A Final Word on the Hoos’ Trip to Spain: Olé

Sabre fan sfb123 made the trip overseas to see the Virginia basketball team in action in Spain. TheSabre.com asked him to share some of his thoughts from the games and his time in Spain.

When the trip to Spain for five exhibition games firmed up in April, my wife and I decided to go and combine some hoops with a vacation. I must admit that hoops were more than 50% of the equation as a more climactically enjoyable vacation to Spain would have been in October. Now that rushdacote has provided the “play by play” and Jeff White has provided stats, I can make some more general observations on players and where I see them being when the season starts in November.

I had several reasons to want to see this rendition of the Hoos on the court. The first is that it is a long time from April to November and a mid-break fix was definitely needed. I also was interested in seeing the progress of the returning players, the benefits of the redshirt years for Austin Nichols and Mamadi Diakite, real-time viewing of the four first years, how the team was beginning to mesh with a small number of team practices, and to be able to establish a base line that would help me in an assessment of progress from the trip to the start of the season. The trip shed considerable light on my questions, but raised others as well.

On the subject of returnees, this is clearly London Perrantes’ team when he is on or off the court. It seemed to me that when not in the game he sat beside coach Tony Bennett a lot and was always talking to him. His outside shot still looks good and as we saw in Game 4 he takes over when he has to.

Devon Hall must have 4% body fat, as he is lean and mean. His shot looks good, although a little different. He still likes to get in low and still uses the step-back jumper in the lane effectively. Marial Shayok can definitely be a scorer, as the elevation on his jump shot makes it unblockable (if that is a word). Defensively, I think he can still be a little handsy, which will get him bench time. Darius Thompson seems to have cranked up his defense, but I would like to see him look for and take outside shots more. As the highlights show he can throw it down on dunks though!

Jarred Reuter also seems to have toned up his body – he looks more chiseled and very strong. He has myriad post moves and aggressively looks to score, but also is a good passer. Isaiah Wilkins maybe looks a little lighter but is still steady as a rock. I watched him in warm-ups and he seems to shoot from beyond the 3-point line but he did not shoot many in games. Jack Salt is as strong as ever, but seems to have to think about his offense in the low post.

Austin Nichols is the real deal, guys, as he scores, rebounds, and plays defense at an All-ACC level in my opinion. He is not afraid of the moment or to take open shots. Mamadi Diakite had some good moments, rebounding and shot-blocking, but as I said in a message board post, he is assimilating a lot of info in a short amount of time. He is, however, always having fun on the court and always genuinely happy when his teammates do well.

After watching streamed AAU games and videos of the four first year players, it was a treat to see them in person. In alphabetic order only, Kyle Guy was tenacious on offense and defense. Even when his outside shot was not falling, he rarely forced shots and continued taking good ones. He also will take the ball inside if an opening exists. Jay Huff is big and long and stronger than you would think. He rebounds well and blocks and alters many shots. He rarely brings the ball below his waist. And don’t forget that he can shoot with range and really does seem to have a mean streak.

De’Andre Hunter reminds me of a young Scottie Pippen. He may not be ready for the Hall of Fame yet obviously, but with his size, handle, shot, and confidence he is a potential ACC star and has NBA written all over him in my eyes. Ty Jerome has no problem with his hips it seems after surgery earlier this year. He also relishes the moment as evidenced by his game winner in Game 2. He surveys the floor well and passes well and plays good individual defense with quick hands. As with the other first years he still has to learn how to deal with screens when playing defense. Perhaps we can get a Malcolm Brogdon video playing on loop at the JPJ to show how to handle screen action when playing defense.

Beyond my thoughts on the players after seeing them in Spain, I’ll make a quick point about the officials and the other three teams. Many of you have seen the egregious traveling calls in some of the highlights. There were 15 to 20 of those made in the five games. Equally disconcerting were some screens the Spanish teams were setting. And for those of you who watched the Olympics, there were numerous examples of fouling to stop a breakaway. I was shocked when one of these was called an intentional. The Spanish players were older, stronger (particularly in the backcourt), and very savvy. Most of them were decent outside shooters and are encouraged to shoot from distance. As teams, they were not great but they presented some unique challenges to the Hoos.

As far as how the team was meshing, I must admit to being a little concerned after the fourth game. A coach I talked to said the same, that they had not played well but a lot had been learned. I felt like there had been too many turnovers and silly reaching fouls, particularly on the perimeter. Game 5 assuaged a lot of my angst. The defense was stout and the offense was as strong as it had been the whole trip. I came away from that game and the trip with two thoughts. The first was that this is an extremely talented offensive group. This team will get scoring from many players as well as from many different combinations of players. Second, I think this team can get much better defensively than was shown in Spain. I think perimeter defense will be a definite point of interest and emphasis at practice between now and the start of the season.

My final thought is that there will be some difficult playing time decisions made between the first game of the year and the beginning of the conference schedule. I expect practices to be fierce. I am glad that I am not Coach Bennett as all of these players can bring something positive to the table. I expect 9 or 10 players to get important minutes. That means, barring injury, good player(s) are going to sit.

A final point I would like to make is that this was a great experience for my wife and I. Seeing the players close up and seeing them interact with each other was eye opening. These guys seem to really like each other. And this is nothing new but our coaches are congenial and willing to give you time to talk hoops or just to talk. So in four years if you can make it happen, you should go on the next international tour. It will be a trip you will treasure.