Just watched Jalen hurts in his postgame presser, talked about how you can use a devastating loss as a learning tool to become better. Must have had a convo with CTB up in Syracuse lol
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Story on Armaan from the Athletic:
I liked this passage:
Franklin showed some positive signs in the NIT at the end of the year — he went 12-of-23 in three games — and then hit the gym hard in the summer. Slowly but surely, he rebuilt his confidence, and got his head around the idea that every shot is its own entity, unconnected to the previous or the next; as soon as the ball leaves your hands, you convince yourself the whole thing never happened. “You never know when your name is going to get called,” Franklin said. “You just have to stay mentally locked into the game — and forget.”
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Stat-wise, Armaan’s 3P% is up from last season obviously, but his 2P% is slightly down. However, his shot distribution looks better, as he’s taking a slightly higher percentage of his shots from 3s, and most of his 2s are rim attempts, whereas last season he took a ton of 2pt jumpers. He rarely turns the ball over, so with that and the 3pt improvements, he is up to 3.7 offensive box plus-minus this year (0.4 last season).
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I like the framing at the start of the article, basically “Isn’t it weird how we’re not even talking about Franklin’s turnaround?” Last year fans were like, “Oh god oh no Armaan’s taking a shot” and this year we’re like, “Shoot it, Armani!” Whatever it was last year, injury or pressure or whatever, it’s gone now and he’s huge for us.
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My sense watching the game was, “Armaan’s struggling, but he got some big baskets at the end.” Maybe that’s because Dickie V. kept talking about how he was struggling. Then I look at the box score and think: Damn, he had a great game.
The shooting, sure. But also: He’s aggressive offensively, he moves well (he made a great cut to get open on that last shot), he plays tough defense, he gets his hands on a lot of passes, he rebounds well. He’s just a huge plus for us all around.
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I dont remember him getting up as well last year and dunking like this year. Dunks are always good
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This is a really underrated but critical focus area. His Defensive Rebounding percentage is 15.4% (15.6% in ACC play), which is on par with both Jayden Gardner (15.6% season / 12.3% ACC) and Kadin Shedrick (16.2% / 15.2%). It’s the best rebounding season of Armaan’s career and the best we’ve seen out of one of our guards since Devon Hall (who similarly had his rebounding underrated). It’s even better than all but one of Brogdon’s seasons.
This has been an important part of our turnaround this year. Our rebounding last season was atrocious, 11th in the league in team DR%, the worst season of Tony’s tenure by a wide margin. It’s of course a major focus of the Pack Line to minimize second chance opportunities. This year we’re back up to 6th in the ACC, which is still lower than we’d like to be but that’s more about Gardner and Shedrick underperforming on the glass; Armaan is doing a lot to pick up the slack. (Dunn as well, of course.)
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Yeah, it’s weird but “Franklin is UVA’s best 4” has gone ffrom on being a joke to “You know, that’s not ridiculous”.
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I have a strong feeling Armaan comes back next year. He’s gotta be looking at next year’s team knowing that if he comes back he’s the go-to scorer. He’s sort of sharing that mantle this year with Gardner and Clark.
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I think Reece and Armaan come back and we’re better than we are this year.
Mark it down!
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I dont think he is coming back
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Definitely has more strength and explosiveness at the rim.
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Solid forearm dunker now @DavetheWave
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Armaan? I think he will. He’s game still needs work to play for a paycheck, which I assume is he’s goal. Yes great game Sat but was 2 for his last 14 before that. He’s had similar streaks all season. As said above, might benefit from
Being option 1 or 1b next season
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If that’s the case and we add a solid 4 from the portal then we are absolutely loaded.
Reece-McKneely-Armaan-Transfer-Shedrick
Harris, Traudt, Dunn, Bond off the bench
SHEESH
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I spent some time with someone who proly knows. I didnt ask directly (cause we were just talking) but they insinuated “in his last year”
Agree is always on the table though
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I can’t imagine Armaan, great as I think he is, plays himself into NBA discussions either this season or next. He’s got a nice enough shot, but there’s a lot of guys in college every year at 6’4" that shoot around 40% from 3 [and not a ton of that is from NBA range the way Ty routinely showed, or comes against tight coverage with a quick trigger like Kyle had]. Otherwise he’s not that explosive, or that elite a defender, or that great a finisher at the rim, to really differentiate himself from the field. Best case scenario I think is as an ordinary G-Leaguer, but those guys don’t make enough money for it to matter one way or another. His future as a pro is probably overseas, and that could just as easily start this offseason as next. At that point it just comes down to what his personal goals are… not sure if a Master’s Degree is in his sights or not.
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It’s a fun conversation because we’re not screwed either way. The stay or go decisions in year’s past with a guy like Murphy for example who we were just absolutely not prepared to replace were a lot more stressful.
Reece decision is different though. Definitely high stress there because of positional importance and how beloved he is.
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Well, that would stink, my thinking was his return was more likely than Reece. That puts on the table of losing our starting 5. Tony would need to do some serious portal work, which we know he can
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Could be still. But the phrase “now in his last year”. Not my place to ask …