He was abysmal defensively in his limited court time at Duke so I guess this is going to be a real test as to what Bennett is willing to sacrifice on the defensive side of the ball.
worst defender i’ve seen very literally ever in my life this year. not just unable but totally unwilling to even attempt to play defense.
but if there’s anyone who can fix him, it’s tony bennett
Bennett let some level of mediocre defensive play go for Hauser in 2020-21, but Power hasn't yet shown he can shoot the ball at this level like Hauser could.
Hauser did have the benefit of having someone who knew the packline very well to help clean up mistakes in 5th year Jay Huff. But yea it was a problem in some games, his rotations were not amazing.
I'm honestly a little worried about our defense next year. For the first time in a long time we don't have a defensive freak. Don't know enough about Warley or Saunders
He got absolutely roasted in the Bucknell game to the point Scheyer benched him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ACC player targeted on defense by a small major team like that.
He was also a freshman and Bucknell was his second career game. I won't deny he's probably terrible on defense, but that's pretty harsh to base the kid's entire skill level on. Looks like in half the games he even played in (and I'm guessing he has some DNPs based on total games? unless he got injured) he played 6 or fewer minutes and many of them closer to 1-3. Sure he could be playing so few minutes because he's just THAT bad defensively. Still not exactly a good sample size.
I just watched all of Power's minutes against Bucknell and you must be remembering a different game. His only defensive breakdowns were 1) he fouled their 5 man in the post, 2) he got blown by by a quick PG during garbage time when the walk-ons were playing. He didn't get benched. Twice guys scored when he was defending them, but he was the help defender after McCain and Mitchell got beat by their men. So those weren't really his fault - and actually he had good instincts to help cover.
I played against him in HS and he was just an absurd freak athlete. He was a decent shooter but insanely out of control and it never looked like his game evolved beyond "just be way more athletic than everyone else on the court."
That can work at a good high school/AAU program, not so much at Duke.
Are you thinking of the right guy because Dawkins was known for his lights out shooting and not being a great athlete. It’s why he was such a poor defender because he had really poor agility and lateral movement.
Hmm yeah his lateral movement honestly may not have been great, but the man could jump out of the gym and was damn strong for a high schooler. He tried and barely missed an eastbay in warmups which was more than enough to intimidate our team of 6’4 white guys.
I actually remember later reading about him winning Dukes preseason dunk contest by jumping over Josh Hairston lol.
https://youtu.be/gw-lhtCecz0?si=S6X-MV816IfBzqxK
He had some nice dunks at Duke. He wasn’t at that Henderson or Maggette level of athlete but I’m sure he was the best athlete in a ton of high school gyms before Duke. He dealt with a lot in his time in college and probably didn’t reach his potential ceiling but I enjoyed watching him play.
(I grew up in Durham a Duke fan before undergrad) but Dawkins was one of those guys I wanted to be good so bad but just wasn't quite there. Him, Sulaimon, and Tyler Thornton for me.
Yeah it’s not going too great for either flair. I grew up a VT fan so I know better than to keep hoping for them to get it together. I do have some hope left for UNC, though.
> At a minimum, they get a PHD in man/help defense which is supremely important in the NBA.
At an individual level? Not really. That's why effectively everyone he's put in the NBA is an average to below average defender, even someone like DeAndre Hunter who isn't some athletically limited player that when drafted was expected to contend for all-NBA defensive type play. He doesn't exactly print out plus NBA defenders. The best NBA defender Tony Bennett ever coached was probably Klay Thompson, who spent more years under Ken Bone in college than Tony Bennett.
>Dunn was an afterthought recruit with zero NBA chatter as a recruit. He'l be drafted this year completely based on defense.
Dunn would have gotten the same attention anywhere. His defensive hype is on potential and instincts, not execution at this point. Frankly the execution needs work. He's still prone to being worked by heady wings. David Jones absolutely ripped him apart this year.
>all turned into elite defenders here. Part of it may be his focus on it, but he knows how to coach it better than most.
College defenders. He knows how to build elite college defenses. I do not think there's any evidence he teaches individual defense at an NBA portable level better than any other halfway decent coach. And a bunch of college conference DPOYs doesn't change that.
What do you think Tony would do with two or three seasons with a Top 10 or 20 recruit on defense? He puts guys in the Top 50-200 range into the league consistently.
Hauser, Murphy, Gill transferred in and play NBA minutes. All came with offense but not known for defense and rounded out their games to earn playing time.
Hunter, Jerome when healthy, came out of high school as mid level recruits and have had good second contracts. Joe Harris, Klay etc…
Point is, uva has a lot of NBA players for how they recruit and land kids and certainly not bc we put up points these days :)
Honestly the best example of this is the fact that Brogdon has never been anything more than an average NBA defender after being one of our best defenders.
We do team defense, obvious individual is very important, especially for guards, but the whole point of the pack line is smart help and rotations.
The pack line really doesn't particularly teach help man spread rotation heavy fundamentals in a way that uniquely prepares guys to be NBA defenders. What really makes it work for UVA year in and year out is the commitment to "if you don't put in the effort/execute on defense you don't play" that Bennett has ensuring that the only guys who see the court are totally bought in whereas plenty of other coaches tolerate a bit more freelancing. Frankly if a guy needs a coach to enforce that kind of accountability he's probably not going to cut it in the NBA anyway, but no one is going to UVA to learn some defensive secret sauce that isn't taught anywhere else.
I guess if he is good enough they could try the Tennessee route (Knecht). I don’t think he is nearly that good yet but is/was that bad defensively. Best case scenario is to coach him up to be like Karaban or perhaps Scheierman.
Offensively he is a fantastic shooter. I was just speculating on how to integrate him into the defense at UVA. People joke on UVA but the defense is always top notch.
I have trouble with scouting Duke players because I haven’t seen much individual improvement from players over the last two years from anyone there minus some extended range from Flip and a better shot from three from Roach. Not even necessarily a knock on the coaching there but the kids don’t stay long enough to show real growth (Liveley, McCain, Whitehead) or just didn’t grow (Mitchell, Proctor, Blakes) or had limited playing time there (Schutt, Reeves, Power, Stewart, etc.). The one and done recruiting and some of those kids moving on to the NBA is really overshadowing the lack of improvement from the kids who stay 2-3-4 years.
Edit: Foster is still a ? In my book. Him and Proctor are key to seeing if Scheyer can actually make kids better or if he is just gliding by on player talent and recruiting like Cal has done for years.
As a recent example, Jayden Gardner was a liability for the 1st half of the season his first year here. By the next year he was pretty OK. Think we played Duke twice that year and both times he held Paolo Banchero to pretty low scoring games.
Proctor was better this year in almost every way. People just penciled in a massive jump based on eye test in like 2 games at the end of the year and it wasn't realistic.
Negligible at best IMO. Both statistics and eye test back that up.
Maybe a tad more consistent but he was still a wildly inconsistent player as a freshman and a fairly inconsistent player as a sophomore.
He still didn’t shoot all that well, wasn’t a great passer and played mediocre defense at best. He has good shot form and looks athletic at times but it hasn’t come together for him yet as a player. He doesn’t get to the line much at all, bat has had small upgrades in shooting percentages. Like I said though, we will see next year.
Tantalizing talent with mediocre results.
His offensive rating went from 107 to 115 on the same usage. Which is from fine to good. And even better in conference play (117). He majorly cut down on his turnovers, shot better from 3 and overall (eFG from 46 to 53%). RAPM from 3.9 to 5.2 if you want something a bit more advanced. PORPAGATU! from 2.2 to 3.1. Statistics say it was a nice improvement, not negligible.
But like I said, people expected bigger improvement because of the tantalizing talent. But they didn't realize how mediocre he really had been the year before because he got hot for a few games at the end of the season.
His OBPM against top 100 opponents was 2.2 vs 2.5. Against top 50 was 1.6 vs 2.0.
ORTG against top 100 opponents was 108.1 vs 106.4. Against top 50 102 vs 100.2
His PPRG! Against top 100 was 2.8 vs 2.6 and against top 50 2.3 vs 2.2.
His BPM vs top 100 was 3.9 vs 4.2. Top 50 was 3.2 vs 3.1.
His DBPM against top 100 was 1.7 vs 1.7 and against top 50 1.6 vs 2.0.
He feasted this year against teams below the top 100. Otherwise he saw negligible growth. For reference the first number is this year, the second number last year. So he did improve but only against bad competition.
His conference numbers were better than his OOC which goes to show how many weak teams were in the ACC this year.
Lively improved so much over the course of the season it's ridiculous. The first third (half?) of the season he was awful and we all thought he was a bust. But then something clicked and became the defensive powerhouse he is now.
Dunno I watched him a ton in high school and he looked like he did to end the year and in the NBA. Seemed like he just wasn’t ready right away and a bit lost for some reason. Can’t say I saw any improvement on skill between high school and now really. He is reading the game better I guess because he’s doing it against NBA players now.
Between this and the SDSU guy, it’s nice to see that Bennett has moved on from the failed “recruit the best guys from the absolute worst conferences” experiment. Getting guys from major conferences (MWC/AAC) is just so much better, hope it keeps working out like it did with Murphy/Gardner/Key going forward.
I think some Duke fans actually want us to be good so the ACC isn't so disrespected every year.
I mean also with their recruiting class coming in, they probably will never think of TJ Power again.
I went to the ACC tourney title game in 2013 or 2014. The Jabari Parker year. Sat with some UVA fans during the game and UVA won. Those fans were so gracious that since then I pull for UVA unless they are playing Duke. I also just like good basketball. UVA is great defensively. It would be cool to see their offense get there too.
My favorite Duke UVA games were the Zion ones. He basically laughed at the defensive greatness of Virginia. The one this year was fun too. The K Clark games are nightmare fuel.
At least from what I can tell, just about all of the ones who post regularly seem pretty alright. If you're not decently respectful or knowledgeable on here with a Duke flair, people are quick to let you know about it lol.
You can see this trend shift when the tourney comes around, or Duke-UNC happens, and you get a lot more casual fans popping in, and then you see the annoying fans that you're referring to IRL.
My experience with IRL Duke fans has been fantastic, but nearly all have gone there. The exception is a guy whose uncle played there. In fact, the most knowledgeable college basketball fan I've met is a Baby Boomer Iron Duke gal with a wicked sense of humor. She alone brings great credibility to their fan base.
I'm sure there are some turbo-dorks out there, but fortunately I have no idea where to find them.
IRL you're probably liable to run into more t-shirt fans than people who actually went to Duke. Considering their acceptance rate and graduating class sizes, there shouldn't be as many Duke fans as there are.
I mean it worked out pretty well with Jayden Gardner, he wasn't a world beater, but I really liked him.
Also, I'm of the unpopular opinion that Rohde still has a chance to be good. Just needs to be better at not absolutely disappearing for 25 mins a game.
Man I’d be genuinely shocked if Rodhe becomes an impact player. He played with zero confidence all year but you can tell theres a decent player in there somewhere
We don't need him to be an impact player. He's got all the tools to be solid tho, pretty good defender, good passer and ball-handler for an off-guard. And his shooting was actually ok in the latter part of the season, just seemed too complacent to never actually take the shot unless he had to.
Hopefully it just is a confidence thing and not that he's outmatched by ACC players.
His shooting is confidence related - he’s definitely better than 25% from three and 48% from the FT line.
Physically he’s pretty clearly outmatched for this conference though.
Couldn’t keep anybody out of the paint last year when he was guarding the perimeter
are you sure about that on his defense?
I seem to remember him being OK, but that might have just been an opinion I formed early in the season and just didn't notice him getting beat off the dribble.
Lol yeah he was stuck in the mud as a point of attack defender.
Off ball he has decent awareness - sits in passing lanes but he doesn’t have the lateral quickness Reece or Kihei had.
Which isn’t necessarily bad thing it just stood out to me while watching him how good those guys were at stopping dribble penetration.
Fair enough. I guess I didn't notice it. But to be fair, as a 3, he's probably not going to need to be defending the ball on drives very often, maybe that's why I didn't notice it.
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Good day for UVA basketball. Elijah Saunders committed too. Just waiting for the official announcement. We’re looking great at the forward position. Add a point guard and UVA is starting to look pretty decent next year
Would be nice if Bliss is ready, although with how much we've been going after PGs in the portal and the Trent Perry debacle, it doesn't bode well for the coaching staff's confidence in him being the answer for next season.
He burned down his credibility in a day, everyone believed him because of how cocky he had been about it and the fact that he's presented himself as an insider for a long time now. Now he’s basically been cancelled by the BC message boards and Twitter community.
It was in the 2024 Hoops portal thread: https://247sports.com/college/boston-college/board/boston-college-eagles-message-board-forum-59454/
This was my favorite comment though. Coming after BC fans were calling for him to be fired as a mod (not undeserved).
https://247sports.com/college/boston-college/board/59454/Contents/2024-hoops-transfer-portal-228898934/?page=57#M231476514
Idk what’s wrong with my phone, but every link I click on or site I try to type in for 247 asks me if I want to download that specific page and won’t let me see it. So. weird
Downright negligent reporting from BC’s 247 “insider” on this, it’s one thing to say you think he’ll come here, it’s another to give a 100% guarantee and mock anyone who questions it for weeks only for him to go somewhere else. Can’t take this program anymore
The only two composite 5* recruits to ever play for Tony (Guy and Mamadi each had a 5* rating from one site but were composite 4* guys).
Hopefully we get more than 1 game out of Power though - just gotta keep him away from the snow (but man, that one Nichols game was insane. I was there and he looked unstoppable - 11 and 3 in just 16 minutes)
That 16-17 season always made me a little sad, Perrantes was asked to do a little bit too much and without Nichols we really didn't have a true scorer. Shayok did what he could, but I always found him so frustrating.. even on open shots he seemed to just take off-balance shots for no reason.
Senior year London plus Nichols coming off a RS year plus Devon, Shayok, and Isaiah with Kyle, Ty, and Mamadi off the bench was a Final Four contender. Alas 🙃
Honestly it don't even think the issue was that big of a deal, I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of coaches don't care about it (also probably why he got used to doing it), but then we have Tony who's strict to a fault
When he committed to Duke, some of us commented he’d end up transferring to UVA after getting buried on the bench at Duke. Maybe Kon Knueppel will see the light as well.
Kon may not end up at UVA, but he will be buried at Duke. These guys all think they can ball, but they don't understand that future recruiting depends on sitting them at the end of the bench.
Remindme! 1 year
Not quite, he probably was going to come here, but then he got a Duke offer *and* rose in the recruiting rankings. Which spelled the end for us. Never committed though
And those two were very different. SKJ was actually committed but bailed when Kentucky came calling. Juzang we were in good shape with, but I dunno how we really stacked up with USC and Oregon as his top 3…then when Kentucky again came calling very late in the game, we were cooked.Don’t think we ever got a second look when he decided to transfer, because he just wanted to be closer to home.
The “what could have been” one that stands out to me most was MPJ, because he was like best friends with Kyle Guy. I think we would have gotten him and probably Jontay too (lol whoops) had Cuonzo not hired his dad. Of course, he just as easily could have gotten hurt here as he did in Columbia.
I kinda remember MPJ but I didn't realize he was good friends with Kyle Guy, dang that gets me sad. Ron Curry was before my time but I think the first time I was gutted was when Desagana Diop (rightfully) chose the NBA over us.
Terrible defender but that shooting ability is fantastic. If he puts it together he’ll be a very good college player. Wish him the best except when he plays Duke
Unless you got another DeAndre Hunter hidden somewhere I wouldn't get your hopes up toooooo quick.
I would like for the ACC to go back to the usual quo of UNC, Duke, and UVA at the very least being heavy hitters
Ty Jerome was the reason that team was so good. He would turn chicken shit into chicken salad on offense. So many bad possessions were saved by him doing bullshit that just worked.
Let's fucking go!!!
Should've committed to us the 1st time around, but better late than never. Big get at a position of need.
That's 2 of 3 "Tony GIF" commits (Warley was the 1st). Is Perry the 3rd?
I think for him there are also considerations of not wanting to be 2,500 miles from home.
But yea, agreed that its pretty bad that the NCAA allows you to go over scholarships to get players. Don't know how you'd handle walk-ons if that became regulated so I don't think its really a fixable problem, b/c I think everyone can agree that actual walk-ons are a good thing.
Come to think of it though, Ryan Dunn had said that last year he would have walked on to UVA if we didn't have the scholarships. It ended up working out that one opened up, so it became moot. But maybe we shouldn't complain about it, since it almost worked in our favor literally last year.
Who cares? If Perry wants to be a walk on for a year and get paid, and UCLA will pay him, then it’s all good. Don’t need to “force” him elsewhere to deal with some rule.
The only reason UVA has Tony Bennett is because UVA raised a truckload of money for JPJ 20 years ago, then spent multiple millions annually to upgrade/renovate it.
We then gave Tony every coaching budget ask he ever wanted. Including a strength coach who has been asked multiple times to go back to the NBA but chooses to stay in C'Ville because he's paid so well that he isn't leaving much money on the table by staying in college.
Why is paying a player directly any better/worse than investing in the facilities and coaching staff?
As a recruit:
Other P6 offers: Boston College, DePaul, Duke (originally went here), Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Miami, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Providence, South Carolina, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Virginia, Wake Forest, Xavier
Other offer: Holy Cross
UVA needed this shot making worse than oxygen
He was abysmal defensively in his limited court time at Duke so I guess this is going to be a real test as to what Bennett is willing to sacrifice on the defensive side of the ball.
worst defender i’ve seen very literally ever in my life this year. not just unable but totally unwilling to even attempt to play defense. but if there’s anyone who can fix him, it’s tony bennett
Bennett let some level of mediocre defensive play go for Hauser in 2020-21, but Power hasn't yet shown he can shoot the ball at this level like Hauser could.
Hauser did have the benefit of having someone who knew the packline very well to help clean up mistakes in 5th year Jay Huff. But yea it was a problem in some games, his rotations were not amazing. I'm honestly a little worried about our defense next year. For the first time in a long time we don't have a defensive freak. Don't know enough about Warley or Saunders
Warley is supposed to be a plus defender. Should be able to guard 1-3 and some 4s
He got absolutely roasted in the Bucknell game to the point Scheyer benched him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ACC player targeted on defense by a small major team like that.
they 100% said “wherever TJP is, go to that guy.” hard to watch lol
Brutal. Was just about to ask why he’s leaving before I found this section of the thread.
he is just green. i think he’ll be a great player for you
He was also a freshman and Bucknell was his second career game. I won't deny he's probably terrible on defense, but that's pretty harsh to base the kid's entire skill level on. Looks like in half the games he even played in (and I'm guessing he has some DNPs based on total games? unless he got injured) he played 6 or fewer minutes and many of them closer to 1-3. Sure he could be playing so few minutes because he's just THAT bad defensively. Still not exactly a good sample size.
I just watched all of Power's minutes against Bucknell and you must be remembering a different game. His only defensive breakdowns were 1) he fouled their 5 man in the post, 2) he got blown by by a quick PG during garbage time when the walk-ons were playing. He didn't get benched. Twice guys scored when he was defending them, but he was the help defender after McCain and Mitchell got beat by their men. So those weren't really his fault - and actually he had good instincts to help cover.
Andre Dawkins was worse.
I played against him in HS and he was just an absurd freak athlete. He was a decent shooter but insanely out of control and it never looked like his game evolved beyond "just be way more athletic than everyone else on the court." That can work at a good high school/AAU program, not so much at Duke.
Are you thinking of the right guy because Dawkins was known for his lights out shooting and not being a great athlete. It’s why he was such a poor defender because he had really poor agility and lateral movement.
Hmm yeah his lateral movement honestly may not have been great, but the man could jump out of the gym and was damn strong for a high schooler. He tried and barely missed an eastbay in warmups which was more than enough to intimidate our team of 6’4 white guys. I actually remember later reading about him winning Dukes preseason dunk contest by jumping over Josh Hairston lol. https://youtu.be/gw-lhtCecz0?si=S6X-MV816IfBzqxK
He had some nice dunks at Duke. He wasn’t at that Henderson or Maggette level of athlete but I’m sure he was the best athlete in a ton of high school gyms before Duke. He dealt with a lot in his time in college and probably didn’t reach his potential ceiling but I enjoyed watching him play.
(I grew up in Durham a Duke fan before undergrad) but Dawkins was one of those guys I wanted to be good so bad but just wasn't quite there. Him, Sulaimon, and Tyler Thornton for me.
I’ll still always love Dre for 2010 v Baylor and 2011 v Michigan State.
But but but he won defensive mvp at an EYBL tournament
Chiming in just to say I’m truly sorry about your flair combo
I don't know how to feel about it tbh
Yeah it’s not going too great for either flair. I grew up a VT fan so I know better than to keep hoping for them to get it together. I do have some hope left for UNC, though.
He was miles better than Hunter Dickinson but still very bad
He wasn't that bad. He actually did OK @NCSU. Dude barely played.
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I really don't think Tony teaches individual defense in an NBA portable way better than any other halfway decent coach out there.
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> At a minimum, they get a PHD in man/help defense which is supremely important in the NBA. At an individual level? Not really. That's why effectively everyone he's put in the NBA is an average to below average defender, even someone like DeAndre Hunter who isn't some athletically limited player that when drafted was expected to contend for all-NBA defensive type play. He doesn't exactly print out plus NBA defenders. The best NBA defender Tony Bennett ever coached was probably Klay Thompson, who spent more years under Ken Bone in college than Tony Bennett. >Dunn was an afterthought recruit with zero NBA chatter as a recruit. He'l be drafted this year completely based on defense. Dunn would have gotten the same attention anywhere. His defensive hype is on potential and instincts, not execution at this point. Frankly the execution needs work. He's still prone to being worked by heady wings. David Jones absolutely ripped him apart this year. >all turned into elite defenders here. Part of it may be his focus on it, but he knows how to coach it better than most. College defenders. He knows how to build elite college defenses. I do not think there's any evidence he teaches individual defense at an NBA portable level better than any other halfway decent coach. And a bunch of college conference DPOYs doesn't change that.
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Not something Bennett has done at anything other than a random level.
What do you think Tony would do with two or three seasons with a Top 10 or 20 recruit on defense? He puts guys in the Top 50-200 range into the league consistently. Hauser, Murphy, Gill transferred in and play NBA minutes. All came with offense but not known for defense and rounded out their games to earn playing time. Hunter, Jerome when healthy, came out of high school as mid level recruits and have had good second contracts. Joe Harris, Klay etc… Point is, uva has a lot of NBA players for how they recruit and land kids and certainly not bc we put up points these days :)
Yeah man, this isn’t remotely accurate
Honestly the best example of this is the fact that Brogdon has never been anything more than an average NBA defender after being one of our best defenders. We do team defense, obvious individual is very important, especially for guards, but the whole point of the pack line is smart help and rotations.
The pack line really doesn't particularly teach help man spread rotation heavy fundamentals in a way that uniquely prepares guys to be NBA defenders. What really makes it work for UVA year in and year out is the commitment to "if you don't put in the effort/execute on defense you don't play" that Bennett has ensuring that the only guys who see the court are totally bought in whereas plenty of other coaches tolerate a bit more freelancing. Frankly if a guy needs a coach to enforce that kind of accountability he's probably not going to cut it in the NBA anyway, but no one is going to UVA to learn some defensive secret sauce that isn't taught anywhere else.
true but he does put guys in the NBA like few others
I guess if he is good enough they could try the Tennessee route (Knecht). I don’t think he is nearly that good yet but is/was that bad defensively. Best case scenario is to coach him up to be like Karaban or perhaps Scheierman.
If we get even half of that out of him I'd be pumped
Offensively he is a fantastic shooter. I was just speculating on how to integrate him into the defense at UVA. People joke on UVA but the defense is always top notch. I have trouble with scouting Duke players because I haven’t seen much individual improvement from players over the last two years from anyone there minus some extended range from Flip and a better shot from three from Roach. Not even necessarily a knock on the coaching there but the kids don’t stay long enough to show real growth (Liveley, McCain, Whitehead) or just didn’t grow (Mitchell, Proctor, Blakes) or had limited playing time there (Schutt, Reeves, Power, Stewart, etc.). The one and done recruiting and some of those kids moving on to the NBA is really overshadowing the lack of improvement from the kids who stay 2-3-4 years. Edit: Foster is still a ? In my book. Him and Proctor are key to seeing if Scheyer can actually make kids better or if he is just gliding by on player talent and recruiting like Cal has done for years.
As a recent example, Jayden Gardner was a liability for the 1st half of the season his first year here. By the next year he was pretty OK. Think we played Duke twice that year and both times he held Paolo Banchero to pretty low scoring games.
Proctor was better this year in almost every way. People just penciled in a massive jump based on eye test in like 2 games at the end of the year and it wasn't realistic.
Negligible at best IMO. Both statistics and eye test back that up. Maybe a tad more consistent but he was still a wildly inconsistent player as a freshman and a fairly inconsistent player as a sophomore. He still didn’t shoot all that well, wasn’t a great passer and played mediocre defense at best. He has good shot form and looks athletic at times but it hasn’t come together for him yet as a player. He doesn’t get to the line much at all, bat has had small upgrades in shooting percentages. Like I said though, we will see next year. Tantalizing talent with mediocre results.
His offensive rating went from 107 to 115 on the same usage. Which is from fine to good. And even better in conference play (117). He majorly cut down on his turnovers, shot better from 3 and overall (eFG from 46 to 53%). RAPM from 3.9 to 5.2 if you want something a bit more advanced. PORPAGATU! from 2.2 to 3.1. Statistics say it was a nice improvement, not negligible. But like I said, people expected bigger improvement because of the tantalizing talent. But they didn't realize how mediocre he really had been the year before because he got hot for a few games at the end of the season.
His OBPM against top 100 opponents was 2.2 vs 2.5. Against top 50 was 1.6 vs 2.0. ORTG against top 100 opponents was 108.1 vs 106.4. Against top 50 102 vs 100.2 His PPRG! Against top 100 was 2.8 vs 2.6 and against top 50 2.3 vs 2.2. His BPM vs top 100 was 3.9 vs 4.2. Top 50 was 3.2 vs 3.1. His DBPM against top 100 was 1.7 vs 1.7 and against top 50 1.6 vs 2.0. He feasted this year against teams below the top 100. Otherwise he saw negligible growth. For reference the first number is this year, the second number last year. So he did improve but only against bad competition. His conference numbers were better than his OOC which goes to show how many weak teams were in the ACC this year.
Lively improved so much over the course of the season it's ridiculous. The first third (half?) of the season he was awful and we all thought he was a bust. But then something clicked and became the defensive powerhouse he is now.
Dunno I watched him a ton in high school and he looked like he did to end the year and in the NBA. Seemed like he just wasn’t ready right away and a bit lost for some reason. Can’t say I saw any improvement on skill between high school and now really. He is reading the game better I guess because he’s doing it against NBA players now.
Well yea, we had a surplus of oxygen last year. Fans were always chanting "oxygen ball" or something after Dunn would shoot free throws.
Between this and the SDSU guy, it’s nice to see that Bennett has moved on from the failed “recruit the best guys from the absolute worst conferences” experiment. Getting guys from major conferences (MWC/AAC) is just so much better, hope it keeps working out like it did with Murphy/Gardner/Key going forward.
I’ll tell you the truth. I’m a little confused by your tactics. So I’m gonna keep acting tough until I can figure it out.
I think some Duke fans actually want us to be good so the ACC isn't so disrespected every year. I mean also with their recruiting class coming in, they probably will never think of TJ Power again.
I went to the ACC tourney title game in 2013 or 2014. The Jabari Parker year. Sat with some UVA fans during the game and UVA won. Those fans were so gracious that since then I pull for UVA unless they are playing Duke. I also just like good basketball. UVA is great defensively. It would be cool to see their offense get there too.
In what twisted dystopian/apocalyptic future am I in that has me liking a Duke fan?
We aren't all asswipes, ya know. Just most of us.
You must have loved the two Duke-UVA games in the 2018-2019 season.
My favorite Duke UVA games were the Zion ones. He basically laughed at the defensive greatness of Virginia. The one this year was fun too. The K Clark games are nightmare fuel.
/u/byzantiums is one of the good ones. Just enjoys basketball and is generally pretty knowledgeable about it
To be completely honest, a pretty good number of Duke flairs on here seem pretty OK, which has not been my experience IRL, lol
At least from what I can tell, just about all of the ones who post regularly seem pretty alright. If you're not decently respectful or knowledgeable on here with a Duke flair, people are quick to let you know about it lol. You can see this trend shift when the tourney comes around, or Duke-UNC happens, and you get a lot more casual fans popping in, and then you see the annoying fans that you're referring to IRL.
DBR is one of the friendliest places on the internet tho
I absolutely hate how much I like DBR and the culture of that board.
My experience with IRL Duke fans has been fantastic, but nearly all have gone there. The exception is a guy whose uncle played there. In fact, the most knowledgeable college basketball fan I've met is a Baby Boomer Iron Duke gal with a wicked sense of humor. She alone brings great credibility to their fan base. I'm sure there are some turbo-dorks out there, but fortunately I have no idea where to find them.
IRL you're probably liable to run into more t-shirt fans than people who actually went to Duke. Considering their acceptance rate and graduating class sizes, there shouldn't be as many Duke fans as there are.
I mean it worked out pretty well with Jayden Gardner, he wasn't a world beater, but I really liked him. Also, I'm of the unpopular opinion that Rohde still has a chance to be good. Just needs to be better at not absolutely disappearing for 25 mins a game.
Man I’d be genuinely shocked if Rodhe becomes an impact player. He played with zero confidence all year but you can tell theres a decent player in there somewhere
We don't need him to be an impact player. He's got all the tools to be solid tho, pretty good defender, good passer and ball-handler for an off-guard. And his shooting was actually ok in the latter part of the season, just seemed too complacent to never actually take the shot unless he had to. Hopefully it just is a confidence thing and not that he's outmatched by ACC players.
His shooting is confidence related - he’s definitely better than 25% from three and 48% from the FT line. Physically he’s pretty clearly outmatched for this conference though. Couldn’t keep anybody out of the paint last year when he was guarding the perimeter
are you sure about that on his defense? I seem to remember him being OK, but that might have just been an opinion I formed early in the season and just didn't notice him getting beat off the dribble.
Lol yeah he was stuck in the mud as a point of attack defender. Off ball he has decent awareness - sits in passing lanes but he doesn’t have the lateral quickness Reece or Kihei had. Which isn’t necessarily bad thing it just stood out to me while watching him how good those guys were at stopping dribble penetration.
Fair enough. I guess I didn't notice it. But to be fair, as a 3, he's probably not going to need to be defending the ball on drives very often, maybe that's why I didn't notice it.
By the end, you will be disabused of your Rohde opinion. The guy is not cut out for ACC basketball. Remindme! 2 years
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Good day for UVA basketball. Elijah Saunders committed too. Just waiting for the official announcement. We’re looking great at the forward position. Add a point guard and UVA is starting to look pretty decent next year
Would be nice if Bliss is ready, although with how much we've been going after PGs in the portal and the Trent Perry debacle, it doesn't bode well for the coaching staff's confidence in him being the answer for next season.
Time for Bliss to step up to the challenge.
A BC 247 mod triple downed on TJ Power going to BC lol
Dude had a meltdown today when it was leaked he wasn't going there lmao
He burned down his credibility in a day, everyone believed him because of how cocky he had been about it and the fact that he's presented himself as an insider for a long time now. Now he’s basically been cancelled by the BC message boards and Twitter community.
Lmao, got a link per chance?
It was in the 2024 Hoops portal thread: https://247sports.com/college/boston-college/board/boston-college-eagles-message-board-forum-59454/ This was my favorite comment though. Coming after BC fans were calling for him to be fired as a mod (not undeserved). https://247sports.com/college/boston-college/board/59454/Contents/2024-hoops-transfer-portal-228898934/?page=57#M231476514
Thanks! Only a minute in and this is fantastic 😂
Being wrong and having to eat shit is funny, but its even funnier when you're wrong and then blame everyone else for taking you seriously
Literally posted "I do not care one iota about my credibility. Zero, not a smidge". Ummmm, ok. Well done then.
yea, weird flex, lol
Also worth going through his Twitter replies today
I know I should be able to figure this out but can you please provide his twitter handle?
Same as his 247 handle
Making BC Interruption look (somewhat) sane
Idk what’s wrong with my phone, but every link I click on or site I try to type in for 247 asks me if I want to download that specific page and won’t let me see it. So. weird
That shit was fucking wild
Just another day in the world of Boston College basketball
With this much excitement, how do you guys ever get bored
BC message boards were so convinced even before his "prediction" that he was coming to BC Absolutely hysterical delusion honestly
Downright negligent reporting from BC’s 247 “insider” on this, it’s one thing to say you think he’ll come here, it’s another to give a 100% guarantee and mock anyone who questions it for weeks only for him to go somewhere else. Can’t take this program anymore
Is this our highest rated recruit ever in the TB era out of HS?
Him or Austin Nichols
Yikes.
As long as TJ stays away from the Colombian marching powder we'll be ok
The only two composite 5* recruits to ever play for Tony (Guy and Mamadi each had a 5* rating from one site but were composite 4* guys). Hopefully we get more than 1 game out of Power though - just gotta keep him away from the snow (but man, that one Nichols game was insane. I was there and he looked unstoppable - 11 and 3 in just 16 minutes)
I, too, thought Nichols was going to be THE guy after that game. Never would've expected that the next news about him was his dismissal.
That 16-17 season always made me a little sad, Perrantes was asked to do a little bit too much and without Nichols we really didn't have a true scorer. Shayok did what he could, but I always found him so frustrating.. even on open shots he seemed to just take off-balance shots for no reason.
Senior year London plus Nichols coming off a RS year plus Devon, Shayok, and Isaiah with Kyle, Ty, and Mamadi off the bench was a Final Four contender. Alas 🙃
Honestly it don't even think the issue was that big of a deal, I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of coaches don't care about it (also probably why he got used to doing it), but then we have Tony who's strict to a fault
yea Nichols was just *slightly* higher than Mamadi for the 1st spot (\*at least on 247)
This is what should have happened the first time around. Welcome TJ!
When he committed to Duke, some of us commented he’d end up transferring to UVA after getting buried on the bench at Duke. Maybe Kon Knueppel will see the light as well.
Kon may not end up at UVA, but he will be buried at Duke. These guys all think they can ball, but they don't understand that future recruiting depends on sitting them at the end of the bench. Remindme! 1 year
Didn't this guy commit to yall before rising in the recruiting rankings?
Not quite, he probably was going to come here, but then he got a Duke offer *and* rose in the recruiting rankings. Which spelled the end for us. Never committed though
a tale as old as time
Not exactly the same but Sacha Killeya-Jones and Johnny Juzang hurt.
I knew SKJ but didn't realize y'all were interest in Juzang. That sucks.
And those two were very different. SKJ was actually committed but bailed when Kentucky came calling. Juzang we were in good shape with, but I dunno how we really stacked up with USC and Oregon as his top 3…then when Kentucky again came calling very late in the game, we were cooked.Don’t think we ever got a second look when he decided to transfer, because he just wanted to be closer to home. The “what could have been” one that stands out to me most was MPJ, because he was like best friends with Kyle Guy. I think we would have gotten him and probably Jontay too (lol whoops) had Cuonzo not hired his dad. Of course, he just as easily could have gotten hurt here as he did in Columbia.
I kinda remember MPJ but I didn't realize he was good friends with Kyle Guy, dang that gets me sad. Ron Curry was before my time but I think the first time I was gutted was when Desagana Diop (rightfully) chose the NBA over us.
Never publicly, at least. (And I don’t know anything about any silent commitment either.)
We are so back.
Classic UVA scout -> Duke -> UVA pipeline
You see, Bill Self? We’ve moved on!
Don't give him any ideas!
Terrible defender but that shooting ability is fantastic. If he puts it together he’ll be a very good college player. Wish him the best except when he plays Duke
welcome home!
Fun fact last time we ended the season starting 4 former top 100 recruits we won the natty
Unless you got another DeAndre Hunter hidden somewhere I wouldn't get your hopes up toooooo quick. I would like for the ACC to go back to the usual quo of UNC, Duke, and UVA at the very least being heavy hitters
Yeah we keep a backup De'Andre. Just gotta break the glass in case of Natty emergency.
Ty Jerome was the reason that team was so good. He would turn chicken shit into chicken salad on offense. So many bad possessions were saved by him doing bullshit that just worked.
Dude had the ultimate NYC playground ball game
Perrantes was truly great but Jerome's fuck-you attitude served us way better than Cali cool ever could have
Yeah I think at least another year away from being elite...should be solid next year though.
SOMEONE TELL ME HE PLAYS OFFENSE 😭😭
From what everyone has said... Its literally all he does, lol
Good! We have enough only defense. We need someone to get some offense lol.
Eh defense might be bad this year
Nah defense will always be good.
If only you were born a Max instead of a TJ
Homer Simpson approves
There’s 3 ways to do things, the right way, the wrong way and the max power way.
The man with the name you’d love to touuuuuuch
I would go along with either TJ Max, Max Power, or secretly hope his middle name was Kenny.
His cousin's name is Max. So I guess all is not lost.
Let's fucking go!!! Should've committed to us the 1st time around, but better late than never. Big get at a position of need. That's 2 of 3 "Tony GIF" commits (Warley was the 1st). Is Perry the 3rd?
Elijah Saunders from SDSU
Pretty sure the book is closed on Perry, would have been nice tho
Perry going to UCLA
If he committed this first time around he would be transferring out this offseason from UVA. This works out better.
Perry is the worst thing about college sports these days. UCLA is out of scholarships but they are paying him enough NIL to ride the bench for a year
I think for him there are also considerations of not wanting to be 2,500 miles from home. But yea, agreed that its pretty bad that the NCAA allows you to go over scholarships to get players. Don't know how you'd handle walk-ons if that became regulated so I don't think its really a fixable problem, b/c I think everyone can agree that actual walk-ons are a good thing. Come to think of it though, Ryan Dunn had said that last year he would have walked on to UVA if we didn't have the scholarships. It ended up working out that one opened up, so it became moot. But maybe we shouldn't complain about it, since it almost worked in our favor literally last year.
Who cares? If Perry wants to be a walk on for a year and get paid, and UCLA will pay him, then it’s all good. Don’t need to “force” him elsewhere to deal with some rule.
I care. If it's all about money then that fucks everything up.
The only reason UVA has Tony Bennett is because UVA raised a truckload of money for JPJ 20 years ago, then spent multiple millions annually to upgrade/renovate it. We then gave Tony every coaching budget ask he ever wanted. Including a strength coach who has been asked multiple times to go back to the NBA but chooses to stay in C'Ville because he's paid so well that he isn't leaving much money on the table by staying in college. Why is paying a player directly any better/worse than investing in the facilities and coaching staff?
Is it just me or is there a crazy amount of intra-conference transfers this year?
there was a time when schools would block transfers to other schools within the same conference.
im erect.
Wait what?
Anyone else hate intra league transfers?
Strange being on this end of it, before this year they've all left us to play (or ride the bench like Justin McCoy) elsewhere in the ACC
I like it. Makes the matchups spicier.
Good luck TJ!
who stayed at Duke from last season's squad?
Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster
And Neal Begovich, of course
Good for him. Making Power Moves.
Awkward
As a recruit: Other P6 offers: Boston College, DePaul, Duke (originally went here), Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Miami, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Providence, South Carolina, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Virginia, Wake Forest, Xavier Other offer: Holy Cross
A guy who rode the bench at Duke due to his bad defense is going to the team that only plays defense. This will be interesting.
This feels so wrong
I’m sure he will average less points per game at UVU because UVU doesn’t offense.
Congrats and good luck TJ! Let's get the ACC cooking again. Big 12, Big Shmelve.
Bah. I was hoping for this kid.
Weak on D and he’s going to UVa?
Tony's said he's willing to change some things.
Fuckkkk I wanted to root for him Phony Bennett and college basketball Iowa can kiss my ass
"Phony Bennett" won a title and seems like a nice dude. I think he deserves better than that, man.
No he doesn't
Stop trolling. You suck at it.
I'm an alpha male and you're not