Locker Room Access - Virginia

Virginia (5-3) opens ACC play on the road this Saturday against conference newcomer Southern Methodist (7-2).  The game is scheduled for a 2:15 PM Eastern tipoff in Dallas, televised on CW Network.  

About SMU

The Mustangs are led by head coach Andy Enfield in his first season after coming over from Southern Cal.  Enfield took USC to five NCAA Tournaments in his 11 seasons at the helm there.  He’s perhaps more known for his earlier stint at Florida Gulf Coast, where he coached the “Dunk City” team that reached the 2013 Sweet Sixteen as a 15-seed.  

SMU enters with a 7-2 overall record.  Their best win is over Washington State.  They dropped a home game to a good Mississippi State team and lost on the road at Butler.   It’s a good offensive squad,  ranking top 20 in adjusted efficiency while scoring 88 points per game.  They’ve topped the 100-point mark three times already.   The Mustangs currently sit at 44 in the NCAA’s NET rankings, which would make this game a Quad-1 opportunity for UVA as things stand.  

As is often the case under a new coach, the Mustangs had heavy roster turnover in the offseason.  Five of their top seven players are newcomers, including four transfer additions.  It’s a pretty experienced group though, littered with super seniors. 

SMU’s Personnel

Enfield has been going with a big starting lineup lately.  Once he dips into the bench, they typically shift to a more normal three guard look for most of the game.  

G - #2 Boopie Miller (6’0” Junior, Wake Forest transfer, 15.6 points and 5.8 assists per game)

G - #0 BJ Edwards (6’3” Junior, 11.0 points and 3.3 assists per game) 

F - #33 Matt Cross (6’7” Super Senior, UMass transfer, 8.4 points and 7.5 rebounds per game) 

F - #21 Yohan Traore (6’11” Junior, UC-Santa Barbara transfer, 9.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game)

C - #24 Samet Yigitoglu (7’2” Freshman, 11.0 points and 6.6 rebounds per game) 

Point guard Chuck Harris (12.6 PPG), a four-year starter now coming off the bench in his fifth season, is shooting 46% from deep.  And Oregon transfer wing Kario Oquendo (10.6 PPG), another super senior, is an explosive athlete.  

Make Them Earn

Virginia is coming off one of their worst defensive performances of recent memory in Wednesday’s 87-69 loss at Florida.  To be fair, Florida had a lot to do with it.   The Gators scored 1.38 points per possession, the 2nd highest rate allowed by a UVA team in the last decade.  It’s safe to assume defense has been the focal point of Coach Sanchez and the staff in the days since.  

The Wahoos will obviously need to be much better to pull out a win in Dallas.  As mentioned, SMU is a high scoring team.  Transition defense, which was an occasional problem against Florida, will be important.  SMU tries to get out and run at every opportunity.  

Second chance points are a big part of SMU’s offense, ranking sixth nationally in offensive rebound percentage.  That’s been a vulnerability for UVA early in the season, although they’ve done a better job the last few games.   Those are the two defensive keys.  Make SMU play against a set defense, then limit them to one shot.  Take away the cheap points.  

ACC Debut 

We’re getting into the games that matter most now.  This is the ACC opener for both teams.  And for SMU, it’s especially significant.  This is their first ACC game ever.   If you haven’t noticed, they’re pretty excited about joining the league.  They’ll surely have a full house of energetic fans there on Saturday.  It’ll be a hostile atmosphere to say the least.  UVA will need to play with poise and not let the crowd become a factor.  

Virginia hasn’t started the season as well as hoped.  But in a way, Saturday is the start of a new season.  Everybody is 0-0 in ACC play.   The Wahoos have a streak on the line too.  Tony Bennett was an incredible 15-0 in ACC openers.  We’ll see if interim coach Ron Sanchez can keep the magic going.  

Up Next

After Saturday, the schedule slows down for exam season.  The Hoos next play on Thursday, a home date with Bethune-Cookman.  Then they’ll have the weekend off before hosting Memphis the following Wednesday, December 18th.  

For better or worse, we’ll have it covered all season long on Locker Room Access.  Be sure to tune in for the pregame show, available on YouTube and Facebook 30 minutes before tipoff.

(Featured Image Credit: Jamie Holt/UVA Athletics) 

By Josh Burton

A crucial week for the University of Virginia Men’s Basketball team begins with a major opportunity as they travel to #13 Florida on Wednesday for this year's SEC/ACC Challenge. This game is set for a 7:15 pm tipoff and will air on ESPN2.

About Florida

The Florida Gators are led by head coach Todd Golden, in his third season. Golden has a career record of 105-65. Wahoo fans may remember the Hoos beating the Gators 73-70 last season. This year, the Gators are currently off to an impressive 8-0 start, with their closest margin of victory being by 13 points.

Florida pairs a trio of senior guards in the backcourt with two very talented sophomores up front. They line up:

G - #15 Alijah Martin (6’2” Covid Senior, FAU transfer, averages 15.1 points 5.9 rebounds per game)

G - #1 Walter Clayton Jr. (6’3” Senior, averages 17.4 points per game)

G - #5 Will Richard (6’4” Senior, averages 12.4 points per game)

F - #21 Alex Condon (6’11” Sophomore, averages 12.3 points and 6.9 rebounds per game)

C - #9 Rueben Chinyelu (6’10” Sophomore, WSU transfer, averages 6.3 points and 6.4 rebounds per game)

6’9” Sophomore forward Thomas Haugh plays a key role off the bench, averaging 23 minutes per game while hitting an impressive 42.1% from three-point range so far.

Uphill Battle for the Boards

One of the biggest weaknesses for the Hoos is also one of the biggest strengths for Florida.  The Gators have been a top ten offensive rebounding unit, while the UVA struggles with rebounding have been fairly well documented and discussed. For the Hoos to stay competitive, they’ll have to match the Gators' toughness on the glass. UVA was outrebounded by 17 and gave up 21 offensive rebounds in last season's matchup with Florida, so you can be sure rebounding will have the staff's attention in preparation.

Part of the reason Florida has been so good on the glass is the jumbo frontcourt they play, with both starters over 6’10”. To combat this, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Hoos continue to get first-year Jacob Cofie a lot of minutes. Look for Blake Buchanan to try and also be aggressive, having had his first breakout against the Gators last season with 18 points and 7 rebounds.  

Hitting Shots

So far, Florida has been a very good defensive team. They defend well both inside and outside the arc so the Hoos will have to be ready to take and make tougher looks than they were seeing last week.

The Hoos have been led by their trio of starting guards: Dai Dai Ames, Isaac McKneely and Andrew Rohde. They are all averaging 9 points or better while also connecting on over 44% of attempts from the field and 50% or better from three-point range. For UVA to stay competitive in a hostile environment, the talented trio will certainly have to play at a very high level.

Conference Play on the Horizon

Following Wednesday’s contest, UVA will play their first conference game of the year.  They'll head to Dallas to take on ACC newcomer SMU on Saturday. Locker Room will have the entirety of the very eventful week covered, beginning with the Florida Pregame Show starting a half-hour before tip. 

(Featured Image Credit: Josie Drumheller/UVA Athletics) 

By Josh Burton

Coming off two disappointing performances in the Bahamas, the University of Virginia Men’s Basketball team will be back in the friendly confines of John Paul Jones Arena where they’ll host Manhattan Tuesday night. This one is scheduled for a 7 pm tip and will air on ACC Network. 

About Manhattan

The Manhattan Jaspers of the MAAC are led by head coach John Gallagher, in his second season. Gallagher has a career 179-232 record, with the Jaspers starting this year at 3-2. In their last game (an 80-79 victory over Army) they started:

G - #2 Jaden Winston (6’ Sophomore, averages 10 points per game)

G - #1 Shaquil Bender (6’2” Senior, averages 14.8 points per game)

G - #10 Masiah Gilyard (6’3” Junior, averages 8.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game)

G - #14 Wesley Robinson (6’7” Senior, averages 6.6 points and 5.4 rebounds per game)

F - #9 Will Sydnor (6’8” Freshman, averages 15.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game)

Manhattan is an undersized team, with no current rotation player over 6’8”. They rank within the bottom fifty in most metrics and truthfully shouldn’t be seen as much of a threat to keep it close. This one should be more about the Wahoos looking to correct some current issues that really showed up once they faced higher-end competition this past week.

Lineup Change?

This early season has surely been disappointing for second-year Duke transfer TJ Power. While he has been a fixture in the starting lineup, his shooting numbers have been bad while he hasn’t seemed to quite figure out his role on either end of the court. That said, he’s still a player with an extremely high ceiling who is in an early stage of his college career.  

I think the biggest issue is he’s playing out of position, as he’s being asked to match up with 3’s (generally guards in college) as opposed to going up against 4’s (forward) where he can use his versatility to gain an advantage. I also think expectations for him are higher than they should be for this season.  The lineups so far have seemed to be “get the best players onto the court” as opposed to trying to fit the player into the role best suited for them.

I’m hoping to see this change with Power moving into a key role off the bench, where he can come in at his natural position and play against some backups for opponents so that he can get more comfortable on the court. In his place I would choose to insert Andrew Rohde, who has seemingly found his shot this season and has looked much improved so far.

The big concern with playing Rohde anywhere besides point guard was the idea that it would create spacing issues if both he and sophomore guard Dai Dai Ames were on the court together. While still early in the season, the two have silenced those doubts so far.  Both have knocked down over 40% of their three-point attempts.  With spacing concerns alleviated, I prefer Rohde’s playmaking ability over the other options for the last starting spot and am hoping to see him reinserted into the lineup after proving himself off the bench the last two weeks.

Cleaning Up

There have been two glaring issues that have plagued the team,  turnovers and rebounding. The Hoos so far rank near the bottom in both turnover percentage and offensive rebounding, numbers that will certainly have to change for them to find success as the season goes on.

I’m not quite as concerned with the turnovers, as those numbers are probably a little inflated from their two difficult matchups last week. Both Tennessee and St. John's play aggressive defensive styles and are known for turning opponents over.  That said, any team could choose to up the pressure and they’ll have to be ready for it and value possessions better.  

Rebounding is the bigger concern.  They gave up entirely too many second chance points last week by simply not playing fundamental basketball and boxing out. An undersized Jaspers opponent should be good for working the fundamentals, as they’ll have to try and be quick to be able to grab boards, forcing the Hoos to have to put a body on them and box out. How the Hoos look in getting rebounding position will be something to monitor over the next couple games against lower competition.

Next

Following Tuesday night's game, the Hoos will have one more tune up before heading to Florida next week to take on the Gators. They'll host Holy Cross for a Black Friday afternoon matchup, set to tip at 4 pm. Locker Room Access will have full coverage as always. 

(Featured Image Credit: Getty)