I think the move to The Athletic moderated him a bit. He’s been less anti-Virginia the last 2-3 years.
On the other hand, Andy Katz has us at 24 in his latest Power 36 Poll. That’s approaching clown like as opposed to serious.
For example, Katz has:
TCU @ 11 (Kenpom 25)
K St @ 12 (26)
Clemson @ 13 (52)
Providence @ 14 (31)
ASU @ 16 (54)
Iowa @ 17 (32)
Mich St @ 20 (41)
Marquette @ 21 (12)
Charleston @ 22 (78)
Pitt @ 23 (62)
That’s just not serious nor thoughtful.
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Just depends on why … some people do it on body of work … some do it on how a team is playing right now … some do it based on madness projected performance…
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Norlander does that “Hey 19” one of his… he says its for how they are playing right now… so I can see some discrepancies that others would be mad about there.
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Katz power 36 has been awful always.
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Agree. His is more of a who’s playing best this week ranking. Not thoughtful
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The problem is we all love lists so people mostly click on lists rather than other stuff and you have to differentiate yourself somehow so just copying or pasting the AP top 25 or KenPom doesn’t really work. As I’ve said before, that’s why everyone should just vote in the LRA Elite 8 poll, which has a clear guiding principle and has all the other benefits of lists, including this list:
- Lists are fun!
- Easy to read
- Nobody reads the third entry
- See?
- Yay! Lists!
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Did some noodling with Bart Torvik data just now. The difference between Virginia through Vegas tourney and Virginia post-Vegas tourney continues to be kind of wild.
Through Vegas:
3rd most efficient offense, 148th defense. Free throw rate 1st in country.
Since Vegas:
81st most efficient offense, 12th most efficient defense. Free throw rate at 143rd.
My main observation is that I think we are the team since Vegas, not before Vegas. It almost feels silly to factor in Baylor, Illinois, and the early season games into who the team is now. You might think - yikes, were the Baylor and Illinois games anomalies? But interestingly enough, we are playing overall more efficiently (20th in country vs. 25th) since the Vegas tournament compared to during and before it.
Would love to see us get back to the free throw line more often and tweak some things offensively. The defense seems to be figuring itself out as the year goes on, as tends to happen with Bennett teams with new pieces.
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Fully healthy Beekman and/or 4-guard lineup option might be another inflection point. We shall see.
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Super interesting. Would be good to see with the Beekman injury games removed.
Edit; Just saw Haney post on similar point
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Yeah I feel like the offense has picked it up again lately but our opponents could also be buns on D
Agreed about Beekman. Actually think it’s the most important of the season - the pre / post Vegas stuff might be washed out by his injury when all is said and done.
He certainly looks almost there. I think he (or a coach) said he was like 80-90% after UNC. Anyone remember? Trying to pinpoint for future analysis …
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The fact we were getting that many free throws even for a brief period of time is interesting to me. A hallmark of recent Virginia teams has been really struggling in this department. We don’t tend to attack the rim as aggressively as other squads and we operate less in the post.
That’s all to say, I’d guess this part of it was definitely flukey to start the year, and we’re now back to what we’re more likely to be going forward. I’d love to see us get those FT numbers back up, but I’m not holding my breath.
(Total side note: feels like Reece isn’t getting that many calls at the rim recently, although I’d have ti look at actual numbers. Not sure if that’s because he tries too hard to kind of shoot around contact and consequently gets only slightly fouled instead of creating must-call contact or what. But last game he was on the floor like four or five times and was clearly annoyed he wasn’t getting calls.)
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Looking at Torvik’s game by game efficiencies, it actually looks like the season can currently be broken into 3 parts
Through the Michigan game, really good offense (4th) with hit or miss defense (113th). Rated 17th overall over this period.
Then, for FSU through the Albany game, not very good offense (219th) with more Virginia like defense (25th), minus the Houston game. Rated 69th over this period.
Then this last portion of GT through the second FSU game has been pretty good offense (62nd) with pretty good defense (16th, this was better than I thought it would be). Both could be definitely be improved, but nothing has stuck out as terrible. Rated 13th over this period.
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All four of those are very true.
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This might be a closer reflection of:
- Through the Michigan game: early season offensive fluke-ry and new players learning defense,
- FSU - Albany: Reece injured, injured bad
- GT - second FSU: Reece improving (still not quite there though)
This tracks because his defense didn’t seem to suffer as much as his offense (and the offense he created for others) while he was injured, explaining a bigger offensive dip than defensive dip you see during #2.
Pretty exciting if the leap from 2 to 3 is mostly explained because of incremental improvement and Reece getting better. It means we are solidly top 15.
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Jeff White on Traudt and Bond
Traudt - “So he just kind of gave me the decision to redshirt, and at first I said no. But I didn’t get in the first game, and after watching the athleticism and speed, I felt like it would be good for me to take a developmental year and redshirt to try to get to that level for next year.”
UVA Men’s Basketball | Cavaliers’ Redshirts Playing the Long Game (virginiasports.com)
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Its going to be a violent morning isnt it
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Nah, that article is great stuff. I love this:
Also like Anderson, Bond can throw down highlight-reel dunks, but he said he’s working with Curtis on “getting quicker feet,” among other things. As for Traudt, he said he doesn’t have specific goals, but because “there’s no reason to save myself for games, [Curtis] just kind of just empties the tank every single workout. I can definitely see that progress in the weight room because of that.”
Traudt is so damn good he doesn’t need goals lol
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Will we only get Traudt for 2 years? (One playable year). 
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