I agree with your discussion about the more frequent breakdowns of our defense this year and the impact that is having on individual defenders like Clark, both statistically and what you see with your eyes. I’m not noticing it as much as in the beginning of the season, but the poor hedging by our bigs seemed to catch Kihei up in the wash a lot and led to him getting behind the dribble driver and the subsequent collapse of our team defense.
I’m definitely more of a glass half full kind of fan when I watch UVA games and am more focused on the good things Kihei brings to the table that justify the coach’s faith in him and why they play him so much. Fans can spend all their time looking at his analytics numbers and breaking down each possession to build a case against Kihei, but what’s the point— the coaches have so much more information from practices and games about each player, so much more experience, and so much more phenomenal success, that in the end you have to accept they are probably right about Kihei. I highly recommend listening to the LRA post-Pitt game podcast with Ahmad Hawkins, who was another UVA player who overcame his short stature. The Hawk makes a very compelling case why UVA fans who are still complaining that Kihei plays too much should take a huge swig of STFU juice (his own words).
Kehei has the biggest set of balls on the team. He makes mistakes but he shakes them off. When it gets crunch times he has stepped up big time on many occasions. The last 2 or 3 games he has been sloppy at times with the ball and I get mad but then he comes back with a shot or assist when we need it the most. He did the last game against Pitt as he has many times before.
I’ve always been in the “In Tony We Trust” camp when it comes to talent evaluation within the context of his system and team principles. With Kihei, he has to find the right balance (along with Kihei being willing to find the balance as well). I have long thought Kihei works best on the wings, not at the point, on offense as shooting from the top seems to be a bit out of his comfort zone in terms of distance (as opposed to Ty who essentially had unlimited range). He seems to shoot the 3 better and attack better from there (at least to my eye). I’d invert it with Reece, who seems much more comfortable at the top of the key. Regardless, I’m not for cutting his minutes that much, but I do believe he would be more effective (and allow Casey and Tomas to be more effective) if he was under 30 a game. Shorthand way of saying when Jay goes out, Kihei needs to be out pretty much as well.
Yes Clark plus Caffaro is a disaster just like Clark plus Salt was. Tony chose taking Salt out for Diakite instead of taking Clark out more. Until Texas Tech when he finally relented and took out Clark too in the last 8 minutes - generating a 26-18 run with Ty, Guy, Hunter, Key and Diakite to end the game.