The Plus/Minus: UVA Basketball Thumped by Louisville

Tony Bennett owned Louisville, regardless of whether Rick Pitino or Chris Mack was at the helm. Louisville is back, sitting second in the ACC standings (though a pair of wins against a hapless Virginia team helps.) For yet another game, Virginia was outclassed across the board.

Minus

Losing is taking its toll on the Cavaliers. Virginia has crossed the line from playing controlled, reserved, smart basketball – hallmarks of 15 years of excellence under Bennett – to just flat out getting out-hustled. Four times in the first half, while the game was still up for grabs, Louisville players hit the deck or crashed into spectators scrambling for loose balls. These are the plays that winners make, floor burns be damned. Teams that don’t think they can win stop making these plays, and that’s where Virginia is now.

One play stood out. With 14 minutes left in the second half, Louisville up 17, Louisville threw the ball away. As the ball was bouncing out of bounds, Andrew Rohde decided to let it go out, thinking it was more of a sure thing than maybe mishandling it himself. It was the composed play to make. Only Terrence Edwards Jr. wanted the ball more. He brushed past Rohde’s screen, crashed into the scorer’s table, and pushed to ball back to Rohde. Who was standing on the line. Ball out to Louisville. Edwards just wants the ball more, even with Louisville up 49-32. Multiply this 15-18 times a game, and you get the margin of victory.

Plus

Virginia coach Ron Sanchez is trying everybody to see who can change the team’s fortunes. Dai Dai Ames is seemingly out of the doghouse: 27 minutes today, 28 minutes vs SMU. Jacob Cofie is starting ahead of Blake Buchanan. Anthony Robinson played a career-high 14 minutes. Taine Murray, six games away from his double outbursts vs Memphis and American, played three minutes. TJ Power got a Green-team minute against Louisville. I have to give credit to Sanchez for trying, but he’s most likely just re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Minus

On the other hand, Sanchez has no rotation. Generally players do better when they know how much they’re going to play and in what sort of situations.

Minus

A tale of two shooters. Virginia’s Isaac McKneely, despite slumping since the turn of the year, is a career 42% shooter from deep. Louisville’s Reyne Smith, making the jump from the College of Charleston, is second on the active leaderboards for most made threes. McKneely went 1/5 from deep while Smith was 4/11. When the game was still close, Smith was 3/5 and was fouled on another three-point attempt. He went to the line and canned all three free throws. When the game was still close, Louisville’s shooter had scored 12 points; Virginia’s shooter had taken just one shot (which he missed.) McKneely is Virginia’s best player, but that gulf in production is simply too great for the rest of the Cavs to overcome. The game’s defining moment came just eight minutes in. Blake Buchanan grabbed a great offensive rebound, fed the ball out to McKneely for the three, but he missed. Louisville’s next possession, Smith came down and canned his three for an 18-10 lead. The game was basically over at that point.

Plus

In 34 minutes, Robinson and Buchanan combined for 16 points and 10 rebounds, three of them offensive. The pair also took 10 free throws which means they were rolling strong to the rim. They are in the baby-steps portion of their careers, but they are making them and showing signs of improvement. Buchanan played with more energy and more emotion than any other Hoo, and while I normally think emotion is overrated, this team needs all the emotion it can get.

𝗟👀𝗞 𝗢𝗨𝗧#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/VM1X6TLxN0
— Virginia Men's Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) January 18, 2025

Come on and 𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐌#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/UF1gHgofEd
— Virginia Men's Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) January 18, 2025

Minus

The Pack Line is in shreds. Watching Louisville out there reminded me of the Lob City Clippers. The Cards had six lobs thrown down for slams, five of which involved Virginia defenders egregiously losing their man.

Plus

Elijah Saunders had a good game and he had a game-high 19 points to go with 10 rebounds. He made his first two threes, and was 3/6 overall. Presumably he transferred to Virginia to work on his defense, and it let him down today. He had four fouls, which limited his effectiveness, and unfortunately, they were all of the sloppy footwork and needless reaching. In other words, the kind of defensive plays he came here to learn NOT to do.

Read More: Aidan's Takeaways

Minus

Looking at the box score, the game looks like it should have gone Virginia’s way. The Cavs outshot the Cards from the floor 47% to 43% and from deep – 8/21 compared to 6/23 for Louisville. Virginia had more assists than Louisville, fought to a standoff (mostly) off the glass, and they went to the line 19 times. All that, right? And the game wasn’t remotely close. I wrote game over at the 10 minute mark of the first half.

Plus

I presume by now that is all but official that Ron Sanchez will not be back next year as head coach. If AD Carla Williams has any class, she will at least interview him, but that will be pro forma at best. This team isn’t good enough to compete in the ACC.

The good news is that whatever you may think of the free-transfer, NIL era we find ourselves in, it is going to be easier for any incoming coach to build a team back to contention that it ever has been. And Louisville is a case in point. Pat Kelsey has this team humming. They are good, and they are experienced. And they are 100% his team. Two total points, scored by a walk-on last year, are all that returned to Louisville this season. Gone are the days when the new coach has to come in and start recruiting 10th-graders on his vision, and then having to wait for those kids to matriculate.

A good coach can turn around the program in a season. Now, that good coach needs a better eye than Virginia’s staff had. The Armaan Franklins, Jordan Minors, Jacob Groves and Jayden Gardners of the world aren’t going to move the needle. But Pat Kelsey ought to give every Virginia fan hope for the future.

Next Up: The men host Boston College on Tuesday, January 21. Game time is 7:00pm and the game is on the ACC Network.

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