Cavaliers Now

The Brilliant Numbers Behind Andrew Rohde's Recent Point Guard Play

In praise of Andre Rohde, who is having a year like no other Virginia point guard.

Val Prochaska

Aaron Snyder
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Andrew Rohde is having himself some kind of year.

Over the last 12 games and dating back to the December 12th game against American, Rohde has dished out 67 assists while turning the ball over just 8 times.  Let that sink in for a second.  Over what amounts to about one third of a season, Rohde has a 8.38 assist to turnover ratio.  Reece Beekman, by way of comparison, who led the ACC in assists two of his last three years, sports a career 3.20 assist/turnover ratio.

It gets better.  Rohde last committed a turnover on the very first possession of the Notre Dame game.  The subsequent 28 minutes were error-free.  Against Virginia Tech, Rohde posted a seven assist, zero turnover statline over 32 minutes.  He had an even better performance versus Pitt going nine assists to zero turnovers in 35 minutes, and he duplicated that with a nine-assist, zero-turnover line against Georgia Tech across 34 minutes on Saturday.  If you’re doing the math, that means that Rohde has reeled off 129 consecutive minutes without a TO.  In ACC play, Rohde boasts a 5.42 assist to turnover ratio, leading the league and dwarfing Duke’s James Sion who has a 3.92 ratio.

"I think Rohde is playing fantastic basketball at the point guard position," said UVA interim head coach Ron Sanchez after the win over Georgia Tech on Saturday. "He's really settled in. He's the guy that calms us. He's kind of been the tip of the sword. He's doing a really good job of taking care of the basketball. Really proud of his efforts to do that and it's really helping the team in a big, big way."

You could say it’s a small sample, and you would be right, but at one point, Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak was at just 12 games.  Rohde has been superb, even moreso when you consider that I don’t think he’s naturally a point guard (but that is an argument for another day.)

I wanted to go back and try to see how this stacks up in Virginia’s annals to see if anyone else had ever had a streak like this.  I started with Virginia’s top 10 leaders in assists, plus Ty Jerome for good measure.

Name

Assists/Turnovers

Asst/TO Ratio

Kihei Clar

718 / 339

2.12

John Crotty

683 / 347

1.97

Reece Beekman

636 / 199

3.20

Jeff Jones

598 / 280

2.14

Sean Singletary

587 / 402

1.46

London Perrantes

569 / 211

2.70

Donald Hand

529 / 386

1.37

Othell Wilson

493 / 299

1.65

Harold Deane

468 / 304

1.54

John Johnson

426 / 218

1.95

Ty Jerome

384 / 145

2.65

(By way of comparison, Rohde has a 2.38 A/TO ratio during his time in a Cavalier uniform.)

I couldn’t readily find game logs for John Crotty, Jeff Jones, Othell Wilson, Donald Hand, Harold Dean or John Johnson but for the guys who played this century, I looked to find what their best streaks were. 

To recap:  Andrew Rohde, 12 games, 67 assists, 8 turnovers, 8.37 A/TO ratio.

**  Kihei Clark had a 10-game streak, 49 assists vs 16 TOs, 3.87 ratio

**  Reece Beekman had 10-game streak, 69 assists vs 14 TOs, 4.93 ratio

**  London Perrantes had a four-game stretch, 29 assists to 3 TOs, 9.67 ratio (Rohde’s best 4-game stretch is 27 assists to 1 TO.)

**  Sean Singletary is the best scorer on this list, but ball security wasn't his thing

**  Ty Jerome had an 11-game streak of 96 assists vs 26 assists for a 3.69 ratio

For the stats-are-weird file:  Rohde is in his third year.  Every one of the above streaks occurred in that player’s third year.

The players on this list are among the greatest players ever to don a UVa uniform.  Maybe there is some player who only played a year or two, or else a very careful off-guard, who might have put up similar numbers, but that seems unlikely.  I’m fairly confident that Rohde is in the middle of the most prodigious streak of any Virginia ball handler.  For good measure, he’s playing while hurt, and on the season, he’s knocking down threes at a 41.1% clip (as well as converting from the charity stripe at an 80% rate.) 

When asked about what has clicked so well for Rohde handling and distributing the ball recently, he humbly deflected the credit to his teammates.

"As we get more comfortable running our offense the right way, and you know, I'm playing with guys who make tough shots, I try to put them in positions where they can score and they always seem to make hard shots and things like that," Rohde said on Saturday. "They make my life easier."

It was fashionable in Virginia circles last season to bash Rohde and bemoan the minutes he got alongside Reece Beekman.  I don’t do the former but was certainly guilty of the latter.  Mea culpa.  Andrew Rohde has done precisely what fans of collegiate sports purport to say they want: he has grown and matured right under our very eyes.  It is time to recognize him for what he is: one of the most singular performers in the ACC this season.

Mea culpa indeed.

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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 seven 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.