Mailbag: UVA hoops fans, passing time during the bye, let it all hang out

A comment on the system and the players. They have been inconsistent, or your statement, inept, in all their losses, so the system still got 21 wins with, I believe, flawed players.

I had said in earlier email that someone should be working with Ryan Dunn on his shooting motion, and getting him to post up and footwork. Drop step, fake and spin move, use the glass, especially in close. Undersized in the post, use pump fakes. If the player has double team in post, pump fake, freeze the player, kick out.

Maybe have Dunn come off bench, at first TO, to settle in, but his defense and rebounding are so important. Plus Jack Salt, Isaiah Wilkins and Akil Mitchell were only effective on screen and rolls, and mostly putbacks. Kyle Guy may not have started as a freshman, if Mitchell didn’t cover for him on D.

Jordan Minor in the BC win played 22 minutes to Blake Buchanan‘s 18, and wasn’t on court the last five minutes, when Quentin Post scored eight points. I wonder if we have a Kadin Shedrick situation why he’s playing so little. Minor, in the first eight minutes of the Duke game, gave up six points to Kyle Filipowski. When Buchanan was in, Filipowski had 9 or 11. I don’t know who played in second half, but Minor wasn’t in a lot, because they played Dunn in post.

Last comment, confidence. Kyle Guy says there is no word “slump.” You just keep shooting. If Dunn and Rohde are on the floor wide open, don’t hesitate. You hesitate, you lose. The team is deferring to Reece Beekman and Isaac McKneely. When you’re open, don’t think, shoot on rhythm. If you miss, you miss. The next one or, the next one, or the next one will go in. And then, boom, you get hot.

Kevin

Andrew Rohde airballed a free throw at Duke. His confidence is shot. He’s Casey Morsell at this point. A change of scenery (to a program in a lower-level conference) may be in order for him.

Ryan Dunn has not improved as an offensive player. This is a reflection of his specific player development. This staff has had success developing other bigs, but Dunn just is not taking to whatever they’re doing with him.

He’s such a good athlete, and so fluid on defense, that it’s hard to figure how he can’t take those same abilities and be a plus offensive player.

To me, the reason Jordan Minor didn’t play much Saturday was, just a bad matchup for him against Kyle Filipowski. I had written about that in my game preview. I thought Blake Buchanan would be a better fit on Filipowski because BB is more mobile. Dunn eventually made Filipowski work, but it was way too late for it to matter.

I don’t view the offense issue as being shooting-related; I think it’s bad shots, because the offense isn’t creating many good shots. A miss is a miss is a miss is a miss, but there are misses on good looks, and misses because somebody has to shoot it eventually, in a game with a shot clock.

Our guys just didn’t create good shots in the first half.

They adjusted decently at halftime and got Reece Beekman into the lane off high screens, but again, too late.

 

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Given this roster, it’s a minor miracle that we are in third place behind UNC and Duke, who have rosters that are constructed like most of our best teams during Tony Bennett‘s tenure. A few veteran guys that have been in the system four or more years mixed in with young talent. NIL and the transfer portal have opened up a roster revolving door for us. I think Tony will figure it out. He doesn’t strike me as someone who walks away from a challenge.

Just for kicks, I checked on ACC teams’ league records since 2011. 2010-2011 was the last season we had a 0.500 or below record in the ACC. Since then, we are the only ACC team that hasn’t had a 0.500 or below record in the ACC. Not UNC. Not Duke. UVA. Pretty damn remarkable. Take care and keep the thoughts coming.

Alan

That’s a great point that Alan makes there. Everybody else in the league, including supposedly mighty UNC and Duke, has gone through at least one down year, and Tony hasn’t since he got things ramped up.

That’s great perspective.

I get so many emails from fans who want to throw the baby out with the bath water.

People need to remember the 15 years before Tony got the job.

 

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UVA looks very weak. When they lose Reece Beekman next year, they could very well be a sub-500 squad. Coach’s philosophy has hit a wall. Others have figured it out.

David

I don’t see things that way. There are guys in the wings. None of them are Beekman yet. Elijah Gertrude is super athletic. Christian Bliss could be a baller for us at the point.

The personnel don’t fit the scheme this year. And yet, 21 wins.

 

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You are very knowledgeable in regards to basketball history. Has any other Hall of Fame coach won a national championship and instead of capitalizing by gathering highly recruited players and continuing to make deep tournament runs, you recruit worse than you have ever done and can’t win a single tournament game.

It is mind-boggling. This team is just unwatchable. It is not like this team will be any good next year.  It is sad to see the decline.

Russell

My unscientific thinking on where UVA basketball is right now is …

The advantage that one gets in terms of recruiting from winning a national championship isn’t necessarily in the next recruiting class, for us, the Class of 2019, because by the time you’re cutting down the nets, you’ve already got what you’re going to get for the incoming class.

So, it’s 2020, at the earliest.

The bulk of kids even a year out are committed even by the spring a year early, but maybe you swing a kid based on a situation, like we flipped Justin Anderson when Gary Williams retired.

OK, so, then: the freshmen and sophomores in high school are your focus.

We couldn’t touch them for 18 months because of COVID.

Recruiting was done by Zoom for 2020 and 2021.

By the time the world is back on its axis, our national title is a distant memory.

Tony had some big misses – Jabri Abdur-Rahim is basically a replacement-level player at Georgia, Casey Morsell is the same at NC State.

We weren’t alone in thinking those kids were going to be stars at this level.

Beekman and Dunn are going to be NBA guys; I don’t know that we get NBA-level play out of Dunn before he leaves, unfortunately for us.

Tony plugged holes from the portal OK a couple years ago with Armaan Franklin and Jayden Gardner; this year, not so much with Andrew Rohde and Jordan Minor, and we’re getting about half a guy out of what we get from Jake Groves.

On paper, I like what Tony has for next year – Christian Bliss projects well, Elijah Gertrude just needs to learn how to play within the system, iMac is due a quantum leap, maybe we get one more year of Dunn.

But, yeah. We’re back to where we were before the 2013-2014 season.

And I don’t know that the way college basketball has evolved/devolved (NIL, transfer portal) suits itself well to the way Bennett needs to recruit, acclimate players to his system, and develop.

Our moment may have passed.