📅 Published on: 2024-12-02 18:00:01

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Carolina Basketball legend Justin Jackson and producer John Bauman go deep on UNC’s defense. How can the Tar Heels …

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🕵️‍♂️ Transcript:

welcome everyone this is the shooting at straight podcast with Justin Jackson I am producer John we are so excited to be here tonight to talk about some UNCC basketball and specifically talk about this UNC defense and how the defense can Contin you to improve a little story time before we get in here so I’m a little old school back in the day I used to watch the national championship DVDs Justin I don’t know if you know about this but they used to put out a DVD after every UNCC basketball national championship the 2005 DVD 2009 DVD I think they made one for you guys as well and in the 2005 DVD they talked about some stories with Roy Williams the team would walk into practice after bad game and there would be no rims on any of the baskets and that was a sign for all the players that this was a defense focused practice I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced that Justin as a player but this is a defense focused podcast we’ve taken all the rims off of the baskets here in streamyard we’re just talking about defense tonight on the show not really we’re gonna talk about Maui we’re GNA talk about Drake pal we’re going to talk about a lot of things tonight but definitely focusing on uncc’s defense under construction the name of tonight’s episode want to give a quick shout out to our sponsors before we get into it we’re sponsored by Johnny t-shirt and congruity HR we’ll talk more about them as the night goes long but Justin how’s everything going on your end how is your Thanksgiving and what were some of your takeaways from Maui yeah man I’m uh excited to be back that week week off was definitely good to just be able to hang out with the family Thanksgiving was great my family came in town um obviously celebrated with both sides of the family and just had a good time hanging out Thanksgiving is always just a good time for some good fellowship and just chilling and relaxing so that was awesome ate too much food obviously that’s how it always works but um nothing a few workouts can’t can’t work off but um man it’s uh I feel like we’ve got uh a good amount of stuff to talk about obvious viously we don’t want to hit too much on I know it’s kind of old news at this point but you know I think for me kind of looking at the looking at the Maui tournament um you know before it started I think some of the um takes was that North Carolina need to come out with at least two uh big wins um for the current state of the team but also for the long in the long run when it comes to the committee and um seating and all that sort of stuff in the tournament obviously uh they weren’t able to do that um and I think there’s a few things when you kind of look at the bigger picture of the whole tournament and just a few stats kind of nerding out a little bit just a few stats man uh defensively I think like you said was kind of the biggest um issue as far as that tournament goes and kind of some of their holes and gaps that they had throughout the games um but in those three games the opponent had basically scored 90 points now obviously there’s an overtime game in there against Michigan State but um you know 90 points is quite a bit um you know they scored themselves 85 um so offensively I don’t think was a real issue opponent’s points in the game points in the paint per game was 38 which is too much um I think when you look at college basketball I mean you could even look at that last game against Michigan State North Carolina Hit 11 threes which was what I think maybe the most this season um as a team but yet they gave up 50 points in the paint um so points in the paint is always a very easy stat to look at when it comes to who was more physical um whose communication and defensive execution was right and then probably who came out on top a lot of times whoever you know dominates the paint and secures that is probably going to have the best chance to win um um and then you look at the three-point percentage and I think for me as you know kind of all year that was kind of my biggest question mark who’s going to be able to space the floor and shoot it North Carolina over those three games shot 42% from three um so maybe I need to move my uh question marks and um thoughts somewhere else but I think just looking at the games there was just so many gaps defensively right like it was miscommunication it was maybe wrong rotations which we can get get to in a second um just not the same sense of urgency and physicality that you have to have in a tournament with that kind of those kind of teams right you play an Auburn team who in my opinion is the number one team obviously no offense to Kansas they’re doing their thing and they’re winning big games as well but when I look at that Auburn team from top to bottom they’re probably the best team uh in the country in my opinion and so you go into a game like that and not being physical enough and not you know finishing your assignments and boxing out and getting the off getting the defensive rebound and getting out of transition that come that that starts to hurt you and so I think that’s for me going forward I think defensively is something that they definitely have to uh kind of shore up and um you know they don’t have a ton of time don’t have a ton of time to do that but hopefully in practice and just watch watching film they able to kind of look at some of those um missed opportunities on defensive end yeah they do not have a ton of time at all North Carolina already has three non-conference losses a big game against Alabama that we’re going to talk about later in the episode on Wednesday and then conference play actually starts this week on Saturday it’s crazy to say that but Georgia Tech comes to Chapel Hill on Saturday December 7 so the season the meat of the season is is here and North Carolina really has to improve in a lot of different ways let’s hone in a little bit on on one player specifically before we talk about some of the larger points on the defense I think Drake pow had a really interesting tournament for the Tar Heels uh he played big minutes in all three games he played 33 minutes against Michigan State 23 minutes against Dayton and he had some big impacts as well offensively especially in that last game and um you know going four of six from the three-point line is not something we expected out of Drake pal early on in the season yet when you look at his numbers for the year he shooting seven of 15 from three almost 47% he also made a lot of impact plays defensively for the Tar Heels he might be part of the solution defensively given that’s one of his strengths both offensively and defensively what did you see from from Drake pal that really stood out to you Justin yeah I mean I you know I’m full on and I’ve been a drake pal fan um but I’m full on the train of Drake pal playing a bunch of minutes um I personally thought it was going to take maybe a little bit for him just to adjust and kind of get into you know kind of what his Niche and his role would be for this team um but I think this tournament kind of showed that he’s ready to kind of step into uh more playing time more opportunity just a bigger role so I think you know for me offensively I think that’s kind of where it might take a little bit of time um as far as just getting fully comfortable and playing at the speed offensively and the defens is being a little bit tougher a little more physical whatever um you know showing in that Michigan State game that he could spread the floor and shoot in also he had some tough drives and finishes as well but I think defensively he he just affects the game in so many different ways right like if the team truly wants to and we can get to this in a second but if the team truly wants to go small Right Drake pal can move down to the four with no problem um and having him at the four being able to switch onto anybody um is a big uh adjustment that I think that this team can make but it also just kind of changes the defense totally for North Carolina and you know for him I’m I’m on the train and I’m on uh I’m on the bandwagon when it comes to him having a bigger role um I think whenever you look at kind of just his tournament overall um I mean he had a positive plus minus the entire tournament you know even through those tough two losses that they had and you know a couple of those tougher games as a freshman that’s not necessarily normal to see um and so I think just looking at that for me plus or minus can kind of be a weird stat to look at depending on the opportunity that the player gets but he played a good amount of minutes and finished with a positive plus minus which is I think a huge huge deal um especially for a freshman so I’m on the train man I’m I’m full on let’s go Drake pal I think he could be really big for this team going forward and I think uh you know this team would be even better with him having a bigger role so you know I guess we’ll see with the coaches once again I’m not at practice I’m not at pregame and shoot around and all that sort of stuff so I don’t really know what goes on uh behind there but just from what I’ve seen in game um in the little bit that I saw him kind of throughout the summer um I’m a huge fan yeah I like what Sean Crowley said I want to bring up this comment real quick Sean in the chat says Drake pal is giving effort on both ends you can see that and I would say a little bit of leadership as well from him one thing I noticed after Elliott missed that layup late in the Michigan State game uh you know we’re not gonna discredit him for missing that at all because he had just hit a humongous three right before that so you know that’s basketball it happens but his head was hanging a little bit and RJ was a little bit distracted uh you know worrying about a foul call so it was Drake who kind of went up to Elliot and kind of picked him up a little bit I like to see that from a freshman I like to see the effort as Sean pointed out that he’s giving on both ends but let’s talk a little bit more about the defense Justin you’ve thrown out some stats tonight let me add in a few more here in Ken pom’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric UNCC is 64th in the country some of that adjusts for the opponents that UNC has has played uncc’s played some really good opponents when you just look at the raw metric the raw defensive efficiency UNCC is 200 in the country which is not very good there’s a lot of different causes here there’s certainly to what you have on the roster that’s not going to change you can’t make a trade this isn’t the NBA there’s no 10day contracts or something uh like that um so let’s talk a little bit about the defense Justin what have you seen from the defensive end thus far from the the Tar Heels we can start with some of the the clips that we’ve pulled up here we can talk big picture we can talk individuals where do you want to start yeah I mean I think first before we get to the the pictures and the um you know more visual things I think first we have to take into account that they have I think it’s the fourth they ranked fourth in strength of schedule right and so you play Kansas who’s the number one team overall now um you play Auburn who’s number two now um and now you’re about to go into a game against Alabama’s you know top 10 as well so um and let’s also give credit to Dayton and Michigan State in the Maui tournament too there are no slouches when it comes to um you know college basketball teams so I think we have to take that into account compared to some other teams maybe within these uh you know rankings and things like that um but for me when I just look at opponent’s points per game at 80 that’s last in the ACC right and doesn’t matter if you played one game or 25 games that’s not great but it’s 337th in the country um and you had mentioned before we hopped on here that there’s only 364 teams in the country so you’re basically at the bottom when it comes to that um then you look at field goal percentage just outright field goal percentage we talk about it Kim Palm for me the numbers adjusted all it gets confusing for me so I got to kind of just look at the basic stats right so opponent’s field goal percentage 43% it’s not necessarily you know terrible but it’s 13th in the ACC and it’s 23th in the country um you know and then you know one of the biggest things that we’ve looked at kind of throughout this start of this season is uh the rebounding aspect of things and opponent’s rebounding is about 37 that’s 258th in the country and 17th in the ACC so I think when you look at those um you know I think it’s just those are easy numbers to look at and obviously the the rankings and things like that it’s okay they’re not very good but I think there’s so many little things that go into it and I think that kind of is why these you know the pictures and things like that that we have to look at can kind of make you visualize why these issues um have kind of been consistent throughout the year so um if you want to look if you want to pull up kind of the pictures um obviously copyright we don’t want to get inside Carolina in trouble and you know mess with that and just play a clip so we bear with us whenever we talk about these these uh these pictures for those who are watching obviously those that are listening hopefully you know we can explain it in a way that you understand um but I think one of the biggest things whenever you look at defense right is the physicality of things and physicality can be you know the brute strength physicality type of thing or it can be the first team ready um and the first team to hit um and I think when you kind of look at some of these plays I think that’s kind of where the discrepancy is right so you have this play where there’s a big um in the trail spot you’ve got guards on you know you’ve got Elliott and RJ guarden either one of the Guard s they do some sort of weird action um but it basically ends up into a dribble handoff into a high pick and roll right and then you’ve got one guy in the corner and that’s the guy that Withers ends up guarding uh and so when you see a situation like this where there’s a dribble handoff the coaches usually always tell you if you’re the guard guarding the guard off the dribble handoff you have to be the first one to hit him and make contact right so if you don’t hit him and make contact then it’s easy for the big to get a hit on the screen and roll um and so when you when you look at this clip obviously you can go go forward one one notch so you see Elliott he kind of gets up into the ball right but then when the big comes into the screen Elliott kind of hits it and stops right you kind of as a as a Defender sometimes you kind of get hit and you just kind of okay slowly get back into the play well if you do that it puts the big into a tough situation right so the the guard comes off the the guard comes off the pick and roll when the guard comes off Elliot kind of gets hit he’s behind the play a little bit so now Vin Len who’s right there guarding the big he’s in a situation where do I help up do I stay back and let the guard come right downhill at me what what am I supposed to do um you know and so as they come downhill you can go and click it one more forward as they come downhill now he’s kind of in no man’s land and if you’ve got a true big um like Michigan state had pretty much all game to be able to throw lobs to that’s a easy play for the guard to be able to just throw it right up to the big and so obviously this play finishes in a lob dunk and Michigan state has momentum going down um and so I think when you look at defense there has to be a physicality first right it’s got to be a hit first now obviously North Carolina has been playing kind of a they’ve been playing The Bigs in a in a flat drop right flat drop for those who might not know is basically you’re at the level of the big that’s setting screen and as the guard comes off and comes towards you you want to kind of back up and try to stay below the other big so that lobs like this don’t happen well like we talk about if the guard gets hit then the big is in a weird situation they don’t really know you know truly whether they go and pick up the ball or they keep on coming back and give the guard kind of a an easy Lane to the rim so I think that’s the biggest thing for me is the physicality that I kind of see um and I don’t think it’s necessarily at a level especially at this level of of teams that they’re playing against um for them to be able to you know consistently get stops yeah I like the word there that you use No Man’s Land because I think that’s really the key here I’m gonna come back to this third clip uh ven Allen Lubin is in a really tough spot here you either have to be able to impact the ball handler trap him a little bit or you have to be able to disrupt the lob and prevent that pass from being thrown and if you’re doing neither you’re You’re really hurting the defense and valal already isn’t the the longest athlete he’s not the quickest athlete um so the positioning really matters here getting this right trying to find a way uh to prevent these easy lobs because even a casual UNCC basketball fan can understand there’s just been way too many of these easy lobs this is one example from the Michigan State State game we could have picked a lot of different examples from the first seven games of the Season where it just feels like lob after lob is being thrown on UNC I’ll stick with the the No Man’s Land Theme as well for Elliot because I think in this clip Elliot is in a little bit of of No Man’s Land as well he’s maybe trying to drop off a little bit you know Elliott has the basketball IQ to know what’s coming he’s thinking this is going to be a lob play maybe it’ll be a pocket pass things like that but by not being physical at the start of the play he’s putting himself in a tough position so he’s kind of in no man’s land a little bit as well and then from a physicality perspective I want to point out the help Defenders too uh Jaylen Withers and I think that’s RJ down there on the Baseline those two players should be in position to help out a little bit now it’s tough they’re going to be put in a tough spot you don’t necessarily want RJ abandoning his man either because that could be an opportunity for an easy kick out three to that guard um but I think it comes back to that physicality and just aggressiveness that you talked about too you notice when you watch UNC basketball very closely on on defense there’s a lot of flat-footedness uh in not to pick on on Jay wash and and or or Jaylen Withers in this clip but he’s a little bit flat-footed here he could be kind of stunting a little bit into the lane maybe knocking the Michigan State player off of his Mark a little bit so it’s not quite as easy of a lob um and you know you could make the same point about Withers maybe he’s in a little bit of no man no man’s land here not quite defending the three-pointer but also not quite defending the role so it shows defense is a team effort and it requires all five guys playing sort of in concert together in order to stop these sort of easy baskets and all these points in the paint for unc’s opponents yeah and I think it’s it’s easy to see I mean this is the perfect picture right here if if there were to have been a little more physicality or even if you do get up into the ball and the big gets um a good hit on you right some bigs they just set really good screens and it’s hard to get over um so it’s not necessarily every time hey the guards need to get over the ball screens um but if they’re if if if Elliott were to get hit but then turn and get back in front of the guard and you go back to that last picture of of where the guard is in front of Elliott and and and Allen L is kind of in no man’s land so if Elliott is back in front of the ball then then Allen can just go right back to the big completely takes away any conversation of well he’s in no man’s land or well where’s the help where’s the rotation right because for me whenever I watch it I don’t fully know kind of what the rotations are right A lot of times you do want Withers to be the one if the big Gets behind um are big then you want him to be the one to come in and hit because that’s a really hard pass to make as a point guard especially as a little guard to kick back as opposed to if RJ were to step in like you said that’s an easy kick to the corner knock down down one more whatever it might be they’re in rotation so for me it’s hard because I don’t really know what you know whether whether’s this supposed to be in there for me A lot of times I’ve seen that’s kind of the last you know the safety valve almost defensively is hey if the big does kind of get behind then we need somebody to you know kind of bump the big get him off the spot um but it all starts with the guard getting back in front right like I was thinking today I was like I I think I had two of the best guards who were able to get over screens and get back in front of the ball um and just so happens one is over there on the sideline with them and that’s Marcus Marcus was one of the best defenders first and foremost but one of the best defenders to be able to get through a screen any kind of screen and get back in front of his man right and then the other one is Kenny Williams and everybody knew how hard Kenny Williams played how many charges he took all that sort of stuff but it was always the little things right it was always they always got into their man first if they got hit they turn and sprinted it sounds so Elementary but they turned and Sprint and got back in front of the ball and it just created so much more freedom defensively because the bigs where will just to get back to the bigs uh the rotations didn’t have to happen um even if guys were out of position you know it didn’t look as bad um if they weren’t if they were flat footed kind of like you talk about like Withers might be in that in that clip it didn’t really matter it took care of everything right it clears out all of that so I think that’s kind of the biggest thing um when it comes to that because nowadays in college basketball that’s kind of all you see is pick and roll High pick and roll bring the bigs up have the bigs have the guards try to get downhill against the big so it’s not like North Carolina’s not going to see any more of that um you know and so I think that’s the first and foremost I think when you kind of look at like what are some other options um just kind of me watching and kind of some of the basketball that I’ve played um like we talk about they play a lot of flat so it kind of gives if the big does get a hit on the guard it gives the guard the ability to get downhill a lot towards the bigs and then you know that’s bigs are not necessarily as comfortable guarding guards coming downhill um so I think one thing you you could change is you could do a hard hedge that you see a lot of times against North Carolina you see these teams basically almost trapping all of the guards whenever they come off the ball screen um that can cause more turnovers that can just get the you know the the guard to retreat more so it’s harder to make those passes um to the The Bigs rolling um or you could just switch I think for me when I look at this team going small I think is one of their strengths and being able to go small means hey one through five switch everything just take them out of their offense every time they come off a ball screen they don’t have an advantage because the guy switches under on the roller the guy switches up on the ball handler um and it just takes him out of the offense so you know I think when you see a lineup with Withers at the five or even even vanin Allen at the five I think it’s like you know for me i’ I’d love to just see them go one through five switch and kind of see if that takes teams out of um out of kind of what they what they can do U but I think that physicality part and being the first team ready and the first team to hit is kind of the biggest the biggest adjustment yeah I think that the switching is is really interesting there couple things coming to play with that though number one foul trouble someone brought it up in the the chat I think Sean you brought it up in the chat Elliot is often in foul trouble thus far this season so if he’s switching onto a big man the big goes into the post post him up is that another quick foul for kadoo um and then also with the trapping and and things like that the switching you know UNC has some smaller guards and that becomes a challenge when you’re trying to to switch one through five trying to trap different plays all of the sudden you can kind of have some of the guards left out in an island and that actually brings up our next clip so I’ll bring this one up real quick as well because this shows you know un is trying things that’s one point I want to make sure I make as well if you guys are discussing it in the chat if we’re discussing it here on the podcast you can guarantee this very smart coaching staff is discussing it and they’re thinking through all these different things in the tradeoffs so they probably had a conversation okay what if we try to trap one of these so that’s what happens here this is in overtime um you know we’re not a 100 we didn’t know the defensive call here so we’re not sure if this is a freelance thing that these two guys did or whether this was coached but the effect here with two minutes left in overtime uh you know the the Michigan State ball handler has it at the top of the key the big comes up to to set a screen you can see here this time they they try something a little bit different both the guys uh Seth and and Jay wit come out and try to trap the the ball handler that’s just a really simple pass for an experienced point guard and this Michigan State team this is a well- coached team this this team had some veteran players so that’s an easy dump off pass there and then unfortunately we don’t want to leave this too too long up on the screen but this led to a dunk and if you were watching the game you probably saw it with one of uncc’s guards left to try to defend the r and that’s not a position you want to be in either Justin when you watch this second play is there anything that stood out here this different approach is this you know maybe something else that UNCC can try being a little bit more aggressive trying to trap some of these pick and roles yeah I mean I think once like you said uh once again I’m not totally sure what the call is right I don’t know if you know maybe they had called up you know in a Timeout or whatever hey next pick and roll I need y I want y’all to trap try to speed this point guard up um so if that’s the case then this makes sense of what they did on the ball um then that falls on Elliot as the low man being there ready and you know from from that perspective that means Elliott being a smaller guard he has to hit this big up above the charge Circle or else it turns out into the play that it ends up turning out um and that kind of goes to being the first team ready uh you kind of look here and ell just kind of standing straight up now I do have to give credit to Michigan State the way that this play was either drawn up or how they just executed is a very difficult play to defend um because Elliot’s not just guarding just a random you know guard down there in the you know in the low post either that’s one of the most athletic players in all of college basketball that’s sitting down there so if Elliott leaves too early that’s a lob if um Elliot doesn’t leave early enough then it finishes with the way that it finishes so um a part of it is just the execution of the offensive play um the second part is okay if this is how y’all want to do and trap then Elliott has to be up higher to be able to hit him make him make it decision a lot of times there aren’t a lot of bigs that can catch the ball in that situation and make a very quick and precise decision so that’s once again just being the first team ready the first team to hit now if it’s a miscommunication and this was supposed to be just a straight up switch or um whatever it is for me seeing where Withers is is too low anyways um as a Defender the lower that you are the the more space that you give a big to be able to set on you the easier it is for them to get a hit right so with Withers back here he can just kind of tee up where he wants to hit Withers um and so if if is in a switch situation then Withers should be up on the ball probably a little bit more right Seth is connected to the big as he comes up into a screen and then as he comes off the screen then with Withers Just spins underneath the big Seth takes the ball and the whole advantage that they had off this play is kind of taken away um so it’s kind of tricky to kind of figure out really what they were trying to do because of not really knowing what the call was um but I think in both those scenarios I think it’s once again not being ready uh not being the first to make any sort of contact UM and then maybe it’s just execution defensively um and not being in the spots that you’re supposed to or whatever it might be so um you know I think that was kind of a recurring thing as you watch the um as you watch the tournament you know the tournament kind of had these situations kind of throughout you know not obviously not the whole time I think North Carolina had some really great spurts defensively as well you know we can’t just sit here and just say they’re just terrible defensively I think they’ve shown that they can you know pressure the ball switch up box out and rebound and get out in transition I think you you saw spurts that throughout the tournament um but in times like that especially you got two minutes left in overtime um it’s a close game you get a stop there you can come down kind of you know take the momentum in a game um and just miscommunication or not being in the right spots so the right time kind of hurts them at the wrong time we’re going to take a quick second here and talk about our sponsors for this show we want to thank Johnny t-shirt which is the best place for Tar Hill gear it’s a Chapel Hill tradition since 1983 and they are 20-year partners of inside Carolina they have a big sale going on today for Cyber Monday so be sure to check out their website or if you’re in town this week for one of the basetball games be sure to check them out as well we also want to talk about congruity they’re the leading provider for Tar Hill business owners payroll HR and employee benefits needs inside Carolina listeners can get a free payroll and HR assessment by emailing Matt at congruity we’re going to take a quick second let the national ads run and we’ll be right back with more UNCC basketball talk here on the shooting at straight podcast it is Monday night at 8:33 Eastern we have 73 people here in the chat talking about UNCC basketball how awesome is that appreciate all of you watching us live Justin and I love doing this show every single week so thanks for the support thanks for commenting a lot of really great comments and questions tonight I think we’re going to have to pull up a question here to kind of keep this conversation going about the defense um Justin I think we had a question that we wanted to pull up here um about uh uh H uh Trimble playing so I’m gonna pull this up from Brian this is the question we wanted to to read here would we be more effective with Drake as a three has Hubert being forced to start tremble hurt our balance on each end what do you think here Justin uh I mean I think that’s a great question um you know I think kind of you know even in the chat people were kind of saying we’re smaller on the you know we have smaller guards and you know if we were to switch it’d be mismatches and things like that um for me I think I don’t necessarily think the size of the guards has really been a true issue um you know you always say defensively you have to give up something right so there has to be you know if you’re if a guy’s coming off a pick and roll like we had talked about earlier um you either have to help on the roll guy or you got to you give up a three or you stay out on the three and you give up a role um you know kind of throughout the game there’s always kind of those decisions that you have to make um and so when I when I think of this team and I think defensively when they’re at their best they’re their best whenever they’re putting pressure on the ball um pressuring other teams to take them out of what they’re doing um and so when I think of switching one through five you might be able to pressure you know three4 qut and they come up and set a ball screen and boom you switch and you’re still taking them out of what they want right if you if you do it the correct way there’s not a lot of bigs in college that you’re going to be able to you know you switch the guard takes it over takes advantage of the mismatch throws it into the big um and they go and score unfortunately UNCC has played probably two of the better bigs that you’ll play um in college basketball and and Hunter and now you know in my opinion the early National player of the year um in broom right like th like those guys are those you know okay we got a mismatch throw it into them they can go score so that’s kind of the unfortunate side of that but when you play guys who maybe like a Michigan State where basically those bigs are pick and roll guys there maybe lob threats but if you’re able to take you know pressure the guard to not be able to make those lobs then they you really they really can’t affect the game offensively other than getting on the glass which has already been an issue um and already you know has has had some made some holes in the defense but for me if you pressure and you take teams out of what they want then they have to start thinking of other ways to score as opposed to oh this is the easy pass to the middle let me just drop it off to the big and he can go down and dunk it right um so for me I don’t think the size of the guards is a problem which is why answering this question I think even having Drake at the four um could be good right I think Elliott RJ Seth I think at this point in my personal opinion I have not seen a better Trio of guards um in college basketball right so there’s no in my mind there’s no reason to break that up just because say oh man you know if we do switch we might have some size issues for me it’s like okay you know what if we’re just going to play small let’s play small let’s play uh you know basically one through four is all guards and let’s you know just switch and pressure and take all the teams out of everything right for me that’s kind of my idea um and then rebounding it has to be a team effort which it has had to be that all year but now it’s just okay you know what everybody’s got to get in there um so that’s a great question I think those three guards need to be on the floor a lot if not the whole game a majority of the game and so with that then it’s like okay where do we slide minutes to other people and you know especially in you know a guy like Drake and I think maybe at the four um you know I think playing at the three is obviously you know not a problem at all but I think kind of you know having that smaller lineup and being able to pressure and make teams do things that they want to do I think is Big yeah absolutely I’m glad you brought up some of the Guard play because there’s this quote from Tom ISO last week after the game and I think is good to bring in here Tom ISO of course a legendary basketball coach head coach at Michigan State he knows what he’s talking about and after the game he said this I’m quoting him here that is a very good basketball team we played right now those three guards might be the best three guard tandem I’ve ever seen and I mean that he says later that’ll end up a very good basketball team because guard play is so important and they’ve got good guard play so a lot of Praise from Tom ISO on the guards I don’t think the problem is the guards themselves that three-headed monster but rather some of the things we were talking about defensively to to work around that being first to hit better communication Better Effort uh there’s a lot of things that UNC can clean up and fix and they’ll have an opportunity to do that starting against Alabama on Wednesday this is a really big game Alabama is ranked highly they’re 10th in Ken Pal’s ranking this is also an important game because Alabama knocked UNC out of the tournament last year so I’m actually gonna start there Justin as a former player yourself you know rivalries in in college basketball are a little bit different these days because just there’s there’s so much turnover and you wouldn’t call UNCC Alabama a rivalry either of course but does a result like that last year do you think that matters for this year’s team and and how does that impact the preparation heading into this this matchup on Wednesday um I mean I think you know when you look at both rosters I think Alabama has four guys that were that played in the game last year I think North Carolina maybe has five um so a decent amount of players that were in that game um I think anytime a team knocks you out uh you definitely in the back of your mind you know when that game comes up you definitely think about that um but I think for me I think it should be more motivation of how Maui went right I think it’s a matter of hey let’s get back on track not necessarily the matchup against Alabama I think it’s hey we want to get back to playing how we want to play um does that add extra fuel for sure I think it it definitely should as a competitor um but but I think having that in the back of your mind of hey we want to get back to you know really who we are and play how we know we can play um and what better situation to do that than you know a match up against another top 10 team right um so I think you know for my experience I definitely you know when we lost my freshman year to Wisconsin um you know I I definitely would have loved to play Wisconsin again early on in the season um just because of that but if I was coming off of a tournament you know if I was coming off of a Maui tournament where I you know took two losses um you know I would also be kind of fixated on just getting back and playing how I know I could play so um you know I think it’s kind of a mix but you know at the end of the day too I think it’s important to know that it’s early right that’s what’s so cool about these kind of tournaments is um and these big games going into the Alabama game right it it’s so early but yet you’re still able to kind of measure where you are against these top level teams and you know obviously you you look at the tournament you say okay you know we got to clean this this and this up and now we move on to Alabama and going forward Georgia Tech after that on Saturday and um you know now let’s apply this and let’s apply what we’ve been working on in practice and what we’ve been watching in film and let’s you know let’s move on to the next one let’s do we know we’re supposed to do when we look at the Alabama roster you you mentioned just a few players as holdovers from that team Grant Nelson though the uh the transfer from North Dakota State he is still on the roster last year in the tournament game he had 24 points 10 of 13 from the free throw line um so I’ll tell you if I’m on UNCC I’m taking that as a challenge to try to shut him down and prove uh that last season was last season that that that this is a a new year what are some other keys to victory for this game for you Justin just kind of a little bit of a preview because this is such a a big matchup for UNC part of the accs challenge uh on Wednesday night yeah I mean it’s kind of funny like these teams kind of mirror each other um besides the position that Grant Nelson plays right and you know you hear a lot of Mark Spears and how good of a guard he is right but you also hear a lot of RJ and how good of a guard he is and now Elliott and Seth and how good of guards he are he they are and you know obviously the other guards that Alabama has you know they’ve you know played really well to start this season as well um but for me the biggest question mark of this game is who’s going to be able to slow Grant Nelson down right last year he was obviously the ex factor and the in my opinion the biggest reason that they you know knocked North Carolina out so who is it you know that steps up in this particular game you know is it Drake coming in and playing smaller but using his versatility against Grant Nelson is it Jay wit is it Jay wash is it vanin Allen who who is it that steps in and um you know that is able to make that impact you know I see a lot of people in the chat talking about James Brown and you know giving him a chance um you know I I don’t know who it I don’t know who it is right but I think me when you look at this Alabama team I think Grant Nelson for one doesn’t get enough Pub um and attention but especially with this matchup I think that’s the biggest X Factor going in and the biggest um you know are they going to be able to slow him down and if not it’s going to be really difficult you know you look at kind of Alabama throughout the throughout the season I mean they shoot 29 free throws a game right North Carolina we talked about it North Carolina’s shooting like 27 28 free throws a game right um rebounding wise they rebound about the same you know um everything kind of matches up pretty similar to how North Carolina plays besides that one that one position so that’s kind of what I’m going to be keying in on um you know from the jump who takes that challenge um and who steps in to really you know do what needs to be done to try to come out with a win against a really good Alabama team one of the things that we talked about when we were first starting the show this year you know we don’t know exactly what the the ceiling is how far this team can go but every single night this team is gonna be fun to watch I think that was proven in Maui they played some really close really hard games I think this one on Wednesday night is gonna be really fun to watch as well up and down basketball going to be a great non-conference matchup we did things a little bit differently on the show tonight we went really deep into the defense defense under construction I do have to confirm as well to tie things back from the beginning so Justin you’ve never been of a part of a practice where the coaches take all the rims off the basket that’s never happened to you I did not my I think I went in the year after um I think actually they did one of those uh I think it might have been against it was the year before I got there and I think it was after the game against Texas maybe um where they had that so thankfully I didn’t have that now we definitely had some practices where the the rim basically should have been off there there wasn’t much offense involved uh but we never had it till we walked in and there was no rims and you know heart drop and all that sort of stuff so I’m sure coach Davis and this in this coaching staff had something uh up their sleeves to get the guys right get the guys motivated um and that sort of thing uh but I mean I this this this is what college basketball is all about right you have all these big time matchups um especially coming up I mean You’ on the same day you’ve got a game like Iowa state versus Marquette who’s five and six in the country and you know the guys down the road play against you know Auburn and you know it’s like there’s so many different you know Big Time matchups and big tournaments and things like that early on the season that it creates so much you know the the rankings and things like that go up and down until everything kind of settles once conference play starts so I think for this team the biggest thing for them is just getting back to playing how they’re supposed to executing on both ends getting out of transition offensively um the guards getting downhill offensively and then defensively whatever the call is whatever communication needs to be done wherever players are supposed to be whether it’s you know pick and roll coverage or uh pin Downs or whatever it is just getting back to executing on both ends of the floor and executing with some physicality and I think they’ll be just fine North Carolina plays Wednesday night 7:15 Eastern tip in Chapel Hill you can check out that game on ESPN then they play Saturday against Georgia Tech then we’ll be back here next Monday night to talk about everything the season will look a lot different if we’re sitting here next week and and UNCC has won these next two games it’s gonna be a big a week a pivot week for UNC basketball Justin take us out any final thoughts any final shoutouts as a part of this episode tonight defense under construction no I mean I think one of the big things that we didn’t talk about was the fact that the game is in the dean dome right and um like you said you know I know that that place is going to be absolutely rocking um when this game starts so obviously shout out to all the fans and students and everything like that that’s going to be there uh you know cheer those boys on um you know players as much as they might not want to admit it you definitely feed off of uh the energy from the crowd especially in that Dean doome so um you know super excited I know These Guys these guys should be excited with these kind of games you know especially being able to play at home um with the with the crowd like that so super excited to watch it I think it’s going to be a really good game and you know hopefully they come out on top and they kind of execute some of these things and make some adjustments wherever they need to Great appreciate everyone watching tonight thanks for the 71 who joined us live we’ll be back next week and have a great week everyone

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