Originally Posted by
CDu
I was driving the "UVa is mediocre" bandwagon this past year. But not so much this coming year.
They return basically their entire team from last year, but upgrade their backup PF/C spot with Vander Plas and a talented freshman Troudt, and they upgraded their backup wing spots with talented freshmen McNeely and Bond.
They return a super senior former All-ACC PG (Clark), super senior All-ACC PF (Gardner), a junior All-defense and fringe All-ACC PG/SG who led the ACC in assists (Beekman), a multi-year double-digit scoring wing (Franklin), and both of their centers: one a bruising big in the Jack Salt mold (Caffaro); the other a very athletic shotblocker (Shedrick).
But most importantly, they have the thing that is manna to Bennett: experience and continuity. They return their entire starting 5 plus their sixth man, and they added a 4th big with a ton of experience to an already experienced big man rotation. It's an old team with experience together, and that's usually worked out well for Bennett.
As far as the players themselves, they'll be lightning quick on the perimeter with Clark, Beekman, and Franklin. They'll be bruising and experienced and deep inside with Caffaro, Gardner, Shedrick, and Vander Plas. And they have talented young wings that they can sprinkle in as necessary in Murray, McKneely, Bond, and Dunn.
In general, Bennett's teams have tended to overperform in conference play. Even in recent years, when they've finished 1st in the ACC in 2021 and 4th in 2020; last year with an inexperienced team they finished 6th. Combine that with a talented and experienced team, and you have a recipe for a team that overachieves in conference. I'd be fairly surprised if they aren't a top-4 team in the ACC. And #2 is definitely not out of the question as Duke will likely hit some conference play speed bumps.
To be clear, I think Duke will be the better team by season's end, and will most likely be a higher seeded team in the NCAA tournament. But I could certainly see a scenario in which UVa eeks out a better conference record. They will be notably better than last year, and the ACC looks like it might take a step back.
I'm not sure what you see in FSU; they were bad this past year and lose Osborne, Evans, Polite, Butler, and (not that he was great but he played a lot) Wilkes. Maybe Baba Miller turns out to be an impact player, but more likely he plays less than 20 mpg in Hamilton's system. They should have good guards/wings, but they'll be really questionable up front (which was their undoing this past year). I would definitely rate FSU behind UVa at this point.