Frankly, some players were outstanding in the UNC game, turning in by far their best performances of the season.
the pc answer is that matchups will determine who starts…but Huff came out with a lack of physicality that caffaro brought. so if he keeps that up…he could start
Frankly, at this point in CTB’s career, the starting lineup hardly matters anymore. This yr he’s been willing to change things up coming out of the half, and he’s usually aware of what is working in the game at hand. With such an inexperienced team, different lineups will work better in certain games, and other lineups will be better in others. As you said, does come down to matchups. UNC not a good Huff matchup. He didn’t play well on o either, but that wasn’t a good matchup down low for him on d
No, not yet. He’s gonna give Huff every chance to succeed. Frankly the light coming on for Jay puts the team in the best position for this season and next, as does bringing Papi along slowly. Papi was a perfect match up for UNC, might only be a handful of teams we can say that about.
Fully agree, TB has proven maybe more than any power 5 coach that his starting lineup is fluid. I believe the match-ups and the commitment to UVa basketball determine the lineups on a given day. I think we could see a Huff/Caffarro trade off similar to what we saw with Salt and Diakite last season.
On the surface Jay Huff has the greater upside given his shooting and touch, but Caffarro looks more familiar to the what we’ve come to expect from UVa bigs.
Think we have all semi concluded here that the first 5 on the court for this team is less important than which players make contributions during the game. One of the sneaky strong points of TB and his staff is not being stuck to one starting unit. Saw it last year when Mamadi demanded more time via his on court play and Salts minutes dwindled for the better of the team. We may not be especially deep but we do have some real versatility in who will produce and when which is a huge positive.
Cant wait to get get a healthy Braxton Key back!
Didn’t break it, CTB said he’s getting stitches out soon and has been cleared to sweat. Didn’t have a sling for this game, only a cast on his fore arm. He’ll likely be back for conference play
Welcome to my world. There’s an entire Clark disrespect clique out there. Hear from them regularly. I had someone on facebook suggest they should pull his scholarship to make room for another PG this year. That was after the national championship, mind you.
Would tell them careful what they ask for on that one. The kid never gets tired it seems and has had an outsized job this year in terms of work load. The key is for him to get help with ball handling and I think thats coming. Running and ACC team is no easy task at all and he is getting it done all while putting as much on ball pressure as anyone in the country. Personally think he could add floater or better yet jump stop and shoot 5 footers on drives when he gets past guys which he does a lot. All the way to rim not great option for him. Also saw he kicked some out to shooters yesterday which is ideal on the collapse (remember Ty Jerome?). 30 minutes proly ideal for him not 40.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…
The hate on Clark is so real and has been from almost the moment the ACC kicked off last year. I’ll even admit there were times last year when I was frustrated with him. Felt he got hit hard during the FSU game in the tournament and his size became a liability. All that said, I’ve been super impressed with his play this year. My wife and I both noted his command of the offense thus far this season, and how much he’s growing as a player. Obviously there’s room to improve but I think we are seeing glimpses of improvement already. I loved the drive and kicks and the inside passes yesterday I believe he had 3 or 4 assist off those last night. I also think his assist numbers would be far better this year if the team as a whole shot better than 24%.
It seems like people don’t think Coach Bennett plays the players that help us win… I hear a lot of, “put Huff in the Game” and “Take out Clark”…but those are literally the opposite thing I would do if I was trying to win. I mean, Huff gets bullied a lot. Just doesn’t have the strength and positioning down yet to impact the game on the glass or get 50/50 balls. While yes, he can dunk and hit 3s…it doesn’t make up for those other things. And Clark…yes, he can’t dunk and hit 3s…but he does all the other things well. He gets a ton of 50/50 balls. He pestered the hell out of Cole Anthony. He gets into the lane and can distribute… I think if he had shooters around him…he would be amazing…Why take him out?
Clark has shown this year that if he is left open, he can hit the outside shot at times.
He’s probably the most important player on our team, because without him, who’s going to
handle the ball against the press? So far, I don’t see where our other combination guards are
true combination guards. They haven’t shown, or been allowed to show, that they can bring the ball up against the press, or that they can play point guard even part-time.
Maybe Coleman could help. He’s looked okay out there. He’s very quick. But whatever height Clark really is, Coleman is not as tall as Clark. Coleman came here to become a coach eventually. Did he even realize that he was going to be playing in every game this season? 
People have some wild takes. He’s been a net positive in all but 2 games (ASU, Purdue) by the plus-minus metric on Bart Torvik’s advanced stats site. And I don’t think that’s fully capturing his value as the primary defender at the point of attack; since he’s been here, when’s the last time a quick guard has run riot getting into the lane?
I hate for this to be my first post after lurking and reading a lot (really appreciate the insights and info here on the site blogs and the forum!), but this David Anderson is such a clown.
He’s in all the UVA Bball FB groups behind what many think is a troll profile. Claims to be a former D1 official and player, won’t say where he reffed or played. Constantly posts stats up that he gets from…somewhere? If you ask him for the source, he will say “online”.
Some other cold takes from this guy:
last year before the tourney, “we will never make a deep run unless Kihei plays 15 mins a game and Huff plays 30+.”
this year that’s changed to be “if Huff played more in the tourney, none of the games would have been close”
this year “Clark is a 12-15 min player a game guy”
I could go on but no need. If you’re in any of the FB groups, you’ve seen it yourself.
Yes I recognized the name right off. Some of the FB groups have some real characters. I don’t follow them anymore
I don’t really lurk on the fb page…I dont understand how stuff gets surfaced, but anyways…just based on crowd reactions i hear…lots of huff supporters and clark debaters…
I’m guessing its just the big guy who can shoot 3s…immediately gets fan love. Not sure.