Virginia Basketball Falls to St. John's 80-55 | Key Takeaways

Matt Newton | Nov 22, 2024

Virginia Athletic

Virginia suffered a lopsided loss in The Bahamas for the second night in a row, as the Cavaliers (3-2) were run off the floor by St. John's (5-1) 80-55 in the consolation game of the Baha Mar Hoops Championship on Friday night at Baha Mar Convention Center.

Here are our five takeaways from UVA's loss.

There's a sizable gap between Virginia and the good teams in college basketball

Let's get the worst news out of the way first. The Cavaliers were outclasssed in the Bahamas, losing the two games by a combined 47 points. They were run off the floor by Tennessee, run off the floor by St. John's, and probably would have been run off the floor by Baylor, too. With no undue disrespect to Villanova, these were the first "good" teams Virginia has faced this season and the Hoos looked more than a few tiers below the teams they shared the court with. There's still time for UVA to improve, win games, and have a semi-successful season, but this team's shortcomings in talent, playmaking, and athleticism were exposed over the last two days and they aren't going anywhere.

More turnover problems

Against Tennessee, Virginia turned the ball over 18 times and the Volunteers scored 30 points off of those takeaways. Against St. John's, Virginia turned the ball over 16 times and the Johnnies scored 18 points off of those turnovers. UVA was consistently faced with on-ball pressure and consistently struggled against that pressure, both with the full-court press and in the half-court. The Cavaliers are getting up the floor faster, but not on their own terms, and they are still playing at a glacier's pace in terms of actual offensive tempo. If Virginia is going to continue to play Tony Bennett's "Embrace the Pace" style, the Cavaliers cannot afford to turn the ball over this much.

The game turns on a Virginia scoring drought and a big St. John's run

We have no doubt that the Johnnies would have ultimately pulled away to win this game anyway, but the Cavaliers let the game spiral out of control in the first half when they went nearly eight minutes without scoring. During that stretch, the score went from 19-16 to 35-16 as St. John's capitalized with a 16-0 run and the game was basically over after that. Tennessee similarly used an 18-0 run to put Virginia away on Thursday. "New" offensive system or not, UVA does not have the talent or offensive game plan to overcome deficits like that. That's how so many games got out of hand for Virginia last season and this team seems to be headed in that direction again.

Outmatched in the paint

Virginia was outmatched physically by both of its opponents in The Bahamas and that extends both to UVA's inability to face on-ball pressure while handling the ball on the perimeter (which we've covered already) and to the Cavaliers' failure to compete in the paint. Tennessee outscored Virginia 28-14 in the paint and scored 19 second-chance points off of 18 offensive rebounds. St. John's outscored Virginia 40-12 in the paint and scored 13 second-chance points off of 11 offensive rebounds. If things don't change, these are the types of statistical disadvantages the Cavaliers will find themselves facing all season long.

Bright spot: Andrew Rohde

As we did after the Tennessee game, we're going to allocate one of these takeaways to a bright spot. We found only one and that was Andrew Rohde, who delivered another quality showing as he slowly tries to win over the UVA fanbase. Against St. John's, Rohde scored 11 points, made three of his four shots, including 2/2 from beyond the arc, and was 3/3 from the free throw line. Rohde is 7/12 from three-point range in his last three games, all against major conference competition. It's maybe emblematic of UVA's sad state of affairs that Rohde is the bright spot here, but he is playing well recently.

More Virginia Basketball News & Content

The Plus/Minus: Virginia Gets Skunked by Tennessee in The Bahamas

Virginia Basketball Falls to Tennessee 64-42 | Key Takeaways

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UVA Basketball Report Card: Evaluating Virginia Through Three Games