I don’t think we disagree. We haven’t been bad. We haven’t even been mediocre as defined by all of college hoops (your point). We’ve just been mediocre as defined by teams on the national radar, or however I originally framed it. We are still in the default to be discussed in these sorts of things, which is very good, but not in the group of 10-15 or so schools where they are closely following. CBS (Parrish/Norlander) is doing a similar thing, but for only 20 schools, and we didn’t make the cut. It’s kind of a top 20, but more like 20 most intriguing teams or something, so they can discuss Pitino, without having to fudge it.
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That’s hilarious - they don’t know how to pronounce it and you don’t know how to spell it?
heehee
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Fair enough. Sure, we’re not in the same territory as the school in Durham that supplies the local HBCU with six fresh bodies for classes each year. That particular school got more national ink in the year they didn’t make the tourney (2021) than all but a handful of teams.
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I think most national media guys outside of Eamonn Brennan would agree with the F68 guys, but would probably give more benefit of the doubt to TB, which he’s obviously earned. Their point is we don’t have someone who scares you, which we are predicting (I think rightfully so) to be one or a few of Reece, McKneely, Dunn, or Rohde. But none of them is an obvious choice, so it’s easy to see someone thinking we won’t be great.
I don’t necessarily agree with them, but I don’t blame them either. Put this way: if another fandom was saying they were gonna be really solid when no one thinks they will be great, what would you think?
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Meh- there is a history that Tony has established that should earn him the benefit of the doubt. I would compare Tony to Jay Wright- if Jay Wright had players similar to ours or perhaps may be considered “average” which I guess F68 is trying to say.
I don’t think anyone would dare to dismiss a Jay Wright team though.
Another example may be Michigan State, where they have only won *one title, but regularly win the Big-10…HOWEVER they do typically go further in the Big Dance. So I guess it’s perspective as well.
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LOL! That is hilarious; you got me there. 
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Actually, they have an upcoming grade for Syracuse that is higher than ours, and the caption for the video says, “The ACC’s SLEEPER.” But I get what you are saying.
Gonna plant my flag here: Syracuse this season will be Florida State from last season in terms of outcomes. I guess some think that going away from the zone will solve their defensive issues, but when you’re in the 200s in defensive efficiency rankings, that makes me think you might just have bad defenders on your team.
Syracuse is the sleeper eh? With brand new coaching and a BRAND new style of defense which hasn’t been seen in over 40 years- yet they want to bet against Tony’s consistency?..Hmmm okay.
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Why do you guys always make me defend Field of 68? The offseason grades is a nonsensical framing device, but to the extent there is any logic, it’s NOT meant to be who is better – it is using some arbitrary benchmark – what they expected – against what happened. Or something like that. Look, it doesn’t make any sense, but it makes no sense in a different way than you guys are accusing it of. Or something. (Basically, they are saying Cuse got Starling and Westry, and Mintz didn’t go pro).
Also, check this out: Baseline defense per hoops-explorer was 94.1 (KenPom says 94.5, but good enough). Possessions with both of Reece and Dunn, the defense was 83.6, which would have been the best overall defense. And that was about 20% of possessions (and iMac is overweight in those minutes, too – 62% v 51% of possessions). 
Because they dont put respect on Reece!! Line in the sand shit
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If my priors were:
A) Reece Beekman is what he was post-injury last year
And
B) Isaac McKneely ‘we know what he is’
My take would probably be similar to theirs. Of course, I wouldn’t spend so much time on Ryan Dunn without considering the possibility McKneely might also improve 
I looked it up earlier and decided to do a few minutes of work instead (bad choice / do not recommend), but our Reece + Dunn + iMac minutes would’ve been the best defense in the country and a top 20ish offense. That’s good.
Here it is – it’s obviously a bit gerrymandered, but it’s a fairly robust 12.3% of all possessions, and it would’ve been the 21st offense, and the #1 defense, and top KenPom team overall.
Tbh, it’s not terribly meaningful, but it’s kinda meaningful
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Meaningful-adjacent, perhaps.
Not, not meaningful.
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I also like clicking on the “Games” option to see the visualization of when that lineup was getting possessions in the season. Noticed that it got ~60 of its ~260 possessions in the last three games of the season, so against good competition.
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So much more reasonable in his short assessment than Dauster. We absolutely will be a top 25 team; Dauster and Goodman can suck on it. When Reece is All ACC and national DPOY, will they man up and admit they were wrong?
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I feel this has already gotten more attention than it deserves but the fact that Reece was All ACC 3rd Team, All ACC Defensive team and ACC DPOY last season shows just how ignorant these folks are
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Piling on more 2 cents - the F68 video is rough from a “should have done your homework” sense but frustrating that some of the points seem somewhat fair.
I want this season’s team to be really great but I can also see the point of 2 potential starters are LM transfers. 2 other potential starters are hoping for 2nd year pops. The starting PG we’re assuming will see a major jump now that he is the only guard. Sprinkle in a few other cases here and there.
Our ceiling feels extremely high but if people don’t pop or only half pop, what would the floor look like? Let the record show I think this team will be much closer to their ceiling than their floor but if you aren’t a UVA fan I’m not sure if you’re looking into our pieces as deeply as you should.
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Whenever anyone considers UVA they have to consider the defense first. We will get good wins even if our offense isn’t clicking fully due to our high floor defensive scheme. We have more athletes at the right places to support any lack in offensive efficiency.
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