How do we solve the rebounding concerns?
How do we solve the playmaking issues?
Getting the bigs to refocus their attention to box out rather than shot blocking and getting the wings and guards to stick their noses in the paint to do work.
Ive mentioned this before but back in the âgood ole daysâ (beginning of tonyâs time here) there were videos of Tony talking about how he wants the bigs to focus on boxing out while the guards rebound. Seems the last few years weâve gone away from that a lot with bigs trying to fight for rebounds themselves.
I really thought it was a mistake not to push it up the floor when it became clear we could not penetrate their D.
From the Wisconsin game which one of these above the others frustrated you most?
Absolutely. Needed easy points. Push the ball up the court. Have reece sprint down and justdrive it home before they can set defense. Identify McKneely and Rohde trailing for open 3s. Have Dunn drive his man iso before help defenders arrive, etc. etc.
Itâs what Bennett was talking about after the Texas Southern game about gambling too much. Sometimes when you gamble, you lose track of the weakside rebounder. That happened about five or six times tonight. Secondary defender gets in the air, guard doesnât drop down and fill, and an easy offensive rebound.
Some of it will get fixed with more sound rotations and better positioning.
I feel like there were a lot of times where Dunn also found himself in no manâs land. Not really in the post double yet but also nowhere near his man who was positioning for the pass or positioned well for the offensive rebound
Totally agree here. I voted âotherâ in the poll because I think some of our rebounding woes will be solved by tightening up our defense and rotations. It looked to my untrained eye that our bigs, notably Dunn and Blake, were being over aggressive and hunting turnovers early in the game. I have a suspicion that unsound hedges and rotations were the reason Blake only played about 15 minutes. As we get more experienced playing together against higher level competition, things should improve, especially the decision making on when to hunt steals and when to play more conservative. The pendulum may swing in the other direction during the rest of the non-con but hopefully weâll be in a good place by the time the ACC schedule starts.
Dropped all the way to 39 on Kenpom. WVU 105
WVU out rebounded SMU 39-33
WVU was 5-16 from 3. SMU 8-23
Also WVU basically plays 6 guys. Tight turnaround adv UVA
Has there ever been an instance where TB has burned a redshirt in the middle of the season? I know Robinson is raw, but it seems like we could use his size. I trust the staffâs judgement though, itâs just hard to watch us get out-rebounded so badly each game.
Jesperson is the one time Tony pulled the shirt. Canât recall if the player pushed for it or the coaches approached the player. But we were desperate then also. More so.
KT Harrell left the program midseason, we needed another wing.
Sounds like the coachesâ view is that Robinsonâs still much too raw to play. Even if he took off the redshirt, heâd end up like Minor: getting a few minutes, not measuring up, then getting benched again. But thatâs just me interpreting their limited comments.
Rob Dauster with some positive things about Virginia relative to Purdueâs story. Start at 41:20.
Then he shared about how he started of Field of 68. Tony Bennett plays a pivotal role in it (he credits Titus but itâs really Tony). For that start at 44:45. Pretty crazy and cool.
Should we burn Robinsonâs redshirt to help with rebounding?
For me, rebounding feels like a âjust be patientâ issue (and may just be a structural issue), but the play making issue kinda feels like, âhow about some green shoots?â kind of issue
If the rebounding issue is more about being out of position due to the scramble of over hedging and bad rotations, then I canât see how bringing in another guy still learning the defense will help.