UVA at FSU game thread

That’s exactly what I see a lack of trust. I also see the fear of making a mistake. Players trying to always do the right thing and as a result getting way ourside their lane. Those team trust issues are difficult to mend they take time familiarity and positive experiences

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That lack of unity is their biggest problem.

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10 assists, 18 turnovers. Game could have been had if you cut out the last 4 minutes of both halves. They gotta find a way to play Morsell more in a ball handling/driving role, and challenge him to attack like the Arizona State game. Same with Key. MD needs to play with that focus the rest of the year. I think Woldo is improving a bit on D, and is the only threat to hit a challenged outside shot. I think he’s earned consistent run.

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This is spot on. And not necessarily a bad thing, this is how growth happens. Just means it might not look very pretty a lot of the time. As HGN has noted repeatedly, seeing if guys can step up and earn these higher responsibility roles will be important both this season and beyond.

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At times they played hard but saw too many plays where FSU outhustled our guys to rebounds and loose balls.

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Things I liked tonight:
Kihei finishing on the opposite side of the rim to avoid getting blocked again
Jay
First 15 minutes attacking the basket

Things I didn’t like tonight:
Not finishing/getting fouled on fast breaks
10 second violation
Open 3 pointers
Opponent making another dagger 3

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Silver lining:

We played a tough athletic team on the road.
We shot poorly, turned the ball
over, got no shows from a
few guys and still was a 1
possession game with a minute left and had a chance to win.

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Tough L but this is what we should be expecting at this point. Miles and miles to go before this team reaches its potential. We’re the ones stealing wins this year.

Much more complete performance from the boys overall vs the last couple outings. A few better decisions by the ball handlers and a couple threes and we win comfortably, yes - but we’re not in a position to expect that from this bunch yet. Just enjoy it for what it is.

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Rather than a lack of unity, I think the real issue is just simply a lack of shot makers. We almost beat the nations #9 team on the road. If we had just one sharp shooter then Kihei has an outlet pass target for when he drives. Kihei would be less desperate to force a play. Defenses cant cheat to the middle and help as much. It would give more opportunity for Huff and Diakite down low as well.
It seems like there is a fine line between the top teams in the acc this year and the mediocre teams. We are just a mediocre team this year, but if we had just one guy shooting like Kyle Guy last year, it would change so much for this team, and nobody would mention a lack of unity. Thats just how I see it.

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Love to hear from some of the more sound BBall minds but I notice when the Hoos to post up they have a horrid time getting the ball into the post. Two of Kihei’s turnovers were essentially whiffs on entry passes, and that doesn’t include a few misses when trying to go over the top to Jay. But as a former post player I also realize it takes two to tango. The post player needs to make themselves available and help to create better angles for the entry pass. Often times I feel like the post players don’t present themselves in a sound manor. Am I making this up?

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Is all angles as you said. Once the post seals and gets position is up to the guard to get to the spot for the angle for entry pass and or make the pass to the next perimeter player who has better angle. Size on the perimeter is a semi big deal as well in being able to make the pass over / under the perimeter D. Ball fakes make this all much more fluid but it has to be fast.

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Gotcha it looks like the angles are off when I watch it live. And I’d have to go back and watch to see how much of it is a poor seal vs. poor entry pass angle. Speaking of ball fakes, when I played rugby we had an adage don’t pass into your fake. Meaning if you ball fake into a direction don’t go right back and pass into that same direction, because you just moved the defense into the area you faked. I saw that happen a few times last night. If you are going to do that, it has to be quick.

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Overall, I thought the offensive gameplan was sound. FSU denies one pass away, which can disrupt offensive flow, but it means that their help defenders are often not in a good position to stop drives. It was clear that Kihei and Braxton had the green light to drive at their defender (especially with a switched big on them) over and over again; the bigs were clearing a side and sealing their man to try to open the lane even more. It wasn’t always successful, but the theory was solid.

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I thought the angle on the last post entry pass Kihei tried was terrible. He was near the FT line trying to bounce it into the block.

remember the Ty dagger at Duke? One of the all time ball fakes to no one then Onions!

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Would be interesting to see Keheis percentage of drives to basket and positive outcome last night. Would love for him to find a middle ground in his game there.

True that was badass no other way around it. Up there with my all time favorite UVa moments.

I was wondering about that as well. My wife and were debating that even with the negative outcomes was it a sound play and should he keep attacking. It makes for an interesting debate because in many ways it was the right call for him to go in and take advantage. I wonder if he could work on initiating contact on those drive. Same with Casey on his blocked dunk, work to get the defender on your back and force them to come over the top and make the ref make a decision.

Agreed. The lack of shooting makes those drives even harder, when teams can just collapse on you with limited consequences. They looked for backdoor cuts a few times on drives (and got it at least once with Morsell cutting, losing the ball in the air and somehow getting it to go down), though I think it was a little predictable at times. Paradoxically, I think those drives and cuts benefit from a little bit of patience; Villanova is amazing at this, where they get into the lane, jump stop, and then look for cutters, like in this video.

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