Missing open shots is definitely NOT telling in a 28 minute scrimmage
3 Likes
NGL, the shooting performance is bothersome—even with the caveat of a 3pt contest and hard practice before. Given our scars from watching brutal shooting nights last year, I still want to see the new guys, as well as IMac, Bond, Dunn, and Reece 
hitting some shots in an actual game.
That being said, I’m still pretty stoked about this team. I’m still bullish on Rohde, but Bond’s performance had me believing that Bond will end up taking some of his minutes at the three. Biggest question is at the five. But at least Tony has some options to mix and matchup with Dunn, Minor, BB, Groves, and possibly Robinson. Still think ARob will RS, and think Minor will start. But I’m more convinced that BB’s role will be significant and will grow as the season progresses.
4 Likes
I said upgraded. Here’s why - we got good returns on the things we need to see to hit our optimistic outcome:
- Dunn and Beeks doing nothing to dispel top 40 draft pick buzz
- Bond showing that he might be in the mix for a starter or 6th man role (and good chemistry with Dunn)
- switchable Blake?
I’m a little concerned about shooting/scoring, but I mostly already was, and the offensive output of Beeks, Bond, and Dunn counteracts that a bit.
So that’s it for my optimism. As for my pessimism, I didn’t think our official blue white video coverage could get worse, but sure enough, it really really can.
10 Likes
I come into the season with the thesis that rohde is critical to our success. Basically, if he is an upgrade over armaan especially on offense (I think all the other variables net to positive) then we have a chance of being a pretty good team. All the reports/rumors have been he’s the real deal on offense. Now we have some evidence to the contrary. So my expectations are downgraded.
6 Likes
Surprise surprise. A CTB team struggles on offense early in the year. Bet the team has been spending 80% of practice time on defense so far.
5 Likes
I just don’t know what to do with Rohde. I’ve been generally skeptical. From the 80 ft away clips I saw, his misses mostly just were a bit short which I can maybe attribute to tired legs/conditioning which hopefully can be ironed out over the next month with real practices.
The real positive for me is if bond can play the 3. If we can have a passable offense (top 100ish) while having Reece, Bond, and Dunn start at the 1, 3, and 4, I think we will at least be a tournament team if not better
5 Likes
Until I’ve seen him play a couple live games I’m going to withhold judgement on him in absolute terms, for fear of being painted as the guy who is negative on a player or the team.
Most of the intel has been positive on his shooting and athleticism. My opinion is that expectations were creeping into unreasonably high territory for him (as happens every year for some unproven player).
But I had my own expectations that there was a reasonable probability that the prophecy is true and he is the one to deliver us. And that there was a probability he is not the one. With some incremental evidence in hand, I feel like I have to shift my odds towards the latter.
I understand there are all sorts of hypotheticals that could explain away the offensive output from the team yesterday. All or most of those explanations are logically valid and could prove to be true. On the other hand, we have some facts: the team didn’t shoot well. That’s concerning to me. Expectations downgraded. Doesn’t mean we will suck. Doesn’t mean I think we will suck. I just don’t know how one comes away feeling better or even unchanged.
Our team with 2 very good outside shooters at 2/3 is a major threat. I am not worried about iMac because we have enough evidence on him. That is why I view rohde as the major swing factor.
10 Likes
Here’s a hot take after watching that scrimmage: Jordan Minor gets 7-10 minutes a game with some games 3-5 minutes. He’s small, he can’t shoot, and we’ve got three other guys (four if ARob doesn’t redshirt which I don’t think he should) that can play the 5 with a higher ceiling.
2 Likes
That reminds me of the SNL skits about Tony Salvalas’ “Player With Yourselves Club”. He isn’t just a member; he’s the President, too!
2 Likes
Why is there a piece of cake by my name?
9 Likes
And just to tie some of these thoughts into the outlook for the season: I’m pretty nervous about how our schedule shapes up vs how our development curve is likely to shape up. I’ve stated in the forum before that I think we should have the athleticism to avoid dropping any really bad losses. I still believe this to be the case. Between Reece, iMac, Dunn we should be able just to out-dude the non p5 non-con opponents. What concerns me is that our development curve is likely to be an exaggerated version of our typical “improve through the season (until march)” but most of our challenging and potentially resume building opportunities come pretty early in the season. In November, our defense is unlikely to be “all the way there” so we are going to have to find something on offense to bag wins against Florida, A&M, etc. Which means shooting. Which didn’t seem great yesterday.
6 Likes
Still have 3 weeks of practice before the first game. Think a lot of improvement will happen in those 3 weeks as the newcomers start to better understand the expectations and their role.
5 Likes
It’s your cake day. The anniversary of you joining LRA.
Happy cake day!
9 Likes
It’s your Cake Day! Enjoy!
7 Likes
You mean you’re not excited about the offense staying untracked for another 48-42 Wisconsin game?
True, shots were contested, but that’s usually the case in real games too.
You can’t really gauge is missed contested shots are good defense or bad offense, but an open shot is an open shot regardless of the competition.
Ill repeat myself
Rohde looked good. Theres a reason why he took the most shots in the scrimmage, he was the best offensive weapon when he played on the blue team. He and Reece were the only ones who broke the defense down off the dribble consistently, Harris and Bliss each did it once or twice.
Rohde just didn’t finish, although a couple just rimmed out. If that continues during the season then yeah, we can worry. But there really isn’t any reason to think that now. If he was missing those all the time in practice he wouldnt take them in the scrimmage.
20 Likes
Could be worse…
9 Likes
We shot 15-31 from three in last year’s scrimmage. How’d that translate? Fairly good outside shooting in November. Great outside shooting in January. Beyond poor in December, February and March.
Scrimmage shooting stats mean nothing.
Edit: Our defense left shooters wide open last year — particularly wing/4 shooters. WHN2 and Vander Plas were a combined 7-9 from three in the scrimmage — that part (wide-open threes given up by our D) was a trend that continued all season.
10 Likes
Well some of that shooting was a player who redshirted and will never play a game in a Virginia uniform soooo
5 Likes