Iām really not reading much if anything into these scrimmages but that said, little disappointed Lewis has been such a non factor. Rest of the team has had flashes, but he hasnāt shown me anything. Really passive player that hopefully plays more aggressive as he gets more comfortable.
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Random player thoughts after getting home (had to leave with about 8 min left):
White: very optimistic about him. Athletic, fast, confident, can pull up and shoot from anywhere over anyone. We need to play him a lot.
Ugo: also very optimistic about him. Or maybe Iām just happy I donāt have to watch Brick Buchanan ever again.
GrĆ¼nloh: more athletic than I expected, thought be a little awkward out there but he seems like the real deal.
De Ridder: less athletic than I expected but not necessarily in a bad way. Hopefully can be a physical presence for us and complement GrĆ¼nloh.
Thomas: legit scorer, as expected.
Hall: awful defender. I think heāll be fine offensively from an AST/TO perspective but we just have to concede that his man is going to blow past him whenever heās in.
Mallory: promising, not thrilled if we have to rely him as a starting point guard in year 1.
Gertrude: thought he looked very comfortable and fluid out there. He should contribute.
Lewis: didnāt even notice he was playing. Kind of weird, interested to see what his role becomes. Looks pretty tall, athletic, and strong so maybe he just needs a more clear role to step into.
Tillis: he looks out of shape and not as a good as multiple walk ons weāve had over the years.
Overall Iāll be happy if we make the tournament and Iām afraid that the 2014-2019 run has ruined basketball for me because I fear Iāll never see UVA teams who are that good ever again.
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But Johann already knows The Good Old Song!
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Weāre attacking in transition a lot but in half court sets we arenāt really getting them to collapse enough for a catch and shoot guy like Lewis to get the looks he wants
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So we won a natty?
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I think weāll have a team under Odom that is a title contender at some point but that level of sustained eliteness is going to be so much harder to come by in the NIL era. It was truly the good old days
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Can we play Gertrude at PG?
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We really need to work on inbound plays, I mean it appeared we struggled to get the ball inbounds all game long, not just at the end.
I liked Jacari White, Malik Thomas, Grunlogh, and de Ridder other than he needs to realize heās got to carry part of the load offensively. Mallory is promising. Not sure what Hall does. Tillis has a role as a nice effort guy but not as a guy that should handle the ball or try to generate offense which is what he seems to think he can do. Onyenso can play pretty well. Not sure what Lewis does.
I think Elijah can help if he stops shooting threes and focuses on attacking the basket.
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Iāll also add that Hall came out of the lockerroom late after halftime. Maybe that already discussed? He went into the huddle and Griff was asking āare you good?ā So something might be a little off with him
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We barely beat a top 50ish team that was without a few starters. I was about to bet us to cover and beat the spread in every game in Nov and Dec but going to pull that back now.
With all the offensive tools, seems like team still needs a lot of time to gel. And players need to nail basic defensive positioning.
Just to add: Iām not trying to be negative but honestly expected more given the talent we have even this early on. Talent is night and day from last year. Still excited to see whatās to come.
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Maybe Iām reading too much into to it but I do think we looked a little gassed down the stretch. Maybe we donāt need to pick up end to end every possession
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Itās not what they expect so it throws them off balance and ruins their strategy. At least, thatās what Iām going with here.
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We are streaming live over on the JBDragon Show and taking comments and question about tonightās scrimmage
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It was his primary role at UC Irvine, so I get why thatās his first instinct on offense. But I do think over time heās gonna have to accept more of a role as a pure floor spacer and find his groove as a 3rd or 4th option instead of a 1st or 2nd one. Heās forced some shots and passes that hopefully will become less prevalent as he finds his footing in our rotation. Was impressed with how he held his own in the paint defensively though, did a nice job on the defensive glass.
I understand the criticisms of him to an extent, he definitely has his limits at the 4 and weāll have to find a way to highlight his strengths the best we can. I even questioned during the offseason whether or not we should add a more athletic 4 to give him competition for minutes. But I donāt think heās completely hopeless on the court like some others seemingly do lol.
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Feel sorta shitty saying it and questioning effort, but this guy was hammered during the football game I attended earlier this year and seems to be always having a āgood timeā. I donāt know how seriously he takes it all.
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The broadcast for the entire first half of every game this season is going to spent introducing the players and not talking about basketball.
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They had 4 out of their 5 starters. And Id argue we are more behind the curve since they brought over a few kids from maryland who have played together under their coach. Id also argue Malachi Palmer and Christian the back up pg are better athletes than Lindsay and higher ceiling (and lindsay is their worst defender)
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Agree with this. Overall I feel like every single guy apart from the 5s and maybe Malik are trying to figure out their role. Tillis itās more pronounced because his role can only be fairly narrow.
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Thatās the exact vibe that heās given off and honestly I think that could be great to have on the team but hopefully heās cut from the rotation unless he gets a lot better
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330 posts to find out we won. Got it.
were I not traveling, I would have figured this out 30 minutes ago. Our ingame chat sucks ass.
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