All coaches have misses BUT Tony has been one of the biggest underachievers based off seeding in the last decade. T-rank has him dead last in wins versus seed expectation since 2014. Second to last in performance versus efficiency expectations. Still room to grow in the getting his teams to match their regular season level aspect of coaching.
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I actually don’t think it has anything to do with Tony. It’s more institutional. Choking is what uva does. Tony has overcome a lot in his time that mere mortals could not have overcome.
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Since this seems like a good place to bring up questions, I’ll ask it here. @brogdonfanpage can probably answer this, but how much Continuity Ball Screen offense did we run this year? Was the reason for not running it that in most of our lineups we didn’t have the third ball handler on the floor?
I feel like that offense is the best option for Jay, Kihei, and Reece. You would have to use Sam as a ball handler and Trey as a screener. Trey, like Jay, gets to shoot open 3’s and roll to the rim for highlight finishes. Sam would definitely not best be utilized by this and I’m guessing that’s why they didn’t run it, but I guess I’m surprised they went completely away from it.
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I struggle to see how choking is a part of institutional culture for an institution that’s won 28 national titles
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We lost yesterday because we couldn’t shoot the ball. Defense had some problems but that has gone on all year. If Sam hits a few of them 3s (that usually go in) we win. That was it in a nutshell. Having said that I do think we should try to run more when the opportunity arises
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Yeah so roughly 2/3rds of the way through the 2020 season cbs was more or less molded into mover blocker. Because each offense has the same mold (2 bigs screening, 3 guards attacking off) they flow into each other well and it allows guards to continue coming off pin downs and being able to elect to use a ball screen while not forcing every guard to do so.
This year that mix remained but the use of ball screens decreased as the season went on simply cuz the guard play made it easy for teams to defend ball screens. Kihei and Reece are both good at penetrating and finding guys but neither can hit over the top consistently so opposing bigs just stuck with the uva bigs while the guards went under screens. That meant the only option was for Kihei or Reece to shoot a pull-up threee which isn’t where they thrive. Then Murphy doesn’t quite have the ball skills as a guard, better suited as a big and neither does Hauser really. Each can pull the defense out in a ball screen scenario but that’s it.
It’s a shame that these guards aren’t better suited to play ball screens cuz this frontcourt was ridiculous.
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fair point. I hadn’t seen that feature on the T-rank site. Either way I will always support Tony.
Then why isn’t there the same variance in the regular season over the last 8-10 years or so?
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Final 4 every 3 years??? We are currently on a final 4 every 36 years pace
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As I said, we’ll see what 2023 brings.
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Oh of course. By far the best coach we’ve ever had in a revenue sport and by all accounts a great man off the court. No doubt Hall of Famer. The tension is always just between appreciating where we are while also seeing how close this program is to becoming something truly special. Tony has the potential to reach that Wooden/K/Knight level with a few small areas of improvement. But there are a few things he needs to figure out to get there and I don’t think it’s bad or disrespectful for fans to talk about them. Especially right when a season ends.
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Nothing wrong in the article
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I think media tries this trope over and over but it doesn’t bite. Tony is a 3 time national coach of the year, widely admired by other coaches, and has lots of trophies, all without the elite talent that many teams have. That’s because Tony has his system that if it’s working right and you have some experience to run it right, it’s a bitch to play against. Everybody knows the Pack Line but few, relatively speaking, can beat it.
In the ACC everybody fears the pack line, but from our perspective we know those other teams so well that the Pack Line can be tweaked to take the other teams’ best option away. We live in the heads of our league rivals,
You get to the NCAA and the opponents just react to what they see on film over the short time they have to prepare. That’s all they can do, and by definition they don’t suck or else they wouldn’t be there. So in this case, Ohio (which is not a great team but not bad) reacted with a game plan to back Kihei down (good matchup for them) and a decision to go at Jay as their only hope. Good strategy, because if we’re knocking down shots they’re dead anyway, and if not they are in the game.
We ought to be good enough in Pack Line that there would be help to negate the back-down. We ought to have help to stuff ISO’s on Jay. But sometimes when the Pack Line isn’t sharp it looks a lot like just basic man.
You can make the same case with other early exits. The other team picks a couple of things and rolls with them. So I don’t see it as a pace of play thing at all but our forgetting about who and what we are, and how we got there as a theme.
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Author needs to take a logic course. Doesn’t support any of his claims. Shots like this are only because of our success over many seasons now.
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I guess Gonzaga should just quit playing it’s brand of boring basketball. I mean, Few has had 22 seasons at Gonzaga and never won less than 23 games a year and has averaged 30 wins over the past decade. He’s been to the NCAA every year (except last year when there was no tournament) AND HE’S NEVER WON THE TOURNEY! I’m hoping he wins this year so the media gets off his case. [OK sarcasm off].
PS - with us out, I’d really like Gonzaga to win as I think Few is a goood guy and the coaching model of knowing who you are and staying where you are successful that Tony will follow.
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Watching Gonzaga play after our game on Saturday night was like a nice relaxing shower after a stressful day at work. Their style of play was so enjoyable to watch.
Few is doing something that Tony isn’t. He’s attracting top talent. His guys play with confidence and fluidity.
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CTB has attracted top talent since the national title. What we saw this season is the result of recruiting failures that occurred before the title.
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Live by the 3 die by the 3. They shot 25% from deep on Saturday. Pace does solve that. Yhe Houston rockets ran into the problem multiple times. They had plenty of open looks. The offense worked. The execution didnt. If the shots aren’t falling you’re in trouble.
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I disagree with that statement. We are currently ranked 81st for 2021 recruits. We were 18 with the 2020 class - not bad, not elite.
JAR and Carson have not played a meaningful minute. Kadin barely any. Beekman has been poorly used. Morsell has failed to develop. UVA fans are the first to blame the recruit v. the coaching staff.
And all of this to say, no 5-stars. But according to fans, we don’t need their attitudes.
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