Turnovers and foul shots factored into that. We had 68 possessions, which is considerably more than they usually allow. 21 offensive rebounds helped, too. Just an exceptionally different game than I anticipated in terms of flow.
I highly recommend you all make the trip to Charlotte to watch the Gators play. It's a great city and a great venue to watch the game. Easy for me to say living 1.5 hours away. I'm excited for this season. I think we have a good group!
Kugel is very good, likely nba good. But uva plays great team defense and we’re not gonna let him go off, especially 1 on 1. Riley has to accept that he cannot dominate good team d and needs to move, cut and be part of a systematic offense, and that will give him more chances. Really like this team!
I was there and was fortunate to see that game. It felt like someone cut out my heart when Cross was whistled for THAT charge.
I thought I would post some observations I hadn't seen made yet. First, both these squads are young/inexperienced. I think both are a year away from approaching their potential. While I cannot summon the details of Florida's roster off the top of my head, Virginia is very inexperienced in Coach Bennett's schemes, and those schemes are not mastered quickly. Especially, by front court players. UVa only returns three players with significant playing time from last season. Beekman is the only starter returning (32.6 mpg last year). Both Isaac McKneely (21.5 mpg) and Ryan Dunn (12.9 mpg) came off the bench as true frosh last year. In addition, there are only three other players who were on the roster last year. They are Taine Murray, who saw little PT, and Leon Bond III and Dante Harris (a Georgetown transfer) who both redshirted. Four Virginia players exhausted their eligibility last year, and three others transferred. All three transfers were front court players (Francisco Caffaro, Isaac Traudt, and Kadin Shedrick). Virginia added four true frosh this year (Blake Buchanan, Elijah Gertrude, Anthony Robinson, and Christian Bliss), but three of them are redshirting. Each for a different reason. Virginia also added four transfers (Jacob Groves, Dante Harris, Andrew Rohde, and Jordan Minor). and all but Minor saw significant playing time yesterday. They are essentially newbies to Bennett's systems, and execution is nowhere near what will be expected in the future. So, having said all that, I am unsure anything significant can be taken away from yesterday's game, good or bad. Both these teams are works in progress, and their future development is how they should be judged. Not what they did last night. Second, when Ryan Dunn fouled Clayton on a drive to the basket, and knocked him to the floor, I was a bit upset when, as he went to offer a hand to Clayton, Samuel confronted him in an almost hostile manner. I am now assuming that Samuel misread Dunn's intentions. As the game progressed, players from both teams offered to help opposing players from the floor after whistles were blown. This included Samuel who helped a Virginia player back to his feet. Sportsmanship did not suffer in last night's contest. That was reassuring. Lastly, Cory Alexander's greatest virtue, from a broadcaster's point of view, is that there is rarely, if ever, any dead air when he is doing a game. As far as fans go, he is annoying. And, he gets things wrong, too. Among other things, officials can review a replay and assess a flagrant foul even when no foul was called initially. Unfortunately for viewers, with so many games being broadcast or streamed, there really aren't enough competent commentators to go around. So, folks like Cory Alexander, Jimmy Dykes, and Fran Fraschilla all have far too many employment opportunities.
agreed, had they made 2 of the foul shouts instead of getting rebounds and scoring, they would have had 2 less points
Going to have to win some of these big non conference games. Hopefully when Pullin is back, he can put us over. I think Kugel needs to give the ball up more when he's struggling which hopefully he will going forward.
This team needs to play fast like this every possession. What happens next normally? You won't see Pearsall and Wilson for the next two quarters.
Yeah, Tyrese Samuel is a good guy. Dunn was looking down at Clayton with his back to Samuel, so Samuel couldn't see that Dunn was trying to help and assumed just the opposite, which was wrong of him. Never assume. It's all good.
I agree. We play 13 non-conference games. Have to go 9-4 or 10-3 to make it to the NCAAs. 7 of the 13 are cupcakes so we need to win 3 of the remaining 5 power 5 teams.
Only two games in, but this looks to be an interesting group to watch this year. We are no longer a guard only team. Have some big guys to go along with it. Hopefully they can create chemistry early on. Go gators!
It’s obviously early, but I like the look of the rebuild. If this group can develop, chemistry, could be a good year.
