UVA Basketball Notebook: Adekunle adjusts to U.S. game, tempo on overdrive

Adekunle getting comfortable

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It’s hard to think of Nolan Adekunle, a 24-year-old who played in German pro leagues for three seasons before joining the UVA Basketball program, as a freshman.

But like a college basketball freshman, Adekunle, a 6’6” three-and-D who splits his minutes in the backcourt and as an undersized four, has had to make adjustments to get up to speed with the U.S. college game.

“It’s a process. It’s a, yeah, big adjustment for me, or was a big adjustment for me. But now I can really tell that I feel, like, more comfortable from day to day,” Adekunle told reporters after Virginia’s 95-61 win over Bucknell on Tuesday, in which he put up 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting, 3-of-4 from three.

In the first two games of the 2026-2027 season, Adekunle scored a total of eight points in 45 minutes of floor time.

He got to double figures with 13 points in the 91-72 win over Arkansas on Sunday, and now seems to be hitting a stride.

“Yeah, I think he definitely is,” second-year head coach Ryan Odom said. “He’s comfortable here at Virginia and comfortable with the guys, comfortable with the staff. He’s steady, you know, like I said a couple weeks ago, he’s just steady, a steady player.”

Tempo stats

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A reader wrote this morning to ask about the tempo stats for the first four games vis-à-vis previous years, and, gotta say, whoa.

We’re only four games in, mind you.

Let’s look at the tempo numbers for Tony Bennett’s last two teams, the Ron Sanchez gap year, and the first two seasons under Ryan Odom.

• 2026-2027: 70.8 possessions/game
• 2025-2026: 65.9 possessions/game
• 2024-2025: 61.3 possessions/game
• 2023-2024: 60.1 possessions/game
• 2022-2023: 61.5 possessions/game

Stats: KenPom.com

Caveats

• the 70.8 possessions per game that we’re seeing through four games this year ranks at the midpoint of D1; Cal-Poly leads the nation with 76.3 possessions per game; Appalachian State is dead-last, at 65.6.
• That dead-last number this year, at 65.6 possessions per game, would have ranked 269th among the 363 D1 teams in 2022-2023, when Virginia’s 61.5 ranked 360th; the team that lead the nation in tempo in 2022-2023, John’s, averaged 73.1 possessions per game.

Point I’m making there: the college game, across the board, is much faster than it was just a few years back.

First look: Maryland

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I’ll do a deeper dive on Maryland, the next opponent, on Friday night up in College Park.

Quick first look: the Terps lost to Georgetown on Saturday, 86-74, and it wasn’t that close – the Hoyas led by 27 with 5:19 to go before Maryland made the score look better in garbage time.

For perspective on that, G’town, after finishing off Maryland, had to rally in the second half to beat Delaware State last night, 83-78.

The Hoyas trailed by as many as 12 in the second half in that one.

To Delaware State, which doesn’t yet have a D1 win.