Clark is back

Making it easy to post here

3 Likes

Seems like a solid pick up. On ball defender 94 feet. Streaky 3pt shooting but shows some elite playmaking from time to time. Do fear that he might get taken advantage of on the defensive end one on one because of his height but the packline can hide guards on the defensive end.

17 Likes

Sign me up if he’s our third guard and ranges between 15 and 25 minutes depending on matchups.

2 Likes

Ok, he’s back. What are the three things that Tony has Kihei work on this summer? For me:

  1. Free Throws - he will have the ball in close games and he missed the front end of many 1 and 1s.

  2. 3-point shooting. Catch and do not hesitate.

  3. Leadership by being a humble servant - show everyone how hard you have to work to be a part of the team, then asking CTB to let him come off the bench to show humility to everyone.

9 Likes

Bringing back a physically limited, average shooter with a knack for missing the front end of 1&1’s or late game free throws in general, a below average defender, and a 5th year senior with the highest turnover rate of anyone that has played under Tony not named Jontel.

Kihei is what he is. He’s been here 4 very long years. Anyone expecting him to change much isn’t being real.

Maybe we cut him to 25 min a game and he shoots like he did as a second year? That’s probably best we can ask for.

For the record, I’m not a Kihei hater. Appreciate everything he’s done here. Been a great representative of the school. He just doesn’t raise our ceiling next year and costs young guys experience. He had his send off.

18 Likes

One thing I’ll give him is the ability to surprise. He’s average overall, but wow does he have a huge beta game by game. See the loss to Duke v the loss to FSU.

If we get McNeil too, suddenly we have a good number of very serviceable guards. So I tend to doubt Clark is getting anywhere near the minutes people keep saying he’s going to get.

5 Likes

Played 27 min a game sharing the backcourt with 2 NBA draft picks…

2 Likes

yes because we had no guards off the bench. It was a 7 man rotation.

4 Likes

My point was in reference to Vandy-Hoo saying he doubts Clark plays as much this upcoming season.

Didn’t say he should have played less that year. Just said he played 27 min a game with more talent at guard.

1 Like

He’s still gonna start (at least at first), anyone thinking otherwise is deluding themselves. I think it’s possible it’s more like the natty team where he starts but doesn’t finish but who knows

I’m not gonna argue with the anti-Kihei brigade. It’s futile. But I will say this: You know who’s happy he’s back? His teammates. His coaches. And the vast majority of Virginia fans.

And you know who’s not? Opposing coaches. If you talk to them privately, they almost unanimously have high praise for Kihei – often unsolicited, and not necessarily for public consumption. Of course they recognize he has limitations; they game-plan around those. But they have great respect for what he’s been able to accomplish, and think he makes the team better.

15 Likes

Well, I’d talked myself into being optimistic about this outcome, but then I slid back into hoping it wouldn’t happen. Now that it’s here I’m a little disappointed, but overall I’m optimistic for this coming season in top-25, 5-seed kinda way, and I remind myself that even before Kihei came back the team’s REAL future starts when the 23s arrive anyway.

I’m having a beer now, but I’ll be excited tomorrow.

I’m not sure it’s a given that Kihei starts if McNeil comes. McNeil isn’t going anywhere to come off of the bench and it’s a safe assumption that Reece starts. At that point it’s Armaan vs. Kihei and I think Armaan makes a lot more sense in that lineup. If McNeil doesn’t come, I definitely agree we will see Kihei starting at least at the beginning of the season.

4 Likes

I agree but I think this significantly reduces our chance of getting McNeil (based on no inside info)

1 Like

Maybe that’s true but I assume that this has been in the works for at least as long as we have been talking to McNeil so I’m sure he knew that this was always part of the deal.

1 Like

You must be well connected to talk to so many college coaches privately!

Kihei’s a great kid. I’m sure his teammates love him. We’ve got 4 years of evidence now. No need to re-hash it. He is what he is. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting something different from his position. Or wanting his 4 year career to just be 4 years. Those are valuable minutes that could benefit us going to fresh blood…

2 Likes

I didn’t say I was friends with them. Just that I talk to them. Part of the job. (Or maybe I’m just Jim ■■■■■■■■■’s burner account.)

My point was that all of them – coaches, teammates, opponents – have a much higher opinion of Kihei than most of the people on this message board. And I tend to give more weight to their evaluations.

8 Likes

But there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a kid choosing to continue to do something he loves in a place he loves.

3 Likes

Hopefully apples and oranges. As someone else pointed out, we played a super short bench that season. It’s not like he took minutes away from Kyle and Ty.

It looks like Tony is loading up on guards given his recruitment of McNeil and so that’s I don’t think he’s doing that just to run the same Kihei-Beekman backcourt. We’ll see…