Interim Coach Ron Sanchez has been adamant about one thing this season — this is a young team that has a lot to learn. After a closer-than-hoped-for win Dec. 22 over American to close out the team’s non-conference schedule, he echoed that sentiment, adding that, as the team approached a nine-day break in late December, there was still work to be done.
“When we get back, we’ll have a little minicamp,” Sanchez said. “We’ll try to clean up some things that we learned from non-conference [play] and really hone in and narrow things down, tighten some bolts and make sure we’re as sharp as we can be.”
And Sanchez is right. This is a young team. The most common starting lineup for the Cavaliers (7-5, 0-1 ACC) thus far is composed of two sophomores — guard Dai Dai Ames and forward Blake Buchanan — and three juniors in forward Elijah Saunders and guards Andrew Rohde and Isaac McKneely. Only two seniors — guards Taine Murray and Bryce Walker — have seen the floor this year. In contrast, freshman talent such as guard Ishan Sharma and forwards Jacob Cofie and Anthony Robinson have already contributed for the team.
Twelve games into the season, Virginia has a large sample size from which it can draw to help make improvements. It has faced six notably strong programs, winning against Villanova and losing the other five games. However, some of its six wins over comparatively easy opponents — including the narrow margin over the Eagles — have not eased any concerns over the Cavaliers’ play.
With conference play starting New Year’s Eve against NC State, there are 13 teams in the ACC with an identical or better record to Virginia’s, and the team’s offense ranks dead last in the conference in many metrics — including points scored, shots attempted, free throws taken and rebounds.
From Tuesday through March 8, the Cavaliers will play 19 games against conference opponents, before travelling to Charlotte, NC for the ACC Tournament. The team’s record will determine its seeding, and its ability to build off its losses so far, will determine whether or not this young team will earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Cavaliers’ worst two performances were in late November against No. 1 Tennessee and St. John’s. Virginia lost both games by a margin of over 20 points, turning the ball over a combined 31 times. After the loss to the Red Storm (11-2, 2-0 Big East), Sanchez said his team was going to return to Charlottesville with a lot on its mind.
“It’s a long season,” Sanchez said. “The one thing that we did here is we learned a lot about ourselves. The question is how we’re going to use that knowledge — are we going to grow? Or are we going to wallow in it?”
The Cavaliers certainly have not wallowed in it. Reducing turnovers was a priority for Sanchez after the St. John’s game, he said, and since then the team has taken strides in holding onto the ball and — equally importantly — keeping it moving.
Though the game against the Eagles (6-7, 0-0 Patriot) was kept close by the opponent’s stellar three-point shooting, Virginia’s ability to keep the ball moving was impressive. The ball movement in the Cavaliers’ narrow loss against Memphis was also impressive — Sanchez’s team logged 14 assists and only turned the ball over eight times.
With a poor record against high-level opponents, though, there is still a lot of pessimism surrounding the program and its chances moving forward. Under longtime coach Tony Bennett, going dancing in March was the norm, and seeing a team that is clearly not among the ACC’s best raises questions as to how Virginia can get back to that apex — if at all.
The silver lining to this is that it is not solely the Cavaliers that have fallen short against high-level opposition — much of the ACC has too. The hyped-up ACC-SEC challenge, played in early December, saw only two ACC teams beat their SEC counterparts — Clemson defeated No. 10 Kentucky, and No. 4 Duke beat No. 2 Auburn.
The Cavaliers have played only one in-conference game — a 63-51 away defeat at the hands of Southern Methodist Dec. 7. Virginia held a seven-point lead entering the last 10 minutes of play, before the Mustangs (11-2, 2-0 ACC) took over.
Southern Methodist currently claims the best record in the conference, also holding wins over Louisiana State and Boston College. It also scores the most points in the ACC, holds the second-highest field-goal percentage and claims the highest percentage from three-point range. Not every ACC team the Cavaliers face will be of the same caliber.
In fact, the ACC’s stalwarts have had mixed results to begin the season. Yes, the Blue Devils (10-2, 2-0 ACC) have looked exceptional, but they are the ACC’s only ranked team. Similarly, the always strong Tigers (10-3, 2-0 ACC) and Pittsburgh have started the season well and look to be prime candidates to reach the NCAA Tournament in March.
On the other hand, projected conference contenders North Carolina and Miami have had less impressive starts to the season. The Tar Heels (8-5, 1-0 ACC) have faced some high-level opponents, even beating UCLA, but their record is certainly something they will be looking to improve before facing the Cavaliers Feb. 22. The Hurricanes (4-8, 0-1 ACC) currently hold the worst record in the conference, their predicament worsened by Coach Jim Larrañaga stepping down Thursday.
Virginia’s next conference matchup will be at John Paul Jones Arena Tuesday against NC State. The Wolfpack (8-4, 1-0 ACC) have also started the season poorly, losing to No. 20 Purdue, Brigham Young, Texas and No. 7 Kansas. Save for the fact that NC State won its first ACC game, against Florida State, that program’s trajectory this season has been somewhat similar to the Cavaliers’.
After this match up with the Wolfpack, Virginia will host Louisville Saturday, in a matchup which is expected to be competitive. The Cardinals (8-5, 1-1 ACC) hold marquee wins over Indiana, West Virginia and the Seminoles (9-4, 0-2 ACC), with losses to four SEC teams and Duke, but they have been plagued with injury problems to start the season, placing a significant load on only a small group of players.
Following those two home games, the Cavaliers will take a trip to the Golden State to face conference newcomers California and Stanford — both strong offensive teams whose only ACC matchup so far was a Dec. 7 game against each other. The Cardinal (9-3, 1-0 ACC) came out on top in that game, but Virginia should be competitive in both games.
By no means has the season started in a way that anybody had hoped for. However, as Sanchez has said, there is still a lot of basketball to be played. With the team playing five games in 16 days to start conference play, Sanchez’s team will have the chance to prove what, if anything, it has learned from its difficult start to the season.
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