[GK3]

Lots to like today!

A good crowd (including lots of Wahoos) creating an atmosphere much more like a real basketball game.  I'd like to see that continue and grow even more later this month with home games vs. Miami, Florida State, & Syracuse.

Some good support for the Big 3.  Agarwal looking better all the time - hope that the 3 he hit is a sign of more to come.  Young was really solid in his first start - only played 16 minutes. Not sure if that's due to gradually working him in coming off the injury.  In any case, it looks like he's in the rotation, and maybe the starting line-up, to stay.  Gealer looked great running the offense, which was needed with Blakes & Sellers in a bit of foul trouble.  Okpara bounced back with a good 15 minutes, contributing 5 pts. 2 assists, & 3 steals.  Cammann was very effective - good to be able to give Raynaud a break without having things get too dicey.  Stanford's bench outscored UVa's 22-12.

Stanford was dominant inside.  They got 20 of the 26 rebounds off the UVa shots and 14 of 31 on their own misses.  Points in the paint were 40-12 for Stanford, and 2nd chance points were 19-8.  Stanford had 8! dunks (to none for UVa) - by 6! different players.  Raynaud & Young had 2 each, while Sellers, Blakes, Cammann, & Jaylen Thompson each slammed in one.

Stanford scored 22 points off 12 Cav turnovers, while UVa got only 4 points off 6 Stanford turnovers.

And nice that there was a big lead, allowing Cole Kastner (the Menlo School grad & former UVa lacrosse player - team captain, All-ACC, & NCAA champion!) to get into the game, delighting the crowd and his teammates). And then, of course, Jaylen Thompson putting an exclamation point on the day with a thunderous dunk.

At 3-2, Stanford is tied with SMU & Pitt for 6th place.  Things get tougher this week back on the road at Wake Forest & UNC (I mistakenly said Wake & Duke in my preview post.)  This seems to me like not quite as daunting a trip as the last one to Clemson & Pitt.  And I'm hopeful that they're better prepared for it having gone through that experience and then following up with the 2-game sweep at home (plus having Young more established in the rotation).  Not predicting any victories, but I am cautiously optimistic that they might make a good showing.

Good points!  We had stretches against Pitt and Clemson where we almost looked like with belonged with them then would hit a bad patch and the game would get away.  Against VT we played pretty well but still had some rough areas.  This game seemed close to 40 minutes of Smith type basketball. Not sure if there we any of those "why did you even try that" kind of shot, just plain good old fashioned share the ball type of game.
Smith obviously rewards guys who play hard and play his way with starts and minutes.  Argawal's constant hard nosed effort regardless of his shooting has pretty much made him starter #4.  With the apparent arrival of Young, the last starter is probably going to rotate around with Young, Camman and Okpara unless one of the three starts to standout consistently.
Can we beat either Wake or UNC?  I think maybe if we can play another 40 min like yesterday.  Winning one tough road game like these would probably really help the team mental outlook.
One add, Smith's comments about player development during his press conference are pretty interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zq4KZoWdkc

[GK3]

Lots to like today!

A good crowd (including lots of Wahoos) creating an atmosphere much more like a real basketball game.  I'd like to see that continue and grow even more later this month with home games vs. Miami, Florida State, & Syracuse.

Some good support for the Big 3.  Agarwal looking better all the time - hope that the 3 he hit is a sign of more to come.  Young was really solid in his first start - only played 16 minutes. Not sure if that's due to gradually working him in coming off the injury.  In any case, it looks like he's in the rotation, and maybe the starting line-up, to stay.  Gealer looked great running the offense, which was needed with Blakes & Sellers in a bit of foul trouble.  Okpara bounced back with a good 15 minutes, contributing 5 pts. 2 assists, & 3 steals.  Cammann was very effective - good to be able to give Raynaud a break without having things get too dicey.  Stanford's bench outscored UVa's 22-12.

Stanford was dominant inside.  They got 20 of the 26 rebounds off the UVa shots and 14 of 31 on their own misses.  Points in the paint were 40-12 for Stanford, and 2nd chance points were 19-8.  Stanford had 8! dunks (to none for UVa) - by 6! different players.  Raynaud & Young had 2 each, while Sellers, Blakes, Cammann, & Jaylen Thompson each slammed in one.

Stanford scored 22 points off 12 Cav turnovers, while UVa got only 4 points off 6 Stanford turnovers.

And nice that there was a big lead, allowing Cole Kastner (the Menlo School grad & former UVa lacrosse player - team captain, All-ACC, & NCAA champion!) to get into the game, delighting the crowd and his teammates). And then, of course, Jaylen Thompson putting an exclamation point on the day with a thunderous dunk.

At 3-2, Stanford is tied with SMU & Pitt for 6th place.  Things get tougher this week back on the road at Wake Forest & UNC (I mistakenly said Wake & Duke in my preview post.)  This seems to me like not quite as daunting a trip as the last one to Clemson & Pitt.  And I'm hopeful that they're better prepared for it having gone through that experience and then following up with the 2-game sweep at home (plus having Young more established in the rotation).  Not predicting any victories, but I am cautiously optimistic that they might make a good showing.

Good points!  We had stretches against Pitt and Clemson where we almost looked like with belonged with them then would hit a bad patch and the game would get away.  Against VT we played pretty well but still had some rough areas.  This game seemed close to 40 minutes of Smith type basketball. Not sure if there we any of those "why did you even try that" kind of shot, just plain good old fashioned share the ball type of game.
Smith obviously rewards guys who play hard and play his way with starts and minutes.  Argawal's constant hard nosed effort regardless of his shooting has pretty much made him starter #4.  With the apparent arrival of Young, the last starter is probably going to rotate around with Young, Camman and Okpara unless one of the three starts to standout consistently.
Can we beat either Wake or UNC?  I think maybe if we can play another 40 min like yesterday.  Winning one tough road game like these would probably really help the team mental outlook.
One add, Smith's comments about player development during his press conference are pretty interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zq4KZoWdkc