Some scouting on Virginia from a Hoo

[ILiftWithRoyce]

Question. Virginia's mascot is the Cavaliers. So what exactly is a Hoo?

Edit - i just read the first paragraph of the post

 

[Hoondog]

Question. Virginia's mascot is the Cavaliers. So what exactly is a Hoo?

Edit - i just read the first paragraph of the post

There are a few apocryphal stories, but the real one is that, in the 1890s, we had a baseball game against Washington and Lee in which the opposing side called us "wahoos" or "rowdy wahoos." We adopted the name as our own, and have been Wahoos/Hoos ever since.

 

[ISU_phoria]

I know the stats don't really show this out, but I don't really consider us to be a running/transition team like we were a couple years ago. If the opportunity presents itself, we push the ball and try to get transition buckets, but most of the time we have to run our half-court offense. Lately, we have been very good at ball movement and dribble drives, finding open shooters and making shots. Because the ball movement has been very good, we often get open shots earlier in the shot clock, so it might look like we're push pace more than we actually do when watching our games. We will definitely take any open shot, regardless of the shot clock situation though.

Should be a great game!

 

[MilehighClone]

The Big 12 has figured out that the only sure-fire way to beat Niang is to get him in foul trouble. By halftime of the Little Rock game, Niang had zero fouls, which is astonishing. I don't think the Little Rock coach read a scouting report on our team before the game. If Niang is not in the game against Virginia, I don't know how we'll keep it close.

A few years ago, ISU became known as a three-point shooting team for taking the most threes in the nation. We still have that reputation despite the fact that our three-point attempts have dropped since 2013, although I feel this ISU team is the best three-point shooting team that we've ever had.

We are not a physical team at all since we have almost no bench to speak of, and consequently are afraid of fouling. Our sixth man, Deonte Burton, is a capable three-point shooter and slasher. Our seventh man, Hallice Cooke, can hit threes but doesn't play much, and our eighth man, Jordan Ashton, has not scored in a long time and is not a threat on either end of the floor. Our thin bench affects every aspect of our game from how we rebound to how we play defense.

One thing to keep in mind for Friday's matchup is that it will feel a lot more like a road game for Virginia than for ISU because we'll have so many fans there.

Thanks for the post!

I think you nailed it. My feeling is that if Georges plays 34 minutes or more we will have a decent shot to win the game. If Georges has to sit extended minutes it's probably going to be a long night.

 

[Jacktronic]

There are a few apocryphal stories, but the real one is that, in the 1890s, we had a baseball game against Washington and Lee in which the opposing side called us "wahoos" or "rowdy wahoos." We adopted the name as our own, and have been Wahoos/Hoos ever since.

According to Wikipedia you were called that because you had already incorporated the word "wa-hoo-wah" into some school song or chant. Apparently Dartmouth invented the word (as an Indian yell?) and then you assimilated it leading to the "rowdy wahoos" comment from baseball. I read it online so it must be true.

 

[CycloneBBFan]

Here is the definition of a "Hoo" aka Wahoo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahoos

 

[Hoondog]

According to Wikipedia you were called that because you had already incorporated the word "wa-hoo-wah" into some school song or chant. Apparently Dartmouth invented the word (as an Indian yell?) and then you assimilated it leading to the "rowdy wahoos" comment from baseball. I read it online so it must be true.

*grin* That's the first I've heard that one, and I thought I'd heard them all. I really do think my version is the correct one, but who knows? My favorite one that isn't true is that we're called "wahoos" because a wahoo is a fish that can drink twice it's own weight.

 

[CycloneBBFan]

FYI: Forgot to mention earlier I do appreciate you visiting our board in such a professional and informative manner.

 

[Daserop]

Sorry to make my first posting a new thread, but I spent some time writing this up, and none of the other threads seemed exactly right for it. This is some information on Virginia's basketball team. I'd love it if others on this board gave me some insights on your team, as well.

Cheers!

About the University of Virginia basketball team

I’ve read parts of some of the chatter on this board about UVA’s basketball team, and of course there are some that know more than others, but I haven’t seen a comprehensive approach, and there’s a lot of misinformation on this board. You’d expect that. You’ve had no reason to watch much Virginia basketball this year, as I’ve had little reason to watch Iowa State ball. I’ve seen parts of a few of your games, but that’s not enough to form much of a scouting report on you.

So, this is a fairly comprehensive look at the Virginia team. I hope it will help you enjoy the game more, knowing more about the tactics that are being used to play to strengths and exploit weaknesses.

Overview

You’ll hear us called the “Hoos†instead of the “Cavaliers†a lot. The informal name for all Virginia sports teams is the “Wahoos,†and we usually shorten this to just “Hoos.†The origin of the name isn’t very interesting, so I won’t go into that, here.

UVA fans have always been passionate about basketball. Though roughly 1/3 of UVA alumni are from out of state, those of us who grew up in Virginia lived and breathed ACC basketball as kids. Many of us played on outdoor, blacktop courts in the dead of winter, barely able to see by the light of street lamps or feel our fingers in the cold. For various reasons I won’t get into here, UVA didn’t field a good basketball team until the early 70s, then went to a couple of final fours in the early 80s, then had good-but-not-elite teams through most of the 90s, and fell upon hard times in the new millennium with a couple of not-so-great coaching hires. Tony Bennett has revived the program.

Dispelling Some Myths

1. Virginia slows it down: Actually, we rarely intentionally slow it down. We play intense, half-court defense on one end that tends to reduce possessions because it usually takes a bit longer than average for the opposing team to get a reasonable shot, and we work hard on the offensive end to get a good percentage shot, which usually takes time. But on a steal or long rebound, we’ll run. What you’ll rarely see us do on offense, though, is attempt to take it to the hoop when we don’t have numbers on a break. So, something that looks like a break will be pulled back out into a half-court offense if, in the ball-handler’s judgment, we don’t have a significant advantage that would lead to a high-percentage shot. Still, you’ll hear over and over from the analysts that we “slow it down.†If we do, it’s only in the interest of improving offensive efficiency. It’s a side effect of a different motive.

2. We get a lot of offensive rebounds: Don’t know why this has been floating around on this board, but we don’t, and we don’t try to. The UVA defense (more on that defense, below) is designed to hinder the ability to score easy baskets. When a shot goes up on offense, at least three, and often four, guys immediately run back to the defensive end, leaving only one or two Hoos to attempt an offensive rebound. Sometimes they succeed, but we’re not going to send three or four guys to the offensive glass and give up the transition bucket. Bennett trades offensive rebounds for stopping an opposing team’s transition offense (most times, anyway).

3. We get a lot of steals: There have been some games where this was true, but that’s not the focus of the defense. The Hoos give up the benefits of trying to jump passing lanes or make steals off the dribble in order to stay in position and either force sub-optimal shots, or bother shooters on good ones. This isn’t an absolute, of course. We’ll attempt to strip the ball when someone drives into a scrum in the lane, and we’ll take advantage of a really bad pass, but you won’t often see our players make an attempt and get out of position, allowing the opposing team to take advantage of a momentary five-on-four situation.

4. Virginia’s starters are good, but the bench is suspect: We go nine deep against most teams, and sometimes go ten deep as the need arises. Our bench is actually pretty decent and Hoo fans generally consider it a strength of this team. We don’t have a bunch of Burger Boys stashed there but, other than Duke and Kentucky most years, who does?

5. Once you get past the three main scorers, the rest of the team isn’t much of a threat: This is true of most teams in the nation, of course, but it’s a bit misleading in Virginia’s case. Generally, the team takes what you give them. If an opposing team is dead set on shutting down one of our players, as has happened several times this season, another player usually gets opportunities. So, I suspect that the standard deviation in scoring for our non-marquee players is higher than for most teams. We have some guys who don’t score much except in those situations when they have mismatches because of an opposing team’s focus, elsewhere. They’re usually pretty capable of exploiting that. More on individual players, below.

The Defense

This is what the pundits will talk about ad nauseum, so I might as well start here. As you probably know, Virginia plays the pack-line defense, which was invented by **** Bennett, Tony Bennett’s dad. The pack-line has been described a number of ways, but I think the best description is that it’s a help-out, man-to-man defense that sometimes takes on characteristics of a zone. The basics are pretty well known. Defenders try to stay within an imaginary line about 17’ or so from the basket unless they are guarding the man with the ball. It’s sort of like an amoeba, with the body of the amoeba being inside that line and a pod shot out to guard the ball. The idea is to limit the other team’s ability to drive and kick out and get points in the paint. The trade-off is that this sometimes opens up the deep three, since it takes a hair longer to close out on a catch-and-shoot player.

There are two wrinkles you might want to look for: the hedge and the double-team in the post.
On the hedge, a big man sets a screen in the direction the ball-handler is moving, usually off a ball screen by the offensive team. This double-teams the ball-handler for a short period of time, and sometimes the hedger will move quite a ways with the ball handler before running back to his defensive assignment. When this happens, the other three Hoos will move into passing lanes to deny the pass to an open man for an easy bucket. When the hedger run back off the hedge, the pack-line will adjust to its base concept.

On the double-team in the post, the two bigs will get up close and personal with the big man with the ball, setting a wall with the baseline being an additional defender. The other Hoos will adjust their assignments, leaving an open man on the off-ball side at the wing. So, the big being double-teamed has an opportunity to pass over the two defenders to the wing for an open shot, but that’s very hard to do. Another opportunity for the offensive team is to send someone diving to the bucket, getting a bounce pass from the big with the ball. That worked for some teams early in the season, but when the pack-line is being played well, that option generally isn’t available. And our defense has improved throughout the year.

The Offense

We set a lot of screens. And I mean “a lot.†We use a modified blocker-mover offense with the blockers moving to the hoop on pick and rolls. The idea is to both get open shots and to wear out defenders by making them fight through screen after screen all night long. Coupled with defensive intensity, this approach has worn out a lot of teams this year, making them susceptible to a Virginia run from the mid-to-late part of the second half. Teams that have done well against us are generally deep and have coaches who manage their rotations to make sure key guys have plenty of gas at the end of the game.

We also have some slashers and are physical in the blocks. We tend to get in the paint a fair amount, which usually leads to a fairly easy bucket of some sort.
We shoot a bit better than 40% from three, but that’s a bit misleading because we don’t shoot all that many threes. The high percentage is because the ones we do shoot are generally good, open shots.

Bennett believes in recruiting combo guards, so there will be times when we’ll have three guys on the floor who are all legitimate point guards, and have played that position for us from time to time, even if it’s not their primary role.

The Hoos will concentrate on blocking out on the defensive boards, which is one of the reasons we don’t run all that much. It’s hard to get a lot of offensive rebounds against us. Most of the ones opponents do get are when players leave their feet to block a shot in the paint, or when long rebounds go over our heads.

The Players (Starters)

Malcolm Brogdon: Might as well start with him, since he’ll get all the hype. As you’ll hear over and over again (undoubtedly), he’s the ACC player of the year as well as the ACC defensive player of the year and, of course, first team all-ACC as well as a finalist for a number of national awards. He’s the first to receive both the ACC MVP and defensive player of the year awards in the same year. He’s quiet. There’s not any flash. He shoots around 40% from three and drives the basket well. He also has a fall-away, mid-range shot and a floater that are pretty accurate. He plays a smart game, positions himself well, knows how to use screens, is a very good passer, is 6’ 5†and very strong. He can and does post up smaller guards, and has done an excellent job defending larger players this year when called upon to do so. I’d tell you about his weaknesses, but he really doesn’t have any.

On the other hand, he doesn’t really have a go-to strength, either. If he were a tennis player, he’d be that guy who gets to every shot, plays the angles beautifully, rarely makes an unforced error, is good at every shot, and beats almost everyone without having a superb “weapon†in his arsenal.

Anthony Gill: He’s 6’ 8â€, very strong, loves contact, and finishes well around the basket with a soft shot. He can shoot out to about 8’ or so, and has hit some shots from around the foul line this year, but that’s not his forte. He’s a very good, but not elite, defender, and good on the free throw line. He has a high motor. If you can push him out a ways from the basket, he will often shoot from a bit beyond his range which reduces his offensive efficiency. Third team all-ACC.

London Perrantes: He’s our starting point guard. Once again, he’s not flashy, but he has a really good floor sense, a very good assist-to-turnover ratio, and is a great floor general. He’s shooting around 50% from three, this year, but doesn’t take that many shots, and only rarely hunts his shot. He can drive the bucket, but at only 6’2â€, he’s at a disadvantage when doing that, most times. He’s a good defender but not elite, and he often gives up height in the ACC to other guards. He’s not as quick as some elite point guards, but the pack-line gives plenty of help to reduce penetration by opposing guards. He’s had a disturbing tendency this year (and not in past years) to throw lazy passes that turn into pick sixes. Honorable mention all-ACC.

Isaiah Wilkins: 6’7, which is a bit undersized for the 4. He has a very, very high motor, is very athletic and strong, and can finish around the basket or out to around 18’, though his sweet spot for a jumper is about 15’. He’s deadly from that range, and often gets an open shot when our guards touch the paint and the defense collapses. He’s quick to loose balls and is an excellent passer, and is especially good against a 2-3 zone, so he’s a Syracuse killer. No real weaknesses except his height, perhaps, but he’s a role player at this stage of his career (he’s a soph), so you’re not likely to hear his name called all that much.

Devon Hall: 6’5†converted point guard. He’s a redshirt soph because he left his class to start at UVA early because we were in desperate need of a point guard. No one knew, at that time, that London Perrantes was coming or that he would be as good as his is right from his freshman year. So, Devon redshirted and is now in his third year with the program. He’s athletic, can drive the basket, has a decent three-point shot when he’s open, and passes … well … like a point guard. He has had some games where he was instrumental in getting the win, but he has a tendency to force some shots – at least it’s seemed this way in our tourney games this year. He’s quick, strong, and a good defender. (BTW, almost all of our players are very strong. That’s by design, both in recruiting and in training.)

(The Bench)

Mike Tobey: 7’0â€. He’s our true 5. He’s very skilled, offensively. His best game this year was on senior night against Louisville, where he pulled down 20 rebounds and scored 15 points. He’s capable of taking over a game or of disappearing, which is hard to do for a 7-footer. He’s at a defensive disadvantage against smaller, quicker bigs, and he’s had a tendency to get into foul trouble, often by committing dumb fouls. He has seemed to improve his consistency and smarts since senior night, though. He will spell Anthony Gill, and will probably enter the game fairly early.
Marial Shayock: 6’5â€. Canadian. He’s a great athlete and has some serious offensive skills, including from both three and driving to the bucket. His defense is improving a lot, recently. He can really hurt opponents, and is one of those guys they’ll force to beat them by trying to shut down Brogdon and/or Perrantes. Often, he has responded well to that challenge. He has a tendency to dribble the ball too far from his body, or turn his body and head away from a defender, allowing the defender to get a steal.

Evan Nolte: 6’8†senior. Nolte is one of the few Hoos who just hasn’t improved all that much since he was a freshman. He had a lot of potential, at the time, but it just hasn’t been realized. He’s a stretch 4 with an inconsistent shot from three, though his percentage has improved of late. He’s a smart player who thoroughly understands the pack-line, but he’s a bit slow when he plays quicker players, and not quite strong enough to bang with the really strong bigs. Still, he has been instrumental in a few wins, and you never know when he’ll knock down a couple-or-three threes in a row.

Darius Thompson: 6’4†transfer soph. Thompson transferred to us from Tennessee, where he played well. He’s a natural point guard, and probably the best at getting steals on the team, though Wilkins might be. He’s not a great shooter, but is one of our best players on the break, infrequent as our fast breaks are. He is a very adequate guy to come in and rest our guards.
Jarred Reuter: 6’7, freshman. You’re unlikely to see Reuter. He has potential, and he saved our bacon in one game this year, but unless there’s substantial foul trouble, he’ll probably remain on the bench. If he does come in, he’s an adequate, if somewhat foul-prone, defender and has some good moves around the basket. He’s a good player. He just can’t quite crack this rotation.

Matchups and Tactics Against Iowa State

Sorry, I simply don’t know enough about your team to do a good job with this section. Everyone is familiar with Niang, though, and his type of player presents difficulties for almost everyone, but perhaps especially for the pack-line because of the pick-and-pop possibilities off ball screens. The big question for the Hoos is how to defend Niang. Since he’s big and can shoot from three, as well as drive to the bucket, there are very few college players who can defend that adequately. The pack-line can make defense even a bit harder because the defender is generally playing off him a bit on the pick to help out should the ball-handler drive the basket or should the screener roll. In the past, we’ve had the guy guarding the screener play a step closer to the screener to guard the pop, but that opens up the lane to the basket, as well as the roll to the basket, so it’s a pick-your-poison kind of thing. I suspect Brogdon will be put on Niang at some point, and that should be an interesting matchup.

A word about pushing the pace against Virginia: Most teams that have played us a lot don’t try it, because it tends to work poorly. The teams that we beat by double digits are often good teams that try to push the pace. Like WVU. The reason is usually because those teams end up taking bad shots in an attempt to shoot quickly. But the Hoos’ defense is usually already set, so the advantages of pushing the pace are gone. UNC and Duke, both of whom often have multiple Burger Boys, love to push the pace, and even they do it against us only when the opportunity from a steal or long rebound presents itself. The rest of the time, they set up their half-court offense, playing our game against us.

The best way to beat us is to get in the half court and move the ball around very quickly. Since we’re playing off our man-to-man assignments on the perimeter a step or so more than the average MTM team, that can lead to open threes. If our opponents can knock those down, we’ll play a bit closer to them, which spreads us out and makes us more vulnerable to the dribble-drive. In the past, we’ve had great rim protectors, so the dribble-drive to the bucket didn’t hurt us all that much, but not this year.

Teams that spread us out can drive for layups and/or kick out for threes, and that’s one way teams beat us. Duke understands how this works, very well, and they have the kind of shooters and athletes to make that strategy work. They can put four guys who are excellent three-point shooters and drivers on the perimeter, and that’s tough for anyone to deal with. Most teams don’t have Duke’s personnel, though, so that’s not a strategy everyone can execute well.
Hope this is helpful.

If you have questions, I’ll try to answer.

A Hoo huh...is thsi your fight song?

[video=youtube;r5kmCgVhADY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5kmCgVhADY[/video]

 

[Mr Janny]

Any chance "hoo" is short for "hoo-ha" and it's a reference to the part of the female anatomy that the word "Virginia" is similar to?

 

[Hoondog]

Any chance "hoo" is short for "hoo-ha" and it's a reference to the part of the female anatomy that the word "Virginia" is similar to?

Only if they were calling it that in the 1890s. Don't think so ;-).

 

[bawbie]

Well done for a first post! I may do a more in-depth response later, but for now I have a couple quibbles and comments:

1. Virginia slows it down: Actually, we rarely intentionally slow it down. We play intense, half-court defense on one end that tends to reduce possessions because it usually takes a bit longer than average for the opposing team to get a reasonable shot, and we work hard on the offensive end to get a good percentage shot, which usually takes time. But on a steal or long rebound, we’ll run. What you’ll rarely see us do on offense, though, is attempt to take it to the hoop when we don’t have numbers on a break. So, something that looks like a break will be pulled back out into a half-court offense if, in the ball-handler’s judgment, we don’t have a significant advantage that would lead to a high-percentage shot. Still, you’ll hear over and over from the analysts that we “slow it down.” If we do, it’s only in the interest of improving offensive efficiency. It’s a side effect of a different motive.

I don't think that is accurate. kenpom.com measures average time per possession on both offense and defense. On defense, ISU (18s) and UVA(19s) are roughly the same, ISU is about the 50ths slowest team, and UVa is the 4rd slowest. If you are a team that doesn't force turnovers, which both are not, the defensive time-per-possession is dependent on your opponent, and the type of defense you play.

But on offense it is entirely up to the team's style, and UVa is the 3rd slowest in terms of average offensive possession, and that is intentionally slowing it down. UVa averages over 20s per possession. ISU averages 15.5 (20th fastest).

5. Once you get past the three main scorers, the rest of the team isn’t much of a threat: This is true of most teams in the nation, of course, but it’s a bit misleading in Virginia’s case. Generally, the team takes what you give them. If an opposing team is dead set on shutting down one of our players, as has happened several times this season, another player usually gets opportunities. So, I suspect that the standard deviation in scoring for our non-marquee players is higher than for most teams. We have some guys who don’t score much except in those situations when they have mismatches because of an opposing team’s focus, elsewhere. They’re usually pretty capable of exploiting that. More on individual players, below.

The numbers don't bear this out. The main 3 are in double digits, Tomey is at 7 and no one else scores over 5ppg. As opposed to ISU who has 7 different players averaging double-figures on the season (one injured).

A word about pushing the pace against Virginia:

Most teams that have played us a lot don’t try it, because it tends to work poorly. The teams that we beat by double digits are often good teams that try to push the pace. Like WVU. The reason is usually because those teams end up taking bad shots in an attempt to shoot quickly. But the Hoos’ defense is usually already set, so the advantages of pushing the pace are gone. UNC and Duke, both of whom often have multiple Burger Boys, love to push the pace, and even they do it against us only when the opportunity from a steal or long rebound presents itself. The rest of the time, they set up their half-court offense, playing our game against us.

What ISU does really well - when we are playing well, with Morris orchestrating, is to push the pace and get easy buckets before the defense sets up, but when it's not there - pull it back out and run the offense. It's not so much a hurry to get a shot up, but the knowledge that the best time to attack a defense is before it's set. And we do it almost every time up the court. We are susceptible to taking a bad shot early, especially when not playing well, and that leading to extended runs by the other team - especially against teams that play with pace and can get turnovers.

Teams that spread us out can drive for layups and/or kick out for threes, and that’s one way teams beat us. Duke understands how this works, very well, and they have the kind of shooters and athletes to make that strategy work. They can put four guys who are excellent three-point shooters and drivers on the perimeter, and that’s tough for anyone to deal with. Most teams don’t have Duke’s personnel, though, so that’s not a strategy everyone can execute well.

The key to the pack-line will be defending the high pick-and-roll. We run it a number of different ways, with McKay setting the screen for morris and rolling, with 3 shooters spread out. Or with Niang screening for Morris. Or several other combinations as well. BigXII schools that have success (OU and KU especially) will switch everything, so we'll probe to get the right match-up to exploit. But it sounds like you won't switch, so that will change up the strategy a bit, but it will still be used to stretch the defense, because you have to go over the screen - and you have to hedge - so that gets the "amoeba" moving before the play even starts. Then with two shooters in the corners, the ball goes to Niang and he has room to attack in the paint.

It will be fascinating to watch, especially that end of the court.

 

[Mr Janny]

Only if they were calling it that in the 1890s. Don't think so ;-).

Thomas Jefferson's personal journal made good use of the word, in a series of loving descriptions of Sally Hemings. Seems like a pretty obvious connection, given UVA's proximity to Monticello.

 

[iastatefan1]

Nice write up

Don't have much to add, but something that I think is interesting and almost never mentioned is that people consider Niang a poor athlete and not quick which is somewhat true but recently what has really made him dangerous is the ability to shoot a flat footed three (doesn't jump) from the outside and get defenders to bite and beat them off the dribble.

 

[Chitowncy]

OP, thanks for the informative post on the 'Hoos.

Andymhallman's post above is pretty accurate regarding the Cyclones. We are not a physical team on defense and it appears we sometimes don't even contest shots very strongly. You won't see a lot of hand-checking or physical, chest out defense from the Clones. This worries me; as physical teams that try to score by attacking our posts (by either driving against those posts or posting them up) will often get us in foul trouble early. Plus, I think it's easier to score against our defense than it will be for us to score against yours. We are only 7 deep and neither guy off the bench is a true post.

If UVA is smart, I would think you'll attack Niang early on the offensive end and try to post him up / drive at him. If he gets in foul trouble and has to sit out, our offense suffers. Basically, our offense is rather NBA-ish. We isolate, find match-ups, have great spacing as we usually have 4 (sometimes 5) guys that can shoot threes, and then we basically let Niang, Morris, etc. operate. It's similar to the NBA's philosophy where the team focuses on spacing and it becomes one-on-one, just go make a play, offense.

Honestly, sometimes I'm amazed it works so well. We also run a lot of two-man game at the top of the key and let Morris work off that. Thus, our offense is pretty simple, but man do our guys have a lot of skill. They've proven they can score against anybody.

If we stay out of foul trouble, I expect a close game and hopefully we can close this one out. I will be there yelling.

 

[mctallerton]

I like this guy, he seems okay. But I really need to know his feelings on iowa and Kansas to know for sure.

 

[Hoondog]

Thanks Bawbie. Some responses.

1. When I said we don't intentionally slow it down, we don't. We look for the best shot we can get. If that comes 10 seconds into the clock, then great. If it comes 28 seconds into the clock, then that's a bit nerve wracking, but it's fine. We DO sometimes rest a bit on offense, because we play defense so intensively, and that can slow things down a bit, but most teams that intentionally slow things down do so because of a talent deficit, and we don't have one of those except against the most elite recruiting teams in the US, like Duke, UNC, Kentucky, and Kansas. Against the rest, our talent is mostly equal or better. So, the upshot is that we will shoot early in the clock or late in the clock, but that will be dictated by getting a really good shot if at all possible. Not by an intention to slow things down.

2. Please note that I discussed the standard deviation among our players, not the mean. The mean is fairly meaningless (no pun intended) when discussing the Hoo players. We have five dependable scorers who can do so when it's necessary. When it's not necessary, they don't do so very much. This usually happens when opponents can't stop our top 3. Which has been the case fairly often this year.

3. We do switch on screens, but don't like to. We'll fight through screens in most cases. However, we did do a lot of switching in the last game when Butler's fourth-best scorer suddenly morphed into Seth Curry, and it worked pretty well. You are right that the high pick and roll is a key, but we defend that all year because the ACC coaches know that, too. We're pretty good at defending it but, of course, not perfect. I'm more concerned about the pick and pop, as I've said. And you're right about getting the ball to the corners. The key there is how well our guys play the PL. If they're focused, they move while the ball is in the air and close out pretty well. If they're a bit sluggish early (as has happened more times than I care to remember this year), the wings are likely to be open.

Thanks for the comments!

 

[Hoondog]

I like this guy, he seems okay. But I really need to know his feelings on iowa and Kansas to know for sure.

You mean on the states, or the schools?

 

[jsb]

I'll just add that I find it annoying when schools have stupid second nicknames for their teams.

 

[Cydwinder]

Thomas Jefferson's personal journal made good use of the word, in a series of loving descriptions of Sally Hemings. Seems like a pretty obvious connection, given UVA's proximity to Monticello.

Jefferson also founded UVA so that's an even more obvious connection if you're going that route.