I hear you and you may be right. I just see a guy who got in his own head and couldn’t get out (at UVA) and I’ve been there myself.
Sometimes the worst pressure is the pressure you put on yourself.
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Yeah, I get it. I have like two projects I need to get done before turkey break and here I am ruminating on Casey Morsell. I too understand being a prisoner in my own head! Lol!
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You got your priorities straight. IMO
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Keep spinning it forward, and maybe Murphy sits one and is playing this year and maybe mckoy was less unhappy and he stays…
Keep spinning and maybe they don’t change the transfer rule, keeping the friction on transfers high and making the exodus we just experienced less likely/more manageable…
We definitely missed on recruits for several years (getting the wrong ones and not getting the right ones), starting before Ty/Dre/Kyle left early, which was going to have some roster stability repercussions, but since they left it really seems like the ripples have compounded into a nonstop patchwork job where coach is scrambling to field a competitive team.
Hopefully with the 2022 class we have gotten back ahead of the curve and can build towards the next title team.
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Adding the 2022 class as depth to Reece Armaan Taine Igor Kadin will help us be solid next season and maybe elite elite in 2023-2024
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To make a crude baseball analogy: back when I used to pay attention, .350 used to be batting title territory. Do that for ten seasons, and you’d be on your way to the HOF. I think Tony was doing the equivalent of batting like .500 for several years in a row there: diamonds in the rough (Joe, Malc, Dre), top 50ish guys that hit (Justin, Ty, Kyle), lots of great role players in that 50-100 territory (Nolte, Tobey, Key), not to mention transfers like Gill and Key. Almost everything worked, and few if any flameouts. Then from the 2016 class or so, he started hitting more like .200. Couldn’t land a lot of targets; and few of the top 100 guys that came have worked out. So, 2022 and forward, I’m not expecting Tony to hit .500 again. He just needs to settle in at .350. (Using these as batting average proxies, not actual hit rates on prospects).
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I feel like a lot of us are looking down to next year because of our mediocre/bad start to the season, but I feel like that’s the wrong approach. We have tons of talent, Franklin, Gardner, Statman, there’s the talent there. I think the issue is a lack of chemistry. What I see is a team that just isn’t gelling together and is currently showing bursts and flashes of amazing play. Come ACC play, I see a really good team. We know Tony Bennett is an amazing coach. Truly, this will be one of his greatest tests, taking a team that just won’t fit together and carving them into an amazing ACC squad. I don’t think we should count this season out for a good tournament run just yet. I want to see our first few ACC games, then I think I can make a true prediction on the team.
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Maybe I’m using some confirmation bias but Tony seemed really close in 2017 to going .500 again (I’m thinking Jared Butler, David Duke etc.)
Makes sense. I just disagree with this idea that early departures are this crippling thing to Tony while other coaches have worked around them so easily. And not even the Cal’s and K’s of the world but the Matt Painters and Juan Howard’s of the world. I don’t think Tony is incapable of handling attrition. Really think it’s as simple as Marco, Casey, and Jabri being misses while Kihei has been a hit but not close to the level Ty and London were at before him.
In short, if Casey and Jabri were successful evaluations no one is pointing to the Big 3 as impacting this season. Everything on top of that is an escalating factor rather than a cause if that makes sense.
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Agree. Then there’s the interesting question of whether they were eval misses or development misses. Too early in the season/career to tell, but things seem to be trending toward missed evals.
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Have we really handled departures/high school misses that badly? Post national title we had the 19-20 year where we finished hot and a likely 5-6 seed (and a dangerous team that could have done real damage), and last year was an acc title with a 4 seed (with possible S16 run without Covid interruptions).
Let’s see if this team gels/comes together, and at least wait to call this year a total bust in Feb/March… we are due for a year where we are a lower seed but actually overperform expectations.
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I think Marco and Kihei are what you expect to get at UVa when Ty and Kyle are obvious starters in front of you. If it were known that Kyle and Ty were leaving (i.e had been seniors), maybe you get someone of higher caliber to fill that void. But Casey was a sought-after recruit by UVa - so that was a miss. I personally think Jabri was fool’s gold - a good pedigree and a brief period of AAU production but without sufficient evaluation time on our end. That came together too fast and it wasn’t a fit.
There definitely have been some guys that didn’t pan out, but it feels like we’ve been a step behind in recruiting for a few years now and trying hard just to fill gaps. Next year’s class feels like the first that was assembled with deliberate purpose and with real evaluation and time investment. Maybe there will be misses in there too. But it feels more complete than any class since Kyle/Ty/Dre/Jay (and a little Mamadi). I worry some that it doesn’t include a PG or an athletic 4/5. Johnson and someone else could really fill those gaps.
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From a roster management perspective yes. From an in season coaching perspective no. Tony making single digit seed teams with the worst in the ACC level guard play we’ve had the last two seasons is probably the best coaching job in the history of sports. I mean that sincerely. Most teams that have guard play that bad are breaking in new head coaches and TB was out here winning ACC titles.
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yeah you gotta deal with players leaving early. If that’s not happening in today’s environment you probably haven’t been very good. I wasn’t even agreeing that it really mattered big picture, if anything they might be better off, just that every little change effects things on down the line.
UVA’s issue the past few years is just more that none of their guards have popped. It’s hard to be nationally relevant if you don’t have at least one exceptional guard.
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I have a feeling when it’s all said and done Johnson will be on Grounds next year. Agree on wanting an athletic 4/5 but might still fill that slot when spots open in the spring.
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I dont think we can hold highly success in ACC play as a metric to how good our team is. Yes we will be better in february but at the same time the ACC has been outright horrendous these last 3 years.
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First, I hope we’re fortunate enough to land Johnson
Second, I don’t want him to reclass if Kiehi intends to return
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Well count me in the group that really hopes Kihei doesn’t return haha
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I think this is right on the money. I really don’t believe they expected to get him. He was a guy they had a little bit of a relationship with, went to see in April like they always do, he popped so they offered. TB saw him play once that week, didn’t return. Basically what they had always done in spring, where they’ve gone 2 for how many ever dozen lol Only this time Jabri was like yeah sure haha
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I thought I read that he played well in the NBPA camp at JPJ, too, though I suppose that was roughly in that same time frame.
I’ve never scouted nothing, but I suppose you could’ve watched him back then and said something like, well he’s a bit small and perhaps not the most fluid-looking athlete, but sweet jumper, not afraid to launch it, and Shareef’s kid so I bet he fills out…
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