JPJ was the most impressive thing I saw on my visit. I loved how the basketball court is always down and I can shoot whenever possible.
Thank goodness he didn’t come on Hot Wheels Monster Truck™️ weekend.
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This was a cool interview @Treymank3.
Did anything come up during the visit or during your phone calls with the staff about offensive adjustments/changes for the coming year?
“Yeah, and I feel like the talk recently about Virginia’s offense isn’t necessarily a reflection of Virginia; I think it’s just do you have versatile and dynamic scorers? The recent additions and the team we have for next year is exactly that. We are going to have guys that can score the ball. We will do things they have done in the past when they won the national championship. They could score then, and we can score now.”
This sounds like a post someone would make in a LRA postmortem thread, excellent contribution to the discourse.
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It sounds like a postmortem thread comment from someone who thinks we just had a talent issue, not a “why doesn’t Tony care about offense?” issue
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Maybe Tony simply feels lost without talented scorers?
thank you!
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I mean to be clear, it’s not an odd comment. You expect confident athletes to be confident. That’s good! But as analysis, we are back in our same old, same old arguments. (Where of course, as normal, I am correct)
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Virginia had a Top 30 offense in four of the five years between 2015 and 2020, and had a Top 20 offense in 2021. So what are we saying? That Tony really doesn’t care about offense and those years were just lucky? That Tony used to care about offense but doesn’t anymore?
I think it’s fair to say that basketball has changed and Tony needs to adjust his scheme and recruit different types of players. I think this offseason shows that he recognizes that.
I also think it’s fair to say that Tony values defense more than offense, and some of the things that make you a good defensive team (like foregoing offensive rebounds to limit fast breaks) hurt you offensively.
But to say Tony “doesn’t care” about offense is just silly.
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More or less, yes. Because the alternative is even worse : that he does care, but has done a really really really bad job at proving that.
please also remember that the odds i didn’t get the full story on the offensive strategy are extremely high lol. Could be a combo of going out and getting better talent AND changing some things up. he had no reason to tell me everything hahah
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I was interested in what he said less from the perspective of the merits of his analysis, and more that the way he said it had much more of an analytic frame than I would expect from the average player comment, which is usually “Yes, we talked about it and coach thinks I can really help them be better.” Wading even a little bit into the system vs talent discussion is way more than I expected.
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A more sophisticated way of saying this is that Tony has certain proxies he relies upon, that in his experience, have lead to good offense — proxies like turnover rate, e.g. — but when those proxies let him down (I.e., don’t actually lead to good offense), his response is to basically do nothing (what I define as “nothing” but others will argue).
So “Tony used to care” = Tony figured out the proxies that led to really good offense
And “Tony no longer cares” = when those proxies fail him spectacularly, his response is to stare blankly at the court as an hour between baskets goes by…
I think it’s a good and useful shorthand, but I suspect others disagree.
I’d also like to think that Tony will change. I also thought the two days before the CSU game woulda been a good time to change, too.
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led 
There’s a play toward the end of their game against Washington where he full-on attempts to dunk it over their 6’11" Center, breaking the press. I didn’t expect that kind of athleticism.
Draws the fifth foul on the guy when he does, as well.
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Groves? Thats mundane shit for Jacob
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It’s a teed up “Expectations vs Reality” meme with the infamous Groves dunk attempt.
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Yep that’s the one. It’s one of those where he keeps elevating as you’re expecting him to start coming down.
Also was surprising as he looks a little stiff when he plays so you don’t really expect it.
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Just finished the Saunders film and pulling clips… have to write but, interested in what you all are expecting from him.
How we use him (and in conjunction with Power) is going to be one of the bigger stories of this coming season. Neither he nor Power should be primary defenders on the opposing team’s Center, IMO, though, and it feels like we’re gearing up already with the expectation that we’re going to see quite a bit of that.
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With Buchanan, Robinson, and Lang on the roster? The bigger question is whether one of them could defend an ACC 3.
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Between this and you being concerned about the possibility of Warley playing off ball, Ill be keeping you in my thoughts and prayers this offseason LOL.
Saunders and/or Cofie will absolutely get minutes as small ball 5s/5 out scenarios, regardless of our opinions. Power and Saunders will play together in stretches at the 3/4 or 4/5 no doubt.
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