I have a suggestion about a pet peeve of mind. This site need a quote button. I dont know half the shit people responding tu or who they responding tu. Oh yeah, what thread do you discuss a topic on. I forget which thread im on. Plus I forget which thread I posted on.
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If you highlight part of someoneās post, a āquoteā button will pop up allowing you to quote it in a response.
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The lack of athletic or quick players has really hurt us already this year. I hope recruiting will turn to that now.
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I honestly agree with Tu here. It can be difficult to follow convos without the actual post not being quoted. Love this place so far, so I hope this can be addressedā¦at least a less clunkier way than to highlight, I meanā¦
For example!
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Good grief. You lost me at āa top AAU guy saidā¦ā. Bennett has been winning at an unprecedented level at UVA, coming off a championship the last time one was played, and having finished last season winning 11 of 12 games, including Duke, UNC, FSU, and Louisville. And now you want to draw broad conclusions about this year after 4 games when he is integrating 6 new guys who are competing for playing time - 2 transfers, a redshirt, and 3 freshmen. The guy deserves some respect.
He took last yearās gang that couldnāt shoot straight and turned them into a winner. His offense in the last several years has evolved to fit his personnel once he figures out what heās got. He went from sides in ā18 to CBS in ā19 to high screen and roll with Kihei penetrating last year, and started off this year working on a five-out. To say he doesnāt adjust his offense is absurd.
As for Jabri, when he learns to play defense and is more effective on offense than the guys in front of him, heāll play. To organize an offense around a freshman that hasnāt earned his way into the floor yet is preposterous. There are plenty of failed coaches who have promised young kids playing time who havenāt earned it and in the process lose the rest of their team.
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I just donāt think heās the offensive threat he was hyped to be. Just an opinion. If you define that as giving up on a kid, well, you do you.
And duke-ish? Those dorks wish they were as awesome as me.
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I really, donāt think we are throwing things against the wall. I think Tony is experimenting and implementing our offense. I will be surprised if we donāt come together offensively.
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Last thing Iāll add here, just speaking for myself, is when I critique our offense and talk about what isnāt working, I do it because I think itās fun and interesting to talk about and think thatās what message boards are for. I think Tony is a top 3 basketball coach in the sport right now, and wouldnāt trade him for anyone (hope he stays here until he retires). But I think heād be the first to acknowledge that sometimes the team, and he, need to adapt and improve, and itās fun for us to watch and talk about. I think the Tony who won the championship is a much better coach than the Tony who coached our Elite Eight loss to Syracuse, and I think heās going to continue getting better. And I think part of that is figuring out how to make more of our teams avoid the stretches of painful offensive output that many previous iterations of our team have gone through.
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I do think he is experimenting and as we go forward will start to settle on things that work. But per brogdonfanpageās post above, the way we are wildly oscillating between types of offense in games we are at very real risk of losing doesnāt suggest to me we are just comfortably experimenting. Feels a little more pressured than that. But who knows - CTB is pretty much always calm and collected and gets the bigger picture.
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My point is thereās plenty of room for him to develop and our program is known for it. Justin Anderson was not a good 3-pt shooter until the first half of his last year. But he was great in other ways.
I never understood why some people thought Morsell was a great offensive player in high school. He was a gritty scorer when his team needed him to be, but he was never a catch and release shooter. His calling card was defense. Heās about the only AAU player Iāve ever seen who relished playing defense. Other guys on his team were the scorers. Now, he is definitely shooting worse at UVA than I thought he would but I wasnāt expecting early offense from him, just great defense.
If Morsellās development is like Devon Hall, weāre all going to be very satisfied with his career.
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If he wasnāt ever seen as a huge offensive threat Iām not sure why you make him your #1 top priority recruitā¦and as a shooting guard no less.
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I agree and feel thatās why we are seeing the vast array of offensive sets. I think our niche is going to be a destination for wings and feel he is installing offensive systems to magnify their skills offensively.
I agree and think he does have a plan thus the calm demeanorā¦for now. However, I do sense he is reigning them in a little now and instilling discipline.
I donāt think people were expecting great offense. Just werenāt expecting historically bad offense. We certainly didnāt expect a 39% three point shooter in the EYBL to shoot 18% in college or the WCAC co-player of the year to be the worst offensive guard in the entire conference by numerous metrics.
You are correct there is a lot of time for improvement. And he already looks better than last year. But I donāt understand any calls that Casey deserves a longer leash and more opportunity. Heās had plenty. Casey needs to keep grinding in practice and capitalize in games and show he can be trusted.
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Well-stated!
I suspect he was seen as a comp for Devon Hall, who had a pretty terrific career here and was leaving as Morsell would be arriving. As a recruit Iād describe Morsell as an elite defender with long arms who can guard 3 positions (possibly 4 at times), a competent scorer, a strong body, ego-less team player. And perhaps he was seen as the best fit for our program as we were trying to make inroads in the DMV.
Now, his offense definitely needs improvement, but Iām just not expecting him to have it all put together by game 4 of his second year. His stats, with the exception of shooting percentage, compare well to Devon Hallās first two years and Ty Jeromeās first year.
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Yeah, if the goal for the recruit youāre laser focused on, is to be a major contributor in year 4 (and Iām not saying it is) then you need new goals.
Thrilled as I can be that Devonās career ended as strongly as his did (full season, not last game obviously) but that shouldnāt be the goal.
I take a stab, CTB won UVA a national championship by establishing a program built on his principles and he kept true to them. He did not get in a run an gun game against superior athletes
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It doesnāt have to be Year 4. Iām just saying donāt lose faith after Year 1 and some change.
Devon Hall was the first PG signed in his class, ahead of London, although he may not have been a long sought recruit by Bennett. But I think we can agree that Bennett honed in on Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome as his preferred recruits very, very early. Well, Morsell had as many starts in his freshman year as Hall, Guy, and Jerome combined. Other than shooting percentage, his other stats compare favorably to those guys. They all had more time to develop before much was expected of them but they all ended up with incredible careers.
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