Yeah. I feel like Morsell is a great kid, a great athlete and a great basketball player. Its probably not controversial to say different players are better or worse at different specific skills. For Morsell the offensive skill that he LOVED, and may well have been best at, was the 16-18’ contested jumper.
He LIVED for those shots, probably because they felt awesome to make, and in HS he was good at them. Not that he couldn’t do other things too, but that was his wheelhouse.
Unfortunately, that’s like the worst thing to be good at in college basketball because the NBA has decided a team should take roughly zero of those shots and they’re decently smart about such things. There isn’t going to be a team that appreciates him offensively until he starts hitting 50% of those, and not many people can do that.
Based off my (admittedly limited) understanding of muscle memory I’d think those things would be way more beneficial in younger kids than they are for 18-22 year olds.
Of everyone who left during the offseason Casey was the one I was most interested in watching in his new stop, and this article makes me double down on that interest. By the end of his run at UVa I seriously doubted that he was a Power 5 player, and was surprised he landed in NC State. Given the way he shot the ball in general, I feel like the results will be similar to what we saw his first two years, his points may go up because of the volume he shoots it but the percentages may remain the same.
But reading those quotes it feels like he’s doubling down on himself and his abilities. Curious to see what he does.
Messing with a shot at this stage is pretty tricky I think. I have always said Reece just needs to get LOTS of aggressive reps up shooting the ball and translate that to games
Jayden guarding Carson. I think we are going to see switches instead of hedges, which makes sense given how we have been recruiting as well (having players who can switch on defense rather than hedge, creating that opening in the packline to exploit).
It’s funny when I think about what advice I would give guys. I would have told Casey and McKoy to not do those interviews if I were in their camp. Does nothing to build your brand or reputation and can only make people annoyed. Just go out and play - you’re 50 days away from the season. Your game should do all the talking you need.
Not upset or anything - this is just part of the modern transfer environment and I wish them well. But for their own best interests, probably would advise they skip that type of stuff.
It’s standard advice. Don’t talk about your former employer, girlfriend, school, etc. Odds that you say something that make you look good are slim to none and odds you say something stupid are high.
I don’t know if the whole interview was about how much they didn’t fit into UVA’s offense. But Mike Barber seemed like he was trolling for controversial statements about their former school, and McKoy and Morsell bit hard. At some point, you have to adopt Justin Anderson’s attitude when Justise Winslow grabbed hold of his leg out of bounds-- how about letting go of it, all good, time to move on.
I was just wondering about that. My memory was the opposite – that he said he thought Iowa State would be a good place for him but didn’t really talk about freedom much. But it’s probably too hard to google that now… Shayok did seem like a pretty classic example of a guy who’s a high level college hoops player who wasn’t going to thrive in UVa’s style. Or, maybe I should say, would do better elsewhere. Plus I think the year off helped him get his shot right (perhaps a counterexample to my own distaste for the RS year for guards/wings).
Edit – okay, more googleable than I feared. Money quote: ““That system (at Virginia), it’s a limited type of system for some players,” Shayok said. “It’s a great system, but I just wanted a change in scenery where I could kind of show what I can do, offensively.”” Eh, tough to say. I guess, all in all, it’s roughly the same as what McKoy and Morsell said. I just happen to think Marial’s a much better player. He’s headed to Turkey’s best team; gonna play in the Euro league. So he’ll cross paths with fellow Blair alum Miha Tobey.
By the way, did I learn the Fenerbahce thing here? That’s a real valuable public service by somebody. I really appreciate that. @jazznutUVA maybe?
Barber didn’t conduct the McKoy interview. Those quotes were from an interview with UNC media. Maybe the same for Casey? I thought it was odd that Barber didn’t note that in his piece (or maybe he did and the editor nixed it for space).
Casey isn’t going to answer the question “why did you leave Virginia?” with “Because I can’t shoot. Because I absolutely cannot buy a bucket.” But he is going to be asked the question so he has to say something. I’ve moved on.
I don’t think McKoy or Morsell were saying anything negative about Virginia. I think they just stated the obvious: The roles that Tony had in mind for them was different than the roles they wanted.
Morsell is a scorer. He’s not a very good spot-up shooter. He hasn’t been particularly good driving and finishing at the rim in a half-court offense. He’s better in transition, and with the midrange, one-dribble-pull-up jumper. He wasn’t going to get to do much of either at Virginia.
McKoy wants to be more of a wing than a power forward – a Hunter, not a Gill. Not sure he’s got the skillset, but he deserve the opportunity to try. He wasn’t going to get much chance for that in Charlottesville.
Remember that “fit” is a two-way street. Virginia wasn’t going to give them what they wanted, but they weren’t going to give Virginia what the team needed.
So the end result is that we wound up with two players in Franklin and Gardner that are better fits for what Tony envisions. Works out best for everyone.