Even after consecutive victories against Davidson and Navy, the Virginia men’s basketball team is still working to regain its stride after suffering its first loss last week at the hands of No. 12 Virginia Commonwealth. The Cavaliers seek to continue that stride when they face Liberty at John Paul Jones Arena Saturday at 4 p.m. in the first round of the Corpus Christi Challenge.
Virginia (3-1) has relied on its offensive depth this season, with six players — sophomore guard Justin Anderson, sophomore guard Malcolm Brogdon, sophomore forward Anthony Gill, senior guard Joe Harris, senior forward Akil Mitchell and sophomore center Mike Tobey — having scored double digits in a game this season. Against Navy Tuesday, Brogdon, Gill, Harris and Tobey each notched 13 points or more.
“We have a lot more depth this year,” Harris said. “Everyone can see that from our first few games. It seems like a different guy every night is putting up points and playing well offensively.”
In the first four games, three different Cavaliers have led the team in scoring, with four different players leading in rebounding. Gill, in his first season at Virginia after transferring from South Carolina, scored a career-high 18 points Tuesday off the bench — marking the second straight game a reserve led Virginia in scoring. Tobey tallied 18 off the bench to lead the team against Davidson before supplanting Gill in the starting lineup Tuesday.
“We have basically played a nine- or 10-man rotation and you see the best teams in the country usually play with eight or nine guys,” said Brogdon, who is leading the Cavaliers with 12.3 points per game after an injury forced him to redshirt the 2012-13 season.
Nine Cavaliers logged more than 15 minutes against Navy — including some who haven’t shown up on the score sheet as often thus far in the campaign. The Cavaliers’ rotation is rounded out by junior forward Darion Atkins, sophomore guard Teven Jones, freshman guard London Perrantes and sophomore forward Evan Nolte, who have each seen significant playing time. Perrantes is playing 27.5 minutes per game — second only to Harris’ 28.3 — but has recorded just one field goal.
“We have lots of fresh legs we can get in there,” Nolte said. “If one guy isn’t scoring much, we know another guy will pick it up.”
The depth also permits Bennett to tweak his lineup without worrying about liabilities on the defensive side.
“I like different combinations,” Bennett said. “I think Anthony and Mike are two of our better scorers in terms of the front line. I like to match Darion with one of them and Akil with one of them, to anchor the defense. I think sometime I’ll have to look at going big and playing three of those four.”
After limiting Navy to 42 points Tuesday, Virginia became 27-1 when holding opponents to fewer than 50 points under Bennett. Offensively, the Cavaliers passed more effectively than they had in the first three contests, and 53 percent of their field goals against the Midshipmen were assisted.
When the two teams last met in Charlottesville in 2008 Liberty pulled off an 86-82 upset, led by 26 points from freshman Seth Curry, who later transferred to Duke. Last season, the Flames received an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by virtue of winning the Big South Conference Tournament — their first appearance since 2004. They were only the second team ever to appear in the Big Dance with a losing record, and lost 73-72 to North Carolina A&T in the First Four. Liberty (1-3) has scuffled out of the gates in 2013, losing three straight after a season-opening triumph against Randolph College.
Virginia will host Hampton next Tuesday in the second round of the Challenge before heading to Corpus Christi for two games Thanksgiving weekend.
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