Virginia (5-4) had its 16-game winning streak in ACC openers snapped in a 63-51 loss at SMU (8-2) on Saturday afternoon at Moody Coliseum in Dallas, Texas. Here are our five key takeaways from UVA’s defeat to the Mustangs.
Coming in to this game, I thought the winner was going to be decided by who could enforce their will and make the other team play their style of game. SMU came in averaging 88.3 points per game, good for 11th in the country, and routinely plays games in the 80s, 90s, and 100s, simply game-planning to outshoot and outgun its opponent. Virginia, obviously is the opposite, grinding the game to a slow pace and executing better in a low-scoring game. UVA succeeded in slowing SMU down, holding the Mustangs to a season-low 63 points. That put the Cavaliers in position to win this game, but…
Ron Sanchez has referenced his team’s lack of experience, noting that the Cavaliers have a lot of learning and growing to do. Well, Saturday was the first time this season that Virginia was in a very close game late and the Hoos looked entirely out of sorts on both ends of the floor in those critical late-game minutes. I was originally going to list out the mistakes, turnovers, defensive breakdowns, and bad plays the Cavaliers had down the stretch, but there were too many. There was Jacob Cofie’s missed dunk, Isaac McKneely’s failed attempt to draw a foul on a three, a host of other offensive turnovers, and then on defense, issues boxing out, miscommunications on ball screens, and UVA’s forwards committing fouls while hedging screens outside the three-point arc. Virginia’s failure to execute down the stretch turned what was a tight game in the closing minutes into a 12-point win for the Mustangs.
Read Val’s Plus/Minus breakdown of the game here.
A 7-0 run from Isaac McKneely had Virginia up 45-38 with a little over 10 minutes to go. The Cavaliers did not make another field goal for the rest of the game. They scored only six more points, all from the free throw line. That allowed SMU to end the game on a 25-6 run. We can debate about the causes of Virginia’s scoring droughts (we’ll discuss UVA’s inconsistency of scorers outside Isaac McKneely in the next takeaway), but they are a big problem and they don’t seem to be going anywhere. Scoring droughts were perhaps the greatest flaw of the Tony Bennett era of Virginia basketball and they were maybe the worst in his final season last year. They seem to be just as bad and just as costly under Ron Sanchez.
Some players have stepped up in different games, like Elijah Saunders against Florida and Andrew Rohde against Villanova. But Isaac McKneely is basically the only one who shows up consistently. He’s only had one game scoring less than double figures this season. Against SMU, McKneely was the only player to score in double figures, finishing with 17 points (5/12 FG, 4/8 3pt FG), three assists, and three rebounds. He was also the only Cavalier to make a shot in the last 12 minutes of the game. I thought he was getting held a lot by SMU defenders on his off-ball cuts, especially down the stretch, but if it’s that easy to neutralize the Cavaliers’ offense, then they don’t deserve to win.
Our final takeaway is about Virginia’s point guard position. Redshirt freshman guard Christian Bliss posted on social media on Friday, seeming to hint at a possible return to the floor after missing the first eight games of the season with a lower-body injury. Dai Dai Ames and Andrew Rohde have done a decent job handling point guard duties this season, but the Cavaliers would certainly benefit from being able to see what kind of contributions Bliss could give them as an additional ball-handler. Instead, Bliss was not active once again and then Dai Dai Ames played only seven minutes in Saturday’s game, as he exited with an injury after landing awkwardly on a contested layup attempt in the first half. That left Rohde as the only real point guard available and he made some nice plays in the first half, but had three costly turnovers in the second half. Per a report from Greg Madia, Ron Sanchez said Ames suffered a sprained ankle in the loss to SMU and Bliss is still considered day-to-day with a foot injury. So, it seems Virginia will continue to be thin at the point guard position for the foreseeable future.
Up next, Virginia returns to Charlottesville for a five-game homestand beginning with a game against Bethune-Cookman on Thursday at 7pm on the ACC Network.
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