UVA Hoops: What to know about UMass, Arizona State, St. John’s

UVA Basketball heads to the Mohegan Sun this weekend for the Air Force Reserve Tip-Off Tournament.

Saturday’s matchup for the sixth-ranked ‘Hoos is UMass, which is off to an impressive, on paper, 5-0 start, but does not yet have a Top 100 win.

The Minutemen were tabbed 11th in the preseason Atlantic 10 poll – there are actually 14 teams in the A-10, in case you were wondering.

Five of the six guys on the roster averaging 20+ minutes per game score in double-figures, led by 6’4” freshman guard T.J. Weeks, who is scoring 14.8 points per game as the team’s sixth man.

Weeks is shooting an eye-popping 63.0 percent from three-point range, and it’s not because of small sample size: he’s hoisting 5.4 threes per game, so, yeah.

The UMass team is shooting 43.0 percent from three, 13^th in D1.

Also watch out for 6’3” freshman guard Sean East (13.4 points per game, 45.5 percent from three), 6’4” junior guard Carl Pierre (13.2 points per game, 40.0 percent from three) and 6’9” freshman forward Tre Mitchell (12.6 points per game, 41.2 percent from three).

Mitchell (6.0 rebounds per game) and 6’7” sophomore forward Samba Diallo (10.0 points per game, 6.0 rebounds per game) give the Minutemen size up front.

Should be an interesting matchup for Virginia, just because of UMass’s ability to shoot the three.

Virginia, then, on Sunday, plays either Arizona State (2-1) or St. John’s (4-1) on Sunday.

First, to Arizona State. The Sun Devils are coached by legendary Duke point guard Bobby Hurley, who has led Arizona State to back-to-back 20+-win campaigns.

Nothing significant on the early-season schedule, which began with a season-opening 81-71 loss to Colorado, the Sun Devils’ only Power 5 game thus far.

The key to the engine is 6’0” junior point guard Remy Martin, who averages 19.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game.

Arizona State is shooting 31.6 percent from three-point range, led by 6’5” senior guard Rob Edwards (16.0 points per game, 50.0 percent from three) and Martin, who is shooting 42.9 percent from behind the arc.

The third-leading scorer is 6’2” freshman guard Jaelen House (13.7 points per game, 38.7 percent shooting from the field, 28.6 percent shooting from three).

Hurley uses three 6’8” players in his rotation – Romello White (6.5 points per game, 9.0 rebounds per game), Kimani Lawrence (6.0 points per game, 4.3 rebounds per game) and Taeshon Cherry (5.0 points per game, 2.5 rebounds per game) – but clearly the strength of this team is its guards.

St. John’s is off to a nice start under first-year coach Mike Anderson, who replaced Red Storm legend Chris Mullin after stops at UAB, Missouri and most recently at Arkansas.

The Johnnies and ‘Hoos have two common opponents from their early-season schedules – Vermont (which defeated St. John’s 70-68 on Nov. 16, and lost to UVA 61-55 on Nov. 19) and Columbia (which lost to St. John’s 82-63 on Nov. 20, and lost to UVA 60-42 on Nov. 16).

The rotation features five guys scoring in double figures, led by 6’5” senior guard Mustapha Heron (17.8 points per game, 44.3 percent shooting from the field, 65.0 percent shooting from three).

His partner-in-crime is 6’6” senior L.J. Figueroa, another silky shooter (50 percent from three) who is averaging 16.6 points and 6.0 rebounds per game.

Those two are your threats from deep: accounting for 50.5 percent of the team’s three-point attempts and 73.7 percent of the made threes this season.

Anderson will go 10-deep with his rotation, including two bigs – 6’8” freshman Julian Champagnie (10.4 points per game, 7.6 rebounds per game) and 6’9” sophomore Josh Roberts (7.4 points per game, 9.0 rebounds per game).

Either way you go on Sunday, there will be a quality opponent on the other side.

Story by Chris Graham