TV: ESPN
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Where’s the LRA meetup pregame??
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Things are aligning for me. Wife and young kid are out of town. All day hall pass - parlaying game into 4pm NFL slate.
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After watching the Gonzaga game, I’ll be extremely impressed if we keep this game close. I think we’re a good basketball team, but Arkansas is different. Billy Richmond reminds me of John Wall. Jordan Smith Jr reminds me of the Henderson guy on Miami. Slim Jesus is…well he’s Slim Jesus! And those are just three of the Five Stars they have on that team.
Our key to winning exists in hitting our threes and winning the rebounding battle. They’ve got us beat on athleticism and if it becomes a sprinting match we’re fucked. Their four (Maker) and five (Slim Jesus) are both skinny but they can run up and down the court like freaking Gazelles.
In my mind Arkansas are early favorites to win it all. If we come away with a win, it will easily be the best win of the CRO era and we can confidently say we have a chance to win it all.
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Counterpoint: I don’t think Gonzaga is that good, they looked super unimpressive to me against Purdue and then Purdue turned around and lost to Valpo.
Our full court press is pretty much perfectly designed to slow them down in the half court, and I kind of expect us to wear them down over the course of the game inside because of how skinny their bigs are.
I will say I don’t love that Chance and Lewis have each had a six turnover game already, that is how we lose the game.
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Arkansas Pine Bluff may be the worst team in division 1 and they shot 46% from 2 against Arkansas, we should absolutely eat them alive inside, and if their starters get in foul trouble, the bench is even more sketchy
Arkansas has some dudes for sure but they’re young when everyone else is full of old guys, and they’re thin on shooting.
I see Cooper Bowser in their starting lineup? Cool for him, didn’t realize he was there.
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Like what’s their plan for stopping TDR and Johann? I have always liked Bowser but he’s a backup P4 big. And Miiikka is really more of a wing.
I don’t think they need to stop them. Two players on Northeastern combined for ~50 points last night but they still lost by +20.
Slim Jesus is 7’. Sure he plays like a wing but that means he will play good perimeter D on Johann. Can Johann play good perimeter D on him? Let’s cross our fingers.
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Love that Ryan and staff are playing these type of games early and wanting to play against the big time coaches and programs.
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Extremely talented youth is perfect for their “get out in transition and make plays” play style. What they lack in shooting they make up for in ball handling and play making.
I’m hopeful for our Hoos and I’ll be really stoked if we beat the skinny MonStars from Arkansas!
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Free State is usually my go to pre-Capital One arena, but not open at noon. Recs welcome, I’m hoping to get down there around noon.
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Guess we will see their front court tomorrow but as of now I have a hard time seeing them hold up against Florida and Duke. That’s the table stakes to win a national title this year
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Two games back to back that I can hop on the metro and go to and I get the flu. The sports god have it out for me.
If we try the full court press we have been using, we will get run out of the gym plan and simple. Would be a nice game for Odom to break out a surprise pack line against.
We do have 3pt variance and Arkansas’ lack of size going for us. They really wanted Keita as well since they didn’t believe they had a power 5 starting center at all. Will be interesting to see if we can avoid giving up line drives for their guards in the non-Grünloh minutes.
This team is fully capable of beating Arkansas. We have had stretches vs Northeastern and Drexel that if we have again will probably cost us the game though.
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Also Chance needs to slow down some. Be confident. Don’t feel like you have to do everything at once. Find the open man when the defense collapses.
And no more bad lobs from the guards pls
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No @haney is right
#2 in transition frequency behind Arkansas. We are going to go meep meep:
https://barttorvik.com/teampbp.php?sort=19&year=2027&conlimit=All&context=fb
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It will be interesting to see the style of this one. Pundit take on the game is that Ark has all the athletes and they want to go fast and also Smith Jr is gonna make Chance’s life difficult.
We shall see how Odom decides to play this one
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Part of why ours (and Arkansas’) transition frequency has been so high is forcing turnovers. It’s a big part of our 2P scoring, we have 15 at-rim makes in transition compared to 20 in the half-court.
(Start at this link and filter by context to see: https://barttorvik.com/shotchart.php?year=2027&team=Virginia)
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We have no chance.
Also, need more Gertrude on the floor with (big C) Chance, even though we have no (small c) chance.
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I watched a skinny D3 bound St Chris whiteboy lockdown Jordan Smith for 3 quarters last winter. Chance will be good.
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