I’m not hearing this officially, so, grain of salt. But, gotta think that Ron Sanchez is on the verge of getting his name back into the mix in the UVA Basketball coach search here soon.
It’s two games now, but the last two – the 73-57 win at Pitt, the 76-61 win over Georgia Tech on Saturday – have looked like the kind of basketball we’ve come to expect from the guys in the orange and blue.
Point guard Andrew Rohde, who had 11 points and nine assists in Saturday’s win, talked after the game about the team “getting more comfortable,” which is obvious.
The back-to-back wins, and three wins for Virginia in its last four, have the ‘Hoos at 12-12 on the season, far below expectations going into the season.
And at this stage, with seven games left in the regular season, it’s clear that it would take a run of NC State proportions – basically, winning the ACC Tournament – to get an NCAA Tournament bid.
But a strong finish down the stretch could result in an NIT bid, which, yeah, consolation prize, but we’ve seen in the past programs use an NIT bid to build for the future.
Think: UVA’s 1980 NIT championship, preceding the 1981 Final Four run; the 1992 NIT championship preceded a 1993 Sweet Sixteen appearance; the 2022 NIT team was the foundation of a 2023 ACC regular-season champ.
But that’s assuming that there would be a future for this group.
Almost certainly, a new coach would come in with a new approach, new assistants, and probably interested in putting together a new roster, which you can do now in the NIL/transfer portal era.
The search committee leading the effort to identify and vet candidates for the open job at UVA have reportedly been interested in making a splash – names like Baylor’s Scott Drew, Marquette’s Shaka Smart and Purdue’s Matt Painter have been floated to me as the top candidates.
Which, OK, but all are reaches – and what happens if the big names turn us down, and we’re left with the second tier, where the names that have been floated include VCU’s Ryan Odom, Furman’s Bob Richey, Samford’s Bucky McMillan?
ICYMI
- 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
- Scott German: VCU has something special in former U-Hall ball boy Ryan Odom
Let’s say, for sake of argument, that Sanchez finishes out the regular season, these last seven games, a tough stretch, with games against Duke, UNC, Wake, Clemson, with a 5-2 mark, one of those wins over Duke.
Gets an NIT bid, finishes with 18, 19 wins, with some momentum from the stretch run.
Is a Ryan Odom, Bob Richey or Bucky McMillan, with a new staff, an entirely new roster, better next year than a Ron Sanchez with a young roster, a year older?
And going forward, if we assume that the money people are ready to invest in basketball the way they have this offseason in football, again, if we don’t get the guy we want, do we just up and replace what we have because we assume it will be better?
There are seven regular-season games left, it’s looking like at least one in the ACC Tournament, if things go well, an NIT bid after that.
It’s only two games, but I kinda want to see how this team that we’ve seen play well over the past week would do with another chance next year to build on what it’s been able to do.
I’m suggesting here that it’s in their hands.
If Sanchez and his kids play well down the stretch, they have a shot to run it back next year.
Video: Ron Sanchez is back in the mix for the UVA Basketball job
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Chris Graham
