The terrorist attacks in Paris and Belgium happened late 2015 and earlier in 2016 too. My parents made me skip France and Belgium on my post-grad trip because of it.
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I know it was terrorism related. But the odds of the players dying driving to the team bus at JPJ would be higher than the odds of dying in terrorism in Spain.
And it’s one thing for a random organization to say “safety above all else” but we’re a university, founded on rationality, reason, the pursuit of knowledge, etc. so I was embarrassed we made such anti-math “safety” decisions.
/rant
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Curious whether, after the Italy trip, forum posters here had their opinions change at all on the the team’s prospects and the likely contribution of each player in the coming season? Recognizing, of course, that all we have to go on is incomplete box scores, a few highlights, and Rushdacote’s excellent narration of the final two games against Mega.
For the team, I don’t think my opinion changed at all that UVA will be much improved this coming season— top 25 with a good chance at top 16 and top 4 ACC. I’m probably a little more pessimistic about the defense, but a little more optimistic about the offense.
Regarding the players, my thoughts are,
McKneely, much higher on his playing time and impact in his first year.
Kadin, felt this would be his break out year, now more confident of that.
Reece, same opinion as mine on Kadin.
Clark, fewer minutes because of McKneely, more efficient.
Caffaro, will have a big impact on a couple of games, maybe against Bacot.
BVP, same as Caffaro.
Traudt, his athleticism in the highlights has surprised me. But so many players with more experience at the 4 and 5, not sure he will be able to carve out room unless he’s really solid on D and can shoot a higher 3 point percentage than BVP.
Armaan, continuing to lose hope, but hope I’m wrong.
Gardner, no change, very solid player, still overmatched at times against taller ACC talent.
Taine, spot player who brings some needed energy at times.
Bond and Dunn, weirdly higher on Bond in the short term, even though everyone seems to think he will redshirt. Don’t think Dunn will play much this season, but will be really good next season if he can manage a Hunter-like boost in his offensive confidence.
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No idea what will happen …. because Tony.
Could opine on what I’d like to see happen.
Guard Isaac to play more than Clark or Franklin. Forward Isaac to play as much as or more than Gardner or Ben or Caffaro.
Murray Dunn and Bond get all the minutes at the 3. Maybe a smidgen of Ben there if he is hitting on the outside in any particular game.
Reece for 32min and Sheds for 26 min a game.
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This is just about my read. Of course I saw nothing with my eyes yet so…
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I was told there would be no math
Yeah, I think it was overkill but this staff is nothing if not deliberate and overly cautious. Just the kind of idiosyncrasies you kinda have to accept with TB. (@haney chiming in in 3…2…1…)
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Eh not to get too far down the rabbit hole but it isn’t just a math equation when you are talking about sons and daughters. I would think you had a better point if they had canceled the trip. But they didn’t. They still did all of the sight seeing and played all of the games. Just took an extra precautionary step to conceal their locations. Presumably to make the families of the players feel safer. The trade off was maybe 3 UVA fans had a harder time finding the games 
seems like a pretty reasonable trade off for the 13+ families the UVA staff was responsible to.
Anyway thank you so much for the updates and hope you had a wonderful trip!!
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Chime
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Only on LRA could you find something this amazing and detailed
I see bond, Dunn, traudt, and Kihei redshirting. Mckneeley will be ncaapoy. Reece will have a bad season and struggle to make All acc honorable mention. Kadin will maul the most face. Papi will be a late first round pick. Armaan will average 5 minutes and 10% 3P%. BVP will have much success with the ladies, as will Taine but that will be the pinnacle of their uva careers. The dude from the lax team will get his class schedule sorted and start at 3 by the end of the season.
We will win the ACC and lose in the first round of the ncaa tournament
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So, the trip didn’t change your expectations much.
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I think TB and the program understand very well that these kids have parents / family that probly arent going. Agree the math makes no sense but the staff is thinking for multiple families etc
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The first Mega game has me worried about the defense. Not sure what happened there but those 19+ losing margins didn’t used to happen so often.
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The big one was in Nice in July 2016. 86 people killed and over 400 more injured by a truck attack. I was with my family in Aix-en-Provence that night and traveling by bus the next day to go to Genoa through Nice. We woke up to our phones blowing up from family and friends at home checking on us, but we had gone to bed and didn’t know what happened. Everywhere we went in Europe had military-looking police in public areas and gatherings.
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Not quite the same thing but I was on a train to Amsterdam when the Pulse shooting happened. Got off train and went to get coffee (actual coffee lol) and got inundated with every hot take a Dutch person could possibly offer before we even knew what had happened.
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24 second shot clock and they hit a million threes . And the fact is, with college bball turning into more and more of a 3 point lottery, there will be games that just get away from you, even with the longer shot clock. A little frustrating when you have 1 and done tourneys, but it is what it is.
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Largely agree with @unknown. I would add that I still think Tony keeps the rotation to 9, so only 2 of Papi, Traudt, Taine, Bond, and Dunn are likely to be in it (assuming healthy roster). I think there is zero chance that any of the other scholarship players is out of the rotation I’d they’re healthy.
PS I also think McKneely will be starting by January.
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I think this trip shows that if you hoped Papi will get less minutes, you may be disappointed. But if you hoped Papi improved, you may be pleased
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That’s the one person we haven’t talked about a lot. I may be wrong but it seems like Papi was moving much better ,even a little quicker. I think Shedrick going to have a big year but the dropoff isn’t going to be as bad as i thought when Papi is in the game. He impressed me. I would like to hear what you guys thought about Papi
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Along with Hoo else?