Author: Cuts from The Corner

This was my fear. Before the season started, I wrote (and said) that the main test would be to see how these guys would play and respond through adversity, of which there would definitely be some this season. I didn’t correctly forecast how much adversity that would be, but we’ve reached that point now and…

The whiplash in the vibes between the past two games has been extreme. There was a pretty strong resurgence of positivity, I gathered, from the fan base after the offense looked better against N.C. State. To the point, where it sounded like people were starting to be hopeful about where the season could end up,…

The last game of 2024 brought with it some interesting and new considerations. It was a tale of two halves but, in reality, it was a 14-minute stretch in the second half where we went from down 14 points to up 12 points. From there, we took the air out of the ball too early,…

This is a really weird season. Ostensibly, we have a coach who is competing for his job… but he isn’t really coaching like that. He’s coaching like someone who is running a long-standing program with a multi-year plan who is guaranteed to retain a large portion of his roster. Yet, we’re aware of the fact…

The debate over moral victories is silly. No one is happy after a loss and how to “feel” emotionally after a loss is a pointless exercise to try to regulate in someone else. All it really means, practically, is to consider how the loss reflects on your team’s ability and chances moving forward. The “a…

There is more that goes into coaching a basketball team in terms of deciding who to play and when than just watching how players do in the games. There’s practice. How hard are guys playing? Who is paying attention and learning and applying that knowledge? Coaches, especially our coaches, like to reward that one because…

Disaster struck on Saturday, at least for one game and hopefully not long after, when Dai Dai Ames landed awkwardly on his ankle and could only play seven minutes of the game. Already thinned by transfer and injury, the PG position was left fully to Andrew Rohde with players like Isaac McKneely and Ishan Sharma…

It’s hard not to watch a game like we had against Florida on Wednesday and not immediately think about Jalen Warley and Elijah Gertrude. Those two were our answers to help combat athletic matchups like these and all roster composition discussions have to take into account their lack of availability due to injury and CTB’s…

On the surface, what’s not to like about a 26-point victory that clears the spread by 11? On a season where none of our victories have been overly convincing; here’s a point margin that was. Some of our guys had really good games, especially at the much-maligned point guard position (Ames and Rohde had our…

Our Wahoos got a much-needed buy game after their drip to the Bahamas, and it was a good thing that they did because it’s clear that we’re still searching for some solutions. In games like these then the quality of opponent drops (Manhattan is outside of the top 300 teams in DI per Kenpom –…

“Which one of these things is not like the others…” Human nature is such that it’s hard to stay as passionate or consistent about something when it’s not as good as it once was or when it’s not what you thought it would be. Personally, I was off my game for this tournament; relying on…

Well, in our first contest away from home, against major competition, we passed with flying colors; beating Villanova 70-60 in a game that didn’t feel as close as 10 points. The Wildcats have quite a bit breaking against them right now, with the loss dropping them to 2-3 with losses against Columbia and St. Joe’s,…

We’re just two games in and this one was against one of the weakest teams in the country (the actual second worst, per Kenpom), but I’ve already got some pretty strong opinions on tightening up the lineup. Is that premature? Perhaps, but there’s a little more going on with it than just in-game performances. I’ll…

Feels odd to have actual game tape to review again… even odder that it’s under a new coaching regime! Nevertheless, and despite the bumpy first game, I’m excited to kick off the season with these – where I tackle the ongoing strengths and concerns of the team through game film break down. Normally, at this…

This is a special treat, certainly for me, and hopefully for those reading as well. I sat down for a little roundtable text chat with both StLouHoo and SeattleHoo! If you’re unfamiliar with either, SeattleHoo started Hoos Place back during the 2015-2016 season as an online video repository for UVa sports. The site expanded to…

Ahh! I’m back sooner than expected. Just couldn’t leave well enough alone. I’ve had quite a few interesting and insightful discussions since my last piece but many of them came with questions. Questions such as, “Why are you down on (insert player)?” or “I didn’t see what you saw regarding (insert player)…?” Or “Aren’t you…

Heyo! I was able to make it down for the scrimmage this year and, rather than having to cobble together poorly angled videos and other accounts of the game to parse out what’s relevant – I got to see everything with my own two eyes. What fun! Seriously, though, it did feel like a treat…

Well, well, well…. Our first commitment for the class of 2025 and it’s the homegrown talent! I think UVa Basketball social media broke on Friday afternoon when Chance Mallory announced his commitment. Mallory is the 53rd ranked player in the country in On3’s composite ratings and is the first in-state recruit to land on scholarship…

The other day I had a couple of discussions on social media about the role of the “three” or “Small Forward” in today’s game of basketball and how it applies to our team. I think I confused the discussion a bit by bringing up the talk about “3 and D” types of players vs. positional…

In my State of The Program piece, I wrote about a lot of issues facing the program at the moment and many changes that need to be made to move forward in a positive direction. This is the piece where I write about what I’d like to see happen for the new year, both philosophically…

Welcome to Part 4 and the final installment of 2024s Tracking a Transfer. Part 1, 2, and 3, on Jalen Warley, TJ Power, and Elijah Saunders can be found in those links, respectively. This piece will focus on the 6’1″ PG from Kansas St., Sophomore Dai Dai Ames. A former top 100 recruit out of…

Welcome to Part 3 of 2024’s Tracking a Transfer! Part 1, on Jalen Warley, can be found in that first link and Part 2, on TJ Power, can be found in the second link. This piece will focus on Elijah Saunders; the 6’8″ PF from San Diego State, whose utilization, I believe, is the most…

Welcome to Part 2 of 2024’s Tracking a Transfer! Part 1 was a deep-dive into all things Jalen Warley. This section will be on likely our most high-profile addition, both because of the program from which he came, and due his high school recruiting profile; TJ Power. Coming out of high school, Power was a…

Welcome back to Part 1 of 2024’s Tracking a Transfer! If you haven’t seen these in the previous two off seasons, this is where I do deep dives into the previous year’s film of all of our incoming transfers (it will be four this year that I do as I’m making a hard and fast…

I fell in love with the alliteration a bit here, but really this is a discussion about all recruiting during this stretch, although the work in the portal is the most relevant and the most competitive. This cycle was a bit of a roller coaster ride, but before I do my standard deep dives into…

When I think about current UVa athletics, Carla Williams is one of the first names that jumps to mind. Look at those trophies! Our men’s and women’s teams were ranked (and may still be) in every single Spring sport at one point this season! Swimming, Tennis, Golf, Baseball, Soccer, etc., etc. Complete dominance. But when…

After a loss in the Play-In game of the NCAA Tournament that saw us score 42 points in a 25 point defeat, it’s time to take stock of where things stand. There are many varying opinions out there, including those who say that this shouldn’t be a referendum on the program; it’s a simple talent…

Well, then. There’s a lot to write about after that past season… and I’m going to do a much longer “State of The Program” type piece in a little while after some of the initial declarations into the portal happen. That being said, a good place to start, as I did last year, is to…

There’s a lot to process after the ACC Tournament, some best left for later so that we can focus on the now. I wasn’t planning on doing a recap of these games because of the crushing nature of the N.C. State loss and, to be honest, once the season is over extensive game break downs…

Esteemed readers, after a long regular season filled with pretty extreme ups and downs, I bring you a Cuts from The Corner article that’s all about good vibes heading into tournament play. In a likely must-win game for our NCAA Tournament hopes, we won this one comfortably, secured the #3 seed in the ACC Tournament…

As a UVa basketball blog I have to admit, gentlefolk, that I’m feeling a bit discouraged at the moment. On one hand, if you were to go back to the beginning of the season and tell fans that we’d have secured a double-bye in the ACC Tournament with a chance to be the #3 seed…

It’s funny how sometimes a re-watch can change your perspective on the same outcome. At the end of that game I felt thankful that we won, but also very frustrated that we rode about 1/4th of the game with some pretty fragile lineups; risking the season with some of them. Also that we didn’t go…

On Saturday we held UNC, averaging close to 80 points per game, to 54 points… and lost by 10. This on the back of a 16-point first half, after scoring 41 points at Virginia Tech and 49 points vs. Wake Forest. So, what’s the deal with our offense? Is it the system? Is it the…

Losing by 34 points on the road to your in-state rivals stings. Flatly, it’s a terrible look. The offense was bad. The defense was bad. The energy was bad. But, when that sting fades, you have to ask yourself the question, “what happened?” It’s a hard question to answer when everyone plays that badly because…

I’m going to miss watching Reece Beekman and Ryan Dunn play in the Blue and Orange (or, really, Penn State’s uniforms but you get me). Ryan Dunn took over a game defensively about as much as one player can and Beekman was dominant on both ends of the floor in a game that felt like…

Old habits die hard or, in some cases, not at all. So it was in this game as we went back to sitting Jordan Minor for all but 8 minutes, playing without a Center for almost half the game, sitting Reece Beekman after his third foul and, most glaringly, resuming our aggressive hedge strategies from earlier…

I don’t often talk about officiating on here, certainly not to any great length, because I think it’s a pretty pointless exercise. You can’t control officiating and my main goal is not whether we “deserved” to win or lose in any specific contest; it’s to think about the team and to discuss areas that went well,…

One of the most enjoyable things about the CTB tenure over the years is when we just absolutely break the will of a team through our defense. Yes, I’m talking about holding Harvard to 27 points back in 2014, but I’m more talking about snatching the morale of one of your conference rivals and watching them…

Here’s hoping our guys are up for the short turnaround more than your friend at CfTC is… because this was a crunch and I wasn’t able to get to everything I wanted to. What a big win on the road (Quad 1!) against a team that presented the kind of size mismatches I’d been concerned about…

In our second revenge game of the season, we were able to improve by a 34-point differential, beating Notre Dame by 12 after losing by 22 on the road. We improved our rebounding margin by 10 and forced 18 turnovers en route to holding the Fighting Irish to 53 total points despite 50% shooting from three. Notre…

That was a welcome and convincing victory in a must-win game that, prior to, brought with it more dread than anticipation. Quickly that feeling melted away after an 11-0 run to start the game with the good guys barely looking back the rest of the contest. But, what do you take from a game like that where…

I just wrote a piece focusing on each of our five starting guys and how they all work together, supposing that was the starting five that we’d be seeing for a while. Literally one game later, Andrew Rohde played just 12 minutes, by far his lowest total of the season, and we’re once again up in…

A very important win on the road to, hopefully, build confidence and momentum away from the JPJ (and to stop adding losses to the resume). It was a game where we started to, likely, get a more cemented look of how CTB wants the team to settle into the final half of the season. Four of our…

Hoos ready to watch some pick and rolls?!?!?? End article, roll clips…. Okay, there is a little more to talk about than that, but it’s notable that, while I’ve been calling for some significant changes on the offensive end, we seemed to approach this game by simplifying. It worked well, coupled with some continued roster changes/availability that, don’t…

If you haven’t had a chance to listen to CTB’s postgame comments after the Wake game, especially his off-the-cuff description of what it means to keep working through adversity and maintain team culture when things aren’t going well, it’s worth a listen. It’s the kind of leadership that can pull you through a stretch like this…

I had to sit with this one for a little bit. This has been a uniquely rough stretch for the program during at least the recent CTB era. In the past, we’ve suffered some bad blow out losses to good teams, and we’ve also lost close contests to teams that weren’t very good; but we haven’t…