I raised this question in another thread. We are where we are because we have gotten such great coaching, players who not only bought into the system but at times performed better than they were initially supposed to, and a coach who not only preaches his system to perfection, but makes the kids buy into that first.
I personally think we will really see how good of a coach he is now. Can we maintain this level of excellence when night in and night out people know how good we are? As good as we've been for years teams or the media didn't want to buy into the narrative that we have arrived. Now after four seasons of excellent basketball not only are other coaches starting to see this, but you best believe recruits are seeing this as well. Can the same principles work when the talent has gotten better? No offense to the kids who helped build this, but the kids that are on campus right now that are freshman and kids in later years are going to be better when they arrive in Charlottesville than anything we've seen in a long time. We aren't hunting anymore. We are team people want to beat, and some of the media still hates our style and would love to see it. With more talent and that target, can we continue to rise to the challenge or take a step back? I think each year Tony learns something new about how hard it is to reach the Final Four and we're starting to see him adjust to that. I think we will be fine, but it's a very fair question to ask as the next five years will either put us on that Duke level or burn out like other teams that had good runs but couldn't sustain it.
I personally think we will really see how good of a coach he is now. Can we maintain this level of excellence when night in and night out people know how good we are? As good as we've been for years teams or the media didn't want to buy into the narrative that we have arrived. Now after four seasons of excellent basketball not only are other coaches starting to see this, but you best believe recruits are seeing this as well. Can the same principles work when the talent has gotten better? No offense to the kids who helped build this, but the kids that are on campus right now that are freshman and kids in later years are going to be better when they arrive in Charlottesville than anything we've seen in a long time. We aren't hunting anymore. We are team people want to beat, and some of the media still hates our style and would love to see it. With more talent and that target, can we continue to rise to the challenge or take a step back? I think each year Tony learns something new about how hard it is to reach the Final Four and we're starting to see him adjust to that. I think we will be fine, but it's a very fair question to ask as the next five years will either put us on that Duke level or burn out like other teams that had good runs but couldn't sustain it.
