The Plus/Minus: UVA Basketball Cruises Past Boston College

Plus

The formula for Virginia basketball is pretty simple:  make your three-pointers, stop turning over the damn ball, and be competitive on the defensive glass.

Virginia was 11/20 from beyond the arc for the game, and when the game was still competitive in the first half, Virginia shot even better, 9/15.  Isaac McKneely, who has really struggled of late, was 6/9 for the game and opened up making his first four threes.  McKneely was hunting his shot and his cuts were sharper on the night. (For good measure, iMac converted his and-1 free throw for a three-point play on his one bucket inside the arc.)  Elijah Saunders was 2/2 from deep, as was Andrew Rohde.  The game of basketball becomes much simpler when you hit your threes.

Minus

There will only be two or three more games like this the rest of the season.  Virginia just hasn’t proven themselves to be remotely consistent from three-point range.

Plus

Andrew Rohde may have had his best game as a Cavalier.  His defense on BC’s leading scorer, Donald Hand Jr., was suffocating:  Hand only got two shots on the night.  Rohde scored 16 points on 5/6 shooting (2/2 from deep and 4/4 from the pinstripe.)  He had four rebounds and six assists including this pass to a back-cutting Taine Murray.

Minus

In a rather bizarre 40-second stretch, first BC’s Donald Hand, Jr and then Virginia’s Elijah Saunders were both tossed for Flagrant II violations.  Hand started it by pushing Rohde along the baseline and then giving him a forearm shiv to the jaw for good measure.  The refereeing crew spent about five minutes reviewing the tape before ejecting Hand.  Next play down the court, as Saunders was trying to get separation from a BC player, his forearm push rose up the defender’s chest to his throat.  There was greater intent from Hand, but having just tossed Hand, the referees had no choice but to toss Saunders.   This was a net loss for Virginia as Saunders had 10 points and six rebounds as opposed to Hand who had taken just two shots and scored just five points.

Plus

Virginia won the Battle of the Boards.  (Gasp!)  The Cavaliers outrebounded the Eagles 30-23 and 7 – 4 on the offensive end.  Blake Buchanan, Saunders and Jacob Cofie each had six and Andrew Robinson had four in just 14 minutes.

Plus

In the absence of Saunders – he missed the last 16 minutes of the game – Robinson got double-digit minutes for the second consecutive game.  The Robinson/Buchanan platoon is good for both of them and they combined, again, for a double-double: 11 points and 10 rebounds.  Buchanan’s energy level has increased the past three games and he’s starting to hunt the pick and roll.

Robinson, for his part, is showing tons of promise as he also had a pair of assists.  But what I liked the most from this game are his hands on this feed from Andrew Rohde:

Let’s be honest.  Jordan Minor and Buchanan would have bobbled and lost the handle on this ball, caught at the waist as Robinson did.  And yet he finished the slam with aplomb, and that’s been a missing weapon from the Cavaliers for several years now.

Minus

ESPN.  We’ve had the ACC Network for what, eight years now?  And the production values are still poor.  Really poor.  In one commercial break, we got shown a commercial for the Chevy Equinox EV seven straight times.  The very next commercial break?  The same ad for Apple Genmoji six straight times.  It just makes the entire ACC look pathetic.

Next Up:  Virginia hosts Notre Dame on Saturday, January 25th at 6:30pm.  Notre Dame is definitely a bottom tier team this year, and with a win, Virginia can drop another team below them in the standings.  The game will be on ESPN2.