Every year, the Blue-White Scrimmage gives followers of Virginia basketball, both fans and reporters alike, the opportunity to grossly overreact to an extremely small sample size of relatively insignificant practice. It’s only notable because it’s the first and only time we’ll get to see this year’s team before the Cavaliers take the floor for real on November 6th.
Even while possessing some level of awareness that what happened at John Paul Jones Arena in those three 10-minute periods of intrasquad scrimmaging is essentially meaningless compared to what happens behind closed doors for a couple hours of actual practice every day, we’re still going to go ahead and overreact to the observations we made on Saturday.
Here are our takeaways of what we learned from the Virginia men’s basketball Blue-White Scrimmage as well as five minutes of video highlights:
Let’s start with the standouts from the scrimmages. While the box score is quite unimportant in a three-period scrimmage where there’s a running clock and players are constantly changing teams, it should be noted that San Diego State transfer Elijah Saunders led all scorers with 12 points. Saunders arguably had the best all-around performance of the day, looking comfortable on both ends of the floor and seeming to be on the same page with his teammates no matter who they were. Most notably, Saunders, a 32.2% three-point shooter last season for the Aztecs, knocked down two early three-pointers, one from each corner, and the second he splashed despite having Anthony Robinson in his face with a solid close-out. The 6’8″ Saunders set good screens, was confident in taking shots from various spots on the floor, and seemed to more than hold his own on the defensive end. It was an excellent first-impression for a player who should crack the starting five to begin the season.
Duke transfer TJ Power joined Saunders in double figures with 10 points and he also hit a pair of three-pointers from each corner. It took Power a little while to get settled in, but he looks like he certainly has the potential to be every bit of the deadly three-point shooter that was advertised when Tony Bennett recruited him out of high school as a five-star prospect. We’ll see how the 6’9″, 221-pound Power holds up from a defense and rebounding standpoint, but the possibility of having Power, Saunders, and Isaac McKneely on the floor at the same time as three potentially reliable three-point shooters is undoubtedly exciting for the UVA coaching staff.
There were others who played well during the scrimmage and we’ll touch on them briefly. The only two scholarship players who have been at Virginia for more than two years, Isaac McKneely (seven points, one three) and Taine Murray, (eight points, two threes) unsurprisingly looked the most comfortable operating in their roles on both ends of the floor. Neither of them pressed much, but knocked down open threes when the opportunity was there. Virginia is requiring McKneely to be the leader and (likely) the leading scorer for this team, but don’t sleep on Taine Murray making an impact in this, his final season at UVA.
If you asked Tony Bennett today what the starting five will be against Campbell in the season opener on November 6th, he’d probably say that they were a long ways away from making that decision. It’s true that a lot can and will happen over the next month to inform that lineup decision, but it seems at least somewhat telling that Virginia opened Saturday’s scrimmage with a White Team starting five that consisted of Isaac McKneely, Jalen Warley, Elijah Saunders, TJ Power, and Blake Buchanan. McKneely is a lock to start and Buchanan is pretty close to a lock as well. With the way that Saunders and Power played, they could very well make the starting five as well. Finally, it’s obvious that Jalen Warley’s versatility as a 6’7″ guard is extremely valuable, particularly on the defensive end. It’s early, but that very well could be UVA’s starting five on November 6th.
There were some other intriguing lineups Virginia tried during the scrimmage, including:
– Christian Bliss running point with Jalen Warley and Andrew Rohde on the floor as secondary ball-handlers.
– Going “small” with Elijah Saunders playing center
– Going “big” with 6’10” freshman Jacob Cofie joining Blake Buchanan or Anthony Robinson on the floor
We wish there were a dozen 10-minute periods so we could see a greater sample size of these various lineups and their effectiveness. It’s been a long time since there have been so many new faces and unknown commodities on Virginia’s roster. It makes sense that Bennett and his staff are doing quite a bit of experimentation during the preseason.
In case you haven’t watched Virginia for the last two seasons, Isaac McKneely is confident in his shot. His lone three-pointer of the night was a deep one from the left wing that he unleashed with no hesitation. He also had a second triple go in and out.
More significantly, true freshman Ishan Sharma and redshirt freshman Christian Bliss both looked totally unfazed. Sharma went just 1/5 from beyond the arc, but his shot looked very good even on the misses and he also hit a tough mid-range jumper just before the shot clock expired. There were some growing pains for the 6’5″ Canadian sharpshooter, as he was twice caught not realizing how much time was left on the shot clock, but it was a still a solid initial showing for a player who, if rumors coming out of practice are to be believed, is building some serious momentum towards having a notable role in his first year at Virginia.
Bliss was also confident in his three-point shot and looked comfortable handling the ball and running the Virginia offense. While he too only made one three in the scrimmage, we thought it was very telling that he was chosen as the team’s second representative alongside Isaac McKneely in the joint three-point shooting contest between the UVA men’s and women’s basketball teams. For what it’s worth, Bliss shot 18/25 in the contest, while McKneely shot 22/25. As Virginia looks to answer one of its biggest preseason questions – what’s next at point guard with Reece Beekman gone? – don’t sleep on Christian Bliss having something to say about that, especially if he comes in with the ability to knock down a three-pointer.
We already mentioned some of the others, but the list of players who could develop into reliable or even just semi-reliable three-point shooters is decently long for this Virginia team: Isaac McKneely, TJ Power, Elijah Saunders, Taine Murray, Ishan Sharma, Christian Bliss…
Nobody overreact to this. But yes, Virginia seemed to be playing a little bit faster than usual during the scrimmage. And it wasn’t just more plays happening in transition – in fact there weren’t that many transition plays, period – it was more so that the Cavaliers seemed to be making a concerted effort to more quickly initiate the half-court offensive sets. Virginia isn’t going to turn into a track team under Tony Bennett, but some recognition that sometimes generating the most quality shots requires moving earlier and faster is a step in the right direction without sacrificing the “Embrace the Pace” mentality. UVA will likely still take the shot clock down as much as usual, but putting pressure on opposing teams to defend actions during the entire possession makes a lot of sense.
We’re not going to elaborate too much on these points because again, this is was a very small sample size of basketball, but here are some final observations, some hopeful, some cynical:
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