My agreement/disagreements with the St Lou Hoo keys to the season:
(1) I know Tony’s teams are built on defense, but my first key is 3 point shooting-- our two best shooting (both around 40%) and AdjO teams went E8 and NC in the tourney. Besides, I love great defense, but watching us miss shot after shot wears on me more emotionally. Armaan has to be much better, and Mick and Fish have probably got to earn 15 to 20 minutes a game to reach 37+% as a team from 3.
(2) I agree that defense/defensive rebounding are key. I disagree that not having an experienced, switchable wing is fatal to being a top 15 defense, and don’t think we will have one this season unless Dunn and/or Bond plays a lot more than I expect them to. I think Gardner is a good enough rebounder (and BVP and Traudt will be adequate too when they are on the court) and Kadin could be an outstanding rebounder if he can stay on the court. To significantly improve our defensive rebounding, though, we need a lot more from our small forwards than we got from Armaan and Stattmann. They were miserable last year. Not obvious to me right now where that’s going to come from.
3) I’m on board with aspiring to Kihei and Clark playing less together, but that’s only going to happen if Mick can earn significant playing time at the SG spot. Otherwise, it will be the same backcourt we saw last year. So, yeah, McKneely playing well and playing a lot is crucial to my first and third keys to the season.
There are other reasonable keys to the season, like having more playable depth, but based on what we’ve seen and heard from the coaches so far that’s a fairly high probability. And avoiding significant injuries is mostly just luck. My keys to the season are probably closer to even chances for each occurring and would probably make the difference between a first weekend NCAA tournament team and a second weekend team.
So are you speculating that Papi would not play for Argentina during the season if he anticipated having a significant role for UVA this year? I kind of agree if that’s your thought process.
My exact thought process. If he is planned to be a major part no chance TB lets him go. Doesnt mean he wont end up being a significant piece but it is very telling for me
It means that he is asking his classes for their old pay stubs and W-2s.
It’s definitely at least a raised eyebrow moment. It’s only Monmouth, but it seems like the kind of thing you’d tell a starter that maybe in-season isn’t the right time. Or it could be nothing.
Its only Monmouth is a big part of early season schedule, team chemistry, rotation development etc. I mean he was a starter face mauler much of last year pre Traudt
My guess is that Papi’s role would be very situational. He might play significant minutes if we go up against a squad with a real bruiser in the post that just overpowers Kadin, kind of like that Purdue team we played in the Elite 8 in our 2019 Championship run. Jack had to come in to stop the bleeding. Otherwise, I think Tony is planning on Kadin or small ball with Papi playing a limited number of minutes.
There was no foul on Bacot - not even in a HS JV game … one could opine that Leaky had 2 hands in the back of Armaan prior to the ball arriving … there was no foul on the jump…
Challenge for anyone to find the words - “over the back” in the rule book.
Is it just me or did McKneely change his shooting motion *alot since he’s arrived on campus? I remember his action in highschool was very much legs flailing and getting super high on his shot, and now he’s more of a Trey Murphy- low to the ground jump shooter, and he seems to push his shot a bit more rather than fling it like he did in highschool. It’s amazing that he was able to change it so quickly. Check at :45 seconds.