Virginia Basketball: Cavaliers poised to move past March woes in 2019
By Brian Rauf
2) Improved offense
That added versatility and new offensive weaponry have added a new dimension to Virginia’s offensive attack.
Do they still play at a snail’s pace? You bet they do.
But the Wahoos are still executing at an extremely high rate and have shown more explosiveness than we’ve seen from them.
UVA has already cracked the 70-point plateau on eight occasions this year, a good mark considering their slow style of play. That’s something they did only 12 times last year and only four times once the calendar flipped to 2018.
Heck, they’ve already had has many 80-point games as they did all of last year (three) and have put up 97 and 100-point performances (yes, Virginia scored 100 in a game! Against a good Marshall team!) on the season.
We’ve discussed Hunter (13.8 ppg) and Key (7.3) already, and both Guy (15.8) and Jerome (13.5) are playing at their usual high levels as well. They rank 16th in the country in three-point shooting and, adding to their efficiency, rank fifth in fewest turnovers per possession.
The end result? Virginia is currently seventh in the country in offensive efficiency – the highest mark of the Tony Bennett era. They’re one of only two teams (Duke) that rank in the top 10 in both adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency, showing they have excellent balance.