I previously would have expected if player z doesn’t play for a couple games, after previously being in the rotation, or has a large minutes reduction there would be a talk from someone on staff that says ‘hey we like the look this lineup gives us. It’s nothing personal’ or ‘focus on this and this in practice and your time will come’. Maybe not from the head coach or most senior assistant but from one of the younger guys on staff. My perception from the last 3-4 years (or however long the postal has been with us now) is not only do those conversations not occur at UVa they do not occur at most big time college basketball programs
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I broke my foot my second year and was in the rotation backing up Crotty mainly. The head coach told me I would not/ could not get my spot back but could redshirt.
I rehabbed and came back after 5 games and got my position (and more PT) back. Thats how these things work
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Wait a minute- was there some information that stated we *didn’t call Punch or Hodge about the spot taken? That’s interesting… @Sknyluv was there some literature about “non-committable” scholarship offers that was posted?
Thanks!
Oh well if sourpusses McKoy and Shedrick said so…
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Think it depends on what was communicated. If nothing and the kid is totally in the dark (doubtful), that’s not good. But if the player doesn’t like the message being communicated, that doesn’t mean there is/was a breakdown.
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J Willy also regularly makes it sound like communicating decisions to players is not a priority on his podcast. And like I said in my follow up, seems to be more the culture in D1 basketball than a UVA or TB specific thing. Explaining rotation decisions to players doesn’t appear to be a priority for staffs in high major basketball
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And Fresh a solid 52% FG and 90% FT that year in 8 min per game.
And a 2.5 / 1 Assist to turnover ratio.
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Kenpon approved! Thanks man
Edit: obviously shoulda played more
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I Googled and found a couple articles/blogs that discuss non-committable offers. It’s unclear if a school has to declare at the get-go if an offer is committable or not. But my reading is that schools don’t need to do that, and an offer is only valid once a school accepts a commitment.
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Yeah, I basically thinks that’s right, but a lot of the fan discussion assumes the opposite. I basically think the following things can both be true, and probably mostly are true:
- players at UVa can mostly understand from verbal and nonverbal communication from the staff what their role is and why it is trending in a particular direction and what factors (roughly) that is based on
- staff at UVa is probably not providing clear and periodic feedback on that role, that trend, and those factors (but a lot of fans seem to assume they do)
@Gna2r Yes, there was an article posted in the last week or two. Will see if I can dig it up. As I said, the chronology could be off (he could’ve done the interview pre-Cofie commitment, but it came out post-Cofie commitment)
Here’s the article - HGN posted in the Full Octane thread
Relevant part:
With Virginia, they really haven’t talked to me at all, honestly. On top of that, they had a guy that committed at my position and in my class a couple of days ago
Bottom line for me – communicating is hard, and communicating difficult info is especially hard, and one coping mechanism that humans have for that is to avoid it altogether, and furthermore Tony is a human (as much it annoys people when that’s pointed out).
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Also, my memory is that this is NOT just a malcontent thing. I can’t remember specifics here (so if folks want to discount it, I won’t hold it against ya), not sure if the source was LRA podcasts or that paperback that came out during Covid, I believe that feedback from the staff on things like role, PT, etc., mostly didn’t happen during the season. It seemed to be focused in those end of season meetings (mostly, if not exclusively by design).
And look, there are pros and cons to either approach…
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So David Punch scheduled a visit to Virginia on October 20th, presumably coordinating with someone on staff. And then they ghosted him? Just stopped talking to him altogether? Is that what we think actually happened in the end? That sounds wild. Makes me wonder why there aren’t more Corey Kispert’s talking shit about Tony out there …
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There’s another theory which is that the staff does give different feedback, it’s just not in sit down check ins in someone’s office. But direct enough where 95% of our players get it. And the other 5% don’t. Then those 5% get pretty upset and blow up at coaches after a mid-season game. Just theorizing here.
Edit: dammit we are in the outside uva recruiting thread. I blew it.
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Yeah, I think that’s exactly right. Don’t know about the %'s, but basically, yeah, staff gives the kids enough to be able to figure stuff out, but short of direct/clear communication, such that if a guy is super frustrated he can say that he didn’t know why he lost his spot without really saying anything “untrue.”
As for Punch – I really don’t know. Truth is somewhere in the middle, I assume, or somewhere else altogether. I’m a big fan of Rashomon (not the actual movie, which I’ve never seen, but the idea…). Also should add - I don’t know if we are ghosting or not, but to the extent we are, or are doing something in that general direction – I suspect it’s fairly SOP in college hoops.
Yeah, I pivoted off @Sknyluv 's question around Ryan Jones and committable offers. Blame him! 
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Ignore/fail to communicate clearly……
For all but one school: looks bad
For the school of asshats in Durham: makes 5*s want to play for you even more.
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Controversial take. Had we know we wouldn’t get Kon I would have taken Ty Davis as that dynamic secondary ball handler with bliss. Maybe both are too much on the ball pgs but it would have been beautiful.
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Ty Davis OR Blue Cain…
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I was pretty hyped about Blue Cain at the time – he seems like he could be real nice in college, but he also might be JAG (just a guy). Given that Reece came back, I think Rohde plus Bliss in the following class makes a bit more sense / is a better fit. Gives us a pure PG and more of a pure wing, with good size/length. Cain would have been a bit more in the middle of that target. Never watched much Ty Davis since we never offered.
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Would you rather have:
- 3 years of Rohde (maybe 2 if draft comes a callin’)
- 4 years of Ty Davis
- 4 years of Blue Raisin’ Cain
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voters
Im a Ty Davis fan boy but I chose Rohde. I really do think he will be the best player on our roster. He’s just built different. That “Low Life” tattoo says it all. He’s about it
In all honesty I would probably choose Blue Cain too. But the roster spacing of Blue Cain with Rohde Gertrude and McKneely would be horrible.
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