This. Those guys have gotta be tired from this trip, they’ve done a lot of stuff the past week
I dont think this is a glorified pick up game. We are running plays and running our defense.
Is our season doomed? no
Are some of the shortcomings seen today going to be issues this season? Probably.
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Biggest one is was and will continue to be giving up offensive boards
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I mean we rarely start a season saying, wow, the defense looks great the first couple of games. Usually, it’s a work in progress, and this team hasn’t even gotten to fall practice yet. So there’s hope. 
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Yeah, we were a mediocre defensive team last year and the year before. We play a real team and apparently play mediocre defense. Seems broadly in line with where we’ve been recently and should maybe temper any expectations of massive improvement in that regard. But also it doesn’t mean that much - just one small data point.
Yeah, but the last two season that work in progress never got to a very high level. We’ve been thoroughly mediocre at defense by our standards the last two seasons. So I’m also not going to assume it’s just going to take giant leap forward.
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Aside from 2020. Our defense came out swinging that year. Agree with the overall point though.
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Notre Dame was better last year than the year before, but was it due to chemistry or the addition of Blake Wesley? Not sure I’d put much stock into a top 4 ACC finish in a year 5 teams were considered NCAA- worthy. Heck, the Domers squeaked into the play-in.
And I certainly wouldn’t base how good a team was based on its tourney results. I mean if we’re going to do that there’s a team we all know and love that hasn’t been very good the past decade except for a couple of exceptions in 2016 and 2019.
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Offensive boards. No proven wing defender. Do we have more than one consistent 3pt shooter and do we have anyone who can get above 40% which is a staple of a good Tony team.
Will be fun to see it play out and if any of the concerns get answered
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Can’t wait until tomorrow when Mega plays their back-ups and our first years play well and this board goes crazy. Haha.
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Blake Wesley plus the returners (Lazweski Goodwin, that 6’8 forward they had).
they finished top 3 in the acc. even weak conference thats still an accomplishment. They also were again 6ps short of making the sweet 16. What measuring stick shows that ND wasn’t solid last season?
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Hopefully they’re more like the Tennessee of Europe. Tonight, Kihei will ride a red Vespa over to Tony’s villa.
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Exactly, ONLY 10 days of practice with 5 brand new players, 4 of those brand new to the college game.
(My 10 days of practice statement is based on what I think I remember reading - that the NCAA only allowed 10 days for foreign trips.)
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To be fair also 3 of those new players didnt play today so it was the vets.
But again idc about losing lol. Teams lose all the time on these foreign tours. Didn’t Nene play on one of the french teams in 2012?
Will be interesting with Bond and Dunn tomorrow if we switch everything on defense to cover their shooters better.
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Well, if there’s a slight counter to this, it’s that today we sat 3 of those 4 first years and the guys playing the vast majority of the minutes have been here forever or at least playing college basketball forever. That’s not really a new team that we put on the court today. BVP and McKneely yes, but even then, BVP has been in college forever too.
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The point was the year before they were super experienced and were terrible.
Last year they added Wesley who was their best player and Atkinson who was their 2nd or 3rd best player.
The straight comp would be if McKneely comes in and starts over a previous year starter who is still there and averages 29 minutes and 14 points per game and BVP comes in and averages 27 minutes and 12.5 points per game on 59% shooting.
Seems like it would be more helpful for the coaching staff to assess the team’s flaws in a situation like this where there’s still a lot of time to adjust, as opposed to like nonconference game #5 or later. So I am going to choose to believe this will be fine for the overall season process.
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Yes official practice but they’ve been at JPJ since June
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Okay sure.
I do think its a shame one of Bond or Dunn probably redshirts (which makes sense given how raw they are) because they bring that defensive versatility and bounce not found in our veteran group. I was really hoping they would have added a wing in the portal but most were going to highest bidder. Which means 80% of our recruits need to be 6-5 to 6-9 wings.
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Concur - defense and rebounding on both ends which leads to easy buckets.
Having guys that can get a def board and push it up themselves is critical to getting 3 or 4 easy opps a game - which is usually all you need.
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@rushdacote How long were the quarters they were playing? Like 10 min or longer than that?