Virginia held Texas Southern to 33 points, forced 20 turnovers on 59 possessions, held TSU to 26.1 percent shooting, but Tony Bennett wasn’t happy with the defense.
“I thought we had a lot of breakdowns in our individual athleticism cover. And I said that to the guys after, I said, Hey, great energy, but turning the ball over against them and some of the breakdowns that we had defensively where the ball got right into the paint, but at the last second, we poke it away, steal it, block it. That’s not going to fly,” Bennett told reporters after UVA’s 62-33 win on Thursday.
My eyes liked what they saw with the doubles on pick-and-rolls, the post doubles, getting back on rotations.
The stat sheet liked the 10 blocked shots and 13 steals.
Bennett saw problems in the numbers.
“I thought there were too many breakdowns defensively, and too many breakdowns offensively. You look at the offensive rebounds, the turnovers, those things that that you can’t just rely on a guy to make some great plays individually to overwhelm guys. As you keep going up the ladder against bigger teams, that won’t fly,” Bennett said.
Rebounding has been the sore thumb for Virginia through the first four games of the 2023-2024 season. Last night, TSU snared 13 offensive boards for an offensive-rebounding rate of 35.1 percent.
For the season, Virginia is giving up a 30.7 percent offensive-rebounding rate, which ranks 201st nationally, per KenPom.com.
In the lone matchup to date this season with a Power 5 opponent, Florida, the Gators had 21 offensive rebounds, for a 50 percent offensive-rebound rate.
Bennett’s Pack Line is designed to reduce second-chance opportunities for opponents.
For context, last year’s group ranked in the Top 10 percent nationally, allowing a 24.9 percent offensive-rebounding rate.
The last time a Virginia team allowed opponents to grab more than 30 percent of their own misses: back in 2008-2009, the last year of the Dave Leitao era.
“Really excited about how hard the guys played. They just started gambling a little bit defensively and a little unsound offensively. So, we’ll grow and learn from that,” Bennett said. “But I know you’ll look at those numbers, this and that, but I look at the quality and where the ball ends up.”
Turnovers by the PGs
Bennett is giving big minutes to three point guards – Reece Beekman, Dante Harris and Kyle Rohde.
That should be a positive for ball security, but last night, the trio combined for eight turnovers – three each by Beekman and Rohde, two by Harris.
In Tuesday’s 80-51 win over North Carolina A&T, Rohde had two turnovers, Harris three.
The guys combined for just two in the 73-70 win over Florida last Friday and the 80-50 win in the opener on Nov. 6 over Tarleton State.
Coming up
Virginia takes part in the Fort Meyers Tip-Off on Monday and Wednesday.
The opener has Virginia facing Wisconsin (1-2), which is 34th in KenPom despite the back-to-back losses to Tennessee (80-70, home, Nov. 10) and Providence (72-59, road, Nov. 14).
You’re thinking to yourself, that game is going to be super slow, but actually, through three games, anyway, the Badgers are playing like a Midwest version of the Golden State Warriors.
OK, I’m having fun there, but Wisconsin is averaging 73.6 possessions per game, which is staggering for a program that was at 63.6 possessions per game last season, and hasn’t been above 66.5 possessions per game for a season in the KenPom era (which dates back to 1998-1999).
The Wednesday game would have Virginia facing either SMU (3-1) or West Virginia (2-1).
WVU’s lone loss is a home setback against Monmouth (73-65, Nov. 10).
One of SMU’s three wins is over an NAIA school; the other two (Western Illinois, Lamar) are 300+ in KenPom.
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Chris Graham
