** As we all know, every college basketball season is its own journey.
** Early on, we dreamed it would be mostly just smooth sailing, But instead we found ourselves on something of a rocky road.
** Fortunately, today’s trip to the middle of the State of New York delivered us an ACC opponent that we could beat, because our journey really needed a win. And for the moment at least, we can still plan for a destination as part of March Madness.
** But until we can figure out how not to get pummeled on the defensive glass, our journey is going to end sooner that we’d like.
** This shouldn’t be considered a bounce back win for our Panthers. Instead it was one a little closer to survival.
** That isn’t to say that the Panthers didn’t do a reasonable share of good things. Most notably, for many stretches, we executed better offensively. We ran enough sets with a sense of purpose that created plenty of good looks, not to mention easy baskets and even dunks.
** It’s been a little too long since we’ve scored as many easy ones in the paint like we did today.
** This isn’t too say that we demonstrated good ball movement. But at least good enough ball movement.
** But the real difference today – and why this particular road trip ended with the much needed win instead of crushing defeat was because we took care of the basketball.
** Jaland was able to slow that game down to a better pace and avoid troublesome trips in the paint where he’d lose the ball. Ish too.
** You have to go all the way back to the opener against Radford when the two of them combined for as few as 2 turnovers. That was pretty remarkable actually for two guards who have the ball in their hands as much as they do.
** Somehow hopefully, Jaland can find his three point shot. Other than that too tough one that he needed to take at the end of a shot clock later in the second half, Jaland took good ones, but they aren’t falling. I don’t think Jaland is a good three point shooter. But he’s 3-18 in his last four games. He’s not this bad either.
** On the other hand, in those same four games, Ish is 11-19 from three.
** Another difference on the offensive end were some timely offensive rebound putbacks, most notably the two first half buckets by Jorge when the offense was reeling with the absence of Jaland from foul trouble.
** We needed every point today though because, once again, we were absolutely terrible on the defensive glass.
** Even though it’s been a weakness all year, this was worst it’s been.
** I’ll have to check the final stats, but it appears that we surrendered at least 14 second chance points. Against most teams, teams better than the Cuse, that’s a losing number.
** North Carolina is a team better than the Cuse. Our journey takes us back home in a situation where another win is much, much needed.
** But at the very least, we can finally say after five games, our journey is back in the right direction.
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