During ACC Operation Basketball on Wednesday, media voters cast their ballots for the ACC Basketball Preseason Poll and, not surprisingly, Virginia finished sixth. How you choose to interpret the lack of surprise is up to you.
Some fans certainly will point out how the media is underestimating the Hoos. There is a lot of potential on this year’s roster, strong leadership, and some nice versatility. There are more highly rated recruits on the roster than ever before and they’re ready to take on bigger roles. It looks likes there’s a lot of shooters on the roster with the potential to put a 3-point threat at every spot on the floor in some lineups, which will help spacing and scoring too.
The other way to look at it is that the media picked UVA to finish in the top half of the league standings, which translates safely into NCAA Tournament territory. Rather comfortably, I might add. The Cavaliers landed a full 141 points ahead of seventh-place Virginia Tech and at least 171 points ahead of the bottom half of the league. They’re actually closer to fourth in the voting than seventh, sitting just 119 points behind Miami in fourth and 43 points behind Louisville in fifth.
It’s seems like the ACC media didn’t forget that the Cavaliers have a lot of potential, Tony Bennett as their head coach, and they play defense. Every year. Defensively, this team could be one of the best shot-blocking and altering groups of the Bennett era to date. If some younger players and graduate transfer Nigel Johnson catch on quickly with the Pack-Line Defense, that end of the floor may progress even more quickly thank assumed.
Plus, there’s easily the possibility of putting five players 6’5” or taller on the floor at the same time and you could actually do it with two wildly different approaches. Imagine, if you will, a lineup of 6’5” Ty Jerome, 6’5” Devon Hall, 6’7” De’Andre Hunter, 7’1” Jay Huff, and 6’10” Jack Salt for example. That’s a rangy group with a pair of towers in the front court that still doesn’t lack in mobility. Alternatively, what if you plug in 6’7” Isaiah Wilkins and 6’9” Mamadi Diakite instead. Now you’ve still got a tall and long group on the floor, but there’s the possibility of switching almost all or potentially every screen.
Exactly! That’s why the media is underestimating the Hoos!
Exactly! That’s why the media still placed the Hoos toward the top of the ACC!
Preseason polls and rankings are an eye of the beholder type of thing. Both sides probably have a little bit of evidence to support the choice.
Regardless, as I said on the Best Seat in the House recently, I have a hard time seeing a lack of national preseason buzz, preseason rankings, and the like as a motivational tool. Yes, players want to prove themselves and to win games. That’s true regardless of what outside prognosticators may or may not say. That’s true at Virginia and elsewhere.
Could a preseason pick motivate a team to work harder? Maybe. Ultimately, however, UVA’s program is heavily rooted in the hard work world anyway. I mean, Pack-Line Defense for starters. Plus, there’s the passion tenet among the five pillars. Bennett has said many times that he doesn’t want Virginia players to be lukewarm in their approach. He’s also said that effort is really just an entry ticket to this level of basketball. In other words, hard work is part of the deal.
Finally, there’s the underdog factor. This part of it, I think makes a little more sense. Virginia’s evaluation should not be identified as a snub. A team picked in the top half of the ACC, getting votes in the national polls, and considered a near guarantee for the NCAA Tournament field isn’t getting snubbed. But the favorite? A front runner? It’s not that either.
So that puts UVA in very comfortable clothing. Bennett, Hoo fans all know after all, likes the Rocky story a lot. A lot of the players identify with the something to prove competitor as individuals vs. as a disrespected team mantra. They’ll like the challenges ahead. Watching where that takes these Cavaliers will be the fun part.
Regardless of where you fall on the respect/disrespect evaluation curve.
