Virginia’s second and final game at the Mohegan Sun’s Bubbleville will be televised on ESPN, which is important because I don’t know that I could have survived another FloHoops production. Seriously, as fun as Wednesday’s season opener was, it was marred by the terrible production quality of FloHoops, the lowlight being the conversation between the announcers and the “guys down in the truck” that somehow got on air.
Alright, got that out of the way. Now we can talk about the actual game that’s going to take place on Friday, one which should be at least a little bit more competitive. While San Francisco went down by a score of 76-68 to UMass Lowell in their first game of the season, the Dons defeated Towson by 11 the next day and have the pieces to potentially keep it close for a while. Let’s delve into the game.
The case for San Francisco
While opponent number one Towson was a team composed primarily of underclassmen (they started four sophomores), San Francisco is made up of upperclassmen, with coach Todd Golden starting all juniors and seniors on Wednesday. San Francisco is a team with experience, and regardless of conference or overall talent, any veteran team is worth being wary of.
The other thing that raises some concern about this game is the performance of Khalil Shabazz against UMass Lowell. Shabazz scored 31 points in 30 minutes, going 10-20 from the field and sinking all 8 of his free throws, and is no doubt going to be a player to keep an eye on over the course of the contest. His only help against UMass Lowell came from fellow guard Jamaree Bouyea, who went for 15 points and 4 assists in 34 minutes. Bouyea went for 20 points and 6 assists in the following game against Towson, while Shabazz couldn’t hit the ocean from the beach, going 2-11 from the field.
If it wasn’t clear from those stats, Bouyea is the distributor, a rock solid point guard, while Shabazz is the streaky shooting guard who’s always looking for his own shots. If those two get hot, the Dons might be able to keep it close for a while.
Why Virginia wins
While the two aforementioned guards seem to be rather solid players, the rest of San Francisco’s team is simply not. Those two were the only scorers in double-digits in their season opener, and San Francisco shot a horrendous 19.2% from beyond the arc in their first game. That was one of the main factors in their loss, and not a good sign for any team playing the stingy Wahoo defense.
Virginia’s guards should be able to handle San Francisco’s without much trouble on both ends of the floor, and Sam Hauser will inevitably dominate the poor forward that he’ll be up against.
At the center position, San Francisco does have a 7-footer of their own, but he’s a non-factor on the offensive end and if Jay Huff plays close to his normal form he’ll have himself a day. KenPom has USF at 85th in AdjD, and while those rankings are still influenced by last year, 85th isn’t going to be good enough to stop this UVA offense.
San Francisco was actually leading by 6 points at halftime on Wednesday, but ended up allowing UMass Lowell to drop an astounding 52 on them in the second half. Virginia should steamroll their opponents on the offensive side of the ball and stymie them on the defensive.
Things to watch for the Hoos
Wednesday’s opening game taught us a lot about this Virginia team, but some questions will continue to be answered in the coming weeks. Those questions pertain to rotation, shooting, and defense, and it’s a long list. But there are a few that are particularly compelling, especially for this upcoming game.
The first and arguably most interesting of these is the question over the rotations, more specifically the starting lineup. As all coaches do, Tony Bennett likes to play around with his personnel in the opening stages of the season. Justin McKoy getting the start was a shocker yesterday, and it’ll be interesting to see whether McKoy gets the nod a second time.
As far as unknowns go in the lineup, there are few if any more intriguing questions than at the secondary guard spot. Casey Morsell’s defense is probably the first or second best on the team, and while his offense looks better, there’s still a ways to go in that department. Meanwhile, Reece Beekman got a lot more minutes than expected yesterday, and as the season progresses the minutes those two get will be fascinating.
The third thing that we should be keeping an eye on is who’s scoring from deep. With so many good three-point shooters on this team, it’ll be interesting to see who steps up in each respective game. Hauser, Huff, and Murphy all looked good from three-point range in the Towson game. Clark and Woldetensae are the other two who are expected to be knockdown shooters, and hopefully we see both of them start hitting treys sooner rather than later.
There are certainly a wide range of other questions for Virginia in this game and going forward, but those are three of the more intriguing ones that we should get a sense of the answer to. Ultimately, it should be another easy win for the Wahoos, but it should still be a fun one as we continue to figure out this team early on in the season.
Image – AP Photo