The issue that we’re hearing is limiting this UVA Basketball team is lack of cohesion amongst the guys.
It’s not quite the thing that was said about one of the talented 1970s Boston Red Sox teams – 25 players, 25 taxicabs – but when you lose your heart-and-soul leader, Reece Beekman, and your vocal guy, Ryan Dunn, to the NBA, and then your head coach, Tony Bennett, decides that it’s his time, you can understand, it’s a program in flux, and guys are going to be looking out for themselves.
What I’m being told is, the guys are still getting acclimated with each other – the rotation has five new guys, transfers Dai Dai Ames, Elijah Saunders and TJ Power, and freshmen Jacob Cofie and Ishan Sharma, trying to mix in with returning guys Isaac McKneely, Andrew Rohde, Blake Buchanan and Taine Murray – and it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing.
The guys, from what I’m being told, are maybe a little too focused at this point on minutes – because you can see there, I laid out nine guys who got rotation minutes in tonight’s 67-41 win over Holy Cross, the Ron Sanchez, the new big whistle, is almost certain to trim that down to eight or even seven by the time we get to the heart of conference play in January, then into February.
Knowing all of this, you might have a better feel for how last week – the 64-42 loss to Tennessee, the 80-55 loss to St. John’s – can happen.
You’ve got a lot of new guys, all still trying to learn the Pack Line defense, all of them trying to figure out their roles in a new-look offense, all still trying to get used to each other, and to playing for a guy who was an assistant coach as of a few weeks ago.
UVA Basketball, it needs to be said, is hardly the only top-tier program going through growing pains in the November part of the schedule.
We just saw two-time defending champ UConn lose three straight in Hawaii, for instance, and North Carolina lost two games in Hawaii, and was exposed as having nothing to offer defensively in the interior.
The NCAA counts each game equally when it comes to seeding the tournament field in March, even though the coaches know, in this new transfer portal era, the games in November and December are about establishing an identity, and getting yourself into a position, by the first of the year, to be who you are going forward.
That’s where this UVA Basketball team is.
What did we learn this week?
The offense is starting to click: The ‘Hoos scored 74 points in 59 possessions in the win over Manhattan on Tuesday, and 67 in 57 possessions tonight in the win over Holy Cross.
I mean, we’ll take 1.22 points per possession, right?
The offense attacked the rim more (11-of-18 at the rim vs. Manhattan, 9-of-14 at the rim vs. Holy Cross), after averaging just 12.0 shots at the rim per game coming into the week.
Still too many midrange jumpers (22 vs. Manhattan, 16 vs. Holy Cross) for anybody’s liking.
Virginia was Top 30 nationally in midrange shot attempts last year, and is still there through seven games this year.
The new looks on offense were supposed to mitigate that.
You’ll make more of those shots (12-of-22 vs. Manhattan, 8-of-16 vs. Holy Cross) because you’re more athletic than those guys, but they get harder against more athletic Power 4 opponents.
Turnovers: Virginia had 18 in the loss to UT, 16 in the loss to St. John’s.
Last year, the Cavaliers averaged 8.1 turnovers per game, best in D1.
The last two games: eight vs. Manhattan, six vs. Holy Cross.
So, better.
Defense: Manhattan had no business scoring 65 points the other night. Virginia let the Jaspers off the hook with lackadaisical closeouts on the perimeter (Manhattan was 11-of-26 from three).
It was better tonight: Holy Cross was 5-of-22 from three, and four of those makes came from freshman Max Green, who had 16 points, and was 4-of-7 from three.
Somehow, that kid got out of Kentucky, where he was the leading scorer in high school ball a year ago, with offers only from the likes of Holy Cross, Western Kentucky and Furman.
He made himself some serious NIL money when he hits the transfer portal in the spring.
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Chris Graham
