Wednesday, April 3, 2013

And So It Begins...

I wasn't surprised by the Iowa game. I knew that we were going to face a really good team and that's exactly what happened. I'm not exaggerating when I say that Iowa team is one of the best teams Virginia has faced all season long. The Hawkeyes were certainly the best defensive team we played all year. Yes, we played Wisconsin, but we caught them at a time where their defense was still a bit raw and coming up to speed. People always talk about Duke's on-ball pressure, but it was nothing compared to the display of Fran McCaffery's boys last week. I don't want to really get into the game too much. Iowa was simply the better team that night. They were playing their best basketball at the end of the year while we had been fading ever since the Duke win. Anyways, this post isn't about that game or this past season. Rather, it's about......














Ahh, yes. It's finally here. I don't know when it began, but some time within the past year or so, UVA fans began to talk about The Future. Specifically, they were referring to the 2013-2014 season. Why? Well for a couple of reasons:

1) The hype surrounding the 2012 recruiting class (featuring 3 ESPNU Top 100 players; 5 commits in total) generated a buzz for the UVA hoops program. The Tobey and Nolte commitments went largely under the radar, but people took notice when Justin Anderson decommitted from Maryland when Gary Williams return and flipped his commitment to Virginia. Anderson may have been the most well know high school basketball player ranked outside the Top 50 in some time (okay some services had him in the Top 50 or barely outside but you get my point). Why is this? Well first off, Anderson was formerly ranked the number one player in his class. When he was going into high school, he (unsurprisingly) dominated because of his freakish athleticism. However, as the rest of the class grew older, quicker, and stronger, Justin could no longer rely on his God-given physical attributes alone. He had to develop an elite level skillset if he was going to retain his ranking. Well, that didn't come easy, as he struggled with his handle and shot, he saw his once elite ranking plummet. I remember watching his film a couple of years ago and saying, "Wow that's nice and all, but can he do anything besides dunk." Fast forward a year or so to his final year on the AAU circuit with Boo Williams. Anderson had a great summer and shower real improvement in multiple areas of his game. Because of this, his ranking crept back up, though not anywhere near the top of the list. Still, his reputation made it so that when he flipped his commitment to UVA, people began to look at the rest of Virginia's class as well.

2) Anthony Gill and Malcolm Brogdon- I'll have more in depth posts this offseason about each individual player and what they bring to the table so I'll just say here that UVA fans realize that they may not just be getting two contributors next year, but they very well may be getting two stars. I don't have a ton of inside info or anything, but I do know that Gill's teammates have been very high on his play in practice this year. Even all the way back in the summer when he had just gotten hear, I was hearing about how good he was. There's been a rumor/inside joke going around the UVA fanbase that Gill is the best player on the team. I can neither confirm nor deny that without seeing him play in person (yeah I saw him in the scrimmage and yeah he was probably the best player on the floor, but that doesn't count). All I'll say is that those within the program are expecting big things from him this year and beyond.

3) We got a PG...sort of. So with the 2012 class, the addition of Gill, and the return of Brogdon, along with veterans Harris, Mitchell, and others, all that seemed to be missing was a PG. Last summer, the biggest issue of controversy and heated debate among UVA fans was without question Tony Bennett's ability to recruit a point guard. There were basically two camps. One, which I considered myself a member of, trusted that Bennett knew what he was doing. The other feared that Tony, with his slow tempo style, would never be able to convince an elite level PG to play his college ball in Charlottesville. After a number of near misses, Virginia finally got what it needed when 2014 Top 100 PG Devon Hall, who's brother is on the football team, agreed to reclassify to his original 2013 class and commit to UVA. This was huge. Many saw this as the missing piece of the puzzle. Everything else was in place to have a legit squad in 2013. Well, not long after that, Bennett offered yet another Top 100 PG, London Perrantes. Ironically, some Virginia fans actually disagreed with this move (probably the same ones attacking Bennett days earlier over never being able to land a PG). Well, Perrantes visited and committed. A short time before then, Virginia had no future at PG. Now it had two high major commits to go along with Teven Jones, who was already in the program. Now, in typical self-deprecating fashion, many Virginia fans seem to have cooled down from that "high" of this summer and are freaking out about PG play. I'll address that in a later post.

4) The final reason for excitement is the most recent one: what happened on the court this year. Now bowing out in the NIT Quarterfinals may not seem like much, but I don't think I'm alone in saying that this year gave Virginia fans a whole bunch of reasons to be even giddier about next year. First off, every single returning player (who was healthy) improved and improved greatly. Coming into the year, the worry was "who would replace Mike Scott" both in terms of post presence and scoring. Well, those questions were pretty much answered about a week or two into the season. It quickly became obvious that both Joe Harris and Akil Mitchell had taken their games up quite a few levels. And it wasn't just them either. Darion Atkins transformed into an undersized, foul happy, one dimensional player into a legitimate ACC starter in just a few months. Some seem to forget this, but before his injury, Atkins was playing incredibly. While Harris was the MVP of that big win up in Madison, Atkins wasn't far behind. He was pretty much dominant in every aspect of the game. He was active on defense and the boards and showed incredibly poise and touch on offense. Finally, people (including myself) tend to give Paul Jesperson a hard time. While some of this is deserved, let's remember something: he turned himself from someone who had to burn a planned Redshirt year halfway through, only to play sparingly, into an everyday starter and defensive stopper in just a few months. Without his defense on some of the ACC's best, we probably don't even sniff the NIT. Yes he needs to have a presence on offense, but given Bennett's track record of making his players better, odds are he might do just that. We also learned this year that the hyped up 2012 class is indeed good. While the play of Justin Anderson and Mike Tobey stood out the most, all 5 freshman showed signs of promise. And not only that, but each of them pretty much single-handedly decided at least one game. If they can all stay healthy, that is gonna be one special group of players.

So there are the reasons for the hype. I'm going to be going into a lot more depth on a bunch of these topics this offseason so I'll cut it off there. But I do want to bring up one more thing (which really led me to write this post in the first place). This evening I watched a google hangout of the ACC Digital Network where a couple of ACC columnists (unsurprisingly all from the Triad and yes I have no life). In this video, the group discussed a variety of topics ranging from NCST's recent implosion, which ACC players were returning or NBA bound, and what the ACC would look like next year. What struck me was that Virginia wasn't mentioned a single time in the entire video. There was even a question of "Who do you think will be next year's version of Miami?". The answers from the "experts"?

1) Maryland, but only if Len returns.
2) Georgia Tech
3) Boston College

Uhhh, what? Maryland I can totally understand. They've got a ton of talent coming back next year. Does that really hinge on Len though? While Len may be an elite NBA prospect, that doesn't necessarily make him a really good college player. I think Maryland is going to be dangerous regardless of whether Len returns (he won't). I think you could even make a case for them being a better team next year without him. He doesn't really seem to fit with the rest of that team. I look at their roster and see a bunch of big, strong, physical, and athletic guys who like to get out in transition. Len is the odd-ball. Even if you lose Len, you still have Charles Mitchell, Shaq Cleare, Damonte Dodd, and even Jake Layman. Those guys go together. Add that with a very solid backcourt led by freshman Roddy Peters, Nick Faust, and Dez Wells, you got yourself a team. So yes, I like the Maryland pick, but if you think that Len's decision determines their fate for next year, you're just not looking at the big picture.

Georgia Tech? I mean, I guess they have a couple of decent players and pulled off some upsets, but how do you expect them to rack up any significant wins in next year's ACC? That's just not gonna happen. They'll be improved, but so will a lot of teams.

Now the BC pick I also get, but for different reasons. It's you're typical "cute" pick. Just like Baseball America is enamored with VT this year and rooting for them to prove them right, there'll be some like this "expert" who will root for BC to shock the world. But aren't Virginia and Maryland just extremely more talented and deeper versions of BC? Why not just pick them. The only reason one would pick them is because they A) Have some young talent in Olivier Hanlan and Ryan Anderson and B) Are well coached. I think BC is gonna be a good team next year. I really do. But I just don't know how anyone thinks they're really gonna stick with Cuse, UNC, Duke, UVA, Maryland, etc. I see them as a bubble team, not "next year's Miami".

This leads me to my main question. Are people just not aware about Virginia? Now I didn't expect people to come out and predict us to win the ACC or anything, but I felt like we were gonna be a pretty damn sexy pick this offseason. Maybe they are aware, do they really think teams like Maryland, BC, and GT are gonna be better? Now I know that our style makes it so that we can be a hard team to get behind but still, I just don't get that. And let me point out that I don't really care. I'm not gonna say "I could care less" whether we get some preseason media love. I'm a human. It'd be pretty neat to see UVA being talked about and having some relevance in the college basketball world. But it won't bother me if we're ignored. Heck, I think it'd be a good thing. Go ahead. Give guys like Justin Anderson and Akil Mitchell some fuel to add to their fires. Could be exactly what we need. So, let me reiterate that being ignored doesn't bother me so much as it confuses me.

I know I'm extremely biased, but I just don't know how you can look at this and not be impressed:

6'1 PG London Perrantes Freshman
6'6 SG Paul Jesperson Junior
6'5 PG Devon Hall Freshman

6'4 SG Taylor Barnette Sophomore

6'1 PG Teven Jones Sophomore

6'11 C Mike Tobey Sophomore

6'8 SF Evan Nolte Sophomore

6'6 SF/SG Joe Harris Senior

6'8 PF Anthony Gill Sophomore 

6'5 SG/PG Malcolm Brogdon Sophomore 

6'6 SF Justin Anderson Sophomore 

6'8 PF/C Akil Mitchell Senior

6'8 PF Darion Atkins Junior