UVA Basketball coach Ron Sanchez, halfway through his interim season, still doesn’t know what he has in the backcourt, and it’s because he has himself a Dai Dai Ames problem.
Ames has started 11 games at point guard, but the 6’1” Kansas State transfer has landed himself in his coach’s doghouse – getting just nine minutes in last week’s win over NC State, and 10 minutes in the blowout loss to Louisville.
With Ames getting limited minutes off the bench, the guy getting the minutes at the point, for now, is Andrew Rohde, who is putting up nice numbers relative to his awful sophomore season, averaging 9.1 points and 3.2 assists per game on the season, shooting 47.8 percent from the floor overall and 45.9 percent from three.
Rohde, in particular, stepped up last week, with Ames largely confined to the bench, averaging 13.5 points, 5.0 assists and 1.0 turnovers (50.0% FG, 50.0% 3FG) in the State and Louisville games.
I hate to be that guy, but, let’s be honest, we’re just waiting to see Rohde hit another wall like the one that had him averaging 6.2 points, 2.6 assists and 2.8 turnovers (35.5% FG, 33.3% 3FG) over a five-game stretch heading into last week – numbers more along the lines of what we saw from his last season (4.3 ppg, 2.7 assists/g, 29.3% FG, 25.7% 3FG).
Rohde had already been starting, so Sanchez has been going, with Ames demoted to the bench, with Taine Murray, a 6’5” senior, for the bulk of the minutes that had been going to Ames.
Bad news: the coach isn’t getting what you’d call a lot of productivity out of the New Zealander (six points on 2-of-10 shooting in 51 minutes of floor time in last week’s games, with eight assists vs. just two turnovers as the positive).
Sanchez is also trying Ishan Sharma, a 6’4” freshman recruited as a perimeter threat, as a backup at the point, giving Sharma 15 minutes (six points, 2-of-3 3FG) in the State game, and 17 minutes (two points, 1-of-3 shooting, two assists) in the Louisville game.
Even the consistent guy in the backcourt, 6’4” junior Isaac McKneely, has been at least mildly disappointing, if you consider the expectations that we’d see him grow from a breakout sophomore season (12.3 ppg, 40.9% FG, 44.5% 3FG).
iMac is pretty much the same guy – averaging 12.3 points, shooting 42.7 percent from the floor overall and 44.6 percent from three; still unable to score in the paint (just 6-of-22, 27.3 percent) and almost a non-factor in the midrange (just 17 field goal attempts).
What do you do?
If you want to know why this UVA Basketball team is sitting at 8-6 with a 100+ NET rating, well, there’s three reasons why – reasons #1 and #2 are, this team can’t play defense and can’t rebound the ball, but I think bigger than those two is, the backcourt, as Sanchez is currently playing it, is just not good.
Why Ames is in the doghouse is a mystery to me, and I say that because of what Sanchez said this week in his ACC Zoom call with reporters about why he has gone away from Ames.
“One thing that he has to continue to work on is taking care of the basketball, something that has plagued us,” Sanchez said. “I think as he continues to improve, that if he can, we can put him in a position for him to score, be better defensively and continue to take care of the ball, you know, he’ll continue to fight a big part of what we’re trying to do, and we just got to find a way to incorporate him in a way that he feels comfortable and confident.”
What Sanchez is saying here is, Ames is sitting because he’s committing too many turnovers.
OK, so, let’s consult the stats; and when we do, it looks like Ames would be fine in terms of counting numbers.
Ames is averaging 1.3 turnovers per game (Rohde is averaging 2.4 TOs per game, McKneely: 1.7, Murray: 1.1), and his turnover percentage (turnovers-per-touch) is 16.4 percent (Rohde: 23.9 percent, McKneely: 14.4 percent, Murray: 20.0 percent, Sharma: 10.3 percent).
If anything, the issue with Ames isn’t sloppiness; it’s that he’s much more adept at creating his own shot (shooting 10-of-22, 45.5 percent, at the rim; 19-of-53, 35.8 percent, in the midrange) and at catch-and-shoot threes (Ames is 11-of-25, 44.0 percent, from three) than he is creating for his teammates (he’s averaging just 1.7 assists per game).
Square peg in a round hole
I don’t know if you need me to tell you that, of all the backcourt options on this year’s roster, Ames is the only one who can create his own shot.
The problem is fitting what Ames can do in that respect within the context of the UVA offense, which runs the guards off never-ending screens to get them looks from the perimeter or in the midrange, and set up pocket passes and screen-and-pops for the bigs.
Ames is at his best with space in the middle of the floor with which to operate, which you just don’t get a lot in the Tony Bennett Basketball offense that Sanchez is using out of necessity (because that’s all he knows).
If Sanchez is intent on sticking with the Bennett offense – news flash: he is – I don’t know how Ames fits in going forward.
What we’re seeing here is a major mistake in recruiting to fit.
I see Ames as being capable of being a double-digit scorer at the Power 5 level, but not in this offense.
Video: The Dai Dai Ames problem
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Chris Graham
