Hypotheticalā¦.
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Ron leads the Hoos to a 18-12 record. No tourney.
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Odom leads VCU to a 23-6 record. Wins their 8 v 9 seed game.
Who do you want.
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That would be an incredible start and hard not to think he wouldnāt get the contract.
I imagine if they did do that and the team is playing wellā¦ Mallory probably comes back around pretty quick.
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Sucking at keeping this roster together would be worse than sucking at recruiting. Short term matters at this point
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I hate that take as well. Yeah they may not be good but the roster is good. They have talent.
First folks were saying UvA couldnāt keep up with Nova talent and lose by 20. UVA wins by 10 and basically just beat them down and yet UVA still sucks but Nova is self sabotaging.
UVA fans arenāt very fun sometimes.
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Thatās going to the popular take. We just beat a team that still has jerseys that say Nova last night.
I continue to think that Tony boned us in the short term. I didnāt like it! I donāt think you solve it by turning a short term into a medium term boning. But thereās like a 2% chance after seeing last night that it wasnāt a boning. Letās keep track in a week - I gave my thoughts above. I still think thereās no reason to make a decision this season but we wonāt really know the trend until late January or soā¦
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Take that. No Free Rent Ron!
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To be boned or not to be boned. Maybe that is the question
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I think those are probably two different groups of people tbh. Fans are emotional in either direction.
I was in the camp that we would hang with or beat Villanova. They are not a good team. They will not be in the tournament.
Thereās a bit of overreaction to the result based on the program name and the preseason expectations for that team and where weāre at in the season. No one gets this yoked when we beat Syracuse in a mid January game.
I had a lot of fun watching that game though. And was really happy with the result!
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I think of it in terms of probabilities. Before the game, I thought there was a decent chance weād be a bad team this year. Today, I think thatās a fairly small probability (I do think thereās a higher chance Nova will be a bad teamā¦). I see some good top end stuff (mostly iMac, some āare we good at defense?ā stuff), but for me Iām still seeing a 8/9 type season as reasonable top end. For me, thatās not a āhire Ron nowā kinda development, but some disagree. And I think thatās fun!
Meaning discussion is fun! Others think āagreeing that beating a Kyle Neptune coached team is awesome is fun!ā And I guess I disagree with that.
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Wonder if Coach Kyle is passamaquody though
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Thereās no upside to making a decision on Ron right now. Removing the interim tag today isnāt really going to change the end of year calculus for transfer exits vs just waiting. HS recruiting shouldnāt factor into the decision. There is, however, downside to making the decision now. Ron seems to be doing a decent job, but 3 games, only one of which was against halfway decent competition, is not nearly enough incremental information vs 3 weeks ago. Right now, uva has an option on Ron and options have value. Why would we give that up?
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Iād say a qualified āyes, at least as far as you can tell from 3 games.ā Rim protection has shown up so far. Rotations looked crisper last night, though thatās facilitated by Nova being mostly an iso team that primarily tests you at the point of attack.
Saundersā playing a big role in it? Another qualified yes. On-off stats come with a humongous grain of salt (a boulder of it, really) but the D has been good in his minutes and bad in his bench minutes.
Side note: TJPās defensive on-offs are slightly favorable for him too. 3 games though, I wouldnāt want to make a prediction based off this.
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I donāt remember Nova being so iso heavy in the Wright era. Were they? I remember a fair amount of booty ball.
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Not really. Not yet. But Iām starting to see signs of why weāve heard the staff make some noises about the potential, mostly predicated on the new/young guys becoming continuous and spacious.
Nova may not be a good team, but Dixon is a good player. He got 20 last night, but I still feel like we contained him pretty well. Nothing was too easy. I feel like in recent years a guy like that mightāve been able to absolutely torch us at will. The thing about nova is theyāve been a really bad 3p% team so far. What happens when we play a team with talent/size in the post and shooting on the perimeter?
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I think they try to preserve spacing at all costs, so their off-ball movement is mostly to keep spaced rather than to cut to create an advantage. They can be a good ball movement team, but it typically comes after they create an advantage on the perimeter or by posting their guards. Maybe iso isnāt the right word, but they rely on their guards creating an advantage on their man.
Check the first possession starting around 1:09 here:
The pretty stuff happens after theyāve drawn two to the ball (the ball screen didnāt even really connect) and then their spacing helps them keep the defense one step behind.
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Ron has done a fine job. But we should also probably note that Ronās effect on IMac hitting 6 3s was only marginal. We should see how he coaches IMac to get open against good defensive teams. I have a suspicion that McKneely will not be hitting 6 3s against Tennessee.
Nope. If he goes closer to expected 3/6 or 2/5 last night itās a very different ball game.
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I think it is waaaaaay too early to say Ron is doing a good or bad job. Not sure that can really be determined until a bit into conference play. Has he done to good job keeping the team together, focused and playing hard? Yes, it appears so. Is he doing a good job working the roster out and playing to our strengths. Yes, it appears so, but still a small sample size. Still think it is too early to speak on his in game coaching/game strategies, or in game adjustments or what happens in the really good or really down times. Still a lot that is TBD.
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So Ron is a knock in one touch put for you?
To be fair if we also donāt commit 12 turnovers its a different ball game. And also if Saunders Hamstring doesnāt spaz out
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