šŸ™„ No Holds Barred Thread - A Haney/DavetheWave Production

Crotty was really good with this one mainly lefty. Used to get me in practice all the time

Great find and share here

1 Like

I think Xavier Simpson is the player Tony believes Kihei to be. Problem is Kihei is way too up and down game to game to be the program leader like Simpson was at Michigan.

Has there been a player with a longer leash in the TB era than Kihei?

Some of that has to do with other options like 2020 there were literally no other guards we could trust to initiate offense. This year he clearly didn’t trust any other guards to take minutes either. But 2021 we had Tomas and Casey yet Kihei played less than 30 minutes only a few times and zero times in games against conference teams. His minutes per game log is quite crazy to look at. No one should play that much let alone a flawed, undersized guard but I do think about just how bad our guard recruiting has been these last few years and I guess it makes sense to an extent.

But I’m hung up a little on how much of this is a long leash and Tony would play Kihei regardless of how poorly he’s playing vs there’s literally never been a guard that Tony trusts who could even threaten to take minutes from him since his first year. And will that change next year or does he just love the Kihei/Reece pairing despite all eye-test evidence that it’s very flawed.

We really need transfer news or LJ to pop so we have some other topics to discuss lol

2 Likes

Good memory - I saw Crotty a few times at the Long Beach NBA Summer Pro League - and in his warmups he was money all day with that lefty hook.
Also his dribble warmup??? holy cow … NBA dudes are at another handles level man…

1 Like

Yes. Crott went hard at whatever he did. methodical

Crotty was a 10 year NBA vet when he was 20. He did everything everything right. Only guy at UVA who was dripping sweat at the end of pre-game warm up. They call it warmup for a reason. He was always ready and always brought it. One of the greats

3 Likes

Was reading kentucky fans debating over Dontaie Allen and saw this quote. Figure this would be the best thread to post it (1) because I feel the ones in this thread would appreciate it and 2) to spare the other threads LOL)

On Dontaie Allen vs Kellan Grady
ā€œTrying to compare a guy who has to play with constant fear of getting yanked versus guys who get to actually get in a rhythm and don’t have to worry about being pulled for all of their mistakes? It makes a huge difference as not everyone starts off hot.ā€

7 Likes

Would have liked this one 100x if I could….most of my best games I missed my first 2 shots … had a game like that in High School, missed 2 and then scored 48 … missing 2 the rest of the way.

If Kehei could do this consistently i might change my mind. That guy knows how to adjust to playing against the big guys

1 Like

Ugh ugh ugh … ugh …. Please no… we’ll see what happens

Lol

Tony Bennett - same:

3 Likes

Posting it in this thread since I assume this is the safe space for ā€œnegativeā€ banter/figure this is the thread where the ā€œyou’re not allowed to complainā€ people ignore it. Also feeling a little grouchy this morning so why not.

Would Pedulla or Maddox get playing time for us this year (2021-2022)?

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

I voted Yes, but now it occurs to me: How much playing time are we talking here? Would either start over one of our current backcourt starters (assuming Clark returns)? No. Would they get 5-10 minutes? Absolutely.

1 Like

I mean for the 2021-2022 season lol.

Im surprised a lot of people are voting yes. You think Pedulla would be playing when he would have had to learn the packline?

He exploded because he got comfortable court time earlier on in the season around January. I dont think he would have gotten that here.

1 Like

Would or should? Would? As it was there were 9 minutes at the guard spot available after Clark’s 36 min and Beekman’s 35 min per game. So would they have played over Carson, Taine, Malachi? I would hope so. But who can know the mind of Tony …
Should is a different story.
Imagine those 2 taking all of Clark’s minutes last year - combining with Reece - providing gravity and spacing - opening up the inside for Gardner. Putting Franklin on the bench when he couldn’t hit anything - most games. So many should’s.

1 Like

I would say they *do because they actually played some scrappy defense, and similar to Cattoor have more meat on their bones. They are what I wished Carson could have become here, but they are way ahead.

2 Likes

These questions continue to haunt me. (ok, ā€˜haunt’ is a bit much) Not so much as it relates to a post-mortem of this past season, but more towards roster construction next season. I struggle to see how rolling out essentially the same line-up as last year would produce better results. Maybe the plan is to avoid the early season duds that torpedoed NCAA chances, and expect similar ACC results? It seems overly optimistic to assume 1) significant improvements from a fairly mature team already and 2) difference-making contributions from the first-years, no?

Playing devil’s advocate to my skepticism, perhaps the adage ā€œget old, stay oldā€ holds true. Maybe Gardner can find some Mike Scott magic. Maybe Shedrick/Caffaro can expand their offense. Maybe Franklin can carryforward his NIT play. Maybe Beekman can take the next step. Maybe the first-years acclimate quickly and make some things happen. Maybe we don’t really have many options otherwise, so the roster is what it is.

In the words of Inigo Montoya: ā€œI hate waitingā€¦ā€

4 Likes

Just to further help exorcise the ghosts haunting you: while some of the players are mature age-wise, they were not a mature team playing together. In other words, only Reece and kihei on that roster had meaningfully played games together before the season began. I think that is a huge aspect to a successful uva team.

The other aspect is a deeper bench - both for practice and for games. I don’t see this discussed much, but obviously practicing against the best makes you better. And I have to imagine that Reece could carve up the green team last year day in and day out. Hopefully the deeper bench gives the ability to see more types of players in practice and not only give more tools to play in games, but have the already known players have some other types to practice against

3 Likes