Just going to go ahead and create this thread,
Could still make the tournament somehow but otherwise it will be good to have this thread ready for tonight. (gonna wait on posting in it until selection Sunday officially over)
WARNING: this is venting thread so it may (lol) be too negative for some. Also engaging in this thread does not mean we are spoiled or that we have taken past success for granted, as a disclaimer.
Offseason is more fun anyways
Someone posted this in another thread but look at our offensive ranks since the title. We need guys who can score. There have been debates about shooters vs guys who can get to the rim vs all arounders. Who cares? We haven’t been able to score in any manner. Let’s get some guys who can score by any means necessary. Then after a year or two of that maybe we can fine tune to preferred skill sets
If you told me at the beginning of the season we would win 23 games, finish 3rd in the acc, lose in the acct semis in OT, and miss the tournament, I would not have believed you.
And beat TAMU and UF in the OOC
That. The view of our season depends on whether you care about margin of victory/defeat. Just looking at wins and losses, pretty good.
First season since 2013 we didn’t win our fall holiday tournament.
First season since 2012 we didn’t beat one of Duke or UNC.
First season in the Bennett era we’ve returned only one starter from the season prior.
First season in the Bennett era we took more than two transfers (four this year).
Best case scenario, this is another 2013, but at least that year we got a lot of minutes for the talented freshmen (Justin, Nolte, Tobey), this year we buried Bond and Gertrude so they’re far less ready for the kind of sophomore leap the 2012s could take.
Which of these things contributed the most to the post title decline?
Too early for this. Let the ink at least dry tonight!
This is always funny to me because I said the same thing. Both UVA Basketball and the Nats, if they win in 2019 I will give them a 5 year break of not being mad if they don’t have success.
And yet, I was still plenty mad…a lot
24 more days to go until the seal is broken
How many poop emojis do I have to get saying negative stuff about Tony in this thread today to somehow incept a miracle bid tonight and a win in Dayton and a couple more wins to get to the Sweet 16?
My biggest gripe right now is that this program is horrible with end of game leads and has been for years. I’ve said this elsewhere and gotten pilloried, but I really can’t imagine it’s up for debate anymore.
Feels like it’s a combo of not practicing end-of-game scenarios (pack line practice all day and all night), not breaking out of SOP when it’s time to do so (foul on the 3), and generally having the team wound tight and making dumb mistakes at the end. This season our inability to hit FT exacerbated things, of course.
In addition to the NIL thing, I really hope Tony does an assessment of why his teams fold so often at the end.
It’s 80+% recruiting. Between the 2010 and 2016 classes, we recruited prolifically, brought in a ton of kids and hit on those kids at an enviable rate. Starting in 2017 the classes got smaller and the hit-to-bust ratio swung drastically in the opposite direction.
As a result we’ve gotten into a doom spiral of transfers. We had good results early in Braxton (who got to work in as a 6th man for a year), Hauser (already a high-major all conference player AND got to redshirt) and Murphy (lightning in a bottle plus surrounded by program returners).
But then it went off the rails and we’ve been a mess since. Not until Tony just re-commits to actually developing our young players instead of being scared they’re not ready (maybe Morsell PTSD?) and burying them behind low-upside transfer veterans (e.g Gertrude behind Dante), then nothing is going to change.
if we have any unexpected attrition from those two ,and it came during a year we missed the NCAAT, this place will be at its lowest point since it was founded.
And rightfully so. I sent this after your last post but you just gave the perfect summation of our post Natty struggles. Playing the high floor game at the expense of developing our talent has been the hardest thing to stomach as a fan imo
i’m genuinely excited for the offseason of course losing beek and dunn will suck and i feel one of bond or gertrude dips , hopefully not eli but go get a shooting 4 , another guard who can create his shot . another big and we can be solid . oh and for the love of god find someone who can shoot free throws
I am kind of in the same boat, but I wonder if the fan base would really be patient enough to view next season as a “rebuild” to be ready for hopefully a big 2025-2026 season.
Assuming no transfers and Reece and Dunn are gone our rosters is:
Murray Sr.
Harris Sr.
McKneely Jr.
Rodhe Jr.
Bond So.
Gertrude So.
BB So.
Bliss Fr.
Robinson Fr.
Coffee Fr.
8 guys who would theoretically return the following season, Harris could of course for a 5th year too.
Assuming no attrition, I think I would add a transfer (probably a 4) and go with:
Bliss
IMac
Murray
Transfer
BB
Bench:
Gertrude
Rodhe
Harris
Bond
A-Rob
Coffee
If the transfer we get has multiple years left even better. I think that team probably would have a similar ceiling to this years team maybe lower next year, but be set to have a great year in 25-26. But it would require a lot of patience next year I think. I think this is probably our best path to get back to sustained high level play. But the temptation will be there to add a few transfers and if that happens, I fear we will lose a couple of players.
We really need to go after the best 4 we can get. I’m worried Bliss won’t be ready with his injury so wouldn’t be opposed to a 1 year PG stopgap
