The Good, Bad and Ugly of Virginia Basketball’s Victory Over Stanford

The Virginia Cavaliers sealed yet another victory this weekend.

Jan 10, 2026; Charlottesville, Virginia, USA; Virginia Cavaliers guard Dallin Hall (30) drives to the basket past Stanford Cardinal forward Chisom Okpara (10) in the second half at John Paul Jones Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images | Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

The Virginia Cavaliers are officially back on track with a fresh winning streak after their loss to Virginia Tech in their ACC opener last month. Since then, the Cavaliers have defeated NC State (76-61), California (84-60), and now, Stanford (70-55).

It took the Cavaliers time to build up some momentum on the court, but they were able to pull ahead in the second half. Unsurprisingly, Thijs De Ridder led Virginia in points, while Malik Thomas and Dallin Hall led in rebounds and assists, respectively.

Having clinched another win, let's take a look a the good, the bad and the ugly of last night's contest.

The Good

Jan 10, 2026; Charlottesville, Virginia, USA; Stanford Cardinal guard Ebuka Okorie (1) drives to the basket as Virginia Cavaliers guard Chance Mallory (2) and Cavaliers center Johann Gruenloh (17) defend in the first half at John Paul Jones Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images. | Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Virginia's defense has been showing improvements in each passing game, which is exactly what Odom was hoping to see. The Cavaliers expected to encounter some challenges while defending Stanford's Ebuka Okorie, who holds an average of 22.1 points per game. Knowing who they were going to be up against, UVA really stepped up on both sides of the ball. As Odom stated during his postgame press conference:

"You know, we talked all week about guarding him with five guys and not one. Trying to keep him off balance and pick-and-roll coverages. You know, certainly, he demands a double team at times. Sometimes getting them inside. We had to test it to see, you know, with our bigs to see if he could get in there and finish over them some or kind of how that would play out. And so we were prepared to do both. And we kind of stuck with our main pick-and-roll coverage."

The Bad

Jan 10, 2026; Charlottesville, Virginia, USA; Virginia Cavaliers guard Chance Mallory (2) drives to the basket past Stanford Cardinal guard Jeremy Dent-Smith (25) in the second half at John Paul Jones Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images | Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Virginia has started to make a habit out of late-game surges, which fans and teams have started to take note of. During yesterday's matchup, the Cavaliers had a few surges before halftime, but they didn't truly start to shine until the second half. Ideally, they would be able to take an early lead in the game and maintain it. Once halftime rolled around, the score sat at 41-34 after allowing a tight score throughout the first two quarters.

"... every time the guys come over to a timeout, we remind them, okay, we won that one by, you know, two points, we won that one by three points," Odom stated. "And maybe it doesn't feel great. It wasn't a 100 run, but it was like those add up. And certainly, you know, most coaches and most teams are trying to do that, and this particular team is pretty; they understand, you know, the importance of playing every possession like it's your last."

The Ugly

Jan 10, 2026; Charlottesville, Virginia, USA; Virginia Cavaliers forward Devin Tillis (11) drives to the basket as Stanford Cardinal forward AJ Rohosy (4) defends in the second half at John Paul Jones Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images | Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

The Cavaliers found themselves in a few scoring droughts last night. Although they managed to pull ahead, such circumstances could have cost UVA the game. Bottom line, this was not the strongest game played by Virginia in terms of offense, but the defensive effort is growing immensely. Of course, Thijs De Ridder was productive with the basket, having finished with 22 points on the board, but overall, UVA seemed to hit a plateau offensively.

"Yeah, I think certainly the offense, but it's more the defense. I think in this particular game, Stanford is excellent on defense. They knock balls away, and they get turnovers on 20% of their possessions. So, we knew taking care of the ball was going to be critical tonight. And our guys did that certainly at the beginning of the second half to finish with nine turnovers, you know, was something that we had set out to do, and you know, we had a couple there at the end that none of us liked, but you know, that's part of the game. And I thought our guys did a nice job of taking care of the ball. And I think when we do that, we can set our defense. You know, we're going to get good shots and live to fight another day."