Official Virginia game thread?

[Bayside44]

http://syracusefan.com/threads/tired.87803/

That certainly wasn't Nolan Richardson's 40 minutes of hell out there. They're a limited bunch, a bunch of role guys asked to do a lot.

 

[Ghost]

The deep bench crowd was screaming for BJ - well you saw a lot of that.

This team is short 4 guys the staff thought they'd have - and will end up 500 in conference with a bunch of push losses.

People write here like they're being let down by Pearl, Carmelo, and DC.

I think the way the 40 minute people argue is always disingenuous. Nobody is arguing for 40 minutes of Johnson, or Roberson. Or ever have. I'm glad we saw "a lot of that" I guess, but I haven't read a lot of send Cooney, G, and everyone else to the showers for a half so we can play the bench gigantic minute threads.

 

[Bayside44]

I think the way the 40 minute people argue is always disingenuous. Nobody is arguing for 40 minutes of Johnson, or Roberson. Or ever have. I'm glad we saw "a lot of that" I guess, but I haven't read a lot of send Cooney, G, and everyone else to the showers for a half so we can play the bench gigantic minute threads.

It's a massively frustrating season...our usual sparks off the bench are in our starting 5. If G or Cooney doesn't have it we have no where really to go.

 

[cuseguy]

We have 8 players. Four can't contribute.

The coaches made some recruiting errors.

 

[realorange]

We have 8 players. Four can't contribute.

The coaches made some recruiting errors.

You have two injured starters on the bench. I guess he should have recruited for that.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Can we please just post Rak up. And pass him the ball successfully. Please. Pretty please.

We've been trying the pick-n-roll unsuccessfully for like an hour straight now.

It's Senior night. Let him shoot it a little.

Honestly, I didn't understand for a minute what we were trying to do with Rak at the top of the key. And even when he was set up in the post, Tyler a couple times set up too close so that his man could easily help out. Even BJ brought his guy under Rak one time when he was in perfect position on the block. Maybe a little less time working on the zone next year and a couple minutes working on offense.

 

[Ghost]

It's a massively frustrating season...our usual sparks off the bench are in our starting 5. If G or Cooney doesn't have it we have no where really to go.

I really don't understand this argument. You go to the bench....you try something knew. Different combinations - you coach and make adjustments.

What massively talented weapons are we sitting if we go to the bench for a few minutes when they are playing like garbage? So we bring in some different garbage for a minute.

G was absolutely atrocious for most of the game. Joseph has been playing 30 minutes a game, and suddenly can't play PG for a minute in the first half? It's all baffling. He can throw the ball to the other team just as well as anyone else on this team.

Again, you must have watched enough basketball to see that subbing in inferior players sometimes pays dividends. They don't start for a reason, EVERYONE gets that in spite of the non-stop effort to explain it, but why did Baye ever play? Because from time to time he provided a spark. Nobody knows why but his Junior year he was an absolute terror in the Big East tournament.

Cooney was HORRIBLE as a Frosh, but against G'Town, in that same tournament, provided a tremendous spark. Why? He had no business being on the court when you hold up in front of the people he was playing behind - yet look what happened. happens in sports - these aren't all walk-ons and we have 5 scholarship players.

It happens. Why the '40 minute'rs' insist that this has never happened in the history of basketball, or is some impossibility on this team because of how wide the gap is between the starters and our bench is ludicrous. It really is.

This year - we just let it fly. Maybe G gets hot, maybe he doesn't...but we seem to just let these guys struggle and struggle, and never pull them. Sit them for a minute - maybe we catch a little fire.

 

[Ghost]

Honestly, I didn't understand for a minute what we were trying to do with Rak at the top of the key. And even when he was set up in the post, Tyler a couple times set up too close so that his man could easily help out. Even BJ brought his guy under Rak one time when he in perfect position on the block. Maybe a little less time working on the zone next year and a couple minutes working on offense.

The spacing tonight was awful - Roberson was sitting on Rak a bunch. He missed the feed to the post a few times too - oddly. Then would throw a crap pass into a triple-team.

I thought at some point we were going to form the Flying-V and use that as our offense. May have worked better considering the lack of spacing.

 

[cuseguy]

You have two injured starters on the bench. I guess he should have recruited for that.

Neither would have made a difference.

Virginia was without its second leading scorer.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

I really don't understand this argument. What massively talented weapons are we sitting if we go to the bench for a few minutes when they are playing like garbage? So we bring in some different garbage for a minute.

G was absolutely atrocious for most of the game. Joseph has been playing 30 minutes a game, and suddenly can't play PG for a minute in the first half? It's all baffling. He can throw the ball to the other team just as well as anyone else on this team.

Again, you must have watched enough basketball to see that subbing in inferior players sometimes pays dividends. They don't start for a reason, EVERYONE gets that in spite of the non-stop effort to explain it, but why did Baye ever play? Because from time to time he provided a spark. Nobody knows why but his Junior year he was an absolute terror in the Big East tournament.

Cooney was HORRIBLE as a Frosh, but against G'Town, in that same tournament, provided a tremendous spark. Why? He had no business being on the court when you hold up in front of the people he was playing behind - yet look what happened. happens in sports - these aren't all walk-ons and we have 5 scholarship players.

It happens. Why the '40 minute'rs' insist that this has never happened in the history of basketball, or is some impossibility on this team because of how wide the gap is between the starters and our bench is ludicrous. It really is.

G hasn't had a good game in a couple weeks it seems. He hit the wall I think. JB overplayed his main guys early and this is what we get. Maybe JB knew we would have no shot competing with these teams at the back end of this ridiculous season. Or maybe the reason we aren't all that competitive is because JB ran them into the ground. I don't know.

And did Kaleb miss a meeting or something? That can't help what appears to be an already shattered confidence level.

 

[Jasoncuse]

Right. All 215 pounds of him.

I get the sense that Tyler is 6'7" at most. He's a 4-man in a SF body. It's hard for him to compete physically against some of the guys we've seen.

 

[Bayside44]

I really don't understand this argument. You go to the bench...you try something knew. Different combinations - you coach and make adjustments.

What massively talented weapons are we sitting if we go to the bench for a few minutes when they are playing like garbage? So we bring in some different garbage for a minute.

G was absolutely atrocious for most of the game. Joseph has been playing 30 minutes a game, and suddenly can't play PG for a minute in the first half? It's all baffling. He can throw the ball to the other team just as well as anyone else on this team.

Again, you must have watched enough basketball to see that subbing in inferior players sometimes pays dividends. They don't start for a reason, EVERYONE gets that in spite of the non-stop effort to explain it, but why did Baye ever play? Because from time to time he provided a spark. Nobody knows why but his Junior year he was an absolute terror in the Big East tournament.

Cooney was HORRIBLE as a Frosh, but against G'Town, in that same tournament, provided a tremendous spark. Why? He had no business being on the court when you hold up in front of the people he was playing behind - yet look what happened. happens in sports - these aren't all walk-ons and we have 5 scholarship players.

It happens. Why the '40 minute'rs' insist that this has never happened in the history of basketball, or is some impossibility on this team because of how wide the gap is between the starters and our bench is ludicrous. It really is.

This year - we just let it fly. Maybe G gets hot, maybe he doesn't...but we seem to just let these guys struggle and struggle, and never pull them. Sit them for a minute - maybe we catch a little fire.

Buss gets in the game and UVa goes 9-0. Kaleb's handle if awful and UVa is defending in our shorts. What plus does he bring?

And you basically backed up my point - Cooney can do one thing - get hot from deep. Either roll with it or move on if he was coming off the pine like he should be.

Frankly our bench isn't ACC (or old Big East) ready. Different problem.

 

[BludOrange]

Neither would have made a difference.

Virginia was without its second leading scorer.

Is there anything about Cuse you like?

 

[cuseguy]

We have 3 people who can play PG next year and none them is a true PG.

 

[Ghost]

Honestly, I didn't understand for a minute what we were trying to do with Rak at the top of the key. And even when he was set up in the post, Tyler a couple times set up too close so that his man could easily help out. Even BJ brought his guy under Rak one time when he was in perfect position on the block. Maybe a little less time working on the zone next year and a couple minutes working on offense.

Yeah, that offense wasn't working. Just set him up in the post and look for the cross court pass or Roberson diving to the tin.

Instead we run pick-n-roll for 20 minutes in a row that never came close to working.

 

[cuseguy]

Is there anything about Cuse you like?

Yup, SU fans who are realists.

McCullough would have gotten pushed around and outclassed on the boards.

Where does Coleman fit in with Rak at the 5?

Get real.

 

[Ghost]

Buss gets in the game and UVa goes 9-0. Kaleb's handle if awful and UVa is defending in our shorts. What plus does he bring?

And you basically backed up my point - Cooney can do one thing - get hot from deep. Either roll with it or move on if he was coming off the pine like he should be.

Frankly our bench isn't ACC (or old Big East) ready. Different problem.

Fine.

But we don't care about Plus/Minus on this team. Statistically the whole lineup has been jacked if you go by that. Again, when Cooney has come out, and we've gone on a roll with Patterson in, we still take Patterson out ASAP. So, we do nothing that makes sense.

Right - Cooney can do one thing. But he can't sit?

Patterson had a streak in the first 10 ACC games where his plus/minus destroyed the rest of the teams. He can't spell Cooney? I can show games where Cooney sits and the plus/minues goes through the roof (and not in garbage time).

G sucked tonight - we couldn't put Joseph in for a bit? I can show games where his plus/minus is huge. Sometimes that mid-range game works when they lay off of him.

Sometimes you gotta leave your comfort zone - none of these guys are that much better than when they are playing like crap, you can't go to the bench for a couple minutes to see if you strike gold.

I would play Joseph off the ball a little bit btw - but that's just me. That would mean Cooney sitting for a minute though and that simply cannot happen.

We just roll it out with the 40 minute players regardless of how the game is going. It makes very little sense.

 

[Bayside44]

Fine.

But we don't care about Plus/Minus on this team. Statistically the whole lineup has been jacked if you go by that. Again, when Cooney has come out, and we've gone on a roll with Patterson in, we still take Patterson out ASAP. So, we do nothing that makes sense.

Right - Cooney can do one thing. But he can't sit?

Patterson had a streak in the first 10 ACC games where his plus/minus destroyed the rest of the teams. He can't spell Cooney? I can show games where Cooney sits and the plus/minues goes through the roof (and not in garbage time).

G sucked tonight - we couldn't put Joseph in for a bit? I can show games where his plus/minus is huge. Sometimes that mid-range game works when they lay off of him.

Sometimes you gotta leave your comfort zone - none of these guys are that much better than when they are playing like crap, you can't go to the bench for a couple minutes.

I would play Joseph off the ball a little bit btw - but that's just me. That would mean Cooney sitting for a minute though and that simply cannot happen.

We just roll it out with the 40 minute players regardless of how the game is going. It makes very little sense.

Our first 10 ACC games were soft. Buss looked terrible out there when he got on the court. UVa defense is more than he can deal with. I hate playing the game about kids that should not be here, however...Trevor can nail some shots, at least there is a chance of that. Joseph has no business being on the court against them either.

But Tyler Ennis chased his dream of the d-league and a trade, two guys blew out their knees and another got drafted in the 2nd round by a horrible team, so we get what we get.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Our first 10 ACC games were soft. Buss looked terrible out there when he got on the court. UVa defense is more than he can deal with. I hate playing the game about kids that should not be here, however...Trevor can nail some shots, at least there is a chance of that. Joseph has no business being on the court against them either.

But Tyler Ennis chased his dream of the d-league and a trade, two guys blew out their knees and another got drafted in the 2nd round by a horrible team, so we get what we get.

Very true and unfortunate. Roberson and Joseph sure don't look like 4-star recruits though, imo. Not even close. As of now those are big misses by recruitniks/coaches it seems.

 

[Ghost]

Our first 10 ACC games were soft. Buss looked terrible out there when he got on the court. UVa defense is more than he can deal with. I hate playing the game about kids that should not be here, however...Trevor can nail some shots, at least there is a chance of that. Joseph has no business being on the court against them either.

But Tyler Ennis chased his dream of the d-league and a trade, two guys blew out their knees and another got drafted in the 2nd round by a horrible team, so we get what we get.

I don't disagree with that. I probably would have subbed out the guy that was playing poorly - G. But whatever...

Really? Everyone said Joseph would get devoured by Louisville, and he had 1 turnover in 28 minutes, and went 3-7 from the floor. The kid isn't that horrendous. Half the teams on our schedules have made Cooney look horrible. Not sure what your point is tbh.

We got a team with a bunch of players that play regardless of how they're playing.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Very true and unfortunate. Roberson and Joseph sure don't look like 4-star recruits though, imo. Not even close. As of now those are big misses by recruitniks/coaches it seems.

I think Roberson is going to be very good. He's a big guy so don't sell him out too soon.

I have no idea what Joseph can be at this point.

 

[Ghost]

I think Roberson is going to be very good. He's a big guy so don't sell him out too soon.

I have no idea what Joseph can be at this point.

I would really like to see Joseph off the ball more at this point. See if having him play SG a bit loosens him up. He's not a PG at this point, might as well have spent some time building his confidence up - if possible.

 

[cuseguy]

I think Roberson is going to be very good. He's a big guy so don't sell him out too soon. I have no idea what Joseph can be at this point.

The question is where does Roberson play next year?

He's really a 4, but McCullough will start there.

Does G handle the point and Roberson moves to the 3? His handle and 12-foot jumper really need to improve for that to happen.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

The question is where does Roberson play next year?

He's really a 4, but McCullough will start there.

Does G handle the point and Roberson moves to the 3? His handle and 12-foot jumper really need to improve for that to happen.

All great questions. CMac certainly loved to shoot those mid ranged jumpers so not sure why he couldn't be more of that guy. His handle isn't good enough, but his shooting some nights was. I'd like to see Roberson continue to work toward being a 4. Need Rak to tutor him on some back to the basket moves. He had Tyus Jones on him a couple times the other night and started to post up but immediately gave it up. Need to take advantage of situations like that.

 

[Bayside44]

Very true and unfortunate. Roberson and Joseph sure don't look like 4-star recruits though, imo. Not even close. As of now those are big misses by recruitniks/coaches it seems.

Agreed. I like Tyler fine as a rotation guy, Kaleb really worries me.