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Richmond TD best sports stories of 2015

The retirement of Beamer was #1 followed by the UCI bicycle race, Smart leaving VCU for Texas, new football hires, and the passing of Moses Malone. Since these were the only specific choices offered for votes, it is not surprising that UVA winning three national titles and the Capital Cup was indicated to be #6. I have no idea how they picked numbers 6 through 10 since if you did not vote for the five predetermined choices, the only other option was "other", which by far drew the most votes.

So far, ACC Football sucks . . .

Watching UNCheat get run all over by a Baylor team that has lost its number 1 QB, WR, RB and its #2 QB. The Cheats can not stop the 3rd and 4th QBs who are mostly just running option plays, UNC defenders just watch them go past them, do not fight off blocks, etc. ACC FB stinks so far,despite the Chokies barely beating a Tulsa team that could not stop a good high school offense. Pitt was totally roasted by Navy, making their QB look like a combo of Joe Belino, Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett all in one. It would not surprise me if the ACC wins no more than 3 games, and if Clempsun gets roasted by OK if they play D like they did against the Cheats. ACC Football is so overrated, not even certain that FL can win their game, though that is the league's best bet.

More on Kyle Guy from the Hall of Fame Classic Tournament

In the first game of the tournament Lawrence Central was tied with McCutcheon with about 90 seconds to play when Guy drove and made a left-handed layup to put his team ahead 54-52. After McCutcheon missed, Guy then led a teammate with a bounce pass to put Lawrence up by 4 McCutcheon made the next three points but then fouled Guy who made one of his two free throws to make the score 57-55. Guy blocked a shot with 7 seconds left to get the victory. Guy ended the game with 17 points, 5 assists, and 9 rebounds.
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My Oakland game thoughts

We won tonight with the usual formula.

We played very good defense. We held the #4 scoring team in the nation to under 60 points on 37 percent shooting.

We won the "assists game" though we didn't do as well as I would have liked. We had 16 assists on 25 made buckets. That's pretty good, but when UVA has an even higher percentage than that we are basically unstoppable. The assist to fg ratio tells us that multiple people are touching the ball on every possession. It also encompasses nearly all our fast break points. Part of it is our high number of offensive rebounds tonight, which don't usually have an assist attached, but my personal opinion is if LP hadn't basically missed the entire first half we'd have an even better percentage.

Disappointingly, despite being the taller team, we lost the rebounding battle. I'm pretty sure TB is going to have something to say to the team about that. Winning the boards is ESSENTIAL to winning in the ACC.

Tobey had a helluva game tonight. I wasn't really picking on Brad. I honestly don't think that he even deserves more minutes. It's all about the matchups. Notice that Tobey scored most of his points on the freshman back up big man, and not on Gibson. All I saying is that there are certain matchups in ACC play that Tobey can really exploit.

Thompson had a really disappointing game. He's got a bright future with us, but I think we need to start thinking of him as an off guard rather than the point. He's got a score first mentality, which is why I'm hoping that Bennett will continue to look for pass first point guards to eventually replace LP.

Brogdon had an off game. It happens. He fell in love with the 3 tonight. He's a big strong guard and should remember that when the shot isn't falling he can still generate points by overpowering weaker guards.

Most important point, IMO is how we played Felder tonight. He is one of the biggest two way threats in college basketball right now. We made him one dimensional tonight. He leads the nation in assists and only had 3 tonight. Yes, he scored 30 points (over half of Oakland's total), but no body else got off for them tonight. Everyone else was in single digits. UVA can beat a superstar lead team as long as we limit the superstar to scoring only. It reminds me a lot of how the Pistons beat the Lakers for the title back in '04. We knew we couldn't shut down Kobe or Shaq, basically didn't even try. But one or two guys can't win a championship by themselves. Shutting down the role players is a good strategy.

Looking forward to the board's thoughts...

P.S. I forgot, I listed to Buzz Williams during the halftime interview today talking about how his team basically had interchangeable parts on the offensive end. Was championing that philosophy. TB believes the opposite. We have a TON of completely different players on this team. That fact allows us to mix and match to exploit the weaknesses of our opponents. That's IMHO, is what UVA truly scary this year. It also illustrates how UVA's future is as bright as ever while the Turkeys continue to try and find their own ass.
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Baseball recruiting

There has been no activity in terms of commitments during the past two months, so I thought that I would remind myself of who would be arriving next year. UVA has received commitments from 4 right handed pitchers, 2 left handed pitchers, 1 catcher, 1 first baseman, a third baseman, 2 shortstops, and 1 outfielder. It is difficult to project who might make an immediate impact at UVA since they have one year of high school ball, a summer of AAU ball, and fall ball at UVA before they start playing next spring, but I feel that at least 3 could be very good. Noah Murdock and Max Kranick are both right handed pitchers, and both were Perfect Game 2015 Underclass first team and throw in the low 90s. Nolan Jones is a shortstop and pitcher who was on the Perfect Game Underclass second team; he played very well during the summer. A sleeper could be Will Allocca, who has played varsity at Collegiate since he was in the 8th grade.

OOC grade and impressions to this point...

Overall, I'd give us an A- now that the OOC is complete. At the beginning of the season, I would have taken 11-1, so very happy with where we are. Things that keep us from A/A+...only MB showing up against GW, so-so first halves against WVU, Cal & tonight...not sure we deserved the Cal win, but certainly happy we found a way.

The good...never really challenged in the Charleston tourney...beat OSU on the road without LP...6-0 in a tough December, with 4 of those wins by double digits.

As good as expected:
MB & AG have been great, and both look All-ACC, even All-American caliber.
Devon is doing a nice job as first Guard off-the-bench...not spectacular, but steady with some nice games, and decent perimeter shooting.

Better than expected:
Not sure there's a PG in the country I'd take over LP right now.
DT was off tonight, but has looked great otherwise.
Love what IW brings...still developing, but looking like a 3 year starter.
Reuter is one of the most fundamentally sound FR we've seen in awhile.

Expected more:
Tobey is the opposite of DT in that he looked great tonight, but consistency still not there.
Giving Shayok a pass because of the injury bug...hoping he can regain his form for the ACC sched.
Was pulling for Evan going into his SR year, but the pieces around him are just better.

WVU -VT

West Virginia is blowing out the Hokies in Blacksburg. Part of it is Tech's turnovers against the Eers' press, but VT has a lot of weaknesses, particularly rebounding and defense. Should be a relatively easy game on Monday, despite it being the Hokies' hoops Super Bowl.
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