I think itās telling that there are only two guys on that list that arenāt point guards. I am likely overreacting to this year but I think a more in-depth analysis may be useful
Dont worry Norfolk everyone seems to be overreacting to this year. Can you imagine if we were 14-19 like Carolina in 2020? Finishing 6th in the ACC during our down year, with a top-10 class coming in and the best coach in the conference. Yet we have Hooandtrue weaving elaborate scholarship fantasies, and dave inventing stats that make it look like we score a million points a game by double counting assists so he can back up his gripes with āstatsā. At least haney is making Uncle Tupelo references in the midst of his despair. Yeah it sucks losing but man things are FAR from being bad.
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@haney is without question the most entertaining of our resident doom and gloomers.
I think we all realize how lucky we are, but I do love that this board is willing to have out of the box and statistically driven conversations that donāt always support the āTony is God; we are perfectā narrative that some UVA fans like to stick to. Yes things are still very good and no one is really denying that we have the best coach in the business and are lucky beyond our wildest dreams with what heās accomplished and will continue to accomplish here. But we arenāt good this year by our lofty standards and itās reasonable to have discussions on why and how we can get better, otherwise this board would get very stale. At the end of the day, we all know Tony knows 100x more than any of us (although Iām fully convinced @CavsFan on the 247 boards actually thinks he would do a better job that TB but I digressā¦) but that doesnāt mean heās beyond criticism, while still acknowledging heās the best weāll ever have.
Sorry, this wasnāt directed at you but Iāve been more annoyed than normal this year at the attacking of anyone who dare question anything without being reminded of the Natty.
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If there is ever a place for unmoored discussion its a message board. Criticize away, but when its dumb criticism or insane fantasizing, itās gonna get pushback, its a message board after all! and you actually donāt even have to put the CTB is the best disclaimer on your criticism! Fire away. I agree, there are plenty of things to criticize
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Yeah agreed with you. I draw the line at @DavetheWave throwing out starting lineups where Gardner comes off the bench. Like, cāmon, letās at least be realistic.
We as a board are definitely guilty of backup QB syndrome. As far as weāre concerned, the Mās (not Malachi) are all-ACC players stuck on the bench
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This may not be as in depth as youāre hoping for, but I pulled this together a few weeks ago. Hereās the link to the post and Iāll recopy the image below.
And basically my take away from it was that if youāre a guard who is going to be good at UVA, you will earn at least some meaningful playing time your first year. The only real exception was Devon Hall. Now of course circumstance and roster composition affect this and the sample size isnāt huge, but the Bennett era is not filled with guards who were quiet their first years and then went on to great things. Kind of seems like you either got it, or you donāt, and we can see it pretty quickly. Bigs are obviously more complicated.
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Thatās his thing though. He makes up unrealistic lineup expectations that go against anything Tony Bennett has ever done in his career and then complains about it when we expectedly donāt play those lineups.
There was a preseason prediction he made that had Clark playing 5-10 mpg off the bench. 
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This is very helpful thank you. I could vaguely remember someone putting something together but couldnāt remember where. It would be nice to have some sort of repository for helpful LRA in depth analysis like this one
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I think CTB should start 3 players next game, and then run on the other 2 at the 17 min mark. The shift will throw the other team off and give the Hoos an advantage.
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Come on man - that was not a prediction for Clark knowing Tony like I do. That was a wish - that we would actually play real sized lineups with real shooters alongside Reece. And I had no desire to watch Reece and Kihei on the floor together for 32 minutes a game. And I still donāt. Thereās a reason Reece averaged a triple double over his last 2 high school seasons. And itās not because he played more as there are only 32 minutes in a high school game.
Serious tangent off of this - one of Pomeroyās wackier ideas (not really āhisā, but I heard him talk about it) is to have āopenersā rather than starters. He has noticed that teams are very risk averse for the first several possessions. He made an analogy to the current (or recent) trend to use bullpen guys to start the game, and said maybe coaches should play their most high energy chuckers to start the game, and then let the better players come off the bench.
Itās a wacky idea, but some smart young coach in a low/mid major will probably start experimenting a bitā¦
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I like this a lot. The āsecond windā thing is real when you start. Never noticed it coming off the bench. And no one at UVa came off the bench more than your guy here Haney
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Video review of last night: Va Tech scored 62
Points allowed per player - includes blow byās that cause an assist to another player. Original primary defender gets the points allowed.
Caffaro: 14
Shedrick: 11
Clark: 11
Gardner: 10
Franklin: 5
Last minute fouls: 4
Beekman: 3 (all free throws) and first point was with 4:57 remaining in the game
Poindexter: 2
Stattmann: 2
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I think thereās some merit to that line of thought. In some ways CTB has done something similar to this with Papi and Kadin. I remember Big John was always said itās about who is going to finish the game not start the game. In the NBA Spo does that with Herro coming off the bench for the Heat heās a 6th man playing starters minutes,
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(New-ish topic) Next year thought: I havenāt seen any charting like in past years, but it seems we are playing like 2/3 to 75% or more base sides (aka blocker-mover). Whatever you think of the wisdom of our lineups, I think Sides is probably the best way to max out these guys on offense. The previous 3 years (natty year, defense year, and Hauser/Murphy year), we had de-emphasized sides and mixed in more ball screen (continuity and spread) and 3-man motion / inside triangle.
Last year, it seemed to me that Tony took some time to settle on his rotation, and then decided on a mix of offenses that maxed out their skills (heavy mix on 3-man, some spread ball screen, some sides). This year, we really didnāt change much (yes, some tweaks).
There are guys on our bench and guys we have coming in that would seem to be better at offenses we are featuring less this year, and some that might be better off in sides. I canāt remember what Igorās Orange Academy team ran, but I do remember Taine ran a lot of ball screens in FIBA.
Just another thing to keep in mind as we transition to thinking of offseason and next year stuff (not shutting the door on this year; just letting my mind wanderā¦) ā Who fits into what offense? And what offense fits which guys?
Intriguing questions:
- Traudt as a roll man? (thatās not really a question, but I did add a question mark)
- Where does Bond fit?
- McKneely seems like a natural fit for sides, but what about the other offenses?
- London Johnson is an example of someone whoās done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, but I donāt watch much video until kids commit, so I donāt know what to expect there.
- Dunn is the promised child and would be perfect for any system.
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Game film #2:
Pedulla intentional foul on breakaway - called a common foul - should have been 2 FT"s for Clark plus the ball. Aluma fouled Gardner on an and 1 not called. Alleyne fouled Franklin off ball. Murphy fouled Gardner on a miss inside - not called. Cattoor made a 3 off an illegal screen by Murphy. Mutts hit Gardner on the wrist on a little jumper missed. Gardner called for a foul on Mutts when he was straight up. Shedrick was clearly fouled by Aluma on a dunk attempt. Sheds fouled by Murphy on an and 1 - not called. Also hilariously bad was the steal by Beekman in the last minute and they awarded the ball to Tech - were then forced to go to replay and had to reverse it. When they reversed it they also did not reset the shot clock when UVA possessed it. Not resetting the clock there has resulted in suspensions in some leagues.
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I think this is the play that they showed a replay and the announcers were just like āGreat play by Alumaā even though it was obvious that he hit Shedrickās forearm and never got ball.
I understand how refs can miss calls. I donāt really understand how announcers completely botch replay commentary even though it happens a lot.
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Saw some people say that was the worst game of Clarkās career. He was 1/9 with 2 turnovers.
Heās played 119 games.
Heās had as many as 9 FGA 43 times. Of those 43 games, he shot 50% or better 10 times.
In 55 games heās made 2 or fewer FGās.
Heās made more than 6 shots 3 times.
Heās had double digit assists twice and 17 total games of 7 assists or more.
46 games of 3 turnovers or more with a high of 9 turnovers.
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His hand literally only got as high as Shedās wrist.
I think itās because theyāre not just watching and reacting ā they know they have to say something. So theyāre watching while trying to come up with something to say. I.e., silence isnāt an option.
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