The Plus/Minus: Wisconsin Thumps Virginia

Virginia suffered its first loss of the season on Monday at the Fort Myers Tip-Off, falling to Wisconsin 65-41. Val has the Plus/Minus to break down what led to UVA's lopsided loss to the Badgers.

Minus

Well, that was ugly. Virginia tied the score at 2-2 off a lovely Reece Beekman feed to Ryan Dunn. 32 seconds later Wisconsin’s Max Klesmit scored as the 30-second buzzer was sounding and the Badgers never relinquished the lead. Klesmit’s shot was more prayer than anything. When shots like that falling, it was going to be a tough road for the Cavaliers.

Plus

Isaac McKneely returned to the lineup following a game and a half missed due to an ankle strain. He didn’t seem any worse for wear.

Minus

Wisconsin absolutely bludgeoned Virginia under the boards, holding a 20-3 edge in offensive boards alone, and running that surplus to 48-21 overall. In a sign of what would come, down by eight in the first, Virginia gave up an offensive rebound to a Wisconsin player who was sitting on the deck.

There are two problems here.

Ryan Dunn is trying to block too many shots from the weak side. He had five on the night, so he’s had some success. But if he misses, it means he’s coming down when someone needs to be going up for the rebound.

The second problem is that Coach Tony Bennett apparently does not know how to use Jordan Minor. I don’t know if that’s on Bennett or if that’s on Minor, but playing Jake Groves at the 5 against someone like Wisconsin’s seven-foot, 250-pound Steven Crowl is a loser’s proposition. Groves’ defensive effort is off the charts; I’ve been very impressed with his energy, but he simply cannot body up someone that big and strong.

Minor isn’t tall, but he’s got 30 pounds on Groves. And 20 pounds on Blake Buchanan for that matter. When the game was still up in the air, Minor got one single, solitary minute on the court. Surely he couldn’t have done any worse.

Minus

Virginia was abysmal from the floor, shooting 4/14 from deep and 15/36 overall. I can’t really tell what Virginia is running on offense, but the only real movement came from Isaac McKneely. Groves had a poor night shooting the ball, but late in the game when Virginia was chasing the game, Groves had a couple of decent looks – and decent was the best Virginia was getting on the night – and he passed them up. I think he got in his own head. He had lots of company, though.

Minus

This poor outing was a team effort. The bench scored a whopping four points on a collective 1/13 night. Beekman led all scorers with 17 points. The next highest scorer for Virginia? Well, McKneely, Dunn and Andrew Rohde combined for 20.

Plus

Virginia was perfect from the line going 7/7. It didn’t provide much of an advantage for the Hoos as the Badgers did pretty well themselves, going 7/8.

And that's about the only plus I can think of for this game.

Minus

Virginia made one run in the second half. Beekman got a steal and took it home. Dunn got a steal and then scored off a Beekman feed. Virginia forced a shot clock violation. Buchanan did a really nice job getting one of the team’s three offensive boards on the night and then Beekman converted with an and-1. After having been down by 10 at the half and letting that deficit balloon to 12 points, Virginia was back within five points, 35 – 40.

On the next two trips down the court, Beekman went to Buchanan. BB showed some nifty footwork and he got one good and one decent shot, but Steven Crowl blocked one and bodied Buchanan on the other. Crowl was too much for Buchanan, and really, too much for the Cavaliers. After closing to those five points, Wisconsin went on an 11-0 run and the game was effectively over.

Minus

Virginia made Wisconsin look pretty good tonight, and I don’t think that this Wisconsin team is particularly good.

Minus

When the AP Top 25 came out today, Virginia was ranked No. 24. So every Virginia fan site quickly ran a story about the team’s entrance into the standings. That didn’t last long.

Up Next: Virginia enters the loser’s bracket of the Fort Myer’s Classic and will play West Virginia on Wednesday, November 22nd at 6pm on FS1.

Subscribe to the Cavaliers Now Newsletter to receive UVA sports news in your inbox first thing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

To stay up to date on all Virginia Cavaliers sports news, follow CavaliersNow on social media:

Facebook: @CavaliersNow
Twitter: @CavaliersNowFN

See more Virginia men's basketball news and content: Virginia Men's Basketball on Sports Illustrated

See more Virginia sports news and content: Virginia Cavaliers on Sports Illustrated