Already better at recovering off of hedges than Kadin ever was.
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2 things can be correct:
(1) BB has a greater ceiling and will likely become a better overall player than Shedrick, especially if you factor in the rumored personality clashes.
(2) They are comparable and have relative strengths. Shedrick is and will likely always be a better vertical athlete than BB in terms of rim protection & rim running. BB is likely a better lateral athlete and has better hands and footwork than Shedrick. BB certainly has more discipline in his positioning and lack of fouling as well, which is crazy comparing a true freshman to someone who had been in the system several years.
Wish we had both this year. Honestly, I’d think we’d be looking at a final 4 type year if so.
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I know it’s only 2 games, but I’ll make a bold prediction. By the end of the 2025-26 season, we’ll be debating if BB or Olden is the 2nd best 6’10+ player (was going to say C, but didn’t want to bring guys like Watson into the discussion, who were really PF’s) all-time at UVa.
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I didn’t see this comment anywhere, but Blake had more FTA’s (16) than the whole Florida team (15). Great to see our big so active and aggressive around the rim.
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If you had told me the only negative out of our front court after our first two games was that Minor needed to figure it out to give us back up minutes, I’d be thrilled. After the cluster that had been our front court since mamadi left, truly feels like the first time we’ve had identity there. BB, Dunn, and Groves is a great threesome to build from.
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We were outrebounded by 17 and gave up something like 53% of Florida’s missed shots back to them. Our front court recorded 1 block when most of Florida’s shots were at the rim.
We have real front court problems. But it’s early in the season and hopefully we will only get better.
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Do you know how often we will play a team with Florida’s size? not many. Yes, this frontcourt has issues with defensive rebounding but after the cluster of the last few years, it is really nice to see a front court that complements the team well and can compensate in other ways for the deficiencies. I can’t remember the last time we’ve had a big that could get to the foul line and foul out the other teams big.
Early season and plenty of areas to improve. I feel like we could have successfully reduced Florida’s production on the boards but probably would not have been able to also harass their starting guards into 13-39 shooting. Our perimeter guys did a really good job there and probably were unable to focus on collapsing for rebounds as much as they might otherwise.
Why is it hand wringing to hope for more front court depth? Do you think we will be a worse team if minor turns out to be good enough to make a decent contribution? Everybody is happy about the win. Everybody is happy with Blake’s play.
Obvious that some will never stop disparaging other posters with even the slightest difference of opinion.
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I remember growing up watching tv sitcoms and thinking “99% of these shows conflicts center on misunderstanding, assumptions on those misunderstandings, and lack of clear communication. That cant be how the real world is”… and then sports message boards entered my life
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Oh great, so now you’re gonna criticize TV sitcoms. The negativity around here is ridiculous.
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We won the game and had the best big on the floor.
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I think Minor is gonna be useful for very specifics matchups, Bacot comes to mind as we’ll need more bodies to throw at him. But Tony almost always plays an 8 man rotation…Minor ain’t gonna crack that it seems, and that has to do with Tony’s preference.
Obviously not and I fully expect Minor to carve out a role. The way my brain works, my reaction to what happened last night is that the reason Minor sat likely has a hell of a lot more with what Blake did well than any fault of Minor’s.
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I think it’s too early to know that for sure. Minor wasn’t a great matchup last night. Handlogten was far too big and Minor wouldn’t draw him away from the basket on offense. Samuel was too long. And then their backup bigs were basically versions of Groves.
There will be plenty of 6’8 PFs where Minor will be a better fit. He’s just not gonna leapfrog Dunn, Groves, or Blake against a team that goes 6’10 & 7’1 in the frontcourt. Thankfully there aren’t many teams like that.
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Riffing off of this - I would include Bacot but NOT Flip (we match up fine with Duke, positionally, IMO). Post from BC, Hall from Clemson. Crowl from Wiscy is a 7-footer, but hopefully not the OR force that Handlogten was. Memphis w/ Dandridge and w/o Deandre Williams not too daunting. WVU has Jesse Edwards, but they kinda stink. McLeod (now Cuse) doesn’t scare me much. Then, whoever we play in the postseason. Let’s avoid Edey, Dickinson, and those other monster bigs, but those battles are uphill anyway.
H/t Eamonn, here’s some Dalton Knecht video, where you also get some Crowl (#22 for Wisc.). Watching this Knecht video is another data point that UVa is not really competing at the top of the transfer portal anymore, like we used to. Gotta home grow guys… (or take the Rohde longer term upside guys)
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We played a great big tandom and won because our bigs were better. That’s my biggest takeaway.
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Agreed about last night. The first game though, I don’t think that was a bad matchup for him at all. But then again, we’ve barely seen him, so “think” really just means “guess” at this point. I still have the view that he didn’t look bad on defense against t state but did look a little lost on offense.
I’m obviously psyched Blake is a stud earlier than I anticipated. I just hope minor can contribute because we are just so thin numbers wise with big men. There are going to be nights where we need that stout 6’8” size like if Blake and/or Ryan get into foul trouble.
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Ahhh completely forgot about Hall. Dude is a beast
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Part of the formula of a team getting a bunch of ORs is missing a bunch of shots. They weren’t good at finishing at the rim and would have to grab their own misses (i feel like handgloden? had a bunch of sequences like this). While we do need more front court depth, being a good small ball team is more important in bball now than trotting out clunky centers. BB outplayed all of Florida’s centers because he was able to operate in space surrounded by shooting and not just bang down low all game.