obviously a lot of disappointment, but not as much of a long-term toll as 2018 by any stretch…at the end of the day it was a good season and we overperformed a lot of expectations
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Any rumors about guys leaving?
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new Intel Report dropping at 7am…
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Oh boy. Hope you guys weighed the good/bad news ratio for a 7am drop. Bunch of bad news could take a toll on LRA members work productivity and ripple through the economy…
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[Off key March Madness theme repeating in my head]
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Cuts Self-Assessment – 2023 – Cuts from The Corner: UVA Hoops Musings
Will follow with some conclusions re: the program in the next piece. This is more of a retrospective.
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Will Dante Harris be in the starting lineup next year?
- Yes
- No
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No cuts! We’ll have to call this one “Comments from the Corner.” 
Great read, thanks as always. (And much more fun than reading more about transfers.)
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Looking forward to pt 2! Curious if you think the level from the last few years is just the new standard for the program?
I don’t think it has to be.
I do think CTB needs to shift his philosophy a little bit in terms of how and why he allocates playing time.
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Do you think going back to how he handled pt 13/14-16/17 would work?
Meaning what, specifically?
I think he’s overly hard on bigs and doesn’t allow them the same leash for mistakes that he allows guards or the same opportunity to taste the court early in their careers.
I also think he also over values experience and polish over talent/athleticism - and I get the teaching principle behind that but think there has to be an evolution toward playing time as a teacher/engager and in how that experience vs. talent equation shakes out.
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He would have a set 6-7 man rotation and then another 2-3 would play situationally. For example, in 13/14, these 7 guys played 15+ minutes virtually every night:
London
Malcolm
Joe
Akil
Tobey
AG
JA
And then Nolte and Darion (and to a certain extent Tevon) would sometimes play good minutes and sometimes only play 5. Nolte even got a few DNPs if I remember correctly.
So I guess intentionally using depth guys the way Taine was used toward the end of the season might be the way to phrase it?
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For me, Nolte will always be the guy who prevented UMBC from happening 4 years before it did.
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Me too. He was our 2014 Dre (Dre being the guy who prevented UMBC from happening again)
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Alternate universe where we lose in 2014. “Well there’s an asterisk because Nolte didn’t play”
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Mm. I think we’re generally deeper than that now and can afford to/should have longer rotations and then tighten them within any specific game depending on who is playing well/what’s working.
There were too many guys we weren’t willing to sit this year when they weren’t playing well or when the matchup wasn’t right, IMO - but those players weren’t the same guys game after game, it was variable.
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I think even a very small “attitudinal” shift toward playing the younger talent would be beneficial for player engagement/retention as well. Tony doesn’t need to promise anyone PT (and shouldn’t), and he doesn’t need to move away from prioritizing experience (maybe he should but he won’t), but he could make an up-front commitment to his younger players that he’s going to try to get them some first-half minutes here and there throughout the season – that they’ll get their shot, so be ready. Maybe those guys still get a total of only 40 minutes on the year, but they’d do so feeling like they’ve been given a chance, and like the coach is backing them. And their teammates are counting on them. (And who knows, maybe they practice harder knowing it might actually matter.)
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