I think it goes back to the 2018 recruiting class being a complete fiasco, and ending up with Stattmann instead of Aaron Wiggins. Also while I wouldnât wanna play the âwhat ifâ game surrounding our Natty, having Jared Butler instead of Kihei is a very interesting scenario as well.
I think the flashes were there with Elijah plus coming off knee surgery itâs not crazy to wonder. But itâs a fair question and by no means a guarantee
I think all of these takes are valid. It kind of makes sense that after he reached the pinnacle and was likely expecting to keep building off that success, the landscape changed in rapid succession. Covid, the portal, NIL and new transfer rules all worked against the way he had built his success. His frustration must have just built up year after year.
Thatâs all true but our high school recruiting success, in terms of guys who ended up being good for us, took an absolute nosedive as well. I donât think the new landscape is to blame for that.
It is partly to blameâwe were slow to adapt. The other big factor is that a lot of top 100 recruits did not find our system appealing and after 2020 our results on the court took a step back.
But this just isnât true- our recruiting was littered with top-100 guys since the national title. We just had an abhorrently low hit rate
I feel fairly certain the âother guyâ was TJPâŚ
I mean if we really any to dig deep evaluations of prospects fell off when McKay left. Ty and Kyle were already committed
Thatâs valid, I was focused more on the notable missesâguys that we used to get and thought we were getting (or in the case of Traudt, got and couldnât keep)
I think the what if for 2018 is Jahvon Quinerly who Bennett probably thought he had a good chance at given how much time he was devoting to watching him. Then he turned out to be âPlayer 5â in the FBI recruiting indictments.
You nailed it. Tony saw what he had, realized the talent wasnât there even in year 2 and decided to hang it up- hoping Ron could put enough lipstick on this pig roster to get the gig.
I love Tony Bennett and all he accomplished at UVA. But last season and quitting when he did are big black marks on a HOF coach.
Indeed- 2018 was a fiasco followed by a 2019 recruiting year that was one miss after another leaving Tony to go overseas (Stattman/ Caffaro) to fill out the class. The in 2021 Tony once again just goes overseas to get Milicic and Murray, while using transfer fill ins to complete the roster. A horrible recruiting stretch surrounding our Natty season
Tbf I wouldnât consider Milicic a âmissâ, in fact that was a hell of an evaluation by our staff to get him as a relative unknown. We just didnât play him enough his first season and he left.
Guess it doesnât matter anyway since he didnât make an impact here.
IW got Tony in on Igor. They were teammates in Europe.
I doubted Igor a lot coming into the game but from what I saw in the 2nd half⌠he got dog in him.
Tangent on Warley: I have no idea if this is accurate, but I read on the Sabre a couple weeks ago that the plan for Warley was to take a bunch of credits at UVA, play this season, and then take those credits back to Florida State, where heâd get a Florida State degree.
If thatâs accurate, and if the Warley situation doesnât scare us away from doing it again, then thatâs an interesting loophole to the whole 60 credits needed to graduate thing
Thatâs certainly creative, although Iâm a little skeptical that the academic/administrative side of UVA would be ok with such a scheme. UVA has always been such a stickler about people being on pace to graduate. Admitting someone who never has the option/intention of graduatingâŚ
Not sure UVA would mind. He does have the option to graduate (even if takes more years), and as for intention⌠we have all these guys planning to go pro early, and thatâs fine.
Itâs on the FSU side where things are a little weird.
Nah - not weird. My Alma mater only required 15 of last 24 credits to be at that school.
8 of my last 24 credits were a CLEP test.
AthleticallyâŚ.Are the Hoos more like A or B?
- A. Washington Generals
- B. The male students recruited to be the male team to practice against a D1 womenâs team?