Comments on: Ten Takeaways From the Big Ten/ACC Challenge

By: Ron

Ron — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 19:08:35 +0000

Appreciate the clarification and I can admit to being wrong on that particular point.

By: rtmsf

rtmsf — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 05:03:40 +0000

In reply to Ron.

Ron – I’ll let Andy answer for his own post, but as the executive editor I’m going to push back on a pro-Duke bent. Out of ~40 writers here, we have a grand total of zero staffers (including the editors) who attended or graduated from Duke. We respect all the major programs, of which Duke is most certainly one.

By: Ron

Ron — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 03:15:10 +0000

Totally agree with Jeremy’s assessment. The only one reading the Maryland/UNC as a Rorschach test is this writer. Nearly every other writer from Matt Norlander at CBS or Luke Winn at si.com saw this as two of the nations elite teams and/or UNC showing itself is the nation’s best team.

I like rtc.com in general but they are so pro-duke here that it sometimes gets annoying (I think many or the majority of their writing staff went to Duke). Notice that the premier matchup of the B10-Acc challenge is relegated to #4 whilst undressing both teams – what game was he watching?!

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 21:25:41 +0000

The above assessment of Maryland-UNC lacks nuance. Neither are elite defensive teams but they are elite teams overall. Maryland is a great 3p shooting team – their big four shooters (Trimble, Sulaimon, Layman, Nickens) all shot 38% or better last year. No shame in that group getting hot from deep, and I thought UNC’s defense was quite good, particularly at disrupting passing lanes. Maryland was just unstoppable at times in the second half.

On the other side, UNC has arguably the nation’s best offense with Paige healthy (maybe second to Duke) and they just shot out of their minds from the perimeter against Maryland. Jackson, Johnson, and Meeks all shot below their season percentages and UNC only rebounded a modest 33% of their misses so Maryland was able to limit the inside game somewhat…it was the 3ps and TOs that cost them. I don’t know if there’s a team in the country that can limit Carolina’s paint scoring and simultaneously stop Paige and company from getting open threes.

Both teams need to keep improving defensively to fulfill national title hopes, but I don’t see “glaring holes.”