Credit is due to interim UVA Basketball coach Ron Sanchez and the staff for figuring out a new formula to get wins.
This Virginia team isn’t what its predecessors in the Tony Bennett Basketball era have been on the defensive end, to say the absolute least.
KenPom.com’s latest numbers have the ‘Hoos ranked 118th nationally in adjusted defense, allowing 1.046 points per possession.
The last UVA team ranked below 100 on defense in the KenPom rendering: way back in 2003, toward the end of the Pete Gillen era.
Virginia has somehow found a way to win five of its last seven games not even playing to its dreadful PPP season average.
Over its last seven, the Pack Line has been giving up 1.107 points per possession to opponents.
How the Cavaliers have been able to get Ws of late: good work on offense.
The season KenPom number is 1.108 points per possession, a marked improvement over last year’s ugly frustration (1.051 PPP, which ranked 200th nationally).
Over the last seven: 1.217 PPP.
That scoring rate would rank in the Top 15 nationally for the full season.
We lucked ourselves into Anthony Robinson
Anthony Robinson, the 6’10” redshirt freshman, was a late add from the prep recruiting cycle in 2023, a three-star recruit looked at as a project at best.
He sat out last season, then sat glued to the bench for the better part of the current season, getting double-digit minutes just once in the season’s first 17 games – he played a total of 60 minutes in those 17, with four DNP-Coach’s Decisions.
In Virginia’s last eight games, Robinson has been getting an average of 13.8 minutes per game, and over the last four games, it’s up to 16.3 minutes a game, with good production – 9.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, 68.8 percent shooting from the floor, 14-of-18 at the line.
Saturday was a career day for Robinson: 15 points, seven rebounds in 18 minutes, 4-of-5 makes from the floor, 7-of-8 at the line.
If this UVA Basketball roster ends up being scattered to the winds at the end of the season, Robinson is going to land at another Power 6 school.
Another productive game from iMac
Isaac McKneely had a couple of early threes, but didn’t score for the last 14:59 in the first half – though it didn’t matter, with Virginia leading 40-33 at the break.
With Andrew Rohde on the bench for most of the second half with foul trouble – the junior only logged eight minutes in the second half after picking up his third foul 14 seconds in, then getting #4 with 8:06 on the clock – UVA needed McKneely to step up.
And step up the junior guard did – going for 16 points in the second half, shooting 5-of-10 from the floor and 4-of-9 from three.
In the recent stretch of five wins in seven games, McKneely is averaging 18.6 points per game, on 49.4 percent shooting from the floor, and 43.5 percent shooting from three.
Another thing to like: iMac is averaging 12.7 shot attempts per game.
We’ve always needed him to be greedier.
Dai Dai stays hot
Got another double-digit game from Dai Dai Ames, who had 11 points (5-of-9 FG, 1-of-4 3FG) with five assists vs. one turnover in 36 minutes in the win on Saturday.
The bell seemed to go off for Ames a couple of weeks ago. We’re not that far past the sophomore, who transferred in from Kansas State in the spring, being in Sanchez’s doghouse, getting 23 minutes total in a three-game stretch at the beginning of January.
In his last four games, Ames is averaging 16.8 points and 2.5 assists, shooting 62.2 percent from the floor and 44.4 percent from three.
Quick hits
Remember when defensive rebounding was a big issue? Virginia had a 76.7 percent defensive-rebound rate on Saturday; over the past seven games, the rate is 77.5 percent.
In the 18 games prior, Virginia had a 70.1 percent defensive-rebound rate.
Opponents had been averaging 10.1 offensive rebounds per game through those first 18; over the last seven, opponents are getting 6.6 offensive rebounds per game.
Runnin’ it through Rohde: Rohde had a nice floor game – seven points (1-of-3 3FG, 4-of-4 FT), nine assists and two turnovers in 25 minutes.
Since returning from a lower-leg injury that forced him to miss the 82-71 win at Miami on Jan. 29, Rohde has averaged 9.9 points and 8.5 assists per game, with 34 assists and two turnovers in 126 minutes of floor time.
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Chris Graham
