Game Day 4 was the start of knockout play. All 16 teams entered knockout play, seeded according to their results in group play. As winners of their group, Argentina drew winless Puerto Rico. As second in their group, Australia drew Lithuania, who got third in their group.

Argentina got run out of the gym in the 4th quarter, losing by 20 points to Puerto Rico in a game the South Americans led at half. The stakes and pressure were lower, but in the third and fourth quarter, I saw Argentina begin to panic like UVA did against UMBC. And just like UVA found out, running around like chickens with your heads cut off is not a good way to make a comeback.

Coach Soderberg and I left the game with 7 minutes left to catch the tip of Australia’s game. Lithuania led from the jump and was up by 12 at half. Australia made a third quarter run while Kody was in, cutting it to 47-44 at one point, but they got no closer. Lithuania ran away with the game in the 4th quarter, winning by 17.

Argentina and Australia will each play three more games but cannot win the tournament. They have moved to the losers’ bracket and are in play to finish anywhere from 9th to 16th in the event. Argentina plays New Zealand next, and Australia gets the same Philippines team Argentina beat in group play.

Stattmann Stats, Info, and Time Stamps

Kody started and played 28:03 (FIBA games are 40 minutes).

Australia lost by 17, and was -7 with Kody on the court.

Kody was 4-9 on 2s, 0-6 on 3s and 1-1 on FT. He also had 3 TO. That’s 9 points ending 18 possessions, .5 PPP, which is abysmal but actually an improvement over game 3.

For the tournament, Kody is 5-29 from three (17.2%) and has 42 points ending 67 possessions for .626 PPP. Both of those are quite bad, especially for someone who is supposed to be a shooter and is clearly better on the offensive end than the defensive end. 

The rest of his stats: 3 DR, 1 OR, 1 A, and 1 S.

If Kody were hitting 3s the last two games, I would have really liked what I saw. He was driving and making good decisions and finishing at the rim. But he just can’t buy a three right now.

I have finally changed my mental model of his game. Since Kody has the reputation of a shooter, I was picturing him like Kyle Guy. He’ll want to catch the ball behind the three point line and shoot. As time goes on, he’ll get more comfortable faking a shot and driving. That’s not what I’ve seen from Kody at all. He does catch the ball behind the three point line, but he is only looking to shoot immediately if he is wide open or it’s a set play they’re running for him to get a look at three. If Kody catches the ball in the flow of the offense, he’s looking to drive.

Kody’s drives have had mixed results. They didn’t look good in games one or two, and looked better in games three and four. I doubt they’d be super effective against ACC defenders next year. But the point is that his offensive game is just different than Kyle Guy’s and different from what I was expecting.

As far as the shooting, every game that he stays cold, you have to mentally lower your expectations for his shooting at UVA, but not by much. The sample size is still tiny. I’d say there is still more evidence he can shoot 40% from three for us than there is evidence that he can’t.

Kody (#6) Time Stamps to go along with this video of the game:

1st quarter

8:00 makes 2 in the post

7:30 misses Dirk jumper

6:50 turnover

 

2nd quarter

6:45 draws offensive foul

5:56 good catch, drive, and score

2:37 great drive, can’t finish

 

3rd quarter

5:33 lay up

1:45 misses three; next possession attacks and misses

 

4th quarter

2:10 turnover dribbling into trouble doing too much

 

Caffaro Stats, Info, and Time Stamps

Papi started and played 32:42. He stayed out of foul trouble and didn’t seem bothered by his leg injury.

Argentina lost to Puerto Rico by 20, and was -11 with Papi on the court.

Papi was 1-4 on 2s and 2-8 on FTs. That’s 4 points ending 8 possessions, for 0.5 PPP.

His totals are 36 points on 40 possession for 0.9 PPP. He’s 14-26 on 2s and 8-21 on FTs.

Papi had 14 DR, 1 OR, 1 B, 1 S, 1 A, and 0 TO. He was a beast on the boards with 10 at halftime

This was a bad offensive game for Papi, but he was getting every rebound. I think the coaches want him to rebound, screen, and defend next year–to replace Jack Salt basically. This game is further evidence he can do that.

My hope for next year is that he can be efficient offensively with a low usage rate. That means when he gets the ball down low in a position in which he is really comfortable scoring, he can score, and when he gets it in a marginal position, he can kick it back out. In this tournament, he is taking those marginal spots and missing. While he’s doing that, I’ll expect good defense, rim protection, rebounding, and screening.

My hope some time in the next 2-4 years in that he develops his offense enough to turn those marginal spots into efficient spots, so he ends up scoring efficiently on high usage plus giving us everything else Jack Salt gave us.

Papi (#11) Time Stamps to go along with this video of the game 

2nd quarter

6:35 good verticality on first effort, on second effort fouls the shooter

5:10 post move and bucket

:20 post up and misses a shot

 

3rd quarter

8:12 gets ball unexpectedly in transition, draws a foul

7:50 multiple efforts on D

6:55 not alert to help, PR dunks

6:30 great assist out of double team

 

By Seattle Hoo

A fan of UVA basketball since Ralph Sampson was a sophomore and I was in high school, I was blessed to receive two degrees from UVA and attend many amazing games. Online since 1993, HOOS Place is my second UVA sports website, having founded HOOpS Online in 1995.