The UVA Basketball team, as expected, quickly dispatched Holy Cross, 67-41, in a Black Friday matinee Friday in JPJ Arena.
The Cavaliers led 16-7 midway through the first half, 30-11 a little later in the half, 34-21 at intermission, and were never threatened in the final half.
In other words, Virginia from the ACC had no trouble with the Patriot League Crusaders.
Takeaways?
Don’t bother looking at the stat sheet; it says what it’s supposed to say. Virginia was just better in almost every category.
Remember, Virginia-ACC. Holy Cross-Patriot League.
Here’s my head-scratching takeaway.
How did Max Green end up at Holy Cross?
Saturday, Green, a 6’6” freshman, finished with a team-high 16 points, connecting on 6-of-14 field goals, four coming from behind the arc.
Green’s final stat line lost some luster as his legs wore out in the second half. He logged a game-high 32 minutes of action.
With fresh legs, Green had 11 first-half points and was 4-of-6 from the floor, connecting on 3-of-4 from bonus land.
Green’s Friday effort should not have surprised Virginia; he was named Patriot League Rookie of the Week for Nov. 11-17.
Green averaged 17 points and six rebounds in the Crusader wins during the week.
Entering Friday’s game with the Cavaliers, Green had averaged 14 points and four rebounds a game.
Green is from La Grange, Kent., a hotbed for high school basketball talent.
Older UVA fans should be familiar with players from Kentucky.
Lee Raker, Jeff Lamp, Terry Gates and Jeff Jones all hail from the Bluegrass State. If I remember correctly, they all had pretty decent success with the Cavaliers.
If you think Green was another good player among the many in Kentucky, think again. Here’s a bit of his high school bio.
As a senior, he led the state of Kentucky in scoring at 32.1 points per game.
He scored over 2,000 points during his career, becoming the leading scorer in Oldham County High School history.
On the big stage, during the 2024 Kentucky-Indiana All-Star Series, Green averaged 30.5 points on 24-of-31 shooting.
He didn’t exactly slip between the cracks on college coaches.
After Friday’s contest, I had a chance to ask Virginia coach Ron Sanchez: ” How the heck did this kid end up in the Patriot League?”
With a slight grin, Sanchez replied, “Because he was a skinny white kid.”
Green is listed as 6’6’’ and 182 pounds on the Holy Cross roster page.
The 6’6’’ looked accurate, but his chain needed to weigh about 10 pounds to tip the scales at 182.
I caught up with Green as he was going to the Crusader bus and briefly asked him some questions about playing Virginia in JPJ.
Green said playing against great competition always motivated him to play harder and to his ability.
He added that playing in a big area and having a big-time atmosphere was what he had always wanted.
Something tells me that if Green continues at his current pace, the big arenas and big-time atmospheres will become common.
The NCAA (for now) prohibits in-season trades, but Green’s days at Holy Cross would be numbered if they did.
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