I kind of wish we had leaned on Marial more in the 2016 stretch, but Dev was the perfect player for the 2018 team. Darius kind of got screwed in 2018, with ODU, MTSU, and W. Ky all being really good, but Marshall got hot in the conf. tourney and stole the bid.
Ultimately, I don’t think 2017 was going to turn out differently no matter what we did. Our post situation was dire after Nichols left, and was even worse when Zay got sick.
Wilkins last two years were great, but also kind of a bummer because of what I think could have been. The one year he got sick and couldn’t bounce back, and then I think his last year he took a knock to his back mid-season (I’m pretty sure I remember it being in a game against Clemson) and was never quite the same. He was still good and played, but I always thought he was laboring more than was ever let on.
Marial had a great game first round of the NCAAs, but my memory of him in the latter part of the 2016/2017 season was that he gave up defensively and had decided to move on well before the season was over because he wasn’t happy with how he was being used in the offense. I could not have been less surprised when it was announced that he was transferring after the season was over.
Apparently he addressed this in Intangible, but I haven’t read that far yet.
I remember lots of guys giving up at the end of 2016-17 – as in, like most of them – and me along with the always reasonably priced liquor at Barclays Center did our best to make our views clear to the best of our collective abilities from the cheap seats, during the infamous Bonzie fly-by ND game.
Most of those guys played like they wanted that season to be over – Marial was no exception.
This is a tad too harsh, on second thought, and I don’t love “they gave up” narratives too much, mostly because it’s hard for us as spectators to have a lot of insight, but if such a thing could ever be said of a team, ND definitely wanted it more that night. And then we struggled to beat a Keatts-coached team, and barely bothered to show up against Florida.
I basically think at the end of the year, we just had multi-system failure:
I think in an environment like that, it can look like guys are “giving up” when the truth is always a bit more complicated
I was definitely checked out by then. Distinctly remember being in Queen Vic in DC watching the final game and being so checked out that I was on the back patio hanging out for majority of the game and walked inside to greet friends and looked up to see the final 90 secs and not even be bothered.
All that said I’m cool with Marial being checked out, things happen.
This was the core issue imo. At some point I looked at efficiency before and after Zay’s absence (and when he was playing but very obviously ill), and the difference was insane.
Found this from the official uva hoops account. Loved Darion:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CjyXwHcMFBd/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
When @jazznutUVA wakes up he can give y’all the 1 credit elective on the difference between the Euro League and the Euro Cup. 
Darion and Kyle are in the Euro cup and Tobey and Darius and Dev are in the Euro League. Plus I think Dev and Darion are both in the Italian league and Kyle and Tobey are in the same league, and maybe Darius, too. I don’t get it. You have to be Mario Draghi to understand this stuff.
Someone explained it to me recently. i could try and explain it but not worth our time ha
Here is what I wrote last month…
Euroleague is the top competition, but it is also a closed system where right now 12 of the 18 teams are permanent members… the remaining 6 are associate members with 4 pretty much being permanent and then the last two being contested through the EuroCup competition.
Now… the third Europe-wide competition is the FIBA Basketball Champions League which tried to get their champion a spot in the Euroleague several years ago, but was denied. Since this is the officially sanctioned FIBA competition, the Champions League champion qualifies for the Intercontinental Cup, not the Euroleague winner.
Then there is a 4th tier called the FIBA Europe Cup which feeds and qualifies teams into the Champions League… for the soccer fans… Champions League and Europa Cup are the models for the FIBA versions, but unfortunately they are not the top competition.
Edit:
Europe Hierarchy (TLDR)
NOTE: There are other nuances to these leagues if you want to learn more later… but the more nuances you understand, you may get more confused. Hahaha!
Domestic country leagues have their own competition and champion… their standing in their domestic league can qualify them for different European competitions. Each domestic league normally has an in-season domestic cup as well… which is mutually exclusive of all of the league standings and Euro competitions.
I think the thing that I finally figured out yesterday is that the domestic leagues and euro leagues all play simultaneously, more or less. For some reason, I had previously thought that the euro league was the first part of the schedule.
So Kyle has played in 3 liga endesa games and 1 euro cup game.
Yes… there are agreed upon open weekends for all the European competitions that are kept open by ALL the domestic leagues.
Remember European leagues do not have playoffs in the US sense to crown their champion. Their champion is the winner of the regular season league table. The in-season cups and Euro competitions take the place of the high stakes US playoffs.
That is such a joke of a system. Also feels like it’d probably destroy any remaining semblance of parity in domestic leagues because the one or two squads in each league that are permanent members of the EuroLeague have such a massive recruiting and money advantage.
It is definitely why the European Soccer world revolted when they tried to implement a Soccer SuperLeague a few years ago…
Edit:
A shorter article…
Had missed this…just made his debut.
D@mn good on Mike for still getting out there and getting it done.
