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.
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.
