The UVA Basketball team, which has lost its last five, and is 1-6 in the ACC, gets Boston College, which has lost its last four, and is 1-6 in the ACC, in JPJ on Tuesday night.
The only reason this one is on TV – ACC Network, 7 p.m. ET – is because every game is on TV in this day and age.
True story: my wife gave up her season tickets this season (we might have anticipated … something), so she buys single-games each time out.
The gamble: that she’d get ‘em cheaper than what we’d pay for the season tickets plus VAF donation.
The price for her tickets in the 300s for this one: 80 cents each.
Even with fees, she’s out eight bucks for two tickets.
My, how the mighty have fallen.
Still, I feel worse for the BC folks, because that program has had three winning seasons since cutting bait with Al Skinner (247-165 in 13 seasons there) way back in 2010.
Earl Grant got the Eagles into the NIT last season, but he lost Quinten Post to the G League, Claudell Harris to Mississippi State, Jaeden Zackery to Clemson, Devin McGlockton to Vanderbilt, and Prince Aligbe to Seton Hall.
Boston College is 9-9.
Its one ACC win is Miami, 78-68 at home back on Jan.1.
Let me feel bad for one more guy: Dan Bonner is on the call for ACCN for this one.
Dan deserves better.
Forecast
- KenPom: Virginia 66-59
- BartTorvik: Virginia 65-58
- EvanMiya: Virginia 68-61
- Haslametrics: Virginia 66-58
- ESPN BPI: Virginia +7.2
How they match up
St. Bonaventure transfer Chad Venning, a 6’9”, 270-pound senior, is the guy in the Quentin Post role in the frontcourt.
Venning (12.7 ppg, 3.9 rebounds/g, 56.1% FG, 0-of-5 on threes) is not nearly as versatile as Post (17.0 ppg, 8.1 rebounds/g, 2.9 assists/g, 51.4% FG, 43.1% 3FG last season).
Still, he’s a load at 270.
Ron Sanchez has been using Jacob Cofie, who’s 6’10”, 232, at the five spot of late.
Cofie seems to be in some sort of limbo – I’m not calling it doghouse quite yet – with Sanchez right now.
Sanchez gave him 10 minutes with just one foul on his ledger in the loss to Louisville on Saturday, and Cofie got just 18 minutes with three fouls in the SMU loss earlier in the week.
It’s either going to be Cofie, Blake Buchanan (6’11”, 227) or Elijah Saunders (6’8”, 240).
Saunders is the logical option, but Sanchez is loathe to force Saunders into the tough post matchups just because he means so much on the offensive end (12.1 ppg, 5.4 rebounds/g, 45.4% FG, 38.5% 3FG).
The other tough matchup will be Donald Hand Jr. (14.7 ppg, 6.8 rebounds/g, 38.1% FG, 36.7% 3FG), a 6’5” junior (and, yes, the son of the former Virginia great Donald Hand, just to close that circle).
So, yes, we lack a defensive stopper in the post; we don’t have a guy who is anything near being a stopper in the backcourt, either.
The stakes
This is a lost season, with Virginia at 8-10, 1-6 in the ACC, in terms of the usual postseason goals, but don’t overlook the fact that we may not even get into the ACC Tournament, if things continue down the current path.
The expansion to 18 teams means three are going to be left out come tournament time.
Our next four are: BC and Notre Dame at home, at Miami, Virginia Tech at home.
Then it’s at Pitt, which we can go ahead and chalk up, you know.
And then: Georgia Tech at home, and at Virginia Tech.
We’d better get at least four of those seven, which – my, how the mighty have fallen – has us at 5-9 going into the closing stretch, which starts with Duke at home on Feb. 17.
The magic number to get to a Tuesday game in Charlotte is looking like seven.
It’s already not looking good, is what I’m getting at.
Podcast: UVA-Boston College preview, defense issues
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Chris Graham
