Theyāve got two nattys in basketball fwiw. Of the teams in the Triangle, I do prefer them.
Itās actually a really nice campus and they have a great donor base.
Not sure itās fair to compare them to Tech other than theyāve been less successful than Duke and UNC in basketball. And I guess theyāre an engineering school.
Darth Vader and emperor paplatine kinda suck but the one I really hate is that random storm trooper. Heās the real douche bag.
(Iāve only watched about 5 minutes of the entire Star Wars saga if my analogy is off)
NC State fandom does have VT vibes. But State was fun under Valvanoā¦ the right coach can change the personality of the fandom, sometimes.
As with all ACC schools, I would like to see them be good. Getting some top-notch coaches in this conference is the only way we donāt go full-on mid-major in the next 2 years.
Yeah but not Will Wade, heās too top notch lol
NC State is passionate about basketball, moreseo than football, so that is completely different than VT.
And lets be honest, in basketball NC States neighbors have been much more successful overall than VTs neighbors. Sure UVA is better than VT in basketball overall with more tradition, but nothing like Duke/UNC.
I will add that pre mid 80s (pre Coach K) it was NC State/UNC and Duke was the distant little cousin.
I all in for Pitinoā¦ RICK PITINO.
Bring that man (to his new) home.
Heās spent the last few months complaining in interviews about how he is going to have to recruit all new portal players. Why not turn a new leaf while chugging the finest wines of Central Virginia?
Iāve been a major McCollum hater, so Iāll try to answer.
(I donāt actually hate McCollum. I love him and I love all of you; this is just sports, after all).
Some is just performative. He wouldnāt be in my top tier. Iām sure heās a fine coach and a fine person, and if he comes here, I promise to tell you all heās an idiot with love, just like I would tell all of you that the other candidates are all idiots, too, with love.
Itās @BDragonās fault. Dragon hasnāt necessarily criticized him, but I get the vibe that given the way Dragon has described him, he wouldnāt necessarily knock it out of the park at UVa. (and really that he probably wouldnāt want to be at UVa in the first place).
Misperception (IMO) of what made Tony a great coach. Or better stated, an incomplete perception. At Wazzu and again here, Tony was able to attract NBA players, often who were under the radar / under-recruited. He kept them around and developed them really well. Folks see McCollum, and they see slow pace, meticulous, and Midwest, and they see Tony. But while I think those things helped Tony be a great coach, I wouldnāt put them as his top coaching attributes.
The Athletic article radicalized me: Can a team led by Division II transfers become college hoopsā most dangerous mid-major? - The Athletic. Just to pull out a couple problematic quotes:
āWe play a slower tempo because we donāt take bad shots, and we wonāt take bad shots,ā McCollum said. āWe refuse to take them. And so it naturally slows the game down.ā
Drake may lead the country in shot clock violations, which is part of the reason Drake is turning the ball over at one of the worst rates in college basketball ā 20.5 percent of its possessions against D-I competition. The Bulldogs would rather run out the clock than take a mediocre shot, and they stay composed when the seconds tick away late in a possession.
I donāt feel like re-litigating every pace and offense discussion weāve had (because I know Iām right, and it pains me to see all you guys be so wrong), but suffice it to say that (1) I donāt think thatās a good philosophy for a P5 team; (2) I donāt think itās a good philosophy to try to attract players who want to play in the NBA; and (3) I think itās an extremist version of Tonyās own philosophy that I donāt even think Tony would sign up for.
Gimme a Final 4 Gut punch next year please!!
Iāll survive!!!
Nobodyās ready for us to hire both Rick Pitino as the head coach and Richard Pitino as the coach-in-waiting but Iāve tasted the spice melange and my eyes have been opened
Sorry but BDragon saying McCollum was just a caretaker of a D2 dynasty is hilariously wrong. Like disqualifyingly so.
Iād be concerned with his recruiting and navigation of a prospect rich recruiting region and the NIL landscape. Not concerned with his Xs and Os whatsoever.
More what he said about the personality side of things a while back.
The āLook, McCollum is a great recruiter given that he coaches a style that most top 100 guys donāt want to playā posts just write themselves
My point: X/Os is recruiting
That might happenā¦ we shall see
The rumors are all true.
As a person I like Ben heās a solid guy. Heās a good coach who has done well with what heās given.
My humble observation having been around him and being married to someone whoās known him for 25 yrs is heās not a good fit for UVa at least not right now. He needs to get out an experience coaching and recruiting outside of his comfort zone. He needs more seasoning and cultural experience.
All things that are fixable. However the Hoos should not be the one footing the bill on his learning experience
I read this literally but still agreed; Iād like to know if the spiciest thing heās tasted is black pepper.
Honestly it might be. He needs to expand his cultural horizons. Best of my knowledge heās spent his entire life within 4 hrs of home
Need to spend a lot of money to get top players to play in a system that slows them down. I donāt think we were cash poor the last few years of CTB, and he had a proven record of successfully developing NBA players, and yet we were losing a lot on the recruiting trail. My thought is some of those losses were due to the rigid system.
Some of those losses were also because Virginia was not spending what it had available.
I think McCollum is a guy who will tailor his system to his personnel more than what TB was willing to do. Itās a HUGE risk based on his limited D1 and regional experience. BUT Iām starting to think that this is drifting into a more professional model: an organization goes out and acquires talent, sometimes paying a premium to do so, and the HC coaches them up. Itās not a like for like comparison with the NBA, but the old recruiting models are DEAD