Hoos Looking to Extend Stay in Charlotte

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

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — On its first night in this city, the University of Virginia men’s basketball team gathered for a sumptuous dinner at the stunning home of student-manager Wes Smith and her family.

On the Wahoos’ second day in Charlotte, the site of this year’s ACC tournament, they practiced at Queens University. The Royals’ assistant coaches include former UVA great JR Reynolds, and he made sure the Hoos had everything they needed Tuesday.

“I’m excited to see you play,” Reynolds told them afterward.

Such moments resonate deeply with Ron Sanchez, Virginia’s interim head coach.

“Our people are so loyal,” Sanchez said. “No matter where you go, you feel that UVA love, and no season was that more evident than this one. We are really thankful for the people that help us provide this fantastic student-athlete experience, this holistic experience.”

The Cavaliers arrived in Charlotte late Monday afternoon. How long they stay in the Queen City has yet to be determined. As one of the ACC tournament’s top nine seeds, Virginia received a first-round bye. Three teams were ousted from the tournament Tuesday, and four more will be eliminated Wednesday.

In the first of the second-round games, No. 9 seed UVA (15-16) meets No. 8 seed Georgia Tech (16-15) at noon Wednesday at Spectrum Center, with the winner advancing to take on top-seeded Duke (28-3) in the quarterfinals Thursday.

“As always, it’s one game at a time,” Reynolds told the Cavaliers.

Virginia closed the regular season by winning five of its final nine games. In three of those losses, the Cavaliers faced opponents (Duke, North Carolina and Clemson) with decidedly more talent, but still put forth an admirable effort.

“Their resilience has been evident this season,” Sanchez told reporters on a Zoom call Monday. “Even in games where we didn’t have a chance to win at the end, they competed all the way to the buzzer, and that’s something that as a coach you always look for in your group.”

An exception was the regular-season finale. Against a struggling Syracuse team, Virginia turned in an uncharacteristically listless performance. After a slow start, UVA’s offense eventually started clicking, but its defense struggled throughout the game. The Orange shot nearly 60 percent from the floor in its 84-70 victory.

“Our energy was very low and it was very poor,” UVA guard Andrew Rohde said afterward at Syracuse.

After the Cavaliers reviewed videotape of the regular-season finale, Sanchez said Tuesday, “I think our players were very honest. They acknowledged that that was not our best game and that we can’t bring that and expect to get great results. So they understand that that part of it is really important.”

Before leaving for Charlotte on Monday, UVA practiced at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville. They went hard for about 75 minutes Tuesday at Queens’ Curry Arena.

“I think we’ve had two good days of practice leading up to this game,” junior guard Isaac McKneely said. “We know we can’t come out flat in the ACC tournament, because everybody’s playing for their season. So, we knew we had to come out and play hard [in practice], and that’s what we’re going to do tomorrow.”

Virginia and Georgia Tech met once during the regular season, Feb. 8 at John Paul Jones Arena. McKneely scored 20 points and sophomore guard Dai Dai Ames added 18 in the Cavaliers’ 75-61 victory.

“I think the way we shared the ball, the way we moved the ball, that was probably one of our better offensive games,” Sanchez said.

Both teams have evolved since then, but at “this point in the year, there aren’t many surprises,” Sanchez said. “We are who we are. There’s so much video now. I don’t think there are any surprises anywhere. You’ve just got to be the best version of yourself and just bring a reckless abandon and a tremendous amount of energy to the game.”

UVA’s rotation includes four players who were elsewhere last season: freshmen Jacob Cofie and Ishan Sharma and transfers Elijah Saunders (San Diego State) and Ames (Kansas State). A fifth Cavalier, reserve center Anthony Robinson, was on the team in 2023-24 but sat out the season while redshirting.

In 2022-23, McKneely’s freshman season, the second-seeded Cavaliers won two games in the ACC tournament before losing to Duke in the final. In 2023-24, when they were seeded No. 3, the Hoos defeated Boston College in their first game before falling to eventual champion NC State in the semifinals.

His advice to teammates who have yet to experience an ACC tournament?

“Just one game at a time,” said McKneely, who leads Virginia in scoring (14.0 ppg). “We came here with a goal in mind to win the whole thing, but our first test is Georgia Tech, so we’re going to do whatever we can to win that game.”

McKneely was named honorable-mention All-ACC this week, as was Georgia Tech guard Naithan George, a 6-foot-3 sophomore. Another Yellow Jacket, 6-foot-9 sophomore Baye Ndongo, was named to the All-ACC third team.

Like UVA, Georgia Tech ended its regular season on a low note, falling 69-43 at Wake Forest. But the Jackets had won five of their previous six games, and they clinched the ACC tournament’s No. 8 seed before their trip to Winston-Salem, N.C.

Virginia’s season has unfolded in ways no one could have predicted. In October, on the eve of what would have been his 16^th season at the helm of UVA’s program, Tony Bennett abruptly retired, and Sanchez was promoted from associate head coach. Not long after Bennett stepped down, Jalen Warley, who was projected to start at point guard for the Cavaliers, quit the team.

Once the season started, the Hoos found their weaknesses exposed as they navigated a grueling non-conference schedule. Before the calendar flipped to 2025, UVA lost to Florida, St. John’s, Tennessee and Memphis, teams ranked Nos. 4, 6, 8 and 16, respectively, in the latest Associated Press poll.

For most of January, UVA fared little better in ACC play. After losing at home to Notre Dame on Jan. 25, the Hoos were 2-7 in the ACC and seemed likely to be one of the three teams that would fail to qualify for the conference tournament.

“We could have quit then, but we just stayed together,” McKneely said. “We’re fighting for everyone’s season.”

For the Cavaliers, the turnaround started with a Jan. 29 win over Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. They finished the regular season 8-12 in the ACC.

The loss to Syracuse notwithstanding, McKneely said, “I think we’ve been playing together, moving the ball, getting assists, getting stops on defense. I think our defense has improved a lot. We just gotta take that energy and that effort into this first game of the ACC tournament.”

One of the keys to Virginia’s improvement has been the emergence of Ames, who’s scored in double figures in 10 straight games.

It took UVA a while to figure out how best to use the 6-foot-1 Ames, Sanchez acknowledged Monday. “We played him as a point guard. We wanted him to help us run the team, and we had to realize that he was just better playing alongside a guy who could handle the ball and let him just score. So that was a learning curve for all of us in there.”

As Ames solidified his role on the offense, so did Rohde, a 6-foot-6 junior who’s become one of the ACC’s most efficient point guards. Rohde, UVA’s primary ball-hander, is averaging 4.3 assists and 1.9 turnovers per game.

Other Cavaliers, including McKneely and Robinson, have also improved markedly as the season has progressed.

“It’s all about growth and how you journey,” Sanchez said, “and our goal from the beginning was to journey well … I think that we’re continuing just to improve as a group, so I’m hoping we have a few more opportunities to do that.”

However the season ends, Sanchez said, he’ll take pride in his team’s grit and persistence. “Your character is revealed in hard situations. So for me there’s going to be tremendous pleasure and joy in knowing we pressed through and that we overcame tremendous obstacles to have these guys enjoy their season.”

The Cavaliers didn’t start the season with the goal of earning the No. 9 seed in Charlotte, but at one point they were in danger of missing the ACC tournament altogether.

“To go from being at the bottom to being in the middle, that’s huge,” Sanchez said, “because you can go from the middle to the top.”

That’s the Hoos’ goal this week.

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