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Pretty much what I expected.

Cue Card

Four-Star Poster
Mar 7, 2011
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Virginia just has one of those styles that the Cards don't perform well against. Call it the UofK hangover if you want, but the cold hard truth is the Cardinals allowed the Cavs to control the tempo from the start and never really give a true effort until the game was out of reach.

I'll give the Cardinals credit for not getting completely embarrassed on their home court. At least they made the final score somewhat respectable but make no mistake about it, Virginia had the better team last night by a mile. The final score doesn't really expose how badly the Cards got destroyed last night. The stats don't really point it out either other than the Cavs got more assist, shot better, had more steals, got ALL the 50/50 balls and hit just 2 less free throws while shooting 8 less times. Only ONE player made double digits scoring last night and that was UVA's Hall with 10 points.

No energy early cost the Cardinals the game. I expected them to be a little flat. I never expected it to last the entire first half, and for most of the game. Virginia has a well coach basketball team but watching them play is like a bad day in the dentist chair. It's just painful.
 
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One guy, Perrantes, had as many assists (7) as our whole team. This is a me first team and I'm not sure how it will change if there's no true leader out there.
 
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100% agree. I'll give Virginia most of the credit for the low assist count, but some of the credit belongs to the shot hunting players too. They played right into the game plan Virginia had in mind to implement. Our guys just passed the ball in a high post weave until someone decided to try to score one on one. It was very painful to watch because this team has to pass side to side AND inside outside to actually get into a good offensive rhythm. I saw very little catch and shoot off the pass last night. Most were trying to shoot off the bounce and we just don't have that type of talent on this team. .
 
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Yeah, after the way UVA handled UofL last year, I was not surprised at all by last night's outcome. Almost pretty much expected it. When UVA hit their first four, I knew that was it. I'm more surprised UofL almost made a game of it late in the second half. Overall, pretty sloppy play by the Cards. Virginia is just one of those teams.
 
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Cue you know there are games every year where the team isn't as good and/or as bad as they show.

Team has issues offensively, the artillery is just not there this year. In order to win, they have to play stout D for an entire 40 minutes, or the majority. The half-court D was lacking.
 
This is a me first team and I'm not sure how it will change if there's no true leader out there.

That's a pretty outlandish perspective. None of these guys are "playing for scouts" or trying to showcase an aspect of their game to improve draft stock.

They are the worst 3 pt shooting team in the ACC and have zero post game from bigs on the interior.

It is not a good offensive team. It's difficult to get assists when bigs can't catch, or gather in a timely fashion, or make 2 footers, or if guards miss layups, and can't hit shots, or pass on open shots to take difficult shots.

It's not an attitude issue, or selfish issue.

It's an "They ain't that good at it" issue.


Doesn't mean they can't be a good team. Pitino's only beef is when they pass on an open shot to take a bad one.
 
Not buying it Cue.

The HOF coach had a week to prepare, and VA took their lunch money.
Why concede to their style of play ?
When is he going to make them play UofL's style ?

Not only does UofL have to go to Charlottesville, future opponents have a good game tape on how to play UofL.

If thats not enough, what if the NCAA puts VA and UofL in the same bracket ?
UC once beat UofL 8 in a row. Is it Va's turn or will Coach Pitino do some coaching against them...........
 
what if the NCAA puts VA and UofL in the same bracket ?
...........


More than likely UVA would choke and UofL would win. There is a big difference between regular season and NCAA games. A quick review of both programs March results the last decade or so would prove that. Last time UVA hit the FF, the #1 song in the country was “Jump”, Van Halen.


I remember NC St drilling the Cards a couple years ago in YUM. Easy win.


Rematch in March, Cards win convincingly.


Fans want these regular season games but the reality is Pitino is baking his cake and he’s above really caring about isolated game results. He’s building them for March. Part of building is knocking down.


This is how it’s been. I can understand not liking it, but I wouldn’t expect any change to the journey.
 
That's a pretty outlandish perspective. None of these guys are "playing for scouts" or trying to showcase an aspect of their game to improve draft stock.

They are the worst 3 pt shooting team in the ACC and have zero post game from bigs on the interior.

It is not a good offensive team. It's difficult to get assists when bigs can't catch, or gather in a timely fashion, or make 2 footers, or if guards miss layups, and can't hit shots, or pass on open shots to take difficult shots.

It's not an attitude issue, or selfish issue.

It's an "They ain't that good at it" issue.


Doesn't mean they can't be a good team. Pitino's only beef is when they pass on an open shot to take a bad one.
No it's not an attitude issue as in poor attitude but it is a shoot first pass later mentality and CRP has said as much. Do you listen to his pressers?
 
More than likely UVA would choke and UofL would win. There is a big difference between regular season and NCAA games. A quick review of both programs March results the last decade or so would prove that. Last time UVA hit the FF, the #1 song in the country was “Jump”, Van Halen.


I remember NC St drilling the Cards a couple years ago in YUM. Easy win.


Rematch in March, Cards win convincingly.


Fans want these regular season games but the reality is Pitino is baking his cake and he’s above really caring about isolated game results. He’s building them for March. Part of building is knocking down.


This is how it’s been. I can understand not liking it, but I wouldn’t expect any change to the journey.

Every team is preparing for March.
There is losing, and there is losing while getting your lunch money taken.
One must make every opponent earn a victory over you. VA never broke a sweat.
Even during UofL's garbage time comeback, we all knew there would be no "Marquette miracke redux"

Of course VA wont make it to the FF. OTHER TEAMS ACTUALLY BEAT THEM.
Put UofL vs VA in the elite 8 this season VA wins, UNLESS Coach Pitino earns his paycheck.

Afterall, he said you MUST win conference games AT HOME.
The team needs to man up again them, and it starts with Coach Pitino.
 
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Not buying it Cue.

The HOF coach had a week to prepare, and VA took their lunch money.
Why concede to their style of play ?
When is he going to make them play UofL's style ?

Not only does UofL have to go to Charlottesville, future opponents have a good game tape on how to play UofL.

If thats not enough, what if the NCAA puts VA and UofL in the same bracket ?
UC once beat UofL 8 in a row. Is it Va's turn or will Coach Pitino do some coaching against them...........
We got our asses handed to us. There's nothing to buy. I'll give Virginia the credit they earned. They did what they wanted to do when they wanted do it and you're absolutely right, our HOF coach looked like a deer in headlights lost on how to stop it. I felt at first that it was the UofK hangover that I expected to see, but I didn't anticipate the lack of effort for 2/3rds of the game. That pissed me off. That's why I didn't even post until today.
 
No it's not an attitude issue as in poor attitude but it is a shoot first pass later mentality and CRP has said as much. Do you listen to his pressers?



Rick is not going to say, “I don’t have good shooters and I don’t really care about offense”…. Nor will he say “My best shooter is actually a FR that plays limited minutes” –

He’s just going to say things like “They shoot great in practice” or some other confidence related explanation, or maybe even imply they aren’t “doing it right”, i.e. – they have a shoot first mentality. Cause ya know, if they did it right, the way he coaches them to do it, they’d be a good offensive team!

Now is not the time for brutal honesty anyway. He saves that for season recaps.

I love Rick though man. I do.
 
Anyone who coaches basketball will tell you it's a lot easier for one team to slow another team down than the second team speeding the first up. And when a team is really good at slowing down the pace as UVA is, doing the opposite is almost impossible.

The 2013 team knew how to play up-tempo and win, and it could play slow-ball and win. It was patient on offense and took good shots when those factors were critical. That was esp. true in March/April. Last time I checked, this was still December, and we had the same coach on the bench...
 
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Effort - Effort - Effort. That's all I ever look for. Winning is always the end game but that can NOT happen without effort, and I just didn't see it for the first time in a very long time last night. I don't understand why they played without true effort for 30 minutes or so, and I don't expect anyone on here to understand it either. All I know is I saw a lack of hustle from our team and I didn't like it. Give me effort. REAL effort and everything else will fall in place win or lose especially in December. Without effort, you can never improve.
 
Effort - Effort - Effort. That's all I ever look for. Winning is always the end game but that can NOT happen without effort, and I just didn't see it for the first time in a very long time last night. I don't understand why they played without true effort for 30 minutes or so, and I don't expect anyone on here to understand it either. All I know is I saw a lack of hustle from our team and I didn't like it. Give me effort. REAL effort and everything else will fall in place win or lose especially in December. Without effort, you can never improve.
Pitino said he saw the same thing in practices. And he said that BEFORE the UVA game was played...
 
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Pitino said he saw the same thing in practices. And he said that BEFORE the UVA game was played...
I didn't hear that, but I believe it. Maybe he decided to teach them a lesson by letting them play the way they wanted to instead of the way he wanted them to. Let them feel the pain of losing. It sucks they would let 1 win a week ago put them in a mental coma for a conference opponent. It's absurd. UofK isn't that special this year.
 
I didn't hear that, but I believe it. Maybe he decided to teach them a lesson by letting them play the way they wanted to instead of the way he wanted them to. Let them feel the pain of losing. It sucks they would let 1 win a week ago put them in a mental coma for a conference opponent. It's absurd. UofK isn't that special this year.


Well, maybe he doesn't think they should be rated #6 in the country (yet) and wants them to know they still need to listen to him (and not the outsiders) he referenced in his presser. This team (and not many others) can not win just by being present....BB still requires the effort you mentioned above.

I saw little hustle or enthusiasm in the players in last nights game. They came out flat and expected UVA to fold.....big mistake as that team is all about effort and execution.

If CRP was seeing this in the 2 practices this week....then he needs to work harder on the teams attitude, etc.....and that is on him and his staff.

I hope the next time these 2 teams play....the Cards play hard and up to their best potential for the entire 40 minutes....and let the chips fall were they may. UVA has had some easy games in beating the tar out of the Cards 3 out of the last 4 games played. :mad:I was not pleased with their effort or the outcomes of last years 2 games either.:mad::mad:
 
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I didn't hear that, but I believe it. Maybe he decided to teach them a lesson by letting them play the way they wanted to instead of the way he wanted them to. Let them feel the pain of losing...
Oh, I'm sure they got an earful about the way they were practicing. And it accomplished very little because they thought Pitino was overreacting.

Pitino commented on the practices BTW during his Tuesday coach's show...
 
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Pitino said he saw the same thing in practices. And he said that BEFORE the UVA game was played...
And to me,this is the lesson that's got to be learned from our players' approach to this game.We all pretty much expected this game to be tough,UVA has had our number,yet our guys weren't ready to fight a war. Leaders will emerge in the locker room because of this game and that's good.
 
I don't get the angst posted above over losing this game. This is CRP's MO. He's not concerned about winning every regular season game. He's preparing the team for March. If you are fan of this program who is upset at CRP over this loss, you really haven't been paying attention the last 16 years, especially the last 6.
 
I don't get the angst posted above over losing this game. This is CRP's MO. He's not concerned about winning every regular season game. He's preparing the team for March. If you are fan of this program who is upset at CRP over this loss, you really haven't been paying attention the last 16 years, especially the last 6.
I don't care at all about the loss. All I ever want to see is pure effort. Players can have 'off nights', play with pure effort, lose the game, and I'm content. These kids need to understand that they are blessed with a gift to play the game at the level they're getting to play it. Bring the effort the game deserves. That's all I've ever asked from any of our players. Ever.
 
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I don't get the angst posted above over losing this game. This is CRP's MO. He's not concerned about winning every regular season game. He's preparing the team for March. If you are fan of this program who is upset at CRP over this loss, you really haven't been paying attention the last 16 years, especially the last 6.
I'm not upset with the coach.
 
Fans also are guilty of linking effort to undesirable losses in team sports.

They gave effort. Who didn't?

They just didn't play well. When favorite teams lose, and don't play well, fans don't always understand why the losses happened, or maybe struggle to accept reality. Sometimes they blame it all on the refs, or they blame it all on the coach, and occasionally, they blame it on players effort.

The reality is losses happen for a number of reasons, not just one.

Breakdowns aren't always a cause of lack of effort, for example...sometimes they happen due to miscommunication or just getting outplayed in general.

Missed shots aren't due to not trying hard. They aren't missing shots on purpose.

Louisville did not lose because the players didn't bring effort and don't understand the gift of playing college basketball.

They lost because they got schooled by a more experienced team that is better right now. It can be argued the "energy" level and/or "focus" was not as high as it could have been for the ACC opener against a T10 team, but I have a hard time equating that to effort, or lack of.

There is a human element to team sports and there was a lot said about the previous game against UK leading up to it and then after it. Fans tell these players how important that game is, and winning it for the first time in years assuredly distracted the team heading into the next game, whoever the opponent was going to be.

Maybe this outcome strengthens Zipp's point of view. Don't play UK, and you don't have the Cards giving more attention to non-conference meaningless games, and you reduce the risk of "letdown" games.
 
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They gave effort. Who didn't?
Effort? When the ball is deflected to the other side of half court and all 5 players stand there while 3 of the UVA players hustle back to track it down for a layup/dunk, it is not the type of effort I expect to see. I want to see pure all out hustle effort all the time and as long as the kids aren't hurt or sick, I don't think I'm asking for too much.

Winning the game is always the goal, but that isn't going to happen against a team like Virginia without all out pure effort. They gave pure effort against UofK. I realize UofK is the in-state rival and all, but lets be honest here. Which game was more important to win? An out of conference game in December or a HOME conference game in December? I personally would have preferred the win in conference over the win out of conference if we could only have 1.

It's all good though. The outcome of the UVA game will be used as a learning experience by coach Pitino, and those who listen to him will learn from it.
 
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I counted three times the ball got loose past the mid court line and no Cards player made an effort to run it down. Their lack of effort was the worse I've seen in a long while. If Pitino saw this in practice he should have benched those players. I do believe he decided to let them reap what they sow. David Leitch not playing a single minute convinced me.
 
You guys make valid points. It is possible to point out a few instances that reflected a lack of effort. Maybe so.

I guess my overall point is - while reasonable in theory - it's just not realistic to expect any team to "bring it" every night over the duration of a 35-40 game schedule. That means even a game that "should" have the team's focus doesn't always. And certain opponents, experienced ones, can exploit that, especially in December. It is noted UVA exploits it annually whenever the teams play!

I maintain Pitino is baking a cake. These games happen every single year, more than once, and happen against much lesser opponents too. Pitino is still working on learning about what he has, what combinations work best, etc.

Teams like UVA - this is who they are now, and in March. Good for them. It is what positions them to be in an advantageous position in regular season games, but not the post season.
 
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