Not my ideal situation as I want to see the team build to 23 and 24 and Kihei would be a band-aid at best. But i don’t think it’s the apocalyptic situation most fans make it out to be. Kihei is not why they lost tonight that was a solid team effort that led to that.
Facts
Wasn’t meant as a shot at Traudt. Just seems more like Dre in his disposition. Bond seems like a natural leader a la Micah Kiser when you listen to him speak. McKneely has the fire and as others pointed out recruited the rest of the class hard.
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Let me introduce you to Kody
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I’ve sat on this thought for a while, but now feels like a good place to share it. I genuinely believe that a lot of work needs to be done in order to rebuild the culture that made the program successful. Between the loss of 5 players after the national championship, the pandemic, and a slew of players who transferred out/weren’t bought in last year, it feels like a lot of the continuity of culture which led to top 10 defenses; really fun to watch, egalitarian offenses; and teams that were never physically overmatched is gone and needs be reconstructed.
This is most clearly evidenced, I think, by the blowouts. From the Tennessee game in 2014 to 2020, I can think of 5 losses which weren’t that competitive: UNC (2017), Notre Dame (2017), Florida (2017), the game which I won’t name (2018), and Purdue (2020). That’s incredible. Meanwhile, the last two teams have lost 8 noncompetitive games. Additionally, the defense has fallen to averag-ish in that timespan, and only two players on this year’s team, Kadin and Reece, played defense even close to UVA’s standard.
There needs to be somewhat of a cultural reset. This involves moving on from the current seniors who were both dead last among rotation players in defensive rating. The lack of physicality of the past two teams can’t continue to be a feature. It can’t continue to be acceptable to play a point guard 40 minutes who hasn’t gotten his turnovers under control in 4 years.
I hope they can reestablish what made the program so fun to watch over the last 12 years. Wahoowa
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No I’m not. Reece (no exclamation points) scored 6 points tonight. He is not Ty Jerome. You want to shit on Kihei. Where was Reece with all the exclamation points?
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Kadin is worst in my opinion. At least Kody had a random growth spurt that threw everything off. Kinda explains it some
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Dude, using one game to decide whether Reece or Kihei is better going forward makes no sense. Also, to your exact point, how many points did Kihei score tonight? Was it more or less than Reece’s 6?
Reece should have won ACC defensive player of the year, and likely will be next year. He broke the single season steals record and has an assist-to-turnover ratio among the best in the entire country. His final three-point percentage for the season was barely distinguishable from Kihei’s, despite being awful to start the season.
If you want to make some argument about transitioning to the next PG faster or something, or say something about culture, maybe I’d understand an argument. But you can’t fall back on production and make a case for Kihei over Reece that I’ll find convincing (unless there’s something I’m completely overlooking).
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You’re like the belligerent drunk of the board. Completely out of control during the game then you sober up and seem perfectly normal
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Who’s the person drunk AFTER the game but sober during?
Of course he’s not Kihei but his upside is off the charts. His fit alongside Kihei is terrible and the roster doesn’t set up well at all to play off his strengths. He needs spacing to operate, but even despite the roster limitations he’s putting up a ridiculous A:TO ratio while playing the best on ball defense in the country.
Reece is objectively a better player than Kihei and getting better. So you’re cool with him just bailing so we can run it back with another year of Kihei? That’s insane to me
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Here’s my vent: We need a new assistant coach that can perform as an offensive coordinator. Okay, I need to work on my venting skills…
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Lmao that’s pretty spot on. I was juiced up tonight for sure on bourbon. I snap out of my funk as soon as the clock hits 0
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They need a bench coach. CTB needs to utilize his timeouts better. The team was up 40-35, and they were exhausted. Needed a timeout there, but SB scores 7 straight and they’re right back in it.
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I said it before the season, I’ll say it again now, Reece is/was the best player on the team. It was clear even from the Blue/White scrimmage. I’m honestly not sure it’s debatable. He wasn’t the best player every game but overall he was easily the best piece this team had
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Kirk Penney- bring him back
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That reminds me, the first problem with this team is that Tony didn’t stream the blue-white game.
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True!
All I have to say is that Tony clearly was calling out certain players in his post-game presser. I have never heard him talk like that… And it’s not Gardner or Beekman.
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I understand it has been a long winter up there in Maine and all work and no play makes mainewahoo a dull boy and all that, but Kihei Clark has won more games in clutch moments for this program than Reece beekman has. Now, I prefer Reece over Kihei longer term but at his point you’re talking about 1 year difference. And let’s face it, Reece didn’t step up and win it tonight like Kihei has done in the past.