Hopefully look to the opportunity ahead and accept that literally anyone can and has been blown out on the road this year.
UNC is without a doubt the best team we will have played this season. They play in the mold that most successful UNC teams have. They play fast and have atleast 4 capable scorers on the court at all times. Theyāre playing at a high level defensively to go along with the great offense, although Iām not sure how much of that is because theyāre actually playing good defenseā¦
I think a lot of their success on that side of the ball comes from their style of play and having good scorers. They put a lot of pressure on their opponents to match their high level of scoring, which can lead to teams pressing and taking bad shots. If you arenāt disciplined, itās very easy to get sucked into their game of running up and down the court trying to score. Teams that are undersized at all 3 guard spots donāt typically rank in the top 30 in 3point defense, for example. Theyāre very good limiting second chance opportunities as Bacot is one of the premier true bigs in the game.
For the Hoos most of the game is a matter of just playing Virginia basketball. We know that forcing them to play at our pace can give even the best of UNC teams trouble, especially when in Charlottesville, given the results of the last decade-plus. The only spot that I think is a real area of concern for us if weāre playing our A game, is dealing with Bacot. He has the size and strength to give us fits to the point that we may not be able to handle. Jordan Minor is going to have to have his best performance of the season IMO.
Aside from that the x-factor in this one is the Dunn/Ingram matchup. We canāt afford to let him get hot to add to the deadly duo of RJ Davis/Bacot. Ryan is going to have to be ready to bring it.
Iāll end with thisā¦ our last 2 games havenāt been pretty, I donāt think anyone denies that. But I did think we brought the energy on Saturday (against Wake) in a way that has become vintage UVAā¦ our guys appeared to me to understand that they really needed to pick up that win and locked in to winning it however they had to. (Except the free throws). Iām expecting a locked in effort and hoping that the extra couple days off this week will give us an offensive boost to go with it.
We actually play tomorrow! Letās go! This week was a long haul. Honestly donāt know how we can lose when LRA family gets together. Need to get this thread going again so Iāll ask this:
Name the UNC player you hated/disliked the most? Why? Extra points for irrational diatribesā¦.
He looks like a ram. He doesnāt have a chin. He talks shit about his teammates in press conferences but is always at 75% effort. He was on the teen Netflix drama OBX. He elbows dudes in the throat and doesnāt get called. He doesnāt get called for anything, ever. He once photoshopped himself with big biceps and pretended it was always meant to be a joke.
This is irrational, but for me itās the role players who sucked but because they were at UNC, other people talked about them like they were good. Like, no, I really donāt have to believe you when you try to convince me that JP Tokoto is good.
Bacot is definitely the UNC player I hate the most. He is cocky and belligerent .Donāt forget the ACC goes through him. In the Sampson days i got into a lot of heated arguments when UNC had Jordan, Worthy and Perkins. I hated UNC but I respected their players. Bacot acts more like one of them Duke jerks. They were too good to play in the NIT and i believe Bacot is the reason why they did.
Theo Pinson. Marcus Paige. Joel Berry (in college at least. Donāt like him so much as an analyst). Royās last 5-7 years they had lot of likable guys
