Monmouth Hawks

Virginia returns home from it’s uplifting win at VCU with a very short turnaround (43 hours to be exact) before tipping off with Metro powerhouse Monmouth. Will the Hoos be ready to handle this upstart mid-major?

Game Details:

Date/Time: Sunday, November 18th, 1:00 PM EST 
Location: John Paul Jones Arena, Charlottesville, VA
TV: WatchESPN

What ‘They’ Say

Depth Chart:

Starters

Key Reserves

The ABC’s of OPPONENT:

A) They’re a deep team, but it’s young depth. The Hawks played 12 players in their 8-point Tuesday win over Lehigh, but 6 of them were freshmen and two were sophomores. The standout of this group of youngsters is freshman Guard Deion Hammon, who’s coming off the bench to the tune of 12 ppg and a sweet 7-16 (44%) from deep on the year. But that youth means some inconsistencies with defense and ball handling.

B) The Hawks are led by a pair of junior standouts, shooting guard Micah Seaborn (17.3 ppg, 46% from 3) and 255 lb true center Diago Quinn (11.7 ppg, 5.3 rpg). The weaknesses for these two? Seaborn is turning the ball over 5 times a game, and could see that streak continue against a stingy Hoos defense that’s feasted on turnovers thus far, though at 6-5 he won’t be at a size or strength disadvantage vs Virginia. And Quinn has no stretch game, purely paint oriented, and he won’t be able to exploit a size advantage like he did against Bucknell (21 points).

C) Running the offense for Monmouth is their lone senior, PG Austin Tilghman. He’s not much of a scorer, just 5.7 points a night this year, and hasn’t made a 3 pointer yet. Instead he’s very pass first, racking up 4 assists a night against 2.7 turnovers a night. He disappeared vs Seton Hall, 0-4 from the floor and only 3 assists, so there’s reason to believe he’ll struggle against our defense as well.

Their season to date:

Monmouth is 2-1 on the season so far. Their best win is a 1-point victory over Bucknell at home and they suffered a 75-65 loss at Seton Hall. 

Keys to getting the win:

1) Play aggressively on offense. Monmouth does not generate many turnovers, and instead will try to get back on D and defend the paint. But the Hoos can’t fall back into conservative ways, afraid to probe, instead just passing the ball around the perimeter. The Hawks will give that up, but good ball movement should open up the middle of the defense enough to provide balance.

2) Keep the up-tempo momentum from the VCU game. Monmouth turns the ball over. A lot. 21 times to Seton Hall. 27(!) to Lehigh. The Hoos defense should generate 15-20 as well. Just as we exploited those against VCU to attack on the break, we’d be remiss not to do so here as well. All of our guards, and even Wilkins, should be successful running on Monmouth.

3) Keep them off the free throw line. The Hawks have stayed in all three games this year by getting to the line. 23 FTA vs Lehigh, 26 vs Seton Hall, and 30 vs Bucknell. Keeping our fouls to a minimum, and playing our defense clean, will prevent Monmouth from having a chance to stay in this game.

Predictions:

I see no reason to disagree with the computer-predicted spreads. Monmouth is a good mid-major, will stand a good chance to earn the Metro’s tourney bid this year, and have the rest advantage. But Virginia is just the better team, with the better defense, and better guards. And at the end of the day, that’s enough to win 95% of the time. The margin of victory may suffer late if Tony chooses to give extended minutes to the freshmen, as well he should, but we don’t see the outcome being in doubt once the Hoos start consistently shutting down the Hawks’ offense.

Hoos win: 73-50