Clark is back

All for it. But that’s part of the problem with Clark returning: he’s going to play 35+ minutes per game. With Reece, deservedly, doing the same, there’s only one spot for Franklin, McNeely and Taine.

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I wouldn’t mind this happening with Kihei

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The main concern with Kihei returning and McNeil/BVP pursuits is the risk of our 2022 recruiting class transferring after the season because they don’t get any run during the year. Kihei/McNeil/BVP all seem like net positives for the 2022/2023 team.

I’m not concerned about the developmental mins for Isaacs, Bond, Dunn…I’m concerned they may leave after spending the year on the bench

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There’ will be no one left on the roster except for them. Very few roster situations outside of uva will be as appealing.

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Yeah I think a lot of people equivocate past playing time and future playing time. If you play 6-8 minutes a game as a first year, but then there are 3 open starting spots the next year and the coach tells you that you are on the correct development path, transferring seems silly. The people transferring seems to be ones who have a) capped out their current roles or b) are several years away from contributing. We also should think about who on the last two years teams we would have wanted to see more of in the rotation: Casey? JAR? Carson?. I think Tony really wants to play more dudes and my hopes are not that Tony plays people for the sake of it, but that our talent evaluation is more on the mark and our first years are ready to work.

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Hopefully they see the opportunity ahead of them with Kihei Jayden Papi McNeil (possibly) BVP (possibly) and maybe even Armaan gone (plays well into a 2nd round draft pick with more consistent shooting/or maybe decides to move on regardless with his 4 years of college bball.).

There can be a psychological factor though. Like if you are on a short leash all year, there’s not guarantee the staff won’t hit the portal again next offseason to recruit you over and also if you feel like the short leash hinders your development/doesn’t let you play more freely within your game.

I still have faith Tony will play his best 5 and going hard after McNeil gives us a chance to be better with that 5 in terms of the pieces fitting together. I just wanted that extra scholarship open in case someone else pops in the next two weeks like if a high level wing becomes available or Kansas gets hit with sanctions and Gradey Dick becomes available (apparently his family had concerns about Kansas even before he committed and are Big TB fans but he will also have his suitors regardless lol). Im assuming we use the other scholarship available (not the one we want to use on McNeil) on either BVP or one of these young athletic bigs with high ceilings (Jaylen Reed, Efe Abogidi, etc.) that also helps us meet one of our 2023 needs early.

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McKoy. He should have been the energy guy 4 off the bench all year in 20-21 (not just the last few games of the regular season), and if we had done that, I suspect he would’ve stuck around for the same role last year. And that would’ve made the team much better. But he transferred and got to be on the court for a potential game tying (or winning?) shot in the natty, and I suppose that was pretty fun, too.

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Re: the actual point of this thread - welcome back Kihei! I’ve written a book (at least) on what I think of his pros and cons and I suspect I’ll write an epilogue next year on how we decide to use him, but for now - welcome back.

As for our old frenemy … the Kihei discourse. No comment.

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Year 3 of Reece Kihei discourse and Reece Kihei in the mover blocker lol. I just can’t believe it will be 3 years with Reece not fully in control when he has the potential to be tony’s best ever pure pg in terms of his completeness. Just needs the roster and the continued trajectory on his 3pt shot.

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Think that’s the point behind the bvp addition. pairing him with someone who can pick and pop would do wonders for his game.

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BVP is just weird to me because he doesn’t fit well next to Jayden, and also faces the same defensive struggles Jayden (and Hauser) faced. We need athletic 4s to get back to the packline defense we once knew (even bigger concern than the offense; the packline is our identity and we are going to go back to back with our identity not being what it was regardless of returners being more comfortable). Along with the skillset overlap with Traudt. Why hinder Traudt’s development for a 1 year rental that won’t raise our ceiling that much; it’s not like we become a national title contender with him on our roster. If we wanted to do the arms race thing we could have been way more aggressive, you can’t half ass it.

Its going to be so predictable if BVP comes here, he’ll have a game where he goes 6-11 from 3 and people will be like “@Hooandtrue didn’t want him here” and then we go on to lose in the round of 32 and BVP is gone and Traudt is #McKoyCaged with the lack of ingame minutes to get comfortable and build that confidence for the future. It seems like we aren’t developing as much for the future nor are we in hardcore win now mode.

I feel like after the Natty we have been in that Wizards 7-8th seed in the NBA playoffs purgatory, if that makes sense.

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i believe Bart Torivk has us as a top 15 with his addition. i think that is a fairly high raise imo. Getting to the second weekend would be huge and i think bvp provides that opportunity.

I dont think stats take into account how the pieces actually fit together. Just adding the individual stats together in a vaccum.

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if we lived in a world where tony played his first year bigs consistently, i may feel differently but with or without bvp, i’m not sure how much traudt would play at the four his first year. Feel like regardless his best way for pt is to beat out papi.

Sure but bvp adds a lot of what we were lacking when it comes to playmaking and having a threat from three at the four. He’s not an ideal fit with gardner but it does open up the chance for uva to play small for period of time with bvp at the five, which break the team out of some of their offensive ruts.

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I think of that as the Pacers spot (post-Reggie), but otherwise agree. Jayden and Armaan felt like Tony decided to get half pregnant and BVP and (to a lesser extent, I guess) McNeil feel like the same. Either go “full pregnant” with the Muss/Cal/Beard talent accumulation idea, or go “zero pregnant” with a “trust my young dudes / be better by March” idea, but we seem to be stuck in the middle.

Honestly, it helps us beat mid-majors, which was an issue last year. Doing it against decent ACC teams doesn’t seem like a winning strategy to me, but we shall see…

Okay, random old pop culture reference: but solving the problem this way basically reminds me of this old SNL skit, with Ben Stiller and Tim Meadows. The concept is dueling campaign ads about solving the bat problem with newer bigger bats, or crazed monkeys, or something like that.



Point being: let’s stop “solving problems” by creating newer bigger problems.

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Ah - like the government?

The one noticeable positive BVP brings over Jayden is that he is taller. That should at least give an option for games that we need help with defensive rebounding.

I’m venturing into dreamland but if Jayden continues slimming down is it completely unrealistic that we could play Jayden-BVP-Kadin/Traudt together and just switch everything defensively? Or Jayden-Traudt-Kadin?

BVP is a better defender than both Gardner and Hauser.
And he is a way more well rounded offensive player than Gardner.
My hope is also that Gardner loses 15 lbs. and gets range out to the 3 and can guard some of the wings we play against that aren’t great scorers or shooters. - Like a Leaky Black.

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Through the past several years I have been very critical of Clark, I have always maintained that he is a double edged blade. He cuts both ways. He is capable of absolutely brilliant plays, and he is capable of jaw-dropping blunders. That said, I think he improved significantly last year from the previous two. Part of that was putting the ball into Beekman’s hands more often, but I imagine that part of it was just that he grew as a player. Experience does that. I expect him to be more improved next year. Of course, I expect everyone to be improved next year. (One of the big differences between 2022 and 2023 will be the level of experience on the roster as the season begins. Last year, there was little. The difference is a reason for optimism, IMO.)

I think it is also worth recognizing that Coach Bennett has had few options in the back court the past two seasons. There was no one better to supplant Clark. As next season unfolds, I hope we discover that the staff does have more options. I expect that we will see the same starting five as we did when this past season ended. I also expect to see different substitution patterns in the rotation. Hopefully, Virginia will be better able to respond to matchup issues, and I suspect this would mean fewer minutes for Clark.

Lastly, I have no idea about the possible transfers from the portal. I don’t know for what either McNeil or Vander Plas are looking. If McNeil is looking for a starting role, or significant playing time, I don’t see Virginia as an appealing choice. Louisville and Indiana both offer more certain opportunities than does UVa (and they are much closer to home). Of course, he may be looking for something entirely different. His concerns might include a Virginia degree he can take to Wall Street. I don’t know. I also don’t know about Vander Plas. If he chooses Virginia, there will be a very crowded front court, and I imagine his playing opportunities would be limited. Depending on how ready Traudt is for college ball, they could be very limited. Of course, given his family history, he may simply want to experience being on a Bennett coached team before he ends his playing career.

I like the roster as it is now. It is a good mix of experience and new blood. The team was challenged last year, and was successful (60% winning record both overall and in conference). I expect improvement next season. FWIW, I expect even more the following year. It’s a good time to be a 'Hoo!

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