Virginia Basketball vs. Bethune-Cookman Game Preview, Score Prediction

Matt Newton | 2 Hours Ago

Virginia Athletics

After an 0-2 road trip to Florida and SMU, Virginia will look to get back on track and rebuild some confidence when the Cavaliers host Bethune-Cookman to begin a five-game homestand on Thursday night at John Paul Jones Arena.

Read on for a full preview of Virginia vs. Bethune-Cookman, including game details and notes, an opponent scouting report, what to watch for, and a score prediction for Thursday's matchup.

Virginia vs. Bethune-Cookman Game Details

Who: Virginia Cavaliers (5-4) vs. Bethune-Cookman Wildcats (2-6)

When: Thursday, December 12th at 7pm ET

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

How to watch: ACC Network

How to listen: SiriusXM 380, SXM App 970 | Virginia Sports Radio Network

All-time series: Virginia leads 1-0

Last meeting: Virginia defeated Bethune-Cookman 109-49 on December 8th, 1994 at University Hall.

Virginia vs. Bethune-Cookman Game Notes

• Virginia and Bethune-Cookman have met just once before, a 109-49 victory for the Cavaliers on December 8th, 1994 at University Hall.
• In that game, Cory Alexander led all scorers with 28 points, while Junior Burrough, Curtis Staples, Harold Deane, and Yuri Barnes all joined Alexander in double figures for UVA.
• Bethune-Cookman is the only team from the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) to appear on Virginia's schedule in the 2024-2025 basketball season.
• UVA is 5-0 all-time against current members of the SWAC, including an 80-50 victory over Texas Southern in the 2023-2024 season opener.
• Virginia is 1-4 away from Charlottesville this season, but 4-0 in games played at John Paul Jones Arena.

Scouting Report: Bethune-Cookman

2023-2024: 17-17, 11-7 SWAC (5th)
2024-2025: 2-6

Bethune-Cookman is coming off of a solid 2023-2024 campaign in which the Wildcats went 11-7 in the SWAC, qualified for the CBI Tournament, and finished with a 17-17 overall record. It's been a rough first month of this season for head coach Reggie Theus and Co., though, as Bethune-Cookman has gotten off to a 2-6 start so far, with those two wins coming against South Carolina State and North Dakota. The Wildcats have faced three major conference opponents so far, each of them true road games, and suffered a 94-61 loss to Texas Tech, a 63-58 loss to Nebraska, and a 79-62 loss to Minnesota. BCU is ranked 285th in the NET and 288th on KenPom.

In terms of personnel, Bethune-Cookman's roster is the epitome of the transfer portal era of college athletics, with four of the five leading scorers having transferred into the program this offseason, including two players who are on their fourth schools. The Wildcats are led by a pair of Washington, D.C. guards in their back court in Brayon Freeman and Tre Thomas.

Freeman, who is one of those three-time transfers as he started at George Washington, then went to Rhode Island, and then Coastal Carolina, is the team's leading scorer at 16.5 points per game and he shoots 36.4% from beyond the arc. A transfer from Hampton, Tre Thomas is the team's best three-point shooter at 40% and he averages 12.5 points per game. Freeman and Thomas take the lion's share of BCU's threes, averaging more than 10 three-point attempts per game between the two of them.

A 6'6" sophomore forward who actually started his career at Bethune-Cookman, Reggie Ward Jr. is the team's third-leading scorer at 11.0 points per game and also leads the team in rebounding, averaging 7.8 boards per contest. Joining Ward in the front court is 6'9" forward Daniel Rouzan, a junior from Las Vegas who started his career at Weber State, then transferred to Manhattan, and is now at Bethune-Cookman averaging 9.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.

Gianni Hunt is Bethune-Cookman's main facilitator on offense, leading the Wildcats with 3.8 assists per game to go along with 5.6 points per game. A 6'3" guard, Hunt is another three-time transfer, having made stops at Oregon State, Sacramento State, and Cal State Northridge before coming to Bethune-Cookman to conclude his career.

What to Watch For in Virginia vs. Bethune-Cookman

Virginia's point guard problem
As we wrote earlier this week following UVA's losses to Florida and SMU, the Cavaliers are in a difficult spot at the point guard position. Christian Bliss still hasn't played this season and now Dai Dai Ames is unlikely to be available as he suffered an ankle sprain in Saturday's loss to SMU. That leaves Andrew Rohde as the team's only point guard (and it isn't really his natural position either), and Isaac McKneely and Ishan Sharma will likely have to be ball-handlers quite a bit as well. As Virginia tries to get back on track, it's important that the Cavaliers find a way to execute consistently on offense even with what we'll call suboptimal circumstances at point guard.

No scoring droughts
Speaking of offense, when the Cavaliers take the floor for the first time since Saturday's disappointing loss at SMU, it will still have been more than 10 in-game minutes since the last time they made a field goal. Virginia squandered a seven-point lead to the Mustangs largely because of offensive ineptitude. Scoring droughts were a consistent theme under Tony Bennett, but they were especially atrocious last season and it might be even worse in year 1 under Ron Sanchez. While putting up big offensive numbers against BCU won't suggest that this problem has been solved, Virginia should make it the top priority to go this entire game without enduring one of those 5+ minute scoring droughts.

Build confidence before Memphis
This season has been about Virginia beating poor competition, then getting blown out away from home by top-tier major conference foes, then returning to Charlottesville to start that process again. Next week will bring the Cavaliers their first chance to face a "good team" (Memphis only recently fell out of the AP Top 25) at home. A blowout win over a 2-6 Bethune-Cookman squad won't mean that UVA will suddenly be favored against Memphis, but the value of confidence entering a game like that shouldn't be overlooked.

Virginia vs. Bethune-Cookman Prediction

Ron Sanchez is still figuring (a lot of) things out. Virginia's defense is a work in progress. The Cavaliers occasionally go several minutes without putting the ball in the basket. The injury to Dai Dai Ames and the lack of even one pure point guard on the roster is also a concern. But Bethune-Cookman is 2-6; UVA comfortably wins another buy-game at home.

Score prediction: Bethune-Cookman 43, Virginia 75

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