Dunn for me. If he’s truly made a leap to being a borderline lottery pick, that raises our ceiling so, so much.
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I’ll lose a little respect for this coaching staff if they don’t let all these athletic guys get out and run.
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One of the things that hasn’t been mentioned much is the dearth of true blowouts for the Hoos since 2019. I think there’s a decent chance we get a few more this year than in each of the last 4 seasons allowing for more playing time for more guys… that will hopefully allow more young guys to get their feet under them and be more prepared for rotation minutes when it counts.
2020 - 3 true blowouts + 1 getting blown out
2021 - 5 true blowouts + 1 getting blown out
2022 - 3 true blowouts + 4 getting blown out
2023 - 5 true blowouts + 1 getting blown out
2019 - 17 true blowouts + 0 getting blown out
2018 - 12 true blowouts + 1 getting blown out
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I had knee replacement surgery in the first week of August, and so I have spent a lot of down time watching a lot of last season’s games. Looking at those rotations, and considering the rotations of the 2022 season, I have a suspicion that Murray’s role is being minimized a bit by too many here. I think that Beekman, McKneely, and Dunn are given as starters. Minor seems very likely. After that, I won’t be at all surprised if Murray is the fifth starter to begin the year. Through the years, to the varied complaints of fans, Coach Bennett has favored experience above other qualities. Will Sherrill, Jack Salt (especially his third year), and Kody Stattmann all received significant playing time while many believed better options were on the bench. I could easily be wrong and Rohde starts from day one, but I think the question is more up in the air than comments here would suggest.
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I’d prefer Rohde as the 5th starter, but I’m ok with Taine.The only real fail would be Danteas the 5th starter unless he’s magically a ton better than he’s been in the past.
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I’m okay with whomever Coach Bennett wants to start. I’m okay with whatever minutes he decides to give any player. I have a suspicion that, come the first game, the starting five will be those players who have demonstrated in practice that they give Virginia the best chance of winning. So far, Coach Bennett has done pretty well at sorting these things.
Yes, I have been thinking about this question. We can speculate endlessly – and probably will – but your conclusion is really the best one. That is, from my perspective, the coaching staff is being pretty tight lipped regarding what is happening in practices. I have heard both Williford and Wilkins deflect when asked how the team is coming together. One can plausibly conclude the starting lineup – based on what’s happening in practices, as you noted – could be almost anything; I truly won’t be surprised who takes the floor in the starting lineup on November 6th, precisely because we have no idea what is happening behind the scenes.I have equal confidence that Tony will be experimenting and will settle on a solid rotation that may ultimately be closer to what the conventional wisdom is.
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One thing I can guarantee you is that Kihei will start
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The last UVA basketball game that Kihei didn’t play in was UMBC.
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I will take the opposite side of that coin. I don’t see where many minutes for Taine come from, at any point in the season. To be fair, it wouldn’t surprise me if he is a glue / back of the rotation sub (although I think out of the rotation is equally likely). But I would be shocked to see him start.
And good luck with the knee 73
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You many be entirely correct, however… When has Coach Bennett started a newcomer when he had an experienced (with his schemes) player returning at that position? The only instance that comes to my mind is London Perrantes, and even that case is a bit iffy. While Brogdon could play the point as a combo guard, Perrantes was the only true point guard available. It is all speculative, but I am a bit curious. And, thanks for well wishes. The folks at OrthoVirginia did an amazing job. I could walk on the knee without the “walker” the day after surgery. I didn’t, of course, but I could have. Crutches were set aside within two weeks.
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Do you mean first game or eventually? Casey lost his starting spot in 2020-21 after the 2nd game, I don’t know if you’d credit that to Reece, Trey, or both of them, but Reece and Trey both played over returners.
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There is the BVP over Shedrick example that received minimal discussion in this forum.
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Shedrick and Gardner were the starters at the beginning of the season. BVP didn’t move into the starting lineup until later, but he had games prior to becoming a starter where he played more minutes than the starters.
I can envision scenarios where Taine starts, but bench players play more than he does.
The thing with Taine is that probably the only area where he’s “better” than the guys he’s competing for PT with is knowledge of the system both offensively and defensively. Rohde is a better shooter and has more offensive versatility. Bond and Player X are better athletically than Taine. Having that Florida game being the second of the season, I can see how CTB could want to go with experience to start the game, but may need to go with the other dudes from an athletic standpoint.
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First of all, good luck with the knee, @73CAV . My MIL is having that same surgery today.
Second, I think Tony has tendencies like anyone else, and one of these is preference for experience, but Taine doesn’t really have that much experience. And for any tendency, there are always counter-examples. So these things can’t really be reduced to formulas.
But also in terms of tendencies, and general precedent, it’s very rare for any player to be fully available for two straight years, and play as little as Taine has, especially on teams that finished where they finished (34/72 KenPom), and then be a starter on a good team** the following year. I’m sure there are some examples, but it’s certainly not common.
** which is why I think that it’s unlikely that Taine will start (or play similar minutes) on a good*** team this year. He could start AND we could be good, but I would bet on those being separate events, rather than simultaneously occurring.
*** Define good, please. No, I will not. Why am I talking to myself?
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Just to add an example here – I think Devon Hall is the one we all think of as a slow burn prototype. Here are Devon’s first two years, with final Ken Pom ranks:
- 14-15 - 10.6 mpg, #6 KenPom
- 15-16 - 21.9 mpg, #4 KenPom
Taine:
- 21-22 - 7.7 mpg, #72 KenPom
- 22-23 - 7.2 mpg, #34 KenPom
Notably, Taine’s time went down, which isn’t exactly an encouraging trend. The only thing that really makes me think twice is that he did get reinserted into the rotation down the stretch.
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Now I’m just belaboring, but Taine has been a DNP in 27 of 40 ACC games since he got here. Including 14 just last year. If anyone can think of a guy on any power 6 team who was a DNP in almost 70% of conference games his first two years, and then became a starter the following year, tell us.
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And it just occurred to me that an “experienced” starting lineup of Reece, IMac, Dunn, Groves, Minor could be used. Or Reece, IMac, Rohde, Dunn, Minor. Or some variation of those lineups with Harris as one of the ballhandling guards.
There’s a lot of ways for Taine to get little to no playing time even if someone is trying to put a major emphasis on being a veteran player.
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Here’s a list of power conference/high major sophomores who played less than 30% of their teams minutes, dating back to 2008:
Good exercise in remembering some guys. Names that jumped out to me as being close to the criteria @haney laid out were:
Grady Eifert (Purdue, he who was discarded by Dre in OT in 2019): T-Rank Player Stats - Customizable College Basketball Tempo Free Stats - T-Rank
Andrew White III (had to transfer to start): T-Rank Player Stats - Customizable College Basketball Tempo Free Stats - T-Rank
Darryl Reynolds (Nova): T-Rank Player Stats - Customizable College Basketball Tempo Free Stats - T-Rank
Jeff Withey (Kansas): https://barttorvik.com/playerstat.php?year=2011&p=Jeff%20Withey&t=Kansas
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