@chavlicek15 used to bring 2 every road trip and made me watch Shark Week on loop every road trip
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Not sure where to put this, but Iāve been thinking for a while now that we are missing the mark on what we need from the 4 position.
Our recent stretch 4 guys seem to be bad fits for what we are trying to do but I also canāt totally place it. Hauser, BVP, Groves.
Obviously some are/were great and we were lucky to have them. But we canāt have our 4 man be slow footed in the modern game. At the same time we are recruiting spot up stretch 4 shooters who tend to be slow footed or lack physicality.
More and more I think we need this 4/5 pairing to be really effective:
-6ā10+ bruiser who is competent at finishing around rim but not relied on to score
-6ā7-6ā9 quick wing who can also play down low if needed / passable 3 point threat.
Then really invest in shooting at the 1-3 spots. Recently it seems like we put too much stock in the shooting ability of the 4 guy to the detriment of other skill sets. (Potentially because our guard shooting has been subpar).
Anyway, would welcome thoughts from people who know more than me
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Hereās some encouragement this morningā¦ we are getting better.
In the 4 lossesā¦
Wisconsin scored the game winner with 12:27 left, Memphis hit the game winner with 12:01 left, Notre Dame hit the game winner with 10:30 left, and NC State hit the game winner with 10:14 left.
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We didnāt get taken out of the game to start against State and at least did not give up the last 10 minutes. A bad 15 minute stretch after the 40 footer did us in.
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An example of a curveball
https://twitter.com/C2_Cooper/status/1744074683459178521
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Ferberās deep dive on our issues thus far.
Basically his kicker here:
āā¦[T]heyāre one dimensional on offense, but with a group of players who arenāt necessarily the best at doing that one thing, and a step slow on defense, because theyāre outmanned against ACC-level competition from an athleticism standpoint on the wings, and from a size standpoint in the post.ā
Not sure I fully agree with that, but thereās something there. We are playing a lineup geared toward offense and spacing and shooting where we are not spacing or shooting very well, at least in the road or neutral games.
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Fun with gerrymandered stats:
- Of the 61 āhigh majorā teams (as classified by Torvik) who have played 4 or more away/neutral games against top 100 competition, we are ranked #55 in those games (which doesnāt even count our ND game)
- Of the 52 āhigh majorā teams who have played 2 or more home games against top 125 competition, we are ranked #7 (just Cuse and A&M)
Pure home/road/neutral splits:
- Home - #7 in the country
- Neutral - #126
- Road/neutral (combined) - #230
- Road - #330
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Resilience.
Sorta split on this. On one hand, thereās something going on where we let ourselves get cavalanched, but on the other, is that āsomethingā just that we are not playing very good?
100% Fire! I was thinking about this 24 hours ago as well.
With our 2018 and 2019 as an example we had Jack Salt/ Isiah Wilkins or Jack Salt/ Mamadi starting for the most part (and yes I know we did go smaller with Dre at the 4 at times and Kihei at the 1 along with Ty, and Kyle at the 2/3 spots), but I agree overall that our *foundation should be two athletic/large bigs at the 4-5 spots and then our *supremely talented guards that can ALL shoot at the 1,2,3 spots.
Weāve been caught in the middle trying to have a skilled 4 man, but as you said not a defensive bruiser, and simultaneously had guards that *cannot shoot which puts pressure on the forwards to score. As an example the 2021 season with Trigga, Hauser and Huff- all of them 40% shooting but *not defenders/rebounders and of course no shooting in the back court.
To summarize: I agree we need shooters at the 1-3 spots, and defenders/rebounders at the 4-5 spot. Now- if we can periodically sprinkle in a DeāAndre Hunter raw talent at the 3/4 spot, but without the pressure of having him perform and start immediately, then we wonāt suffer because we already have a *foundation.
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I need all Charlottesville natives to coordinate and show up with shirts saying āAbolish the Packlineā
Yeah, maybe itās as simple as prioritizing shooting at 1-3. Then we have flexibility to find the right fit at the 4 rather than being pigeonholed needing a shooter at the 4, which often comes with the defensive tradeoff youāre talking about.
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I can agree with this too! I like Reece and I like Kihei but they are more *curveball players- in which they have some defensive skills that are disruptive and *do have a place on the team, but if they cannot shoot in highschool already then they should *not start in college.
I wonāt even say give me a Ty Jerome (1st round pick, 6ā5 super saavy, dynamic shooter Point guard), Iāll say give me a London Perrantes (Only 6ā2 but also super saavy, shooting point guard) that can run an offense and shoot on *all of our teams (And yes I know that his first year he went through a stretch in which he was cold during his first 10 games, but you could tell that his shot mechanics were already great and would not need to be reworked).
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For me, the lesson of 14-19 is as simple** as this: we need one second contract NBA guy, and at least one other Euro league type guy, but preferably another NBA second contract guy, at the 1-3. Before 2019, we almost always did, and since then, we havenāt been close to that standard.
I feel like thereās been a lot of bickering here (guilty) and elsewhere (not guilty, I do my bickering here), about Rohde and iMac, but thatās the basic issue ā those guys arenāt near that standard right now, and havenāt shown the flashes to suggest itās coming in the next year or so. Reece has that āfirst contract NBA, probable Euro league thereafterā slot down, but we donāt have a super awesome guard/wing rn.
** simple to say, that is.
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Food for thought on this Monday morning
Torvik data with no preseason ratings
Before Harris injury (6 games)
- 3rd in ACC in adj efficiency
- 6th nationally in def efficiency
After Harris Injury (9 games)
- 10th in ACC in adj efficiency
- 55tg nationally in def efficiency
- offense basically unchanged
Maybe Dante is just a lot more important than we thought??
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If Buchanan and Minor were more established (which is possible in a few weeks) and we arenāt as aggressive with doubling/hedging giving opportunities for others to abuse us there (which is a possible adjustment), this team looks entirely different.
I think itās hard for me to consider the offensive game as the issue when 2/3s of the game, the game is psychologically over because of the continuous exploitations of our players being continually out of position within the scheme.
If it were solely a jimmy and joes issue, then the struggles would have been consistent at home as well. And in the blowout losses there are moments where you literally see the game collapse.
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I look at it a bit differently. If we had solid 4ās and 5ās that could screen for them, clean up the glass, and block a few shots then we could keep opponents close to us and that would allow those guys to feel *comfort in running their offense and taking more chances at scoring (versus passing it around the perimeter etc.). Whatās currently happening now is that they feel pressure to make up huge margins because we are not getting stops and then it all snow balls downhill from there.
The other team is comfortable offensively because we are not stopping them defensively, and then our guys crumble under the pressure.
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Is that what made Malc and Joe earn bank in the NBA? Solid screeners while they were at UVa?
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How can we *foresee who are going to be those guys?
I think that our current guys are better than they look, but have no confidence. How can you be confident if youāre not getting stops and youāre down by 20 points halfway through the second half?
In past seasons weāve had defensive/athletic players who allowed the game to stay close which allowed us to hit some amazing shots, or otherwise slowly grind away the other teams will to compete. We are just not getting that right now.
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Iām just not sure I can blame McKneely for struggles when he is shooting 50% from 3 for ~12PPG. That would be like the 8th or 9th thing Iād be worried about.
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