The Plus/Minus: Virginia Takes Down Hampton

Plus

A win is a win is a win, even if you’re playing the MEAC’s Hampton. While this team boasted some size, which is unusual for the cupcake brigade, it’s still hard to learn much from such underwhelming competition. For comparison, on this night Louisville took on #9 Kentucky while Florida State played reining champion and current #10 Florida. Outside of Texas in the SEC v ACC Challenge, the stiffest non-conference competition the Hoos will face is Maryland.

Plus

I expect that Chance Mallory will be a constant Plus in these columns. I think he’s already the best player on this roster. Coming off the bench, Mallory scored 16 points in just 20 minutes. He was 4/6 from the field and a perfect 6/6 from the charity stripe. For the third straight game, he canned a pair of three-pointers and is now converted of six of eight three pointers for the season. He grabbed three rebounds, handed out two assists and had three steals. He also had the two most noticeable hustle plays on the night.

Plus

Ryan Odom for keeping Charlottesville native Chance Mallory home. Mallory had committed to Tony Bennett 18 months ago but re-opened his recruitment when he heard that Bennett was stepping down. Odom wasted no time in securing Mallory’s commitment. He will spend this year biding his time behind Dallin Hall, but the keys to the UVa bus will be his for a long time.

Plus

Uganna Onyenso had a game high 18 points, and with his 10 rebounds earned his first ever double-double. He was an ultra efficient 8/10 from the field which included him converting two of three from beyond the arc, his very first ever three pointers. And unlike Thijs De Ridder, he doesn’t appear to need the ball in his hands.

Plus

The ball movement was crisp, better than it was in the past two games, largely, I think, due to Onyenso’s breakout game. De Ridder is a ball-dominant big, and while he’s got decent post moves, he does slow the game down. Onyenso is much quicker getting his shot off.

Highlights

Minus

I don’t write prediction pieces because most of them would be wrong. But I did read every article written about the players, all eleven of them, who would be new to this team. Most made it sound like every one of these players was going to be successful at this level, and we know this is not going to be true. Some, maybe most, are going to struggle as they move up. The issue is figuring out who is going to succeed and who is going to struggle. The one player that had the general consensus that they would be a force at this level was Malik Thomas. Well, through three games he is struggling. He did score 11 points but this was a near 40-point win. He was 2/6 and 1/3 from deep and got most of his points at the line going 6/6. (He does have very nice shot, he’s going to be automatic from the line.) He’s pressing. He had three turnovers and he only got to the line thanks to two very soft foul calls. The ACC is going to be a little more rough and tumble.

Plus

After two mediocre games shooting the three, Virginia shot 11/22 from deep as four different players had more than two: Mallory, Onyenso, Jacari White and Sam Lewis.

Plus

A solid night at the charity stripe as the Cavaliers were 14/17 led by Mallory and Thomas both going 6/6.

Minus

Johann Grünloh was considered a potential second-round draft pick and he reportedly came to Virginia to increase his odds of getting into the first round. I don’t see it. He’s tall, so the counting stats say he got his four blocks, but if Hampton had any success against the Cavaliers, much of it was 6’ 4” Michael Ely going right at him under the rim. He doesn’t look particularly fluid and he has yet to connect on a three-pointer through three games. At this point, he looks like a poor man’s Jay Huff to me.

Plus

Mallory picked up his second foul with about eight minutes left in the first half. Odom brought him back into the game after the 4 minute media timeout, trusting that he wouldn’t pick up a cheap third foul. After years of watching Tony Bennett foul out his players in the first half, this is a refreshing change.

Plus

It’s three games into the Ryan Odom era and the Hoos have scored 80+ points in all three games. In Tony Bennett’s entire career here, Virginia only ever had one string of three consecutive games with 80 points. Odom talked about playing faster, but here we are and Virginia has had 62, 63 and 62 possessions. Bennett ball averaged about 60 possessions per game. The difference is that everyone, apart from pass-first PG Dallin Hall, Virginia has seven guys who look like they could score 15 points.

Plus

And speaking of scoring, Virginia had three runs of ten or more straight points. It all comes down to versatility.

Next Up: Virginia hosts Marshall on Saturday, November 15th at 12 noon. The game will be on ACC Network Extra.