Mostly fair. He’s bouncy, though.
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I would prefer UVA getting 6 fouls per player, everyone else 5 fouls except Duke who should get 4 fouls. They have such superior athletes they don’t foul as much, per the ACC head of refs.
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But if the refs never call Duke for fouls does it even matter?
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Disagree. He is savvy and has decent anticipation so it could be mistaken for bounciness. Look at how he got A-Rob. Below the rim, on the way up.
Especially with our hard hedges up top. Bigs have a much harder time avoiding fouls and the opposing coaches target our guys at that point.
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Ironic that our bigs can be bothe the first line of defense and the last line if defense really
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I agree with your first two sentences. Disagree with the final clause, on a broader time horizon.
The alternative to getting mid or low major bigs in the portal who aren’t big or athletic enough to compete at the ACC level is to put more effort into retention of the type of post athletes that we still are, and have been, able to get in HS recruiting.
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This is why I’m good with flyers on athletic big guys for development and was all in on the Robinson move when it happened. We should have a constant train of development athletic bigs looking for one every two years or so depending on how many capable bigs we have on the roster.
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That is a significantly more difficult prospect these days when players can leave for any whim (girlfriend, ‘disrespect’, etc). In this instance Kadin was leaving, so we needed another big. I know people will say Tony should’ve worked harder/differently to retain him, but that’s not what Tony is going to do so it’s irrelevant to the discussion going forward. I think maybe Anthony Robinson and Buchanan are your answers here going forward but that really didn’t help for this year.
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Yes, I’m bullish on the Buchanan / Robinson pair in the future.
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BIG time. Especially if both redshirt. Like Robinson this year and Blake next year!
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I’m very interested to see how Kaiser does this year. 3MW Big Ten preview called him a shooter. My recollection is he got hot for about 3/4 weeks 2022 summer and outside of that is actually a pretty bad shooter. Sub 30% from 3 iirc. Will be keeping an eye on how that one plays out
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I want to see if we change the starting line up at all? Or if they still go with Groves Dunn Rohde at the 3-4-5.
That Charlotte pg (probably their best player) - Reece
DeShawn Harris Smith - McKneely
Jamie Kaiser - Andrew Rohde
Dona Scott - Groves
Julian Reese - Dunn
Kaiser and DeShawn are both physical players. Not super quick crossover types but go at you bulldozers. Not sure if that’s better or worse: maybe better cause since there isn’t that quickness you dont need as much help defense from the front court but bad as in they pick up fouls. And also might still need help D at the rim.
Wonder what a Reece Rohde Bond Dunn Buchanan look like vs that Maryland starting 5. Lose McKneely’s 3pt shooting but keep the two playmakers (Reece Rohde) while shutting them down defensively. And since they are a younger team Reece and Rohde can exploit that with the playmaking.
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I feel like in all the non chatter of the possible maybe perceived pre season chatter Imac has been the quietest… in terms of non chatter
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Not if they can just sit all 5 defenders in the lane lol
Oddly enough the only one who has mentioned him was Sharma
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To be fair McKneely was okay last years scrimmage too. Hit open 3s but didnt do much else. And then we saw how he was actually the GOAT and second coming.
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No bigger fan of Imac than me and I have huge expectations for his year 2. My kinda point is the preseason chatter may not be as relevant as we want it to be as of today
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Per KenPom, Gardner was approximately as good an Offensive Rebounder at UVA as he was for ECU. And he was better at getting steals and blocking shots last year than he ever was at ECU. The three main things that took hits for him were: playing time, defensive rebounding, and the biggest was drawing fouls.
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Bouncy-adjacent.
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