I think our chances of making a run in the tournament (ie E8 or better) are pretty low if we don’t at least win the regular season title.
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I think the ACC is as good or better than every conference except the Big 12. Don’t quite have the heavy hitters at the top but currently projected to have 7ish in the tournament and did fine against the Big 10 earlier in the season.
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I’m ok with Kihei in with Shedrick… but if he’s in with Gardner and BVP it’s just so small and unathletic …
I always want a deep run in March, but for this team, I think going out and winning as much as possible in the regular season and maybe an ACCT should be the goal. Meaning, I wouldn’t hold back or change anything in anticipation of a deep run in March. I don’t think the ceiling for this team is a Elite 8 appearance. But getting as much experience playing and winning under pressure in big games etc. will go a lot further for the IMK, Dunn’s and other guys who will be back next season.
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I think the point being discussed is that small ball has been somewhat effective against the acc teams that aren’t a part of those 7 teams projected to make the NCAA tournament.
We are 1-2 vs teams in the field currently with the one win being against UNC without it’s front court starters.
Conversely, we probably beat Miami if Dunn isn’t out the first half for some weird reason and the Pitt game was just an epic choke, and both games on the road early in ACC play.
so again no idea whatsoever on how effective the small ball look actually is.
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Agree with the first part but no idea on the piece about ceiling. You get Kadin playing well again and the ceiling goes way up. Overall agree that this team should focus on hanging a banner before the NCAAT. Be that regular season or ACCT.
But I also think that about basically every team outside of the truly elite ones so what do I know 
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I saw @DH7281 typing. Let it loose LOL.
We also didn’t play small in those 2 losses. So, while the small lineup has not been proven effective against teams in the field, the large lineup proved pretty ineffective against them.
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You’re right on Pitt. 27 minutes for Kadin. But Miami Kadin only 11 minutes with Caf-a-row a few more. Vaguely remember Norchad Omier punking Jayden BVP and Dunn inside
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This whole discussion is a little silly. CTB isn’t going to take his foot off the gas in terms of trying to win every single game the rest of the way.
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And honestly I wouldn’t want it any other other way
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I’m going to go against the grain, this team is very underrated/capable of making a deep run March!! Sure we have some issues and need to improve but there is still a good amount of games left on the schedule to try and fix some things. Biggest issues right now is interior defense/rebounding. Kadin is the last piece to the puzzle, along with further improvements from our freshman (which they have shown over the past several games). I feel good about this team but would feel great if Kadin started playing to his potential.
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Realistically it’s not even about TB but what the players are focused on. Even Tony couldn’t make the 2016 group care about the ACC regular season title after they’d won the last two. The year before the guys were all in and won it, even post-JA injury, over a future national champion (among others).
Not sure if this has been covered, but is Kadin dinged up? He’s been playing with some sort of sleeve on his knee of late if I recall. Not sure that has contributed to his lack of production/minutes of late, but it can’t help.
I’d rather win the Regular season, *rest for the ACC tournament ie: getting to the semi finals or something similiar, and then get atleast to the Sweet 16, ideally further.
While true, I consider UVA quite good this year and we miss bunnies all the damn time. The point being, really good teams miss them, too.
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I think winning any banner would be a great send off for Kihei, a great career capstone for Jayden and BVP, and a great learning experience for the young guys. I tend to think regular season is the most likely banner.
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Yeah… did you see the one that Girard missed on the fast break? We would’ve been going apoplectic if Reece did that that late in the game… but if you noticed, no one on this board is even talking about it because no one cares if the opposition misses bunnies as it is good for your own team. It doesn’t cause scars in your brain that carry over for a few days like the team you support.
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I say we need to *Win whatever we can win. If we drop games and lose the ACC to Clemson, then we don’t hang a banner and get no notoriety. I actually enjoy winning the regular season because it shows the consistent work that we’ve put in over 2-3 months vs. a long weekend of games, which we only would play 2 games anyways because we would get a double bye. Not really a true test anyways.
Of course I would like to get the sweet 16 and higher regularly, but those are *also kind of crapshoots, HOWEVER we do get a full week to prepare for the first game and then quick turnaround for the second.
It’s kind of funny how we fans talk about whether we’d rather win X or rather win Y as if there’s some zero-sum at play and we have to choose one. Mostly we’re trying to win the next game, and after that we’ll try to win the game after that. And so on.
That said, I’ll play. The NCAAT is important, obviously, very important, but I don’t understand the perspective from some that everything prior to that is unimportant (or important only to the extent that it impacts seeding). If individual games and conference championships don’t matter and all that matters is 1 or 2 or 3 games in March, this would be a pretty boring sport. I want to win every game, every banner, every ranking, every award.
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