Kinda rough to watch. Not sure why we can't get all the players to play to their ability on the same night. Keve is always on his game Catoor is reliable and you just really don't know what you're going to get with the rest. Other than maybe Aleyene and it's the wrong side
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Aluma - good, Cattoor - good, Murphy - OK (he's really settled in the last few games). Mutts - disappeared in scoring but D And assists look ok....Alleyne - entirely M.I.A.
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Way too many offensive rebounds. Not sure if they arent counting the 2nd chance pts if its not an immediate shot, but there were definitely more than 7pts given up
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Glad to finally see us set a screen on the guy applying pressure bringing the ball up. But Storm still wont use it. Also think that mutts and aluma go for the block/help defense too much and that leads to offensive rebounds. Finally with the tap out rebounds, guards need to block out as well. Not like we are going to get a break away.
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I don't remember his release looking like this in the past. Maybe I want noticing but it definitely looks much slower and awkward. Like he is overthinking the follow through.
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Sure a whole lot of no calls when we drive the basket. They've been pretty consistent in not calling it but it seems like when they do it's been against us.
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No legs. Our starters are gassed at the end of every game. If we're gonna lose I'd at least like to get some experience for the bench to help later in the season or at this point maybe next season.
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Both these teams suck. We have nothing but aluma on offense and they are just as bad but our shitty offense is going to mean alot more losses in the ACC.
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Murphy should have taken the foul...and gotten 3 shots...instead of the head fake and duck.
Oh well...too many empty possessions to realistically win this one anyway. The sky hasn't fallen but the cloud are certainly gathering. Time to start a win streak.
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Let's all take a deep breath and look at next year's recruiting class. It's going to take time to build a consistent roster this year might be rough and yeah we ain't very good but let's let Mike young build
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I wish I shared the optimism but this team had 4 starters back (before Boots left) off an NCAA tourney team. Given how many are fifth year seniors, to me this was our best chance at a really good team since our Sweet 16 squad. Next year looks like a rebuild to me. Hope I'm proven wrong.
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Only issue is returning we dont have a real PG that was good all around. And while yes returning 4 starters Alleyne has forgotten how to shoot this season and has yet to get going in ACC play although he made a few 3's last night hes been an absentee. Mutts has had some good games but he and Aluma have to play so many minutes they start to tire by the end of games. Cattoor is still the same player largely and can be clutch and had a shot to win last night even after we played as poorly as we did. We've had a really tough schedule thus far and if MY can keep their heads up a win could be around the corner.
As much as Bede wasnt a threat to score he was a hell of a defender and got steals and fought his ass off and was a problem for other teams point guards. Murphy hasnt become that kind of defender and his scoring has gotten a bit better but for a grad transfer I think we all expected a far more finished article.
Next year is probably a bit of a rebuild yes but lots of exciting talent coming in the door and maybe we hit the portal again to try and replace aluma and mutts. Pedulla looks like a baller but needs some time in the weight room and just to keep acclimating to the ACC.
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At the same time, if there's ever a sport where one recruiting class or portal transfer could reload a program, its basketball. If the recruiting class shakes out like we are expecting, we should be able to bounce back.
This year is an unfortunate miss. If this becomes a multi-year trend, then I'll be worried, but right there just seems to be guys who aren't at all living up to the hype, and its become an unresolvable problem.
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Don't get your hopes up. We've watched Alleyne stink the joint out all year and Maddox barely gets enough run to break a sweat. No way MY is gonna start him. He's being very stubborn about this for whatever reason this year. I wish college reporters would be more probing like pro reporters are in their questions to get into his reasonings. Alleyne provides nothing when he isn't scoring. If you want to be kind, he's at best completely average (ie replacement level) in every other aspect. From what I've seen, there wouldn't be a massive dropoff going from Alleyne to Maddox. How many games are you gonna leave Alleyne out there for heavy minutes before realizing he's not going to "shoot his way out of the slump" because its not a slump. Cut his minutes. If he starts producing, increase them again.
What's funny (more sad than funny) this was actually one of Alleyne's better games of late and it was still UGH. Also didn't help that Mutts stunk the joint up too but still.
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Mutts was superb on defense and actually wasn't a turnover machine on offense. The one turnover had was terrible though. He had plenty of good post entry passes to Aluma that our guards seem incapable of executing.. so even though he didn't score he was a huge positive
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I think he's still waiting for the team he thought he had In November to show up. Unfortunately this IS the team he had.
Without Bede and Radford the guards are SOFT. Which it's fine for either Cattoor or Alleyne to be out there as a 3-point specialist. Unfortunately all three of our guards are 3-point specialists, and two of them can't even shoot.
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Zero players who can create their own shot so we just can't beat any team with a competent defense. No one to give the ball to when we need a bucket. No Justin Robinson or Seth Allen or even Tyrece Radford. You need those kind of guys.
Coaching staff bears the blame. They haven't recruited a good ACC team and player development is questionable too.
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You're the one pretending here... Counting nominees as All Americans? There are 800 nominees... Might be like ~400 though b/c 800 might include girls players too.
Idk if Rodney Rice can create his own shot. I admittedly haven't done enough homework. I know that he can shoot. But what we need are aggressive shot creators who can finish at the rim (Allen, Robinson, Radford types).
With all due respect to the other two recruits (rated ~200 nationally), they are probably not program changers. Could be solid pieces though, only time will tell.
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Watch Wesslers and Collins tapes. Imo they were severely underrated. Not saying they were top 50 or 100. But I think they should have been around 125-150 imo. Also watching rice highlights he indeed is very good at creating his own shot
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Time will tell whether Rice can actually get to the rim vs. ACC athletes. I wouldn't bet on it in year one at least.
Wessler doesn't excite me. Nothing against the kid, but 7 footers who play in the post never get me excited, that's not what wins games in March. The main things you really need from big men is rebounding and the ability to switch onto perimeter players - which is hard to come by. We'll see if Wessler is versatile enough for that. Of course ideally they are like Aluma or Blackshear and create matchup issues with their perimeter play. Wessler is probably not that guy.
I'll have to look into Collins more. Would like a little more size on the wing, but if he's athletic enough it can work.
I also forgot Nickeil in my list of players that we need more of.
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Mike Young is 0-4 in the ACC. Buzz Williams is 3-0 in the SEC.
BEFORE I GET DOWNVOTED I'M JOKING, A&M hasn't even played any of the top SEC teams, so they will probably fade. In all likelihood neither team makes the tournament this year. But it was funny when people were trashing on Buzz and hailing Mike Young as superior based on last season. You gotta wait and see how these things pan out, who knows which program will be better in a couple years. Hopefully ours, but we have to make some improvements.
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Yeah I think he just didn't realize what he had roster wise in the offseason and bought into the hype from the media. With Radford and Bamisile we would be top 20 imo, so I don't blame him too much for the roster. He planned on keeping both this season.
Definitely should've been more lobbying to get Bede back though. When I mentioned that in the offseason I was bombarded by people saying "no way, offensive liability". Wonder where those people are now - probably too busy reading box scores.
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I want to know what happened with Storm between the first few weeks of the season and where we are now. He looked every bit the part we were told those first few weeks, even it was against lesser competition. Since then, maybe it was the Memphis game, he's just looked unsure of himself and limited confidence.
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I think you kind of answered your own question. The speed/skill of the major conferences is faster than the mid/low-major conferences. He's a solid player, maybe more than that at the that level, but take that step up, and his game isn't as effective.
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Just... so much to clean up. We can't rebound. We can't score. We can't defend. We don't get to the free throw line. We turn the ball over. We have zero depth. We're streaky and can't stop the other teams' scoring runs. Last night again Aluma was struggling with about 13:00 to play. Ojiako needs to prove he can fill in (he looked serviceable last night). Maddox/Pedulla need to take a step forward, and quickly.
At this point I think we're just trying to salvage a respectable season. Figure out a way to finish .500, hopefully a game or two above.
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Figure out a way to finish .500, hopefully a game or two above.
Incredible that this is what our expectations have come to. We might actually be worse than Mike Young's first year! We finished 16-16, with a 7-13 ACC record in Year 1. That was his "bare cupboard" season, although he actually inherited a few good to solid pieces from Buzz (Radford, Nolley, Bede, Horne, Wilkins).
And yet here we are in Year 3, arguably worse than the Year 1 rebuild. Crazy.
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I know it... that was painful to type but I haven't really seen a lot to suggest we should hope for more. I'd love to be wrong of course but man it's been a rough stretch.
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I was a little surprised that CMY didn't use a timeout on either of the last two possessions given that we struggled to score organically for the last 3 minutes and his inbound plays are generally pretty successful. There were a bunch of other warts on last night's game but they weren't necessarily surprising; that decision was just a bit of a head scratcher for me.
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I can no longer make excuses for this team. As it has been said many times before, "We are what our record says we are". We are an underperforming team that does not really have an ACC talent required roster to compete in this league. We lack in height, depth and talent. We turn the ball over when we need a critical bucket. Sloppy passes, defense is spotty and we still don't a player who can nail a shot when you absolutely need one. I don't see the schedule getting any easier and a couple more losses and this season is over.
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I didn't get to see last night's game at all, so I can't comment on the play. What I can say is that whatever pre-season expectations I/we had should be shredded and burned and never spoken of again. We have enough of a sample size to know that we're not going to be competitive in the conference this year. I have zero expectations of making the NCAA tournament, and unless we see a dramatic turnaround and ~10-game conference win streak I think our only way into the tournament is to win the ACC tourney.
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I don't want to harp on this too much but this slump Naheim is in is unprecedented. Its pretty much impossible to win games when one of your production players is producing nothing also hard to adjust. Maddox is not the defender that Allyene and is physically much smaller but he's progressing.
ACC Numbers for Alleyene: Shooting 18%, 31.5 Minutes/game, 5.5 points/game. That's going to hinder any offense in the country when someone is averaging half of the ppg that he was last season. We don't currently have a plug for that a long with other issues on being able to penetrate on the dribble and finish. I'm not going to hold this one against MY we need to see how his players develop, if they can all take the path of Keve we're going to be a very good team in a couple years.
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The mistakes are maddening, I don't know how MY doesn't have an aneurysm every game. This team screws up simple things at least 7-8 times a game. If they played a tad smarter, they would have 3 more wins. The offensive cold streaks are awful and need corrected quickly by either substitutions or working on some set plays. Far too many times this season has the little 0 points in running clock graphic popped up on the screen. I thought this was a fluke at first, but it's quickly becoming apparent that it's part of this teams' identity. At least the NIT gives us some home games.
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I wouldn't jump the gun on that, we're dead last in the worst high major conference. Only winless ACC team. The analytics still like us, but we're undeserving of a bid imo because we just can't win a game. Of course, still plenty of time to change that.
As far as the mistakes, this is what happens when a decent mid-major team plays ACC teams. Our guards are a 6' mid major transfer and two 6'3" guards. The three of them combined for one non-VT offer from a high major school out of program (Nebraska for Alleyne). We are a solid mid-major caliber team. Those teams have no margin for error with execution, because they are outmatched physically. So any mistakes are amplified. The easy solution is recruit ACC level athletes and talent.
Again, we have no athletic perimeter threats who can create their own shot, get to the rim, etc. We had that with Radford. Before him, we had that with NAW, Robinson, Allen, etc. That's a huge reason why those teams were successful, even against a much stronger ACC. Especially in the clutch, we could just give the ball to Allen and he could make a winning play.
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Again, we have no athletic perimeter threats who can create their own shot, get to the rim, etc. We had that with Radford.
100%. And those with good memory will recall many comments in angst on this forum last year about how Radford was the only one attacking the rim successfully and playing fearlessly with any consistency.
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Yep, I worded it poorly but that's what I meant at the beginning. If we finish near the bottom of the ACC, we have no shot at NIT. The ACC will probably only have a couple tournament teams anyway.
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I'm not giving up on them yet. We could definitely win out next three, and only drop @UNC and @FSU before our home UNC game. Then if we win 3 of the last 5 we're probably in a good position to make the tournament. Might sound like too much of an O&M spin, but those are all winnable.
Now if we drop more than one of the next three I'd say just start playing the young guys. Bench Storm and give Pedulla his minutes. Give Aluma his 25-30 but get Ojiako Kidd and Haynes in there too. Cut Cattoor and Alleyne to less than 20 min each
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I have faith in CMY and the team. A 15 day break as COVID hit the team means they will be rusty. They played much better against UVA than NC State. They are getting back into the flow.
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Comments
LETS GO! (4 min to go 1st half and Alleyne still cant make a bucket)
He has made three shots in 3 1/2 ACC games. How much longer do you wait to give his spot to a productive player?
Hokies! Somehow, I though the game was tomorrow.
Go Hokies! Another night where we appear to be rebounding with no hands
We don't even attempt rebounds 90% of the time
Please dear God bench Alleyne. He needs a few games of not playing to get his head right
Or at least a few games of coming off the bench.
0-3 so far...
Damn, halftime of a hoops game and we have 5 comments. How quickly Pry turned us into a football school again. /s
It seems to have settled down a bit, but if I'm CMY, I'm telling them next person to lob a weak ass cross court pass is done for the day.
Kinda rough to watch. Not sure why we can't get all the players to play to their ability on the same night. Keve is always on his game Catoor is reliable and you just really don't know what you're going to get with the rest. Other than maybe Aleyene and it's the wrong side
Why is Keve getting the ball outside the arc. He needs to be fed the ball inside
Because he is the only player they need to guard/ double team inside the 3 point line
Why are we so bad on the defensive boards?
Mutts missed a lot of the first half in foul trouble. His rebounding was missed.
Aluma - good, Cattoor - good, Murphy - OK (he's really settled in the last few games). Mutts - disappeared in scoring but D And assists look ok....Alleyne - entirely M.I.A.
Way too many offensive rebounds. Not sure if they arent counting the 2nd chance pts if its not an immediate shot, but there were definitely more than 7pts given up
Glad to finally see us set a screen on the guy applying pressure bringing the ball up. But Storm still wont use it. Also think that mutts and aluma go for the block/help defense too much and that leads to offensive rebounds. Finally with the tap out rebounds, guards need to block out as well. Not like we are going to get a break away.
Alleyne!
Was good to see one go down! Hope it helps
His confidence
I don't remember his release looking like this in the past. Maybe I want noticing but it definitely looks much slower and awkward. Like he is overthinking the follow through.
Mutts man; what happened
Sure a whole lot of no calls when we drive the basket. They've been pretty consistent in not calling it but it seems like when they do it's been against us.
3 and a half to go with the ball up 2.
Need a basket here. We've been letting them get away with doubling off the pick.
Wow. Couple great possessions.
90 seconds left, down 1
The mugging under the basket continues, but now we start calling touch fouls at the circle?
Our energy disappeared at 3:30. UVA has the momentum and fire. We're playing slow and flat footed.
38 seconds left, down 1, with the ball
Fuck
We need more legs.
So unbelievably unclutch this season. Do we win a conference game before February?
Can't close out a damn game
No legs. Our starters are gassed at the end of every game. If we're gonna lose I'd at least like to get some experience for the bench to help later in the season or at this point maybe next season.
Why so hard to be a VT fan...
Yawn.
Fuck. This team is not that good.
At least Jayden Gardner got a little father son time with Justyn Mutts
Both these teams suck. We have nothing but aluma on offense and they are just as bad but our shitty offense is going to mean alot more losses in the ACC.
Murphy should have taken the foul...and gotten 3 shots...instead of the head fake and duck.
Oh well...too many empty possessions to realistically win this one anyway. The sky hasn't fallen but the cloud are certainly gathering. Time to start a win streak.
Based on the rest of night they wouldn't have called the foul even if he drew it
We got jobbed by the refs. 16 foul shots to 4. That is how UVA won at their house in a game they were expected to win.
Nothing but respect for our boys. They played well.
Safe to say the MY honey moon phase is over
Let's all take a deep breath and look at next year's recruiting class. It's going to take time to build a consistent roster this year might be rough and yeah we ain't very good but let's let Mike young build
I wish I shared the optimism but this team had 4 starters back (before Boots left) off an NCAA tourney team. Given how many are fifth year seniors, to me this was our best chance at a really good team since our Sweet 16 squad. Next year looks like a rebuild to me. Hope I'm proven wrong.
Only issue is returning we dont have a real PG that was good all around. And while yes returning 4 starters Alleyne has forgotten how to shoot this season and has yet to get going in ACC play although he made a few 3's last night hes been an absentee. Mutts has had some good games but he and Aluma have to play so many minutes they start to tire by the end of games. Cattoor is still the same player largely and can be clutch and had a shot to win last night even after we played as poorly as we did. We've had a really tough schedule thus far and if MY can keep their heads up a win could be around the corner.
As much as Bede wasnt a threat to score he was a hell of a defender and got steals and fought his ass off and was a problem for other teams point guards. Murphy hasnt become that kind of defender and his scoring has gotten a bit better but for a grad transfer I think we all expected a far more finished article.
Next year is probably a bit of a rebuild yes but lots of exciting talent coming in the door and maybe we hit the portal again to try and replace aluma and mutts. Pedulla looks like a baller but needs some time in the weight room and just to keep acclimating to the ACC.
What he said!
At the same time, if there's ever a sport where one recruiting class or portal transfer could reload a program, its basketball. If the recruiting class shakes out like we are expecting, we should be able to bounce back.
This year is an unfortunate miss. If this becomes a multi-year trend, then I'll be worried, but right there just seems to be guys who aren't at all living up to the hype, and its become an unresolvable problem.
Anyone who thought it was all going to be rainbows and unicorns are sure to be disappointed.
Mike Young has some work to do, but it's not unexpected that we were going to have a setback at some point.
Ugh, I'm not sure Murphy will ever have a better look at a game winner.
Never thought this team would start 0-4.
Feels like the team has the yips. So close to being better but keep making mental errors.
We're missing a dynamic wing who can get to the hoop and do it through contact. And this team is lacking toughness in general.
Maddox better start next game. Maddox and Pedulla for Storm and Alleyne would be a welcome change for me
Don't get your hopes up. We've watched Alleyne stink the joint out all year and Maddox barely gets enough run to break a sweat. No way MY is gonna start him. He's being very stubborn about this for whatever reason this year. I wish college reporters would be more probing like pro reporters are in their questions to get into his reasonings. Alleyne provides nothing when he isn't scoring. If you want to be kind, he's at best completely average (ie replacement level) in every other aspect. From what I've seen, there wouldn't be a massive dropoff going from Alleyne to Maddox. How many games are you gonna leave Alleyne out there for heavy minutes before realizing he's not going to "shoot his way out of the slump" because its not a slump. Cut his minutes. If he starts producing, increase them again.
What's funny (more sad than funny) this was actually one of Alleyne's better games of late and it was still UGH. Also didn't help that Mutts stunk the joint up too but still.
Mutts was superb on defense and actually wasn't a turnover machine on offense. The one turnover had was terrible though. He had plenty of good post entry passes to Aluma that our guards seem incapable of executing.. so even though he didn't score he was a huge positive
It is insane that this didn't happen games ago. MY is losing a lot of shine
I think he's still waiting for the team he thought he had In November to show up. Unfortunately this IS the team he had.
Without Bede and Radford the guards are SOFT. Which it's fine for either Cattoor or Alleyne to be out there as a 3-point specialist. Unfortunately all three of our guards are 3-point specialists, and two of them can't even shoot.
I'm just rooting for COVID to cancel everything
Not like this gif.
Same story every game.
Zero players who can create their own shot so we just can't beat any team with a competent defense. No one to give the ball to when we need a bucket. No Justin Robinson or Seth Allen or even Tyrece Radford. You need those kind of guys.
Coaching staff bears the blame. They haven't recruited a good ACC team and player development is questionable too.
Just gonna pretend we don't have a top 50 recruit and 2 McDonald all americans coming in next year?
You're the one pretending here... Counting nominees as All Americans? There are 800 nominees... Might be like ~400 though b/c 800 might include girls players too.
Idk if Rodney Rice can create his own shot. I admittedly haven't done enough homework. I know that he can shoot. But what we need are aggressive shot creators who can finish at the rim (Allen, Robinson, Radford types).
With all due respect to the other two recruits (rated ~200 nationally), they are probably not program changers. Could be solid pieces though, only time will tell.
Watch Wesslers and Collins tapes. Imo they were severely underrated. Not saying they were top 50 or 100. But I think they should have been around 125-150 imo. Also watching rice highlights he indeed is very good at creating his own shot
Also we still have a card up our sleeve for recruiting for the 2022 class
Hopefully we can somehow throw a scholly we have on a top 10 transfer portal player (athletic scoring guard)
We still in talks with a unsigned top 50 recruit for the 22 class.
#8 Yohan Traore??
or
#18 Anthony Black??
maybe
#25 Zion Cruz??
or could it be
#44 Eric Dailey
or
#49 Sadraque Nganga
Must be Dailey or Nganga since if it were one of the other guys you would have said Top 25 or Top 20 or Top 10...
edit: Dailey
https://247sports.com/college/virginia-tech/Article/Basketball-recruitin...
Time will tell whether Rice can actually get to the rim vs. ACC athletes. I wouldn't bet on it in year one at least.
Wessler doesn't excite me. Nothing against the kid, but 7 footers who play in the post never get me excited, that's not what wins games in March. The main things you really need from big men is rebounding and the ability to switch onto perimeter players - which is hard to come by. We'll see if Wessler is versatile enough for that. Of course ideally they are like Aluma or Blackshear and create matchup issues with their perimeter play. Wessler is probably not that guy.
I'll have to look into Collins more. Would like a little more size on the wing, but if he's athletic enough it can work.
I also forgot Nickeil in my list of players that we need more of.
Lol that is insane spin
Whatever, still lame that UVAh's fight song just rips off auld lang syne
They might as well sing Kumbaya
This is just not our year.
Following the loss to Duke, we played 2 games in 23 days
Starting Saturday, we will play 6 games in 15 days. Hopefully CMY can figure this thing out, fast.
The team, besides Aluma, just cannot make enough shots.
There's my Maddenism for the day. RIP.
Mike Young is 0-4 in the ACC. Buzz Williams is 3-0 in the SEC.
BEFORE I GET DOWNVOTED I'M JOKING, A&M hasn't even played any of the top SEC teams, so they will probably fade. In all likelihood neither team makes the tournament this year. But it was funny when people were trashing on Buzz and hailing Mike Young as superior based on last season. You gotta wait and see how these things pan out, who knows which program will be better in a couple years. Hopefully ours, but we have to make some improvements.
Yeah I think he just didn't realize what he had roster wise in the offseason and bought into the hype from the media. With Radford and Bamisile we would be top 20 imo, so I don't blame him too much for the roster. He planned on keeping both this season.
Definitely should've been more lobbying to get Bede back though. When I mentioned that in the offseason I was bombarded by people saying "no way, offensive liability". Wonder where those people are now - probably too busy reading box scores.
I'll admit I really did not want Bede back with everything I was told and read about Storm. I was terribly misinformed.
I want to know what happened with Storm between the first few weeks of the season and where we are now. He looked every bit the part we were told those first few weeks, even it was against lesser competition. Since then, maybe it was the Memphis game, he's just looked unsure of himself and limited confidence.
I think you kind of answered your own question. The speed/skill of the major conferences is faster than the mid/low-major conferences. He's a solid player, maybe more than that at the that level, but take that step up, and his game isn't as effective.
Just... so much to clean up. We can't rebound. We can't score. We can't defend. We don't get to the free throw line. We turn the ball over. We have zero depth. We're streaky and can't stop the other teams' scoring runs. Last night again Aluma was struggling with about 13:00 to play. Ojiako needs to prove he can fill in (he looked serviceable last night). Maddox/Pedulla need to take a step forward, and quickly.
At this point I think we're just trying to salvage a respectable season. Figure out a way to finish .500, hopefully a game or two above.
Incredible that this is what our expectations have come to. We might actually be worse than Mike Young's first year! We finished 16-16, with a 7-13 ACC record in Year 1. That was his "bare cupboard" season, although he actually inherited a few good to solid pieces from Buzz (Radford, Nolley, Bede, Horne, Wilkins).
And yet here we are in Year 3, arguably worse than the Year 1 rebuild. Crazy.
The conference is way worse this year than it was then too
I know it... that was painful to type but I haven't really seen a lot to suggest we should hope for more. I'd love to be wrong of course but man it's been a rough stretch.
I was a little surprised that CMY didn't use a timeout on either of the last two possessions given that we struggled to score organically for the last 3 minutes and his inbound plays are generally pretty successful. There were a bunch of other warts on last night's game but they weren't necessarily surprising; that decision was just a bit of a head scratcher for me.
I can no longer make excuses for this team. As it has been said many times before, "We are what our record says we are". We are an underperforming team that does not really have an ACC talent required roster to compete in this league. We lack in height, depth and talent. We turn the ball over when we need a critical bucket. Sloppy passes, defense is spotty and we still don't a player who can nail a shot when you absolutely need one. I don't see the schedule getting any easier and a couple more losses and this season is over.
I didn't get to see last night's game at all, so I can't comment on the play. What I can say is that whatever pre-season expectations I/we had should be shredded and burned and never spoken of again. We have enough of a sample size to know that we're not going to be competitive in the conference this year. I have zero expectations of making the NCAA tournament, and unless we see a dramatic turnaround and ~10-game conference win streak I think our only way into the tournament is to win the ACC tourney.
I don't want to harp on this too much but this slump Naheim is in is unprecedented. Its pretty much impossible to win games when one of your production players is producing nothing also hard to adjust. Maddox is not the defender that Allyene and is physically much smaller but he's progressing.
ACC Numbers for Alleyene: Shooting 18%, 31.5 Minutes/game, 5.5 points/game. That's going to hinder any offense in the country when someone is averaging half of the ppg that he was last season. We don't currently have a plug for that a long with other issues on being able to penetrate on the dribble and finish. I'm not going to hold this one against MY we need to see how his players develop, if they can all take the path of Keve we're going to be a very good team in a couple years.
We essentially replaced Bede with two Bedes
The mistakes are maddening, I don't know how MY doesn't have an aneurysm every game. This team screws up simple things at least 7-8 times a game. If they played a tad smarter, they would have 3 more wins. The offensive cold streaks are awful and need corrected quickly by either substitutions or working on some set plays. Far too many times this season has the little 0 points in running clock graphic popped up on the screen. I thought this was a fluke at first, but it's quickly becoming apparent that it's part of this teams' identity. At least the NIT gives us some home games.
I wouldn't jump the gun on that, we're dead last in the worst high major conference. Only winless ACC team. The analytics still like us, but we're undeserving of a bid imo because we just can't win a game. Of course, still plenty of time to change that.
As far as the mistakes, this is what happens when a decent mid-major team plays ACC teams. Our guards are a 6' mid major transfer and two 6'3" guards. The three of them combined for one non-VT offer from a high major school out of program (Nebraska for Alleyne). We are a solid mid-major caliber team. Those teams have no margin for error with execution, because they are outmatched physically. So any mistakes are amplified. The easy solution is recruit ACC level athletes and talent.
Again, we have no athletic perimeter threats who can create their own shot, get to the rim, etc. We had that with Radford. Before him, we had that with NAW, Robinson, Allen, etc. That's a huge reason why those teams were successful, even against a much stronger ACC. Especially in the clutch, we could just give the ball to Allen and he could make a winning play.
100%. And those with good memory will recall many comments in angst on this forum last year about how Radford was the only one attacking the rim successfully and playing fearlessly with any consistency.
At this rate we won't make the NIT.
Yep, I worded it poorly but that's what I meant at the beginning. If we finish near the bottom of the ACC, we have no shot at NIT. The ACC will probably only have a couple tournament teams anyway.
I'm not giving up on them yet. We could definitely win out next three, and only drop @UNC and @FSU before our home UNC game. Then if we win 3 of the last 5 we're probably in a good position to make the tournament. Might sound like too much of an O&M spin, but those are all winnable.
Now if we drop more than one of the next three I'd say just start playing the young guys. Bench Storm and give Pedulla his minutes. Give Aluma his 25-30 but get Ojiako Kidd and Haynes in there too. Cut Cattoor and Alleyne to less than 20 min each
We're a football school again... right?
Always have been.jpg
Gotta laugh at folks calling for Young to be fired, lol, stfu
To be clear, I haven't necessarily seen that here, but on twitterland
I have faith in CMY and the team. A 15 day break as COVID hit the team means they will be rusty. They played much better against UVA than NC State. They are getting back into the flow.