Up next for Virginia is a Tuesday-night matchup with North Carolina A&T, home to the largest HBCU in the United States.
The basketball Aggies, under first-year head coach Monte Ross, were picked to finish last in the 14-team CAA in the preseason, and the team took it on the chin in its first two games of the 2023-2024 season, losing 100-52 at Pitt and 94-78 at crosstown rival UNC Greensboro.
Ross replaced Phillip Shumpert, who was let go after serving as the interim coach last season, and leading NC A&T to a 13-19 finish.
It’s almost all new guys – six of the eight guys in Ross’s rotation are first-year players at A&T.
The returnees were bench guys from last season – 6’6” senior Jeremy Robinson, who averaged 4.0 points in 18.4 minutes per game in 2022-2023, and Kyle Duke, a 6’4” junior who averaged 2.9 points in 9.8 minutes.
Robinson started the first two games this season at forward; Duke is getting minutes off the bench.
Landon Glasper, a 6’2” sophomore who averaged 13.9 points per game as a freshman at Coffeyville Community College, put up 32 points in the loss to UNC Greensboro on Friday, on high volume – 12-of-25 from the floor, 5-of-11 from three.
In the opening-night loss at Pitt last week, Glasper was – gulp! – 1-of-16 from the floor, 0-of-12 from three.
Hey, kid has confidence, even when the shots aren’t falling.
Camian Shell, a 5’10” sophomore who also played at Coffeyville as a freshman last year, averaging 7.3 points and 3.9 assists, had 11 points and six assists in the loss at UNCG.
The other starters are 6’8” sophomore Evan Joyner, an East Tennessee State transfer, and Nikolaos Chitikoudis, a 6’9” freshman from Greece.
Don’t expect A&T to put up much of a fight – KenPom.com forecasts this one to go in favor of Virginia, a 99.7 percent favorite, by an 84-55 final.
The one thing to watch will be the battle for tempo, which Tony Bennett-coached teams always win.
A&T prefers to go fast, averaging 72.9 possessions per game, nearly eight more than the 65.0 per game that UVA is averaging through two games.
That figure ranks in the bottom 10 nationally a week into the season.
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Chris Graham
