The Plus/Minus: Virginia Blitzed by Memphis

Memphis jumped out to a 13-1 lead in the game’s first four minutes. Virginia never fully recovered and fell to the Tigers 77-54

Virginia suffered a 77-54 loss on the road at No. 23 Memphis on Tuesday night at FedExForum. Val has the Plus/Minus to break down what we saw from the Cavaliers in the lopsided loss. 

Minus

Virginia was clobbered from the get-go by an experienced Memphis team that brought in 10 transfers this year. All the scouting reports said that David Jones was a beast; well, he played like an All-American on this night. He scored 10 of Memphis’ first 25 points. As I wrote in my log book that perhaps Ryan Dunn should guard him, Dunn did. Only for Jones to blow by him and make a contested short jumper. For the game Jones scored 26 points, the fifth straight game he’s gone over 20 points.

Minus

Memphis was just better than UVa. In the first half, Virginia’s ball security was OK, but Memphis turned six turnovers into 16 points. They were ruthless in transition. For the game, Virginia turned the ball over 18 times, which Memphis converted into 27 points. Memphis pressured full court for most of the game. Isaac McKneely and Andrew Rohde were exposed as secondary ball-handlers. This would have been a game tailor-made for Dante Harris, who is still wearing a boot on the sidelines.

Plus

Jacob Groves had good night on the offensive end. He scored 12 points on 5/7 shooting, including 2/3 from beyond the arc. He was also part of defensive effort that did a good job at protecting the defensive glass as the Hoos surrendered only six offensive rebounds. Didn’t really matter though. Those six offensive rebounds led to 14 second-chance points for the Tigers.

Minus

This is a broken record, but this team sucks at shooting the long ball. Reece Beekman went 2/3, as did Groves. And that was it for the team. The rest of the guys went 0/13. I have yet to figure out what McKneely is supposed to do to get open. Most of his attempts are catch-and-shoots from the ball being passed around the perimeter. In other words, the least efficient three there is.

Plus

Leon Bond III had six points in 22 minutes and +/- of -4. In a 23-point loss that’s pretty good. Stop me if you’ve read this before here, but Bond simply has to play more. Virginia has scored 56 and 54 points in their last two games. This is not enough offense to win games given that Virginia typically gets pushed around on the boards. For the second straight game, Rohde has failed to score a point.

Minus

You can’t fault Elijah Gertrude’s energy. He played like someone who missed all of his senior year in high school due to an ACL injury, playing as if he could compress what should have been a season’s worth of highlights into the 11 minutes he played. But the stage was too much for him at this point, the crowd too raucous.

Minus

This loss is on Coach Tony Bennett. This was the 11th game of the season, and yet it was just the first true road game. The men were overwhelmed from the tip-off til the final buzzer. For the most part, this has been an underwhelming out-of-conference slate for the men. Florida and Wisconsin were both neutral turf and Texas A&M and Syracuse were home. The other seven games, all of them buy games, are home. A game against a team this good at their house should have happened much sooner in the schedule.

I might be a little triggered by the schedule we’ve played thus far because this was the same problem for the Virginia women’s soccer team: a bunch of cupcakes at home and uninspiring competition from the “bigger” schools they played. It led to a team unprepared for the rigors of the ACC. I fear that could be true for these men.

Bennett’s very first call tomorrow should be to Dan Hurley at UConn. Hurley has been bleating very publicly about his travails trying to find someone who will enter in a home-and-home series with the reigning champs. This team needs that level of competition; not a game against Morgan State at home. 

Minus

After falling behind 13-1, the Cavaliers did claw back into the game, at one point late in the first half getting within a single point following a pair of McKneely free-throws. The deficit at the half was six points. A comeback was doable. Except that on two consecutive defensive stands on baseline in-bounds, Virginia surrendered a pair of the widest-open back door layups you’ll ever see from a Bennett-coached defense. They followed that with an equally egregious back door in the run of play. The lead ballooned to 11 points 3.5 minutes into the second half and the game was effectively over. It was the earliest Virginia has been out of a game since Gonzaga three years ago.

Next: Virginia hosts Morgan State on Wednesday, December 27th. Game time is 7pm and the game will be carried on the ACC Network. 

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