ACC Basketball: Duke clear ahead, Pitt dead last in latest power rankings

In the first week of the season, Virginia lost at home to Navy in the opener and lost by 20 points to Houston in a game that was never competitive. Many left the bandwagon soon after but the team then won four straight games, including over Georgia and Providence in the Legends Classic, two wins that have looked better as time has gone on.

To some degree, the Cavaliers have looked similar to the previous teams under head coach Tony Bennett in terms of ultra-slow pace and having good defense and average offense. But at times, their offense has looked crisper, mainly when East Carolina transfer Jayden Gardner (14.0 ppg and 8.3 rpg) is getting going on the inside and Indiana transfer Armaan Franklin (11.8 ppg and 26% from deep) is making shots.

But outside of those two, there just isn’t a ton of offense on this roster. Kihei Clark continues to put up good stats but will always be limited offensively, while Reece Beekman isn’t going to provide much either. A player to watch is freshman guard Taine Murray, who hasn’t played much but did come off the bench to score 14 points on four made three-pointers in the team’s recent one-point loss to Iowa. If he becomes an impact player and scorer, UVA’s offense could get to the point where they get back to being a top-25 team.

Oddly enough, the Cavaliers look like a team that should be in the 8-10 range in the ACC and very well could be out of the regular-season title race picture. But with how down the conference is overall, don’t count out Coach Bennett to make it work somehow where they’re in the mix at the end.