2024 is drawing to a close, and with it, the halfway mark of the college basketball season quickly approaches. During this holiday hiatus, let’s see how Men’s basketball performed thus far and what to expect for the rest of the season as we head into full ACC play.
From the moment esteemed head coach and UVA legend Tony Bennett was retiring in mid-October, we knew this would be a season of change. Longtime assistant Ron Sanchez catapulted into the head coaching position, with rumors of a change in offensive strategy to compete with the pace of modern college basketball. The loss of key players such as Ryan Dunn and Reece Beekman meant the Cavaliers entered 2024 mirroring the early years of Coach Bennett’s rebuild in Charlottesville.
It’s safe to say that, 12 games into the season, the Cavs have their work cut out to turn this season around. Fans accustomed to high standards and lots of winning that came with the Bennett era, even in ‘down’ years, should brace themselves. It certainly doesn’t help that the ACC is underperforming as a conference compared to previous years. Even if Virginia manages to snag a good amount of conference wins, their perceived lack of strength means fewer big victories to improve their metrics. UVA lost their only conference game of the season 51-63 against SMU, and went 0-4 in an extremely tough nonconference schedule, with all four teams ranked in the top 25. Losses to #1 Tennessee, #7 Florida, and #22 St. John’s were all by more than 15 points. Virginia kept these games competitive in the first half but failed to put up good shooting numbers and accuracy as the other team pulled away. Lack of depth and the same methodical yet slow offensive scheme make it difficult to get out of a scoring drought. Things looked better against #21 Memphis, though the Cavs still fell 62-64.
There’s still plenty of time to turn things around; how you judge the season so far really depends on what you expect out of this team. With a change at the helm and debate over how to run the offense, a winning record is at least a silver lining. However, the margin of error to keep tournament hopes alive is only getting slimmer. Their most recent performance in a narrow 63-58 win against American University didn’t help instill confidence. What should’ve been a comfortable win turned into a thriller that relied on a late scoring run to lift UVA over the Eagles. The defense was solid, except for a few miscommunications due to youth and inexperience. Once again, the lack of consistent offense allowed American to keep things close and eventually take the lead late in the second half. The team showed grit and determination, with Sanchez saying after the game, “We have to continue to have tremendous effort. We’re not going to play with our hair on fire defensively, it’s just not going to work. We can’t coach effort. We can only coach execution.” While the opponent was not of the highest caliber, the effort shown by the youthful squad is a positive.
The new year will be full of quality ACC opponents. Virginia has to find ways to ignite their offense and capitalize on big games (Duke being the most important) if they want to sneak into March Madness. The good news is the attitude and talent are there on offense and defense; as this young team gains more chemistry and executes better, they have the potential for a massive rebound in 2025.
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