Two things can be true.
Loyal is a strong word in this context, but the effort could be a bit more given in-state (JWilly always show love).
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Starting is overrated. For real though
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Man my friends were all texting me that shit “buy your plane ticket”. I was like, bro, you realise who the other coach is???
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Was at my folks for Easter and my Nova grad bro (they were already in) was all like, cmon let’s go! Once in a lifetime opportunity! Fortunately my sports superstition won out over my bargain hunter instinct.
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Once in a Lifetime proved to be 2019. Patience grasshopper
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Still bitter I had to miss that. One thing that gets me when I think about it
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Hav asked me a while back which in-state recruits UVA should have gotten that would have made a difference. It made me realize it hasn’t really made a difference at all. And I’m all about having VA guys, because I do think it matters in other ways.
If you take away the recruits who went to Duke or UNC, which being in the neighboring state you just aren’t going to get very often these days. And you seriously look at the players they’ve gotten instead of the hypothetical in-state recruit…it’s hard to come up with names.
The only one I can come up with in recent years is Aamir Simms and in the full context of things at the time it was very understandable to pass on him. It’s just pretty remarkable to have had the kind of success Bennett has in a fairly basketball rich state (though not what it used to be) without getting one of them in going in 10 years.
So I’m kind of in @Papihoo’s corner. The whole point of recruiting in-state is to get a discount, meaning it’s easier to get recruits. But unless they’re from the immediate central VA area that’s not the case with rare exception. So why should they go out of their way about it.
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Yea i believe Bennet is going after who he wants regardless of where they are from. Watch how he goes after Chance. If we don’t get Kon he will stay all over him. I wouldn’t mind having both but that would make the guard spot very crowded
Bliss just randomly posted this. This kid even post commitment has gone out of his way to show UVA love. Moreso than I recall with other past commitments.
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Maybe Maliq Brown too, though I don’t totally remember if there was interest from the player’s side or not.
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- Is this a pillar violation?
- No
0
voters
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I felt bad for Simms at the time, IIRC he would say often in interviews that UVA was his dream school and was basically begging for Tony and staff to offer/recruit him. But in 2017 we already had Hunter, Diakite, Wilkins, Salt, and Huff in the frontcourt so there really wasn’t any space for him. And even if we did add him that means we don’t have space for Braxton in two years for the title run.
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Polls and Pillars should not be confused! 
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Does anyone get the a sense of a correlation between the rise of AAU ball within the Commonwealth and the decline of Virginia’s in-state recruiting? Just a bit curious. And, while I am at it, is Virginia looking at anyone on Richmond’s John Marshall roster? It is Coach Williford’s high school alma mater.
Yep. I know for a fact that UVA would have been all over him if he had transferred out when Boeheim retired. But out of high school it would have meant probably passing on Bond in the way they were doing things. So jury is out.
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Yeah, when you put it that way, it was pretty reasonable to choose Bond. Brown had a very nice first year on offense, but he’s basically a rim-running center on offense who didn’t have any defensive production of note (as always, the zone makes it hard to evaluate guys). He’s a little bit of an awkward fit if you need him to be a 3/4 on offense in your team context.
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Bennett gets the in-state discount in Wisconsin.
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You all know that guy who, upon hearing you’re a UVa basketball fan, must immediately bring up UMBC? Of course, we all do.
That guy’s an idiot for a host of reasons, but the main one for me is that he chose the wrong game. Syracuse is the one I’ll never get over.
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With a National Championship and our good friends at Purdue joining the club, the UMBC game is nothing but an oddity to me. Always has been. That was some alternate timeline/Twilight Zone shit.
Syracuse has always been worse.
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Yuuuup, might not have realized it at the time but that 2018 team was pretty much dead in the water the moment Dre got hurt. And even if he was healthy I don’t think we were beating Nova for the title.
2016 had a very legitimate shot at winning a chip if they don’t shit the bed against Cuse. Would’ve played two teams we already beat that year in the F4.
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