On the second tweet, we have more length this year than the past two, which allows us to combat those “offensive trends” by extending the packline. More length should mean better closeouts (once they get comfortable, that is).
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Also, the stuff about the Pack Line not being well-suited to the current college offensive context because of how teams stretch it out always seems to ignore the teams that give up similar amounts of or even more 3s and still put up elite defensive numbers (Tennessee, Houston, Rutgers, SDSU).
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If Elijah gets in the rotation we will have an elite defense. It will take him some time to learn what he is doing but he’s a very good defender.
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I say this a lot but the packline is not a gimmick that made UVA good at defense for a few years and now its different…
Virginia had great defenses because Tony has high expectations for defense, spends a lot of time practicing defense, and is very good at teaching defense.
The players themselves also deserve a lot of credit, especially guys like Mitchell, Atkins, Gill, Diakite, Hunter, Key, who were defensive anchors but also guys like Harris, Guy, Jerome etc who worked hard to be competent enough defenders where they could be a part of elite defenses.
This is a big pet peeve of mine.
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On3 - Transfer Rankings:
58 - Rohde
65 - Harris
102 - Minor
251 - Groves
Assuming these rankings are close to accurate…
If this were a high school class, how would we feel about the class? It ranks 20th nationally in transfer team ranking. Would probably be one of our better classes under CTB … how many classes have we had better than 20th nationally.
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And you add Gertrude, Buchanan, Robinson, and Bliss from HS, and that’s pretty damned good.
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I’d wait for Norlander’s 1-358 ranking/analysis to get an actually good national perspective of where we stand.
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I haven’t heard too much from them (him and GP) on Virginia recently besides some credit in the form of summer shoot around ACC teams maybe losing at UVA when they’re doing record predictions. Last year when coaches in ACC gave UVA love while they were doing their coaching carousel they started mentioning Virginia more.
2 years ago they gave us the benefit of the doubt because of CTB while mentioning they might not love the roster but expect him to make it work and that didn’t end up well (NIT). I’m hoping they can look past it since this team is much better positioned than that team but because of recency bias I’m actually thinking Norlander will be lower on us than other national media. I hope I’m wrong but seems like from their EOCB podcast, if they’ve gotten burned before they tend to be cautious on expectations until proven otherwise.
< insert GP “I was wrong” sound bite for my other EOCB podcast fans >
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Three Man weave is a couple teams into their top 40. Will be interesting to see if we are in it. My guess is we will be, from high 20s to mid 30s.
I think Sweeney does a 1-358, too, or has in the past.
The computer rankings have been a bit wonky with all the player movement. Don’t forget we were like preseason top 5 in KenPom last year. Which reminds me, that’s the flip side to the “Bennett deserves more respect” posts I saw yesterday. That was the tack that many folks took the last 2 years, and they were burned by it. I think the proper view, modified by the last 2 years, is that “Bennett deserves respect, but he doesn’t defy gravity, so talent is super important, too.” I think we have the talent this year, but it’s a bit young and raw and unproven (other than Reece, who is unproven in a certain way, tbh).
Also, @kjwilliams612 , enjoyed the Fresh and Cav Futures pods. I will be listening in the future!
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The Torvik cast for UVA is super broken. Has Dunn basically not playing and Groves playing 30 mins a game. It has Dante and Groves as playing the 3rd and 4th most minutes on the team. If that happens, we are in bad territory
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Yeah, and the Dunn thing isn’t even a glitch, it’s just what the system is supposed to be spitting out I think (or, maybe better stated, it’s a glitch that’s part of the system, not just a glitchy glitch)
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Dont forget TB loves Dante…
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Dante playing a lot would not shock me. I think he will probably be in the top 6-7 for minutes played. This roster looks a bit better constructed for Harris to be helpful than last year’s.
It is more that the projection thinks Dunn will only play in blowouts but also says Dunn will have the fourth highest offensive rating on the team?
I’m not sure how to interpret TB loving Dante. I think Dante is a no doubter for the rotation. He’s the equivalent of a senior, and has two years starting experience. But I think “TB loving Dante” is consistent with Dante at 12-15 mpg in mostly a backup role, and is also consistent with Dante at 25-30 with lots of joint minutes with Reece. We shall see.
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I dont think it matters yet but someone suggested to me that Groves looked like our best transfer in so far. From a small sample
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That would be a bad sign. Dude was a 20mpg player on subpar Oklahoma teams
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Virginia was high up in the early KenPom ratings last year because the entire starting five returned. So Virginia will most likely be low on the early KenPom rankings this year because the only returning production is Reece/IMac/Dunn.
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Small sample by an observer. Some have said that Groves shot been streaky. May have caught him on an ON day
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10 mins backing up Reece and 10 with him backing up IMac?
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Probably what we see in the Florida game