Virginia Cavaliers: State of the team without Justin Anderson

By Daniel Tran | Feb 11, 2015

The Virginia Cavaliers have lost star forward Justin Anderson for at four weeks due to an injured finger. How will the team progress for the rest of the season?

When the Virginia Cavaliers won a hard fought game against the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday, it was not an overly joyous occasion with such a dark cloud hanging over the team’s head. Forward Justin Anderson suffered a fractured hand in the first half of the game and will be unavailable for four to six weeks.

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Virginia was on pace to secure their second ACC regular season title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament if Anderson had not been taken out with the injury. So there is a question that remains: How will Virginia fare for the rest of the regular season with Anderson out?

The question was discussed between Busting Brackets editor Jacob Rude and myself in the latest edition of the Busting Brackets Podcast.

Fortunately for Virginia, their remaining schedule has been set up as well as they could hope with one of their best players out for an extended period of time. For the rest of the season, they are only scheduled to face one team in the top 50 in terms of RPI, and that is Louisville at the end of the season. Of their eight remaining opponents, Louisville is also the only team with an above .500 record in ACC play.

Though it will be tough to replace the shooting ability of Justin Anderson, The Virginia Cavaliers offensive and defensive system does not rely heavily on one person. Cavaliers’ head coach Tony Bennett can easily plug in a player into Anderson’s position and that player will be in a good situation to make plays on both sides of the ball. Look for Bennett to experiment with Devon Hall, Evan Nolte, and Marial Shayok at the shooting guard position.

Carrying the load while those players get adjusted will be a group of experienced and talented players that will be able to make up for Anderson’s production. Malcolm Brogdon has led the Cavaliers in scoring this year, but look for Anthony Gill and London Perrantes to pick up the slack as well while Anderson is out.

Though the team will miss Anderson’s 36.7 percent three-point field goal percentage, the soft schedule and selfless system that Bennett has in place will help the Cavaliers sustain their success until they face a tough Louisville team at the end of the season. Come tournament time, Anderson will be back on the team and the Cavaliers will be in a good position to make another team run in the NCAA tournament.

Next: Kentucky Wildcats: Is An Undefeated Season Within Sight?

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