Villanova streamed their scrimmage and then posted 26 minutes of highlights on YouTube.
Good opportunity to give recruits more of a look at their program and get people who might not know much about NOVA to maybe get interested. Also the whole giving fans opportunity to see their team during a pandemic thing
How will Jay Wright ever be able to overcome the huge leg up he is giving checks schedule Mt. Saint Mary’s?
I will say: Villanova doesn’t even look that much faster than us but man they are intentional with the 30 seconds they get on offense. They get the ball across the half court and boom they initiate the offense. I remember seeing the same thing in their loss to Baylor last March.
That’s one thing I think Malcolm and Joe did that we haven’t really had since they graduated. Those guys used their screens with purpose for the whole shot clock in a way not even Ty and Kyle did. Taine looks promising in that department from the New Zealand clips @hoopsandhoos posted.
I’m doing a Virginia season preview mailbag over on the LRA blog — if any of y’all want to submit a question for the mailbag you can go ahead and reply with it here.
What do you realistically think the ceiling for average offensive and defensive points per game will be?
Lots of unknowns, but I’m curious to hear your view on which of our offenses (Sides, 3-man motion, ball screen (spread or CBS), or 5-out) is the best fit for our most likely personnel. Or to what extent it really hinges on personnel choices.
How far into the season when Reece!! gets the keys (lookinb at the schedule)
Happy Cake Day @DFresh11
What do you make out of all of the Igor practice hype? And the lack of buzz around the other young players on the roster?
Yessir. Thanks Nut. maybe some saporros after work to celebrate hahahha
They ran Kyle off screens just as much as Malcolm and Joe, but the book was out to bump and grab him constantly because the refs weren’t calling that foul. Opponents tried that with Malcolm and Joe too, but they didn’t seem bothered by it (for obvious reasons). I think it looked like Kyle wasn’t using screens as effectively because by the time he got through the gauntlet of shoves and grabs, the opportunity for a catch and shoot was often gone. On the other hand, giving his scoring average and 3 point percentage, you could argue that Guy was still very effective despite those defensive tactics.
Didn’t say they didn’t run Kyle off screens. Or that Kyle wasn’t great at using them. But Kyle didn’t always use them with the same intent and purpose that those two did. Especially Malcolm. A lot of times Kyle would jog (well not run full speed) around the first couple as we passed the ball around the perimeter and then hit one screen really hard as the shot clock got under 10. Brogdon didn’t really do that. He made himself a threat on almost every screen. Whether it was a quick probing dribble or a pump fake. He made himself a threat to score on the catch like Jay Wright likes to say. Some of that might be because Brogdon was in insane shape and the rest of the guys are mere mortals who need to find rest throughout the game.
If you go back and watch the old games the possessions where we just pass the ball around the perimeter and didn’t ever look at the basket were way less common in the Brogdon era than they have been since he graduated. Doesn’t mean every possession in that era was perfect or that the 18/19 offense wasn’t still the best of the Bennett era. Just something I noticed in 16/17 and hasn’t really changed in the seasons since.
Not a bad preseason take
This idea that we are going to more physical so we are going to be able to grind teams down on defense is, IMO, a misunderstanding of why we’ve been good on defense.
A lot of season previews and predictions boil the defense down to this vague prediction that goes something like this “last year, Tony said finessey and this year those finessey guys are gone so … [skipping lots of steps and engaging in serious magical thinking] … this is going to be a typical top 5 Bennett defense.” If someone wants to break down Gardner defensive tape, I will read with interest. But if someone wants to say we are going to be better on defense because of something vague about toughness, it’s not worth reading
To be fair, I’ll keep reading because I’m a junky, but that’s a me problem.
Edit - to anticipate the follow up, I think our elements of successful defense are: athleticism, hoops IQ, experience, strength, and rim protection. Something vague like physicality is in there, but folks are overrusing it to back their way into the answer of why we’ll be better on defense.
When I personally talk about us being tougher, I honestly am referring to the offensive end. Think it’s fair to say we’ll be banging in the post a little more and hopefully getting to the line a little more. Whether that’s a better or worse offense, who knows, but do think we will be more physical on that end.
On defense, broadly agree. Toughness isn’t necessarily what we need relative to last year’s team, it’s increased foot speed, wingspan, and experience playing together (at least in my opinion). I think we got some of those, but will have to see.
Questions I have about this season
Jayden defending stretch 4s. Is he able to close out? Hauser struggled biggly last year with this, including the final game vs Ohio. Maybe this is where having stattmann available or Igor can help to cover stretch 4s and put Jayden on the center. Or use Armaan Franklin as a Brogdon type to cover stretch 4s (like how he defended Georges Niang/ Lamar Patterson etc.).
McCorkle and Taine’s defense. If Reece Kihei 3pt improvements are not there, will McCorkle and Taine’s defense be good enough to reduce the amount of time Reece and Kihei are on the floor together?
Where on the Mamadi/Huff growth track is Kadin? He may be behind because of the Mono but he also looked way ahead of scheduled in the limited minutes he did play last year.
Is this a mover blocker or a continuous ball screen/5 out team? If Mover blocker, will we see more Caffaro to set screens for Murray and McCorkle to run off of. If 5 out, how much do Jayden and Igor play at the 5 at the top of the key.
Last year, Trey pushed Sam up to the 4, though I think the offseason plan seemed to be Sam at the 3 (on defense). One relevant question this year is where does the talent push Jayden? Up to a small ball 5? Keep him at the 4? Where can Igor guard?
I should’ve added - I agree with your list.
I think where the physicality on defense comes into play is against teams like VT last year that imposed their will on us with stronger players going to the rim and battling inside. Hopefully that won’t happen to us again this season with several stronger, more physical players to counter that style of play.
I agree while being physical is not what makes the Uva defense click like Press Virginia or Any Huggybear team for that matter. The Hoos missed a physical edge last season. VT and several others took advantage of that and bullied the UVa bigs. When the packline is at it’s best rhe Hoos have physical active bigs who can take away the opposing teams best big. Think Gil Atkins Mitchell