šŸ€ Offseason Begins - 2025

Dang….that sucks. Understandable, but just hate to see him leave. He’s gonna have a great career.

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Malik Reneau portaling

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Tipton Edits is kind enough to tag me in all his UVA news, which I really do appreciate. But it draws attention to all the replies. Do fans of certain teams just throw their Come be a Spartan or whatever in the comments of every transfer? It’s so weird. Nothing against Blake. He’ll have good options. But the fans begging for well Blake at schools that he’ll probably never be connected to is so wild.

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Some lucky school is going to throw $750K at Blake and end up with a ā€œPowerā€-ful regret.

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Blake could be a good player bif he drops down a bit. Portland, Seattle or one of the UC schools would be good choices. A p4 schools would not.

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I think we’re going to very much wish we could retain Blake when we see where he ends up and what our big options are in the portal

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Not if we retain ARob and Odom brings Bambgoye with him

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I thought that stretch of 6-7 games Blake really locked in and played well. Still frustrating moments, but you’d expect some of that for a sophomore. Tells me that some (not all) of his stuff is fixable / mental.

I do think he’ll need to have the right pieces around him to start on a good team. For instance, a Diakite-like 4 man, and another good rebounding guard.

It’s more likely he ends up with a decent career like Shedrick at 9 and 6 for a pretty good team. But on a legit top 15 team, would always be a 15mpg back up guy.

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He’s gonna end up in Spokane and turn into Drew Timme, but it doesn’t matter because that wouldn’t have happened here.

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Drew Timme had spatial awareness.

And he averaged more than 18 points a game for three of his four seasons.

Blake Buchanan at best would be a very poor man’s Timme.

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Is there an AI service that can splice together portal
tapes? Thinking of a service that combs others portal videos and splices the ā€œbadā€ moments into another players video.

So like for Blake’s video, you’d get all the jams and oops but you’d also get him being stuffed by a 5’11ā€Ty- Laur Johnson.

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The Florida game tape is going to get a lot of mileage in whatever highlight reel they splice up.

Also, to your point @Hoohoohoo the second highlight in this video is what you’re describing but in one clip! Weak with the ball / stripped / stumbles / chucks up a shot that clanks the rim and rolls in

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Crazy to me that he had 16 (!!!) FTA in that game without a single and-1 FTA.

Finishing through contact was — and remains — one of his biggest challenges to overcome.

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19th percentile from the right elbow. Yeesh.

On the flipside, 10.9% offensive rebounding rate. Not bad, believe it or not.

I will say this tape would not make me super excited to land him. I’d think ā€œgreat depth piece for the bench.ā€

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Some players just need a change of scenery: see-Casey Morsell

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I’ve said it before (ok in twitter) bout Blake / as bad as he’s been at times, and while he’s on the 6-9 side of 6-11 (lol)… 6’10" guys are very few and far between, and ones that can do anything at all are rarer. so he has value, albeit maybe as a sub on a p5 team or starter on a weaker next level team. and if he improves modestly in a few places, he could make us sorry we’re losing him. look at all the d-1 teams and even p5 teams that don’t even have a guy over 6-9.

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I think Blake’s trajectory might have been different if we didn’t switch coaches, and I bet by his senior year we will wish we had someone like him on our team.

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I’m not really worried about losing Blake - actually think it’s for the best. He doesn’t defend Centers well and doesn’t have the skill to play PF.

Someone like ARob might be more raw - but there’s way more upside to holding ground against bigs, protecting the rim and the glass, and even finishing around the basket. There’s also more hope of him actually developing a post game because he’s not as easily dislodged.

It’s possible we won’t keep either - but ARob was/is the much bigger priority, IMO, and I think Blake is probably just a both sides are better off situation.

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100%.

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In line with this question, I’m curious who folks think would command more in the NIL marketplace? Blake because he played more minutes and was higher rated coming out of high school, or ARob because of the potential upside. Would love if he were our little secret, but don’t there is much hope of that these days.