Looking at Memphis’s approach to us, player form, long term/short term thoughts.
13 Likes
I’m not sure I want to relive this one
3 Likes
One of the games where my conclusions actually line up with @Cuts_from_The_Corner . Feeling like a smarty pants.
Basically summary is: Ryan Dunn get good, Leon at the 3 is dope especially if Rohde is injured
Also actually enjoyed reading this one (usually not the type to read a lot and get lost in the xs and os). And really thankful to have someone like you in the uva twitter space providing this input even if it’s not always my cup of tea format wise.
15 Likes
This is really great, thanks for doing this.
Well worth the read if you can spare 20-30 minutes.
10 Likes
Shoutout to @DavetheWave for posting so much about Taine that he finally got acknowledged individually as “a small undercurrent fans who believe that he [Taine] should be much more involved.” Impressive feat.
9 Likes
Deandre Hunter’s first few games for UVA off his redshirt
And Leon’s first few games
Of course not saying Leon is Hunter, but in my mind they are kinda similar (Leon the guard version who will eventually be able to post up guards and slash against slower forwards). Both popped off against a weak opponent and had games where they disappeared vs stronger competition as they eventually got their footing.
And the emergence of both (hopefully) give us that dynamic in the offense to feed someone the ball and tell them to go get a basket on their own.
7 Likes
A few reactions and non-sequiters:
- We have had three iron man guys at guard/wing: Reece, Rohde, and iMac. And our offense is ~150 or so, which is pretty weak for a team with aspirations to win a game in the tourney. We should have one iron man and only one: Reece. My biggest surprise since HGN said we played such a short rotation in one of the scrimmages is that we are not playing more dudes more minutes.
- My point on iMac, where I think I disagree with you – he SHOULD NOT be an iron man. If he wants to be an iron man, he needs to be able to make a decent decision with the ball in his hands, but right now, he can’t, so he shouldn’t be. 20+ MPG? Absolutely! 30+ MPG? Why? Only if he’s streaky hot.
- The foul with 52 seconds left in the 1H was on Taine, not RD. (I don’t disagree on the overall point, it’s correct. But RD trying to do too much defensively (and biting on fakes, etc) was not that impactful to why we played so poorly in the last two, which is why you’re having trouble finding more than a clip or two to back it up, IMO.)
- One thing about Tony is that when things go well, he is loathe to change them. And prior to Memphis, we were 9-1, so he didn’t change much, but the problem with this team is they are young and variable, and figuring things out, so no one thing is going to work well consistently against good teams. I say this in reaction to iMac bringing the ball up. I LOVE seeing this. But I should’ve been seeing this consistently more, rather than having to pull it out against a top 25 team in their building.
- Which reminds me of the only true and correct Taine PT gripe – it’s from 2 years ago. Tony had this tendency to keep McCorkle and Taine buried on the bench for games at a time, but then UNC would be curb-stomping us in the Ding Dong (h/t Vegas Mike, and RIP the ACC Junkies podcast), and then Tony would insert Taine or CMC and they’d predictably get curb-stomped even worse, and then a buncha people would type here “See!”, to which my reaction would always be, “yeah, maybe we shouldn’t have been pretending we had a bunch of dudes that deserved 30+ mpg, when we stank.” This year, we don’t stink, but our offense does, so we need to be trying stuff, not pretending we have 30+ mpg dudes.
- Elijah - I mean, yeah. Everyone saw the issue. He got sped up and hurt us. But he was the only one on our team who could just be like, nah, I can beat you guys. And he could! But also, he couldn’t. For me, there are two issues here, and you highlighted only one of them: (1) he needs to marry fundamentals to the explosiveness (your words, well put) – YES!, but also (2) why, when he’s got Jones beat and is barreling towards the rim, do we just have a buncha guys watching him do it. One answer is because he’s playing outside the offense, but another answer is, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY, WE HAVE THREE DUDES THAT CAN BEAT THEIR MAN INTO THE LANE, SO WHY WOULD THEM BEATING THEIR MAN INTO THE LANE BE “OUTSIDE THE OFFENSE”?
- Ugh, I have more thoughts, but I just wore myself out. Can’t go on… More later… maybe. No promises.
10 Likes
I like the conclusion part
Conclusion
This was a unique opponent who had a game plan tailored to beating us with their specific old (and athletic) roster. We did not respond well, compounded by our situational health and youth, but also because of our insistence on playing a player who was really laboring
I have turned on Memphis games where they are up 20 and everything works and also seen them down big and nothing works. We dont do great against variability against these types of teams. When they really get going we just dont have answers in games like this.
I found it interesting at how they had our guys flyin around and going for pump fakes etc. we dont do great as a team just flying around and hoping
Happens
8 Likes
What would you say you’re happy about.
Happy that we are good, and might be very good. Happy that our defense is pretty awesome. Happy we are gonna make the tourney most likely. Happy about all sorts of non uva hoops things that seem outside the scope of this.
(But also, why did the topic become things Haney is happy about? And why did I answer?)
10 Likes
Hi - thanks for the thoughts.
Mea culpa on the Taine vs. Dunn foul - I could have sworn it was on him live and my rewatch didn’t include volume. Either way, my broader point here wasn’t that I was trying to find a bunch of clips of Ryan Dunn’s defense struggling and say it’s actively hurting our defense that much - it’s just that, when I watch, I think he’s starting to look like he’s pressing more and making more frequent mistakes as a result - which I have to wonder if it’s correlated with him feeling like he needs to make an impact and not having that offensive confidence right now. Generally speaking, his defense is still great!
I do disagree about iMac. The thing about a player like him is he’s still shooting 50% from deep despite two wretched games from there. And he still plays good defense. He was cold all game against Northeastern and then hit two in big moments in the final quarter of that game. If you pull him when he’s cold, you don’t have access to those, and I also think you just want him playing with no conscience (from deep, not from 2). Having him off of the floor represents opportunity cost, to me, because you kind of always want him to keep shooting no matter how he’s been shooting as long as he gets an open look - just maybe fewer deep/contested shots when he’s not scorching. He also provides spacing that no one else on the team does (at least to the level) - which is valuable for players like Reece/hopefully Gertrude, etc. He needs to refine his offensive game and we don’t need some of those acrobatic mid-range jumpers. If he can drive and distribute some, great, but if he’s physically outmatched, stop relying on him ball handling and just have him play more of the wing in the Triangle or lurk in the corner on Flow, standard play through Sides, etc. If you’ve got him isolated bringing the ball up against a team like that hounding him, that’s a strategic mistake (not that he’s on the floor, that one of your other two guards aren’t tasked with that role). He isn’t a good multi-level scorer yet, but having a such a quality three-point threat who can play good defense is worth keeping on the floor 30mpg, IMO (I mean, I wouldn’t quibble with 26+) because you punish the mistakes most effectively and you give your guys you’re trying out (like Eli and Bond) more space to work with when they’re in there as opposed if to them playing together a lot.
It’s that Rohde slot that needs a lot more variability IMO.
I hope my piece didn’t communicate that I agreed with playing Eli less because of his mistakes, because I don’t. From the first play of the game when he got left in the dust, I had a feeling it was going to be a rough game for Rohde and, again, I really like healthy Rohde, generally speaking. But I fully agree with you on him - you have to be willing to mix up your rotation and try different things when he’s not giving you what you need - especially because if the offense is stinking anyway, Gertrude and Bond represent defensive upgrades. There was another clip that I didn’t include where I believe it’s Beekman beats his man and gets the ball to Bond on the wing with Rohde in the corner. Between them, they have one Memphis player defending them, but neither is willing to drive or shoot, and it wastes the advantage. I thought of that similarly when Gertrude attacked - at least he was trying to make a play and, with more practice, that play will become less wild and other players will better react to it. We need to encourage more of that against teams like Memphis who are cheating/over-extending rather than shying away from it. And that’s actually the main idea I was trying to communicate throughout the entire piece but focused more on Beekman rather than Eli - that our other offensive players need to be willing to attack in those situations otherwise athletic defenses won’t keep us honest.
5 Likes
Good stuff. Mostly agree. Just riffing in my post above.
Slight disagree on the iMac thing. But I understand the reason to play him 30. It just gets into the trap of not changing stuff / not trying stuff even though the collective offense isn’t working well.
3 Likes
Yeah, but I do think you can isolate the variables of why the offense isn’t playing well and iMac not shooting well/shot selection might be a very short-term contributor to that, but his shooting % at volume should be convincing enough that his slump isn’t likely to be a longer-term issue. Plus, trying to fix it could raise more concerns re: damaging the confidence of the player we’ve been trying to get to be more aggressive with his shot selection, and for good cause (again, I do think you can communicate that message re: shot efficiency in the mid-range).
I think of it like when you’re troubleshooting something, you don’t change a bunch of different things at once, you isolate a variable or two and see if changing those will have a desired impact. In this situation, I think you isolate that SF variable, and really lean into Elijah/Bond while trying to encourage Dunn to shift his mentality/be more aggressive off of the bounce. It’s my belief that those two changes would make a big difference as long as Rohde is in this funk. I don’t think changing McKneely would help much - more likely hurt.
5 Likes
Was just prompting some deep breathing and perspective taking 
that first post seemed like it took it out of you.
It did. Just like James brown after a concert
1 Like
@Cuts_from_The_Corner can you just tell me if we are good. Thanks in advance.
2 Likes
Fully believe Isaac has a great college player in him and he just needs to go through whatever he needs to go through to get there. I’d ride him through the ups and downs. Besides, what other potential version of our offense looks better? I can’t think of one this season
1 Like
RE IMac:
Even all-time great Ty Jerome had a string of subpar performances in his November/December of his second year
And all-american Kyle Guy threw up a few duds as well
4 Likes
Remember how pissed people were at Jerome after the WVa game? Lol
6 Likes
