It was a nightmare - especially for Morsell himself. He was not wired mentally for Tony’s offensive system. The shot pressure is real. Rohde also plumbed record depths.
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Wow, Rohde was 3rd worst in the country in eFG% in 2024. Yep, checks out.
I kinda think it was Morsell’s rigid offensive skillset rather than our rigid offensive system. It’s probably a combination of both but he was not as athletic as we hoped, especially with the ball in his hands. His game lacked flow. Everything he did with the ball was very intentional, and it all broke down if someone cut off his driving lane or got a hand in his face.
Contrast that with Ty or even Reece. Those guys were flexible with the ball in their hands. They didn’t need to get to a spot and put up a shot like it was a drill in practice. They could constantly probe the defense and find soft spots.
TLDR: our offensive system worked really really well when we had players like that. It worked really poorly when we had guys like Morsell.
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What was so weird is that all the national recruiting guys (back when they were worth something) kept touting how well Morsell would fit into our program and offense
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Dent is ass, but I think Pitino was a great hire for Xavier. He’s overachieving w that roster. Beat Cincy and smacked Butler, probably their two biggest rivals currently.
He won’t be there forever since he’s a Pitino, but he’ll have Xavier in the tourney more often than not. It’s a hard school to fail at. Even Travis Steele (who is great at Miami U but sucks as a P5 coach) had solid years there. I’d bet he makes a S16/E8 run, bolts for the SEC, then X hires Chris Mack back for a guaranteed stick around guy.
I’d like to see our fellow sword-based-end-of-alphabet-navy-blue-catastrophic-upset-in-2018 basketball school do well.
All that being said I think hiring Pitino HERE would’ve been a disaster and Odom was literally the perfect fit.
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Johann 57th on espn draft board
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Fine spot, he’ll come back if that’s his grade
Thijs made the shortlist for the Wayman Tisdale Award (best freshman):
It’s kinda funny to classify him as a freshman when he doesn’t have 4 years of eligibility, but I guess academically he is?
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Do you think he is taking How Things Work and Cosmology? Perhaps History of Jazz?
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They sold their soul for a win in the barn in their super bowl. It’s really not that hard.
https://twitter.com/deferredwalkon/status/2011659129165922430?s=46&t=PzMfboQ4ofEF6ToybLUcpg
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Returning to UVA and spending the summer with MC while ironing out that jump shot and also making 7 figures seems like the right decision IMO but a lot can change between now and June.
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I’d guess the dividing line is around 25-30. If we see him being mocked in that territory, I think he’s a flight risk.
And more games like Louisville, and I think he could be in that territory (which would be awesome for him and very good for us, too).
Also, I kinda wonder if Ugo has an outside shot of making the league… Distant, I’d guess, but glimmering hope.
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Ugo seems like a likely undrafted to Exhibit 10 guy with a chance to earn a two way with a strong summer league and training camp. But then again Jahmai Mashack, a guy who had barely any offense even at the college level, got drafted and has played in a handful of actual NBA games this season.
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Bruh - I made a D in History of Jazz. You’re going to play me music & make me tell you who’s running the metronome on that piece? Nope. Not my skill set.
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Ugonna turned 21 in the fall. Can we sue for another year?
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I’ve thought so for a while. He’s got the size, athleticism, shot blocking ability. Hits his free throws and the occasional three. Has decent handles for a big too.
More work on catching passes in the post and finishing and I’d say pretty solid as a back up NBA center.
Interestingly, after the Cal game (12 pts, 9 reb, 4 blocks), a reporter asked Odom what he thought Ugo’s ceiling was, and he pretty quickly said “NBA”. I don’t think it was a case of just gassing up one of his guys either, as he followed it up by saying some things Ugo would need to work on.
Around the 4:20 mark or so here:
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It’s tech. They’re not cursed for not bloddletting a goat in the 1600’s. They’re cursed for what they did do to that goat in the 1600’s. And every lonesome Blacksburg Friday night since.
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Yeah, in the late 90s anyway, the music gut was Symphonic Masterworks.
I’ve seen people cite History of Jazz and Cinema as an Art Form as guts but in my recollection they each had B-/B curves.
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Was that the class with Professor Velimirovic? That guy was great