1-0 in conference is weird to type in November, but I’ll take it. A good quality slow-cooker-type stomping in the 2nd half, that felt very familiar.
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Everyone will call it an ugly win and I guess it was. But there were some great individual performances. Clark went all 40 minutes, flirted with a triple double. Jay with 12 boards! Mark Jerome said the other night if Jay rebounds, he’ll get 30 minutes. Well he did. Only committed one foul too!
We have 5 guys that we count on. Need a couple more of the young guys to step up.
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Will have more thoughts in the am, but since this is a recruiting centric forum, whoa Casey, that defense, believe the hype.
And I think CTB make a big mistake not hard selling a grad trans pg. Clark played incredible but if he gets hurt we’re screwed. No one else can facilitate the offense or looked competent against the press.
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In some ways, I don’t think the offense was that ugly; of course when you don’t hit 3s, things look not so good, but 16-for-24 on 2s is quite good, and the plan to attack the zone made sense, just needed a little more confidence from the perimeter guys to throw it into the high post or to throw the lob to the baseline bigs. There weren’t too many possessions that flailed around in my opinion, it was mostly just not hitting shots off of decent looks.
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Yeah, if Kihei Clark tweaks an ankle, the already-shaky offense goes downhill in hurry. No one wants to go back to the bad-old-days of being unable to inbound the ball, or holding your breath until it got across midcourt. Having just one ballhandler is a problem.
Neither Woldetensae nor Morsell looked confident with the ball in their hands. That’s gotta change. And does anyone think Bennett gives some minutes to Chase Coleman against the soft, pink, juicy part of the OOC schedule?
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Yep, that spells in out in a nutshell. I absolutely think CTB gives pg mins to all 3 in three non con. We heard Chase got run in the scrimmages running the show.
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Just to build on this with some day-after takeaways at both the schematic/tactical level as well as player-specific level:
Scheme-level
- Not sure we learned much about the offensive scheme, since playing Syracuse is so specific to them. Though perhaps we should expect a little more zone thrown at the team this season, so we learned some about how the staff will look to attack it: 1) A perimeter player in the high post with 2 bigs trying to flatten out the backline of the zone; 2) Mamadi or Jay in the high post to attack from a face-up position.
- Kihei looked dangerous when got into the middle of the defense off a screen, perhaps the bodes well for some ball-screen offense against man defenses.
- Defense looked pretty solid scheme-wise for November; they allowed .58 points-per-possession, which is better than any defensive performance from last season. Allowed basically zero dribble penetration, as Syracuse only attempted 6 shots at the rim and barely got to the line.
- The one area that has some clear room for improvement are the hedge-and-recover situations on ball-screens, especially when the screen-setter pops. A couple wide-open 3s were given up when the hedge man rotated back to the wrong player, like if someone else switched onto the screen-setter.
- Kihei-Kody-Braxton-Mamadi-Jay closed out the game, but given that it wasn’t a tight ending, I’m not sure if we can read into that as being the #1 closing lineup. If they close in a big lineup, Kody or Casey would be the main choice point; if they close small, it would be which 2 of Kody/Casey/Tomas, probably whoever is hitting shots.
Player-level
- Morsell looks ready defensively. As mentioned above, he was on Hughes a bunch, who was trying to be the go-to-guy on offense, and looked completely up to the task.
- Mamadi picked up where he left off with his strong NCAA tournament. He was aggressive and decisive, hit some jumpers, crashed the glass, and blocked shots.
- Jay looked really good scoring inside; he maybe went to the spin move one too many times, but he was very effective, and it’s a good sign that he was able to attack and not just need a shot created for him.
- Kody had a positive game in my opinion; definitely a quiet first half, but overall, he was chasing shooters around screens without any big mistakes, he got a deflection while on-ball, and of course he hit a 3.
Looking forward to seeing them go against some man-to-man defenses, so we can start to see what that offense looks like. The makeup of the team tilts more towards ball-screens as opposed to Sides/Blocker-Mover, but there’s always a little experimentation at this point of the season, so I’m curious to see what the staff has planned.
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I don’t think we really learned that much last night. I mean, seriously, is Virginia’s defense that good — or is Syracuse just that bad?
And on offense, were Virginia’s struggles related to: (A) the unique Syracuse zone, (B) shooting in the Dome, (C) adjusting to the new three point line, (D) new players adjusting to their roles and not quite fitting together yet, (E) just first game jitters, (F) bad shooters, or (G) not having a scorer who can create his own shot?
I suspect it’s all of the above. So half of the solution is to just settle down and get a little experience playing together in the OOC. But the other half? Unsolvable – there are no other answers on the roster. They are what they are.
From his comments, I think that’s what Bennett has concluded: he’s got to have an airtight defense, because the offense is not going to be that good. Decent, yes, but not that good.
And that’s probably Virginia this year.
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Is why I felt like this first game meant everything and nothing. Avoided “disaster” of an ugly loss but not sure it says much about the season to come at this point. Tough to tell against zone what they will look like going forward. Will be great however building from here and into late Dec/ January. At the end of the day I think game was great outcome for us.
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So many takeaways from last night’s game. All the while I’m trying not to overreact to it being the first game of the year. First off, I will never overlook getting an ACC road win. Especially with this team and this year that could be a crucial win for the boys come March.
Second I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw last night. The defense came out strong and looked solid for integrating so many new pieces. I was especially impressed with defense from the guards. A combo of Kihei and Casey could become a stout unit. The bigs did exactly what I thought they would glad to see Diakite playing with so much energy and purpose.
As far as the offense goes, I’m not sure what I saw. My gut tells me this team is similar to the 15/16 team interms of having loads of offensive potential but they will have droughts and struggle. The Cuse zone is tough to read and it’s such an anomaly it’s difficult to extrapolate those results to other outcomes. There’s also the fact that the dome is difficult to shoot in. The sight lines are different and Tomas and Casey have never been in anything like that, even Kihei does not have a lot of experience in there he didn’t play much in that game last year. All that said, there are some things I’d like to see more of moving forward. But will hold off on judgement until the face a more traditional defense.
Bottom line the Hoos are 1-0 and 1-0 in the ACC
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I think you guys are right that the only important takeaway from last night’s game is the good guys won.
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Think this is worth listening to…
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That Kihei Stat line is impressive…
It was the first ACC game i can remember where it didnt feel as important…probably not what the acc network had in mind.
I was impressed with Casey Morsell…i think he blocked a step back jumper…@hoozgotnext was totally right about him…wow
Kody looked quicker…
Jay in the middle of the zone wasnt a bad look. He made a few plays. He also had some turnovers…
@DFresh11’s comment about a secondary ball handler was spot on and we got no answers on that.
So glad to have basketball back!!
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Another thing for me that stuck out was interior passing by Braxton Jay and Mamadi. They found each other in some tight seems. Kehei was great and he took on his new responsibility in a very well all around way. He looks bigger this year too which is normal.
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Looking over the box score, Kody played 21 minutes. It didn’t seem like that many watching. I think that’s what we want, for him not to make a lot of noise. He was sound defensively, only committed one turnover, didn’t take bad shots. As long as that continues, he’ll be a fixture in the rotation.
Tomas was bad, but I’m glad they’re giving him opportunities. It’s such a huge transition for him. I think once he finds his feet, he’ll be a key contributor.
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Yea, Tomas looked out of sorts…I don’t really think he got a clean look at the basket though.
He had the one fast break, but jay shoulda went a little wider, and he got caught in the middle there.
Kody got one clean look and he nailed it. If he can do that, defenses can’t sag off him.
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I was very impressed with Kody. His body has definitely developed and he could be a great contributor if he can knock down some open 3s.
Tomas was completely out of sorts. He’s a shooter by trade so I feel like that will comeback. I was more concerned by some of his turnovers and his ball handling decisions. Those are areas of his game that need to be cleaned up if he was to see heavy mins moving into the future.
Lastly I still can’t believe Kihei almost had a triple double. That was insane, he looked stronger than ever and really looked like his confidence grew and he is poised to take a step this season.
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