UNC vs Duke: Three learned things

I would like nothing more than saying “Let me never talk about it again,” but unfortunately, it is more and more my job to talk about it. Thehe North Carolina Tar Heels They were much exceeded from the top to the horns of Cameron Stadium indoors, losing a game of 87-70, which was not even so close. Now UNC has lost four of its last five games and is generally more than a little tail. Now they get a whole week to rest, recover, reflect and reset. Here are some things that they and we may want to look at during this time.

1. Something is different in this team than where we started

It is easy to forget among all this mediocrity, but once there was something exciting in this team. Before the new year Seth Trumb and Elliot Kado pulled the memphis defense of strings In the exhibition, the heels played difficult games against elite opponents, who reached a few bad bounces, they left a few tartlets the way good teams were supposed, and even after some of the rough edges began to show up, Ian Jackson had been ascended Against Alabama and the subsequent evaluation of the explosion to be excited about. There were always warts, the size of the front court and the unexpectedly poor shooting around the perimeter (including perhaps especially by RJ Davis), the main one, but this UNC team looked like the one who could compensate at least to some extent those warts and really Good security game.

This does not seem true at the moment. Davis’s game in a vacuum actually turned a little; He shoots 42% of a three -point range in his last 6 games and has 22 assists, although the turnover has ran against Duke. He is not in his All American form; His handle is nowhere close to the quality that was last year, and he doesn’t always play on the same page as his teammates. But as he plays better, his other colleagues in the background perform more bad. Ian Jackson is in evaluation of the point and does not look as ready to load the tape as the best of himself; Seth Trumbs played more oriental and was also not as consistent in defense; Cadeau went past matches in which he was polluting and turned the ball at an unacceptable speed, but still did not orchestrate that team the way he had previously been. This compromise, a guard who plays well in exchange for the other three, not so much, is not profitable for these heels, and for me it feels like an insistence on making this RJ team on a Dint seniority, not to have organic makeup, which we saw at the beginning of the year, it harmed both Davis’s teammates as individuals and this team as Gestalt.

2. Drake Powell played with some heart even though it was too late to matter

It is probably even generous to say that this game ended by about 10 minutes, with Duke’s lead reached 32 points at one point and the game threatens to reach historic levels of shells (the smallest loss suffered on both sides in this rivalry, is a 37-point victory in 1921, the worst loss that UNC suffered was 35 at home in 1964). But through a combination of the Duke, who plays a little flawless and some pride and heart renewal by UNC, the margin failed to the end of the game to something that approaches respect. This accusation was led by Drake Powell. More than a four-minute section, starting at 7 minutes, the heels continued with 14-2, which is powered by Powell: it scored 10 from 14 to Seth Trimble in the transition to arrangement. Even more impressive was the variety of its assessment: difficult movements to the rim, exquisite possession of transition and triphone. Duke could give up his big lead, but they were not yet free buckets and fed forward to take their shows at least part of the heart, for which many people, including at times, the chief coach, want. At the end of the running, Duke led the 16th more insurmountable, but at least a result that did not ashamed.

3. Do not double a decent player with this staff

It was not the first time we saw this happened, but it was remarkable the same thing: with too many possessions, Duke of a large or large wing would double in the post, but one of the ramp heels involved in the double was short enough that They can simply be transferred, or through the post for an indisputable arrangement or to the opposite angle for the undisputed three. I understand the temptation to double and violate really good players who have the benefits of one against most people who will send them, but with the team, as it is currently drawn up, you make a choice between a refusal of 5 disadvantaged and Cancel by 6 and a half leg disadvantage. The height matters, but this is not all that is all: UNC actually outstrip the Duke on Saturday night, even disadvantaged and with the Duke, who shoots so much more effectively. Trust your team to put someone’s body and be physical and live with a few buckets that look easy; Do not fight before they can defeat you by giving out open glances. This team of this team effort This season has decreased and decreased and this is his own problem – but in this way they can at least be put in a better position for success.