The Plus/Minus: Virginia Basketball Hammers Bucknell

Plus

A win is a win is a win. Virginia was always going to win this game and maybe the only question was whether the Hoos were going to crest 100 points. They didn’t, but not for the efforts of Owen Odom who eagerly launched two bombs in the game’s last minute.

Plus

The only metric that mattered was how many minutes the starters played. This was Virginia’s fourth game in eight days and they are about to embark on a four-games-in-ten-days stretch. The only thing that is going to derail what looks to be a promising season would be an injury to a starter. The flip side is that we got to see a lot of the bench players. Head coach Ryan Odom is still working on his rotations and against Arkansas, Virginia went just seven deep.

Minus

Bucknell’s colors are also blue and orange. Even my son noticed how jarring it was to see the opposing team, at the JPJ no less, wearing UVa’s colors.

Plus

Thijs De Ridder has said that working on his three-point game was a point of emphasis over the summer. Boy, was it. De Ridder was 3/5 on the night and on the season is now 8/14, which is 57%. His release has, if anything, gotten quicker. He’s shooting very confidently.

Minus

Johan Grunloh’s shooting from distance has gone the opposite way: after going 0/2 on the night, he is now 1/10 on the season. You don’t need me to do the math . That’s abysmal.

Plus

Grunloh’s offseason mission was to get stronger in the post, and I would say, “Mission accomplished.” Grunloh is staying closer to the basket and he’s moving people away from the rim just with his body. He grabbed two offensive rebounds that he would not have held onto last season. Grunloh hasn’t really been tested, especially with Miika Muurinen’s foul trouble in the Arkansas game, but Johan has only committed five fouls in the first four games.

Plus

Virginia continues to hum from beyond the arc. For the fourth straight game, the Cavaliers reached double figures in made threes as they went 12/35. De Ridder, Chance Mallory and Nolan Adekunle each made a trio of three-pointers.

Plus

Elijah Gertrude suffered through what was his worst night of the young season, scoring five points on 1/3 shooting from deep. It didn’t matter. He recorded a game-high seven assists in just 13 minutes.

Plus

Jan Vide got his first extended minutes of the season and stuffed the stat sheet in his seventeen-minute stint: six points (two of the loveliest floaters in the lane you’ll see,) four assists, five rebounds, two steals. With the ball in his hands in transition, he gets down the court very quickly.

Minus

Why has Vide been kept on such a short leash? Arkansas did hunt Mallory effectively on switches. Other teams are going to as well. Against Bucknell, Virginia ran out two rotations where every player on the court stood over 6’ 6”. That’s just a lot of size out there.

Minus

Virginia was poor from the line going just 9/16. Mallory alone missed the back end of two And-1s. Best looking form of the night belonged to Kalu Anya. Lovely stroke. Looks like Ty Jerome at the line.

Plus

Late in the game, Bucknell’s Kelen Welch, who is from Richmond and presumably had friends and family in the stands, audaciously tried to post up Johan Grunloh down low. Welch is just 6’ 7”, but why not? If he’d made it, that would have gone on his personal highlight reel.

Plus

Favour Ibe is going to be fun to watch in moments like this. In seven minutes he had two flushes and four blocks. He’s 7’ 1”. You can’t coach height.

Next Up: Virginia travels to DC to take on a once-familiar foe: Maryland. The game is Friday the 13th at 8:00pm and can be seen on Peacock.

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