Moderators: paulpressey25, MickeyDavis
MikeIsGood wrote:Unclear on if Virginia is pulling a Virginia (they are quite prone to do so, as we know), or if this is actually a good performance. I haven't seen enough to tell either way.
RogerMurdock wrote:Virginia has almost no inside game and Wisconsin figured that out. On defense, that means opponents get tons of offensive rebounds (Virginia is still able to limit paint points sometimes because they are good at blocking shots). On offense, that means defenders can plaster the shooters. Virginia had similar problems against Florida, but their perimeter defense wasn't as good, so Virginia's shooters could still get open looks.
You could see it last night - Virginia just kept passing around the outside, tried to dribble kick out, dribble kick out, but since there was no paint threat, Wisconsin didn't care about penetration and just stuck to the shooters. And on defense, the Virginia bigs weren't good at recovering after hedging, which I chalk up to lack of experience, so Wisconsin was getting a lot of easy cuts to the basket. Oh, and Groves isn't a real "big" - he's a stretch four who has no chance defensively down low.
It's going to be a problem all season, but it's not surprising, as all three of their bigs who were going to be in the rotation transferred and Bennett had to cobble something together through the portal. The freshman Buchanan is going to be good and he had a nice coming out party against Florida, but it's clear he has a ways to go.
Virginia has a good team and a few guys who are elite at what they do, but the lack of any real inside presence will severely limit this team's upside.
That kid is fun to watch.MikeIsGood wrote:I like Blackwell a lot.
MikeIsGood wrote:I like Blackwell a lot.
Kerb Hohl wrote:Make a **** 3. Please.
