I remember thinking it was odd that Isaac McKneely’s entire family was at Senior Day – they stood out because they all look like iMac, down to the same haircut (for the males).
The DNA, indeed, is strong in that clan.
We all knew by then that Ron Sanchez wasn’t going to be retained – it wasn’t official, but it was plainly obvious.
As much as I would try to convince myself otherwise over the past few weeks, I knew then that, the McKneelys were at JPJ for Senior Day because that was going to be it for them as far as UVA Basketball was concerned.
Which gets us to where we are today, and the much wailing and gnashing of the teeth over McKneely going on right now on social media and in my email inbox.
If I can just say, there was a reason that I wrote the column I did earlier today on the behind-the-scenes assessment of McKneely by the new coaching staff.
ICYMI
It wasn’t intended as a takedown of iMac, but more as insight into what the coaches were thinking about in terms of his talent, and their assessment that he isn’t a good fit for the new offensive and defensive systems that will be implemented under Ryan Odom.
Now, that said, Louisville coach Pat Kelsey obviously has a different perspective on McKneely’s game than Odom does.
I’d imagine that Kelsey sees McKneely as his next Reyne Smith, who was able to put up 13.1 points per game this past season with almost all of his shots being threes (89.0 percent of his attempts were threes, which is just absurd).
McKneely (69.4 percent of his shot attempts this past season were threes, almost, but not quite, absurd) will slot into that role just fine, it would seem.
Odom, for his part, likes his off-guards to be able to be effective both from the perimeter and off dribble penetration, and he needs them to be disruptive on defense.
Those aren’t strengths for McKneely, and that’s not a knock on the kid – and it’s not knocking him to say that he’s not an NBA player because of those limitations.
I’m not privy to the particulars of what, if anything, he was offered in terms of NIL compensation to finish out his college career at Virginia, but I do know that the new coaching staff didn’t make it a priority to keep him on board, if it would take blowing the roster budget to be able to do so.
Against that backdrop, I’m all for iMac getting his bag at Louisville; it’s almost certain that he’s going to make more money at Louisville next year than he ever will in his life going forward.
And as for Odom, it wouldn’t be fair to expect him to hitch his wagon to a kid whose skillset doesn’t match up to what he needs, given that coaching is a competitive business like any other.
You don’t just give kids NIL money because they led a team in scoring or had how many ever stars beside their name from the recruiting services.
You want fit, and Ryan Odom knows what fits into the way he wants to play basketball.
Now, I fully expect Isaac McKneely to be a double-digit scorer at Louisville next season, and I expect him to get there by jacking up a lot of threes, and otherwise sweating out defensive possessions like I sweat out driving I-64 over Afton Mountain on a foggy night.
(My heart just missed a beat thinking about I-64, Afton and fog. iMac’s I-64, Afton and fog is Kon Kneuppel.)
There aren’t any bad guys in this story.
Well, OK, there’s Kon Kneuppel, and then, also, there’s me – I allowed myself to take a peek at a certain message board this afternoon, and I still don’t get it, the vitriol aimed at me, but whatever.
Hate on me all day long.
I’m not faulting Ryan Odom or Isaac McKneely here, so, just leave them alone.
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Chris Graham
