I didn’t know Bond was RS’ing until about halftime, since I spent most of the first half just trying to watch the game what with all the whatever with the TV/streaming deal and what not.
The way I’d say it is that, prior to the game, I thought there were a range of rotation outcomes to which I attached various probability outcomes, and while the one we saw (for the most part) was the one I put at the top of that distribution, I thought there were other ways that were possible, that – now that I’ve actually seen the team play with a sideline camera for at least a half or so – I think that are (likely) not going to happen. Not worth much of either of our time re-hashing them to any great extent at this point, but they basically involved one or more of the following: only one PG, more size/athleticism at the 3, more size/athleticism at the 4, more small ball option (we saw some of this to be fair). I wouldn’t have bet on only 2 minutes from these 4 guys: Taine, Traudt, Dunn, and Bond.
Probably most telling for me was that NCC came out of halftime hot, and went on a run, and rather than shaking up the 1-3, we rode that same trio. They lost the lead and then they got it back. For me, in a game that was most relevant for what it indicated about the rotation, that’s the stretch that indicated the most (to be fair, I will have to rewatch to remember how much any of those three contributed to the good or bad runs).
I agree. I went into the season thinking we’d see some experimentation in the cupcake noncon. The fact that we really didn’t see much experimentation makes me think it’s less likely we will see it going forward, but it’s still very possible, if not likely. Papi being absent and Monmouth likely being worse than NCC should make some of it at least marginally more likely in game 2.
The offense did look good last night. But we shot (warning: the following contains KenPom data) 44% from 3 (33rd), with a 53.2% 3PA/FGA (21st). I’d really love for those numbers to continue to look that good, or even close to that good. If they do continue to look that good, I agree with you we will be a top 30 offense, maybe even better.
You and Tony both. I was encouraged by last night because (1) we responded well to a challenge (out of the half run by them) and (2) generally shot the ball really well (see above). But I was also hoping, selfishly, to see some of the new guys (other than I-Mac), and those of us who didn’t go to Italy, didn’t go to the B/W, and live too far to see games (or practice) in person, still have very very little idea of what those guys are capable of. Which is annoying, but less annoying than a Quad 4 loss.
I think the fact that none of them played last night gives you a decent idea what they are capable of, right now anyway. I thought it was especially telling that Tony gave IMK so much rope, considering he left his man while ball watching or over-helping a lot last night, though I suppose some of that is out of necessity. I have to be honest, I never saw Bond or Dunn coming in and supplanting Kihei’s minutes once we knew they were coming back. Neither one was super highly rated recruit (consensus) and a lot of the hype seemed to be coming from our circles. Traudt I think could play right now if he just didn’t have 4 experienced guys in front of him. I’m sure he’d struggle some but much in the same way IMK did. Dunn and Bond though, I’m not nearly confident of right now. I hope we get to see some in the upcoming games. I just think it unlikely that Dunn is good enough right now to supplant Kihei (because that’s what he’d pretty much be doing).
I should add the caveat that after the UNCG game in 2016 we didn’t think Jerome would play much of a role that year. It took awhile for that to happen, so maybe it’ll be the same for Dunn. Though looking back Ty played the most minutes of anyone in the 4th game (would’ve stumped me with that!), though that was much a function of a blow out as anything. I have a hard time seeing that come for Dunn in a blowout scenario though. Okay I’m rambling now…
For Dunn, I would look at Zay’s first year as the model. Dunn may find a role as the season moves on, particularly on defense. Dunn has more versatility in terms of the positions he can defend so we might see that role develop sooner. I fully expect Traudt to play a role, not sure why he didn’t last night, but I’ll be shocked if we don’t see him.
I think the issue is that Reece is *still the only player that we worry about getting 2 fouls on, and our defense crumbles. The rest so far are warm bodies, with Armaan being okay. Again it’s only *one game but this is why we were looking forward to Bond and Dunn playing some this year and helping to sure that up.
On the other hand there is no way we can play 12 players with regularity.
I think we would have seen Traudt if we had extended the lead further at the end of the first half. That’s been a typical scenario for Tony to give the first years some run.
I would even include Super Marial and Devon Hall in that second tier of defenders, both whom are better than everyone on our roster over the past 2-3 years…though Armaan is *okay. This is why Bond and Dunn are important…but it’s only one game so we will see…
One thing I hope we all agree on: as I look back at 2014-19 early games, we really need more blowouts early on to see a deeper bench. More blowouts please!
I thought we were going to get one and then we made some lineup changes and we started treading water the last 10 mins of the first half. NCCU was tough though.
Wilkins had 6 DNPs his first year, but I can’t remember if he was available for those games or was injured or sick. 2014/2015 may have been the high water mark for player usage under Tony with 10 players, including Wilkins, averaging 10 minutes or more. Does anyone remember if Wilkins ended up taking some of Justin’s minutes when he was out with injuries?
Looks like mostly Nolte, tbh. Almost one for one in the games Justin missed.
The thing with 2015 is we had lost a decent amount with Joe and Akil, and there were was a fair amount of minutes competition among a bunch of guys who weren’t really ahead of each other. We have a bit of a different dynamic now, with less open time, and three covid 5th years that are going to be hard to displace.
I think Zay, in his first year (and also second year), probably benefited a bit from Tony not liking to play Gill and Tobey together.
He and his family gave the okay to BVP coming in so he could be used sparingly and develop. Hell, he’s going to start next year. I just think we all need to calm down a bit. We played a little tighter with a small opponent so Tony leaned on the guys he trusts. Doesn’t mean that can’t change. Hopefully we blow out Monmouth so we can see some other guys. It was game 1 and we won by double digits. We’ll be fine.
I don’t assume it, but they have the type of size and athleticism present in the types of guys (incl. esp. UVa guys) that can typically defend 2-4 very well.
You don’t understand why guys of their size and position would be guarding other guys of their size and their positions? Are they there to fetch water?