For anyone that follows Virginia basketball and NBA Draft rumblings - Hunter is likely gone after this year to the draft, correct? Probably 90%+ chance he declares for the draft?
How about Jerome? He's a junior but what are the chances he leaves early too? 50-50?
I think Guy returns next year but gets drafted in 2020. Next year's Virginia team is gonna be near the top of the league again, returning everyone but Salt, Hunter (likely), and maybe Jerome (but I think he'll return). Clark, Jerome, Guy, Diakite, Huff is a good starting 5 plus Key returns.
quite the quote by Barrett: "we love to play on the road. We like to wear black because it's their funeral."
Entertaining game...Salt's free throw still has me chortling
Was about to post something similar...great post.
Jerome and Guy made some tough buckets....Hunter made some very long contested two's...and we forced quite a few TO's. Fantastic D on our part.
And yeah Bilas needs to keep his street cred by pushing the Duke gets all the calls narrative.
Man, if your Mom made you wear that color when you were a baby, and you're still wearing it, it's time to grow up!
If I'm being completely honest, regular season losses don't really hurt anymore. After the tourney loss last year, nothing even comes close in comparison. I appreciate the kind words and I echo the sentiment about good sportmanship by players on both sides. I think there's mutual respect there. I'm not sure UVA has always been a program that deserved Duke's respect so that is progress in my mind.
Still laughing at Jack Salt's second free throw attempt LOL
c'mon man. We shot ungodly well from 3. We also had a couple of possessions that could have been better. We were relatively poor (for us) on defense. This game looks different if we shoot a more reasonable number from 3. I'm not saying we lose, but it's very different. Now, whether we can shoot 60% when we're that wide open, who knows...but it's not a troll post.
Ungodly shooting covers up a lot of things, and there are still a lot of things we could have improved about our performance. You shouldn't read that as I (or probably mr grumpy dad) am not happy with the performance, but there are always things that can be better...and doing one thing well enough to win big should not cloud your ability to see the other things that need some work.
That's why my signature is what it is.
April 1
I did feel bad for Salt afterwards, but it still makes me laugh.
https://streamable.com/djlaz
Grats on the win, was a great offensive performance. And it really was. I haven’t seen the whole thread, but in case it hasn’t come up, the 1.28 points/possession Duke scored was the highest UVA has allowed since, I believe, 2014.
I agree, for the most part, but Hunter (assuming he goes) combined with Salt will be a huge defensive loss for them. If Jerome were to leave too, they'll still be quite good, but I think that Jerome and Hunter are both among the top few 2-way players in the Country and that is not easily replaced. No idea whether he'll go pro but I think Jerome is both special, and ready. Unfortunately, whomever we may bring in ourselves next year, we'll be losing 2-4 of the best 2-way players too so let's enjoy this particular ride as long as it may last! Go Devils!!!
A 10 point road win against the #3 team in the country where we never trailed...
Mediocre? You have to judge based on the quality of the opponent.
Was it our best game of the year? Probably not. If you told me we'd shoot 62% from 3 then I would likely predict we'd win by more but... shooting is a part of the game. We shot really well.
UVA hit a lot of tough shots as well...
Also I'm not sure what you are talking about possessions. Both teams generally get the same # of possessions every game (give or take 1). They had more offensive rebounds but that's the same possession... not another possession.
I read somewhere the 81 points Duke scored on Virginia tonight were the most any team has scored at the John Paul Jones arena on a Tony Bennett coached team since he took over the program in the 2009-2010 season. Just a truly outstanding offensive performance tonight. If this team just starts consistently hitting 35-38ish percent from 3 and 70 percent from the line, (13-21 tonight), they're gonna flex on some teams down the stretch the next couple months.
[redacted] them and the horses they rode in on.
The best thing about the last few games is that Cam looks like a different player. It's obvious that Tre and Zion are both beasts on the defensive end but Cam is not far behind those 2. He is very active, quick and his length really bothers people. He seems to have stopped the silly turnovers that plagued him earlier in the year and has a lot more confidence in his shot. If he's on from deep it brings another dimension to the team. His dish to Zion late in the game after Zion's big offensive rebound showed a lot of confidence. We could've just run the clock (maybe should've just run the clock) but when you can get a Zion dunk... I'd say that's a pretty high percentage chance.
Cam's line from today: 6 of 10 from the field, 5 of 8 from 3. 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks, 0 turnovers.
Just a super solid game from him.
Marques is looking much improved as well. We obviously don't need as much from him but anything we can get from him is a bonus.
Also interesting was the minutes breakdown... Jav and Marques split 35 minutes in the middle. So we went 5 minutes w/ the smaller lineup w/ Jack. Jack played another 8 minutes. Cam sat 4, Zion sat 4. That was it. RJ and Tre both went 40. Can't say I blame K... when you have studs you run w/ them. Only real worry there is foul trouble. Should probably get used to this for big games going forward.
Well, it's not exactly a "should have gone against" Duke's opponent, but Bilas did object to the call against Bolden for being in Salt's cylinder Bilas said something like, "that called defense." I think he used to do even more leaning over backwards to avoid anyone seeing a pro-Duke bias than he does now.
Cam. Best game yet. 😎
I’m very happy with the game tonight. I’ll mark it down as one of our five where everything works. I agree with other posts above that we would have beaten most teams by 20 or 25. We were just that “On.” The only player I thought had a sub-par (for him) game was Zion and that’s only because he’s raised our expectations ridiculously high.
I was once again impressed by Virginia. They are a tough and talented team that clawed their way back into contention several times when lesser teams would have just let it go. Much respect goes to them.
Bottom line is a big win against a superior team on their home court. I’m smiling.
Even if both Hunter (projected mid-late lottery-ish) and Jerome (projected late first, early second) leave, I still think we'll be borderline top 10 next year. Key, Huff, and Diakite have all made pretty strong strides towards being consistent performers lately. Put those dudes with Clark and Guy and we'll win a bunch of games again.
I played this game for 4-5 years:
13-14 - We lose Harris and Mitchell? Won't be the same.
14-15 - We lose Anderson and Atkins? Won't be the same.
15-16 - We lose Brogdon, Gill, & Tobey? Won't be the same (and we weren't, but in fairness it took the combo of Austin Nichols being kicked off the team AND Wilkins coming down with a pretty bad illness than basically ended his season before we fell away from being top 10)
17-18 - We lose Hall & Wilkins? Won't be the same.
Somehow, barring major player departure/loss IN SEASON, we've been top 5, or at worst, a top 10ish team since 2014. Whoever comes, whoever goes, regardless of hype or star rankings, Bennett keeps cranking out elite results............ in the regular season and conference tournament.