Locker Room Access - Virginia

Virginia and 22nd ranked St. John’s look to bounce back from losses on a quick turnaround as they face off in the consolation game of the Baha Mar Hoops Championship in Nassau, Bahamas.  Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 PM Eastern Friday, televised on CBS Sports Network. 

St. John’s lost a double-overtime thriller to 13th ranked Baylor in Thursday night’s opening game of the event.  While Virginia fell by a final score of 64-42 to 11th ranked Tennessee.  

About St. John’s

St. John’s is led by Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, in his 2nd season at the helm.  Pitino has won a pair of national titles at Kentucky and Louisville.  He’s trying to become the first coach to lead six different programs to the NCAA Tournament. 

The Red Storm are 4-1 on the young season, suffering their first loss Thursday at the hands of Baylor.   Through five games, they rank 24th nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency and 12th on the defensive end.  The roster features a blend of four new transfer additions in the rotation to go along with several key returners from last year’s 20-win squad.  

St. John’s Personnel 

Pitino has built a very athletic team with lots of multi-positional players.  The line between guard and forward is blurry, especially once they dip into their bench, as they’ll rotate interchangeable pieces at the SF and PF spots.  Thursday’s starters were as follows. 

G - #5 Deivon Smith (6’0” super senior, Utah transfer, 10.4 points and 5.4 assists per game)

G - #7 Simeon Wilcher (6’4” sophomore, 10.0 points per game)

G - #1 Kadary Richmond (6’6” super senior, Seton Hall transfer, 9.8 points 6.2 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game)

F - #12 RJ Luis Jr (6’7” junior, 17.2 points and 7.4 rebounds per game)

F - #24 Zuby Ejiofor (6’9” junior, 11.2 points 5.8 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game)

Senior combo forward Aaron Scott (11.4 PPG), a North Texas transfer, came off the bench to pour in 20 points against Baylor.  And UVA will need to take notice when sophomore forward Brady Dunlap (9.2 PPG) enters the game.  He’s out there to shoot, hitting 53% from deep this season.  

Know The Shooters 

St. John’s isn’t a high volume three-point shooting team.  But as they showed by hitting 14 triples against Baylor, they’re capable of outbursts.  The unusual part is that most of their attempts come from frontcourt players, not guards. 

The ball will usually be in the hands of either Deivon Smith or Kadary Richmond.  Those are the creators.  Neither of them want to take a bunch of long jumpers.  Both are low volume three-point shooters, Richmond in particular.  They’re threats, low 30s career percentages, you can’t ignore them out there.  It’s just not what they do best, and they know it.  

Their shooting comes from the group of wings they’ll rotate in at the SF and PF positions.  Aaron Scott (43%) and Brady Dunlap (53%) lead the team in attempts, followed by starting forward RJ Luis Jr (35%).  That trio combined for 10 of their 14 made threes on Thursday.  

Matching Up

Kadary Richmond of St. John’s is a matchup nightmare, for just about everyone.  He’s a long 6’6” athlete with point guard skills.  Very crafty at using his size to his advantage.  The former Syracuse guard is nearly impossible to keep out of the lane, and just really good at making plays or finding open teammates.  Pitino loves running their offense through him.  

UVA will probably try to have forward Elijah Saunders defend Richmond, when the lineup allows.  That’s the tricky part, because it’ll only be situational.  More often, Andrew Rohde or Isaac McKneely will need to take on the challenge.  It’s a tough assignment for any of them.

On the other end, Richmond is their top perimeter defender.  Expect McKneely to be dealing with his length for most of the night.  

Show Progress

No sugar coating it, Virginia looked awful on Thursday night.  Credit Tennessee.  They’ll do that to you.  The Volunteers completely disrupted anything UVA tried to do offensively.  They’re a really good team.  But it was still a pretty pitiful performance from the Wahoos.  They shot under 30% from the field, committed 18 turnovers, and were dominated on the glass.  Defense kept them close for a half before the floodgates inevitably gave way. 

The Hoos will be a sizable underdog again in this one.  St. John’s is currently favored by 11.5 points.  While not elite defensively like Tennessee, they’re athletic and present some of the same problems.  The Johnnies will pressure and try to force turnovers so they can get out in transition.  And they like to crash the offensive glass.  Both areas that hurt UVA badly on Thursday.  

More than any stat, Wahoo fans just want to see their team play with poise and compete.  We all understand that there will be early season growing pains, and some of the issues should clear up with time.  But that doesn’t make scoring 42 points acceptable.  Hopefully, the beatdown will result in a team better prepared to compete tonight.   

Up Next

After returning from the Bahamas, Virginia will have two home games next week against Manhattan (2-2) Tuesday followed by Holly Cross (4-2) next Friday.  

Don’t miss the Locker Room Access pregame show, starting 30 minutes before tip as always.  Streamed live on YouTube and Facebook.  

(Featured Image Credit: Jamie Holt/UVA Athletics)

By Josh Burton

After passing their fist true test of the season with flying colors in a 70-60 win over Villanova last Friday, the University of Virginia Men’s Basketball team is now 3-0 and heads to The Bahamas for a matchup with #11 Tennessee Thursday night as part of the Baha Mar Hoops - Bahamas Championship. This game is scheduled for a 9:30 pm tip and will air on CBS Sports Network.

About Tennessee

The Tennessee Volunteers of the SEC are led by head coach Rick Barnes, in his 10th season. Barnes has a career 810-415 record, including a 206-101 record at Tennessee. This season, Tennessee is 4-0 including a win on the road at Louisville in the first weekend of the season.

Tennessee is a team with a lot of upperclassmen but also a couple new transfers. Five of their top six players are seniors (the sixth is a Junior), with two of their starters being new transfers. They line up:

G - #5 Zakai Zeigler (5’9” Senior, 15.5 points and 7.8 assists per game hitting 47.6% from 3-point range)

G - #2 Chaz Lanier (6’4” Covid Senior, North Florida transfer, 13.8 points per game hitting 50% from 3-point range)

G - #15 Jahmai Mashack (6’4” Senior, 7.8 points per game)

F - #7 Igor Milicic Jr. (6’10” Senior, Charlotte transfer, 14 points and 6.3 rebounds per game)

F - #34 Felix Okpara (6’11” Junior, Ohio State transfer, 9.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per game)

Wahoo fans should remember Milicic, who started his career at UVA before transferring to Charlotte after his first year. Fans and players aren’t the only ones familiar with Igor. He also played under current UVA head coach Ron Sanchez while Ron was coaching Charlotte. 

6’3” Senior guard Jordan Gainey also plays a key role for the Volunteers off the bench, averaging 11 points per game.

Guarding the Guards

Tennessee’s attack begins with the very talented guard group. Zeigler is viewed as one of the best lead guards in the country while Lanier is a bucket getter capable of scoring from just about anywhere on the court. To match up, I’m expecting the Hoos to use a lineup including both Dai Dai Ames and Andrew Rohde for heavy minutes.  

Rise of Rohde

Speaking of Rohde, maybe no better time to reinsert him into the lineup than coming off maybe his best performance as a Hoo last Friday against Villanova. After having set out the previous game, Rohde came off the bench and put up 13 points (3-5 from 3) 4 assists and 3 rebounds. Rohde looked more comfortable in a role where he wasn’t expected to be the primary ball handler and played with a lot of confidence. His new found shot making ability will be something to monitor going forward.  The more of a shooting threat he is, the easier it becomes to play him alongside Ames and the better the Virginia offense will be.

Long Range Spike

Rohde isn’t the only Hoo capable of knocking down shots. As a team, UVA is currently fourth in the entire country hitting 44.6% from deep. With that, their 3-point rate is currently good for 75th in the country, a far cry from last year's 294th ranking. So far both the new offense that was hyped all season and the reputations of incoming players has matched the hype and should be monitored as one of the biggest storylines of the season going forward.

Valuing the Possession

The Hoos have had trouble with turnovers early in the season. They currently rank 225th in turnover percentage. Part of the issues could stem from so many new pieces being worked in and could come down as they continue to gel, but it is still a concerning data point that needs to be monitored and adjusted for going forward. Tennessee boasts one of the best defenses in the country and has no problem playing an aggressive physical style that can feast on the opportunities if the Hoos aren’t sound with the ball. Limiting turnovers will be critical for any chance at success in this one.

Quick Turnaround

As part of this year's multi-team event (MTE), there will be a second game played Friday night. The time and matchup will depend on the results from Thursday's other game, but the Hoos would either play #13 Baylor or #22 St. Johns.

With every other team in the field being ranked, this should be an excellent opportunity for the Hoos to pick up a marquee win. How are you feeling about what you’ve seen so far? Be sure to join the Locker Room Access pregame  show, starting at 9 pm Thursday.

(Featured Image Credit: Josie Drumheller/UVA Athletics)

By Josh Burton

Self-inflicted mistakes kept the University of Virginia football team from being able to keep the game competitive as they lost 35-14 to #8 Notre Dame in South Bend. The Hoos now sit at 5-5 (3-3 in ACC play) and have two chances to pick up a sixth victory and earn bowl eligibility.

Special Teams

I’m going to start with special teams because special teams were where the issues began. Chris Tyree couldn’t control the opening kick and Notre Dame recovered to get an immediate turnover and start their offense on the UVA 25 yard line. This play kind of set the tone for how the day was going to go, with multiple miscues by the Hoos forcing the defense onto the field suddenly and with a very short field to defend. 

The mishandles continued as Ethan Davies also fumbled on a punt return, although he was able to recover. The mishandles spread over to Notre Dame as well, as their return man muffed a fair catch that was recovered by Jonas Sanker.

Offense

The story of this game was mistakes by the Hoos, mainly stemming from offensive issues. Give credit where due, Notre Dame has one of the best defenses in the entire country, but most of the mistakes felt more like miscues from UVA than plays made by the Irish. An inability to move downfield was the big concern, as Notre Dame started four drives on the UVA side of the field and had an additional drive start from the 50.

Three of these short field situations came due to the struggles of quarterback Anthony Colandrea. Colandrea had three interceptions on the day, all coming with under four minutes left in the second quarter that resulted in short drives doubling Notre Dame's lead from 14 to 28 and essentially sealing the contest. These mistakes probably could have been avoided, as it felt like Colandrea’s inability to see the field and desire to make a play put him in situations where he was over aggressive in trying to force the issue. Senior QB Tony Muskett replaced Colandrea for the second half and played fairly well, throwing for over 100 yards and scoring both of the Hoos touchdowns. It’ll be interesting to see which way Coach Elliott decides to go against SMU next week.

Outside of the passing game, the run game had its issues as well. The biggest impact run of the day was quickly negated as Kobe Pace fumbled at the Notre Dame 12 yard line while the score was still 7-0. Ball security should be the main focus for the Hoos offense in practice this week.

Defense

Although the score doesn’t necessarily reflect it, I thought the defense played a great game. I thought they did a good job of disguising their rush and coverages and kept the Notre Dame offense in check for much of the game.

As mentioned earlier, the short fields and quick turnarounds made it tough for them to keep up the good play. Notre Dame dominated the time of possession with 34 minutes of control and over time the defense wore down.

But even with all that in mind, the defense played well. I thought the secondary did a pretty good job of containing the Notre Dame wide receivers and the pass rush did well in keeping the passing game uncomfortable. Trey McDonald was able to snag an interception near midfield on the opening drive of the second half. The Hoos also managed to hold Notre Dame to just 1-12 on third downs, although the Irish did convert 3-4 attempts on fourth down. 

Next

Going forward, the two big storylines are who will play quarterback and how healthy are the Hoos. During yesterday's game, multiple key players had to leave with various injury issues.

Next Saturday is senior day as the Hoos host #14 SMU and look to gain bowl eligibility. Locker Room Access is honoring two local senior standouts with Malachi Fields and Jonas Sanker gear available. Every dollar goes directly to the players, if you haven’t ordered yours yet you can find it here