General UVA Basketball Thread (December)

Amen

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Temperature check: close ACC game, you’re at the under-4 media timeout, what are you picking as our closing lineup?

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Depends on the matchup, obviously, but generically – healthy Reece, i-Mac, RD, Bond who didn’t RS OR Traudt who didn’t RS, and Shedrick.

Ok, that’s a joke. Trying this earnestly:
PG - healthy Reece, or if not healthy, Kihei
SG - i-Mac
SF - Armaan
PF - BVP
Center - Kadin

Have to make some tough choices to bench my guy RD to get a bit more offense, and bench Jayden to get another three point threat in.

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Ideally?
Reece, IMac, Dunn, Traudt, Shedrick.

Edit - actually changed my mind to Bond and not Dunn.

If no redshirts?
Reece, IMac, Dunn, BVP, Shed

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How would you answer @AdventiveQuasar 's question about where you see Dunn’s game going offensively?

Ceiling or actual at UVA?

Actual at UVa / likely in the next year or so

Braxton Key. I’m hoping he regains his shooting touch he had b4 his growth spurt.
If he gets a little confidence I can see him being a sometimes playmaker too … kinda like Draymond when team high hedge like Miami did.
If he gets the freedom to just be energy and offensive board guy … he could be very effective.
Really hard to tell how good these guys will be until they get their freedom and get the 5th year lower talented albatrosses off the books. And I’m not assuming it will be all daisies.
I think if given a chance he could run some point forward depending on matchups.

High ceiling would be Walt Williams.

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Woah. Never thought about the Wizard comparison. Definitely could be but that is a high high ceiling. Love it

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I agree, Walt Williams is a high ceiling but who knows Dunn has a ton of potential . I love his play now so if he gets his shot right he’s going to be hard to handle

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Yep. Sneaky 6-8 with handles and ups and solid 3 point shot. @DavetheWave maybe we see Dunn run some point next year…

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Scottie Pippen - point forward.
Let Dunn add 10-15 lbs via Mike Curtis regimen and he will be difficult to take off the court.

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Outstanding pedigree to as his brother is a pro baseball player

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I’m thinking the hops of Vince Carter, the handles of Iverson, the strength of Lebron, the fluidity of Jordan, the defense of Pippen, and the shooting of Curry

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Yeah but outside of that what does he bring to the table

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The inevitable Kyle v iMac comparisons are coming up on another thread. For subscribers, here are Kyle’s frosh year game splits (look at 2017)
https://kenpom.com/player.php?p=39166

He had his big games against one or two cupcakes early and the later ACC games. Early on against good comp, he was fairly mediocre. And in the tourneys, ACC and ncaa, he struggled greatly.

Not trying to tear down Kyle or build up iMac. Just pointing out that you can’t rely on your memory of March 2019 Kyle when you’re trying to make relevant comparisons. Heck, even your memory of 2019 March Kyle probably overlooks the warts.**

** Kyle was 3-26 in the first three games of the tourney. That’s really bad!

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Yes - masked by how good our roster was then … That’s the bigger issue … our roster now isn’t good enough to absorb that poor a stretch by our highest volume shooter.

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Agree. To wrap it all up a bit, iMac’s major detriment compared to March 2019 Kyle is that (1) Kyle was in the spring of his junior year, and iMac is in the winter of his freshman year, and (2) iMac isn’t surrounded by a lottery pick and another first rounder.

Basically, I think we have to wait a bit to diagnose iMac’s shooting. If he keeps getting good PT, and Reece comes back healthy, and his numbers are still flagging come March or so, then it’s a different conversation.

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Still early but McKneely is shooting 30% overall and 31% from 3 to go with 60% from the FT line. I think the hope was that McKneely would be a low usage, good efficiency player his first year. Because many thought the issue with Casey was that he was asked to be a high usage player from day 1.

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It is a special challenge to shoot well from 3 in our system. Given the value we put on possessions, it puts enormous mental pressure on each shot. Not every player can get comfortable with it. Morsell being the most recent example. Post game last night … Tony was talking about encouraging guys to shoot open looks … but it is a hard balance for our rookies to find … then throw in the physical demands of our defense and you see good shooters like Isaac bricking at 30% pace.

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