Worse than the team that didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament? The 2012 team, even with a healthy Nerlens Noel, didn’t have near the talent that this squad does.
His worst team still has more lottery picks than all other teams combined left in their bracket. If those guys decide to play they will be tough.
They’d ideally be more adaptable, but if they don’t collapse against Syracuse, that entire article is rendered moot. It reads like it’s written by Skip Bayless.
saw on twitter, they’re like a high school football team that runs the veer and doesn’t know what to do down 2 TDs
Cauley Stein was a part time starter who averaged 8 ppg in 12-13. And do you want to compare backcourts and wing players? I’ll take Gilgeous-Alexander, Knox, Gabriel, and Diallo over Archie Goodwin, Alex Poythress, and Ryan Harrow any day of the week.
They collapsed against Syracuse because the Orange sprung a full court press on them in the last eight minutes of the game. Perrantes and Brogdon were basically the only guys who could handle the ball, they got it out of their hands avd everything went to hell. That had nothing to do with the “system” that uva runs.
Virginia just isn't the type for having a sustained run in the tournament. "Survive and Advance" is a fallacy. Winning 5 or 6 tough games in a row is too difficult. You need easy games to offset the tight ones.
Last time they were a 1 seed they won their first game 81-45. People just have short memories. If there's anything people should have learned from last night, it's that there's a difference between "this hasn't happened yet" and "this can't happen." I think the reverse-engineered narrative that "Virginia can't win" is more similar to "Peyton can't win a Super Bowl" circa 2005. There's no good reason why not.
And they scored like 85 or 86 in a sweet sixteen win over a damn good Iowa State team that played at break neck speed.
No one is going to remember that. They will remember when they were the #1 overall seed and got curb stomped.