretch almost cost us another game at home. As someone stated, EA might be gone after this year because as someone stated earlier she should have been in the game doing the closing minutes; especially if IN and RK are messing up. I will say this about HD this year. It has the guts to put the 2 million dollar man on the bench (KE) and start Derek Dixon who is a freshman because he knows he must win games and in order to do that players who are not performing to the standard must be put on the bench.
3397 I agree with your posts. You are spot on about Aarnisalo. Her dribble is weak vs pressure. R Kelly is really about our only option vs pressure.
I love Lanie, she is a very good player but she is basically a shooting 2 Guard and solid defender. She also is a coach on the floor type. She is good at it. However she is not a dribbling type vs pressure.
I think Reniya's advantage is she is physically stronger and can take more of those uncalled late game bumps and hits.
I can see Taliyah Henderson filling Nivar's role next season. She is strong, fast, athletic and plays hard plus is 6'2.
I think she will be a starter for the next 3 years and can play at 3 or 4. I think Nyla Brooks is more of a 2guard/ 3 Wing type.
Coach CB is building a bigtime team. This year we show a few holes and are young but next year should be special.
I love Lanie, she is a very good player but she is basically a shooting 2 Guard and solid defender. She also is a coach on the floor type. She is good at it. However she is not a dribbling type vs pressure.
I think Reniya's advantage is she is physically stronger and can take more of those uncalled late game bumps and hits.
I can see Taliyah Henderson filling Nivar's role next season. She is strong, fast, athletic and plays hard plus is 6'2.
I think she will be a starter for the next 3 years and can play at 3 or 4. I think Nyla Brooks is more of a 2guard/ 3 Wing type.
Coach CB is building a bigtime team. This year we show a few holes and are young but next year should be special.
Malu back in the house today and delivering a message to the players after:
The first time Kelly was told to hold the ball we were up 7. We turned it over and Cuse hit a 3 and were down 4. Then as you mentioned we turned it over or took quick shots. We melted down a bit. We will see what Wes Moore can do against us.
14-16 from the FT line today. 12-17, 9-9, and 10-10 over the previous 3 games. Good job team.
I was very impressed with Cuse length and athleticism. If they could be consistent from outside they could be a difficult out for anybody.
Nice to see us moving up in the standings! ESPN actually has us ahead of Syracuse based I assume on our win over them today. We've got a huge game against NCSU next. Hoping for a win in Raleigh. And our road trip(s) to Virginia on successive Thursdays in February loom large as well.
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Wow, the game vs the Wolpfack is a great opportunity for this team. We need to zero in our shots. We also need to have a great defensive plan for Brooks and Jones. The wuffies like to play fast and shoot the 3's.
All that said if we play well and make our shots and rebound we can get a gigantic win for our season.
Chances are like most ACC games it will be a close one to the end.
All that said if we play well and make our shots and rebound we can get a gigantic win for our season.
Chances are like most ACC games it will be a close one to the end.
Gotta get them into foul trouble - they only go about 7 deep usually... (same for when we play Dook). That isn't a big forte of ours, but we have to figure out how to get that done. That was a big factor against Syracuse. We couldn't get Izoje into foul trouble... she only had 2 fouls in regulation. Comparatively, Dook got her into foul trouble and trounced Syracuse in NY by 20... Izoje only played about 16 minutes in that game I think.
State also has Piere from Vanderbilt. Just like Izoje, she is going to be a handful inside. She is just that good. This game is going to be a lot tougher because NC State does have an inside game with Pierre who is 6 foot 2 inches tall and Trygger who is 6 foot 6 inches tall. Their starting 5 is legit just like ours; therefore, we just cannot focus on Jones and Brooks like tarboy suggestion. Also, the game is at NC State which you have to factor that in. When was the last time that we beat State at their place? We should have beaten Stanford, Louisville, and ND bottom line. Losing those games could come back to bite us. Beating VA at VA is going to be a tall task as well. These games are going to come down to coaching. I just hope and pray that CB and Staff are up to the task from a coaching stand point.
Value the ball, rebound, play good defense and #1 make shots. That is always the recipe for winning.
I am worried that our young team might not be up to winning in the howling wolf den.
We are good enough but we were good enough to play good vs ND and did not.
We have to man up. Play at the top of our game and simply outplay the wuffies in their gym.
I am worried that our young team might not be up to winning in the howling wolf den.
We are good enough but we were good enough to play good vs ND and did not.
We have to man up. Play at the top of our game and simply outplay the wuffies in their gym.
Agree about EA. Second game of late that she got an offensive found for warding off the defensive player with a high elbow because she was uncomfortable with pressure.
I actually like our chances against State. Last game out they lead UVA 34-18 at the half and finally won in OT 78-76. Zoe Brooks literally scored half their points (37 points including 19-20 from the FT line).
If we could shut down Brook and Jones from having big games they would have difficulty scoring a lot of points. Of course we would need to make our shots to gain an advantage.
I am expecting a close game. Keep your fingers crossed that we make shots. Reynolds will be howling.
I am expecting a close game. Keep your fingers crossed that we make shots. Reynolds will be howling.
I hope so. As someone stated earlier, this will be our freshmen first time playing in a very hostile environment. I hope they can handle the noise, insults, and pressure. We cannot make bone head mistakes in the fourth quarter like we did against Syracuse, otherwise, this game can slip away from us. We have eight days, I think, to get ready. Hopefully, our team will work on things that the film says they need to work on in order to get ready for this game. This will be a perfect time to add some new things in. For example, a full court press, half court press, some new zone coverages, some new offensive sets, etc.