We think they're champions and can do whatever the heck they want!
In all seriousness, I understand both decisions. Jerome has been hurt and needed time to adjust to the NBA anyway. Guy obviously made a shakier decision, but I think he won the title, got married and saw that the guys he came in with were leaving. It seemed like he was ready to move on. It's disappointing, but I get it. I don't think either one of them would have appreciably helped their draft position by returning.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
Virginia is 8-2 on the year in games decided by 5 or fewer points. They have the one blowout win earlier against VT but not nearly the average margin of victory that we have in ACC games, and yet we could be tied after this weekend. I think they should be thrilled that this post-title year is turning out as well as it has because it easily could have gone south. A string of so-so, close wins can build confidence and make them legitimately dangerous.
My question for Virginia is what is up with its non-conference schedule? It's horrible and typically is pretty weak. Virginia is at the grown-ups table now and should schedule up accordingly.
Virginia's NCSOS kinda comes and goes. This year it was pretty bad. Not State-level terrible, but still quite bad. But that makes a lot of sense as Bennett knew this would probably be a rebuilding year and scheduled softer than usual. The year before also looked bad, but it was really differently put together with a mix of total cupcakes and serious opponents, many of whom were expected to be better. Wisconsin, Maryland and VCU were all tough as expected, but Middle Tennessee was disastrously bad after being a top-50 team the year before (per KenPom) and South Carolina was middling after going to the Final Four two years before.
So, this year was weak as probably intended. Last season was probably *intended* to be decently tough but wasn't because reasons. Prior to that, Virginia's NCSOS was generally legit thanks to multi-year series with West Virginia and Villanova.
As for this season, given the losses from last year's team expectations weren't super high, but injuries and some astoundingly bad outside shooting (Virginia has done better from 3 lately, but Morsell and Key, #3 and 4 in 3FGA on the team, are *still* averaging .179 and .203) created a serious downturn at the end of the OOC slate and the beginning of conference play.
So, compared to then, I think UVA fans are quite happy with how the team has been gutting out wins. But compared with pre-season expectations, I think the team is only now rounding into shape as the borderline-top 25 team fans kind of expected (recognizing that it would be a team with more unknowns than we've seen in years). Interestingly, this season was the first since, I believe, 2013-2014 in which UVA dropped out of the AP top 25 during the season.
Only quibbling on one point - when the 19-20 non conference schedule was being put together I strongly believe Bennett thought we would have Guy and Jerome in place. With them, this is an *excellent* UVA team. In a down year, probably F4/title contenders.
I find it more likely that knowing we were going to 20 conference games we elected to snip the top end of the “quality string” of noncon opponents. I think Bennett likes to play about 23-24 P5 and/or tournament teams per year. The other 6-7 can be patsies for working on things. I also know he really believes in giving the smaller in-state schools and programs like military academies and Ivy League schools a bite at the apple.
We’ll probably always play 3-4 truly awful teams, 2-3 “meh” teams, and 3-4 solid/decent teams due to preseason tourneys and ACC/B1G challenge. Maybe 1 additional P5 game. Good enough for me. I’d love to see them schedule series with more top 10ish opponents (the series w Nova and WVU were fun), but 20 league games makes it a lot harder than it was 10-20 years ago.
Y’all will get no argument from me on the schedule. UVA should have a marquee home-and-home in place every year (and South Carolina isn’t it). At the very least, pick off the low-hanging fruit and upgrade the bottom of the schedule. I don’t mind UVA playing local teams like JMU and think it’s cool that Bennett will play those teams at their gyms, but there’s zero reason to play the likes of Maine.
Also, selfishly, regular home-and-homes with VCU and Richmond, please. Especially Richmond - much easier to get a ticket.
I realized later in the day yesterday (while watching UVa/VT, actually) that I completely biffed this, and the need to correct is eating at me. I failed to realize that, in this scenario, the Hoos would the 3 and not the 5, so Duke wouldn't see them (potentially) until the finals.
With that error on my part addressed, I see no real ACCT downside (as opposed to NCAAT downside) to being the 4. Worst case, we'd get one of the ND/Cuse/State/Clemson set in the quarters regardless (or "irregardless," if I want to drive Jim Sumner to distraction; would that be churlish of me? ).
"Amazing what a minute can do."
Agreed on a marquee home and home needed for UVa, but can you imagine the SOS drain on their schedule if they had played VCU this year? VCU is terrible, Richmond is a lot better this year. I liked the UVa and VCU in state rivalry games they had going for a few years. I respect the heck out of Tony Bennett for doing it. He also took UVa to GW one year as well and they lost.
VCU is 70th on Kenpom currently at 17-11, 7-8. They could be better next year but are having a tough season.
Highlights an important issue when evaluating how any team sets its OOC schedule. Often, you schedule a series with a team that appears to be trending in a certain direction (*cough* South Carolina *cough*), but by the time you get around to playing the game, they're going another direction entirely.
I won't be "holier than thou." Duke gets the season-opening Champions Classic game (Kansas this year) at MSG and then a prestigious tournament (Maui, this year something at MSG) and then a tough Big Ten game in the challenge. IOW, we get paid to play harder games -- and we need the money. The rest of our schedule seemed meager, but SF Austin turned out to be more robust than expected.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
For UVA, the problem isn't SC, JMU or only 3 games outside Hooville. It's ME, Stony Brook, and Navy instead of 1-2 more teams like SC anywhere. Why not another another P5 or BE east of the Rockies? You would think that you could get a 2nd ACC-B10 or ACC-SEC game with TV. Compare:
UVA: @Purdue, v. ASU, SC, v. MA, others. There was a 7-3 split.
Duke: KS, @MSU, v. Georgetown, SFA, v. CA, others. There was a 7-4 split. A 6-5 split next year would not be impossible.
And SC improperly getting a home game in the 2017 NCAA tournament is not trending in the right direction.
Here's to a healthy game on Saturday. I think UVA has solidified the last ACC spot in the NCAA. This is for seeding for both teams and Greensboro for Duke.
Yeah terrible may not be the right word, but they’ve definitely severely underperformed this year. They’re on a 5 game losing streak which is their longest since 1998 I believe. They were ranked in the preseason Top 25 and picked to win the A10 and are currently in 9th place in the league. They started 6-0 and are 11-11 since. I think they have 4 seniors and a junior, too. Injuries have played somewhat of a factor for them underperforming but overall, they seem pretty bad lately to me. I don’t think many people in the A10 think they’re terrible like you said but I definitely think they have had a disappointing season this year given how they started and how much experience they have.
It’s mainly because I live in Richmond and would love to see them here. Not that 90 minutes is prohibitive, but it would be nice on occasion to be able to see my team play in person without walking through my door after midnight.
Also, VCU is a really fun place to see a game, and I recommend it to anyone who can get a ticket.
Yeah I definitely understand what you’re saying. VCU has a great gameday atmosphere. It’s loud inside their arena too. They have made some upgrades there to make it more modern. It’s a great college facility. Richmond actually has made their arena better over the years too with taking some of the seats out of the top of the stadium and putting in modern scoreboards and whatnot. I think UVa will start playing Liberty consistently, too. They’re coached by former UVa assistant coach Ritchie McKay who’s in his 5th season there. He took Liberty to the dance last year and likely will go back this year. Liberty is 27-3, 13-2 and leads the Atlantic Sun right now and also are 57th on Kenpom. They’ll be a tough 11-12 seed I feel like this year.
Duke -3.5 at UVa tonight at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia.