Virginia vs. North Carolina A&T Game Preview, Score Prediction

After a big win over Florida on Friday, the Cavaliers return home for the first of two mid-week games at John Paul Jones Arena

After earning a big victory over Florida on Friday in Charlotte, Virginia returns home for a pair of mid-week non-conference games this week at John Paul Jones Arena. Read on for a full preview of Virginia vs. North Carolina A&T, including game details and notes, an opponent scouting report, what to watch for, and a prediction for Tuesday night's matchup. 

Game Details

Who: Virginia Cavaliers (2-0) vs. North Carolina A&T Aggies (0-2)

When: Tuesday, November 14th at 7pm ET

Where: John Paul Jones Arena (14,623) in Charlottesville, VA

How to watch: ACC Network Extra

How to stream: fuboTV (Start your free trial)

How to listen: SiriusXM 384, SXM App 974 | Virginia Sports Radio Network - click here for affiliates

All-time series: Virginia leads 1-0

Last meeting: Virginia defeated North Carolina A&T 94-50 on November 30th, 1994. 

Game Notes

• Virginia and North Carolina A&T meet for the second time ever and for the first time since November 30th, 1994, when Junior Burrough, Cory Alexander, Curtis Staples, and Jason Williford led Virginia to a 94-50 victory at University Hall.
• Virginia will face two opponents this season who are members of the newly rebranded Coastal Athletic Association (formerly the Colonial Athletic Association): North Carolina A&T and Northeastern
• UVA last faced a CAA opponent on November 11th, 2022, beating Monmouth 89-42. 
• Virginia is 167-50 (.770) in non-conference play under Tony Bennett. 

Opponent Scouting Report: North Carolina A&T

2022-2023: 13-19, 8-10 CAA
2023-2024: 0-2

North Carolina A&T parted ways with head coach Will Jones in August of 2022, leaving assistant coach Phillip Shumpert as the team's interim head coach for the entire 2022-2023 season. With lots of turmoil in the program, the Aggies went 13-19 that season, including an 8-10 mark in CAA play. NC A&T hired Monte Ross as the program's new head coach. Ross spent the previous three seasons as an assistant at Temple, but served as the head coach at Delaware for 10 seasons before that, leading the Blue Hens to the NCAA Tournament in 2014. 

As is the case with many mid-major programs, the Aggies start their season with a series of tough road games. North Carolina A&T was blown out at Pittsburgh 100-52 in the season opener and then fell at UNC Greensboro 94-78 last Friday to fall to 0-2. 

Given those two defeats, North Carolina A&T doesn't look great so far on paper. The Aggies are shooting 27.4% from beyond the arc on high volume, attempting 31 threes per game. Their 65.8% free throw percentage is only slightly better than Virginia's (which has been an alarming early-season weakness of the Cavaliers). NC A&T is currently ranked 355th out of 362 teams in the Kenpom rankings. 

The headliner for the Aggies is 6'2" sophomore guard Landon Glasper. He'll be on the floor most of the game and has taken nearly twice as many shots as any of his teammates this season. Glasper is averaging 19.0 points per game and has attempted 23 three-pointers in the first two games, but has only made five of them. He'll have his hands full as he goes against Reece Beekman on Tuesday night. 

Joining Glasper in the back court is 5'10" sophomore guard Camian Shell, who is averaging 10.0 points per game. 6'4" junior guard Kyle Duke came off the bench in the first two games, but that could change soon as Duke is currently the team's second-leading scorer at 11.5 points per game. 

In the front court, one player to keep an eye on is 6'6" graduate forward Jeremy Robinson, who played his high school ball at Paul VI in Chantilly, Virginia. Robinson is joined by 6'8" forward Evan Joyner and 6'9" freshman Nikolaos Chitikoudis, who is the tallest player on North Carolina A&T's roster. It'll be interesting to see how Virginia chooses to match up against these forwards since the Aggies don't have any bigs with enough size to force the Cavaliers into specific lineups. 

What to Watch For

Any changes to the starting five for Virginia?

Virginia went with a starting five of Beekman-McKneely-Rohde-Dunn-Groves for each of the first two games. Obviously, Beekman, McKneely and Dunn are virtually unchangeable and Rohde has played well so far through two games. Jake Groves is the wild card. He's been valuable as a stretch four on offense, but he can't play center on defense - that much was evident in the Florida game. Meanwhile, Blake Buchanan is coming. The true freshman played well against Florida's capable bigs and UVA will need him to play significant minutes in key games throughout this season. It's better for him to get as much experience as possible before those games arrive, so even though Virginia might not need it for this particular matchup, we could see him slide into the starting lineup sooner rather than later. 

What do the minutes look like for Jordan Minor and Leon Bond III?

The beginning of Jordan Minor's time at Virginia has been rather unceremonious. He played just 11 minutes in the opener and didn't play at all against Florida despite many (myself included) thinking he was going to be UVA's starting center at least to begin the season. If Minor is going to have a role for the Cavaliers this season, he'll have to show Tony Bennett and the UVA coaching staff something in these less consequential early-season non-conference games. 

Meanwhile, Leon Bond III followed up his brilliant 12-point, nine-rebound collegiate debut by playing less than five minutes against Florida on Friday. That likely had to do more with the matchups than anything else, but Bond can and should have a key role for Virginia this year, and he should have opportunities on Tuesday night to pick up where he left off in the opener.

Three-point shooting and free throw shooting trends

It's an admittedly small sample size, but Virginia has been solid from beyond the arc so far. UVA's 42.5% three-point shooting percentage as a team ranks 27th in Division I and the Cavaliers have four shooters - Beekman, McKneely, Rohde, and Groves - who look like they could be reliable from the perimeter. Can they keep it up? 

Free throw shooting, on the other hand, has been the exact opposite. Virginia is 60.3% from the charity stripe as a team, which ranks 295th out of 350 Division I college basketball teams. That must change. 

Prediction

Anything can happen in college basketball - Virginia knows that better than anyone. But it would be one of the more shocking upsets of the college basketball season if Virginia lost this game. Hoos move to 3-0. 

Score prediction: Virginia 81, North Carolina A&T 49

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