The American U. basketball team, the opponent on Sunday for UVA Basketball, is a unicorn in today’s college basketball environment – a D1 team without a single transfer.
Coach Duane Simpkins, the former Maryland star, is in his second season at the school, with a 22-21 record.
American competes in the Patriot League – think: Ivy League, without the pretense.
For all the complaining that you hear from UVA Basketball fans about how hard it is to get kids into school, think of the challenge in the Patriot League, where you’ve got to get them into school, and the NIL budget is a bag of coupons for half off a Burger King Whopper.
The rotation
The leading scorer is 6’9” senior Matt Rogers (14.6 ppg, 5.2 rebounds/g, 51.2% FG, 32.6% 3FG).
The starting backcourt is 6’2” senior Colin Smalls (12.5 ppg, 48.1% FG, 45.0% 3FG) and 5’9” senior Elijah Stephens (11.6 ppg, 3.1 assists/g, 48.6% FG, 35.7% 3FG).
Simpkins uses a three-man frontcourt, with 6’7” sophomore Matt Mayock (7.5 ppg, 3.5 rebounds/g, 36.8% FG, 28.8% 3FG) and 6’6” senior Lincoln Ball (2.7 ppg, 4.8 rebounds/g, 41.4% FG) starting alongside Rogers.
Simpkins will go eight- or nine-deep, with productivity off the bench from 6’6” sophomore forward Greg Jones (8.8 ppg, 3.6 rebounds/g, 47.5% FG, 33.3% 3FG) and 6’1” junior Jeff Sprouse (8.3 ppg, 37.5% FG, 34.2% 3FG).
How they play
This game will be played at the pace of molasses going uphill – American is almost as slow as Virginia (AU: 64.1 possessions/g, 349th nationally; UVA: 61.1, 364th, which is dead-last).
American, with its older guys, and no transfers, will have an age and continuity advantage in this one.
You might see UVA Basketball coach Ron Sanchez decide to go with a two-man backcourt, since Simpkins has gone with a three-bigs lineup for 96 percent of his minutes over the past five games.
That should mean more minutes for sophomore Duke transfer TJ Power, the former five-star recruit who can’t be as bad as he has looked thus far (2.0 ppg, 21.9% FG, 24.0% 3FG).
How this one plays out
This one will be closer than you expect, based on the names on the front of the uniforms, a lot because of the pace, and the age and continuity advantages for the American side.
Another factor: the Christmas break has to be on everybody’s minds.
Virginia doesn’t have another game until the Dec. 31 ACC home opener with NC State.
This one has trap game written all over it.
Forecast
- BartTorvik: Virginia 66-52
- EvanMiya: Virginia 70-57
- Haslametrics: Virginia 65-52
- KenPom: Virginia 66-55
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Chris Graham
