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CP3 Elite Guard Camp

Once UVA gets to the Final Four it will be recognized as one of the elite programs in the country, and they are doing it legally it appears.
 
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Once UVA gets to the Final Four it will be recognized as one of the elite programs in the country, and they are doing it legally it appears.

If they get there. And it looks like a big IF. That style of play, and the reffing it requires, is a huge obstacle.
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My hope is that last year's titantic black eye for the conference, aka UVA's 1 seed face plant, will cause a backlash against UVA. A richly deserved backlash. Once they stop getting favorable foul treatment, they will be much easier to beat in conference.
 
I have great respect for Tony Bennett. He seems to run a clean program and is a stand up guy. They have had some very good teams in recent years, and I think they will contend again this year. But man alive that style of play is just downright boring to watch. It nearly makes watching them play Duke a boring game. Ooooohhhhh look out, they might break 50 points tonight!!! Oh wait........nope, false alarm......another 44 to 39 slug fest. o_O
 
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I don’t know about that. The other year they were right on the doorstep before a big Syracuse comeback.

I also think that if Hunter doesn’t get hurt, they make the Final Four last year.
 
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I don’t know about that. The other year they were right on the doorstep before a big Syracuse comeback.

I also think that if Hunter doesn’t get hurt, they make the Final Four last year.

One player was not the difference in getting blown out by a 16 seed and making the FF. Elite 8, tops, with him.
 
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Last I checked, Tony Bennett has zero final fours. That’s 1 less final four than Tyus Jones has been to, and he retired from college basketball after 1 year.
 
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One player was not the difference in getting blown out by a 16 seed and making the FF. Elite 8, tops, with him.
You might be right, but we will never know.

I still think they get to the Final Four with Hunter. They had a great team last year, but he was the one guy they couldn’t afford to lose. And the timing of his injury couldn’t have been worse.
 
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Baloney. The problem with the whole "UVA can't make it to the Final Four" argument is people are stuck on UVA playing at a slow pace. Tempo is irrelevant; the only thing that matters is efficiency. People will say Syracuse is a tough out in the tournament, but their tempo is almost as slow as Virginia (Cuse was ranked 345th out of 351 teams this year). And let's not forget that Syracuse went to the FF in 2013 and 2016... and the 2015 Wisconsin team, the 4th highest rated team in Ken Pom history, had a tempo that ranked 345th in the country. Michigan and Loyola Chicago also made it to the Final Four this year; neither team had an adjusted tempo in the top 300.

You get one out in the NCAA Tournament. It's tough to win four in a row. UVA's been a little unlucky with injuries in 2015 and 2018 to Justin Anderson and DeAndre Hunter, respectively. They've had bad luck with draws, often getting a hot Michigan State team. They had one complete debacle in the Elite 8 versus Syracuse... They're still a solid program that has a great chance at a Final Four this upcoming season.

Villanova is often seen as the dominant team in college basketball right now. But let's not forget that they've missed the second weekend of the tournament 7 out of 9 times this decade. And as much as I love Duke, we haven't been crazy successful at getting to the Final Four, either. Think about this, we've made the Final Four twice in the last 14 years. Point being, making it to the Final Four is no easy task. UVA has only been nationally relevant since 2014. If they continue to be a top-tier team, they'll eventually make it. Just my two cents.
 
I does seem the style of offense Virginia plays hurts them come tourney time, but they still scare me. Bennett is a really good coach. He probably does need to open it up offensively a little, but they were picked to finish middle of the pack for conference play last season.

Some tend to forget about how things were for K. Bennett is working on year 10, K was at Duke for 6 years before getting to the title game, 11 before winning his first title.
Virginia will forever be remembered for first 1 seed losing to a 16, but Duke holds a record that is bad too. Largest defeat in the title game in 90.
 
I does seem the style of offense Virginia plays hurts them come tourney time, but they still scare me. Bennett is a really good coach. He probably does need to open it up offensively a little, but they were picked to finish middle of the pack for conference play last season.

Some tend to forget about how things were for K. Bennett is working on year 10, K was at Duke for 6 years before getting to the title game, 11 before winning his first title.
Virginia will forever be remembered for first 1 seed losing to a 16, but Duke holds a record that is bad too. Largest defeat in the title game in 90.
Yep, and if UVA gets a title this year, they won't ever care about that 16/1 game again.
 
I have to wonder what will happen if Bennett starts recruiting well in the top 50. Or the top 100. Or even the top 150....

OK, maybe that's going too far. But he does an amazing job with lower-ranked HS talent.

Either he's a terrific coach or he's great at spotting rough gems. Maybe both.

The thing is, even if you get terrific performance out of lower-ranked players, at some point you run into coaches who get terrific performance out of better talent. Pretty much guaranteed to happen starting 2 or 3 games into the NCAAT, if not sooner.

This year will be a good test. This might be the best team he's had in terms of HS rankings. Does it translate?
 
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