Huh? Pretty much every team in the country would
Have happily taken Malik.
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Maybe my bubble but I actually had the opposite thought, been seeing a ton of tweets about us from people I wouldn’t expect.
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Yeah the only reason there wasn’t more interest was because we came in with a massive offer that blew away the field before he could drag out his recruitment. I don’t think it’s controversial to say he’s one of the 5 best players in this year’s portal. If he was truly available now, Duke would be all over him.
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A lot of schools probably couldn’t wait out the waiver process either, due to budget or roster or other reasons.
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Agree with both of these. There are 69 P5 teams (per google). The national guys whose names we all know (Parrish, Norlander, Goodman, Dauster, Borzello, et al) tend to focus on top 10ish teams, old school bluebloods (so incl. Indiana, who still has a yuge following), and recent natty winners (which is why we got our turn in the hopper recently).
Thomas is a great get, but he’s not a name. Hasn’t made a national impact. He played in only one tourney game, and registered a trillion. As someone else noted, none of the programs described above were after him (Zags were, I guess, but they’ve fallen a bit off the radar themselves).
The good news is none of Ty, Dre, Kyle, Malc, Joey Hoops, Gill, and the other Bennett-era gets made a ripple in the national college hoops media. You know who did? TJ Power…
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Was trying to figure out if those guys ever played together.
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Very true. It should also be remembered that the players you mentioned were part of a TEAM. Right now, all Virginia has is a collection of players. Hopefully, they are good players, but that remains a bit of an unknown, too. (There is only a single player on the team who has ever competed in Virginia uniform. That has to be a bit concerning.) At the moment, I am moderating my expectations. I have no idea how long it will take them to become a team, or if that can be accomplished in a single season. I imagine that a middle of the pack finish isn’t unreasonable, but I hope for better.
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I agree but the one thing that gives me hope is experienced guards which are so important in college basketball.
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Reality is the overwhelming majority of teams will have 3+ starters who weren’t on the team the year prior. Were an extreme example but everyone is dealing with the same issue to some degree.
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We need to also remember that transfers are risky, particularly when changing levels. If no more than one of UVA’s older transfers turn out to be a total bust, they should be pretty good.
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Nearly every major team is facing the problem of creating a team. So that problem is not unique to virginia. The age and experience of our transfers will help. Our projected starting guards are seniors in the 22-24 year range. And we have bigs with a lot of experience, including pro experience. Coaches are all unanimous in saying that experience matters. This is not a team trying to create a winning culture among teenagers. The floor is higher with our group
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That is very true, and it does beg the question: how will those teams fare against the programs where the majority of the players, or, at least, the majority of the players in the rotation, have been members of the team for more than a year? How much value will continuity have going forward? I don’t know.
We would be refreshing most of if not the whole team regardless of era when there is a coaching change. Don’t think this year is very representative of how the next few years will be
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It is still a crap shoot. Look at Kansas State’s transfer haul from last spring. You could make an argument that, on paper, it was better than Virginia’s this year, and Kansas State was pretty much a dysfunctional program. Hopefully, Coach Odom can avoid a similar situation, but recruiting/transfer numbers are only suggestive. They are not guarantees. And, into all this, you add all the NIL money. Is there going to be jealousy or resentment in the lockerroom which impacts team chemistry? We’re entering a whole new world of NCAA basketball, and I have no idea of how predictive roster additions will be now.
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Maybe better in terms of recruiting rankings, but also clearly much less coherent. Their front court was where a lot of the money went and there was no feasible way for them to all play together.
Our team composition makes a lot of sense to me, and it seems like they had a pretty disciplined shopping list.
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I dont care or think there is jealousy. I just worry 1 year guys paid a million bucks wont care where they are
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Particularly when leveling up. Lucky us Hall and Onyenso are leveling down from the Big XII to the ACC.
Also debatable what if any change in competition is like for Euros transitioning from the Bundesliga or Liga ACB, two of the top international leagues.
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Team chemistry is a universal problem and something that we cannot measure, so focusing on things like jealousy over NIL is silly. Even coaches cannot predict team chemistry until players get on the court. UVA has a big task ahead of it in creating a team. Got it. Let’s focus on things we can measure - age, experience, stats, scouting reports. This team has a lot of promise, I think at the top of the ACC. This is assuming we get De Ridder. Devin Tillis has no chance in the ACC against top big men. He’s too short, not strong enough, not athletic enough, has no handles, no ability to drive.
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I don’t know what I was thinking. It was my impression I was going to read posts about Malik Thomas in the “Malik Thomas” thread.
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