Mailbag: More on the minutes for Andrew Rohde, lack of killer instinct with a lead?

Thoughts on Rohde, emergence of Groves, Minor

I’m wracking my brain as to why CTB keeps starting and playing Andrew Rohde. He is pretty young, maybe he thinks he could develop into a poor man’s Ty Jerome?

The problem is unlike Jerome, Rohde is not offensively inclined at all, at least not at this level, he can’t get his own shot and really needs too much time to even be assisted. I will say he’s a pretty good passer, but as you point out with his plus/minus rating, it doesn’t work out in our favor.

I wish Taine Murray would look for his shot more. Certainly, he’s no panacea, either, but as you’ve mentioned, he really doesn’t make mistakes and will at least usually hit open shots.

Thank goodness Jake Groves has come along because, as usual with UVA, the offensive droughts are painful and too frequent.

Obviously thank goodness for Jordan Minor as well, completely changed the toughness of the team and rebounding.

But the defense has tightened up, and as we know from the past 10-plus years, when they win, it’s usually ugly with defense and offensively somewhat in spite of themselves.

So, my bellyaching aside it’s more of the same old, which, while not always pretty to watch, leads to a lot of Ws.

– Eric

My solution, in terms of the lineup, would be to use Jake Groves in the spot that Rohde is in, alongside Reece Beekman and Isaac McKneely in the backcourt, with Ryan Dunn and Minor in the frontcourt.

More minutes for that five-man lineup should be beneficial.

You’d have two guys shooting near 50 percent from the three-point line, Beekman getting to the lane, and Dunn/Minor getting rebounds and rolling to the basket off screens.

In terms of defense, Eric is right on here with how the D has stepped up of late. In the six-game winning streak, UVA has allowed opponents 0.796 points per possession, accounting for garbage time, according to data from EvanMiya.com.

That’s the influence of having Minor in the post, which makes it so that Bennett doesn’t have to use post doubles as often.

That, in turn, reduces the number of open looks on the perimeter, which had been an issue before Minor’s emergence.

– Chris

Killer instinct

In so many recent games I have seen this team build a lead, and then play not to lose, instead of playing to win. Is it Tony’s way of being kind to the opponent, not to embarrass the opponent with a blowout loss? Do you share the same opinion?

Thanks for reading this. I’m a big ‘Hoos fan.

– Russ

I don’t think that’s what we saw yesterday. Clemson made some adjustments to what they were doing offensively, spreading the floor a little more to get the ball to PJ Hall, and it worked, at least to get him to the foul line.

In the Notre Dame and Louisville games, our guys got a big lead, and then Tony went to the bench, not because of a lack of killer instinct, but because if you can preserve minutes for later in the season, you do that.

I think that’s a sign of maturity as a coach on the part of Tony. I remember writing back in the Malcolm Brogdon era about how Tony would ride his starters for 35+ minutes a game, and to me, that was a reason our teams would peter out in March.

Only Beekman and McKneely are averaging over 30 minutes a game, and they’re both at just 31 a game right now.

It’s a long season.

That’s my thinking. Great question.

– Chris