Meh. I think thatâs my general reaction â with the caveat, of course, that itâs a season opener against a bad team and itâs hard to draw conclusions.
And I donât mean that in a bad way. I mean that I watched the game and shrugged. Nothing terrible stood out (other than the missed shots and free throws, which hopefully were just flukes). But nothing great did, either.
De Ridder looks for real, Mallory looks like a potential star, and GrĂźnloh and Smith did some nice things out there. No one else really made an impression to me â good, bad, or otherwise. The defense looked better than I expected (although Riderâs awful offense may have had something to do with that), and the offense was less innovative than I had hoped. Shooters are always going to have off nights, but there wasnât a lot of motion, we didnât attack the paint much, and there was more standing-still-and-passing-the-ball-around-the-perimeter than even the worst moments of mover/blocker. It was nice to once again see a strong post-up game, though.
I made it to the game, then watched the replay Haney, I think, linked above. Watching in person was way more fun. The guys really seemed to cheer for each other. And while there were a couple stretches in the first half where it maybe got kinda close, it never felt as stressful as it seemed to be on the boards.
I think part of it was the announcers trying to make the game sound closer than it was. Like, the guy especially kept saying stuff like âAnd with the 3, Rider almost cuts the lead to single digits!â He was trying to make it sound like a tightly-contested barnburner but for whatever reason the game just didnât feel like it was in that much jeopardy to me.
I buy it in theory, but on the other hand, Gonzaga was #8 in NET on Selection Sunday and ended up as an 8-seed, much closer to their WAB rank (#35). St. Johnâs was #13 in NET, #8 in WAB and ended up as a 2-seed.
All of these systems use adjusted efficiencies, which control for opponent strength.
Some of the systems, like Torvik, are much more concerned with âgame controlâ and exclude things that happen in garbage time (both good and bad).
Even for the systems that donât, to have a meltdown over what happened at the end of last nightâs game, you have to think we are going to be the only team in the country that leaks some points at the end of a blowout. Guess what, we arenât.
Kevin DiDomenico and Tykera Carter. I canât say Iâve heard of either of them before.
There were probably 200+ menâs and womenâs games yesterday. Weâre on ACC Network Extra, which might be a lower priority than ESPN+ broadcasts, Iâm not sure. But we probably got like the V or CC broadcast team.
The socials team appears to be doing more raw clips in addition to the super stylized stuff they did last season. Also, they clearly have a Zoomer doing the posting (or at least someone whoâs doing a decent job of sounding like one).
Didnt watch last night and skimmed over comments here. Just watched condensed highlights. Biggest take away for me is the team looks harried (big word, I know) and a little sloppy trying to play fast for the sake of going fast. This will improve with more games under their belt. Also everyone going to the offensive glass and being aggressive that way I love. No one hangin their head etc, just getting into the next play quickly
Chance had that great rebound/ steal for lay in by doing that.
It was really two different games: in the first half, they looked uncomfortable and were clearly pressing. They wanted to play fast and shoot threes, and it was a little messy.
But in the second half, they calmed down a little bit, did a better job sharing the ball on offense, and really tightened down defensively.
And Chance did not look like a freshman playing in his first game. Youâd think the pressure of playing his first college game in front of a hometown crowd would get to him, but, other than a few plays, he looked like a veteran.
When Odom first got Hall, I was glad thinking we needed a true floor general. After learning more about how Odom runs his stuff I think Duke Miles would have been more than fine and probably a better fit.
Not looking to hindsight anything, and ultimately it was his decision to leave, but all else equal, I do think weâd have more of our backcourt defensive issues solved with Miles. And still more than enough court vision, plus more toughness going downhill.
Nose for the ball as they say and I love that Ryan encourages it. One Jacari 3 Elijah from the wing and Hall from the top crashing the glass so no one back on D. Maybe Hall knew Jacari was gonna make it hahha
Hall is what he is: an experienced passing point guard with limitations. Heâs not much of a shooter, isnât particularly athletic, his handle is suspect against pressure, and he canât defend quick guards. Odom got him because he knew he was throwing together an entirely new team and needed steady leadership at the point to distribute the ball.
If Hall calms down and just plays the veteran distributor role, heâll be fine. Heâll always be a defensive liability, but he can make up for it on the offensive side with a solid assist-to-turnover ratio.
Yeah, MOV matters, but sweating 40 vs 30 or whatever in any single game isnât worth too much.
The main value to trying to pour it on at the end is that our main rotation guys just need more reps together and in our style.**
It all reminds me of Buzz thinking there was some magic to 9 vs 10 and trying frantically to get it under 10 at the end of games.
** another example is the tradeoff between minutes at the 4 for Lewis/Carrerre vs Grunyensoloh (maybe Yo-Go?). The latter probably makes us more dominant for MOV, but the former better to get those guys reps playing the 4
Actual games being played means that we can start digging into Hoop Explorer using absurdly small samples. I usually like looking at their Game Reports and the Lineups pages: https://hoop-explorer.com/
Lots of lineups were pretty good (no shit, we won by a million). The Chance no-Hall lineups werenât good. The biggest runs came with the starters after half-time that pushed the margin from 10 to 18, and then with a Chance-Hall combo in the middle of the 2nd half that pushed it further from 20 to 36.
I do not put much weight in lineup analysis at this point, given that no single lineup has played more than 11 possessions.
This is why Elijah getting healthy would be so big for the future. He would complement Chance so well if he can defend bigger guards and play competent offense. That was my hope for Bliss as well. The next couple of years of UVa hoops likely depends a lot on finding the right backcourt mate for Chance.
Elijah works as a defensive complement, but offensively heâs a bit like adding an espresso shot to Malloryâs Red Bull. Hall is more like ⌠well ⌠dunno ⌠a person who canât imbibe caffeine so is nice and chill.
