Cavaliers Return to Winning Ways at JPJ

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — They flew home from the Bahamas on Saturday and were back in the gym on Sunday. For the Virginia Cavaliers, another intense practice followed on Monday as they worked on correcting the mistakes that had plagued them at the Baha Mar Hoops Championships in Nassau.

“When you get beat by 20-plus [points] two times in a row, it’s hard to come back the very next day after a long road trip to the Bahamas and get back to practice,” junior guard Isaac McKneely said Tuesday night after UVA’s 74-65 win over Manhattan at John Paul Jones Arena.

“That’s probably the last place you want to be, but I think we all had good attitudes about it,” McKneely said. “We knew we had a lot to work on, we watched the film, we took it to the chest, and I think the two practices that we had leading up to this game were really good.”

The Wahoos faced two talented teams in the Bahamas and faded in each game. Late Thursday night, UVA was competitive for the first 20 minutes against then-No. 11 Tennessee but unraveled in the second half and lost 64-42. Against then-No. 22 St. John’s the next night, Virginia trailed by 13 at the break en route to an 80-55 defeat.

Virginia attempted 48 shots from beyond the arc and scored only 26 points in the paint in the Bahamas. In a Nov. 15 win over Villanova in Baltimore, the Cavaliers shot 56 percent from 3-point range, but they missed many more than they made against Tennessee and St. John’s.

“Sometimes in the Bahamas, I think we were a little stagnant on offense and just relying on our 3-point shooting,” McKneely said. “Against Villanova, we shot the ball really well, but when we don’t shoot the ball well, that’s going to hurt us.”

Back at JPJ, the coaching staff altered the team’s offensive approach and worked to shore up Virginia’s trademark Pack Line defense.

The Cavaliers (4-2) never trailed against the Jaspers (3-3), but it wasn’t the most convincing of victories. After Virginia built a 16-point lead with 9:15 remaining, Manhattan fought back. Twice in the final four minutes the Jaspers cut their deficit to six, but McKneely’s third and final trey, with 1:11 remaining, made it 68-59, and the Hoos went 6 for 6 from the line in the last 61 seconds.

“Give them a lot of credit,” Manhattan head coach John Gallagher said. “There are a lot of teams in America that are figuring themselves out.”

Virginia is one of them. The Cavaliers’ roster includes only one senior (Taine Murray), and four of the players who saw time Tuesday night were not in the program last season.

“We’re not the most experienced age-wise [or] experienced as far as having a large number of games together, so we are learning each other,” interim head coach Ron Sanchez said.

After the team returned to Charlottesville, there “were some things that we addressed via video that were just schematic things,” Sanchez said, “and there were things that we had to address that were mental and physical. We wanted to do a much better job of rebounding, taking care of the basketball, and our transition defense. Those are probably our three most direct areas of focus the last two days.”

Coming off two one-sided losses, “it’s really hard to show up on the court again and put up enough energy to get it done,” Sanchez said. “So I’m really proud of our guys for going through that, identifying things that we as coaches told them they needed to work on, and diligently working and trying to be better in those specific areas. As long as we have that level of posture, we’ll continue to journey forward and we’ll improve every single game.”

Five players scored in double figures for the Cavaliers: McKneely (18 points), junior guard Andrew Rohde (14), sophomore center Blake Buchanan (11), sophomore guard Dai Dai Ames (10) and freshman forward Jacob Cofie (10). Junior forward Elijah Saunders contributed eight points and a team-high six rebounds.

Ames, who had a game-high five assists Tuesday night, and Saunders joined the program this year after transferring to UVA from Kansas State and San Diego State, respectively.

Rohde, who’s in his second season at Virginia, started for the first time since the Nov. 6 opener. He replaced sophomore forward TJ Power, a transfer from Duke, in the starting lineup and turned in a sterling performance.

The 6-foot-6 Rohde, who was 6 for 9 from the floor, showed off an effective floater and came up with a game-high four steals. He was 2 for 2 from the line and turned the ball over only once.

“He’s a glue guy, intangible guy,” Gallagher said. “He’s a guy that if you close your eyes and think about Virginia, you would think about someone with his characteristics: the toughness, the grit he plays with, the 50-50 balls, the big shot.”

Rohde, who began his college career at St. Thomas, a mid-major program in Minnesota, shot 29.3 percent from the floor for Virginia in 2023-24. Through six games this season, he’s at 54.8 percent overall and is 7 for 15 from 3-point range. His 14 points Tuesday night were the most he’s scored as a Cavalier.

“I just think he’s way more confident this year,” McKneely said. “Last year he didn’t shoot the ball great, and I think he was in his head a little bit, but this year he’s coming out firing, coming out really confident. He’s doing a great job when he’s in there at the point guard leading us, controlling the game. I’ve always said that about Rohde. He controls the game so well and he’s one of the best passers I’ve ever played with, so it’s a pleasure to play with him. But he needs to continue to play with that confidence, because when he does it really helps us.”

Rohde’s transition from the Summit League to the ACC wasn’t a particularly smooth one. “I think just the level of play was a lot different from what I was used to,” he said, “and it was definitely an adjustment. But I’m blessed to be in such a great program with people around me who always supported me. They supported me through everything, so I’m grateful for that.”

Virginia attempted only 14 treys on Tuesday night, to 26 for Manhattan. The Cavaliers finished with a season-high 42 points in the paint.

“That was the game plan for today,” Sanchez said.

UVA’s defensive lapses helped the Jaspers stay connected. Manhattan’s offense produced multiple open looks from beyond the arc. The Jaspers made 11 of them.

“They open you up,” Sanchez said. “They didn’t have the physicality of a Tennessee or St. John’s, but their bigs could shoot it better or shoot it just as well. So when you have guys that can screen and separate and put you in rotations, those things are a little harder to defend. We didn’t do a great job of it, but I think we did a decent job. And we’ll grow from here.”

In this era of player movement in college hoops, “just like offense, defense takes time,” Gallagher said. “You get continuity. And that’s what I see. I see Virginia as a team that just keeps getting better.”

On defense, Rohde said, “I think we’re getting better each day. Practices have been pretty intense these past couple days. And we have a lot of young and inexperienced guys. So [it’s important] for us as upperclassmen just to kind of show them the ropes and show them what it means to play Virginia defense.”

The Cavaliers have “a lot of guys new to the system,” McKneely said, “and it’s early in the season, so you know I’m hoping by January, February we’ll have it figured out.”

To his team, Sanchez said, “I talk a lot about shared experiences, and you have to go through these things in order to come out on the other side. You can’t navigate this. You can’t get better unless you travel the road. This tough road is required. It’s required.”

UP NEXT: At 4 p.m. Friday, UVA (4-2) hosts Holy Cross (4-3) at JPJ. Holy Cross is coming off an 80-55 loss at Maine on Sunday.

This will be the first-ever men’s basketball game between the Cavaliers and the Crusaders. Holy Cross, whose campus is in Worcester, Mass., competes in the Patriot League.

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