The Plus/Minus: UVA Basketball Dominates Pittsburgh

Dai Dai Ames played his best game of the season and led Virginia to their most complete game of the season against Pittsburgh 73-57.
Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
In this story:

After spotting Pittsburgh am early 4-1 lead, Virginia scored 17 straight points to blow the game wide open and Pitt never recovered.  At last, a fun game to write about.

Plus

A win is a win is a win.  The Virginia Cavaliers traveled to Pittsburgh to take on a Panthers team that needed this win.  Pitt is squarely on the bubble with a NET of 35 (in a supposedly down year for the ACC) and possessing a “Last Four In” designation from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.  The Cavaliers are playing for pride at this point in the season (and maybe Ron Sanchez’s job,) but Pitt is playing for the opportunity to go to the Big Dance.  Unfortunately, Virginia counts as a Quad 3 loss this season. Pitt needed this game, but Virginia pummeled Pitt in every aspect of the game for their best win of the season.

Plus

Dai Dai Ames’ career-high was 16 points, which he had reached twice in his young career.  He had matched that by halftime, nearly equaling Pitt’s halftime score.  (Pitt made seven baskets in the first half; Ames had six by himself.)  Ames would score 27 points on 11/16 shooting, including 3/6 from beyond the arc.  He didn’t take a bad shot all game and when Pitt ran out a rather hapless press, Ames wasn’t fazed at all.

Plus

Joining Ames in backcourt excellence, Andrew Rohde logged another stellar performance.  Rohde scored nine points on 3/5 shooting from deep, grabbed seven rebounds, and dished out nine assists.  Without a single turnover.  For those keeping count, and I surely am at this point, over the past 11 games, Rohde has 57 assists to just eight turnovers, which could be the best streak in Virginia history. [Memo to myself: verify that].

Minus

Ishan Sharma is getting lost in the rotation shuffle the past couple of games.  He’d been playing about 20 minutes a game but he played just 12 minutes against Virginia Tech and then nine minutes against Pitt.  His late-game heroics at Tech – 4/4 from the line as the Cavaliers were chasing the game late – should have earned him more time, but he got afterthought minutes this game.  I get that Ames was the hot hand and that Rohde was in the midst of his nine-assist gem, so it would have been hard for Sanchez to take either of them out.  Isaac McKneely had a down game and he would lose more minutes than normal due to Ames’ play, so no minutes there.  Apparently Sanchez thought Sharma had some defensive lapses against Tech,  and while it’s perfectly appropriate to hold a player accountable for play on both sides of the court, getting only nine minutes in a decisive victory seems punitive.  Coaching 101:  keep your shooters confident.

Plus

Blake Buchanan is continuing to show the growth and development that we all wanted to see last year.  It’s just taken him longer to find his footing but he’s finally playing with confidence.  He logged a season-high 38 minutes, which he could because he avoided silly fouls, and he had a double-double: 10 points and 11 rebounds.  He also two assists, including this gem:

This perfectly illustrates the energy he’s bringing to the team: he’s crashing the offensive glass and he’s the first one to hit the deck for a loose ball.  Yeah, Buchanan is not as strong as I think he should be, and he still needs to get a jump shot, but this version we’re seeing now looks like the kid who was Mr Basketball for Idaho.

Read More: Matt's Takeaways from the win.

Plus

Virginia is running! The Cavs had 12 fast break points against the Hokies and had six more (though it felt like more) against Pitt. Easy buckets are good.

Plus

Virginia wore orange. 

Corey Alexander has been peddling the story that early in the Tony Bennett tenure, Virginia wore orange in a 30-point blowout to Duke and never wore orange again.  Bennett doesn’t strike me as that superstitious.  If what you wore mattered, he would have long returned to the shirt, tie and jacket he wore when Virginia was at it’s best.  Nah, I just think Bennett didn’t like orange and so he was always out of step with Virginia, opting to make us look like Penn State instead.  Orange and blue are Virginia colors and I’m glad to see Sanchez free orange from the Bennett doghouse.

Plus

Virginia led this game 34-19 at the half.  Pitt came out with a little more energy in the second half and played with more intensity and they had a better night shooting the ball, but Virginia had an answer every time Pitt put together a couple of buckets.  There were no oh-so-infamous scoring droughts on Virginia’s part.   Pitt never got stops.  Five different players scored eight or more points for Virginia.  After shooting 56% in first half, Virgina shot 55% in the second half.  After going 4/7 from deep in the first, the Cavs went 6/13 after the break.  It was a complete game performance from a team that has delivered very few of those this season.

Plus

Full highlights here. Go ahead, enjoy them. It's been a long time coming.

Next Up:  Virginia hosts Georgia Tech on Saturday, November 8th at 5:30pm.  The game will be on the CW.

More Virginia Basketball News

Five Takeaways From Virginia Basketball's 73-57 Win at Pitt


Coaching Carousel: Who Will Virginia Battle for Top Coaching Candidates?

Virginia Honoring Tony Bennett During Georgia Tech Game on February 8th

Reevaluating Potential Virginia Basketball Head Coaching Candidates

What's Going on With Christian Bliss? Ron Sanchez Finally Gives an Answer


Published |Modified
Val Prochaska
VAL PROCHASKA

Val graduated from the University of Virginia in the last millennium, back when writing one's senior thesis by hand was still a thing. He is a lifelong fan of the ACC, having chosen the Tobacco Road conference ahead of the Big East. Again, when that was still a thing. Val has covered Virginia men's basketball for seven years, first with HoosPlace and then with StreakingTheLawn, before joining us here at Virginia Cavaliers on SI in August of 2023, continuing to cover UVA men's basketball and also writing about women's soccer and women's basketball.