When the opponent shoots 59.6 percent, and has one less offensive rebound than you have defensive rebounds, that’s going to be tough for you, if you’re UVA Basketball.
Here we go with the latest chapter in, UVA Basketball: Weak in the Post.
Syracuse, in tonight’s 84-70 win, scored 42 points in the paint – the last six UVA opponents are averaging 41.7 points per game in the paint.
UVA’s defensive-rebound rate in the last six: 63.8 percent, which ranks 337th nationally in that stretch, per BartTorvik.
The two starting bigs, Elijah Saunders and Blake Buchanan, each had three rebounds tonight, which is three more than either you or I had, so, there’s that.
Jacob Cofie rebounded from his third scoreless game in his last five to put up 13 points and four boards in 24 minutes off the bench.
The guy who played like a man: Anthony Robinson, the 6’10” no-frills redshirt freshman.
Robinson had eight points, six boards, two steals and a block in 15 minutes off the bench.
Didja notice: The 1-3-1 zone?
Remember me asking interim coach Ron Sanchez the other day if he’d thought about trying other approaches on defense, with the Pack Line ranking sub-100 in KenPom, and him telling me, in effect, nah, I’m good?
Sanchez had his team in a 1-3-1 zone for a decent stretch of possessions in the second half tonight.
Not that it worked; it seems that this year’s roster has some sort of mental block when it comes to getting stops.
But hey, he tried something different.
Seven
The 84-point output from Syracuse was the seventh time Virginia gave up 80 or more this season.
UVA, before this season, had last given up 80 or more in a Feb. 15, 2021, loss to Florida State.
To get to a total of seven games before this season, I’ve got to go all the way back to the Dec. 30, 2013, loss at Tennessee, which feels like a lifetime ago.
(Malcolm Brogdon was a redshirt sophomore that night.)
The best of the 8-12s
Five teams finished with 8-12 marks in the ACC. Virginia has been deemed the best of the five, and thus gets the nine seed in the ACC Tournament, and thus a bye into Wednesday’s second round.
I’m guessing it was the 3-2 record in the games among the five.
Remember when Pitt was 12-2, with a Top 25 KenPom and NET, and an NCAA Tournament lock?
The Panthers are 17-14, and the #13 seed, and playing on Tuesday in the ACC Tourney opener.
Early look at Wednesday
Virginia (15-16, 8-12 ACC) gets Georgia Tech (16-15, 10-10 ACC) at noon on Wednesday in the 8-9 game.
I have to admit, I’m shocked to see Georgia Tech sitting in the eight spot.
UVA, in the 75-61 win over Georgia Tech in JPJ last month, was head and shoulders the better team that night.
Isaac McKneely had 20 points (8-of-14 FG, 4-of-9 3FG), and Dai Dai Ames had 18 (7-of-12 FG, 4-of-6 3FG).
Andrew Rohde had 11 points and nine assists; Blake Buchanan had seven points and 11 rebounds.
Virginia was 11-of-27 from three in the win.
Georgia Tech had won three straight coming into today – beating up on Pitt and two schools that aren’t going to be in the ACC Tournament field, NC State and Miami, after a 15-point loss to the other school whose season is already done, Boston College.
Wake Forest, which had lost four of its last six to fall off the NCAA Tournament bubble, beat the bejeebies out of Georgia Tech on Saturday, winning 69-43 in a game that wasn’t even that close.
Somebody between the team that got pummeled by reeling Wake Forest and the team that was blown out by an awful Syracuse gets Duke (28-3, 19-1 ACC) on Thursday at noon.
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Chris Graham
