Sky must be falling
3 Likes
Time to turn a new leaf.
This tournament provides a great opportunity for Tony and co to do the one thing UVA has not in the last 10 year run- overperform seeding. At the 4-5 line, that’s making the elite 8 and upsetting a favorite.
If that happened, I think this season would be a huge success, and would be a really solid notch on the program profile. Not that it’s needed.
8 Likes
Well shots certainly aren’t 
3 Likes
Am I the only one not worried at all about that performance? Haven’t really checked the board and am admittedly pretty tipsy in Hawaii so not as close to it as normal, but that’s a team with length we won’t see and a scenario we won’t face. 3 games in 3 days is tough and it showed but MAN our defense is clicking. Let’s rest up and make a S16 or greater run. That’s the “need to have”; this was the “nice to have”. I’m optimistic
13 Likes
I get you. It is really hard to figure out which UVA shows up. I mean, horrible shooting,FTs, etc. and the last two games we were really great. Good defensive effort but horrible offensive production.
2 Likes
But enjoy Hawaii, that’s more important!
3 Likes
Kansas loses, UVA loses, UCLA loses. Purdue tomorrow? It’s difficult to win tournaments.
6 Likes
My takeaways from the tourney heading into THE TOURNEY:
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We are a better team without BVP. I feel for him; he’s a great guy who worked hard and represented us well. It sucks for him he’s missing playing in the tourneys, which must be every player’s dream, but we are better running sides and playing a traditional 5.
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Shedrick is back. IMO he never left and his benching was baffling. He always had by far the highest ORtg on the team and his defense never got close to sinking us. Ticky tack fouls could limit his minutes but shouldn’t have taken them to zero.
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Caffaro is a capable relief man as he always was. I was impressed by how positive he seemed to stay this season on the bench. He also stayed mentally ready.
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Talk of one-and-Dunn was mockable at the time, and I’m glad I did mock it. Dunn is a useful piece now because of his defense and athleticism leading to OR and dunks, but he can’t shoot. More worrying than his ORtgs of 0, 0, and 68 during the ACCT are his usage rates of 6, 2, and 17. When you have bad efficiency and low (or invisible) usage, you are hurting the offense. I look forward to seeing him develop. If his offense becomes team average, he becomes a team MVP candidate.
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Reece’s health status is the biggest unknown and biggest pitfall we face.
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Our defense is back. We held our opponents to 0.95, 0.9, and 0.97 ppp. That will keep us in any game, and if we hit our shots, we will win.
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The week had WAY MORE good than bad. I think it should have raised any rational fan’s expectations for our tourney run. I will enter every NCAAT matchup with confidence we will win…if we hit our shots.
9 Likes
Lunardi still has us a 4 (v Yale) Palm a 5. (V Oral Roberts) Bracket matrix not yet updated this am. Oral Roberts hasn’t lost in months and was last years tourney darling so expect to draw them in UVA style
6 Likes
I love the energy and interior defense that Dunn provides, but it was a bad sign last night when Dook left him completely alone for a wide open 3 in the corner and instead of taking the shot he decided to dribble into the middle of the lane and pass it back out. FT’s are normally a pretty accurate indicator of how good a shooter someone is or at the very least how confident a player is in their shot, and he’s only at 50% on the year which tells me he’s still got a ways to go.
Dunn’s ceiling is insanely high, he’s got the athletics and instincts to play in the NBA one day as an elite level defender. In order for him and our team to realize their full potential offensively in the next couple years he’s gotta develop a reliable jumper and work on his dribble drives. People on this board who know the game better than I do would have a more informed opinion on this, but there doesn’t look to be anything wrong with his shooting form so I’m not sure if any adjustments need to be made or he just needs more reps this offseason. Same goes for Bond assuming they’ll be playing quite a bit alongside each other, I think his mid range game is already pretty far along so if he can extend his range beyond the 3 point line that would help us a ton.
4 Likes
I was fine with him shooting that. Wish he had. He’s shootings 33% on the season.
3 Likes
The one upside is that Dunn will hopefully be playing next to McKneely and Traudt a lot next year which should open the floor and take some pressure off of him to be a knock down sharpshooter. Him playing next to Gardner and the Reece/Kihei with their current shooting woes is what is combining to make it so detrimental
I hope that an offseason of practicing a few hundred 3s every day and working on his handle will allow him to be passable offensively when paired with the other guys on the roster
3 Likes
I wish he did too. Was also fine with him taking an open mid range jumper, even if it’s not the highest percentage shot. I wanna see him shoot with confidence regardless of the result.
4 Likes
Handle is the number one thing w Dunn imo. The work inside out. Jump hook, mid range, drives. Then get a 3pt shot. As said, better floor spreading next season should lead to driving lanes and mismatches on the block
5 Likes
In the brackets that have updated today, I think I counted 8 of 13 with us as a 4. Some movement for Duke to a 4, but not the majority.
2 Likes
Reading LRA and savoring a cup of “The Pass” on a snowy Sunday morning.
I’m appreciating:
- How the team is playing
- The fact that I can put a few bucks in Kihei’s pocket
- A damn fine cup of coffee. It’s very smooth.
I didn’t get the autographed bag, and coffee is for drinking. 
17 Likes
Agree on handle. I think Dunn needs to look at film of Braxon Key and think about how he can get to that level of contribution while slowly getting the 3 point shot to come along. Hopefully some of the handle stuff is just him getting used to his size and not a lack of coordination.
I’m not gonna worry about our 1 seed until we get out of the first weekend ha
4 Likes
If the Hoos got to Bama I’d be happy. Sweet 16 has always been my ceiling expectation
8 Likes