Copyright Augusta Free Press
That first half, in Virginia’s season opener with Rider, that was some fugly basketball – not because of anything the two teams were doing, but because of all the whistles. Twenty-four fouls, 33 free-throw attempts. Took an hour and three minutes to play – the tip was at 7:01 p.m. ET; we went to the break at 8:04 p.m. ET. Either the head of officials at the NCAA sent out a memo telling the refs to call ticky-tack fouls, or the guys working tonight’s game all called their bookies and took the over on the over/under for total team fouls. Virginia led 42-32 at the break despite adding their own level of ugliness to the proceedings – 2-of-19 (!!!) shooting from three. The bricks laid just in the first 20 minutes – which took 63 minutes to play – could take care of Donald Trump’s new White House ballroom. The ‘Hoos came out of the locker room with a new focus – defense – and held Rider to eight points in the first 15 minutes of the second half, to turn the heap of garbage we were exposed to in the first hour-and-change into something resembling a good start to the season in an 87-53 win. ICYMI UVA Basketball: ‘Hoos shake off sluggish first half, defeat Rider, 87-52, in opener “Really proud of the way they responded in the second half,” was the message from first-year coach Ryan Odom, whose message to his team at halftime was simple. “Just intensity on the ball,” freshman point guard Chance Mallory said. “We got it into our press, and we were able to speed up the ball-handler, which we weren’t doing in the first half. So, just the main focus was just on defense, because we knew we were going to score.” The offensive end won’t be a problem for the new-look ‘Hoos, who had five guys finish in double-figures – led by Euro imports Thijs de Ridder (21 points, 10 rebounds) and Johann Grunloh (12 points, seven rebounds). Even shooting 2-of-19 (!!!) from three in the first half, Virginia scored 42 points, getting nine buckets at the rim and 12 made free throws. Odom’s teams attack, attack, attack – getting shots at the rim, working the offensive boards, and creating points in transition off turnovers. For the night, Virginia had a 42-16 advantage in points in the paint, a 22-6 advantage in points off turnovers, and a 26-9 advantage in second-chance points – the latter fueled by 22 offensive rebounds. The relentlessness of pushing the ball into the paint, pressuring the offensive glass, playing with tempo in transition, and 40 minutes of 94 feet of ball pressure on defense, has a cumulative effect on opponents. “When you’re able to sub multiple guys in and play, you know, a bigger number, you know, eventually, you know, you hope that you’ll be able to crack them at some point,” Odom said. The guy has the horses – Odom used a 10-man rotation before the game got to garbage time in the final minutes, and got buckets from 10 guys, including his son, Owen, who scored on a driving layup in the final minute, in his first college appearance. One bit of bad news: Devin Tillis, the Swiss army knife power forward, was on crutches on the end of the bench for the opener. Odom told reporters after the game that Tillis did something to his knee in the exhibition win over Villanova on Oct. 24, and had surgery that will keep him on the sidelines for an as-yet unknown period of time. That will likely mean more minutes for redshirt freshman Martin Carrere, who followed Odom from VCU, which Odom led to an NCAA Tournament berth last spring. Odom’s approach, which he brought with him from VCU – to wear down the opponent on the defensive end with full-court defense – is a different way of skinning the cat than UVA Basketball fans became accustomed to with 16 years of Tony Bennett Basketball, which had the same goal, to wear opponents down with defense, just of the halfcourt variety. “Definitely play a lot faster than what Coach Bennett did, but I feel like we still try to focus on defense as much as he does,” said Mallory, who played his high-school ball almost literally across the street from JPJ, at St. Anne’s-Belfield, and had 11 points, four rebounds and three steals in 24 minutes in his collegiate debut. One thing that you wouldn’t have guessed would be similar, but was – the final statsheet had Virginia with 62 offensive possessions in the game. It seemed faster, though, didn’t it, than Bennett Ball? The 2024-2025 team, led by Bennett’s right-hand man, Ron Sanchez, after Bennett stepped down on the eve of the season, averaged 61.3 possessions per game. Bennett’s last NCAA Tournament team, from two seasons ago, averaged 60.1. His last ACC champion team, from 2022-2023, averaged 61.5.
