Thoughts 2 Games In...

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guadalupeoso
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9:10a, 11/10/25
I know it's a small sample size, but I think I am really going to enjoy the brand of basketball this team is going to play. While we may not have some of the athletes we've had over the last 4-5 years (not that this team is unathletic, just doesn't have the NBA talent that necessarily jumps off the page at you), I think the defense is only going to get better. This feels like a team that will be able to play a style that travels well and makes us a tough out for anyone in the tournament.

Really excited to see how it progresses.
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Bear51
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9:16a, 11/10/25
Adriacus Peratuun
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In reply to guadalupeoso • 9:17a, 11/10/25
guadalupeoso said:
I know it's a small sample size, but I think I am really going to enjoy the brand of basketball this team is going to play. While we may not have some of the athletes we've had over the last 4-5 years (not that this team is unathletic, just doesn't have the NBA talent that necessarily jumps off the page at you), I think the defense is only going to get better. This feels like a team that will be able to play a style that travels well and makes us a tough out for anyone in the tournament.

Really excited to see how it progresses.

Think the opposite…..the team is more athletic…..but not as offensively skilled.
Taller, longer, quicker…..but not the same skill level.
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chorne68
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In reply to Adriacus Peratuun • 9:29a, 11/10/25
Adriacus Peratuun said:
guadalupeoso said:
I know it's a small sample size, but I think I am really going to enjoy the brand of basketball this team is going to play. While we may not have some of the athletes we've had over the last 4-5 years (not that this team is unathletic, just doesn't have the NBA talent that necessarily jumps off the page at you), I think the defense is only going to get better. This feels like a team that will be able to play a style that travels well and makes us a tough out for anyone in the tournament.

Really excited to see how it progresses.

Think the opposite…..the team is more athletic…..but not as offensively skilled.
Taller, longer, quicker…..but not the same skill level.

I agree that we are more athletic and bigger. Ball handling and shooting are our issues. Defense should be better than past years.
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WA Jim
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9:31a, 11/10/25
couple of thoughts to add:
Nice win against - what looks to me like a lower, middle of the pack B1G team. Playing at home was helpful.

was nice to see Rataj step up last night - he looked slow and uninterested in game 1. He was ready to play against old Pac12 dudes!

Powell - if we can get that out of him consistently- then awesome

I was down on the Williams kid after game 1 - but jumped the gun - I like him - he can help us I think

Defense looked way better tonight - at a minimum, just way more energy - I am encouraged

Carr - nice game - needs to bring that every night - and avoid dumb fouls

I edited to add, yes - agree with other posters, to me turnovers are the big concern coming out of this one - if we had taken better care of the ball, we would have won going away.
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Stefano DiMera
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In reply to WA Jim • 10:09a, 11/10/25
How many turnovers did we have?

I thought someone posted in game thread we were under the amount Drew sets as a goal.
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Task Force 2015
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In reply to chorne68 • 10:18a, 11/10/25
chorne68 said:
Adriacus Peratuun said:
guadalupeoso said:
I know it's a small sample size, but I think I am really going to enjoy the brand of basketball this team is going to play. While we may not have some of the athletes we've had over the last 4-5 years (not that this team is unathletic, just doesn't have the NBA talent that necessarily jumps off the page at you), I think the defense is only going to get better. This feels like a team that will be able to play a style that travels well and makes us a tough out for anyone in the tournament.

Really excited to see how it progresses.

Think the opposite…..the team is more athletic…..but not as offensively skilled.
Taller, longer, quicker…..but not the same skill level.

I agree that we are more athletic and bigger. Ball handling and shooting are our issues. Defense should be better than past years.

Tounde was described by Coach Fran as a confident shooter.I hope he becomes more selective is his shooting.His overall game is terrific except for his tendency to take some bad shots.




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Big12Fan2024
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10:39a, 11/10/25
Just so we're all on a realistic page, the #1 team (out of 373) with the fewest turnovers per game last year averaged 8.7 turnovers a game. The #1 P5 team and #1 Big 12 team who averaged the fewest turnovers per game and also made it to the Natty game and lost -- Houston -- averaged 9 turnovers a game. We had 9 last night, which was lower than 78% of our games last year and is 3 below Drew's stated comfort level of 12.

We can always seek improvement and certainly made a few lazy mistakes last night, but as far as total turnovers I'm not sure how many of those you realistically eliminate in college basketball consistently.
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TXBEAR_bf
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In reply to Task Force 2015 • 10:55a, 11/10/25
I am sure his shot selection will dictate his playing time to a certain extent, although Drew is pretty lenient on freshman.
The one play where he grabbed the rebound and went coast to coast was aggressive and went in, but he had Williams wide open on the drive.
Williams had a similar drive to the basket where he could have thrown up an easy lob to Carr.
Would like to see more assists on those plays, gets more guys involved and translates to more togetherness.
I really love the defensive play, you can tell that the team is bought in. The offensive ceiling is a little limited with this team due to guard play, but it's well balanced. If we could just get Bodo back for another body that would be huge. Playing 7 all year is going to be brutal once conference starts.
Bear living in the woods of Bend Oregon
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WA Jim
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In reply to Stefano DiMera • 10:59a, 11/10/25
Stefano DiMera said:
How many turnovers did we have?

I thought someone posted in game thread we were under the amount Drew sets as a goal.

The box says we only had 9 - it sure seemed like more - I may be thinking about loose balls as we struggled to rebound on the defensive end
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TXBEAR_bf
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In reply to WA Jim • 11:07a, 11/10/25
There was one sequence where we had like three in a row that allowed Washington to get back in the game, think it was with around 10 to go in the second.
Likely going to see more against stout competition like Houston. We don't have one superior ball handler. Feel
like for the last 7-8 years we have had at least one guard who could beat the press, not feeling super confident about that so far.
Bear living in the woods of Bend Oregon
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DP4LIFE
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11:14a, 11/10/25
I was most surprised that UW didn't go full court press the last 5 minutes. I think we will see a lot of that down the stretch in games since we don't have a true PG.
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WA Jim
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In reply to DP4LIFE • 11:19a, 11/10/25
DP4LIFE said:
I was most surprised that UW didn't go full court press the last 5 minutes. I think we will see a lot of that down the stretch in games since we don't have a true PG.

The Williams kid is not a point guard? He looks like he could be..
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bear2be2
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11:33a, 11/10/25
My frustration with our roster construction since the championship team is well documented. As was my excitement with the shift we made in recruiting philosophy/roster construction with this particular team.

I was higher on this bunch than most, and I think some are starting to see why. This is shaping up to be exactly the type of balanced, blue collar team I envisioned that has enough offensive weapons to be efficient on that end and the requisite length and intensity that you must have to defend competently.

Will this team be better than our last three? Maybe; time will tell. But I think it will be a hell of a lot more fun to watch. This is the type of gritty, selfless bunch that is really easy to get behind and root for. In many ways, this is a return to the culture that helped Scott Drew's program reach the heights it has. I think we got away from that for a few years, but this is the type of team that can help us get back on track.
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BearFan33
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12:22p, 11/10/25
So I heard we are implementing a new defense. Anyone know anything about it? I'm sure we will execute it better as the season goes on.

I was happy to see less free drives to the basket. Wash scored on a lot of pull up and fades which are harder to hit then a layup. After getting abused a bit on iso plays with Rataj on their big guy, we adjusted and stopped it for the most part.

I was so happy to see a return of the slip screen. We used to get so many easy (and exciting) points from that when Acy was wearing the BU.

Oh and rebounding was a problem. As other's have mentioned. the lack of size hurt us a bit.
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bear2be2
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In reply to BearFan33 • 1:00p, 11/10/25
BearFan33 said:
So I heard we are implementing a new defense. Anyone know anything about it? I'm sure we will execute it better as the season goes on.

I was happy to see less free drives to the basket. Wash scored on a lot of pull up and fades which are harder to hit then a layup. After getting abused a bit on iso plays with Rataj on their big guy, we adjusted and stopped it for the most part.

I was so happy to see a return of the slip screen. We used to get so many easy (and exciting) points from that when Acy was wearing the BU.

Oh and rebounding was a problem. As other's have mentioned. the lack of size hurt us a bit.

We're running Virginia's pack line defense now, which is designed to stop penetration. It should be fun to watch us continue to improve in this defense because the early returns are already pretty promising.
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Smashmouth
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1:15p, 11/10/25
Agbim was basically a no show last night. 2 points (1-7). If we win without production from him, that is a positive because we will need him to be a key contributor and I think he will be. Also free throw shooting was 69% and that needs to improve and hopefully it will.
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BearFan33
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In reply to bear2be2 • 1:28p, 11/10/25
bear2be2 said:
BearFan33 said:
So I heard we are implementing a new defense. Anyone know anything about it? I'm sure we will execute it better as the season goes on.

I was happy to see less free drives to the basket. Wash scored on a lot of pull up and fades which are harder to hit then a layup. After getting abused a bit on iso plays with Rataj on their big guy, we adjusted and stopped it for the most part.

I was so happy to see a return of the slip screen. We used to get so many easy (and exciting) points from that when Acy was wearing the BU.

Oh and rebounding was a problem. As other's have mentioned. the lack of size hurt us a bit.

We're running Virginia's pack line defense now, which is designed to stop penetration. It should be fun to watch us continue to improve in this defense because the early returns are already pretty promising.

Thanks i couldn't remember the name.

https://www.hooperuniversity.com/breakdowns/virginia-cavaliers-pack-line-defense

link if anyone is interested
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Stefano DiMera
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2:39p, 11/10/25
Hopefully the Iron Donut Defense or whatever the hell it was called that we took from Chris Beard will never be seen again.
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bear2be2
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In reply to Smashmouth • 3:00p, 11/10/25
Smashmouth said:
Agbim was basically a no show last night. 2 points (1-7). If we win without production from him, that is a positive because we will need him to be a key contributor and I think he will be. Also free throw shooting was 69% and that needs to improve and hopefully it will.

He had seven of our 12 assists. He didn't shoot well, but he did a lot of good things in that combo/point guard role.

I thought he also did a really good job of closing out on shooters without risking silly fouls on the defensive end.
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bear2be2
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In reply to Stefano DiMera • 3:02p, 11/10/25
Stefano DiMera said:
Hopefully the Iron Donut Defense or whatever the hell it was called that we took from Chris Beard will never be seen again.

The no middle defense helped us become an elite program from 2020-22. But as our defensive talent (and intensity) dropped off, the constant switching became a giant liability.

I like our current philosophy much, much better.
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Johnny Bear
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6:00p, 11/10/25
Glad we're going away from the switching at all 5 positions defense which has been disastrous. In the last few years it got so tiresome watching 6-1 guards ending up on 6-9 or taller forwards & posts down low which was so easy to force us into if the opponent had a pulse.
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NWASicem
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6:30p, 11/10/25
Why are there only eight players on the roster? I know they had transfer losses but couldn't they get a roster of 12 to 13 guys? Will it stay at eight for the rest of the season?
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boognish_bear
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8:24p, 11/10/25
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bear2be2
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In reply to Johnny Bear • 9:14p, 11/10/25
Johnny Bear said:
Glad we're going away from the switching at all 5 positions defense which has been disastrous. In the last few years it got so tiresome watching 6-1 guards ending up on 6-9 or taller forwards & posts down low which was so easy to force us into if the opponent had a pulse.

100 percent.

The switch-everything defense was great when you had elite on-ball defenders like Davion Mitchell, Mark Vital and Freddie Gilespie/Everyday Jon. It's excruciating when teams just run a high-ball screen every possession to get Robert Wright or Jayden Nunn matched up with a post.

We were the easiest team on the planet to scheme the past couple of years. It literally took one ball screen to create a mismatch every play.
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bear2be2
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In reply to NWASicem • 9:17p, 11/10/25
NWASicem said:
Why are there only eight players on the roster? I know they had transfer losses but couldn't they get a roster of 12 to 13 guys? Will it stay at eight for the rest of the season?

We have way more than eight players. But we took three project freshmen who look to be redshirting and had an injury to Juslin Bodo Bodo, who was projected to be our starter at the five.

If Bodo Bodo had stayed healthy, we'd have had our usual nine-man early-season rotation that gets trimmed to seven or eight by Big 12 play.

As it is, we'll still have a good seven-man rotation that could grow to eight if White picks up his play or Bodo Bodo returns.
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Fre3dombear
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In reply to WA Jim • 12:07a, 11/11/25
WA Jim said:
couple of thoughts to add:
Nice win against - what looks to me like a lower, middle of the pack B1G team. Playing at home was helpful.

was nice to see Rataj step up last night - he looked slow and uninterested in game 1. He was ready to play against old Pac12 dudes!

Powell - if we can get that out of him consistently- then awesome

I was down on the Williams kid after game 1 - but jumped the gun - I like him - he can help us I think

Defense looked way better tonight - at a minimum, just way more energy - I am encouraged

Carr - nice game - needs to bring that every night - and avoid dumb fouls

I edited to add, yes - agree with other posters, to me turnovers are the big concern coming out of this one - if we had taken better care of the ball, we would have won going away.


4 in the firet half
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Big12Fan2024
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In reply to bear2be2 • 9:11a, 11/11/25
Coaching staff also thought Perez would be able to contribute this year if needed, according to what Drew said on Jon Rothstein's podcast. So, you add Bodo Bodo and Perez to the 8 and we were finally set to go 10 deep of players who could at least contribute. Unfortunately (or cursed, as I'm starting to think), Bodo Bodo had the freak accident this summer and then Perez blew out his ACL in fall practice.

Plan all along was to redshirt Soyoye and Igoudala.
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Mitch Henessey
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6:29p, 11/12/25
I personally hate the Pack Line defense.

Mainly because the energy it takes to execute it at the highest level (see: UVA under late stage Tony Bennett) takes so much out of you that you often have dead legs and those UVA teams were really poor on offense. It's not aesthetically pleasing basketball. Think 53-39 finals.

All of that said, it's damn effective. And we need to switch something up, because "No Middle" isn't working. Honestly, I'd be happy if we could run the Pack Line at 75-80% peak UVA effectiveness if it allowed us to keep our trademark offensive efficiency.
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Quinton
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In reply to Stefano DiMera • 6:43p, 11/12/25
Stefano DiMera said:
Hopefully the Iron Donut Defense or whatever the hell it was called that we took from Chris Beard will never be seen again.


The no middle was okay when more exotic, but it got played out and we didn't have the personnel or coaching to execute it the last few years.

Pack line is probably a better fit for our team and for our matchups in the conference this year. I don't think we'll see the sheer concentration of elite shooters we have the last few years.

Either way the energy and personnel are better on defense. They're versatile enough to actually run the no middle this year but I like the current look better. With Bodo, they could surprise
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boognish_bear
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7:14p, 11/12/25
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boognish_bear
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8:12p, 11/12/25
We need to keep getting Ws...but beyond that...this just seems like a good group of guys that are easy to pull for.


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boognish_bear
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8:43p, 11/12/25
Shhhhh

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bear2be2
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In reply to Mitch Henessey • 9:32p, 11/12/25
Mitch Henessey said:
I personally hate the Pack Line defense.

Mainly because the energy it takes to execute it at the highest level (see: UVA under late stage Tony Bennett) takes so much out of you that you often have dead legs and those UVA teams were really poor on offense. It's not aesthetically pleasing basketball. Think 53-39 finals.

All of that said, it's damn effective. And we need to switch something up, because "No Middle" isn't working. Honestly, I'd be happy if we could run the Pack Line at 75-80% peak UVA effectiveness if it allowed us to keep our trademark offensive efficiency.

Through two games we're top 25 in both offensive and defensive efficiency in the KenPom rankings, so we're accomplishing that so far.

I don't think we'll ever have a bad offense with Scott Drew coaching this team. And Ron Sanchez has built a similar reputation as a defensive coach. I think this will be a very successful marriage for as long as it lasts.
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bear2be2
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In reply to boognish_bear • 9:35p, 11/12/25
boognish_bear said:
Shhhhh


I hope he averages just enough turnovers to stay in the low-first-, high-second-round range and then improves in that area and earns his way into the lottery next season.

I want him to achieve his NBA dreams, but I hope we get two years out of him before that happens.
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