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GYERO

got the bourbon back out. Because my resolve to not watch sports lasted about 15 minutes, and now I'm watching two of the teams I hate most (OSU and TENN) play football. Going to take a shot every time a non-career threatening (but CFP impactful) injury, for either team takes place. What a cruel twist of fate; having to hate AND pull for OSU within the span of 3 hours...

Just how many personalities do you have?
 
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Looking at the boxscore, after a 20 point beatdown, I was surprised at how close the stats were. Just a horrendous shooting night. I'm not a basketball, but it LOOKS, to my untrained eye, that we're trying, more and more, to beat our guys off the dribble, especially down low. We don't have those horses. Defense? We're going to have to start zoning a LOT more, and make teams beat us from three.
 
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I'm not going to freak out about a loss 4 days before Christmas in NYC. Those dudes looked like they were mentally already on the plane to see the family.

Biggest worry is we have to get backup point sorted out. We need Kerr back ASAP or Chandler to start picking up at least some real minutes at guard to lessen the burden on Lamont having to play every single minute of every game. I'm not super pumped about the play of Amari Williams of late, either.

Moving on.
 
There have been a number of warning signs that a performance like last night was coming. For a veteran team, it's disappointing how disengaged they were. Basically already had their minds on the plane ride home for eggnog and cookies.

I think this game is an anomaly in the grand scheme. But it might be a seed line hit come March. 3-2 against P5 (+Gonzaga) OOC teams with wins against Duke and the Zags will be nice for the resume, but the losses to Clemson and OSU really sting. I think 11-12 SEC wins still gets us a 2 seed. But damn, that's going to be a gauntlet.
 
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The SEC schedule this year is going to resemble an SEC football schedule - heavyweight matchups every week.

I've read that UK supposedly has the toughest remaining schedule in the country, but I was curious so I looked closer. Right now, there's probably a Big 5 group of SEC teams (which could easily change, and quickly).

But among the current "Big 5":

UK has 5 home and 4 road games vs ranked teams.

Auburn, Bama and Florida also have 5 home, 4 road games vs ranked teams, while UT has 3 home, 6 away.

UK, UT and Bama each have 6 games vs the "Big 5", while Auburn and UF each have 5.

Not to say that other teams won't have major impact: they almost certainly will.

Gonna be a gauntlet.
 
Looking at the boxscore, after a 20 point beatdown, I was surprised at how close the stats were. Just a horrendous shooting night. I'm not a basketball, but it LOOKS, to my untrained eye, that we're trying, more and more, to beat our guys off the dribble, especially down low. We don't have those horses. Defense? We're going to have to start zoning a LOT more, and make teams beat us from three.


Weirdly reminded me of Pitino's excellent Mashburn led team that lost an early game against Pittsburgh - badly - in Rupp

Sometimes gremlins get loose & $hit trends atypical

Having said that - Gremlins are no match for the Gambling Orc's who now wield much greater influence than ever before

If we can get the Orcs and Gremlins to distrust one another - and continually bathe their houses in a low frequency/pulsed electro-magnetic "push" of radiation -- I believe we can break them

I gathered with family in TN to watch a bevy ot games while also hoping to secure a victory in "Risk"

Steelers lost
UK lost
UT lost (brothers angry)
And i came in dead last in a 6-man Risk field

And I broke both toilet paper holders in BOTH GD bathrooms at Mommas house


I can FEEL her stink eye from beyond these mortal coils


Anywho -
 
Gotta do everything you can to secure Australia at the outset. Easily defended. Then the North and South America combo. Stay out of Asia until the end when you have overwhelming numbers.
 
Weirdly reminded me of Pitino's excellent Mashburn led team that lost an early game against Pittsburgh - badly - in Rupp

Sometimes gremlins get loose & $hit trends atypical

Having said that - Gremlins are no match for the Gambling Orc's who now wield much greater influence than ever before

If we can get the Orcs and Gremlins to distrust one another - and continually bathe their houses in a low frequency/pulsed electro-magnetic "push" of radiation -- I believe we can break them

I gathered with family in TN to watch a bevy ot games while also hoping to secure a victory in "Risk"

Steelers lost
UK lost
UT lost (brothers angry)
And i came in dead last in a 6-man Risk field

And I broke both toilet paper holders in BOTH GD bathrooms at Mommas house


I can FEEL her stink eye from beyond these mortal coils


Anywho -

maybe-ehhh.gif
 
-Little voice in my subconscious has been whispering that it thinks we're a fraudulent 4th ranked team. Sure we deserved it BUT we're obviously flawed. That was a beat down from a not very good team without their best player. We shoulda murked UL. We go through some brutal scoring droughts. All the sudden we can't hit layups, the 3 point attempts look rushed, the flow is clunky, D isn't great, no rim protection. Gonna a some more 4-22 and 18% from 3 nights. It's a good team, not a great team.

-Now, that's why those 2 massive early season wins are so God Damn important. We can struggle and still have a heluva lifeline.

-I don't see it with Chandler. Hopefully, it's just nerves, but he's not a 18yo. He's a grown man. We could REALLY use a backup PG.

-All the portal additions seem to be good but you're replacing 20+ transfers + whatever guys graduated, at least one retired, or entered the draft. So say we are bringing in 40% all new guys? Good luck building continuity with that. Better hope you picked the right guys to stick around.

-Last season of Cobra Kai is actually pretty solid. One of the better seasons.
 
Whats off is that this is a big event to our fans but reality is our players come from schools where every game isn’t the end all be all. Couple that with the holidays and typical hitting a wall feeling after finals etc and this event is just ill timed and also stupid as I don’t care about anyone other than UNC.

We’ve been scouted and it’s clear that teams are pressing up past the 3pt line on us, slowing us down as much as possible, and playing more physical than we are willing.

Thats the scouting report and the SEC schedule is going to do the same times 10.

The best thing about it all and for us to remember is once we get past this SEC season we’ll be ready for much easier NCAA matchups.

This is about as much of an old school team, schedule and preparation for the ultimate goal as I can remember.
You keep telling yourself all of this. There have been warning signs for the last 5 games. "After the SEC we will have much easier NCAA matchups"? We just got FN run by a non tournament / play in team by 20. WTF do you think will happen against a physical tournament caliber team ? Well unless you are thinking about maybe a easier first round matchup. If we keep losing games like these, our second round opponent will be a hell of a lot tougher than you want to pretend it will be. This not a Xmas break, holiday let down. It has been brewing for 3 weeks. Also, what kind of arena do you think we will play in during the tournament ? Hint, it will be just like the one we just played in. But keep making excuses and only accepting all the positives from this team, I don't know if you are propping the team or yourself up the most. Not bashing you, just frustrated as hell with this team. The depth we thought we had, is not near as good as it showed against the early schedule, and this team has been soft and less than max effort most all of the year.
 
-I don't see it with Chandler. Hopefully, it's just nerves, but he's not a 18yo. He's a grown man. We could REALLY use a backup PG.

You aren't going to see anything from anyone who gets 5 minutes a game total in spurts. He isn't left in long enough to break a sweat. The talent is there, but there is obviously something that is keeping him from getting quality minutes, especially w/ the teacher's pet KK out right now.
 
Absolute shit of a wknd for the most part.

- 2 hours delayed (mechanical) getting in on Friday.

- 3 hours delayed (downed power lines) getting home last night. Train station was an absolute mess with apparently no trains running btwn 6am-12pm. Basically stood in 1 spot for 2.5 hours bc they had no confidence in any of the times and trains were just showing up.

- Game was a complete no-show. UNC had a ton of fans there and they departed after the first game. We had a good representation but arena was 40-50% empty and the whole mood from tip was dead.

- We can’t win when we have below average (maybe even average) shooting performances. What bothered me was our offense looked predictable, kind of like it was at end of Tubby years.

- We have 3-4 really good players but I would put everyone else in the category of “role player”. Think we need to change up our substitution patterns to have our 4 best players always on the court.

- NYC always been stupidly expensive but shit, it’s gotten crazy. $40 for a double cocktail in the arena. $30 for a pastrami/corned beef sandwich at a diner.

- John’s pizza and then a dessert slice from Joe’s pizza was some of the best pizza I’ve ever had. Highly recommend.

- Jack Demsey’s was packed pregame. That place had to make a killing, as it was full around noon and there were still cats fans in there till 9:30pm.

- I hate Osu but just couldn’t pull for Tennessee. Glad to see them get beatdown… game was over in Q1.

- Cold as shit here today, was 4 when I woke up. Long way from siesta key’s 70’s.

- Couldn’t care less about our portal additions… wake me up when the season starts. It’s not a recruiting issue, it’s coaching and execution.

- Saw the spot where the UHC CEO got murdered. Was about 1/2 block where my cousin works.

- Feels like we’ve been celebrating Christmas in our house for 2 wks already. Ready for it to be over.

- 3 day work weeks for last week, this week, and next.
 
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Gotta do everything you can to secure Australia at the outset. Easily defended. Then the North and South America combo. Stay out of Asia until the end when you have overwhelming numbers.
You can't stay out of Asia because the Asia ruler getting mad reinforcements every time it's his turn. Once he attacks Indonesia it's your ass. Gotta bunker down in Siam and load up there and hope nobody pays attention to you.
 
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- My sweet, innocent, well mannered 5th grade girls team got a dose of the ghetto this weekend, also known as Audubon Elementary. Needless to say we had to have a talk with the group afterwards about a lot of new words being thrown their way in aggressive, anti white tones. Also was a good time to teach them about different lifestyles in this melting pot of a country. Great time at mid america sports center this weekend. a very well run gig they have going on there. I played there when I was in 8th grade and somehow the bar has been lowered.

- We obviously arent the fourth best team in the country even if we would have beaten a not good OSU team but I think a lot of issues will be corrected before Florida rolls into town. Wins over Duke Gonzaga and Louisville is a good enough OOC for year one i suppose.

- It may be because we have a one month old but this is the least christmasy I have ever felt. It could also be that my fourth grade girl is getting a cell phone when I absolutely disagree with that decision. All the little man asked for was a gaming chair (lol) and a new 4 wheeler helmet.
 
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But keep making excuses and only accepting all the positives from this team, I don't know if you are propping the team or yourself up the most.

Or maybe we aren’t coached by a fat wop who requires his way or lose.

Teams have us scouted, period. It’s been clear for the same time span you mention to have seen this coming.

Also I’m aware we will take a few more bad loses and because I expect them, they won’t bother me as bad as you. It’s coming.

However we are good and we will adjust. Teams like UF and Auburn won’t affect us as much as say Ole Miss, Tennessee or Alabama.
 
I'm adjusting my hope for a 2 seed, to at least being "the team that nobody wants to play" in the tournament. We're experienced and battle-tested.

If we reach that goal and make it to the second weekend, I'd say that would be a very successful Season 1.

Saturday seemed like a throwback to the Cal years, so I'm grateful that so far, that was just a one-off. Other than that, we've been fun to watch again.

After building a roster completely from scratch, returning 0% of anything that shows up in the stat sheet, that's all we could have reasonably asked for back in April (maybe more).

The future is bright.
 
re: Chandler - He hasn't played basketball in years. I still think he'll end up being pretty good before he leaves.

I've put the OSU loss behind me. It was obvious that the team overlooked OSU, and mailed it in. It's still better than what could have been, if not for Arkansas.

Kriisa should be back by the Vanderbilt game.

In the meantime, there HAS to be a better option than playing Travis Perry. He'll develop but he's awful out there right now.

We signed a ton of players but our bench, at the end of the day is pedestrian at best.

Almonor isn't nearly as good as I thought he'd be, and Williams is almost unplayable right now.


I still think we'll go 10-8 in league play.

Florida at Rupp is a huge game. If we drop that one then it's not a good sign.
 
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I think I'm most disappointed in Williams. Dude was billed as elite rim protection but doesn't challenge any of the attempts at the rim.

We were fine until Butler went out the first time. The wheels started to come off when Perry came in.

I thought we were making a push in the second until Robinson missed that layup. I'm not even mad that we lost. I was mad that we let it get completely out of hand. Show some effin pride.
 
I said after the Clemson loss I thought in reality we were somewhere between the 12th - 18th best teams in the country and really nothing has changed imo. We can be damn good, but also pretty meh. I’m still not sure how good gonzaga and Duke even are at this point. Louisville is fine, but a true top 5 team beats them by 20+. Hoping to go .500 in SEC and get out of there with a top 4 seed. Do that, make the second weekend and this season is a success imo. Anything less than that and maybe we start to worry a LITTLE

Vince Gaualdi Christmas album been heavy in my rotation lately. Such great vibes with that playing on the Alexa, listening to the crackling of the gas insert fireplace.

Headed down to beautiful Panama City beach Thursday from some New Year’s Eve baseball. I’m a f*cken idiot
 
Pope is still learning this group and will have to adjust his style or get our guys to adjust more.

When things get real and tough, players are going to do what they are most comfortable with…and we start 4 dudes who would rather get it to the basket than stretch the floor with a bomb.

Popes BYU team had a 5 at least willing/capable of shooting a 3 and 4s who’d rather shoot 3s. Carr is shooting half the amount of 3s he shot last year…the 5 isn’t getting enough up. Oweh is forcing drives. Gotta get to trusting the system. Big reason why Robinson was (-5) vs OSU and Oweh was (-26!).

Chandler - thought Osu was first game against a real team he looked comfortable with ball in hands. Didn’t play hot potato, played tough D. He is in convo for best athlete on team - I think he will come on and when he does, it’ll be quick. May take a year after missing 2 of game speed, but he will be good. Euro step, vertical leap, shot, height…has great tools.
 
Hopefully get Krissa back in time, Perry is like the last kid picked just so you have even teams at this point. Enjoy the ride this year, my hope was just to have fun watching OUR team again and thanking God for a transfer portal existing that allows you to field a competitive team immediately.
Like most, I didn't really feel like we're the #4 team, maybe #15-#25. .500 in the SEC this year would be a decent achievement if we're honest about it. Anything 11-7 or better is worthy of a parade. Defend Rupp like your life depends on it, with crowd support and best chance of friendly( - ier) whistle and steal a couple on the road.
We're going to find out immediately if we're gonna be what we were against OSU or against Duke with that Florida game to start. They look arguably as good as or better than UT or Auburn at thiis point and will probably be Top 5 on January 4. Beat them and sky's the limit, lose and start hoping we get enough help from SOS and enough wins to not sweat out Selection Sunday.
 
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