Quote:
Originally Posted by ligastar
what is wrong with UVa's Wilkins?
He's been sick for a while. It's weird. Was sick during the ACC tourney and I think before that. They tested him for mono twice and both came up negative.
Game went partially how I thought it would. UNCW stayed in it with three-pointers. It was pretty obvious that they would have to be hot from three to win and they were very hot for most of the game.
Wilkins' absence messed up my prediction for UVa on offense. I thought they'd just abuse UNCW down low, even though UVa's bigs have been bad this year. Against smaller OOC teams, Reuter and Wilkins did some work. But Wilkins was out and apparently UNCW's speed was too much to give Bennett confidence in Reuter, so that plan was out the window.
What UVa started to do well, though, was just drive to the basket and abuse UNCW in the paint that way. The 5-guard lineup was a great adjustment. It hurt on the defensive rebounding end (and missed threes lend themselves to long boards), but it allowed them to guard the three-point line better and space the floor on offense.
Virginia is not going to beat Florida if Florida wins its first game. I'm cool with it, though - I knew this team was going to take a step back without Brogdon, Tobey, and Gill. Got some good freshmen and other good players waiting, so the future is nice. If this is a down year, I'll take it. It's a hell of a lot better than what things used to be like.