1 Like
UVA beats St Johns 68-58. St Johns not as strong defensively as Tennessee
No read on Sanchez as a coach given he has a roster with no real pg and Power being a huge bust and no one else really high usage. Probably wont make it to next season because of the lack of pg/Bliss never being ready. Im okay with the change just because I think, as others have already been hammering home, we need to tear down everything offensively at UVA from schemes to just mentality of players we recruit and how we develop their psyche in practice. (too many fade aways and cowardice and lack of physical ness). A win vs St Johns doesn’t erase my distaste for the offensive mentality
Power’s play is no longer an anamoly but a very very strong trend. Not playable at the power 5 level.
3 Likes
About power IDK if he ever gets his shot and his confidence but he has some tools.
KenPom has it at a 9 point line.
Box score from the last time we played (2013 NIT, at JPJ)
A guy of his profile has to knock down a fuck ton of shots to be playable for a high level P4 program. To date he has not done that. Hope he flips the switch. Change your shoes or something bud.
5 Likes
Hoo wants to grab dinner and watch the game in Charlottesville tonight?
I’d be into this if it was our first game. But our guys were SO GASSED end of this game. Just worn out. I know St John’s will be tired but I dunno …
3 Likes
St Johns went to 2 OT. They’ll be very tired. Plus the style Tennessee plays defensively really made for tired legs by the end
5 Likes
Wasn’t UT missing a few quality players due to injury? Man, we were overmatched. Especially painful to see Igor showing out so much better than Power. Sucks that he is not still with us.
When was the last time we were double digit dogs two games in a row?
It is still hard to wrap my simple brain around the drop off since the Natty
7 Likes
I mean our head coach deprioritized player evaluations and refused to adapt his offense to the modern game. In many ways it’s pretty straightforward when you tack on a couple of weird bounces in recruiting and player development. Throw in some bad roster and rotation management and here you are
3 Likes
Reset will suck in the short term (although upside is maybe Norfolk won’t bring up Tony’s offense 900 times every game thread ;), especially in here and social media because we live in a world of instant gratification. But it’s probably the right move. I’m very much not giving up on this season after a loss to a team we all agreed would blow us out, but I’m also not really sure what the upside of “continuity” is as as it pertains to keeping Ron when the current roster has so many players who don’t have a lot of additional upside.
5 Likes
I think the current and likely short term state if we keep Ron looks pretty miserable too. A new guy would sell me much more hope.
1 Like
I think this is the likely outcome, but still willing to give him another 10-12 game before going there. I guess the one caveat is if we continue to look like ass offensively against (checks schedule) tonight, Florida, SMU, Memphis and NC State. This will be sandwiched with games against likely W’s in Manathan, Holy Cross, Bethune Cookman and American. Yep, 9 games. Ok, so he’s got til Jan1 
2 Likes
Yeah, there’s been a lot of “Ron would help us keep this group together, which is a positive.” I love our guys, but talent wise just don’t see how this is an irreplaceable group. It’s not a bad group, it’s just not looking like some core we must absolutely strive to keep together.
Cofie is a potential diamond that would suck to lose for sure. And McKneely transferring for his last year would certainly sting. But other than that the building blocks are unknowns or guys who’ve flashed potential but not like irreplaceable All-American All-ACC potential.
Power looks…. not good at the moment. Saunders is solid but no single skill is elite so far. Blake is solid but offensively raw. Rohde is looking better but nobody is going to mistake him for an elite P5 guard. Sharma has fun upside potential but has a lot of work to do. Who knows what we’ve got in Bliss and who knows what Eli will be like after his second major knee injury.
I love our dudes and do hope they grow and do something special, but I don’t think just trying to keep Cofie, get one last year of McKneely, and like hope that TJ Power is actually ten times better than he is currently showing is enough to make “roster continuity” an important thing in our coaching decision.
11 Likes
I think we just spent so much time this offseason talking about the “2-year plan” and want to see it come to fruition. That went out the window the second Tony retired as far as I’m concerned, bring in the new blood.
2 Likes
St John’s is going to be another tough matchup. HGN nailed it in his write up, they have a lot of the modern style guys blurring the lines between guard/forward. I think @Hooandtrue patented the term wing army which is a pretty accurate description.
They like to pressure and for the most part are willing to switch on screens. Their length beyond that will make it tough to get shots over them. The Hoos looked completely gassed last night and St Johns lost in 2OT. Expect a rock fight.
Saunders on Richmond is probably our best bet. But with the guys they run like HGN said will be semi matchup dependent. This is a game I’m really interested in seeing what our 2 general starting forwards are capable of, Saunders and TJP.
I think for the first time we saw what can make Saunders uncomfortable last night. Length. Someone mentioned in the game thread his tendency to go fade away last night when we all know he has a pretty sweet hook. I think that’s more of a comfort thing and he was looking to make space to negate the height disadvantage. This time, they won’t really be able to get that same type of advantage but the Johnnie’s are really athletic. This one for me is kind of a measuring stick for what I should expect from Saunders this year.
With TJP I think expectations have been too high and to some extent he’s got the same issue Rohde had last season. He’d be better suited coming off the bench with less pressure and generally matching up more with the opponents backup. Dunlap should make a good matchup for him and I’m interested to see if he can take advantage. So far he’s been disappointing for sure but he’s also only played roughly 250 minutes of college basketball and only about 80 this year. Not writing him off but I’d like to see his usage adjusted.
Last thing Slick Rick is a hall of famer no question. Truthfully he’s probably the best coach in this tournament. But did anyone else see his post game presser? Following that it’s incredibly hard to say how his team will be. Wouldn’t be surprised if they’re inspired and wouldn’t be surprised if they’re flat. Just a wild game ending and then conference by the head coach.
Plus side: this one is at 7. Anything tipping after 8:30 on EST should be banned.
4 Likes