I know you said you were addressing recruiting/transfer success, but you also leaned quite a bit into actual on-court success, and I think you were unfair.
Duke - Sure, they’re good this year, but you know they went 13-11 and missed the NCAA tournament last year, right?
MSU - Last year went 15-13, snuck into the NCAAs as an 11-seed and lost a freaking play-in game!
Gonzaga - Killing it, year in and year out, no argument.
Texas Tech - Sure, they’re great this year, but the two years before now they went 18-13 and 18-11, and lost in the round of 32 in the NCAA’s last year.
Purdue - They went 16-15 in 2020 and 18-10 last year (when they lost in the first round as a 4-seed!).
Auburn - Went 13-14 last year and missed tournament entirely.
Kentucky - You think our season this year is disappointing? Kentucky went 9-16 last year! Admittedly, they had a really tough schedule, but we’re not even in the same ballpark in terms of melt-down.
Virginia - Disappointing this year, but came in 2nd in the ACC before everything was cancelled in 2020 and won the ACC last year.
Gonzaga (and maaaybe Texas Tech) are the only teams on that list who haven’t had at least one significantly disappointing season in the last 3.
Edit - Just to emphasize, 2 of those 8 teams were good enough to make the NCAA tournament round of 64 all three of those years (Gonzaga and Texas Tech. Maybe I’m being mean not including MSU, but I think its BS they made it at all, and they lost in a play-in game), meaning UVA is in with 6 of the 8.
Haha, very fair! Was definitely an overreaction, and good job with the thorough debunk. Just been a bummer year (and I wasn’t in love with last year’s team either). I will go back to trying to be more precise and thoughtful in posts on this topic!
Just hoping for the NIT this year… and hopefully some development from the young guys. I still don’t get why Taine is playing the 4 mostly when he comes in…
Man this current team is so limited but they battle. Appreciate their effort.
We just aren’t super athletic and have size limitations at the 2 (Kihei), 3 (Franklin), and 4 (Gardner) spots.
I would love more of the following lineup down the stretch: Beekman, Franklin, Taine, Shedrick, Caffaro. I really don’t understand Taine at the 4…but what do I know (virtually nothing).
Sure we do. Both Taine and Igor can. And if anyone tries to claim they can’t play D - then please watch Armaan and Kody try to do it. Rest my case. And if Igor is in at the 3, then Armaan is at the 2 and Reece is at the 1. Makes our lineup the right size
I will say, I just watched Taine’s non garbage time minutes, and he is a legit liability on D right now, but a few points:
why is he playing the 4? He’s clearly confused out there, and I think playing the 4 has him confused when he does guard the 2 or 3 (like when he guarded Morsell, he didn’t know what to do when the ball screen came)
Tony should have been intentional and continuous about getting him PT in the noncon games, and getting him at least 5 minutes or so in ACC games. He’s so rough looking right now partly because he looks lost when he gets out there.
even when he gets comfortable, I can’t see him being a great defender. But I think he can eventually be fine.
if he gets comfortable, bulks up a bit, I think he can be an adequate defender in our system
like you, I continue to question Tony’s judgment of not letting him work through his issues, and instead having to watch our opponents light up when they see Kody come in.