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The Plus/Minus: Virginia Crashes and Burns at Stanford

Virginia concluded its inaugural ACC West Coast jaunt by losing to Stanford 88-65.
Val Prochaska|
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Virginia Cavaliers

Despite a bright start, and a good night shooting the 3-ball, Virgina fell.  Again.  Were there any positives, anything that can be built upon for the rest of this season?  We’ll try to answer below.

Minus

Another game, another loss for the Virginia Cavaliers, this time to the Stanford Cardinal.  Which is worse, losing to Cal, NET’s 113th ranked team by 14, or Stanford, NET’s 80th by 23?  Yeah, Stanford has Maxime Raynaud, leading the ACC in both scoring and rebounding, while Cal boasts 20 ppg Andrej Stojakovic.  But neither of these two teams are powerhouses, and both blew Virginia out in the second half.

Positive

Isaac McKneely bounced back from his 3-point outing mid-week with 22 points to lead Virginia.  Before he tossed up a pair of rushed threes as Virginia was chasing, iMac was 5/9 from deep. He ran harder, his cuts were cleaner, and he was more aggressive with the ball in his hands.  He’s leading the ACC in three-point shooting and he’s going to have a target on his back for every minute he’s on the floor, but he stepped up big this time out.

Minus

Stanford just shredded Virginia’s interior defense.  Maxime Raynaud is the real deal, and he just happens to be 7’1”.  Virginia, as is par for the course, tried to double him in the post.  It didn’t work.  Raynaud gets the ball out his hands very quickly and he had three assists to go with probably three more hockey assists.  As the ball was pinging around the perimeter just about everyone in the Virginia defense lost sight of their man and Stanford had pretty easy back doors to the basket.  For the game, Stanford scored 40 points in the paint.  The defense is so broke, the team even played one possession in a zone.

Plus

Virginia had a good game from deep, going 10/21.  The Cavaliers started out hot, five for six from beyond the arc in the game’s first eight minutes as McKneely and Ishan Sharma both were 2/2 from three.  A weak free throw shooting team, Virginia had a good night from the line, going 13/16 led by TJ Power converting all four his free throws.  47% from three.  81% from the charity stripe.  That ought to be good enough for a win, shouldn’t it?  Or at least a more competitive loss?

Minus

It’s not like Stanford rained fire from three.  The Cardinal were 10/24 from deep, and while they were better at the line (16/17,) it wasn’t like the Cavaliers surrendered 35 free throws like they did against Cal.  The difference was that Stanford took a whopping 16 more shots than Virginia.  They had a 14-6 lead in offensive rebounds and held a 12-6 turnover margin.  Stanford didn’t shoot any better, they just had way more opportunities.

Plus

Coach Ron Sanchez was dealt a crap hand by Tony Bennett’s departure, but he is rolling the dice, in this, his presumed sole season at the helm of Virginia’s men’s basketball.  Freshman Ishan Sharma got his first start and he responded well, canning his first two tries from deep.  He played a season-high 32 minutes and added three rebounds and three assists.  Given that Taine Murray had his third consecutive non-factor game, it is probably time to give more time to the guy who is going to be here next year.

Read More: Five Takeaways

Minus

This Virginia team is also just snake bit.

Virginia got the ball off a missed free throw with nine seconds remaining in the first half and Andrew Rohde tried to slip the ball into a cutting Blake Buchanan in the paint.  With three seconds left, Jaylen Blakes scooped up the ball, ran forty feet and threw this up as the clock was sounding.

Then, as, believe it or not, Virginia was showing some life, the defense had a strong 28 second stand, Stanford lost the ball, and then Chisom Okpara picked up the ball and tossed this in, again, at the buzzer.  A career 28% three-point shooter?  Unreal.

Plus

Jacob Cofie had a decent game:  11 points on 4/7 shooting and five rebounds, three of them offensive.  He’s now had two consecutive games of double-digit scoring against non-cupcakes.  But he mitigated his effectiveness by committing four fouls, two of them coming in less than a minute to open the second half.

Minus

With the loss, Virginia falls to 8-8 on the season and 1-4 in the ACC.  Virginia could very well end up with a losing season overall and it’s looking very possible that the Hoos will have a losing ACC record.  Last week the staff here at Cavaliers on SI opined that Virginia was NIT bound.  That is a seemingly optimistic take at this point.

Next Up: Virginia returns home to host SMU, and hopefully exact revenge for double-digit loss in December.  The game is Wednesday, January 15th; game time is 9:00pm.  The game is available on the ACC Network.

More Virginia Basketball News

Five Takeaways From Virginia Basketball's 88-65 Loss to Stanford


The Plus/Minus: Virginia Stumbles on the Road to Cal

Five Takeaways From Virginia Basketball's 75-61 Loss to Cal

Round Robin: Evaluating UVA Basketball at Near Midway Point of the Season

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

Report: Former Virginia Guard Dante Harris Transfers to Memphis

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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 nine 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.

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