If Ames made 3 more of his missed 3s, his % would’ve been 39% for the year. Yeah I know, “if my aunt had a beard etc.” but still, 33% as a true freshman on moderate volume in the B12 tells me he is more than likely a capable shooter. And that was on one of the worst P5 shooting teams in the country so I wonder what that looks like next to someone like McKneely.
Said another way, I actually think Ames’s stats are encouraging.
Okay so TJ Power must be a scrub?
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I’m not sure how this logically follows… but I haven’t seen anyone say Ames is a scrub.
Speaking for myself, I’ve said that his game really doesn’t pair well with Warley’s but that he, in a vacuum, has a high ceiling as a true PG.
Absolutely. I don’t even care if people read it. I’d send these 500 word rants into the void.
Hah. Sometimes I think I should
TJ Power didn’t play much at all last year so we have very little to judge him on. Dai Dai played quite a bit, so much more to evaluate him on.
That said, also in my book my expectations for TJ Power’s potential outcomes are indeed lower than they were when he came out of high school. He didn’t play much as I said, so hard to evaluate, but he also couldn’t crack Duke’s line-up and was instantly recruited over as Duke didn’t seem to prioritize him in any way. That probably indicates at least a little something even if Duke is full of stars and many gifted players might not crack their lineup as a freshman. So if coming out of high school I thought his range of outcomes on a ten point scale was somewhere in the vast space between like 4-9, now I’d probably say it’s like 4-7. The super upper end all-American outcome - even if unlikely to start with - now seems probably off the table. But very solid to very good definitely still seems on the table.
Maybe that’s what I’m not conveying well re my opinion on the difference between high school recruits and college transfers. It’s impossible to know as much about high school recruits, so their range of potential outcomes - good and bad - is wider. Dai Dai out of high school’s potential outcomes were let’s say something like 3-8 on a ten point scale. But we’ve already seen him play quite a bit, it was solid for a freshmen but didn’t show signs of transcendent play, so now it’s probably like 4-6 for me. 6 or 7 would still be very good, but star seems unlikely.
Whereas a new top 100 high school recruit could still be 3-8 or 3-9. Others will disagree but that’s why I wanted to prioritize a high school recruit over Dai Dai. While small, it leaves open the possibility of getting lucky and getting another 8 or 9 which is what we need to be great. Locking in solid transfers guarantees a good floor as you know you know better what you’ve got and the low end outcome is less likely, but the super high end outcome is also less likely once you’ve seen them play at this level and it didn’t appear to be there. But different folks feel differently about those approaches and I get that.
Anyway, that’s my 500 screed for the void for today!
Hold up. What if your aunt had a beard?
Then she’d have a beard!
It would go nicely with her mustache
No I was just responding to his post suggesting that Dai Dai is somewhat less attractive of a prospect vs what he was out of HS due to his results last year. It was somewhat sarcastic but I don’t think Dai Dai should be penalized because he was able to earn 20+ mpg playing time last year vs guys like Power and Gertrude who really didn’t play as freshman. I keep coming back to my main point that Ames actually had a very impressive rookie year.
Someone who keeps up with HS recruiting more please clear it up for me… Dai Dai hasn’t ever really been known as a shooter right? That’s my holdup on specifically a starting lineup… if you watched any FSU games you know Warley isn’t a threat, with that in mind they’re going to be better to pair him with more than capable shooters, IMO. Bliss and iMac (again, JMO) pair better with him.
That doesn’t mean that Dai Dai won’t be very good for us, just in the context of a lineup, he pairs better with some players than he does with others.
I don’t have any idea as to his shooting. I don’t think he’s gonna hurt us there but I do believe he will do great in our “Run & Gun” offense we will be using. .
How does Dai Dai compare to other UVA first years in terms of output. How many freshman actually contribute a bunch their first year that surpasses Dai Dai? I think sometimes we overestimate how first years actually play because we see the potential and then they ultimately fulfill it
Also if we do keep recruiting transfers and they can only hit in that 6-7 range as their ceiling then maybe we should stop building our roster through transfers. Despite conventional wisdom you don’t actually have to build your roster through transfers
I’ll go back through the numbers later, but when looking at guards - I’d assume many. UVA plays freshman guards. And all our guards who ended up being good (except Devon Hall) performed pretty well on significant minutes their first year.
Here’s his spring EYBL stats from his last year. Small sample but seems about right. 35% from 3, 80s FT%.
I dont have much opinion on Dai Dai as a player. But just saying Dai Dai over and over makes me happy.
Big ups to mom and or pops for giving that name
I think I’ll decide his name based on his 3P%. 35% is the cutoff. Over and he’s Dai Dai. Under is Darrin. If he slips too far under 30, it’s just Junior. Could change week to week.
Dai Dai better wear the Dai Dai chain to the first postgame presser he gets picked for.
