Thatâs fair. But we never hear kids say âUVA was my dream school growing upâ. Looking at recruiting you always hear stories about kids who grew up a fan of the school their parents were cheering for. Have yet to come across a recruit where Virginia was the staple school in the household.
When Duke lost their longtime starting point guard to a decent (not elite) Baylor squad I completely gave up on schools or prestige mattering.
5 Likes
I think that is what Tony would have them doing now. Canât imagine what else is going to turn this around.
2 Likes
Think itâs different though when 1) Roach did his 4 years at Duke and 2) Scheyer told him he was going to go with the young guards over him in the Flagg centered roster.
1 Like
Obviously, Tech is traditionally a complete joke with respect to us in terms of basketball. But, with respect, how do we have a higher ceiling? Our defense sucks, we canât rebound, we have a completely unacceptable number of turnovers, we seemingly have no willingness to change our tempo and schemes, we donât press, there is no sense of urgency when we are losing, body language is atrocious, we donât have a point guard, we donât have a guy who can create his own shot (except perhaps Cofie), and BB falls down more than he rebounds or scores. There are positives, of course, but I am pissed and feel like bitching. Cofie is great and he is GONE!
So, given these facts, and the degree to which Tech has at least been competitive, while we get blown out of nearly every game, Villanova being the exception, why should I be confident we have a higher ceiling?
I am probably going to get a ton of poop emojis, but at this specific point in the season I am only confident we are better than Miami; I truly hope I am wrong. Itâs sad, and hard to watch, but I will because I love the team regardless of the current state of the program.
5 Likes
I think heâs talking about the overall ceilings of both basketball programs. We undeniably have a higher ceiling than them in that regard, their NIL situation is an absolute mess and their donors barely care about it.
This season alone? Who knows, both of our teams are trash.
1 Like
Okay. My mistake then. Long term I have to believe we do. Our upward trajectory definitely depends significantly on the quality of coaching we can attract though.
Favorite play of the game: Down 10 with 7 minutes left. Force Raynaud into a bad shot. McKneely watches the ball and doesnât get a body on a cutter. Easy rebound and putback.
This team gives zero shits. So I in turn give zero shit about them.
No there are plenty. Theyâre just not the kids we recruit for whatever reason.
Austin Williford would absolutely love to play for us. Same with Donald Hand and so many others. We didnât recruit them.
This will be the first game in 8 years that I will not watch. I was working yesterday and got half way through the first half this morning when I figured I have better things to do with my time. And I have watched some real stinkers all the way to the end.
3 Likes
Totally agree, though, and this is hard to say, but weâre probably overstating how good a run CTB had and how much that can do for UVAâs brand. CTB had an extraordinary 5 year run, and was âgoodâ for another 5 years, and then he retired. He won the Natty which weâll have forever, but a lot of the reason I viewed UVA as a top-tier program was because of stuff he did before COVID and because I hoped heâd have another great season or two before hanging things up.
CTB didnât do as much as he could have to build UVAâs brand, but there simply wasnât enough time for him to get very much done. Part of what made K great (and I shudder to say it), was him hanging on for absolutely ever and aggressive working on Dukeâs brand the whole time. I mean, look at Syracuse. Boeheim won a ton of games plus a natty, yet Syracuse is, at best, coasting on fading memories after a botched coaching hand-off.
We certainly have a higher ceiling than VT. Higher profile school, better facilities, and deeper pockets. But letâs not kid ourselves and think we have the history of, say, Georgetown, and look what happened to them.
5 Likes
Georgetown is a poor comparison. There was a more than basketball component to the rise of Georgetown. There were only 7 black head coaches in the NCAA outside of the HBCUs at the time of John Thompsonâs hiring, he was outspoken about social issues, and the black community adopted the Hoyas as their team, imho. John Thompson was Georgetown Basketball.
We have nearly 50 years of a successful basketball program; from Terry Holland to Tony Bennett, and even the coaches in between had some degree of success, whether it was Jones and an Elite 8, Gillenâs 2000 team?, or even Leitao with SS and Jr. You can win at UVA, and should.
7 Likes
Complex question / issue and I only have a moment, but I think Tonyâs dislike of the spotlight didnât do us a ton of favors during our run / after our run. (And he didnât just dislike it for himself, he disliked it for people who DID like it)
4 Likes
Agreed. Tony is not a born self-promoter of himself or his program/work. Witness our Blue-White scrimmages and relative lack of pre-season information and hype clips. He did what he had to do but not much more than that.
3 Likes
AnywayâŚ
6 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 3 days. New replies are no longer allowed.