Wait a minute- you’re telling us this Mr. Negativity? Lol! Don’t break character.
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Words zero of us would have expected anyone to ever say about our backcourt.
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Just noticed that per KenPom, the game against FSU actually pulls down our SoS at this point.
Edit - Also, KenPom has UVA as the favorite in every game for the rest of the season. Just barely in a couple cases (probably by well under a point vs both Houston and at UNC) but even after the JMU game still slight favorites.
Is the JWilly show now on YouTube?
You can find it on Facebook…
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I wish we could. Not sure why they don’t just repost it there
Ok so how are we feeling day after?
We beat a dangerous mid major without our best player in the midst of a two game offensive hangover and getting killed on the boards and hustle plays. Off night
Or
This is a harbinger of the rest of the season. Early shooting was a mirage and lots of games will be defensive slogs. Temper expectations. Not enough dawgs
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I think it can be both right?
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Good chance we get passed by Purdue
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I feel like it’s we are playing to the level of our competition which is something even Tony’s best teams have done in the past. I’ll wait until after Houston until I look too much into the last two games. Also Reece being way less than 100% has a lot to do with it also. Hopefully he gets plenty of rest the next 11 days
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However many missed shots are in the Houston game is how many rebounds they will have
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Think it’s a little bit of both. JMU is a very solid mid major team, we didn’t have our best player for 37/40 minutes, and our normal starters looked visibly tired for most of the 2nd half. Think it was also mentioned at the start that Kihei was dealing with a minor injury, though it didn’t seem to affect his play at all.
This team is a significantly better shooting team than last year, but not good enough to keep up the torrid 45% from 3 pace. I think we’ll settle in as a 37-38% team with a couple of clunkers and a couple of scorchers the rest of the way, there’s some good shooters on this team but they’re all kinda streaky. Regardless though, we need Kihei, Armaan, Isaac, and BVP to hunt their shot a bit more on the perimeter. Part of the problem recently is there’s been more hesitation when they have good but not great looks than there was in the first couple games. It was more evident both today and against FSU with Reece hurt, when we don’t have him as a guy who can space the floor just with his ISO ability and get us great looks at the end of the shot clock, an emphasis should be put on taking open looks when we get them rather than being overly picky and having the offense stagnate. Kihei bailed us out for most of the 2nd half by getting to the lane and drawing contact but the offense has to be able to move and shoot with confidence when teams press us like that on the perimeter.
A good deal of our problems could be solved with this extended break, our best player gets a chance to heal up and TB will get a ton of practice time to work out any issues we’re having offensively in the lead up to what’s likely gonna be the toughest game of the season. I don’t believe we’re a top 5 team at the moment let alone the #2 team in the country but we’re still MUCH better than I thought we’d be this year and have a real shot at making a run in March.
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Another takeaway: Reece’s emergence on offense was a BFD in those early games. Perhaps unpopular take / two things can be true: (1) Kihei carried the team last night and (2) the offense looked clunkier with Kihei running the team.**
** entirely his fault? No, of course not
Does this mean we are better off with 2 PGs, instead of one? For the moment, I’m gonna have to insist that the facts, rather than my takes, are wrong.
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We’d only know for sure if Reece played a few games without Clark. Also - if Isaac can start making shots it becomes a moo point.
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I mean wouldn’t any teams offense look clunkier without their best offensive weapon? Just not having two ball handlers is going to jam things up. Reece being out takes Kihei from his best role which is playing off Reece and either shooting or creating an opportunity for someone else based on the close out
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Yes, but I didn’t necessarily expect the magnitude of change. Just one game though…
An additional takeaway: our offense is much better when we hunt shots instead of hunting perimeter passes. Too often last night guys were receiving passes squared up away from the hoop and never looking to it. Part of our early season magic was the increased level of fluidity and aggression in how we moved and shot the ball. Last night was more of stall ball…and that just doesn’t work. I think that’s part of why we struggled to effectively touch the paint much of the night.
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They’ve gotten used to operating with both guys - the kinds of sets that work, etc. So last night was effectively like watching Virginia’s first game of the season. The team was feeling out what it was like to play with each other in a very different context. In that light the magnitude of difference makes sense. It still speaks to how important he is, but say Reece was out for 4 weeks - I’d expect us to get better and settle in over that period.
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