I did enjoy Odom panning to the national championship trophy and having it in the center of his desk. Forcing recruits to stare at it while talking to him is such an alpha move.
13 Likes
Doesnāt make a huge difference in WAB. For example, last year Campbell finished 231 in Torvik and the win at home was worth +0.05. Coppin St. was 363 (dead last???) and the win at home was worth +0.01. When bubble level games are around +0.40 or more, the difference in the buy games is minimal.
They place they help more is in the actual ratings, pending you donāt lose. The 9 point win over Campbell was worth a game score of 70 (expected for the 90th best team), while the 17 point win over Coppin St. was a game score of 65 (expected for the 110th best team).
5 Likes
I love that Odom is our coach. Homer won kid coming back to make his mark. This means something to him. Not just another stepping stone. He will bust his ass to make UVa one of the top teams again
20 Likes
Eamonn Brennan wrote a thing about a bunch of different teams that have had interesting off-seasons, characterizing them as interesting in a complimentary or derogatory way. We got the āchaotic neutralā label. 
Looking forward to the longer article.
Virginia (chaotic neutral)
A longer offseason story about Virginia is forthcoming, but in the interest of column integrity: This is a really interesting group! Ryan Odom ā the most obvious hire in the history of hires ā pulled Dallin Hall from BYU, Malik Thomas from USF, Jacari White from North Dakota State, Devin Tillis from a really good UC-Irvine team, Sam Lewis from Toledo and have a pair of the aforementioned international prospects (Johann GrĆ¼nloh and Thijs de Ridder, the latter of whom may or may not get eligible) in the mix, too.
This may not be what Virginia fans are used to. We get it. Still, last year was probably bad enough to break the inclination toward tradition. Anyway, we will spend way too many words digesting this roster in the weeks to come ā the first of the post-Bennett era, which is notable in and of itself ā but color us intrigued.
19 Likes
I appreciate our built-in advantage of getting attention from Eamonn specifically, which consists of:
- Heās DC-based
- Georgetown has sucked for a while, so hasnāt been worth writing about
- Our non-crazy fans tend to write in to him a bunch
9 Likes
Yeah, I think because of 1 and 2, the Athletic assigned him to cover us during the natty era.
And then I think UVa fans flocked to his Substack, which created a nice feedback loop
4 Likes
I still think itās odd people (externally) arenāt making a bigger deal about Malik Thomas. Like heās a much better player that to just lump in with the rest of the guys we got.
6 Likes
IF we get de Ridder, this team has so much to like. Great players, seasoned players, nice blend of youth for something to build on, great shooters, ā¦ Odom will be able to match up with others teams in many ways. I canāt wait
4 Likes
And X of course
13 Likes
Tbh, Iāve probably watched the least of Thomas compared to the rest of our guys (maybe about the same as the non-US guys).
Didnāt want to jinx it while he was waiver dependent. Maybe Iāll dial up some full game footage or extended highlights this weekend. Or just wait for @Cuts_from_The_Corner to cut them all up.
Gertrude has a real lane on this time as the athletic / dynamic wing on a system that seems to reward that. Hope heās looking forward to showing guys around town and translating things into German and Dutch.
Hope heās rounding back into form
7 Likes
(Yes I know offseason computer rankings are far from perfect this is just a fun exercise)
Hereās a breakdown of our scheduled games so far, including Ohio State rumor.
Actually a lot better than I was expecting, I think Torvik is expecting some positive regression to the mean for a lot of the ACC which Iām not quite as sold on
Q1: 7 games
Q2: 10-11 games (depending on who we draw in WV)
Q3: 4-5 games
Q4: 6 games
Up to 3 games yet to fill on the non-con schedule, one of which will presumably be a Q1/2 game vs SEC.
4 Likes
Who are the 7 Q1 if you do t mind?
Itāll be a wait - Iāve been doing them in order of commitmentā¦ (and I also like the idea of saving Thomas for the end when Iāll surely be dragging).
3 Likes
X can get the foreigners with some 90s deez nuts jokes and shit
4 Likes
Jacari dropping soon, Cuts?
Yeah, I was hoping today but had some speed bumps throughout the week - maybe tomorrow morning.
4 Likes
That would be amazing. But take your time
1 Like
My crack - Q1, using Torvik
SMU away (43)
Duke away (3)
Louisville away (18)
ND away (66)
NC St away (37)
UNC home (15)
Ohio St neutral (20)
3 Likes
If you had told me 3 months ago that our starting 5 would be Mallory, X, Onyenso, Lewis & Tillis, I wouldnāt have hated itā¦and thatās likely the bench now.
16 Likes