I’m down with a 19-20 type of elite defense at the cost of bad offense kind of year. I think it’s important from a program identity perspective to be the kind of team that inflicts misery on opponents, and we haven’t been that on defense since then.
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It’s so bad dude. Super frustrating
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Like not to talk about them in the scrimmage chat, but Duke posts almost-daily highlights from practice including long clips of set plays etc. I just want to see some stuff to get excited about
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People who run our social accounts for other sports do an outstanding job. This is Bennett — probably a cross between the “humility” pillar and not wanting to show too much to opponents.
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I just feel like the humility bit should be countervailed by the alumni base who loves the institution and would like to support the team from afar.
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McKneely and Rohde will shoot the ball fine. It’s an October scrimmage. What stands out to me from the box score is that Rohde took the most shots…and Dunn had 5 assists. That might be fluky for Dunn but tells me he’s a lot more comfortable offensively, seeing the floor, looking to make plays.
Also thought it was interesting that they started with Dunn/Groves up front. Suspect they would like to do that when they can get away with it. Won’t be real often, but those two’s attributes (shooter/rim protector) make for the frontcourt combo you want. It’s just hard to play that against teams with a traditional big.
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I think it’s important to remember that we think this team will be good in February and March, not as much in October and November.
Just a reminder that this shouldn’t be too surprising that we look a little raw. As JWilly says “work in progress”.
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My main takeaway so far is that the rhetoric around Leon Bond has gone from:
Before: “I hope that he’s patient about a trajectory like Devon Hall’s”
to
After: “Man, our team this year could kind of suck if Bond doesn’t fulfill the potential he showed today.”
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I also wonder, maybe more accurately hope, that the shooting struggles partly stem from running blocker/mover the entire time when that’s more of a secondary offense lol Because well frankly, they should not be running that offense with this team. And b/m is like the wishbone option in football, if you’re not doing it all the time you’re probably not going to do it very well.
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Yeah I’m choosing to read more into the collective notes from the scrimmage as: defense is way ahead of where we thought it would be by now and has elite CTB potential and guys we expected to be key scorers (McKneely and Rohde) had rough outings from a shooting perspective while others like Bond, Dunn, and Harris looked better offensively than expected.
Difference for me though is to put more stock into how the team looks defensively, which is less prone to randomness/this being one practice and easier to consistently replicate on a small sample size, compared to shooting which you’d expect to be more variable this early on anyways.
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It’s silly to compare this offense to 2020. So much more skill and talent on this squad, especially in the backcourt. They might not be a top 10 offense but there is absolutely no way they flirt with sub 200.
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^100% on all of this
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How did Bliss look for anyone there?
We’ll have some lineup versatility in the front court with Groves/Bond. We can also get away with playing smaller during much of the non conference schedule as well, which will give Minor and Buchanan more time to get ready for what’s to come starting in January, when we’ll need them.
To me, what stands out about today is the wake-up call that many on this board and especially other UVa boards are probably feeling right about now when it comes to Harris. The way he has been discounted/overlooked by so many has been comical.
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Agree with most, but what has Harris shown us so far that he didn’t show at G’town? The reason folks are skeptical about Harris is he’s always been bad on offense. Is he no longer bad on offense?
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For starters, he doesn’t play on a shitty team or have garbage coaches anymore. Anyone who watched him play at Georgetown could see he had a lot of ability, but he was asked/tried to do too much, which was detrimental to his individual numbers.
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And today, I believe, he played mostly against the best defensive guard in the country.
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I dont think Good and bad are the ways to think about it. A little more under control. He’s an incredible back up pg. Still dont see the fit beside Reece but can see the duo against a small team to put them in the hell in the cell.
Selling my Minor stock. (yeah I was gassing him up prescrimmage. I understand that “serviceable” is less euphemism and more blunt)
Holding on Rohde: he was able to attack when he had McKneely/Bliss on him rather than Bond Dunn Reece but even then helpside presence of Buchana Robinson Dunn Bond is insane.
Investing some in Groves
Taking out a mortgage and putting it all on Leon Bond.
Gertrude showed flashes but also looked like a first year coming off an acl tear playing in a scrimmage that was predominently half court and full of athletes.
Also Robinson shouldn’t redshirt and would give us at minimum the impact Jack Salt had for us right away. That’s my hot take.
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Fair enough, but there were guys on his teams that had higher usage AND better stats.
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Also I think we have established I am on the Kiheiater side but he’s veteran presence at times would be nice. Im hoping Rohde can provide that 2nd initiator beside Reece (and Dante off the bench for Reece) when not guarded by future NBA wings.
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