Yeah Gardner coming back is a must. Along with getting another rim protecting 5. I’m all for riding Shedrick as the starter because he’s only going to get better but we can’t have another year of Caffaro getting any meaningful minutes.
If that happens then I like our chances at a top 3 ACC, top-25 season
I’d be interested to hear Bennett’s true thoughts on Gardner. I’m not 100% sure on this, but I think he very much puts a ceiling on how good our defense, especially including defensive rebounding, can be. Yeah, he’ll improve with time in the system, but there are some things that I think he’ll always struggle with. I doubt that is a position that Tony wants to be in.
Yeah, I’m not 100% sold that Gardner coming back is the best thing for next year. Gardner is a great player who forces us to distort what we would otherwise like to do.
Is our frontcourt better as Gardner + Shed starting, Papi backup 5, and Traudt 10-15 minutes? Or better with a portal big who fits what we need defensively/otherwise instead of Gardner, and more minutes for Traudt?
I’ll be surprised if UVA actively searches for a big man unless one of the two centers leaves. They have their numbers already. It would take a scenario where the right player they have a relationship with falls in their lap to think of doing that.
But let’s say Gardner leaves. This leaves us with only Traudt as a true 4. You still don’t think they’d want one more big man? Especially after how lack of depth has hurt us there this season
Igor/Traudt. They want a skilled guy next to Shedrick anyway. And I’m assuming Bond might redshirt, but he could figure in there too.
The Athletic did a re-ranking of ACC teams. Virginia fell the hardest from their preseason ranking (4).
They have UVa ranked 10th. Only ahead of Cuse, State, GT, Pitt and BC.
Woah. We aren’t good, but we’re not finishing 10th
Yeah. I’d be thrilled to see us finish in the top third of the league, 5th or better. I think it’s doable too.
Crazy stupid that we aren’t looking for another big for next year. With or without Gardner returning.
Not getting another big would be fine if we were willing to go small to try and punish other teams offensively… but that doesn’t really happen
It would be threading the needle for UVA to find a quality transfer big man next year. Even if Papi were to leave, and I think that’s the only way they’d try, you’re looking for someone to split time with Shedrick. That’s just not going to be all that attractive to high end transfers. And I think it’s pretty clear Bennett’s strategy for the whole transfer era is to avoid the rinse and repeat cycle. Pushing back young up and coming players for established transfers leads to more transfers.
Doing these game previews, it’s hit me how few young players there are in big roles around major college basketball this year. Just about every starting lineup is made up entirely of upperclassmen now. Some have a bunch of transfers and super seniors, some just one or two. But it all adds up to less opportunity for underclassmen. Even for UVA. Recreate this year’s roster with McKoy instead of Gardner. It’s a worse team but they’re forced to approach things differently with Milicic. He’d be playing ready or not.
Doesn’t have to be a transfer. We need capable reserves at every position. Caffaro is not a capable big.
So we would be undefeated?
Guys prepare differently when they know they will play consistently… they practice differently too
No they don’t. Every person is different. Every athletes work ethic is different. That’s more motivational but athletes use that differently as well.
Midseason mailbag up on the blog. This was a fun one. Thanks @haney @DFresh11 @WFS_HOO @BDragon @Hoohoohoo for the questions
I never thought I would (appropriately) get subliminally dragged in a LrA mailbag but here we are 
lol
Re: my optimism question, I’m with you on Reece and Kadin. I’m less optimistic on Armaan. I think the general optimistic spin on Armaan is that last year he showed he was great from 3, and this year he’s elite from mid-range, so next year, well put it together and that’s an All-American. But things rarely work out like that. Most likely outcome (In my pessimistic opinion) for next year is a guy who’s somewhere between soph and Junior Armaan from both the mid range and 3, with marginal improvement overall. As Armaan’s stats this year are demonstrating, the Devon Hall continuous improvement plan is pretty rare. I am open to an idea that he will be more effective overall if/when we surround him with better scoring guards and wings, but let’s see what next year brings on that front.