We’ve often been a much stronger team in November then we are in March, relative to the field.
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Well that is an active choice we make
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I remember when we used to be a really good basketball team. I miss those days.
The really funny thing is that a large percentage of posters here will think I’m serious and like this post.
We haven’t been really good since the national title and won’t be next year
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Then you have to define really good. Really good in the ACC?
Or really good in March?
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Lot of roster turnover right now yes, but I’m not ready to make any judgement on next season’s team just yet. I’ve heard we are having success in the portal (yes no commits just yet but that comes from good source). Now for me we need Reece to come back regardless or yeah we could be a bubble team. Gonna have to wait til end of May I guess to find that out.
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I think we could be pretty good but I just don’t see a path to being very good (ie top 10) without Traudt and Shedrick. We just don’t land that kind of talent in the portal
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You kind of buried the lede there
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At this point it’s just way too early to know. I think we could be really good with a number of ifs going our way (big development improvement from the 22 class, Reece comes back and takes another step, Dante is a legit starting level ACC player, we add 2-3 good pieces from the portal, Elijah and Blake both contribute well all year). The more of those ifs that come true the better we will be; and of course the fewer that come true, the more we will struggle. We will obviously know a lot more when Reece and the portal shake out in the next month or two. But at this point, our range of possibilities is massive.
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Please define ‘success’.
Dave - it’s very obvious that “really good” is much like beauty. But without a standard definition, let’s keep moving the cheese.
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If the ifs go our way we could be better in March. With Duke, UNC, Cuse and Louisville getting top pieces (Miami will spend too) in the portal we could miss a double bye even if all the ifs go our way. Still, I will be way happier if we can put together a strong tournament team.
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Transitive champs 
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Still too many question marks for me to have a good idea of how to peg expectations:
- Does Reece come back?
- what can we reasonably expect from the frosh? (let’s wait for Hoop Summit and for Elijah to get back on the court)
- how far do Leon and Ryan improve on offense?
- do we get Blue Cain?
- what do we get from the portal?
(Honestly, those are roughly in importance order, IMO; maybe swap 2 and 3. My expectations for portal is that it will only be higher on the list if it affects things badly…)
But in any event, I think a team with a senior PG with NBA aspirations who gets to be team leader for the first time, with an all ACC potential ACTUAL REAL LIFE HONEST TO GOODNESS Shooting Guard, with a bunch of athletic dudes who are all top 100 talents (albeit young), and some complementary portal dudes (maybe even some complimentary portal dudes - “Tony, you’d look great in orange”) … would be very fun to watch and IMO, while that team would have a much wider range of outcomes than this year’s team, that also means higher potential at the top end, too.
** But also, why did we run off Shedrick? That was really stupid, wasn’t it? Sorry if you thought the statute of limitations on “it was really stupid to run off Shedrick” takes had run out, because it hasn’t.
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Out of those 4…
- A new coach
- A coach who just finished one of the worst seasons ever in the ACC despite quite a bit of 4 star talent
- A coach who, outside of 2.5 weeks last year, has underperformed compared to expectations for 2 years
I’ll roll the dice with TB 
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I think the question on Reece!! Is why would he come back. I dont see the why being clear so maybe should be no if at this point
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I think a reason could be getting draft feedback that teams want to see him in a role where he has to do more on offense. Not necessarily because that will be his role at the NBA, but even the best pass-first, low-usage point guards in the NBA still need to hit the occasional pull-up jumper and finish opportunistically at the rim.
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Probably an unpopular take in a “bet on yourself” context, but he should come back because while he’s probably roughly a mid second round guy this year and next year, he will get the opportunity to max out the upside next year, get the opportunity to be fully healthy for March and workout season (maybe he already is, I don’t know), and maybe most importantly, get his UVa degree in a timely fashion.
I suspect Reece won’t be making “pfft, who cares about the degree?” type money from his hoops career, and next year will be the best time to earn a UVa degree.
(I just became an old man…)
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I guess NBA players don’t look like they used to. The idea that you can move on to the NBA before proving that you can dominate at the college level still trips me up. I like Reece but he’s no Ray Allen at UConn.
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Agreed. In short, he would have the opportunity to show a full season of Nov 22 Reece, which would translate to a likely late 1st round slot.
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