Game 2 of the 2025-2026 regular season is here. The UVA Basketball team hosts NC Central, which lost 114-66 to NC State on Monday night.
Virginia won its opener with Rider on Monday by an 87-5o final.
The degenerate gambler types have this one Virginia -34.5 with an over/under at 151.5, so, an expected final score at 93-58, or thereabouts.
Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. ET on ACC Network Extra and Virginia Sports Radio Network.
UVA Basketball coverage
- UVA Basketball: Chance Mallory reminds me of another 5’10” ‘Hoos guard
- UVA Basketball: Thijs de Ridder being groomed to be the go-to guy on offense
- UVA Basketball: ‘Hoos get Opening Night win, but still ‘plenty to clean up’
- ‘Hoos 87, Rider 53: Go figure, a UVA Basketball team winning with defense
Game Coverage
First media timeout: UVA 15-2, 15:00/1st
And so it begins. Virginia is 4-of-8 from three in the opening five minutes, with two makes from Jacari White, one a bank from the side, which he didn’t intend, obviously.
Late-arriving crowd.
NC Central timeout: UVA 26-5, 11:14/1st
Not sure what we get out of playing a team this overmatched.
NC Central is 1-of-12 from the field.
UVA has rebounded six of its eight misses.
Third media timeout: UVA 33-10, 7:22/1st
Central came out after the timeout with some more intensity on D, which is to say, they finally started trying to play some D.
I feel for these kids and coaches. They’re just traveling around to make money from these guarantee games to fund the rest of the athletics department.
Timeout Virginia: 10-0 NCCU run gets it to 36-20, 3:23/1st
Obvious lack of focus.
No excuse.
Virginia has missed its last eight shots.
Half: UVA 42, NC Central 25
NCCU closes outscoring UVA 15-6 over the final 7:09 of the first half.
We got our answer on why you play these games: Central went to a zone, and it has utterly confounded this UVA team.
Virginia was 2-of-12 from the floor with two turnovers in the final 7:09.
I would expect the chalkboard at halftime to be about diagramming what to do against the zone.
It’s not hard x’s and o’s-wise. They set up properly – put a post guy at the foul line.
Problem was, they didn’t get the ball to the post guy until late in shot clocks, in favor of just passing the ball around the perimeter.
Need to attack by getting the ball to the post guy, who then either kicks out to the wings or looks for the other big on the baseline.
They never did that.
NC Central timeout: UVA 52-29, 16:05/2nd
Central, of course, isn’t playing zone.
They’ll go back to it now.
Virginia is 4-of-6 to start the second half, all of the makes at the rim.
Second media timeout: UVA 60-34, 12:00/2nd
The lead is back to where it was at the seven-minute mark of the first half.
Central went back to the zone, and that, again, is giving Virginia problems.
Third media timeout: UVA 67-39, 7:25/2nd
Thijs de Ridder has 20 points, and is 3-of-4 from three.
He’s been the real deal so far.
Johann Grunloh was supposed to be the better of the two.
Not on offense, though he does have seven blocked shots tonight.
Final: UVA 81, NC Central 62
Recap to come.
It will not be kind.
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Chris Graham
