Yeah, those bastards made me think we had a chance.
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Off the beaten path reflections after just finishing the game.
Our defense is so damn bad now. Weāve entirely gone away from what made us good first half of season.
Cofie was especially atrocious. lol to anyone who thinks heās a definite NBA prospect right now. Dai dai a close second on defense.
I will say: VT hit a shit ton of hard contested shots. Normally we win that won. Felt like we stuck through it mentally - but we never showed defensive maturity at one point during the game.
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How many times did Dai Dai end up on Lawal in the paint. Young is no dummy. He said if UVA stupid enough to do that switch, weāll keep encouraging them.
As for Cofie, I must agree I have had thought that for a while, but didnāt have the courage to say it amidst all the Cofie love. His defense yesterday was atrocious, both in decisions and execution. His offense is very limited for a freshman who is going to improve enough to play in the bigs. Of course, I was a guy who didnāt think Trey was a first, or maybe even a second round choice when he decided to leave. May have missed that one.
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Yeah Cofie may come around, I just donāt think you can say heās an nba talent right now.
Was it only Dai Dai who was addicted to that defensive switch or was that a more general decision? I recall watching Dai Dai wave away a big guy a few times.
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They only started switching because they were getting burnt on the hedge. The hedging defender was taking too long to recover back to the roller (or the other off ball defenders werenāt helping on the roller enough), so the ballhandlerās defender would drop off the ballhandler to cut off the pass the roller. But then that left way too much space for some threes.
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Was gone all yesterday at a international piano competition with my daughter, so I didnāt see the game, but I watched the condensed version this morning and then forced myself to start watching the full gameā¦ I will say our defense was fine the first four minutes and none of those fouls were actual fouls and when a team feels, theyāre getting a bad whistle and is afraid to touch somebody because of foul trouble it will absolutely affect their defense, the rest of the game. And it did.
I would have been fine with Blake going off on the refs after the 2nd foul call and getting kicked outā¦ the first call was literally a Thomas Edison and the 2nd was either cheating or ineptitude.
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Hi, my name is Hamilton and Iām a Virginia basketball fan.
Not to make fun of or mock a serious matter in the real world, but Iām planing on AA-style 12 steps program for recovery from an unhealthy relationship with UVa basketball. Yeah, I was always a social UVa basketball fan - sure I binged a bit on weekends back in the day - but I wasnāt like obsessed, you know? Could only indulge a bit, like when Street & Smithās came out. Okay, maybe I started going down the rabbit hole when I wanted to subscribe to a high school recruiting service, but my home life was still good, even if a bit rocky in mid-Feb through March Madness (my wife - āhey you need to go to bed, workās tomorrow.ā Me, āno I gotta watch New Mexico State/Washington tip off at 1:08 AM, Iāll get in bed after that.ā 2+ hours later, Iām completely strung out after an 87-69 game).
Then I discovered message boards and the computer. Not content with just the Sabre, I needed more. I needed premium content, I needed recruiting rankings, news about the shoe circuit - I needed it 365 days a year and I didnāt give a damn as I consumed all of it. I learned to get sneaky after a few ill-advised hot takes where I quoted a poster, by poster name, over the dinner table. It was bad, but so was Virginia basketball so I played the sympathy angle with family and friends and at work while arguing with Arden of Sabre infamy in an incredibly long and convoluted thread - it looked like rock bottom, but I still had a way to go to hit the deep end.
Then CTB showed up - after a few years Virginia basketball was good and Tony was a darling for his looks, genuine humility, and winning in a way that made everyone feel good about the new guys sitting at the top of the ACC. I could talk about UVa basketball openly like a bottle of wine with friends over dinner. But it hid the dark, dark secret - Iām on 3 message boards, know the composite ranking of every potential recruit and am tracking Tony all summer through some guy named HGN. Itās not wine over dinner, itās like coke at 2 am working due diligence for Goldman bad. Peoeple want to say something, but the winning, like the $2 million bonus that made up for completely abandoning everything that looks like a real life (not true about the bonus), make it easy to brush them off.
2018, 2019, the low, the high, the anticipation that I could continue down the addictive path I was on and all would be fine because we were talking dynasty - there was an unlimited supply of Pappy on the horizon.
Then Covid, NIL, unlimited transfers, the $ - suddenly people from Alabama are giving me shit about how good their BASKETBALL team is and Iām sitting there on LRA after watching us slowly descend over a few years with nothing but my online friends at the local internet watering hole with my figurative 7th Jack and Ginger. My wife tries to help me out, my kids are like āDad, itāll get better - next yearās recruiting class/transfers will solve everything.ā
I think I needed this year - itās almost like I was with Tony and Laurel in spirit at the Tides Inn. I needed to go cold turkey - I needed to lose to Mike Young and VT because they were the better coach and team (I still loathe each and every one of the six-fingered inbreds with a passion, but itās telling that none of my VT acquaintances even cared about enough about beating us to send me a shit-talking text).
Thatās my story and Iām taking it one day at a time.
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Given the poor facilities and lack of NIL money to attract top talent, my assertion is that Mike Young is the top coach and talent evaluator in the ACC. The way he puts together these teams from nothing, and then coaches them up, is truly impressive.
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I dont disagree at all
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Legitimately would take MY over a lot of the options being thrown around. Would be fascinating to see him with resources. Iām 100% sure heās better than Capel, Miller, etc. (wonāt throw in a casual Odom shot here even though I want to, just for @haney)
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You guys are starting to lose it.
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Just to be a contrarian
One team had almost their entire team hit the portal and that coach with limited resources put together his team. The other teamās coach bailed on his team not even two weeks before the first game.
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For as bad as the defense was most of the game, they āclosedā well except for 4 points Lawal got on the mismatch (and one of those was an offensive foul off the forearm clear-out that the refs missed and somehow called Cofie for a hit to the back?). The other 2 points came from a runner that was well-executed. All told, VPI built a 69-56 lead with 6:33 left ā and those were the only points we gave up after (4 to Lawal, 2 to Hammond).
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Also just shoot it better and we win easily ā¦ 8/23 from 3 is a losing effortā¦. And it could easily have been 9/24 if only Sahara saw 10 on the last play.
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On that last play I was wondering if Taine realized we were only down 1. Rather than camp at the 3-point line he could have run at the hoop and maybe (?) Rohde would have given him the ball for an uncontested layup
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For some reason I thought we needed three ā¦ to win
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Complimenting anything tech on a uva board? Even if Itās 1% warranted?
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Keeping my theme of having a positive for every gameā¦
Was watching the condensed game with my 12 year old and when we were down 21-18 he goes - the Hoos need to play better - they are only at 6/7 (six sevenths) of Techā¦
Yay math teachers!!!
Hint - heās only ever had one math teacher.
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Watching these post game player pressers is sad. Feel for IMac
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