Virginia Basketball: 3 key storylines in Cavaliers matchup vs San Francisco

Transition

Another thing that both teams are on opposite spectrums on. Sure, Virginia gets a few transition baskets but they do most of their operation on the defensive end and in the half-court on the offensive end. San Francisco as mentioned goes fast and does a lot of work in transition. The Cavaliers are going to try and limit San Francisco to just running their offense in the half-court.

If Virginia fails to limit the Dons in transition this game could end up bad for Virginia. It needs to be said that even in the worst matchups for the Cavaliers like this one appears to be on paper.  Head coach Tony Bennett always seems to get his team ready to play and they play such aggressive and unbelievable pack-line defense. Many a good offense has been taken down by the Cavaliers.

The Dons make a living on missed shots so they can get out and run for the easy baskets. San Francisco takes a ton of threes and made about nine per game a season ago. Transition baskets will be made possible by the rebounding prowess of the Dons.

They were one of the better rebounding teams in the West Coast Conference a season ago so if they can clean up the misses against Virginia they are going to need to capitalize on their opportunities in transition because they will likely be the only good looks at the basket San Francisco gets the whole game.

It is just so hard to not trust Virginia even though they don’t score. They have proven they don’t have to light the nets on fire to win games. Virginia still wins this game but it is close for awhile.