Paige, extremely overmatched

SamsonHawk515

Well-Known Member
Everytime I watch UNC play Paige looks like he is an 8th grader playing in his first varsity game. I root for the kid, but if this season continues the way it starts it doesn't look good for the Eastern Iowa product.
 
Yeah, hes getting run as a freshman for one of the best programs in the history of college bball. I'm thinking bis season is working out fine.
 
I don't think he will get much better this year. As the season drags on, he will start getting beaten up by the bigger guys he is going against. He needs to hit the weights hard this off season if he wants to see any improvement.
 
One thing I noticed was that he doesn't seem to be having much fun. Now winning helps, but that team just seems like they aren't all there when on the court.
 
You are right, because teams that are 8-3 are obviously overmatched in about EVERY game.

Give me a break. Most anyone who is saying Paige is not living up to expectations is doing so because they want us to have gotten the better guard from that AAU team. His numbers are pretty comparable to Gesell's (maybe a little lower) but they play a tougher schedule by far in the non-con (correct me if I am wrong) and he is only 2.2 minutes off of the high minute guy on the team. His sub is probably better than ours, as well, for what that is worth, so he might play less because of that.

Sometimes people on this board just kill me. It is hilarious to see the B & G glasses sometimes. And that comes from one of the biggest Iowa fans anywhere.
 
One thing I noticed was that he doesn't seem to be having much fun. Now winning helps, but that team just seems like they aren't all there when on the court.

I agree, he doesn't smile much. Even when they are winning he doesn't seem to enjoying it that much. Maybe it is harder than he expected, maybe he let the hype of his recruiting go to his head?

I don't know I like Iowa's recruiting class last year, now playing this year but if you put Mike Gesell in at starting point guard, we don't know how he would really do.

It seems like they aren't playing well together as a "team". They have alot of individual talent but Roy has to get them to play as a team.
 
I've only seen him play like 6-8 mins of game time earlier in the year. He didn't look so hot in that game but it was such a small sample that I sure can't make an end all be all judgement of his play over it. For every Harrison Barnes there's a 4 star kid thrown in the fire that doesn't play very well right away for a bunch of reasons. I'm not going to rag on a kid that's not even halfway through his first season. Might be alittle early to pull out the he's a bust card just yet. I don't think Devin Marble was setting the world on fire the first half of his freshman yr... He may not have had as big of expectations as Paige out of hs but his dad has been Iowa's leading scorer his whole life and he chose to play for the hawks. He knows a thing or two about expectations
 
Paige is shockingly weak. Like unbelievably weak for such a high recruit.

This is what he will struggle with. He was always so much quicker than everyone that he didn't need much strength. But college basketball is so much more physical and the pgs can stick with him that he will struggle at times. Once he develops his strength he will make huge growth. He is 20 lbs (at least) lighter than Mike Gesell.

I see a UNC team that plays very individually and doesn't seem to have a leader like they have in the past. Because of this they haven't really bought into playing within the system. They don't seem to run Roy's secondary break as well as teams in the past for him. Roy's calling card is his secondary fast break and if they can't run it right they lose some of the advantages of their talent because he puts his team together to maximize his system.
 
Paige weighs a buck55 and wears a shirt under his jersey for a reason. His quickness at this level seems to be lackluster and to the poster who said the only reason people are dogging him is because he didn't come to Iowa, come on man.

Granted he is a true frosh put a top 50 true frosh who was hyped I'm sure Roy thought he would average over 7 points a game.
 
Anyone who has any qualms about him playing for UNC lives in lollipop land. Any player who has a chance to play for a big time program should take it. Hopefully he turns it around.
 
No offense but I thought the exact same thing about gesell when Iowa played VTech and Wich St. Freshman pg playing against experienced and athletic guards. Both are going to get better as they gain confidence. I guarantee Paige is doing something in practice that RW likes or he wouldn't be playing the minutes he is. Roy understands that freshman can be fragile emotionally and he is letting paige work through it. I think Gesell has a better stroke from the outside which is helping him right now, but they are pretty comparable players in the long run. Paige is a little quicker defensively and Gesell poses more of a threat from the outside.

It's ridiculous to write a kid off halfway thru his freshman year.
 

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