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The Plus/Minus: Virginia Basketball Falls to SMU in ACC Opener

The Virginia Cavaliers were outscored 25-6 down the stretch and were knocked off by the SMU Mustangs 63-51.

Val Prochaska

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Virginia crumbled down the stretch en route to a 63-51 loss to SMU in the ACC opener on Saturday afternoon in Dallas. Val's back with the Plus/Minus to break down the loss.

Minus

In 15 years at the helm of Virginia basketball, Tony Bennett never lost an ACC opener.  Well, it’s year one of the Ron Sanchez regime and that streak has been broken following a disappointing loss to SMU in Dallas.

Plus

I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen an SMU basketball game for I am sure that I missed the Jon Koncak years so it is nice to be exposed to new programs.  And that’s as Pollyanna-ish as I will get for this game.

Plus

The Cavaliers shot well from three-point range, going 8/19 from deep.  Isaac McKneely was 4/8 while four other players all connected on a three.  Outside of Kario Oquendo (4/6 from deep) the Mustangs were poor from long-range, going for 6/24 for the day.  McKneely was hunting his shot all game long and this was the prettiest of the game. 

Hold that thought, though, because that was the highwater mark for Virginia, going up 45-38 with 10 minutes left to play.

Plus

Virginia had a good night at the charity stripe, and it’s been rare for me to write that over the past couple of years.  The Hoos went 11/12 and 10/10 in the second half.  With the game on the line, Blake Buchanan, who has been, umm, adventurous at the line this year, stroked the two nicest looking free throws of the season for the last time Virginia would have the lead.

Minus

This was a game of runs, and SMU had the last run.  Virginia opened up an 8-5 lead, and then over the next 11 minutes were outscored 23-11.  Andrew Rohde, Ishan Sharma and McKneely all hit from deep and Virginia entered the break just down by two.  Virginia picked right up in the first 10 minutes of the second half on a 17-8 run culminating in that Isaac McKneely three above.  But a pair of Oquendo threes highlighted a 10-minute 25-6 beatdown as SMU cruised to a 12-point win.  For the game, there 13 lead changes and five ties, which is the kind of basketball game that Virginia used to win.

Minus

With 10 minutes left in the first half, Dai Dai Ames twisted his ankle on a contested layup.  Virginia was up 17-15.  Ames never returned.  This team is too thin at guard to be able to sustain such a loss.  Andrew Rohde ought to be a very useful role player, but he struggles when thrust into the starting role.  Twice in the last minute, as Virginia was trying to chase a five-point deficit, Rohde basically dribbled the ball off his foot.  He’s not supposed to be the lead guard, but here we are.

Read More: Matt's Takeaways

Plus

While Sanchez is playing with another’s man deck of cards, he is still doing things his own way.  At the end of the first half, Virginia got the ball back with 23.8 seconds remaining.  They had closed the half well on the strength of three consecutive threes, and Bennett would have let the team play it themselves.  Sanchez, though, called timeout and drew up a nice play.  Elijah Saunders released his shot just after the buzzer had sounded, but it went it in anyway.  It didn’t count of course, but Virginia still went into the half with a bounce in their step.

Plus

Jacob Cofie brought the energy off the bench that been absent the past three or four games.  He had two blocks, two steals and brought the energy on the floor that no one else can bring to this team.  I do like his confidence.  His first shot of the game was a badly bricked three.  I imagine the clang off the back of the rim could be heard on the concourse.  Very next possession he got the ball behind the arc, and where a less confident player would have passed it up, Cofie took the shot, because he was supposed to, and he knocked it down.

Minus

SMU is the 11th highest-scoring team in the country at 84 points/game.  Virginia held them to 63.  And yet only scored 51 points themselves, including going without a bucket the last ten and a half minutes of the game.  I came away from the Tennessee and Florida games thinking I’d seen top 20 teams.  I don’t get that at all from SMU.  And Virginia still lost by 12.  It’s going to be a long season.

Next Up:  It’s another cupcake on Thursday, December 12th as the Cavs host Bethune-Cookman.  Gametime is 7pm and the game is on ACC Network Extra.

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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.