NCAA Basketball Power Rankings: Butler, Villanova rising for the Big East

Virginia just isn’t very good right now. It’s that simple. Their defense is easily still one of the best in the nation but they are not able to consistently score enough to beat good teams. Additionally, all it takes is an outlier shooting performance by a mediocre team to beat them.

During this past week, the Cavaliers suffered their second loss of the season in a home game to South Carolina. This caused the team to continue its drop in efficiency metrics and their adjusted offensive efficiency rating now sits at 180th in the nation.

Virginia ranks 347th in 3-point percentage, 264th in offensive turnover rate, and 310th in FTA/FGA. Those are really poor numbers and pretty encapsulate the issues for this team right now.

I want to remain a believer in the Cavaliers due to their spectacular defense, but it’s hard to do given their offensive struggles. The ACC is not all that strong this season so Virginia should compete near the top of the league but making the second weekend will be a tough task.

Moving forward, Virginia absolutely needs to find some offensive consistency and that starts with taking care of the ball. The Cavaliers already play at a slow pace in low possession games so they can afford to be turning the ball over at their incredibly high rate so far this season. The team’s lack of perimeter shooting is its most well-documented weakness but turnovers are the most pressing issue.

They simply do not even give themselves a chance to score on over one-fifth of possessions.