^^We lost to a terrible Miami team at home who had Lykes out the whole year. Not much of an excuse there.

3/10/2021 11:00:43 PM

Did that loss make us finish 9th

3/10/2021 11:25:33 PM

boozie is that guy that brings up the UMBC loss right after UVA wins it all

makes skokiaan look like an optimist

[Edited on March 10, 2021 at 11:29 PM. Reason : State lost to ONE team this entire season that they should've beaten]

3/10/2021 11:28:30 PM

I was wondering if UVA fans say around talking about how they lost to a crappy State team WITHOUT daniels!!!!

3/10/2021 11:56:57 PM

"Bennett is a good coach, with an even better head of hair, but 2019 is a long time ago, what have you done for me lately?"

3/10/2021 11:58:30 PM

^^UVA fans don't talk about sports, they talk about Thomas Jefferson. They don't have any real sports fans. The ones you see on tv are crisis actors.

3/11/2021 7:21:15 AM

Clemson is now in 9th place and their best player actually sucks and makes the team worse

3/11/2021 8:01:40 AM

Quote :

"Did that loss make us finish 9th"

Considering we went 9-8 and Syracuse was 9-7 yes

But also if we just win that one, we are likely on the bubble

3/11/2021 10:07:30 AM

No I don’t think so. Being 1-7 in Q1 games is worse for our NCAAT chances than a single Q3 loss.

I think we were more than one game from being on the bubble. Beat Miami and Clemson or one of the Cuse games and we’d look a lot better.

3/11/2021 11:02:19 AM

^^so if the season was identical except we win the Miami game you wouldnt complain?

3/11/2021 11:26:12 AM

welp

3/11/2021 12:00:46 PM

Anything after where DD went down is just pissing in the wind...

Yeah they did ok against mediocre competition.

But missing DD hurt them undoubtedly.

Time for Keatts to win the recruiting and bring in some ballers

3/11/2021 12:27:57 PM

GT has an infinitely better resume than us in the last 30 years

3/14/2021 12:51:40 AM

Quote :

"^^so if the season was identical except we win the Miami game you wouldnt complain?"

Certainly wouldn't hurt. Facts are in four years, we have made one NCAAT, and were likely to be NIT the other 3.

3/14/2021 10:53:29 PM

Quote :

"in four* years, we have made one NCAAT"

* no tournament was played in 2020

[Edited on March 14, 2021 at 11:14 PM. Reason : ftfy]

3/14/2021 11:11:43 PM

are we winning dad?

3/15/2021 2:12:30 AM

^^^that's irrelevant. Beating Miami wouldn't have put us in the tourney

3/15/2021 9:02:27 AM

We ever going to be deep enough to not blame a season's results on one player getting hurt?

3/15/2021 12:07:36 PM

(most teams would take a hit if they lost their leading scorer, rebounder and stealer, regardless of their depth. However, I don' think most people are blaming the results of this season entirely on DD's injury)

3/15/2021 12:12:23 PM

^correct

3/15/2021 12:16:19 PM

With two major retirements its probably more important than ever for Keatts to make an impact

6/2/2021 2:04:20 PM

^correct

6/2/2021 2:33:06 PM

Agreed since Duke and UNC have coaches that have never been head coaches before. But with every player in the world transferring every year who knows??

6/4/2021 9:12:17 PM

Seat is getting warm again. PNC going to be more and more empty each game.

The team plays hard all game but that only goes so far.

12/17/2021 10:23:41 PM

btt

12/21/2021 8:44:16 PM

Not good.....

1/2/2022 12:00:32 PM

9-8 record after tonight, Kevin Keatts is back to being a winner.

1/12/2022 11:22:41 PM

No longer a winner…

1/15/2022 10:47:41 PM

In year 1 Keatts brought in Al Freeman, CJ Bryce, Sam Hunt, and Devon Daniels. Since then it’s been a lot of misses in the transfer portal. Morsell has shown some flashes but has been inconsistent and dealt with an injury. Gantt obviously is still hurt. Thomas Allen has been a major disappointment. Other dudes like Wyatt Walker and Denny Dixon have not been ACC caliber players. If KK is back next year, we desperately need to land major impact transfers.

1/20/2022 8:38:03 AM

I'd argue the problems with his roster construction started with taking both Bryce and Daniels

1/20/2022 9:01:20 AM

Care to explain? They were two of our better players. Either would be a massive upgrade to the current roster.

1/20/2022 9:24:09 AM

Quote :

"If KK is back next year, we desperately need to land major impact transfers."

Without this, he is done son. No way the fan base tolerates a season worse than this one after not making the tourney for 5 years in a row. And it will be worse, way worse, when Cole, Seabron, Allen and Bates all leave.

1/20/2022 10:31:12 AM

MBB is just so different than football (or WBB where fewer players go pro early). I think it’s fair to say that there doesn’t feel like much positive momentum is being made. For Doeren I’ve always argued that even in his underwhelming years, you could point toward an upward trajectory of the program. Can’t say the same for KK. But 1 impact transfer next year could change that. And that’s not an argument for keeping KK. Just seems like the off-season transfers in and out in MBB are so frequent and can be so impactful that things can change overnight for a team. That could also be an argument for firing Keatts…a new coach could hit the transfer portal and turn things around quickly.

I rambled some there, but my point is just that lack of roster continuity seems like an ongoing trend with a lot of CBB programs. Your ability to land impact transfers will make or break you…and Keatts has missed on several lately (and had his share of bad injury luck too)

1/20/2022 11:48:34 AM

Let's say we get a Devon Daniels (senior DD, not RS soph) on the transfer market... that's basically best case scenario.

Let's say Ross takes a step up and is better than any of our big men have been this year, but worse than Bates last year (likely).

Terq takes a step up and becomes a consistent Seabron type scorer (although he probably will never match the rebounding).

If all those best-case scenario things happen, that team is still not any better than this year's team (and the ACC ain't getting worse than this year). To me, that's the best argument for cutting Keatts loose now rather than later. Because if all those things happen, then the next year after that isn't looking good either. There is just not really an upside to Keatts unless you want to extend him for 5 years and hope his "culture" turns things around over time...but we are already on year 5. There is no microwave solution to this team. So if we are on a 3-5 year trajectory for even being good as it is, I would rather put my money on someone who can run a coherent offense and an inbound play. Hit the reset button.

1/20/2022 12:59:26 PM

Also for incoming freshman, aside from both players being outside the top 100, neither are in that small forward height range; a 6-10 and 6-2 guy. If DC and JC leave, Gannt would be our only mid-size player (I think he has another year with or without medical redshirt).

[Edited on January 20, 2022 at 1:34 PM. Reason : This roster has 5 players 6-8 or taller, 3 out for season ]

1/20/2022 1:32:27 PM

We have gradually gotten worse each year. The trend is not good. The only arguments to keep him at this point are the NCAA allegations handcuffed him (true or not) and Dillingham who won't even be here next year. People harp on injuries but this team was NIT at best with Bates, Gantt, and Ross. Gantt wasn't even a good contributor at Providence (4 ppg and 3 rpg).

We haven't even had postseason success in the "good" Keatts years. Lost only NCAA tournament game we played against Seton Hall after losing first ACCT game to BC. Lost in the NIT to Lipscomb and Colorado State. He is 2-3 in the ACCT with two blowouts to UVA and Cuse, wins over Pitt and Clemson.

Quote :

"Since then it’s been a lot of misses in the transfer portal. "

Yep. Lockett, Andree, Walker, Morsell, Allen are semi decent role guys but not ACC starter material. Keatts has brought in way too many non-ACC caliber guys like Dixon, Farrar, Gibson, and AJ Taylor. LJ Thomas is another small guard that looks like a Pass clone. Shawn Phillips was a top 100 recruit who has dropped. Neither are top 100 recruits. The class is ranked 12th in the ACC.

1/20/2022 1:33:34 PM

Next years roster would likely look like this…I might have eligibility wrong since the extra Covid year applies to most of these guys

Senior - Gantt, Morsell
Junior - Ebe, Gibson, Hayes
Soph - Pass, Ross, Terq
Frosh - Thomas, Phillips

That’s assuming Bates and Seabron go pro. Allen and Hellems are seniors. We’d still have 3 scholarships to use on guys in the portal (or maybe a late addition to the incoming class). And maybe more than that since the standard seems to be at least 1 transfer or unexpected loss.

There’s potential for the roster to look vastly different next year if we bring in a couple of impact transfers. But that’s far from a guarantee.

Quote :

" This roster has 5 players 6-8 or taller, 3 out for season "

This roster was to be deep (but inexperienced outside of Manny) in the front court. It turned out to be a worst case scenario with Gantt and Bates missing the entire season and Ross missing about half. I’m not saying a healthy front court would’ve been a great one. But we had a lot of depth there and it just totally vanished with injuries

[Edited on January 20, 2022 at 1:43 PM. Reason : A]

1/20/2022 1:41:26 PM

Pretty sure Bates for defense and rim-protection would probably have made a pretty big difference this season.

(and is likely that Bates goes pro? He was just starting to develop his offense, but he still had a ways to go. Same with Seabron. He's great on the break and slashing, but not really great at anything else)


[Edited on January 20, 2022 at 1:58 PM. Reason : oops, I forgot Dillingham is '23]

1/20/2022 1:56:17 PM

I'm open to the idea that the NCAA thing really did hamper him on the recruiting trail. Maybe the play is to give him this offseason to pull in a top 10 '23 class alongside Dillingham. If he doesn't, then he gets fired after next season missing the tourney again. That may be a crappy hand that he was dealt, but at some point being a loser during the season hurts worse in the recruiting trail than possible NCAA violations.

1/20/2022 1:56:29 PM

^^bates would’ve helped a lot, I agree.

Quote :

" (and is likely that Bates goes pro? He was just starting to develop his offense, but he still had a ways to go. Same with Seabron. He's great on the break and slashing, but not really great at anything else)"

Idk if they’ll go or not. I think preseason the expectation was that this would be Bates’ last year. With the injury idk how that changes things. As far as Seabron, in terms of age he might as well be a senior (he’ll be 22 this year)…I know if he had a better jump shot, his stock would improve greatly. But idk how much more he’ll be able to realistically improve his professional stock by coming back. I hope they both come back but I’m not holding my breath

Quote :

" That may be a crappy hand that he was dealt, but at some point being a loser during the season hurts worse in the recruiting trail than possible NCAA violations. "

Yeah feels like a combination of bad luck/being dealt a crappy hand. But yeah…ultimately he’s gotta win games. Most coaches have been able to recruit here. Herb towards the end was recruiting fine, Sid, and Gott brought in highly ranked guys. I really don’t think it takes a lot to recruit well at State. But the NCAA stuff hurt to a degree…Saddiq Bey cited it as the reason he decomitted.

[Edited on January 20, 2022 at 2:08 PM. Reason : A]

1/20/2022 2:04:25 PM

To play devil's advocate a bit on the Bates stuff, we are losing games because we are getting severely outrebounded and because we go on long scoring droughts (basically our guards can't hit shots--I'd argue that they are largely low percentage shots during these droughts because we lose the offense but I digress). Now those things are partially mitigated because the ACC has been bad and so we have kept games close. But Bates doesn't really move the needle in either of those areas.

Of course we will never really know and maybe Bates improved offensively in the offseason. If he could have dropped 12 pts a game this season, that would have made a difference. It also could have caused the paint to collapse and we don't see Seabron with the same driving lanes.

Hayes not being complete ass was a possible cure for this team. Shak sticking around was a possible cure. I just don't necessarily think Bates was the cure for this team.

[Edited on January 20, 2022 at 2:36 PM. Reason : d]

1/20/2022 2:33:42 PM

I mean, if the other teams have a half-way skilled big-guy, they dominate us, we don't have any answer for that. Bates would have been the answer (with Ebe and Ernie backing-him up).

But I'm not necessarily saying he would have been a "cure".

1/20/2022 2:56:21 PM

Bates had already developed a solid offensive game. Averaged 10 ppg last year. Our offense has a reliable post scorer if he’s playing instead of Ebe.

Bates doesn’t make us a top 25 team. But he’s worth a few wins definitely.

[Edited on January 20, 2022 at 3:23 PM. Reason : A]

1/20/2022 3:20:14 PM

^particularly because we've been pretty close in almost all our losses

1/20/2022 3:28:06 PM

Bates wasn't a spectacular rebounder, but his stats last year were better than any of this years bigs. If you assume even a little development...

Also, similar to bullets point, just look at last night, a revolving door of paint points, feels like Bates would have def cooled that off. And he would be more threatening in the P&R then Ebe, taking some pressure off the guards on offense

1/20/2022 4:56:37 PM

I like Keatts fine and have defended him to a degree. But I don’t really care anymore. Getting pantsed by an average UNC team is enough for me. His teams, even when outmatched have always fought hard. I felt like there wasn’t much fight there today until it was way too late.

Fire him. Don’t fire him. I don’t care

1/29/2022 4:10:38 PM

Although I think overall the offensive system is complete trash, you can usually count on at least a handful of well-run sets even when we lose. Today, we took turns 1v1ing EVERY. DAMN. POSSESSION.

1/29/2022 4:36:06 PM

The announcers harped on the offense and lack of bench scoring. But I felt like defense was by far the bigger issue. Offense wasn’t pretty and a lot of our points were garbage points….but giving up 50+ in a half was a much bigger issue. We had a lot of shots blocked near the rim but we shot ok from 3 (even before garbage time). Seabron must be sick or something. He barely played in 2H

1/29/2022 4:54:09 PM

Oh the defense was absolute trash. Most of their 3s were wide ass open. Drive, kick, drain 3, repeat.

It doubles the pain when you watch them humming along banging down open shots and then we get the ball and it's 1v1 and taking contested shots every time down the floor.

1/29/2022 5:04:35 PM

I'm so fucking tired of hearing about making shots. He's worse than Lowe with this tired excuse.

He shouldn't be retained at the end of the year but he will. Absolute apathy in the program.

Amazing Herb left in 2006 and nobody can even do what he did and yet half the fanbase wanted him gone.

1/29/2022 10:10:23 PM