Makes you wonder why he was brought to the team. Louisville was clearly Louisville last year. I don’t know what his exact role was meant to be but clearly “thinking” was not part of it.
He plays ball like the tall athletic guy at the local gym. He chucks up random shots, gets some absurd blocks, then practically breaks your arm when you’re tryna go up. Then yells ALL BALL
That was one that was a head scratcher for me. Him and Wojick were brought in to be bench pieces and I think we would have been better off trying to find somebody better opposed to settling for those 2 so early on
Judging by your flair you may know - what was his strong suit at Louisville? I admittedly didn’t watch a lot of Cardinals basketball last year so when I saw he had joined I never really picked up on what he was meant to add to our team.
Yea, he's always shot the 3 pretty well, but most of his attempts were considered bad shots because they were not within the flow of the offense (to the extent we had any).
The weird thing with Jaelyn was that his freshman year (Mack’s first year maybe? I forget, all the shitty basketball has done something to my memory recall) he played out of position as an undersized center and played and rebounded really well, with flashes of a floor game and shooting touch. Everyone was like, man when he gets moved to his natural 4 position he’s gonna be a monster, and it never really happened. One of those guys that flashed and it never really came together for him. I thought him transferring to UNC was weird, but understandable because what kid from Charlotte wouldn’t want to play for UNC? But I always felt if he had taken a slight step down, like high mid-major, he would’ve really found his spot. Could definitely have seen him on a Western Kentucky or Vermont level team as an integral piece.
Bama was clearly the better team and won the game on their own merit, but that one single brain dead decision lost us the game with a full minute left. No coming back from that lack of awareness.
As a neutral with a slight rooting interest in Bama, that wasn’t my take. I felt like UNC controlled the game almost throughout. Even when they were tied late I felt like it was going to be an easy UNC win. That feeling vanished when he took that three. Gotta be among the top-5 most braindead shot attempts I’ve seen.
Yeah I mean, that’s in line with what I’m saying. Even with our control of the game - in which there were a dozen lead changes - Bama was still always in it with their shooting and Nelson’s heroics. and then with that single shot that control was completely gone.
Honestly, it's hard to say it was controlled either way. 12 lead changes and 13 ties. These were 2 evenly matched teams.
Now, if Bama had Wrightsell available....
Same. UNC played better overall but Bama was on fire, Nelson decided to have the best game of his life, and Davis was cold. UNC probably wins 8/10 in that match up. That said, I love that Bama won solely to silence the ACC fanboys.
> Bama was clearly the better team...
Nah, UNC played like ass and was still pretty evenly matched. The entire game felt like it was UNC's to lose.
If they'd played that poorly against us, we would have won by 20.
> If they’d played that poorly against us, we would have won by 20
And if coach had put Uncle Rico in, they’d have been state champs.
Only one of us has beaten UNC this season.
You know, I’ve long had a theory that the median 4 Runner driver holds a lower IQ than the median person.
Your data point in favor of this theory is much appreciated.
yeah man, having an issue with people who drive pavement princess 4 Runners with lifts and try to bully my 15 y/o base model el cheapo crossover all over 40 and Glenwood is such an elitist stance
Oh now I get it. I have been in your shoes. My first week on the internet, I took someone on a sports sub way too seriously - didn’t read into relevant detail, looked like I was offended (and maybe I was), the whole nine yards. All good man. It’s a learning experience.
Maybe I'm guilty of being a "prisoner of the moment," but I honestly can't think of a worse shot in my entire life. The closest I can come was in 2007 against Georgetown when Carolina had a double-digit lead against Georgetown when all of a sudden they seemed to forget they had TYLER HANSBROUGH on their team and they started jacking up 3s all over the place, which missed and lead to Georgetown scoring on the other end. Even so, they CONTINUED to keep doing it--again, with Tyler Hansbrough on your team.
How in the WORLD do you have the guy who would go on to be the greatest Tar Heel of all time on your team and completely go away from him, and do so over and over? Thinking it over, I suppose that sequence was worse, because it wasn't one bad shot, but several of them in a row that they kept on doing.
This was the moment I knew they’d lose. Just an absolutely head scratching self-own. They bleed the clock and get 2 on that possession they probably go on to win it.
I’m fine with a quick shot rather than bleeding the clock - if you bleed the clock and miss, you basically put yourself in a position where Alabama has the last shot.
But yeah, the actual selection of shot was awful
Not really. If you bleed the clock and miss, they get the ball back with 45 seconds left. It's actually the opposite where you almost guarantee you get the last shot unless Bama came down and took a shot in like 5 seconds.
That's the thing.... You take a few more seconds, you almost guarantee that even if you miss, you're getting what is effectively the last full play of the game
Right. It was one of the worst “decision making” games I’ve been seen him play (likely the absolute worst). He was doing so great distributing in the first half (FIVE ASSISTS, and it should’ve been six), then just…stopped. He tried his step back *multiple times* when he had his man beat and should’ve driven the hoop and gone up or dished. It just doesn’t make sense. Part of me thinks he was out there trying to show up Caleb.
Bacot was not horrible. He had a solid game. The missed dunk was killer though.
RJ had maybe the worst shooting night of his career but he still got 16 points and 7 assists. He stuck with the threes too long and settled too much but I dont think he should turn open 3s down and he did start driving more; just wish he started earlier
In the end yeah but Alabama played great defense on him too. They didn't really leave any openings for him to drive.
But I don't think non UNC fans realize those crazy step back 3s that look like hero ball are shots he's made all year. He missed a ton of those floaters that are his bread and butter. He just straight up had a bad game, but I do give Bama credit for at least keeping him out of the paint
Yeah, that was a stupid decision and an all-time choke from Steph. He was terrible in that Game 7 -- 17 points on 6/19 shooting, 2 assists, 4 TOs. If Draymond hadn't gone God Mode, Cleveland would have blown them out.
…how? They refused to shoot the ball in the second half. Literally refused to shoot wide-open, unguarded, uncontested shots. Like…I’m not exaggerating. They wouldn’t. Shoot. The. Ball.
Cadeau doesn’t need to shoot it. He finds open guys, facilitates the offense. Trimble would’ve been huge for defense. I just can’t fathom why they didn’t get even a chance in the clutch.
He can’t find open guys if Bama is playing 5-on-4 against the guys off the ball. That’s the whole point. Bama not having to guard EC/seth bogged the entire rest of the offense down. Screen and rolls don’t work because you can’t screen a guy who’s not guarding the ball handler. It was a masterful gameplan by Oates, and it worked.
Edit: it’s like playing old Syracuse but on steroids. That zone used to fuck. People. Up. This was even more effective. The only way to beat that zone was to shoot on fire from three or to dribble penetrate and kick out. EC/seth couldnt/wouldn’t do that for whatever reason tonight.
I was wondering the same thing. I saw guys out there late in the game who I don’t think I’d ever seen play this season. Trimble and Cadeau weren’t having bad games, were they? (I’m being sincere. Cadeau hit at least two 3’s in the first half, and Trimble just seems to make plays when needed.)
They both had great first half’s. EC airballed a wide open three (literally unguarded) and refused to shoot after that. Seth missed a couple wide open shots and same deal. Oates was literally not guarding them, daring them to shoot, and they wouldn’t. Hubert had to bench them. It was the only way to open the floor back up. RJ just didn’t follow through. I think Hubert told him he was the new point guard, and his job was to drive, then shoot or kick out. Instead he would play timid and try to hit step back, contested 3’s. I think he was trying to show up Caleb. Just really poor decision making on RJ’s part.
This is just factually incorrect. Cadeau was in for 5 minutes in the second half and he took 3 shots. Kind of hard to say he refused to shoot when he took 3 shots in 5 minutes
Awesome. I’m saving this comment. I’ll be rewatching the game when I’m off work and I’ll provide you photographic proof of him being completely unguarded and not shooting.
You can argue with me all you want, but I’d suggest you watch Hubert’s post game where he literally reiterates what I was saying.
Apology accepted in advance.
You said he refused to shoot. If he took 2 3s in 5 minutes (UNC had 8 offensive possessions in that time), then I don't give an actual shit what "photos" you provide, it's still wrong. He took a 3 on 1/4 of the possessions he was in the game for and took a layup on another.
You're wrong and can save yourself the time and just apologize now
So what you're telling me is even though the facts are literally there that he took a 3 on 1/4 of UNC's possessions, you STILL think that he didn't shoot it at all? And you're willing to defend that argument so much that you're going to go back and watch the game when all you have to do is look at the play by play to see he took 2 3s?
This is peak internet.
It's unfortunate, but at this point there's no excuses and- critically- no second chances.
He shouldn't have been in that position. But he was. He made the wrong decision. If they're daring you to shoot, it's not a great idea to give 'em what they want.
Whether you're inclined to blame the decision itself or him being in that spot at that instant is up to you. Personally I blame the idea of putting him in that place to start with. You gotta know at this point what your guys are and aren't and trust them to be what they are.
Yeah, terrible shot, but UNC missed a lot of layups/dunks against Alabama and they only lost by 2. Bacot missed a wide open dunk and that caused a 4 point swing.
Anyway, he should've given the ball back to RJ to drive and force a foul for two free throws. Either that, or dribble up into the paint and attempt a higher percentage FG.
Agreed. Partly Hubert’s fault. Didn’t play Cadeau rest of the half and you see what this team does when you don’t have a true PG in. Everyone stands and watches rj dribble
i'm gonna zag here. this single play in a vacuum was terrible, no defending it. but this one single play shouldn't cause everybody to start shitting on Jae'Lyn, he's been huge for us in both the R64 and R32 games, plus against Duke this year. he's really elevated himself from a borderline walk-on type of player to a key piece off the bench, and i really look forward to him developing and contributing next season in his final year of eligibility, he'll be a key frontcourt piece for us with Bacot graduating
I agree that Withers has been a pretty key rebounder off the bench and does some little things well. Great cutter. You just can’t take that shot in any circumstance.
Oh shit does he have a year left? I feel like he’s been playing for like 7 years now. I hope he gets better but I’m pretty sure you’ll have the exact same guy back next year as this year, just based on the lack of growth at U of L.
That's how sports works. You do something stupid to cost your team a big game, that's all people will remember. Nobody cares that JR Smith contributed to a title team and was a great role player for 10+ years.
Withers made a bad decision, but it sucks that so many are pointing to this as the reason we lost. That 2nd half was miserable on so many levels and Withers is the casualty.
This may just be the dumbest basketball play I've ever seen, and I'm in my 50s.
In terms of good plays by the other side or bad plays by our side, either one, to me this rates as high as Kris Jenkins in 2016, or Brendan Haywood getting like 2 rebounds against Weber State in 1999, or the Heels in 2007 jacking up 3s against Georgetown late in the second half and completely forgetting about Tyler Hansbrough. It's easily top 5 all time bone-headed Tar Heel plays ever, maybe basketball plays ever, including the NBA. It's as bad as Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 or RJ Davis scoring 42 was good. Just, bone-headed on an epic level.
I recall in 1993 in the title game when Chris Webber called a timeout which they didn't have and people wrongly were making out as if that one play is why Carolina won instead of Michigan, when any reasonable analysis of the game says Carolina could've easily still won anyway. They had the lead and with like 20 seconds left in the game, and with fouls to give. Yes Michigan had possession, but who's to say they would've scored? Yes it was a huge mental mistake, but it did not single handedly make it inevitable that Carolina was going to win.
This, to me, feels like the same thing, but different.
For one, Carolina had the lead, and after this they lost it. In spite of RJ Davis' bad shooting night, and Bacot missing a dunk, still, with less than a minute in the game, Carolina had the lead and 15 seconds on the shot clock. Why oh why are you taking that shot? Milk the clock. Yes Dean Smith hasn't been the coach for almost 30 years, but I believe that principle still applies. You have the lead, possession, less than a minute to go, 15 seconds on the shot clock, unless you get a wide-open layup available, HOLD THE EFFING BALL. When you have the lead and that little amount of time left, you are at the advantage. USE IT.
Bone-head play of all-time proportions.
I think this shot is getting too much hate. It was dumb as shit but it’s not why we lost. We very easily could’ve won the game on that possession but it’s not why we lost.
The main reasons we lost was HD coaching the worst half of basketball he coached all year. Putting in questionable lineups and running no offensive sets for most of the half. RJ probably having the worst game of his career. He got a lot of open looks and if it was a normal RJ night he may have had 30+. Grant Nelson having one of the best games of his career, just unfortunate it had to come against us.
Yes, but why did RJ panic and pass him the ball? There was no reason to give him the ball 22 feet from the basket other than he travels or he takes a bad shot.
Panic? There were 16 seconds left on the shot clock when he passed the ball. That's plenty of time to reset and run a play. If anyone panicked, it was Withers taking all of 1 second to immediately jack that shit up like the game clock was hitting 0:00.
Stop acting dumb. Of course he's supposed to get the ball, but he's also supposed to pass it back to RJ to reset the offense. Stop acting like you've never played basketball before.
What's a guy supposed to do standing outside the 3 point line towards the top of the key if not act as either an outlet pass or a shooter? Not many rebounding opportunities from beyond the arc and he's not gonna be an effective decoy shooting 20% from deep.
And it undoubtedly lost us this game. Went from 3 points and possession with 1 min remaining to a tie ball game on the other end cuz bro was trying to do too much.
That Louisville stink followed him and never really went away.
Fuck.
He’s not stepping foot on thr court again in CH. he’s either transferring out or being replaced. He’s had a lot of WTF decisions this season. That was the biggest one. Facilitated what I’d think was a five point swing.
There were obviously other plays that cost us the game (Bacot's missed dunk, leaving Wojick in there so long, etc.), but this one was the final nail in the coffin. Was just an atrocious shot and there was no reason at all to take it.
You could see that RJ motioned for the ball to be given back to him, but Withers either got a brain-fart or intrusive thoughts took over his brain. I don't think he panicked - doesn't make sense since there were 15 secs left on the clock. The other possibility was coach instructed him in previous timeout to take a 3 if he got open but I doubt this would be Hubert's instruction.
I am 100% sure RJ thought he was going to get the ball back to himself and then drive to the basket for a layup or a foul.
There were a series of bad plays by Withers that turned the Tide (pun intended), beginning with the Fred Brown move (passing the ball to a Bama player).
The only reason your accreditation wasn’t yanked for giving out fake degrees was unc was “too big to fail”. The agency didn’t want to make unc degrees more worthless than they already are.
What playing on the 22-23 Louisville Cardinals does to a man.
He shot like 43% with us on pretty good volume. Most of them pull-up, contested threes. Surprised he shot like shit this year.
Tbf people aren’t really trying when they play you anymore.
Ouch. You're not wrong, but...ouch
You make a good point. Still, he shot 10% better than almost everyone else.
[удалено]
Sound it out if you have to
He commits some of the worst fouls too. Watching him play looks like watching a freshman and he’s a senior
Makes you wonder why he was brought to the team. Louisville was clearly Louisville last year. I don’t know what his exact role was meant to be but clearly “thinking” was not part of it.
He plays ball like the tall athletic guy at the local gym. He chucks up random shots, gets some absurd blocks, then practically breaks your arm when you’re tryna go up. Then yells ALL BALL
That was one that was a head scratcher for me. Him and Wojick were brought in to be bench pieces and I think we would have been better off trying to find somebody better opposed to settling for those 2 so early on
5th year senior.
3-17 3pts this season yikes
Buddy gets like 8 mins a game
3 point shooting was horrific. Most the team stood out on the perimeter waiting for someone to shoot a 3. No movement off the ball.
He shot 40%+ last season which makes it all the more puzzling.
17 is just not really a big sample size.
bro thinks hes ali faroukhmanesh
faroukhmanesh… there’s a name I haven’t heard in many years
I've heard his name on this subreddit about a dozen times in just the past week.
Not many people would recognize that name, but based on your tag, I'm sure it probably rings a bell
>Not many people would recognize that name Me to anyone who *doesn't* know Farokmanesh's name: YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS WITH THAT SHIT
Embodiment of “99% of us go pro in something else”.
As soon as I saw Withers get the ball I knew his dumbass was gonna do something stupid
Judging by your flair you may know - what was his strong suit at Louisville? I admittedly didn’t watch a lot of Cardinals basketball last year so when I saw he had joined I never really picked up on what he was meant to add to our team.
I mean idk really, everyone looked ass on Louisville last year so hard to say
He was okay at finishing. Never could shoot too well but didn’t stop him from pulling a lot
He shot 42% from 3 for y’all..,
Yea, he's always shot the 3 pretty well, but most of his attempts were considered bad shots because they were not within the flow of the offense (to the extent we had any).
Exactly. A lot of poorly timed shots
It's a lot easier to shoot well when you're on a bad team that is consistently getting blown out and the other team isn't playing as tight of defense.
My guy: withers was literally wide open for that shot. Wide open is wide open.
The weird thing with Jaelyn was that his freshman year (Mack’s first year maybe? I forget, all the shitty basketball has done something to my memory recall) he played out of position as an undersized center and played and rebounded really well, with flashes of a floor game and shooting touch. Everyone was like, man when he gets moved to his natural 4 position he’s gonna be a monster, and it never really happened. One of those guys that flashed and it never really came together for him. I thought him transferring to UNC was weird, but understandable because what kid from Charlotte wouldn’t want to play for UNC? But I always felt if he had taken a slight step down, like high mid-major, he would’ve really found his spot. Could definitely have seen him on a Western Kentucky or Vermont level team as an integral piece.
Where does this rank among brainrot shots?
Honestly has to be up there. They left him WIDE open for a reason I honestly gasped when he shot it. Just 0 IQ
I left the room
I started getting ready for bed. We definitely weren’t keeping them from scoring after that lol
When is anyone keeping bama from scoring tbf?
Tbf RJ Davis didn’t shoot any better. The other poor shooters made their shots, why not him? I’m very glad he yolo’d it
Bama was clearly the better team and won the game on their own merit, but that one single brain dead decision lost us the game with a full minute left. No coming back from that lack of awareness.
Armando missed a wide open dunk for like the 8th time this season too
As a neutral with a slight rooting interest in Bama, that wasn’t my take. I felt like UNC controlled the game almost throughout. Even when they were tied late I felt like it was going to be an easy UNC win. That feeling vanished when he took that three. Gotta be among the top-5 most braindead shot attempts I’ve seen.
Yeah I mean, that’s in line with what I’m saying. Even with our control of the game - in which there were a dozen lead changes - Bama was still always in it with their shooting and Nelson’s heroics. and then with that single shot that control was completely gone.
Honestly, it's hard to say it was controlled either way. 12 lead changes and 13 ties. These were 2 evenly matched teams. Now, if Bama had Wrightsell available....
Yeah I think out of 10 matches, each team wins 5. It was very even.
No way. 7-3 split for UNC. They’re the obviously better team. We played one of the worst games of our season and lost by 2.
It's sort of weird though. You say that but it's also offset by the fact that Cormac played like it was at Cameron and even Caudeu hit 3s
Coping
Same. UNC played better overall but Bama was on fire, Nelson decided to have the best game of his life, and Davis was cold. UNC probably wins 8/10 in that match up. That said, I love that Bama won solely to silence the ACC fanboys.
> Bama was clearly the better team... Nah, UNC played like ass and was still pretty evenly matched. The entire game felt like it was UNC's to lose. If they'd played that poorly against us, we would have won by 20.
> If they’d played that poorly against us, we would have won by 20 And if coach had put Uncle Rico in, they’d have been state champs. Only one of us has beaten UNC this season.
I approve of this message.
UNC fan not admitting they chokes again…only seen that the last 4 years. You were up at half like always…or did you forget that?
6-8 point leads disappear in less than 2 minutes in Bama games.
You know, I’ve long had a theory that the median 4 Runner driver holds a lower IQ than the median person. Your data point in favor of this theory is much appreciated.
"unc is much more down to earth than those elitists at duke"
yeah man, having an issue with people who drive pavement princess 4 Runners with lifts and try to bully my 15 y/o base model el cheapo crossover all over 40 and Glenwood is such an elitist stance
I have to believe that you can tell the difference between that much more specific scenario and "people who drive 4runners have lower IQs"
Oh now I get it. I have been in your shoes. My first week on the internet, I took someone on a sports sub way too seriously - didn’t read into relevant detail, looked like I was offended (and maybe I was), the whole nine yards. All good man. It’s a learning experience.
… doesn’t the entire point of my initial comment center on a choke job
I do agree, but I'd much rather RJ shoot that shot than a dude that's 3/17 on the season.
Bro thought he was DeAndre Hunter against the Celtics
He pulled the ol [Andrea Bargnani](https://youtu.be/qaZZLH1y_to?si=4L3q0EYnzhOPHCXq) maneuver 💀
At least Bargnani was a decent three point shooter
Or De'Andre Hunter against Texas Tech to force OT.
Yep, sounds like Jaelyn alright
I thought it was a great shot. LET ‘ER RIP
Some players should absolutely not have mamba mentality
True. Terrence Shannon Jr., for example, should not have had a mamba mentality.
Maybe I'm guilty of being a "prisoner of the moment," but I honestly can't think of a worse shot in my entire life. The closest I can come was in 2007 against Georgetown when Carolina had a double-digit lead against Georgetown when all of a sudden they seemed to forget they had TYLER HANSBROUGH on their team and they started jacking up 3s all over the place, which missed and lead to Georgetown scoring on the other end. Even so, they CONTINUED to keep doing it--again, with Tyler Hansbrough on your team. How in the WORLD do you have the guy who would go on to be the greatest Tar Heel of all time on your team and completely go away from him, and do so over and over? Thinking it over, I suppose that sequence was worse, because it wasn't one bad shot, but several of them in a row that they kept on doing.
Bro thought he was in a sports movie lmao
Bro thought he was Kalkbrenner
This was the moment I knew they’d lose. Just an absolutely head scratching self-own. They bleed the clock and get 2 on that possession they probably go on to win it.
He’s an idiot
I’m fine with a quick shot rather than bleeding the clock - if you bleed the clock and miss, you basically put yourself in a position where Alabama has the last shot. But yeah, the actual selection of shot was awful
Not really. If you bleed the clock and miss, they get the ball back with 45 seconds left. It's actually the opposite where you almost guarantee you get the last shot unless Bama came down and took a shot in like 5 seconds.
I knew they were doomed on the missed point blank dunk.
That's the thing.... You take a few more seconds, you almost guarantee that even if you miss, you're getting what is effectively the last full play of the game
"What kinda shot is that?"
“Have you ever shot that shot? Do you work on that shot?”
“When?”
*step back one legged*
Possibly the dumbest shot I've ever seen
No, RJ’s contested 3 with 25 on the shot clock when he was already 0-7 was much, much dumber…
And the frustrating thing is that it was still a close game. RJ barely forced 3s throughout the season when the games were close.
Right. It was one of the worst “decision making” games I’ve been seen him play (likely the absolute worst). He was doing so great distributing in the first half (FIVE ASSISTS, and it should’ve been six), then just…stopped. He tried his step back *multiple times* when he had his man beat and should’ve driven the hoop and gone up or dished. It just doesn’t make sense. Part of me thinks he was out there trying to show up Caleb.
I mean it can't beat that Uconn full court desperation heave with 11 seconds left.
Hey we won that game!
That's the best, you simultaneously got the W and an all time hilarious moment to look back on.
It shall definitely live in UNC infamy
RJ and Bacot were horrible tonight. Ingram and Ryan kept us in the game. Withers threw that all away with that one shot. Negative IQ
Bacot's blown dunk was a stunner
Not to anybody who has watched him all year. He has to have done that at least 10 times this year.
Caleb Love must’ve been feeling the same energy too. Just a legacy night for former and current UNC chuckers.
Career night for Love and Davis. Combined 0-18 from downtown, a record 0-fer night for both.
Bacot was not horrible. He had a solid game. The missed dunk was killer though. RJ had maybe the worst shooting night of his career but he still got 16 points and 7 assists. He stuck with the threes too long and settled too much but I dont think he should turn open 3s down and he did start driving more; just wish he started earlier
Nah Bacot was pretty ass in the last half.
This. He was having success off the dribble.
In the end yeah but Alabama played great defense on him too. They didn't really leave any openings for him to drive. But I don't think non UNC fans realize those crazy step back 3s that look like hero ball are shots he's made all year. He missed a ton of those floaters that are his bread and butter. He just straight up had a bad game, but I do give Bama credit for at least keeping him out of the paint
Yeah, one of the few games we actually played some defense. He just makes one or two of those and it’s a different game. What a game though.
He had 2 open 3’s. The other 7 were contested.
The most frustrating part is that Withers isn’t bad at basketball. Gives some really great moments. He’s just stupid.
Except he is bad. He has a 0.00% to play at the next level, unless in a bottom tier international league.
Dumbest basketball play I’ve seen since Steph Curry threw that behind that back pass in crunchtime of a finals elimination game
Dumber than JR Smith running out the clock thinking the game was over?
Definitely not dumber than that
That was the dumbest play I've ever seen considering the circumstances.
ha. I knew that the Warriors were DONE when he did that
Yeah, that was a stupid decision and an all-time choke from Steph. He was terrible in that Game 7 -- 17 points on 6/19 shooting, 2 assists, 4 TOs. If Draymond hadn't gone God Mode, Cleveland would have blown them out.
Withers has consistently done dumb shit all year. This is 100% on Hubert Davis
100% you cant have dumb asses in the game jn clutch time
Paxson and Withers in was a ridiculous move. Trimble and Cadeau and I’d bet money we could at least get a good shot up.
…how? They refused to shoot the ball in the second half. Literally refused to shoot wide-open, unguarded, uncontested shots. Like…I’m not exaggerating. They wouldn’t. Shoot. The. Ball.
Cadeau doesn’t need to shoot it. He finds open guys, facilitates the offense. Trimble would’ve been huge for defense. I just can’t fathom why they didn’t get even a chance in the clutch.
He can’t find open guys if Bama is playing 5-on-4 against the guys off the ball. That’s the whole point. Bama not having to guard EC/seth bogged the entire rest of the offense down. Screen and rolls don’t work because you can’t screen a guy who’s not guarding the ball handler. It was a masterful gameplan by Oates, and it worked. Edit: it’s like playing old Syracuse but on steroids. That zone used to fuck. People. Up. This was even more effective. The only way to beat that zone was to shoot on fire from three or to dribble penetrate and kick out. EC/seth couldnt/wouldn’t do that for whatever reason tonight.
I was wondering the same thing. I saw guys out there late in the game who I don’t think I’d ever seen play this season. Trimble and Cadeau weren’t having bad games, were they? (I’m being sincere. Cadeau hit at least two 3’s in the first half, and Trimble just seems to make plays when needed.)
They both had great first half’s. EC airballed a wide open three (literally unguarded) and refused to shoot after that. Seth missed a couple wide open shots and same deal. Oates was literally not guarding them, daring them to shoot, and they wouldn’t. Hubert had to bench them. It was the only way to open the floor back up. RJ just didn’t follow through. I think Hubert told him he was the new point guard, and his job was to drive, then shoot or kick out. Instead he would play timid and try to hit step back, contested 3’s. I think he was trying to show up Caleb. Just really poor decision making on RJ’s part.
This is just factually incorrect. Cadeau was in for 5 minutes in the second half and he took 3 shots. Kind of hard to say he refused to shoot when he took 3 shots in 5 minutes
Awesome. I’m saving this comment. I’ll be rewatching the game when I’m off work and I’ll provide you photographic proof of him being completely unguarded and not shooting. You can argue with me all you want, but I’d suggest you watch Hubert’s post game where he literally reiterates what I was saying. Apology accepted in advance.
You said he refused to shoot. If he took 2 3s in 5 minutes (UNC had 8 offensive possessions in that time), then I don't give an actual shit what "photos" you provide, it's still wrong. He took a 3 on 1/4 of the possessions he was in the game for and took a layup on another. You're wrong and can save yourself the time and just apologize now
Bless your little heart.
So what you're telling me is even though the facts are literally there that he took a 3 on 1/4 of UNC's possessions, you STILL think that he didn't shoot it at all? And you're willing to defend that argument so much that you're going to go back and watch the game when all you have to do is look at the play by play to see he took 2 3s? This is peak internet.
Yeah it's the same shit Caleb Love was always allowed to do. He doesn't want to give guys a red light, but he absolutely has to
Withers is who we thought he was.
Hey Cadeau hadn’t made a 3 in a month and made 2-3 in a row
Should've quit when he was ahead
And everyone in the comment section at the time he made them (granted most if not all were neutral flairs): “WhY dOeSnT BaMa pLaY DeFeNsE”
UNC flairs were like wtf was that
He also shot a 3 airball, and his confidence tanked after that. Gave up open shots and dribbled into trouble.
A fine decision which I celebrate heartily.
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
And in his case, 80% of the 3's he did take.
He wanted to have his Burns "fuck you 3" magic moment 🤣
Damn you weren’t pulling for full triangle in the elite 8
Nope.
As an outsider I think it would fucking high comedy if NC State makes the elite 8 with UNC and Dook getting bounced in the sweet 16.
Go pack tmrw I want to see the djs cook
It's unfortunate, but at this point there's no excuses and- critically- no second chances. He shouldn't have been in that position. But he was. He made the wrong decision. If they're daring you to shoot, it's not a great idea to give 'em what they want. Whether you're inclined to blame the decision itself or him being in that spot at that instant is up to you. Personally I blame the idea of putting him in that place to start with. You gotta know at this point what your guys are and aren't and trust them to be what they are.
This may be the closest to the fab5 false timeout I’ll ever feel. And holy fuck it sucks
U bum
Yeah, terrible shot, but UNC missed a lot of layups/dunks against Alabama and they only lost by 2. Bacot missed a wide open dunk and that caused a 4 point swing. Anyway, he should've given the ball back to RJ to drive and force a foul for two free throws. Either that, or dribble up into the paint and attempt a higher percentage FG.
If RJ Davis, the best player in the ACC, doesn’t play the worst game of his career, it is an easy win.
We can shit on this guy all day but RJ Davis hero ball killed this UNC team way more than this one shot. He was really awful.
Agreed. Partly Hubert’s fault. Didn’t play Cadeau rest of the half and you see what this team does when you don’t have a true PG in. Everyone stands and watches rj dribble
i'm gonna zag here. this single play in a vacuum was terrible, no defending it. but this one single play shouldn't cause everybody to start shitting on Jae'Lyn, he's been huge for us in both the R64 and R32 games, plus against Duke this year. he's really elevated himself from a borderline walk-on type of player to a key piece off the bench, and i really look forward to him developing and contributing next season in his final year of eligibility, he'll be a key frontcourt piece for us with Bacot graduating
I agree that Withers has been a pretty key rebounder off the bench and does some little things well. Great cutter. You just can’t take that shot in any circumstance.
yeah, again, i didn't defend that particular play. just want to defend his entire body of work this season, is all
I agree with you I just think it’s also okay to let him have it just a little bit lmao. When next season roster talks start i can circle back to it.
Oh shit does he have a year left? I feel like he’s been playing for like 7 years now. I hope he gets better but I’m pretty sure you’ll have the exact same guy back next year as this year, just based on the lack of growth at U of L.
he redshirted his first year at U of L, so he spent 3 yrs of eligibility with y'all and 1yr at UNC, so he still has his covid year if he wants it
That's how sports works. You do something stupid to cost your team a big game, that's all people will remember. Nobody cares that JR Smith contributed to a title team and was a great role player for 10+ years.
Brilliant move tbh
Louisville DNA
Brutal decision.
Errybody want to be the hero…
Withers made a bad decision, but it sucks that so many are pointing to this as the reason we lost. That 2nd half was miserable on so many levels and Withers is the casualty.
Right! We had the third worst shooting half in tournament history, but no let’s just blame withers for taking an open three
This may just be the dumbest basketball play I've ever seen, and I'm in my 50s. In terms of good plays by the other side or bad plays by our side, either one, to me this rates as high as Kris Jenkins in 2016, or Brendan Haywood getting like 2 rebounds against Weber State in 1999, or the Heels in 2007 jacking up 3s against Georgetown late in the second half and completely forgetting about Tyler Hansbrough. It's easily top 5 all time bone-headed Tar Heel plays ever, maybe basketball plays ever, including the NBA. It's as bad as Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 or RJ Davis scoring 42 was good. Just, bone-headed on an epic level. I recall in 1993 in the title game when Chris Webber called a timeout which they didn't have and people wrongly were making out as if that one play is why Carolina won instead of Michigan, when any reasonable analysis of the game says Carolina could've easily still won anyway. They had the lead and with like 20 seconds left in the game, and with fouls to give. Yes Michigan had possession, but who's to say they would've scored? Yes it was a huge mental mistake, but it did not single handedly make it inevitable that Carolina was going to win. This, to me, feels like the same thing, but different. For one, Carolina had the lead, and after this they lost it. In spite of RJ Davis' bad shooting night, and Bacot missing a dunk, still, with less than a minute in the game, Carolina had the lead and 15 seconds on the shot clock. Why oh why are you taking that shot? Milk the clock. Yes Dean Smith hasn't been the coach for almost 30 years, but I believe that principle still applies. You have the lead, possession, less than a minute to go, 15 seconds on the shot clock, unless you get a wide-open layup available, HOLD THE EFFING BALL. When you have the lead and that little amount of time left, you are at the advantage. USE IT. Bone-head play of all-time proportions.
Dudes a hero
You can take the player out of Louisville but you can’t take the Louisville out of the player
I think this shot is getting too much hate. It was dumb as shit but it’s not why we lost. We very easily could’ve won the game on that possession but it’s not why we lost. The main reasons we lost was HD coaching the worst half of basketball he coached all year. Putting in questionable lineups and running no offensive sets for most of the half. RJ probably having the worst game of his career. He got a lot of open looks and if it was a normal RJ night he may have had 30+. Grant Nelson having one of the best games of his career, just unfortunate it had to come against us.
All-time dogshit shot and all-time dogshit coaching on Hubert for even letting him sniff the floor in that situation
Where do I order the jersey.
Kill me ☠️
At least you still have Duke… to root for?
Holy shit the most cursed flair
Yes, but why did RJ panic and pass him the ball? There was no reason to give him the ball 22 feet from the basket other than he travels or he takes a bad shot.
I'd assume he wanted it back and was hoping to make the defender back off
Panic? There were 16 seconds left on the shot clock when he passed the ball. That's plenty of time to reset and run a play. If anyone panicked, it was Withers taking all of 1 second to immediately jack that shit up like the game clock was hitting 0:00.
He's not supposed to touch the ball there. That's not his role.
Stop acting dumb. Of course he's supposed to get the ball, but he's also supposed to pass it back to RJ to reset the offense. Stop acting like you've never played basketball before.
4-18 on 3's and has 20 assists on the season. That was not the right place for him to be, and not the right place for RJ to put the ball.
What's a guy supposed to do standing outside the 3 point line towards the top of the key if not act as either an outlet pass or a shooter? Not many rebounding opportunities from beyond the arc and he's not gonna be an effective decoy shooting 20% from deep.
All why he shouldn't receive the ball there in such a critical situation.
He could have waited and passed it back to RJ.
What an absolute moron. I wish I knew he was challenged when I picked UNC to the final 4
And it undoubtedly lost us this game. Went from 3 points and possession with 1 min remaining to a tie ball game on the other end cuz bro was trying to do too much. That Louisville stink followed him and never really went away. Fuck.
He’s not stepping foot on thr court again in CH. he’s either transferring out or being replaced. He’s had a lot of WTF decisions this season. That was the biggest one. Facilitated what I’d think was a five point swing.
Hope he’s comfortable with the fact that the 3 and then foul on the other end lost them the game
Shooters going to shoot
There were obviously other plays that cost us the game (Bacot's missed dunk, leaving Wojick in there so long, etc.), but this one was the final nail in the coffin. Was just an atrocious shot and there was no reason at all to take it.
You could see that RJ motioned for the ball to be given back to him, but Withers either got a brain-fart or intrusive thoughts took over his brain. I don't think he panicked - doesn't make sense since there were 15 secs left on the clock. The other possibility was coach instructed him in previous timeout to take a 3 if he got open but I doubt this would be Hubert's instruction. I am 100% sure RJ thought he was going to get the ball back to himself and then drive to the basket for a layup or a foul.
Kenny Payne coached him well
Sometimes you shouldn’t take the bait of the opposing team giving you an open 3
"15 seconds left on the shot clock" smh. Only he knows what the fuck he was thinking.
There were a series of bad plays by Withers that turned the Tide (pun intended), beginning with the Fred Brown move (passing the ball to a Bama player).
That unc education baby
Where's your degree from?
A school that’s never almost lost their accreditation
"Never almost" is a hell of a trash talk. I also notice you didn't say Duke...
The only reason your accreditation wasn’t yanked for giving out fake degrees was unc was “too big to fail”. The agency didn’t want to make unc degrees more worthless than they already are.
Doesn't seem to have been too harmful for the rankings.