Virginia suits up for its second game of the year against fellow Bubbleville visitor San Francisco. A nominally tougher foe than opener Towson, this is still a bit of a let down after the originally scheduled Florida game was cancelled, but SF was one of the WCC’s tougher teams last year. Will UVA stay sharp enough to put this one away quickly as well?

Game Details:

Date/Time: Friday, November 27th, 11:30 AM
Location: Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, VT
TV: ESPN

What ‘They’ Say

Depth Chart:

Starters

Key Reserves

The ABC’s of SF:

A) They are replacing a lot of key pieces. The Dons won 22 games last year, finishing 3rd in the Gonzaga and St Mary’s-dominated WCC. But most of that production and experience is gone, with three key seniors graduated, most notably honorable mention all-WCC 7-footer Jimbo Lulll (11.9 ppg, 7.6 rpg last year). But the biggest loss was the graduate transfer of shooting guard Charles Minlend, their leading scorer at 14.7 ppg, to Louisville, meaning four of their top six scorers are missing.

B) They start a small backcourt. Don’t get me wrong, Kihei will still be the shortest guy out there. But the Dons’ two best returning players are both small guards, the 6’1″ scoring guard Shabazz and the 6’2″ point guard Bouyea. Joining them in the starting lineup is 6’2″ Grand Canyon transfer Damari Milstead, who averaged 10.3 ppg as a sophomore in the WAC. The size differential should give UVA an advantage at the tip, though the Dons will get bigger off the bench, with BC transfer Julian Rishwain the only reserve guard they’ve played yet this year.

C) They’ve got some big forwards who like to shoot the 3. San Francisco will deploy their big forwards as floor-spacing options. Jurkatamm isn’t a high-efficiency shooter but he’s launched three 3PAs a game so far this year. Reserve forward Kunen is 2 of 3 so far this year, and the 6’8″ Hawthorne has taken most of his shots from deep so far. The most dangerous of these shooters, however has been 6’9″ junior forward Ryuny, who’s hit an impressive 7-of-14 from behind the 3-point arc so far.

Their season to date:

The Dons are 1-1 on the season, opening their season with a 76-68 loss to UMASS-Lowell on Wednesday before bouncing back to beat Towson 79-68 on Thanksgiving.

Keys to getting the win:

1) Keep their guards out of the lane. Bouyea and Shabazz have been lighting it up in CT, but their damage has almost entirely been playing downhill. Bouyea is only a 29% 3P-shooting, and Shabazz, while a career 37% 3-point shooter, hasn’t seen his shot going in consistently over his first two games. Milstead is also a career 37% shooter from 3 but his shot volume is predominantly inside the arc. Expect San Francisco to use a lot of ball screen action to try and get their smaller defenders into the lane to do their damage.

2) Score on second chances. San Francisco hasn’t rebounded great so far, letting Towson grab 16 offensive rebounds, including 5 by their 7-footer Uyaelunmo. UMass-Lowell grabbed 10 as well. The Dons have some height and length in their front court, but Virginia should still be able to work for position and put it’s 7 players between 6’8″ and 7’1″ to work.

3) Play downhill. It’ll be tempting to bomb away after Wednesday’s shooting clinic, and San Francisco has allowed opponents to shoot well in the past. But Virginia can’t fall into that lull that it has in the past. Transfer 7-footer Samba Kane (last at Illinois) will provide some rim protection threat, but the ability of Huff to stretch the floor should pull him away from the basket unless they go zone, in which case it’ll be an opportunity for Virginia to deploy its zone offense that we found in past seasons works best when it runs through paint touches. I’m sure we’ll still do our damage from 3, but it’ll look much prettier if we go to work in the paint as well.

Predictions:

No reason not to expect another 20 point win here. They won’t roll over quite like Towson did, but we did have a rest day for Thanksgiving while the Dons will be playing their 3rd game in 3 days. It’d be nice if we could exploit their foul problems and get to the line, but we know that’s not really part of UVA’s style.

Instead, look for another workmanlike dispatching of the mid-major, the lead steadily growing into the second half when we maybe take the foot off the gas. Shabazz will probably do a bit of damage with the ball in his hands, and Ryuny should get some points from the stretch 4 position, a historical weak spot for the Pack line. But Virginia’s reinvigorated offense will do its job so long as it doesn’t get cocky with the long ball.

Excited to see who UVA’s hot hand is in this game.

Hoos Win – 72-50