Five Takeaways From Virginia Basketball's 60-57 Win Over Florida State

Virginia (15-15, 8-11 ACC) ended its home schedule on a high note, holding off Florida State (16-14, 7-12 ACC) for a 60-57 victory on Tuesday night at John Paul Jones Arena. Let's break down some key takeaways from the Cavaliers' win over the Seminoles in the home finale.

Rohde, Ames, and Saunders to the rescue

Andrew Rohde (17 points, 3 assists, 2 steals), Dai Dai Ames (18 points, 3 assists), and Elijah Saunders (12 points, 5 rebounds) accounted for 16 of Virginia's 21 made field goals and 47 of Virginia's 60 total points. Fortunately for the Cavaliers, who had struggled to find a rhythm offensively throughout the game (as we will talk more about later), that was enough to get the job done on this night thanks to a series of big plays down the stretch, including a transition three from Saunders to tie the game (mere minutes after he had taken a shot to the chin), a pair of clutch free throws from Ames in the waning seconds, and this ridiculous off-balanced three-pointer from Rohde late in the shot clock that gave Virginia the lead for good.

BAAAANG!! 💥

Andrew Rohde drills the desperation three as the shot clock expires!

📺 @UVAMensHoops x @accnetwork pic.twitter.com/1yFbJymGdE
— ACC Men's Basketball (@accmbb) March 5, 2025

Florida State goes deep as usual, Virginia tightens rotation in response

As per the usual, Leonard Hamilton's squad runs deep. 10 Seminoles saw time on the floor and nine of them scored. FSU scored 20 bench points. Virginia, in response, played maybe its shortest rotation of the season, with the five starters playing 180 of the possible 200 minutes and UVA's bench contributing zero points. Ron Sanchez acknowledged that due to Florida State's on-ball pressure, he felt Virginia needed to rely heavily on its best ball-handlers, which explains the shortened rotation. Those five players came through for the Hoos. We already mentioned Ames, Rohde, and Saunders, but Buchanan had a few scrappy plays with eight rebounds, four assists, and three blocks, and McKneely, despite his cold shooting, delivered a big-time layup to tie the game with two minutes to go.

Virginia endures scoring droughts, leans on three-point shooting

Virginia hit 11 threes and shot 45.8% from three, but this was an otherwise forgettable offensive performance for the Cavaliers. Isaac McKneely shot 1/6 from three and shot one off the side of the backboard. UVA shot below 40% from the floor and turned the ball over 14 times. Virginia had three separate scoring droughts of at least four minutes, including a drought lasting more than six minutes late in the first half. The Cavaliers were fortunate to be only down a point at halftime, as Florida State was having just as much trouble shooting the ball; otherwise the Hoos might have been staring down a much larger deficit at halftime. Give some credit to UVA defensively, but those 11 three-pointers, 10 of which came from that trio of Ames, Rohde, and Saunders, saved the night for Virginia, which improved to 8-2 on the season when making at least 10 threes.

A sentimental night at John Paul Jones Arena

Tuesday's game was an emotional one in more ways than one. It marked Leonard Hamilton's final trip to John Paul Jones Arena, as the Florida State head coach is set to retire after 23 years in Tallahassee and 34 years as a college basketball head coach. After the game, Hamilton spoke with great respect for the Virginia men's basketball program, saying it "represents all that's right in college basketball". Ron Sanchez was also complimentary of Hamilton in Monday's ACC press conference, saying, "I stand on the shoulders of men like Leonard Hamilton."

Though it remains to be seen whether Sanchez and his coaching staff will be retained next season, there seemed to be wordless acknowledgement that Tuesday night's game might have signaled the end of an era for UVA basketball in what could have been the last home game for Tony Bennett's staff at John Paul Jones Arena. Sanchez took time after the game to thank the band and the student section and expressed his gratitude to all of the staff in the program and at JPJ for their efforts this season. No one knows for sure what the future holds, but those appeared to be the actions of a man who knew it was possible that this would be his last time coaching in this building. It was great to see Sanchez, the UVA staff, and this Virginia team end the home slate of games in what has been a trying season with a victory.

Big Picture

Following Tuesday night's ACC games, Virginia is now tied with in-state rival Virginia Tech for ninth place in the ACC standings at 8-11 in conference play. More games are to come on Wednesday and then again on Saturday, but the Cavaliers are very much alive for a first round bye in the ACC Tournament, which is given to the top nine seeds in the tournament field. Virginia owns the tiebreaker with Virginia Tech due to its victory over Wake Forest (the highest-seeded common opponent that breaks the tie) and the Cavaliers are also positioned well for potential tiebreakers with the other teams around them in the standings. UVA owns the head-to-head tiebreaker with Pittsburgh and now Florida State, who are the two teams directly below Virginia and Virginia Tech in the standings. Of course, the Cavaliers can simplify things substantially by winning at Syracuse in the regular season finale on Saturday night.

Up next, Virginia wraps up the regular season on the road at Syracuse on Saturday, March 8th at 8pm ET on the ACC Network.

More Virginia Basketball News

Revisiting the Coaching Carousel: Who is UVA Competing With This Offseason?

What the ACC Tournament Bracket Would Look Like if It Started Today

Revisiting Potential UVA Basketball Head Coaching Candidates

Can Virginia Still Land Chance Mallory? Latest Recruiting Buzz

Virginia to Host "The Basketball Tournament", Kyle Guy & Kihei Clark Set to Play