I don't even watch games anymore, I just jack off to advanced metrics

1/14/2018 10:43:36 PM

About what I expected, I didn't see our offense having a good night against UVA. Glad we never quit, especially Dorn who had a nice little run in the second half until I think he did his patented travel at the three point line.

1/14/2018 10:47:15 PM

They're replaying the game, so i did watch the early foul on Y7 and it was total bullshit. The UVA player was boxing him out low, and then when Yurt jumped straight up, legally, the UVA player backed up so that Y7 kind of landed on his back.

mamba loves encouraging that style of play, though.

1/15/2018 2:03:56 AM

Quote :

"ive seen boxing out like that called a foul but they called yurt over the back on the first play of the game when the guy was down at his knees boxing out. i dunno. "

^
its what you are supposed to do but i was tight about it because i feel like we got called for it on a key play at some point in the past.

1/15/2018 5:15:02 AM

Quote :

"Al Freeman needs to be second string in a bad way. "

i know he's totally inefficient and flat out bad at times. i'm not really defending him. but his role on this team is almost entirely a product of the team just being not very good overall.

one of freeman's worst qualities, imo, is penetrating and getting to the goal without drawing a foul. obviously taking bad shots is a bad quality too. but he can get the to rim with decent success...but seems to avoid contact instead of embracing it and trying to get to the line.

1/15/2018 7:09:33 AM

Quote :

" his role on this team is almost entirely a product of the team just being not very good overall. "

If that's true, and I don't know that it is, then that's even more of a reason for him to come off the bench. If our team is terrible this year, then give those minutes to players who will be here.

I think he also may be the worst defender among the guards too.

[Edited on January 15, 2018 at 1:11 PM. Reason : d]

1/15/2018 1:11:26 PM

Wait, so there are people who hate Freeman but didn't hate Maverick Rowan? Buncha goddamn racists here.

1/15/2018 1:43:05 PM

^^he's kinda the only 2 guard on the team that can handle the ball. batts is not a threat to shoot at all. markell's 3PT% is improved this year, but still pretty low on attempts...but it's encouraging that his shot does seem improved. markell and batts are pretty much just true PGs. hunt can't handle the ball. braxton is inconsistent with his shot, but is certainly a capable shooter. obviously freeman has been a bad 3PT shooter this year, but just statistically he should be better given his career.

i completely agree that he's inefficient and am not at all opposed to his minutes going down...he doesn't need to be playing 35 mins/game. just pointing out that he fills a role that nobody else on the team can really fill. unfortunately he's been pretty bad at filling that role this year.

1/15/2018 2:56:40 PM

Batts is shooting a higher % from the field while also not being a blackhole on offense and being our best on-ball defender. He has averaged half the minutes as Freeman (although that has changed a bit since ACC play started).

Johnson is shooting a MUCH higher % from the field (and from 3) while being great on D as well and he gets 10 minutes a game less than Freeman.

About the only possible reason why you play Freeman as much as KK has is that he can rebound the basketball better than those two. Either that, or KK made him a playing time deal to show him off for scouts since we looked to be so thin at the time. As far as I am concerned, you drop Freeman to 15-18 min a game and split the difference between Batts and Markell.

Quote :

"Wait, so there are people who hate Freeman but didn't hate Maverick Rowan? Buncha goddamn racists here."

Noone said anything like that. I hated Gott's inexplicable love affair for Rowan as much as anyone. That said, even Rowan didn't shoot as terribly as Al Freeman has this season. He also took mostly open shots. His minutes and his defense were the major problems.

1/15/2018 4:18:30 PM

Quote :

"Batts is shooting a higher % from the field while also not being a blackhole on offense and being our best on-ball defender. He has averaged half the minutes as Freeman (although that has changed a bit since ACC play started). Johnson is shooting a MUCH higher % from the field (and from 3) while being great on D as well and he gets 10 minutes a game less than Freeman. "

Batts is a terrible 3PT shooter. and markell has improved his shot this year...but he still doesn't shoot many. freeman should be a better 3PT shooter than he is based on his career...obviously we're almost halfway through the year and his numbers aren't improving. that probably means they won't improve. we'll see how things change now that markell's back...obviously batts is playing better now too. so somebody's minutes will go down. and i hope it's al freeman's minutes. it is kinda hard to compare markell or batts to freeman because they are different positions and styles.

i think the Mav comment was probably directed at me since i got in a few arguments because i didn't agree that he was the worst player in the world.

1/15/2018 4:40:48 PM

The way Batts and Beverly have come along is nice, that combined with Markell back, and Allerik needs to ride the bench if he is not going to play team ball. He looked like a different player against Duke and Clemson. Hunt shoots better than he does and he barely saw the court last night.

1/15/2018 5:23:20 PM

we have never won in that building? I just wanted to go over this because some people say virginia plays bad basketball but the execution is briliant. in this game you could see 2 simple actions and uva players make the correct read and execute everytime based on which mistake the incompetent defense makes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IEohBBWM9k

30 seconds- first score of the game. jerome curls off of a downscreen and gets a wide open layup because dorn goes over the screen and stays behind him. yurt should be in help but is too far out in full deny and doesn't see the ball. this set the tone for the whole game

they do this all day to people who play with too much pressure. pressure works well against gottfried type teams but you can't do it against a team with plays.


Some version of this simple action killed us all night. yurt began to drift into the paint to stop layups like jeromes first one and the screener was able to pop wide open all night. this either led to an open jumpshot or a frantic closeout by our bigs. abu and yurt went for every pump fake which then allowed further penetration and layup or kick to a wiiiiide open shooter

The highlight at 42 seconds starts with our guys already being off balance recovering to one of those kicks. they are patient and the domino effect of the downscreen causes each of our players to be out of position on subsequent passes.

:57seconds- basic dribble handoff but same affect as before. guard can't keep his man out of the paint so the big also goes with the ball leaving the "screener" wide open.

1:06 jerome catches off the same curl with batts on his back and scores easily because dorn stayed home on the screener

1:18 same exact downscreen action but l freeman helps on the curl leaving the screener wide open on the baseline but al freeman is ball watching and hall relocates for the wide open 3 on the pass back

1:49 batts is pressuring the ball far out and gets beat off the dribble. everyone helps into the paint and hall gets a wide open 3 because wilkins sealed markell into the paint

2:00 ball screen takes 2 defenders and the helpside defender crashes the paint to prevent an easy layup on the screener rolling to the basket. a simple skip pass gives a wide open 3. (yurt actually fouls him about 3 seconds after the shot)

2:45 guy curls brings two defenders and kicks it to the screener (all day, right?)

im out of time for now but might be able to finish later. stay tuned...

1/15/2018 11:42:38 PM

still remains to be seen if they can succeed in the NCAA tourney. refs in the big dance actually call fouls on UVA.

[Edited on January 16, 2018 at 12:13 AM. Reason : succeed = live up to your regular season success in the postseason, when it matters]

1/16/2018 12:08:22 AM

also nobody is really saying it's "bad" basketball...just not as exciting as other styles of basketball. sucking the life of the ball and game isn't fun for a fan of the opponent. but yes...it's well executed and very successful in the reg season for them.

1/16/2018 5:40:37 AM

Did Earl just make up his own question as am excuse to write out 5 paragraphs or did someone actually post that?

Quote :

" just statistically he should be better given his career. "

I would bet/assume his Baylor 3's were much open as he was a secondary scorer (I thought). Prob way more catch and shoot rather than off the dribble. I have zero proof for this theory

1/16/2018 8:54:32 AM

Quote :

"Did Earl just make up his own question as am excuse to write out 5 paragraphs or did someone actually post that?"

Yes. Yes he did.

Had he wanted to at least tangentially address my point that it was ugly basketball (regardless of how flawlessly executed it was), he might have at least talked about their defensive execution.

And a large part of my point about

1/16/2018 12:07:53 PM

^^ yeah I’m sure he was like the #3 option at Baylor. A lot different than #1 option.

1/16/2018 12:51:07 PM

Quote :

"This may be blasphemous, but I'm glad Bennett isn't our coach. His brand of basketball is so damn ugly, I barely like watching our team play them. I can't imagine having to watch them twice a week."

Its not just you. This kind of thing has been said here a lot and is common amongst fans who tune in to see dunks and threes.

Quote :

"succeed = live up to your regular season success in the postseason, when it matters]"

Every game matters. Also, this is not a fair way to assess success because a team who overachieves in the regular season didn't fail just because they overachieved less in the postseason. Hypothetically, by your standards. Duke could squeak into the tournament, and succeed by making it to the round of 32. That would be an awful assessment of a failed season. Talent matters and UVA is always outperforming their talent until they run into teams with superior talent but enough coaching to eventually bring that talent around. These successful tournament programs are programs like Michigan State and UNC where they have exceptional talent and coaching.

The last 4 years, UVA has been eliminated by Izzo twice, Boeheim and they lost to Florida last year. They aren't really being upset.

Quote :

" he might have at least talked about their defensive execution. "

Its not worth talking about. No one in their right mind would criticize UVA's defense and anyone who does is too far gone to reason with.

Their offense on the other hand is something that may understandably be perceieved as weak. The goal of offense is to score points and their point totals are often low which is why it needs defending. They also aren't very efficient on offense because they have rules. Its beautiful to watch a team stick to the script. To me, one guy dribbling and throwing up a shot out of iso is ugly basketball.

[Edited on January 16, 2018 at 9:25 PM. Reason : this all stems from people who wanted lowe over bennett refusing to admit they were wrong about him]

1/16/2018 9:16:37 PM

*throws out my back looking around to find the people that give a shit*

1/16/2018 9:23:27 PM

Quote :

"and is common amongst fans who tune in to see dunks and threes postseason success"

1/16/2018 9:41:36 PM

^^ lol

1/16/2018 9:49:01 PM

If winning an ACC tournament and making an elite 8 isn't postseason success, then there are only a few successful teams (between 1 and 4) every year.

[Edited on January 16, 2018 at 10:06 PM. Reason : tuning into the last 2 weekends of a 5 month season is going to leave you uninformed.]

[Edited on January 16, 2018 at 10:07 PM. Reason : TT10: wait let me see a SMALLER sample size and base my analysis on that]

1/16/2018 10:04:48 PM

I'd love to go 30-4 and not even make it past the first weekend of the real tournament

1/16/2018 10:13:11 PM

The time they lost is not really important. They lost to an underseeded final four team with a hall of fame coach.

[Edited on January 16, 2018 at 10:23 PM. Reason : thats the beauty of the tournament. all but 1 team lose their last game but more than 1 suceed]

1/16/2018 10:22:20 PM

Every time Duke loses to Mercer or Lehigh, or UNC loses to Weber State, I'm sure they celebrate their great regular seasons, since games in November and April are identical according to you.

1/16/2018 10:43:07 PM

unc has top 10 talent every year. duke usually top 5.

[Edited on January 16, 2018 at 10:53 PM. Reason : apples and oranges. nice trie though.]

1/16/2018 10:53:10 PM

when you can't dispute my point, just ignore it

#TheMambaWay

1/16/2018 10:58:57 PM

Gottfried wins two postseason games: WHO CARES

Bennett wins 3: SO SUCCESSFUL

1/16/2018 11:15:23 PM

Remember when Gottfried won the ACC and didn't sneak into the NCAA tournament based on scheduling?

1/16/2018 11:30:22 PM

Are you the one that says postseason wins are mostly meaningless? If not you're not the one image arguing with.

Earl says sweet 16s are worthless bc they are just random wins. But 3 random wins to get to the elite 8 or win acc tourney are all of a sudden important. Gott Alsop frequently won 2 games in acc tourney and lost to excellent teams/coache in both acc and ncaa (unc, Duke, Kansas, Louisville)

Im not a dummy in here arguing that Gott is on Bennetts level, just saying Earl can't keep his nonsense postseason criteria straight

1/16/2018 11:47:13 PM

^^I remember when UVA won the ACC, yet State Gott further in the tourney

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_NCAA_Division_I_Men%27s_Basketball_Tournament#East_Regional_%E2%80%93_Syracuse,_New_York

[Edited on January 16, 2018 at 11:48 PM. Reason : .]

1/16/2018 11:47:43 PM

If state had a meh season but then won the tourney or made a final four and some state fan told me how it was just random and you really need to look at the full season, I would know to never again talk to that person about state sports

1/17/2018 12:06:52 AM

I don't get why sample size is such a difficult concept for people to grasp. Even if you only watch basketball in March, you still see the records. 1 big win doesn't erase a bad season and 1 big loss doesn't erase a good season. Making the final four takes 4 wins in a row with each subsequent win being exponentially more difficult. 4 is a much more significant sample size than 1 or 2.

The tournament is volatile and all teams lose except one but regular season record has a strong correlation to postseason success. Anything can happen in one game but 30 games is almost always more indicative of who you are.

This is why most major sports play a series or aggregate. Sample size reduces the occurrence flukes.

[Edited on January 17, 2018 at 12:43 AM. Reason : k]

1/17/2018 12:41:53 AM

I prefer the 1 game sample size of the national championship game. Championships aren't awarded for most regular season wins.

1/17/2018 12:54:31 AM

The championship is a 6 game sample size. 6 games increasingly difficult games. Most teams are not even capable of winning 6 games in a row against good competition.

Quote :

" SEED FINAL FOUR CHAMP. GAME NATIONAL CHAMP. 1 54 32 20 2 28 12 5 3 15 10 4 4 13 3 1 5 6 3 0 6 3 2 1 7 3 1 1 8 5 3 1 "

Its very unlikely for a non top 3 seed to win it all. Its only discussed here because of 83.

[Edited on January 17, 2018 at 1:11 AM. Reason : i live on data]

[Edited on January 17, 2018 at 1:13 AM. Reason : kiss my assymptote]

1/17/2018 1:10:26 AM

The purpose of the regular season in college basketball is to make the NCAA tournament. Then, all anybody has to do is win 6 (or 7) games in a row and they're the champions of the entire country of college basketball. Obviously you'd rather have a good regular season to get a higher seed and easier road, but the reason the Kansas' and UCLAs and UNCs and Dukes of the world are great are from postseason success, period. You're basically saying Gonzaga is more impressive than UConn, which is ridiculous.

1/17/2018 1:13:15 AM

Earl'd

1/17/2018 2:22:10 AM

Quote :

"Making the final four takes 4 wins in a row with each subsequent win being exponentially more difficult. "

What a ridiculous claim to make. Even if you had said incrementally instead of exponentially that is not always true. Teams follow a hard win with an easy win all the dang time.

1/17/2018 7:15:23 AM

32 teams win 1 game
16 teams win 2 games
8 teams win 3 games
4 teams win 4 games
2 teams win 5 games
1 team wins 6 games

see the pattern?

I never said the OPPONENTS were exponentially harder and I'm speaking in terms of general trends. Obviously, ther are wild exceptions that occur every once in a while, but I'm dealing in statistical probability. I'm not TT10. I'm not going to base my whole analysis on teams like 1983 ncstate and 2014 UCONN

[Edited on January 17, 2018 at 8:26 PM. Reason : keep em honest]

1/17/2018 8:23:36 PM

"more difficult" /= "low probability"

1/17/2018 8:45:24 PM

Gonzaga is a better program than UConn, per Earl

And no shit higher seeds have better success than lower seeds, on average. But they don't hang banners for being a high seed.

The goal is to climb Everest, not to have the coolest jacket and sleeping bag

[Edited on January 17, 2018 at 9:10 PM. Reason : .]

1/17/2018 8:58:17 PM

You are the only one who has mentioned Gonzaga. Gonzaga likely would end up with a similar record to UCONN in the same conference. 30-4 in the ACC is not the same as Gonzaga.

1/18/2018 4:11:59 AM

Zaga and Virginia both have no championships, smart guy

1/18/2018 12:48:50 PM

well i agree to disagree if you think winning the national championship is the only way to succeed.

1/18/2018 3:40:21 PM