- I don't think I've ever left a home game before at halftime
Solid post........additional comments below
- Jamie deserves 100% blame for not having the team ready to play, not making any adjustments. Look, NC State needed that game one million times more than we did. They were 0-5, and have Duke twice in their next 4 games. Point blank, if they lose to us they are looking at potentially a 0-7, 0-8 start to the season. They still have a lot of talent, maybe the best player in the league, and enough bigs to give us trouble. Still, knowing how desperate they would be, we came out flat. Jamie has to do something about this team's body language when things don't go quite right, and the number one problem is that our two best players have this very annoying habit of sulking and whining when their shots don't fall. It carries over to their defensive play too, and it is a troubling pattern. Still, that's Jamie's job to get through to them. And the thing is, Jamie knows it. He knows his best players can also be his worst problem.
They've had this problem going back to last year. Jeter, Artis, and Mike in particular let their performance on the offensive end affect their play on the defensive end. Not sure how you correct that because this team doesn't have much offense without Mike and Artis and there really are no stronger defensive options on the bench to sit them.........At some point these guys need to have some self pride and maintain focus on the defensive end of the floor even when they are struggling offensively. At least when JROB is struggling, he still hustles on defense.
Clearly this team is in a collective funk. They didn't play especially well against BC so that's three subpar games in a row. Prior to the second half, JROB was back to playing tentatively. This team needs him to create off the dribble and finish a few in the lane and draw files.
Speaking of which, that brings up the toughness aspect that many have spoken about. When this team attacks the lane, they draw fouls. Their poor play the last few games has as much to do with settling for jump shots (playing soft) and not getting to the foul line as it does with the defensive end and shooting percentages. Granted NCST had a big lead but they were more aggressive going into the lane in the second half.
- I won't justify the thread advocating for firing Jamie by adding to it, only because it is the LAZIEST form of commenting (Fire the Coach!!), but I do think that the seat will be getting fairly warm if we miss the dance.
- I wouldn't consider firing Jamie yet. I like the recruiting for 2016. Manigault and Kithcart can be great. Chrisshawn Clark is exactly the kind of guard this team lacks. I think Jamie has also shown he's not so tied into a system, or that he's stubborn. He just has a roster right now of very inconsistent players, quite a few of them who aren't really making the leaps you'd like.
Talk of firing JD is incredibly premature. First off, lets see how he finishes this year. If he makes the NCAA tourney, that will have been a good year considering the holes this team had at the end of last year. IMO this year and next year are critical. Has to make the NCAA's this year and make a nice run next year with a senior laden team.
- Lineups wise, you simply have to give Cam Johnson more minutes. I'd play him more at the 2G/SF with Arits, and really phase out Sterling Smith if he refuses to shoot. Chris Jones is frustrating, but I still think he has some injury issues. He's a pretty good player at 10-15 mpg. I'd give Cameron 20 mpg or so and let him try to figure out how to be great, which I think he can. This team also seems to feed off of Jeter, who was just awful in stretches yesterday.
Sterling generally brings rebounding and defense but he was just as bad as everyone else and doesn't appear to be willing to take open shots. As a result, I think you have something with Cam. I liked the way he played defense against NCST and he has shown flashes of being a pretty good offensive player who is willing to take big shots. Kid needs more PT for sure.
I also agree with you about CJ. Kid shows flashes but is so inconsistent.
- This year in hoops is nuts. I can't remember seeing more ranked teams lose at home to unranked teams. WVU, Michigan St tonight. So much parity. ACC is a giant mess with UNC at the top, BC at the bottom, and a tossup with most teams in between.
- Team is at a crossroads right now. 15-3 so no reason to jump off the bridge, but a very tricky 4 game stretch here. If they can come out of it 3-1, they are right back on track for the NCAA's and a high seed. 2-2 wouldn't be the worst but it would make the last 8 games a dogfight to get in. Anything worse than 2-2 and it will be uphill to make the NCAA's. A home loss is like losing two games, so winning one of the next two will get that NC St game right back. They can certainly do it if they hit shots, but Jamie needs to get this team mentally right. That is job 1, 2, and 3 right now. Don't let them get down. So much season left.
Its a long season. MSU is mired in a three game skid........Duke is playing poorly...........CUSe started slowly............ITs way too soon to give up on this team yet. The could go on another mini run and win their next few games. However they cant afford to settle for jump shots and score less than 20 points in a half. Heck even if they played better defense that would put them down by more than points. They are never gong to shut teams down on defense so they cant afford to have halves where they are completely dysfunctional on offense.
As much as this team relies upon Mike, JROB and Artis, they cant afford to have Jeter playing as poorly as he has. HE has to regroup and get back to contributing quality minutes on both ends of the floor. He more than any player seems to be affected by the physical play and not having shots fall early.
HAIL TO PITT
