Itās the great mystery of the Tony era. Maybe it was just luck. Felt like everyone we got out of high school was productive, if not All-ACC, through the Ty/Kyle/Dre/Huff class. It was an insane run of successful high school recruiting. Then it pretty much fell off a cliff. But we still landed a lot of highly recruited guys so I keep coming back to thinking that we got lucky early on and then unlucky later on with how guys like Morsell and Traudt panned out.
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which i think is the pointā¦beyond a few elite programs you have a bunch that are all about fit rather than prestige. So the ābest jobsā ranking is just a ridiculous exercise to fulfill our human need to put things in some sort of order. so yes, uva is a better job than Marshall, but its just silly to say its better or worse than Villanova.
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Can one of these guys do the really valuable thing and find out Byingtonās buyout??
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It was a combination of luck and declining effort or strategy in my opinion. Iād chalk up Morsell to luck. If you asked anyone familiar with HS basketball, they would have told you that Morsell was a perfect fit and that he would at least be a productive player at the ACC level (if not better).
But on the other hand CTB also dramatically reduced the amount of time he spent on the road scouting. The assistants would handle a lot of the initial talent identification and then CTB would pop in with a final eval to give the go ahead and offer the scholarship. But one of CTBs best skills was his ability to identify talent! He essentially surrendered part of what made him special
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The low point was the beat down at Tenn in late Dec 2013. I remember walking around thinking this Tony Bennett thing may not be working. After that the rest was history.
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Yeah. A couple other factors:
- McKay left right when it dropped off. Sanchez not long after, though Sanchez was mostly known for the international and west coast players we pulled in during our run.
- Tony fell in love with stretch skilled 4s and tried to compensate by recruiting more defense-first guards. This is a flip in script from his run where we focused on complete/scoring guards and athletic role playing forwards in the pre-2019 run. I know the game changed, but he pivoted hard from what had previously worked.
- As much as Tony liked to say āwe need to learn to lose together before we can win togetherā and built around continuity, he fell in love with 1 year portal guys as bandaids. And all the bags shifted to the portal, so Tony was never going to recruit as well there. He couldnāt ever get out of āwin a little now instead of win a lot laterā mode.
Just a significant change in roster management strategy, high school recruiting effort, and evaluation quality/luck coinciding with key assistants leaving around 2016-2018.
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Iāve been extremely disinterested in any of the conversations happening currently, from in season play to coaching search.
That said, did I read it correctly that some of the major donors are STILL CONSIDERING RON SANCHEZ?
I will burn my jerseys and ban myself from any future support in any capacity of the basketball program if Ron Sanchez is signed to a multi year contract after this season (unless he wins out from here, wins the ACC tournament, and gets us to the Final Four). I canāt imagine a move that would kill any love I have for the program and team faster than this.
Yes, some of the struggles are beyond Ronās control, heās been dealt a bad hand, but good heavens, he has shown no ability to adjust on the fly and improve any facet of this team, not to mention he has a totally underwhelming track record during his only head coaching gig. He IS a middling Bennett bot, a sub par iteration of what came before and what had already stopped working for nigh half a decade.
I have nothing but admiration and appreciation for Tony Bennett, love Bennett ball when it could work, but without TONY, you burn it to the foundation and rebuild.
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Not happening.
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Anytime someone shares intel they need to include a disclaimer whether they know if the intel source has any knowledge of whatās going on in the athletics department.
Not after a day of speculation and incredulous questions on the board. Like, right in the moment.
I choose to read that as āa lot of major donors donāt pay much attention to college hoops.ā Which is fine, as long as they donāt confuse their money for attention and therefore knowledge.
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Amen.
Agreed, with the benefit of hindsight I think it would have been better to stay with more athletic defensive 4s, and try to compensate through offensive rebounding. Keep the defense elite and hope that occasionally you strike developmental gold at the 4 and develop a high level two-way player.
You might end up with more years like 2019-2020 that way, but at this point, I think we all would have happily taken that?
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I think Jeff Capel with money could recruit DMV better than anyone we could get at this point. I am really warming up to the idea. He knows the league, was a bag man at Duke, would want to prove he can beat Duke on a regular basis and I have heard Tony say he likes Jeff Capel and will do things the right way.
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If Blake Griffin wasnāt born in Oklahoma Iām not sure this would even be a discussion. Pass.
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Iād be fine with Capel as long as we take our shots at the Shaka or Byingtons first. If we strike out and can still get Capel so be it but Carla better do all she can to land an A choice first
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Cant believe I am saying this but me too. His teams also seem to be tough physically and mentally?
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If itās Capel, it has to be literally the most friendliest UVA contract ever. Dude wants out of Pitt because they have no resources; we have all the leverage. None of this Tony Elliot first time asa head coach but enormous contract.
Like make it 3 years, and he has to pay us if we fire him.
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I like the clawback feature yes!
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I am not impressed:
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Jeff Capel is the most uninspiring, lazy, half assed hire we could make.
Plays a junkyard style of basketball and is a FUCKING DOOKIE.
The basketball gods hate us if thatās what we end up with.
Frankly so donāt want anyone from the ACC. You donāt spend a decade hating a coach just to suddenly pretend you like him bc you gave him a lifeline from his dead end job.
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