Yeah, if there’s a possibility Dunn enrolls early you have to assume the walk-ons have been given fair warning. And let’s face it, half a scholarship >>>> no scholarship.
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GG Jackson’s coach at Ridgeview was a manager at VT before he coached with Steve Smith at Oak Hill. I’m guessing that’s a courtesy.
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Tee knows!
haha I know all!
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If he was real he woulda chugged a beer after. Thats good though
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And the SEC talent accumulation continues…
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Had that same thought as well. SEC and Big12 bringing in all these 5 stars. B1G and ACC getting left in the dust a little but B1G has the coaching depth and tons of experienced players. ACC outside 6 teams tbd. Pac-12 has build in geographic advantage with west coast recruits.
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And they are getting them now
I’m not worried about the SEC. These things come and go and few have any staying power. South Carolina made a F4 in 2017 and disappeared. LSU hasn’t really gotten any traction. Florida was great under Donavan but hasn’t been much since. Basketball will always be second fiddle to football in the SEC, and there’s only so long a great and ego-driven basketball coach will settle for his pat on the head before heading elsewhere. Kentucky is the only one with staying power, where football comes second.
I think we shouldn’t get lost in history. This is a continuing trend. The SEC has put together consecutive years of good recruiting and with how things are trending in early 2023 recruitments it’s seems like this is more than just an ebb and flow. LSU has had 4 consecutive years of getting a 5 star now. Alabama and Auburn are well position in 2023 recruiting on top of solid 2022 classes. Arkansas made a run last year, has the #2 2022 class, and Musselman makes good use of the transfer market too. NIL + Transfer Market = SEC will bring in the top transfers as well.
Will they win a national title? who knows. Will they be a better top to bottom conference than the ACC in the near future? Most likely. TBD on Duke and UNC, even with their talent. Hamilton will retire soon. Who else in the ACC?
Im not worried cause Virginia basketball is still dope, and Im still holding out hope we make the move to the B1G anyways.
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yeah, and at some point they have to spend ESPN money somewhere, and you can only build so many football buildings with barber shops and movie theaters.
what IS wild to me is that unless we are to believe the ACC coaches are just TRULY morally above it, or SEC boosters are more willing to drop an absurd bag (either off the record on NIL wise) for a 5-star forward than an NCSU, GT, or Pitt booster is, for example… then what is the deal?
You mentioned Auburn, Bama, and LSU all getting absurd recruiting classes. How are they able to do that when Pitt, coached by the guy who ostensible got the bulk of Duke’s 5-stars up through recent history, cannot? How is LSU able to consistently get 5 stars over NCSU, when if you compare the basketball emphasis and environment, NCSU wins in a cakewalk? It just makes no sense to me. I also would refuse to believe that Will Wade is actually a significantly better coach than any of the coaches for those schools (or really any ACC school other than maybe the guy at BC).
at any rate, it’s just freaking frustrating.
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To be fair LSU is still openly offering illegal bags, even with NIL opportunities they could be moreso pushing. They just don’t care LOL. There haven’t been repercussions so why would they.
I will say Oates, Pearl, and Musselman are good coaches. That can’t hurt on top of whatever NIL/ESPN/under the table bag droppings are available there either.
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I’m just not worried about the SEC. Other than Kentucky, they are set up to be flash in the pan. Even if they are getting 5-stars - even the established programs like Duke and Kentucky have show how difficult it is to win a natty with an entire roster of 5-stars/one-and-dones. I’m convinced any 5-star going to an SEC school is about the shortest path and the least academic resistance and probably the bags (call it NIL if you wish). Those SEC schools will be more flash than substance.
The current ACC coaches outside the departing HOF’ers and Bennett haven’t proven they can sustain. I hope they will continue to get and develop 3/4 star guys who stay and give the league consistency. I think our biggest threat is the B1G, and maybe upper reaches of Big 12, Pac 10, and Big East.
As long as Bennett is here, we’re not going anywhere. We’re not really competing against SEC for the same guys much or even remotely the same way. UVa’s program is unapologetically different, and good players either want that or they don’t. I’m confident that we can find 3-4 such players every year. I lose zero sleep over the 5-star guys, in fact unless they have a really unique (non 5-star) outlook on life, I’d prefer not to have them. I’d much rather have Top 40-100 guys who fit, want to stay and develop, and give our program stability.
Edit: As for LSU, they’ve had 4 NCAAT appearances in 15 years, with one Sweet16 as their best result. And they’ve been cheating since the dawn of time and had 5-stars. They are a completely hollow, soulless program.
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I mean yes thats obvious. Im not disagreeing with you there and Im not talking about UVA recruiting
“Im not worried about the SEC because they havent done much recently” isn’t really that strong of an arguement. the SEC still looked solid last year in the tourney and it’s only the beginning. A lot of these SEC coaches are young coaches who performed very well at midmajors beforehand. These coaches are only a few years into their tenure and already making noise. Add in Porter Moster/Oklahoma and Chris Beard/Texas and it’s going to be a different animal. ACC is going to get left in the dust and it would be foolish to think otherwise.
Some talk about how Gonzaga playing in a weak conference doesn’t prepare them for the tourney (even though they’ve made two championship games lol). Pretty soon people are going to be saying the same thing about UVA. AAC top to bottom may have been a better conference than the ACC last year. It’s irrelevant at the end of the day but the SEC is clearly going to be the better basketball conference for a few years if nothing else changes.
They can get 5 stars, they have built in geographical advantages to basketball recruiting grounds with 3 and 4 stars for depth, and they have the transfer market they can appeal to with NIL, the SEC Network tv money, etc.
The acc has no one who has accomplished anything outside Tony Bennett in 3 years from now.
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Well, everyone thought Shaka was going to be the next big thing when he left VCU for all the Texas resources. Never happened. He was pretty good, but never sustained any greatness. Musselman and Oats were great at mid-majors. But taking that success from program who rely on developing lesser talent usually doesn’t translate to programs who get elite talent that won’t stay more than a year or who will buy into a team philosophy.
That’s fair. I would say though Shaka was pretty mediocre at VCU too and milked that final 4 run for all it was worth.
I mean Muss Bus, Beard, and Oates have all put together teams that were top three seeds. I don’t think it’s a matter of will versus won’t. They already have
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I think the SEC thing is real, unfortunately. This is not rigorous analysis, but I was just eyeballing the 247 composite top 50 for 2016 and 2017 and then 2021 and 2022, and the latter two years, the non-KY SEC talent jumps off the page. And what else jumps off the page is the lack of ACC talent outside of UNC/Duke/UVa.
(tbh, probably more FSU than us…)
I should add: whether it will last or is an anomaly, is a more difficult question, obviously.
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A lot of schools try to find the next great coach from a small school. It takes a lot of things to make it work out long term though. Brownell, Larannaga, Keatts, etc. Hell, we went to Pullman, Washington to find the best NCAA Coach of the Year that few had ever heard of. Some work, some don’t. I’m just not worried about those SEC guys creating any sustained greatness. They may be above-average good, but there’s always going to be some teams like that somewhere. And I’m fine with them beating each other up for the one-and-dones. Makes it clearer for us to quickly see who we should take off our list.