The Virginia Cavaliers handled the Coppin State Eagles 62-to-45 on Monday night to advance to 2-0 on the season and in the post-Tony Bennett era. Elijah Saunders (15 points), Isaac McKneely (14), Dai Dai Ames (13), and Jacob Cofie (11) led the ‘Hoos in scoring.
Despite a relatively slow start, Virginia poured it on late in the first half and throughout the second to secure the 17-point victory. Coppin State is not a good basketball team, but the Wahoos got the job done.
With UVA’s second win, we have five takeaways for the team moving forward.
Dai Dai Ames should be the guy at point guard
While Andrew Rohde warmed up roughly an hour before tipoff, the junior point guard missed Monday night’s contest with a back injury. It seems like he either was testing his back out or injured it pregame. Ron Sanchez said the team found out at tip-time that Rohde wasn’t available.
Kansas State transfer Dai Dai Ames started in Rohde’s place and made a fairly convincing case for why he should play more than the 10 minutes he saw versus Campbell. Ames scored 13 points, dished out three assists, shot 5-for-9 from the field, and turned the ball over zero times.
He was the only Cavalier to consistently penetrate the Coppin State zone defense. His explosiveness off the bounce flashed and he avoided many head-scratching errors as he piloted the Virginia offense.
Rohde’s performance against Campbell wasn’t inspirational. He registered one point, five assists, and four turnovers versus the Fighting Camels. Up until a few days before Wednesday’s game, Ames was the starter before Ron Sanchez said that the staff made the swap.
After Ames had a multi-faceted offensive impact on Monday night and looked fluid as the point-of-attack defender, he could leap Rohde in the pecking order. He should play more than 10 minutes per game at the very least.
Of course, Coppin State is not a good basketball team. And, because the Eagles played a 2-3 zone defense, Ames still hasn’t played extensive minutes leading UVA’s revamped offensive system. Nevertheless, this was a stock up performance for the sophomore and Virginia’s potential at point guard.
Isaac McKneely can flip a game on either side of the floor
At the 4:33 mark in the first half, Coppin State cut Virginia’s lead to just six points. Against a team that lost to High Point by 42 points and to Rider by 11 at home, a quiet came over John Paul Jones Arena.
Then, Isaac McKneely took over. The junior guard nailed three three-pointers in a 1:00 span and dished an assist to Ames for another three a minute beforehand. On the Eagles’ final two possessions of the first half, McKneely nabbed a steal and blocked a shot to close out a 12-to-2 Wahoo run heading into the break.
McKneely has always been a lights-out three-point shooter. His aggressiveness to hunt his shot and then to create for his teammates stood out on Monday. He also made plays as an on-ball defender which reflected the defensive development a few of his teammates had pointed out during media day.
His alley-oop pass to Blake Buchanan early in the second half was a nice sign of how he can exploit teams for over-committing to him as a shooter.
The West Virginia native scored 14 points, grabbed six rebounds, had three assists, three steals, and a block in one of his most complete performances as a Cavalier.
McKneely has the greatest pedigree of UVA’s roster. If the ‘Hoos are going to have the type of season that would warrant removing the interim tag from Ron Sanchez’s title, McKneely has to have a big year. It’s very early, but signs point to him being the All-ACC caliber guard the ‘Hoos need him to be.
Virginia is running in transition (some)
Coppin State sitting in their zone defense all game long meant we didn’t get any additional data on the new offensive scheme that the Cavaliers rolled out last week. What the ‘Hoos did do differently than past seasons was push in transition a bit more to get shots up before the Eagles could settle in defensively.
It wasn’t so much the volume of fast break points – UVA scored eight. Rather, it was how they were aggressive when the game called for it. Both McKneely and Ishan Sharma threw Elijah Saunders impressive passes down the floor which he finished. They weren’t revolutionary plays, but they were plays that UVA wouldn’t have tried to make last season.
This offseason, Sanchez and, before he retired, Tony Bennett talked about embracing transition and looking to score easy points against unsettled defenses. That was evident on Monday night, and it was encouraging to see Virginia’s guards make some nice passes to streaking bigs up the floor.
UVA needs more from its secondary shooters
Isaac McKneely shot 4-for-8 from three against the Eagles. The rest of the team shot 5-for-19. Specifically, three-point specialists TJ Power (1-for-6), Ishan Sharma (0-for-5), and Taine Murray (0-for-2) combined to go 7.7%. Murray also turned the ball over six times.
Against the Eagles’ zone, there were open shots to be had. But Power, Sharma, and Murray couldn’t capitalize. They’re on the floor to shoot the ball. Fortunately, this performance came against Coppin State. Versus Villanova on Friday and the other serious matchups UVA has in non-conference play, those three will have to make more open shots.
Jacob Cofie is one of Virginia’s best five players
After scoring 16 points in his debut, Jacob Cofie put up 11 points and 11 rebounds for a double-double in his second career games. He played 27 minutes, seeing a chunk of playing time at the five and getting eight more minutes than starting center Blake Buchanan.
Defensively, he blocked three shots and stole the ball four times. He was all over the place – for better or for worse – and made plays while he was two inches taller than the Eagles’ tallest players. How he fairs against ACC or Power-Four level competition is the obvious unknown, and how he fits in the lineup will be as well. But you couldn’t ask for a more encouraging first two performances for the true freshman.
