I have to disagree with the idea that IMACulate didnāt make a jump from year 1 to year 2.
He upped his usage by exactly 25% while slightly improving his efficiency. Thatās really good!
His shot composition also changed a lot, FWIW. He went from 71% of his FGA being 3s to 54%. The good news is he got to the line more. The bad news is a ton of those extra 2s were long 2s, so his 2P% fell off a cliff. Iād love for him to mostly excise those shots from his repertoire.
Taine is so far ahead of Sharma/Bliss/Dai Dai right now in terms of contributing to wins! I know sometimes we think CTB is too focused on winning right now instead of developing young guys, but winning right now matters a lot. Taine will contribute to that much more than Sharma/Bliss/Dai Dai in 24-25, even though he wonāt be part of whatās hopefully the better 25-26 team.
@Cuts_from_The_Corner Are you a former coach or just a hoop junkie? Your breakdowns are very impressive and I enjoy reading it.
I have now watched the streams two more times. It canāt be said enough: thank you @superhelix! As noted earlier, my takeaways from scrimmages have been more wrong than right, but I do feel a bit comfortable with a few of these.
All that said, beyond McKneely, Buchanan, and Warley (and possibly Saunders), I have no idea of whom the starting five will consist, or the first three off the bench. The staff has so many viable choices this year, and that is a very good thing, IMO.
Do you think that, considering Bliss is still not fully healed from his foot problems and has no college game experience, that he will be able to spend any extended minutes this season guarding Zeigler of Tennessee, Clayton, Jr. of Florida, Brickus of Villanova, Hunter of Memphis, Jeremy (former Dukie) Roach of Baylor, Markus Burton of Notre Dame, J J. Starling of Syracuse, Johnson of Wake, RJ Davis of UNC, Pack of Miami, or George of GA Tech, just to name a few of the PGs weāll face?
Great distinction.
Just watched both quarters. Warley is so good on defense. Honestly hard to take away a lot from Bliss and Ames because of it.
TJ has a knack for being in the right spots. Good positioning, a number of times he made smart cuts and distribution. I think heāll give us BVP like connectedness and some shooting. Heāll need to be assertive on offense - I can see him fading into background if heās not intentional.
My wife left the game saying she was getting a splitting headache. Sat in the ladies room last 2/3 of game and read a book. Just as she was about to tell me she would never come back, she thought of earplugs.
Iāve started to wear earplugs to rock concerts. Game changer.
If I had started 20 years ago, I could maybe understand what people are saying to me
Should have maybe clarified my expectation for McKneely from year 1 to year 2 didnāt really change, just that he would be more impactful because he would get more minutes. Not much to his game was added; you mentioned the woeful 2pt % and that kinda fits with my takeaway from last years scrimmage: a good 3pt shooter who needs to be set up some.
Iād also argue we are a much better offensive team players 2-13 and Iām not so sure Reeceās offensive impact wont be replaced by committee. Reeceās benefit was experience both in the ACC and with Tony.
Like I think Sharma is straight up better than Rohde and Taine last year just in how they move and play. And I think Cofie right now is better than both last yearās Buchanan and Jordan Minor and Leon Bond. Of course vs actual competition they are going to go through growing pains, but their skillsets and confidence are huge (and they will also get the benefit of a better offensive scheme to operate within). The Cofie vision/pass to an open Taine 3 really impressed me for a true first year.
I actually find myself higher on Bliss and DaiDai than prior to the scrimmage but also realize they are probably not going to be what I think they can be this year and will be battling for scraps of minutes that Warley and DoNoHarm Rohde leave the rest with. (they did both still make mistakes that Taine and Rohde didnāt but Taine and Rohde werenāt also forcing as much which isnāt always a good thing)
Id take this yearās starting 5 over last yearās starting 5. Do I think that this yearās starting 5 is good enough to return us to the 2014-2019 years? probably like 70-80% chance not likely. But I am excited long term if we can keep this crew around
There was a point in time where I was adamant Cofie was a 5 star caliber prospect. I cooled on that after he was a different player post ankle injury but he is incredibly talented. Btw, do not write off Blake.
He looked reallllllllly fluid the few times he guarded TJP on the perimeter
Before the menās game, Tony said theyād introduce the players after the scrimmage. And then afterwards, he read the room (people were already headed to the exits, it was a long day) and said letās just introduce Kyle Guy and go home.
Iām relieved to hear you say this, and for others to agree, because I was honestly concerned that I had hit some kind of aging cliff (Iām 54) between last year and this year to make me not abl to handle noise anymore. The higher range in particular had an occasional blare to it that was actually painful. I will bring earplugs to the first game just in case.
I think something happens when you have kids. You seek out silence more than before. I get it hahahha
I agree. I would be hesitant to say that the top three from last year were significantly better than this yearās top three, and now there is more playable depth four through 12. Among other things:
If you consider who left:
Iām not convinced, just yet, that there will be a huge drop off replacing Beekman with Warley. I suspect that that will be especially true on defense.
Replacing Dunn with Saunders or Cofie obviously wonāt give Virginia the same defensive level of performance, however there is the realistic potential of improved offense. Dunn scored 8.1 ppg, shot 20% from behind the arc, and hit 52.3% of his free throws. I am hopeful that one of the newcomers can do better. Just the fact that opponents could let Dunn roam free on the perimeter while dropping a defender to clog the paint created significant problems for the offense. I think it is reasonable to believe we will see less of that this year. T J Power ought to be a significant upgrade for the departing Jacob Grove. Lastly, while I like what Jordan Minor was eventually able to provide for the program, I think that the staff has added greater size and athleticism to his position, and Saunders brings more than a bit of experience at a high level of competition, too. Moreso than that which Minor brought. The great unknown, for now, is how long it will take for this team to gel into a cohesive unit.
I think we are drawing way too many conclusions and starting to create narratives based on a controlled scrimmage or whatever the Blue-White game was. Arguably less important than the Vice Presidential debate. Just my two cents.
I do think there are some takeaways
Last yearās scrimmage:
3pt shooting was woeful
Rohde struggled (I down played it as a bad day when others pointed out valid concern)
Dunn and Leon played really well together (and we rarely saw them together during the regular season)
And there were questions about the 5 spot
Oh man, can we have a moment of silence for the one year anniversary of my Dunn-Bond bromance hopes and dreams.
#Le-an B-unn / #Ry-on D-ond
(Both better nicknames than either Fish or Isaac squared)
No one here was concerned on Rohde early were theyā¦?
But guessing is fun and the only thing we bball fanatics have this time of year.
The key is for none of us to take ourselves too seriously.
how did Saunders move? Big question for me is who can guard athletes on the perimeter outside of Warley. There are a lot of things I think only Warley will be able to do on this team
