The first glimpse of the new-look Virginia Basketball team was an 80-50 win over Tarleton State, which put up little resistance from the get-go in Monday’s season opener.
So, what did we see?
Tony Bennett started five guards, for one thing – going with Oklahoma grad transfer Jake Groves, a 6’9” stretch guy, at the five spot.
Groves was limited to 15 minutes by foul trouble, but he did shoot 3-of-4 from three, which is what he’s supposed to do.
Chris Graham on UVA Basketball season opener
One area of possible concern: Jordan Minor, the Merrimack grad transfer who was advertised as a 17-point-per-game beast in the paint, was third on the depth chart at the five spot, getting 11 minutes in which he got exactly one shot off from the floor.
The other guy ahead of him was 6’11” four-star freshman Blake Buchanan, who got 17 minutes, and didn’t do much with them – one point, four rebounds and one block.
If Minor isn’t a better option than that, this could spell trouble for Virginia against better opponents.
At the four spot, Ryan Dunn, who has been getting love as a possible first-round draft pick next June, was limited by first-half foul trouble. The 6’8” sophomore finished with nine points and seven boards in 21 minutes, but was outshined by Leon Bond III, another Class of 2022 recruit who redshirted last season, so Monday was his debut.
Bond just missed a double-double, putting up 12 points and nine rebounds in 17 minutes.
In sum: strong at four; want to like Groves at the five, as long as he can avoid foul trouble.
Going to need to see more out of the other frontcourt guys.
To the backcourt: big night from Reece Beekman, who had 16 points, seven assists, four rebounds, three steals and a block in 27 minutes.
And a big night from Isaac McKneely, who had 15 points, shooting 4-of-8 from three, with four rebounds and four assists in 29 minutes.
St. Mary’s transfer Andrew Rohde got the start over Georgetown transfer Dante Harris. The 6’6” Summit League freshman of the year had six points on 2-of-8 shooting, 2-of-5 from three, with one assist and two turnovers in 26 minutes.
Harris had seven points and one assist in 23 minutes.
Junior Taine Murray got 11 minutes off the bench, and had five points.
Murray had been getting rotation minutes toward the end of last season, so it was expected that he’d compete for some minutes off the bench early on.
Things to like
Virginia, for the most part, shot the ball well, shooting 21-of-37 from the floor and 10-of-18 from three before garbage time.
Even going small, UVA won the rebounding battle, 40-27.
Tarleton State only shot 33.3 percent for the game and scored 0.758 points per possession, so, good work on D.
Things not to like
Virginia was 24-of-39 from the line, 14-of-26 in the second half.
Bottom line
It’s hard to tell too much from this game. This isn’t a vintage Tarleton State team, by any means.
(Tongue planted firmly in cheek there.)
Virginia took care of business.
Up next: Florida, on Friday in Charlotte.
We’ll know more then.
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