What you thought you saw in the Blue-White Scrimmage on Saturday, a more up-tempo UVA Basketball team, is what I’d been told several weeks ago will be what we’ll see from the new-look ‘Hoos this season.
The smoke signals above JPJ the past several weeks had it that head coach Tony Bennett has given assistant coach Ron Sanchez more of the reins with how things flow on the offensive side of the floor, the goal being to try to get more punch out of the ubertalented new-look roster.
Four transfers – point guard Dai Dai Ames, combo guard Jalen Warley, and power forwards TJ Power and Elijah Saunders – and freshmen Christian Bliss, Jacob Cofie and Ishan Sharma are all in the mix to get big minutes this season.
It’s possible that Isaac McKneely is the only returnee who will be in the starting lineup when UVA opens the 2024-2025 season on Nov. 6 with Campbell.
McKneely (12.3 ppg, 40.9% FG, 44.5% 3FG), Saunders (6.2 ppg, 41.9% FG, 32.2% 3FG) and Power (23.7 ppg, 42.0% 3FG in EYBL ball in 2022) are all adept from the perimeter, with Saunders at 6’8” and Power at 6’9” adding size to be able to shoot over defenders on pick-and-pops.
Ames (5.2 ppg, 2.0 assists/g, 20.5 minutes/g, 35.3% FG, 32.9% 3FG) is a 6’1” go-go point guard, and Warley (7.5 ppg, 2.8 assists/g, 42.4% FG), at 6’7”, is big and long for a guy who can run point and be the third guard in Bennett’s system.
Sharma, a 6’4” shooter, was a 40 percent-plus guy from three in prep ball, and the stout (6’9”, 225) Cofie, a 20-10 guy in high school, can score in the post and has touch out to 17 feet.
Video: UVA Basketball is going to push tempo
There’s more in the way of offensive weaponry here, is the point, than we saw Virginia run out there last season, when Bennett often had lineups on the floor with Reece Beekman and McKneely being the only offensive options, given the limitations on that side of the floor with Ryan Dunn, Jordan Minor, Blake Buchanan and Andrew Rohde, and the lack of game-to-game consistency with Jake Groves.
That’s why we saw Bennett focus on trying to win with defense and tempo.
Now, keep in mind, pushing the tempo – UVA was once again dead-last in the nation in tempo last season, averaging 60.1 possessions per game, 1.5 possessions per game fewer than the second-slowest team, so, way slow – isn’t just going to change the way the game is played on the offensive end of the floor.
Bennett’s approach to offense factors into how he plays defense. I often describe the approach as playing hockey more than playing basketball: Bennett’s system has the guards staying back on the offensive end, and he rarely has more than one guy working the offensive boards, the goal being to have four guys getting back on defense to, in effect, run a neutral-zone trap to stifle transition opportunities for the other guys.
This, coupled with the methodical offense – Virginia averaged 19.7 seconds of possession on offense, ranking 352nd among the 362 teams in D1 last season – helps the Pack-Line D (0.933 points per possession, seventh-best nationally) keep points off the board.
If you speed things up on offense, getting shots earlier in the shot clock, getting more offense in transition – just 7.8 percent of Virginia’s offensive possessions last season were used in transition, fourth-lowest in the country – that’s going to lead to more opportunities for the other guys, and also lead to more transition opportunities for the other guys.
The 2024-2025 Virginia roster is the most talented one that Bennett has had since his 2019 national champion team – a distinction between the two being, that one was in its third year of playing together, and this one is still getting used to each other.
The offense can be really good this year, and it seems that it can be particularly efficient in transition, from fast breaks and secondary breaks, and using quick hitters in the halfcourt to get good looks for the shooters.
The question going into the season will be, how long will it take for Bennett to get comfortable with letting loose on the control of the pace of the game that has been the hallmark of the style of basketball that he inherited from his father, Dick Bennett, and has, and this needs to be emphasized, been successful for both guys?
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Chris Graham
