🏀 ACC/SEC Challenge: Virginia at Texas, Wednesday, 3 December 2025, 2115, ESPN2/U

[Weirdowlhoo]

I love all of our players. They each bring something different to our lineups that will show differently depending on our opponent. I don’t worry that any particular player might not have a big impact in any one game. And the competition that they bring to practices is invaluable.

[norfolk_hoo]

If by “as good as yall thought he was” means better than a hobbled BVP I don’t really know how you can dispute it

[lodger96]

Back on the topic of last night’s game…

https://twitter.com/anneparkercole1/status/1996645966037110808?s=46&t=PzMfboQ4ofEF6ToybLUcpg

https://twitter.com/anneparkercole1/status/1996640384886395182?s=46&t=PzMfboQ4ofEF6ToybLUcpg

https://twitter.com/anneparkercole1/status/1996457296432640260?s=46&t=PzMfboQ4ofEF6ToybLUcpg

[dave92]

Anne-Parker hasn’t forgotten us!

[DFresh11]

I think we were ranked 2 and Reece!! Was hobbled. Houston came to JPJ and we were ok til we werent

[Cuts_from_The_Corner]

@Hoohoohoo

Yeah I forgot that team at one point was ranked #2 in the AP. We were preseason ranked #18.

Think we all were even more hyped here comparatively after they won in Vegas against two ranked opponents.

Don’t get me wrong, was a great result of a season, but the team regressed over the course of the season (still finished 1st!) - dealt with the Kihei+Reece, the Kadin/BVP chronicles, etc. and we played a lot of ugly basketball. Ultimately culminating in a really ugly first round exit.

That was the craziest part. They played their best basketball early in the season and then again in the ACC Tournament.

If they had just stayed the course, let Shedrick play through some mistakes/kept his time share - they could have kept some work load off of BVP’s hobbled back, too, not to mention that pretty much any Gardner/BVP 4-5 minutes together (not against the Syracuse Zone) were poor all year - probably avoided some losses like @VT where they just torched us inside all game and made Basile and Mutts look like all world players… and because we didn’t learn our lesson when we were clearly struggling against terrible Louisville and Notre Dame teams, it cost us a bad B.C. loss and rendered us pretty uncompetitive against UNC when they got Bacot and Nance back.

The same UNC team we spanked when we didn’t have the luxury of going small in the ACC Tournament.

The season itself was okay in a vacuum - but the bad taste was because of how inexplicably we decided to shoot ourselves in the foot.

Forcing 9 Taine Murray minutes when he was getting roasted at Miami but not playing Ryan Dunn until the second half and then playing Dunn 16 minutes in the half until he was worn out… in a two point loss.

Playing Shedrick 27 minutes against a ranked N.C. State team after not playing him at all in the loss at @VT, watching him lock up DJ Burns in a 13 point victory… only to go right back to barely or not playing him for seven straight games despite most of that stretch being our worst play of the season.

Having Traudt redshirting while we refused to play either of our Centers and our stretch four’s slowly eroding health dropped down to 30% three-point shooting.

Playing a freshman iMac over 20mpg on a team with small positional size across the board rather than trying Gardner at SF (which worked wonders at Michigan) or using Dunn there… especially when we weren’t playing either Center…

Playing Armaan Franklin more at the 4 than the 2.

Like, that season was a brutal use of a very good roster.

But, anyway… still too soon, haha.

Yesterday was great!

[ElliottHoo]

My only quibble is that Franklin actually played pretty well at the 4!

[HooDat]

@newjerseyhoo

Are we hoping for 20-plus wins? A winning ACC record? An NCAA bid? What would we consider success this year?

All of the above

With added criteria of a top 5 ACC finish (not just a winning record in conference)

And added criteria of not just making the tourney, but winning at least one game in the tourney (obviously, hopefully more than one). Way overdue

[Cuts_from_The_Corner]

He did! But still. That could have been a cool wrinkle not a base fixture and it would have been great to see him in his natural position more often during his time with us.

[tonyburnertt]

I think it’s basically a par if we make the tournament. That’s all we need to feel good about the future. Can’t be used against him in recruiting if we do that. Winning one would be awesome but I’m happy with just making it.

If we don’t make it this year it then it becomes really high pressure to do so next year and I’d really prefer to avoid that situation.

5th in the ACC is also a par but it’d be a really short hole. We should be looking for a birdie. I’m not scared of NC State

And to further strain this metaphor if we win the next 2 I feel like it will basically mean we’ve hit a pretty solid drive to start.

[Hoohoohoo]

Tony generally took care of business against middle-of-the-road teams in the ACC. Of course BC snuck iin on us it seems every other year.

I think this squad will compete with the top but is also going to drop a few sloppy games to middle-of-the-pack teams.

FWIW I also think NC State will finish no higher than 6th.

[hoos689]

@newjerseyhoo

…. I am honestly curious to what degree we have recalibrated our expectations from the Bennett years. Are we hoping for 20-plus wins? A winning ACC record? An NCAA bid? What would we consider success this year?

I mean…it’s just not reasonable to expect this year’s team to win an ACC regular season title and make a deep tournament run when they have a new head coach and an entirely new roster (not to mention that the ACC was hot garbage in 2023 and is significantly better this season). That doesn’t really say anything about longer term expectations for the program, though. I’ll feel like this season was pretty successful with a single digit NCAAT seed and 1 or more tournament wins, but I will expect more than that next year.

[AdventiveQuasar]

As of now, T-Rank has us slightly above UNC for 3rd (inferring from the title odds projection): Verifying Browser...

Schedule plays a role in that: Verifying Browser...

[Hoohoohoo]

I’m sure we’ll hear about it on the broadcast but…

Was the last time Ryan Odom coached at the Spectrum Center in 2018 with UMBC?

[newjerseyhoo]

@newjerseyhoo

I am honestly curious to what degree we have recalibrated our expectations from the Bennett years.

Love all these responses to my question about expectations. We’re all over the spectrum, as you might expect.

Which makes me wonder about expanding that question a bit. I arrived on Grounds the same year as Ralph Sampson, and for four years, we were one of the top teams – often THE top team – in the country. When Ralph graduated, I don’t think many people expected us to return to the top. But Tony took us there for a good six or seven years.

So, my new question: Do we think we’ll ever get back to those heights? And do we think we’ll do it under Odom?

[haney]

Final 4 under Odom: 50-50
Natty under Odom: No

[Hoohoohoo]

@newjerseyhoo

Do we think we’ll ever get back to those heights? And do we think we’ll do it under Odom?

I don’t think so. Tony couldn’t do it in the new era.

I think Odom can exceed the post natty results of Tony teams. Both regular season and obviously tourney wins.

I’d set goal of being an Iowa State or Texas Tech level program.

[BDragon]

@haney

Natty under Odom: No

Then what are we even doing?

@Hoohoohoo

Both regular season and obviously tourney wins.

What’s Odom’s tournament record?

[haney]

Talking hoops

Natty is a high bar

[BDragon]

A Nati is like first class. Once you experience it you can’t go back to sitting with the plebs.

I need my coach to guarantee a nati by a certain date or pass that joint to the brother on the left.