Category: 2022-2023

We’re almost exactly a year away from the birth of this site (officially), March 23rd, 2022, where I did a deep dive on the Virginia bench players “The Three Ms” to make sense of their respective playing time. One full year, an entire offseason, and reviews of almost every game in the 2022-2023 season, we’ve…

This game felt bad as a fan. Scoring 49 points felt bad as a fan. Well I’m here to, hopefully, give a little perspective on what went wrong, how Duke is a uniquely bad matchup for us, how we might combat similar personnel in other teams, and to digest what is and isn’t something we’ll…

It’s interesting writing a review of a game after we have updated information from a different game, but it does also help to provide some context to the most recent outcome. Fans were, rightly, thrilled after this game only to see that enthusiasm take a hit after watching us play against Duke the following night.…

Gentle readers, this was my favorite victory since the National Championship! It wasn’t the most dramatic (@Duke in 2022 or Vs. Syracuse in the ACC Tournament in 2021), and it wasn’t the most eye-opening (vs. Baylor and Illinois in Vegas this season), but it was the most cathartic for me. The whole breaking the streak…

Well. This game against the Cardinals looked much better than the last, primarily as a result of increased Dunn (and Caffaro??) minutes, along with the shift back to the Sides offense. Many of the same trends over the last few games were on display, including the perplexing decision to keep Kadin Shedrick on the bench,…

Well, I was on the road and unable to devote the time needed to clip the game, but I did watch it in full to accompany my preliminary watch. So, this review is going to be in a different format with no clips. Is this really a “Cut” from The Corner, then? To be debated.…

A struggle on the road following a grim performance on the road. I will, fortunately or unfortunately, have to write a shorter Cut for this game as I’ll be travelling unexpectedly later today through the rest of the week (won’t have a Clemson recording but we’ll see what clips are out there after that and…

Welp. This was the game we’ve been building toward over the past two – but really is a continuation of the issues we’ve been having since the Virginia Tech game with that brief pause against N.C. State. The month of February has not been kind to us and I’ve spoken at length about what I…

Well. I wrote after the Louisville game that the good thing about “concerning” wins is that you get to learn from them and make adjustments without it hurting your resume/standings. It is concerning, though, when you make a lot of the same mistakes in the following game and have a similar performance against a similar…

For better or for worse, my recording of the game got turned off last night and I haven’t found a full game capture anywhere. So, this review will be much lighter on clips than normal. Probably for the best! This was an ugly win; one that had no upside on the national stage but could…

Well. That was a pretty wild game! Nice to have the big officiating break at the end of a Duke game work out in our favor for once! I’ve been saying but I’ll reiterate here at length, I don’t really have much interest in rehashing that play in much detail. It’s especially laughable that they…

Every time I think I’m done writing about our frontcourt, they reel me back in! Hi, everyone. Took a needed (and timely, considering the game) vacation during the VT game, but am back to cover one of our better (and most encouraging) wins of the season. In the wake of looking lost on defense, implementing…

I wrote somewhat facetiously on social media that it was hard to find anything to write about this game, in reference to much of the offense coming against the zone, and the first two responses that I got were spot on as two of the larger things I’d earmarked to discuss. That was a cool…

After the last game I anticipated taking a break from writing about the frontcourt but, sure enough, it’s the most notable point of discussion after Jayden Gardner flipped the script from the Wake game and went off for 18 points and 6 rebounds in this one, shooting 8-12 from the field and firing up the…

This was another great win on the road, the first suffered by Wake at home this season. We shot the lights out from deep, including a career game from Armaan Franklin with 25 points and 10 rebounds in 37 minutes, and weathered the storm with both Reece Beekman and Kihei Clark playing through foul trouble…

Well, hello again! No specific game review this time, but given that we’re, roughly, halfway through the season if we get to play a few postseason games, it feels like a good time to check-in with some takeaways that I’ve been mulling while watching, digesting, replaying, pausing, replaying, pausing, replaying, clipping, and writing about the…

Another great and comfortable win, this time over an in-state rival. It was very cool to see Ty Jerome stop in for the game, and even cooler to see Steph Curry attend with him. Just good vibes all around in this one. After the last game against FSU, I focused on Small and Smaller Ball…

A shockingly comfortable win on the road against FSU is not something we, or any ACC team, has gotten used to in recent years. It was a good feeling that what likely would have been a “trap” game for us in any season, or just one in which we didn’t matchup as well given their…

Me: “Small Ball is being over-utilized and we need to scale back except in the right matchups.” CTB: “Note taken. Let’s try even SMALLER!” Me: “No! Wait! I didn’t mean… huh, would you look at that?” I celebrate any win over UNC feverishly, especially record setting 8th wins in a row at Charlottesville. And with…

A much-needed conference win against a solid opponent, historically giving CTB the most wins in program history! What a legend and how humble he was in accepting the accomplishment was a great example to the team and something for the supporters of the program to be proud. I’ll be going back to the likes and…

For anyone wondering – I have been back to the old format for the past two but that’s just because I haven’t been able to start recording real time and the resource from last year has been prompt and on it. Will return to old formatting as able/needed. Rather than my typical format of ad…

My initial gut reaction after watching this one was frustration and to recoil, but there’s a lot to be learned from this one that I hope we do moving forward. This was also the manifestation of some of the things I’ve expressed worry about earlier in the season. A really ugly first 25 minutes or…

The first one of these I’m having to do after a loss. I wouldn’t call this a discouraging loss, though. Several times in recent years we have faced a top-tier opponent like the Cougars and looked uncompetitive. That was not the case on Saturday. We very much looked like we belonged despite Reece not being…

We did it! The quality isn’t ideal yet because of my capture method (trying to see if we can fix that starting next game). I got a TON of help from Seattle Hoo (@seattlehoo), a new friend of the site, to help make this process work (and put a solution in place that should work…

An ugly win is still a win, which you’ll take in ACC play, especially against FSU, whose size and style of play have given us fits in recent years, even when they’re down. In fact, we’d lost 4 of our last 5 games against Leonard Hamilton’s squad. Their record and some of their bad losses…

What. A. Game! This is the kind of character win that can help shape a team’s resilience and mental toughness over the span of a season. A true road game against a talented opponent who made the Sweet 16 last year, with some unique pieces that offered mismatches (more on this later). Our best player…

Alright, this is going to be a relatively shorter one of these without as much video, both because I just have the condensed game for this one and because there isn’t as much to take away. Maryland-Eastern Shore didn’t start anyone over 6’5″ and just wasn’t any kind of representation of any team we’ll likely…

Let’s pick up right where we left off after showing out against the tournament favorite, facing off against a talented Illinois team who just staged a strong comeback against UCLA, and whose fanbase packed T-Mobile Stadium. This had the feeling of a true road game, with stakes. One which we closed out with a 13-0…

What a weekend! I was able to get out there to see this one in person, the first game with the family and the second courtside. I was contemplating how to format this since my initial observations were in person and I’ve re-watched the coverage after the fact. I think the best way is to…

Note: I finished writing this last night before hearing about the shooting on grounds. Not pushing it out as it’s not important right now, just keeping it here for posterity. Sickened to hear about the news and will be sending thoughts and love to the community from a couple of hours north. Much more convincing…

After each game this season I (hope) to provide one of these. You’re used to seeing recaps and analysis of what happened in the games from any number of outlets. My goal for these is going to be a little bit different. I’m going to highlight a handful of things that I liked or didn’t…

In my recent entry previewing the season, I wrote that Beekman and Shedrick were our best players last year and that, for us to reach out ceiling, we would need both to take a developmental leap, especially on the offensive end of the ball. This generated some discussion as I think most UVa fans thought…

Well, everyone, the season is less than a month away, the Blue-White scrimmage is on our doorstep, and I’ve been plugged into the CTB interview circuit as well as a gamut of podcasts, polls, etc. That time has come to start focusing on the upcoming year – what we’re hearing, expectation setting, and what likely…

Both excitement and relief seemed to surge through most of the fanbase on Wednesday as 6’3″ Elijah Gertrude, one of the fastest risers in the 2023 class (#36 overall on 247 Sports, #3 ranked SG), committed to wear the (hopefully) orange and blue. The relief came on the heels of the respective London Johnson and…

What a week! There were pictures of breathtaking scenery, architecture, and food. Hoos fans were living vicariously through the first-hand accounts abroad and, oh yeah, there was also basketball. In their first time playing against international competition, the team developed chemistry with some old and new faces, potentially experienced some over-confidence beating up on lesser…

That’s Armaan Franklin, previously having been 1-9 from the field, with his former team tied against Luka Garza’s #8 ranked Iowa Hawkeyes. Despite his previous shooting, the Hoosiers’ final play was to give him the ball, clear out, set a ball screen, and let him go to work. And go to work he did, threatening…

Over the weekend, 6’8″ Ohio PF Ben Vander Plas, who may already have spent plenty of time on grounds within the headspace of its student body (Sam Hauser, especially), announced he would be transferring to UVa for his Super Senior season. The writing seemed to be on the wall for this one given all of…

This one felt different, didn’t it? I’ve been digesting this for the past couple of days and thought I’d just jot a few thoughts. It was hard to parse all of the rumors and rumblings on Thursday. Allegedly, high 4-star PG London Johnson, Virginia’s top recruiting target in the class of 2023 and presumed lock…

Today I’m going to try to tackle one of the most, if not the most, polarizing topics in the post championship era of UVa hoops; Kihei Clark, his role on the team, and his potential return to the program for a 5th year. This is easily the biggest unknown of the entire offseason and will…

This may have been a nod, and certainly was informative, to the ongoing discussion throughout the year about why these three players were not seeing much playing time and, eventually, were mostly phased out of the rotation altogether. Specifically, there has been much hand wringing, from myself included, about none of them cracking the line…