Reevaluating Virginia basketball after a shaky start

After an explosive first game that had many Virginia fans salivating over what was to come, the last three outings have elicited plenty of worry. That worry started with the 61-60 defeat at the hands of San Francisco, built a tad after losing the second half to Saint Francis, and proceeded to swell to new heights with the nail-biter against Kent State.

The Hoos let Kent State stick around for too long, finally dominating in the extra period as Sam Hauser scored 6 of Virginia’s final 9 points while holding KSU to a sole layup.

But the questions continue to grow for Virginia on both ends of the floor. Let’s take a closer look and see where this team really stands after four games.

Defense

Positives

We’ll get to the problems in a minute, but there have been some good things on the defensive end. Jay Huff is the biggest of these, and a pleasant surprise at that. He’s averaging a ridiculous 2.5 blocks per game, and has generally looked very confident anchoring the pack line. With his size, Huff is always going to get up and block shots, but the other aspects of his defense look much improved.

Kihei Clark and Casey Morsell are really the only two other players that have looked good within the context of this defense. Both have their troubles for sure, but neither is really a part of the problem at the moment. These are two reliable, quick guards that this defense is always going to be able to depend upon.

Aside from the individual play of those three individuals, there have been some other moments where the team defense has looked good. Holding Saint Francis to 13 first-half points is the prime example, and Kent State’s two points in overtime is another. While to the eyes of Virginia fans the defense looks bad, it must be remembered that even the way they’ve been going this is a good defense. With time, Tony Bennett should return them to their stingy ways.

Negatives

While in a few weeks we should expect a much improved defense, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that a lot of work is required to get there. There have been various recurring mistakes within the defense, and one thing stood out against Kent State: Overhelping.

Allow me to explain. The pack line is, at its core, a help defense. It’s predicated on the members of the defense sliding to help deny chances for the opposing team, and when it works the pack line is a well-oiled machine of players moving to and from their men. The issue at the moment is that guys are helping when they don’t need to.

This causes disjunction, and somebody is always left open that doesn’t have to be. This is not meant to dissuade help defense, of course, just to point out that the decisions have to be better.

The other glaring problems against KSU were poor transition defense and rebounding. Both of these are uncharacteristic of Virginia, and allowing the Golden Flashes a few easy buckets in transition and 10 offensive boards is not going to help win games.

The other problems are on and off, none of them really prevalent enough to be worth taking note of. But there’s no arguing that the defense on the whole needs plenty of work, and that falls to Tony Bennett to get them moving in the right direction before Michigan State comes to town.

Offense

Positives

There are very few things about this offense that have been consistent over the first few games. In fact, there’s probably only one, that person being Sam Hauser. He’s scored in double figures in every game this season and is averaging 6.8 rebounds. Hauser has looked like the veteran that he is, as he seemingly willed Virginia to victory with his 18 points, 6 of which came in the extra period.

Jay Huff has been the other positive to date, despite one lackluster game against San Francisco. He matched Hauser’s 18 against Kent State, consistently receiving the ball in good places and getting aggressively to the hoop. Huff actually had a double-double in the game, though it is worth noting that all 11 of his boards came on the defensive side. Regardless, Huff and Hauser have been very dependable for Virginia so far.

Aside from those two, the biggest thing that came out of this game was Kihei Clark’s resurgence. It was only a matter of time before vintage Kihei showed up, but it was still a relief to see the point guard go for 14 points and 3 assists. Expect Clark to replace Tomas Woldetensae in the starting lineup come Wednesday.

Clark will likely be paired with Reece Beekman in the backcourt, who’s been very impressive thus far. Casey Morsell also looked good in his limited minutes, and hopefully that guard trio continues playing well.

With roughly 1.1 points per possession against KSU—a decent number, actually—there’s no huge problem with the offense right now. Rather, because we know the heights that can be reached, the struggles seem bigger than they actually are.

Negatives

On paper, Virginia should go a legitimate nine deep this year, if not more. Nine guys played against Kent State, with five of them totaling over 30 minutes and none of the other four eclipsing 20. More importantly, Bennett went to essentially the same lineup for the last five minutes of the game and overtime, leading Sam Hauser to mention that they were all tired by the end of the game.

If the Hoos are actually nine deep, that shouldn’t have been a problem. Yes, Hauser, Huff, and Clark are always going to be in for crunch time, but there should have been better rotation among the other two guys.

Moving past that, let’s talk about why crunch time was even a thing in this game. A simple glance at the box score doesn’t give an easy answer to that question. The 12 turnovers were certainly a factor, but Kent State had the same number of giveaways. Virginia only pulled down 5 offensive boards, and went 22-30 from the free throw line. Both of these numbers can be improved upon, yet neither is terrible.

But Woldetensae and Murphy III have stopped hitting threes, and McKoy has stopped doing anything altogether. Shedrick, after one great game, barely played, and as such had nothing to show for it.

The players that played well against Kent State are the players that are going to be carrying the load going forward, and the problem that seems to have developed is that maybe some of the other ones are further behind in their development cycle than we had hoped.

The big picture

As the saying goes, a win is a win. There’s no disputing that problems abound, but there are also things that the Hoos are learning to rely upon, such as Hauser and Huff. The team is starting to develop an identity on the offensive side despite some mediocre play, but are in dire need of drastic improvements on the defensive side.

With Virginia playing host to Michigan State on Wednesday (a team that suffered their own scare, against Detroit) there is a small window to fix the more worrisome deficiencies.

Virginia at present is not as good as many expected, and honestly that’s okay. They’re going to get better, and will likely be back in the top 10 at some point.

But there are a couple of very difficult games coming up, of which Virginia probably has to take one out of two. Winter is coming, and Virginia must patch some holes in their outerwear or they’ll be left exposed.

Image – UVA Athletics