Interesting article I read on Kehei, sure it will stir some up. I’m glad Kehei is back despite my initial reluctance. We wouldn’t be where we are today without him. But he makes some valid points in this.
I was thinking about this while writing my piece: I think the reason Kihei has been such a polarizing figure for UVa basketball over the years has very little to do with KC himself and much more to do with CTB's unwillingness to sit him no matter the matchup/circumstances.
He'd been our best player the previous two games against FSU and JMU and he's been a really, really important player this year. But against Houston, both he and Beekman were doing a fine job creating looks for other players, but neither were effective shooting from the field.
The difference was that Beekman was playing great defense on Sasser while Clark was really struggling with Shead. Meanwhile, both McKneely and Franklin were having good games and would have offered some size/physicality on Shead while collectively shooting 50% from 3 between them.
But Franklin sat most of the last stretch of the game despite hitting the boards well all game, playing tough, and creating good offense when given the opportunity. Unlike earlier in the year when both PGs were playing great offense, this was a situation where we would have benefitted from playing just one point guard and Beek had to be the guy re: his D. Given that most everyone else has played reduced minutes when the matchup dictated this year (Gardner, Shedrick, Franklin, BVP), it becomes a pain point when that same consistency is not extended to Clark. If we're going to go as far as we can this season, we're going to need Kihei a ton, as we've seen throughout the season, but there are also going to be times where we're going to need to be able to sit him and CTB's going to have to be willing to do that.
I was thinking about this while writing my piece: I think the reason Kihei has been such a polarizing figure for UVa basketball over the years has very little to do with KC himself and much more to do with CTB's unwillingness to sit him no matter the matchup/circumstances.
He'd been our best player the previous two games against FSU and JMU and he's been a really, really important player this year. But against Houston, both he and Beekman were doing a fine job creating looks for other players, but neither were effective shooting from the field.
The difference was that Beekman was playing great defense on Sasser while Clark was really struggling with Shead. Meanwhile, both McKneely and Franklin were having good games and would have offered some size/physicality on Shead while collectively shooting 50% from 3 between them.
But Franklin sat most of the last stretch of the game despite hitting the boards well all game, playing tough, and creating good offense when given the opportunity. Unlike earlier in the year when both PGs were playing great offense, this was a situation where we would have benefitted from playing just one point guard and Beek had to be the guy re: his D. Given that most everyone else has played reduced minutes when the matchup dictated this year (Gardner, Shedrick, Franklin, BVP), it becomes a pain point when that same consistency is not extended to Clark. If we're going to go as far as we can this season, we're going to need Kihei a ton, as we've seen throughout the season, but there are also going to be times where we're going to need to be able to sit him and CTB's going to have to be willing to do that.
