Game tonight with UNC Asheville

[lost 452]

I do not see a thread started yet, so i thought i would start one.  Auburn leads UNC Asheville 2-1 all-time with all three games being played in Auburn. The Tigers won the first two games in the series (1998 and 2001) but lost in overtime to the Bulldogs, 70-69, in what was the first game played in Auburn Arena.  Asheville is 1-6  and is in the Big South Conference.  Auburn is 35.5 point favorites. The Bulldogs of Asheville are the youngest team in THE ncaa overall.  Everything tonight screams another blowout.  This team is one of the worse statistically in the Nation.

[Gene Loblaw 636]

Should be a blowout.

 

i expect Doughty to get a lot of minutes playing PG. If he can develop in a solid option after Jared, then the sky is the limit for this team once Purifoy returns 

[lost 452]

Hopefully we improve in the area we are lacking this year in this GAME,   free throw shooting

[doverstutts 1,643]

free throws and i would like to see them share the ball a little more and work it into the paint...at some point, we are going to have to feed wiley on the low block due to 3's not falling, and to honest, that worries me because his footwork is awful....i watched dickerson last night from washington, and he has footwork like a big guard....really was impressed at how he positioned himself....wiley is getting better, though.....i guess it was a learning/teaching experience against duke, but i would have liked to have played the game with the better movement that i have started to see....better ball movement and just a wee bit smarter and we would have won that game....may have lost to gonzo's the next night, but hey"ain't this **** fun?"....this team is actually better than i thought it would be and i expected it to be damn good....when purifoy gets back, HE MUST DRIVE THE BASKET!!!....if he will do that and if he will learn to kick it back out or lob to mac or wiley, this team could be very special and i won't say it out loud just yet....i am satisfied with the defense for the most part....i would like to see bruce turn up the heat full court, now that wiley is back.....i have noticed a few SEC teams that have had some ball handling issues....kinda' like our "shoot it bryce, just don't dribble it!" situation

[boisnumber1 2,818]

4 hours ago, lost said:

Hopefully we improve in the area we are lacking this year in this GAME,   free throw shooting

Yes. We sewed a lot of games up last season with FTs - small leads at the end were games we put away. Dont like what Ive seen so far, but can be fixed. 

[wcware 1,365]

Is the game on tv

[lost 452]

Just now, wcware said:

Is the game on tv

SEC Network

[wcware 1,365]

Just now, lost said:

SEC Network

Thanks

[cole256 17,043]

Hard to say what we need to focus on because we've had a mostly laughable schedule. Need to see what we do as far as habits against quality teams

[AU82 127]

Everybody plays. Stats are padded   We feel good.  I kinda liked this feeling.  There have been many years this game would have been a nail biter.  It’s a break from football news.  

[gravejd 3,270]

On 12/4/2018 at 7:41 PM, cole256 said:

Hard to say what we need to focus on because we've had a mostly laughable schedule. Need to see what we do as far as habits against quality teams

Dang man, we've played Washington, Xavier, Duke, and Arizona and have a SOS in the 30s. We gotta have some breathers in there. 

[cole256 17,043]

7 minutes ago, gravejd said:

Dang man, we've played Washington, Xavier, Duke, and Arizona and have a SOS in the 30s. We gotta have some breathers in there. 

You had Washington that was our first test from summer. Xavier doesn't seem to be a good team but even so they exposed some things in us. Since the tourney we haven't played anybody. And I know you have some fillers but like I said in another post you want them to be good enough to show you what you need to do to adjust to mistakes or whatnot. These last few teams are bottom of the barrel teams. So we could play bad like we did last night but still cruise and win by 40. I'm not saying play Duke every night, but bammer losing to Georgia st and playing Murray st. That will help them. 

Since Xavier and Duke showed us some weaknesses I don't know if we've worked those things out yet or is it something that we'll have to deal with the entire year or not because of these last few teams can't compete. We don't know where Doughty is at. Back up point guard play. The conference schedule starts in a few weeks

[cole256 17,043]

But we are going to see and maybe a break was needed? The next few games will show us where we at, I just don't think we can really know right now. I don't take anything from the last two games

[gravejd 3,270]

27 minutes ago, cole256 said:

But we are going to see and maybe a break was needed? The next few games will show us where we at, I just don't think we can really know right now. I don't take anything from the last two games

Exactly, we have Dayton, UAB, NC State, and Murray state coming up and those are not gimmes. Having a couple easy games to get a break between Maui and this next stretch is good with me. 

And that awful st peters team took Clemson to the wire so any can come in  and surprise you these days. But yeah the long stretch between 2 weak games has left me a little wanting. Looking forward to seeing how we do on Saturday when it picks back up

[bigbird 60,493]

On 12/4/2018 at 6:41 PM, cole256 said:

Hard to say what we need to focus on because we've had a mostly laughable schedule. Need to see what we do as far as habits against quality teams

A couple things that I noticed during this game.  First, our focus is all over the place. There are time where we lock in and execute beautifully and others where we can't make a pass, dribble off our foot, or love one over the backboard.  We need to really stress the idea if locking in for the entire game. We allow too many unforced turnovers and silly fouls when we aren't.  Secondly, we play 100 times better when we work inside out.  Our shooters need to quit jacking up quick, one pass or no pass shots.  If we work inside out, move without the ball, and make good crisp passes, then our shooters will be wide open and even more deadly from 3.  JMO

[jared52 4,354]

On 12/4/2018 at 6:41 PM, cole256 said:

Hard to say what we need to focus on because we've had a mostly laughable schedule. Need to see what we do as far as habits against quality teams

Washington, Xavier, Duke, and Arizona are half of that laughable schedule though. Maybe Arizona and Xavier aren't as good as they were, but they did give us some good indications of where the team is.

[Tiger 8,818]

9 hours ago, bigbird said:

A couple things that I noticed during this game.  First, our focus is all over the place. There are time where we lock in and execute beautifully and others where we can't make a pass, dribble off our foot, or love one over the backboard.  We need to really stress the idea if locking in for the entire game. We allow too many unforced turnovers and silly fouls when we aren't.  Secondly, we play 100 times better when we work inside out.  Our shooters need to quit jacking up quick, one pass or no pass shots.  If we work inside out, move without the ball, and make good crisp passes, then our shooters will be wide open and even more deadly from 3.  JMO

 

[Tiger 8,818]

This next stretch of games is going to be critical. We need to be locked in we can't afford to play poorly and still win. I want to go 4-0 over the next 2 weeks

[gravejd 3,270]

9 minutes ago, Tiger said:

This next stretch of games is going to be critical. We need to be locked in we can't afford to play poorly and still win. I want to go 4-0 over the next 2 weeks

Its going to be hard to pull that off. When you look at each game in a vacuum they don't look too intimidating. In each game we should be favored to win and therefore will be expected to win. But these are quality teams and its hard to repeatedly go against quality teams and beat. Let downs and bad games are a way of life and they happen to the best of teams. But this (and Maui) are the kind of stretches we need to be able to handle if we want to win the SEC again and make more noise in the tournament. 

[Tiger 8,818]

Just now, gravejd said:

Its going to be hard to pull that off. When you look at each game in a vacuum they don't look too intimidating. In each game we should be favored to win and therefore will be expected to win. But these are quality teams and its hard to repeatedly go against quality teams and beat. Let downs and bad games are a way of life and they happen to the best of teams. But this (and Maui) are the kind of stretches we need to be able to handle if we want to win the SEC again and make more noise in the tournament. 

Yup, you're not wrong all of these teams can beat us. I expect the Dayton game to be a close one. They play tough and at a slow tempo. They could certainly beat us. UAB is going to be challenge on a neutral floor where we never seem to shoot as well, going up to Raleigh vs NC State is going to be a big and challenging one, and Murray State gave us all we could handle last season.  If we attack these games with one at a time like we did last season we could still have 1 loss as we head into Christmas. But we could also go 2-2 during this stretch. I'm super pumped about this upcoming stretch. I think we will learn about ourselves.

Best thing is, we get Danjel back for UAB. That means we are still going to have room to grow even after the Murray State game as everyone gets acclimated to us having (hopefully) all of our pieces available to us for the first time since 2016.