Game Thread [2023-24] UNC Pembroke (Exhibition)

[deepdarkblue]

My cold leftover takes, after rewatching the game-

Offensively, we could not finish at the rim. Given the size and talent disparity, we should have crushed UNC-P on the interior. We did not.

Schutt still looks useless. So far the only thing he's fairly good at is making wide open 3's when someone passes him the ball at the perfect instant.

Caleb Foster is a work in progress. He did dumb things on both ends of the court and 2-6 on FTs is not something I want to see going forward.

TJ Power is also a work in progress, he gets lost a lot. Still better than Schutt.

Tyrese Proctor might be our best player. He opened with 5-of-5 on 3-point shots and his defense was nice.

Ryan Young didn't have a good game, UNC-P was too physical for his sneaky granddad game to work.

Jeremy Roach is exactly the same player he was last year, for better and for worse.

Ditto Jaylen Blakes.

Stewart had a quietly good game.

 

[DurhamSon]

What did the rebounding look like, specifically defensively? If we're going to take a step back at bothering shots at the bucket, which is natural after losing Lively, I at least hope we remain stout on closing out possessions from the other teams' missed shots

 

[Pantone287]

Assumed this was the case, but good to see:

 

[StopThePumpFakesShav]

Hearing that Flip crushed it against Nova, an actual team, is a bigger deal then him looking mediocre in some bullshit exhibition game though.

Yeah, but can we believe anything from the Nova reports?

Literally heard Duke blew them out and then heard Duke lost. How do you get something that basic wrong?

I think a national reporter (Goodman) specifically calling him out and Flip himself with kind of a sassy tweet to the Duke bball twitter account right after the game makes me feel like reports of him crushing were prob correct. And intimations from TDD guys re: the same. Together this makes me at least feel confident that he was good.

 

[CK86]

What did the rebounding look like, specifically defensively? If we're going to take a step back at bothering shots at the bucket, which is natural after losing Lively, I at least hope we remain stout on closing out possessions from the other teams' missed shots

Work in progress is how I'd put it. When they were focused the first 10 minutes or so (until the lead got bigger), they seemed to be good about team rebounding. It was after they got that big lead (it was like 25-5 at one point, may have even been 32-5, can't remember specifically) that there started to be a drop in overall quality. I do think team defensive rebounding is going to be the difference in how far they go this year. There are absolutely minutes there for Reeves though if all he does is block shots and rebound.

 

[physicsfactor]

Coach Jai specifically bragged about team rebounding when asked about the secret scrimmage vs Nova, so yeah, I’m hoping you’re right that the team will be better at it when the stakes are higher.

 

[Grit]

Pembroke had 10 ORBs off 31 missed field goals

Box Score - UNC Pembroke (PDF) - Duke University

Box Score - UNC Pembroke (PDF)

goduke.com

 

[rome8180]

What did the rebounding look like, specifically defensively? If we're going to take a step back at bothering shots at the bucket, which is natural after losing Lively, I at least hope we remain stout on closing out possessions from the other teams' missed shots

Work in progress is how I'd put it. When they were focused the first 10 minutes or so (until the lead got bigger), they seemed to be good about team rebounding. It was after they got that big lead (it was like 25-5 at one point, may have even been 32-5, can't remember specifically) that there started to be a drop in overall quality. I do think team defensive rebounding is going to be the difference in how far they go this year. There are absolutely minutes there for Reeves though if all he does is block shots and rebound.

I thought the defensive rebounding was bad overall. Lots of possessions where UNCP got three chances at a shot.

 

[rome8180]

Pembroke had 10 ORBs off 31 missed field goals

Box Score - UNC Pembroke (PDF) - Duke University

Box Score - UNC Pembroke (PDF)

goduke.com

I do not believe they only had 10 offensive rebounds. There must be some goofy accounting like there is with blocks. Maybe balls that careen off the rim which don't go straight into the hands of a player aren't counted as a rebound?

 

[rome8180]

After only watching the first 14 minutes -- in which Pembroke had 10 points, was 4-15, and had 11 turnovers -- I'm higher on this team than the consensus.

I thought Proctor, Roach, Mitchell, and McCain all looked great. Flip looked good enough. He probably would have looked better being guarded by an actual slow center. Foster, Blakes, and Stewart were solid.

I stopped watching at that point because I knew it was all downhill from there. Seems like we ended both halves bleeding points.

 

[StopThePumpFakesShav]

Supposedly Pembroke led D-2 in rebounding last year and it’s like the thing they do best. I’m not saying that means we should struggle against a D-2 team but just a note that it must be a point of emphasis for them.

Edit to add a better data point. They played Houston a few days before us and lost 86-47. They had 13 OReb against Houston (to Houston's 16 DReb). So maybe they are actually good at it.

 

[physicsfactor]

Supposedly Pembroke led D-2 in rebounding last year and it’s like the thing they do best. I’m not saying that means we should struggle against a D-2 team but just a note that it must be a point of emphasis for them.

Edit to add a better data point. They played Houston a few days before us and lost 86-47. They had 13 OReb against Houston (to Houston's 16 DReb). So maybe they are actually good at it.

Emphasizing rebounding? Is that allowed?

 

[bdotling]

After only watching the first 14 minutes -- in which Pembroke had 10 points, was 4-15, and had 11 turnovers -- I'm higher on this team than the consensus.

I thought Proctor, Roach, Mitchell, and McCain all looked great. Flip looked good enough. He probably would have looked better being guarded by an actual slow center. Foster, Blakes, and Stewart were solid.

I stopped watching at that point because I knew it was all downhill from there. Seems like we ended both halves bleeding points.

Yeah that’s basically it. We were great for the beginning stretch and then we played with random rotations of guys who won’t play that much. Especially the last 8-10 minutes of the second half

 

[Pantone287]

I'm rooting pretty hard for Stewart to keep his mistakes down to the point where he warrants significant rotation minutes. He's definitely a unique athlete on this roster, and I feel like we could really benefit from his chaotic, energetic presence around and above the rim on both ends. Would also have major implications for next year if he's good enough to be legit "piece" of this team's construction.

Plus, he's just really fun to watch. I'm very intrigued by him, Power, Foster, and maybe Reeves as guys who have a ton left to unlock but still have a journey ahead of them to get there. Watching the progress of those types of players is prob the most fun part of the regular season grind to me.