I agree with this. It’s nice to get our first look at the guys, but seems silly to draw any major conclusions based on a scrimmage. It’s more about the flashes of what guys are capable of doing. I’ll put a lot more weight into what we’re hearing from the practice whispers. And like HGN said, the amount of shots Rohde took is more telling than how many he made.
Also, this is a new team, so the product should look a bit rough at this stage. Even the 13-14 team, which had a lot of returning pieces, really struggled in the non conference before finally putting it together.
I would add that any comparison to last year’s scrimmage is not worth much. Last year, the team was coming off a European road trip that allowed us to gel earlier and that led to our strong start with impressive wins over Baylor and Illinois. I also recall Huff looking like an NBA all-star one scrimmage and then we watched him redshirt anyway. Nah, scrimmages the way Tony executes them do not tell us much about how we will end up.
Something else we don’t seem to be talking about is that we’re a pretty damn young team. I think too many people are saying “welp we didn’t hit shots so that’s what we’re going to look like”. I’d buy that with last years team that had a core group of upperclassmen and grad players so you realistically shouldn’t have expected much in-season development. Our core this year is really a group of talented underclassmen. I had heard as recently as a few weeks ago that Bond was struggling to find a role for himself in practice. And we heard from HGN that the staff was scratching their heads about Blake early on. Things can change a lot more quickly with this group than with last years. So that’s why I put more stock in how we looked physically and athletically. I buy that the talent and skill are there so even if we looked sloppy yesterday that doesn’t mean we won’t continue to improve over the coming weeks and months. I don’t think this team has a defined ceiling
the way last year’s team clearly did due to its size and athleticism limitations.
That’s a pretty big leap based on one scrimmage played after another scrimmage haha. He’s not that type of player at all, way more involved offensively as an initiator.
We still don’t know how good he’ll be but saying “probably more ceiling” isn’t accurate imo. His ceiling is substantially higher and even then, it’s not an apples to apples comparison.
Agreed on youth. Rohde is somewhere between a UVA freshman and sophomore. His year at St Thomas makes him ahead of a true frosh but he’s behind McKneely - who is the same year but has one in the system after a good freshman season in the ACC. I think going into Jr year is when Rohde makes his big leap.
Really encouraged by our young front court guys - Bond, BB and Robinson.
Yeah I’m being a bit tongue in cheek - I wasn’t even at the scrimmage. I don’t doubt that if he had made a few of the shots, the hot takes would be rolling in to back the summer hype.
HGN made the Jespy comparison way back when. That may be floor, I think ideal state he’s in that Ty Jerome, secondary ball handler, primary Dawg role. I’m guessing he didn’t play as freely yesterday as he might have with the Tommies and/or what we might expect later in the season.
This is an interesting point. Might explain why I was optimistic after what I read/saw. Also, for me, hard to know what to make of the bad shooting, especially just seeing highlights. Tangent on that, though - how about Elijah blocking iMac’s 3 pointer?
Athleticism is one of things that just pops or doesn’t pop. You can kinda see it right away (or not). For shooting, you need a lot more data. Also, from the few clips that see the light of day, I thought there was some good stuff with Rohde.
Two more thoughts:
(1) if you’re looking for shooting optimism, it’s staring us in the face: Reece participating in the 3 point shoot out.
(2) the athleticism on display in the 15 seconds of the 247 video from about 1:50 to about 2:05 is absurd. Elijah blocks an iMac three, Dante recovers and runs the break and bounces it to Elijah who has a reverse layup blocked by RD. Groves recovers it, passes to RD, who throws a cross court heave to Reece who puts it home for a fast break dunk. (I’d love to know if Tony loved or hated it, or both)
I thought the same thing at first, but then figured it was really a battle between him and Napoleon Dynamite for the last spot. He wasn’t going to beat out iMac or Reece , and Taine also earned his spot by being a veteran.
I apologize, but I didn’t read all of the comments, as there were way too many. Just a very general comment for all the “woe and lamentations” from some; it is far too premature to come to any pessimistic conclusions. They may prove to be correct – and I understand that obsessing is what we do here – but personally I reserve judgement until I see how they play in a real game.
Speaking of ball handlers we have a new one and it’s a little surprising. By all accounts and in the video I’ve seen Dunn has improved his handle a lot and also made some great passes. Don’t know how much his offense has improved but he will be a difference for us in a lot of games this year. Him and Bond playing together is going to be fun to watch
It’ll be fun to see all the player combinations play out, but it would be fun to see a February five of Reece, Eli, Bond, Dunn, and BB just to see how many ACC teams could break 40 points. It was a guilty pleasure in our defensive heyday to watch the life get sucked out of an opponent as they realized they just couldn’t score.
Full context just so my past words aren’t twisted to slam Rohde lol I said he reminds me of Jesperson physically. About the same size and surprisingly good run/jump athletes, but don’t move well laterally. Skillsets are totally different obviously.
, and Taine also earned his spot by being a veteran.