It’s not like interim UVA Basketball coach Ron Sanchez can technically be said to be on the hot seat, because the job isn’t technically his to begin with.
The thinking back in October, when Sanchez was named to take over for the season when Tony Bennett stepped down on the eve of the season, was that the job was Sanchez’s to lose.
A 2-7 start in the ACC had Sanchez on the “lose” side of the equation, but a nice run of late – three wins in four games, including a blowout at Pitt, an NCAA Tournament bubble team, last week – has things trending, you know, better.
I wrote earlier in the week that a strong finish could make things difficult for Carla Williams, the AD, and the search committee that has been identifying and vetting candidates, and has its sights on a splash hire.
ICYMI
- I’m saying there’s a chance: The case for Ron Sanchez to get the UVA Basketball job
- TJ Otzelberger is not, not, on the list of candidates for the UVA Basketball job
- Examining Baylor coach Scott Drew as a candidate for the open UVA Basketball job
My argument: if the splash hire doesn’t come to fruition, how would Sanchez fit into the mix if it was him against some of the names on the second tier of the identified candidates for the job?
A lot can and will happen between now and hiring time – I’d expect a decision to be made by around the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, with an announcement to come sometime around April 1.
Sanchez, for his part, is trying, in the here and now, to keep his focus where it needs to be.
“One hundred percent of my time right now is really invested into where we are right now as a team. What the future holds, I can’t control. Those things are out of my control,” Sanchez said in his weekly ACC Zoom call on Monday.
And in the here and now, the focus is on Virginia Tech (Saturday, 2 p.m. ET, The CW), which put a loss on UVA two weeks ago, sneaking out of JPJ with a wild 75-74 win.
The Hokies (11-13, 6-7 ACC) led by 13 with six minutes to go, but Virginia (12-12, 5-8 ACC) had a shot on the rim at the buzzer to pull off what would have been a stunning comeback win.
After the trip to Blacksburg, it’s a quick turnaround to Big Monday, with #3 Duke (21-3, 13-1 ACC) coming to JPJ on Monday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).
There are really no layups from here on out – the schedule also includes road trips to North Carolina (14-11, 7-6 ACC) and Wake Forest (18-7, 10-4 ACC), home games with #23 Clemson (20-5, 10-2 ACC) and Florida State (15-9, 6-7 ACC), and then the regular-season finale at Syracuse (11-14, 5-9 ACC).
The KenPom.com algorithm forecasts a 2-5 finish, which would put Virginia at 14-17 overall, 7-13 in the ACC, playing on Tuesday in the ACC Tournament for the first time in program history.
That wouldn’t seem to be near enough to keep Sanchez among the candidates for the job going forward.
But if UVA would be able to continue its recent run of good play, pull off a couple of upsets – notably, a win over a Duke team on pace to get a #1 NCAA Tournament seed – maybe sneak an NIT bid out of the deal, who knows?
Among those who don’t know: Sanchez.
“We haven’t had conversations about what’s going on across the street, and that that’s not for me right now,” Sanchez said. “What is for me is trying to make the best of this season, you know, embracing this, this journey that has been hard and challenging, but at the same time, you know, seeing the good and bad.”
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Chris Graham
