St Lou Hoo Part 2 - What went wrong? https://hoosplace.com/2022/04/05/basketball/7214/
I have only just glanced at, but it seems to me that one way to break down the answer to that question is, to what extent were the following true, and if true, to what extent did they contribute:
(1) recruiting sagged since 2016
(2) continuity sagged year over year because of the portal and NBA early entry
(3) Tony made some less than ideal in-year personnel choices
I think everyone would put #1 as the main reason, and then weâd all quibble over whether 2 or 3 were (a) true, and (b) significant factors.
⌠okay just reading a bit, and re: my #3, St Lou lists a 3-fold plan to make shooting better in the preseason: (1) Armaan; (2) Kihei/Reece improvement; (3) 1 M emerging. But then none of those things happened, and Tonyâs plan was just ⌠I donât know ⌠ignore it? (As Geddy Lee reminds us, doing nothing is a choice)
That incredibly long diatribe on entitlement was kind of bizarre and seems ancillary to the issues involving recruiting and talent evaluation misses. It is also possible - not really discussed - that JAR and Carson had high school foot injuries right before coming to uva that could have sapped some of the athleticism needed for the uva system. Teenagers are teenagers and sometimes them not panning out is not due to them having irredeemable personality traits or that Tony Bennett mentally destroyed them: rather, projecting your whole future at 16/17 years old is necessarily hit or miss. Hopefully we return to the hits soon
We were swinging because we had players already on the roster (who eventually transferred). Hindsight yeah it was bad but only high ranked kids would join an already full roster
I donât think the issue is swinging for the five stars - I agree with you. I think the issue is not sufficiently making the case to our back-up options. When weâve lost out on high profile five-star recruitments recently, instead of getting a high or mid-level four star as plan B, weâve too often had to resort to option Cs from overseas or really rough and low-rated prospects. Thatâs whatâs messed things up (in addition to Morsell, Jabri, McCorkle, and Igor all not working out).
It all could be worse. We could be Auburn fans. UVA twitter putting out all kinds of stuff today about beating them in the Final Four three years ago to the day has that fan base triggered.
Not sure why those guys down-transferring proves (or, IMO, even buttresses) the notion that Tony made the right call to de-emphasize perimeter shooting.
Look at the end of the first half miami. I agree we needed more shooting but we need athletic shooters. We needed more taine.
Carson would give up 100 points (do hate he got yanked for a simple turnover vs UNC though) and Igor was clanking a lot of the time/yeah floor spacing but he wasnât at a point where he would have given us more than Jayden in those minutes.
