McKneely Carrying Heavy Load for Cavaliers

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

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Every time he takes the court for the University of Virginia men’s basketball team, guard Isaac McKneely draws the opponent’s best perimeter defender. Easy baskets are a rarity for the 6-foot-4 junior. McKneely has to earn his points, and he continues to do so for a team that needs everything he can contribute offensively.

“When he doesn’t play well, we struggle, so it’s important,” interim head coach Ron Sanchez said, “and he’s done a really good job of carrying that load.”

For the season, McKneely leads UVA in scoring (13.9 ppg), and he’s shooting 41.8 percent from 3-point range.

Against ACC rival North Carolina, McKneely scored a game-high 17 points Saturday. That wasn’t enough to lift the Cavaliers to a fourth straight road win. UNC bolted to a 21-2 lead and went on to win 81-66. But McKneely’s final basket, which came on a slick left-handed layup, put him over the 1,000-point mark for his career.

In 93 games as a Cavalier, No. 11 has 1,001 career points.

“First of all, I’m thrilled for iMac,” Sanchez said. “That’s a great landmark as an athlete to break.”

Asked about his feat, McKneely said, “I’m super thankful. It’s not an individual award, in my opinion, it’s a team award, because without their screens, without their passes in the pocket, whatever it is, I wouldn’t have any points at all. So I’m super thankful for that accomplishment. But it was a loss, so it doesn’t matter too much.”

Virginia (13-14 overall, 6-10 ACC) was coming off a game in which its opponent, third-ranked Duke, built a sizable first-half lead. The same thing happened against North Carolina (17-11, 10-6), but the Cavaliers looked even more out of sync early at the Dean E. Smith Center than they had at John Paul Jones Arena.

“I know we missed a couple of bunnies, a couple of layups, a couple of dunks,” Sanchez said. “Early on, those things are a bit deflating. But at the same time, it was the proper way to play. We got the kind of shots that we wanted. We just didn’t convert them.”

With the home fans in the crowd of 21,750 roaring in delight, the Tar Heels hit 8 of their first 12 shots and the Wahoos missed 9 of their first 10.

“I think we were kind of shell-shocked in the beginning,” McKneely said.

McKneely’s jumper at the 11:10 mark of the first half made it 21-4. From that point, shots began falling regularly for the Hoos, but it was too late against a UNC team that was 6 for 8 from 3-point range in the first half.

“When you dig a hole that deep, you’re going to be climbing uphill the entire game,” Sanchez said, “especially against a team that plays with that pace offensively and in transition.”

The game was the Hoos’ first at the Dean Dome since the 2022-23 season. From the players on that UVA team, only McKneely and senior Taine Murray are still on the roster.

“We know how it is,” McKneely said. “We know the electricity that gets going in here. But it’s hard to come back from 21-2, especially the way we play. I think we played them pretty evenly after that, but we can’t get a hole like that and expect to win, especially on the road.”

Over the final 31 minutes, Virginia scored 62 points, to 60 for UNC. “But we just can’t start like that,” said junior forward Elijah Saunders, a transfer from San Diego State.

Unlike in years past, the Cavaliers do not have a defense capable of carrying them in games when their offense starts so slowly. UVA cuts its deficit to seven late in the first half, only to give up a three-point play on Carolina’s next possession. The Heels went into the break leading 46-34 after outrebounding the Hoos 17-5 and recording 11 second-chance points, to zero for the visitors.

UNC punished Virginia from the perimeter. The Heels, who came in shooting 33.2 percent from 3-point range, were 8 for 12 (66.7 percent) from beyond the arc midway through the second half, and they finished 9 for 16 (56.3 percent).

“We tried a couple of different coverages, but they were able to get downhill,” Sanchez said, “and then we lost vision off the ball on some of the 3-point shooters. And then when we did have vision and close out correctly, we ended up fouling the 3-point shooters. So, that’s something that we have to definitely look at and address and try to get better [at]. We’ve got to contest the 3-point line better without fouling.”

In the second half, Virginia cut UNC’s lead to eight at the 13:29 mark but could get no closer. A string of defensive breakdowns by UVA allowed the Heels to build a 20-point lead with six minutes remaining.

“I feel like every time we got it to 10,” Saunders said, “we had a miscommunication on the ball screen, got beat off the dribble, gave up a 3 or something like that, or gave up a rebound.”

The Heels “were getting dunks, layups, all kinds of things,” McKneely said. “We’ve got to tighten up our defense. It’s not a one-on-one defense, it’s five-on-five, so we’ve got to find a way to get stops. I think we scored enough points tonight to win the game, but we’ve just got to find a way to get stops.”

Saunders, who’s in his first season at Virginia, started for the first since Jan. 25. A lower-leg injury sidelined him for three games, and he’s been slow to regain his shooting form. He’s 4 for 24 from the floor since returning to action Feb. 8.

In practice, Saunders said, he’s felt good, but in these “past four games, I don’t feel like I’ve gotten off to a good start in any of them. So just maybe the next game I can try to get off to a better start and set the tone in a better way for myself.”

UVA guard Dai Dai Ames was scoreless in the first half, when foul trouble limited him to three-plus minutes, but the sophomore guard rang up 12 points in the second half to finish in double figures for the sixth straight game. Off the bench, 6-foot-10 freshman Jacob Cofie and 6-foot-10 redshirt freshman Anthony Robinson gamely battled Carolina’s post players, but highlights were few and far between for Virginia in this one.

McKneely provided many of them, including a four-point play with 5:39 left in the first half. The Heels, determined not to let McKneely shoot the Hoos back into the game, held him to four points after intermission.

“They’re long and they’re athletic,” McKneely said. “They did a good job chasing off the screens. They’re really physical. It was a tough team to get catches and get open and find my shot [against]. So they definitely did a good job of getting in me a little bit, making it hard for me to score.”

That’s nothing new for McKneely, the top returning scorer from a Virginia team that lost two players to the NBA after last season.

“It’s a challenge for sure, but that’s what I’m here for,” McKneely said. “That’s what you come to UVA for, to play against the best. I knew coming into this year I was going to be the guy. I knew the other team’s best player was going to guard me. So I love the challenge, and I think it’s only making me better for the long run. So I’m thankful for it.”

McKneely “gets the best defender on the opposing team, and yet he still shows up and produces,” Sanchez said. “So I’m really happy for him, and he means a lot to this program. Right now he is the face of the program.”

As a freshman in 2022-23, McKneely averaged 6.7 points per game, with one start. He boosted his scoring average to 12.3 in 2023-24, when he started 33 games, and he’s expanded his offensive repertoire this season. Sanchez said there’s more for McKneely to accomplish on that front.

“Our thing with iMac has been, if your superpower is shooting the ball, then you’ve got to have something else that you go to when they take that away,” Sanchez said Saturday. “And it’s part of his game where he’s going to continue to evolve. He tried to attack the basket a little more today. It’s something he has to work on, maybe creating his own shot off the dribble, not just shooting [deeper] shots. But we’ve got to keep screening well for him, and he’s got to keep hunting shots. Again, iMac’s asked to do a lot. He plays a lot of minutes, and he’s got to guard also … But I’m proud of his efforts. One thing about iMac, he doesn’t quit. He just continues to play hard, and he’s playing with a lot of confidence right now.”

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: In a 9 p.m. game to air on ESPNU, Virginia meets Wake Forest (19-8, 11-5) on Wednesday at Lawrence Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Wake lost 85-73 to NC State in Raleigh on Saturday afternoon.

The Cavaliers have split their past four meetings with the Demon Deacons. Wake holds a 72-71 lead in the series, which started in 1911. In the teams’ most recent meeting, last February at JPJ, UVA edged Wake 49-47 despite missing 10 of 11 free throws.

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