Following a 75-53 drubbing of Liberty, the Virginia men’s basketball team will look to extend its winning streak to four games when it takes on Hampton Tuesday. The two schools have not played each other since 2009, when the Cavaliers won 80-54. Virginia is 6-0 all-time against the Pirates.
The two teams are seemingly moving in opposite directions. Hampton (2-3) is in the midst of a three-game losing streak in which it is making a paltry 42 percent of its shots. Hampton will have trouble improving that mark against a Virginia (4-1) team that is holding its opponents to only a 35 percent field goal percentage. But the Cavaliers are aware that for a lower profile school like Hampton, the matchup will likely serve as an exciting early-season challenge.
“I know, like any mid-major team, they’re going to be rugged,” sophomore guard Malcolm Brogdon said. “They’re going to get up to play us, because we will be one of the big games on their schedule. We’ve got to bring the same intensity to them as we do for everyone else, and play our game.”
On the other side of the ball, Virginia has won its last three games and has made 52 percent of its shots during that period. The Cavaliers’ recent shooting success is due in part to coach Tony Bennett’s decision to switch Brogdon to shooting guard. Bennett is still moving pieces around in his lineups, but the early switch has paid off for the Cavaliers, with Brogdon making an impressive 62 percent of his shots since the switch. The team is still a work in progress and has struggled in first halves, but the players are confident in their development.
“I think we’re a pretty competitive team,” Brogdon said. “I think since it’s early in the season it might look like it’s hard to get [excited for lesser teams] but in reality we’re just trying to work out our chemistry and put it all together, and we’re in the process.”
Matchups like the one against Hampton served as trap games for the Cavaliers last year, when they dropped early season games against non-conference mid-major opponents like Delaware and George Mason. In spite of the Pirates’ low profile, the Cavaliers understand the importance of being sharp against every opponent.
“I feel like every team is capable of winning on any night,” sophomore forward Anthony Gill said. “We just have to come out and execute.”
Having only lost two starters from last year, the Cavalier squad boasts great depth. Virginia’s skilled lineup is giving Bennett flexibility early on as the team tries to figure out which combination of players works best. So far the different rotations have created a very balanced scoring attack, with Brogdon averaging 12.2 points per game, Gill and senior guard Joe Harris averaging 9.8 points per game, and sophomore center Mike Tobey chipping in another 9.6 points per game. The frontcourt rotation of Gill, Tobey, senior forward Akil Mitchell and junior forward Darion Atkins has joined to help out-rebound opponents by an average of 14 rebounds per game.
“Right now, it’s [the rotation] pretty sporadic,” Atkins said. “We don’t really know what’s going on. One day, he may start me and [Gill], or he may start [Gill] and Akil, or me and Mike. We have a lot of frontcourt depth, so the mindset for all of us is just ‘whenever you get in, you go 100 percent’”
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