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Barnes, UNC struggling


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Roy Williams is an excellent coach. This team is still super young. They're soft inside though. They have 2 sticks playing the 4 and 5 with Henson and Zeller. Had Ed Davis stuck around, they'd be much better.

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Lets be realistic, after the season we had last year, its obvious we werent just going to be great again.. why the big surprise?

Because Harrison Barnes has been hyped to be as big of an impact, or bigger, than Kevin Durant was in Texas.

 

Rodney Williams locked him up in that game against Minny. Jeff Taylor played good defense on him in that game against Vandy.

 

UNC isn't defending well, but when the defense isn't performing, it's players like Harrison Barnes that are needed to step up and excel on at least one end of the court. He's supposed to be one of the most NBA-ready talents out there, but it's looking like he's still trying to adjust to college ball.

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It takes freshmen wings more time to develop than other positions at the NCAA level IMO. And once Roy Williams realizes it's time for Marshall to start, and Zeller and Henson develop more confidence, defenses will not be able to zero in on Barnes. Then we will see him thriving more under this system and hopefully putting up some big numbers.

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It takes freshmen wings more time to develop than other positions at the NCAA level IMO. And once Roy Williams realizes it's time for Marshall to start, and Zeller and Henson develop more confidence, defenses will not be able to zero in on Barnes. Then we will see him thriving more under this system and hopefully putting up some big numbers.

 

Not to mention giving Bullock more minutes so that the team actually has some spacing on offense. Teams are just packing the paint on defense right now because the only outside threat that they have on the floor is Barnes, and he has been struggling with his jumper so far. Drew can't shoot (can't do anything really) and Strickland isn't a threat from deep either. With Henson and Zeller being pretty small bigs, it makes it even easier for teams to just pack the paint.

 

Bullock will at least give them one shooter who they have to be aware of defensively. I'd even consider starting him over Strickland because that way you would have at least one capable shooter on the floor at all times (Bullock with the starting unit, McDonald with the 2nd unit). It is clear that they need to make some changes, though.

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Harrison Barnes' shooting, seven games in (UNC at 4-3)...

 

vs. Lipscomb: 6-12 FG, 14 PTS

vs. Hofstra: 7-11 FG, 19 PTS

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vs. Minnesota: 0-12 FG, 6 PTS (L)

at Vanderbilt: 4-12 FG, 11 PTS (L)

vs. NC-Asheville: 5-12 FG, 13 PTS (W)

vs. Charleston: 3-12 FG, 8 PTS (W)

at Illinois: 2-9, 8 PTS (L)

 

14-57 FG in his last five games (2-3), 24.6% shooting for supposedly the most treasured college freshman in the country.

 

Oh, and Strickland and Drew are still starting.

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You can see the talent with Barnes, its undeniable that he's a top level talent. He also strikes me as a hard worker as well but something just isn't clicking right now. I think Marshall has to start. Roy can't keep sending Drew out there because he's just a terrible point guard with horrific decision making skills.

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Strickland is talented no lie but Drew is just absolutely terrible. You can tell the players are kind of being restricted and are not simply playing there own game causing them to be losing these games, seems like no ones confident enough to take control.

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Barnes had 12 points on 4-10 shooting, he played great in the first half against Kentucky, but was too passive in the second half.

 

He reminds me a lot of Rudy Gay during his freshmen season. Athletic wing with tons of talent, but doesn't know how to use it at the right times to impact the game. And I think a large part of his struggles right now is due to college basketball basically being a drive & dish game, traditional wings will struggle to get their offense flowing.

 

People are expecting too much from him. They expect him to be a leader, and that's too much pressure. Only Melo has proven to be a clear cut leader as a freshmen, and even then Cuse struggled at the beginning of that season, which is why they were a 3 seed. Oden was also getting there as a leader as soon as he got his feet under him after the wrist injury, watching him own Noah, Horford, and Richard in the Final was amazing.

 

If you think of the other guys, Durant was extremely talented, but disappeared enough and deferred too much when Augustin had the ball. Rose benefited from being on one of the most experienced teams in the NCAA that year, and Love, Mayo, and Gordon all struggled at times to varying degrees during their freshmen seasons.

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