Definitely agree with that. Ugo and GrĆ¼nloh should only be taking 3s late in the shot clock or in blowouts until they prove they can make them. Iād add Gertrude to that list too (although I wonder if heās going to be getting much PT in competitive games going forwardā¦only 2 minutes this weekend).
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We need to stop using the excuse āthis is a completely revamped roster.ā But there are plenty of teams with the same problem, and they still win. thatās the sobering reality, unfortunately.
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True, but there canāt be many (if any?) teams that have continuity issues to the degree that we do. We have 1 returning player (and heās deep bench) and 0 returning coaches! (Plus 2 guys adjusting to the US game.) Itās fair to call that out as a factor affecting our early play.
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We won vs Northwestern. We also win at 5-1. @dave92 beat me to the punch. There are not plenty of teams in a situation with a first year coach at a spot with a roster full of players who have never played a single minute together or under the coach
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Very, very few among the top teams. Top 20 kenpom itās pretty much NC State. #20 Baylor also has 0 returners but has a returning coach, which I think makes a big difference for assembling a roster from scratch. Median returning minutes for the top 20 is 34% and NC State is the only one without a returning coach.
Odom also doesnāt have any major contributors who played for him last year. He only brought Carrere with him. Wade has Quadir Copeland (13.3 ppg), which I suspects makes a bit of a difference in terms of implementing his system. Also they havenāt played away from home yet and only beat their one decent opponent by 6 so remains to be seen what happens when that team is tested. (Same deal with Baylor - they have home wins over #203 by 15, #53 by 9 and #193 by 13ā¦not sure theyāve really been more impressive than Virginia on the season).
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Iām sure it was already noted, but my assumption was that Odom was not really upset about the walking call on de Ridder, but the lack of a reciprocal, obvious walk by Butler during their previous possession. Though Iām sure his annoyance was building up prior to that. My honest assessment of the foul situation is that we do foul a lot and need to cut down by being more sound on defense. Says Capān Obvious.
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Thatās all you could do because it would never happen!
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A number of big time programs had roster turnover and coaching changes. NC State and Louisville last year. We are hardly unique.
Even if I concede the point, if we are still learning to play with each other in November, does that actually give us an advantage or make us behind other teams? Other teams without this problem are refining their approaches at an advanced level, while weāre still struggling with basic team cohesion. We may get better, but so will everyone else.
also, our first 3 games were hardly impressive. While other ACC teams were playing Kentucky and Kansas, we played Rider and NC Central. Come on now!
They can improve, but this roster was constructed for offense, not defense. Trying to remake them into a solid defensive team is a much harder job than making them a more cohesive and efficient offensive team. The one defensive issue Iād address is fouling. Virginia is averaging 20 fouls a game. Thatās about 270th in the country. Itās bad. Theyāve got to get better at defending without fouling. And thatās not just a few guys. Itās Mallory, De Ridder, Thomas, Hallā¦ all of them, really. The 21 fouls committed against Butler led to 20 points at the free throw line for the bad guys.
However, Butler was Virginiaās lowest-scoring game so far. Bad offense (Hall driving, Ugo launching threes, etc) and missed free throws hurt a lot. And De Ridder struggled with the physicality and had his worst game so far. And Odom did not coach a good game.
Their atrocious defense could be better, but they could have won that game with just a few tweaks to the offense. And thatās probably the easier path.
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Who has NC State played? And how many not on their home court. There is literally nothing they have done to warrant being Top 25 right now. So, no, the other ACC programs havenāt all been tested. The only quality win they have is media darling Will Wade as their coach.
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On the continuity point, it seems intuitive that ātalentedā teams with low continuity (eg, us) should improve at a faster rate (or more?) than similar teams who have high continuity.
But do we have any backing for that? If itās correct, there should be a way to find it in the dataā¦
I worry that you wonāt find it, because that lack of continuity will continue to manifest later in the season, if that makes sense.
The defense has to get better. Itās beyond putrid at this point. Iām watching Tennessee/Rutgers now, and itās just embarrassing to compare the way UVA played defense in Greenbriar to most other solid programs.
Offensive cohesiveness should come. Iām not worried about that. One thing that does bother me is UVAās shot selection. Our piss poor defense combined with our, at times, comical shot selection isnāt going to translate into beating many quality teams. That has to be cleaned up.
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The refs sucked all around but Iād quibble with this by saying that butlerās entire offense came out of setting those illegal screens.
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They beat NC Central 114-66.
UVA beat Nc Central 81-62. This is called āa clue.ā
NC State hasnāt been tested but theyāre playing better than we are. Theyāre #19 on KenPom.
Again, reality is painful but we gotta deal with it, instead of getting defensive and jealous
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There has to be a role for Eli to be the stopper guy. That should be his aspiration. Put me in on the hot guy and I put out the fire. The rest of our lineup can do the scoring.
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Itās an advantage in that UVA probably has more room to improve.
Also itās not clear to me at this point that NC State is materially better than Virginia. They havenāt played away from home and they beat their only solid opponent (#54 VCU) by 6. Louisville last year was an 8 seed and lost in the first round. They started the season 6-5. I think it is very plausible at this point that UVA does as well as or better than that this season.
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They also struggled at home vs VCU who is worse than Northwestern
Oneās opinion is never reality. The golden age of Tony bennett 2014 was filled with OOC losses much worse than our recent one to Butler, and thatās with continuity and having a culture in place
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Kenpom at this point is mostly preseason expectation. Also, UVA led NCC by 31 with 10 minutes to go so I really donāt think thatās necessarily some clear underperformance of a game. UVA turned that game into a blowout in the first 10 minutes. UVA and NC State both blew NCC out ā I donāt think comparing the relative degree of each blowout is that useful.
UVA currently has an āAā win on kenpom. NC State does not.
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Dude. I donāt care what the scoring margin is. They havenāt played anyone; our win over Northwestern on a neutral floor is more than they have. They struggled to beat VCU on their own court.
Thereās a lot I can accept, but your point is just wrong.
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I agree ā I even began my response to you with āTrue.ā We are not unique in our lack of continuity, but we are more extreme (though @hoos689 called out some close comparisons).
In any case, regardless of how we compare to other teams on continuity, itās a significant factor in how weāre performing right now, and so must be part of the discussion.
Thank you! 