The Virginia basketball team continued its early season tune-up process with another comfortable win Tuesday night. This time, the Hoos blitzed Hampton at the John Paul Jones Arena, 91-53.
UVA saw the stats skew heavily in its favor. The Cavaliers shot 55.0% from the field overall (33-60), 50.0% from 3-point range (11-22), and 82.4% from the free throw line (14-17). All of those are the best of the season to date. On the other end, the Pirates managed just 31.7% shooting overall (20-63), 23.1% from 3 (6-26), and 63.6% from the free throw line (7-11). Those are the lowest FG percentages allowed by the Wahoos so far as well (the 31.7% tied with the North Carolina Central game).
In other words, there are some signs of progress as the young season gets going. Virginia is 3-0 with Marshall up next on Saturday.
"Much more of a complete performance across the board from all of our guys, more importantly collectively together," first-year UVA coach Ryan Odom said.
The Hoos placed five players in double figures for scoring, led by Ugonna Onyenso with a double-double. He had 18 points and 10 rebounds to go with 4 blocked shots. Chance Mallory added 16 points, 3 steals, and 2 assists, while Sam Lewis had an efficient 13 points and 5 boards. Malik Thomas and Jacari White rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Virginia also got 9 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 blocks from Johann Grünloh. Elijah Getrude chipped in 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists, while Dallin Hall led the team with 7 assists. The 91 points are the most for the program since scoring 100 against Marshall in 2018.
The balanced scoring and varying options left Hampton coach Ivan Thomas impressed. An assistant previously at Providence and Georgetown in the Big East, he's seen his fair share of high level teams.
"I'm telling you, that's a good team," Thomas said. "I've been around in the Big East. I've seen some good teams. That's a good team."
Here are more takeaways from a comfortable win against Hampton.
Career Day For Ugo
With new coaches and 12 new players, Ugonno Onyenso wasn't really sure what he was getting into when he chose Virginia. Right now, though, he couldn't be happier with that decision.
Onyenso poured in a career-high 18 points against Hampton on Monday and added 10 rebounds for his second career double-double. After scoring in double figures just twice previously in his career with stops at Kentucky and Kansas State, he's already been in double figures for scoring twice at UVA. He's averaging 11.0 points and 7.3 rebounds through three games.
He attributed the strong start to the coaches building up his confidence.
"It's all thanks to Coach Odom. He's a really, really good coach and the patience that he has with me, and others on the team, but me especially," Onyenso said. "I've been scared to shoot the ball. The one thing with me is I'm more scared of making mistakes when I play so he keeps telling to play through mistakes, especially in the summer. Being able to play through mistakes and building my confidence with that, that's a big thing with me."
Onyenso did a lot of damage in the first half against Hampton. He had 12 points and 6 rebounds in the first half, which included 2 3-pointers. Those are the first made 3's of this career as he came to Virginia with a single 3-point attempt in his three-year college career. That one came at the end of the shot clock. So far, Onyenso is 2-5 from 3-point range (40.0%).
Odom had hinted at that part of Onyenso's game even back in the summer and early fall, but now that's translated to a game setting, it just adds another wrinkle that teams must be prepared for when facing the Hoos.
"Once we began to work with him and we got in the gym with him, then it became apparent he's more than just a shot blocker," Odom said. "I think certainly that was evidenced tonight. He really played big for us."
Of course, he is still a shot blocker. Onyenso and Johann Grünloh both had 4 blocks in the win. It's the first time since 1998 that a pair of Cavalier teammates each had 4 more blocks in a game. Kris Hunter (5) and Chris Williams (4) were the two that got it done that season.
Defense Revving Up
Grünloh and Onyenso turning away 8 shots wasn't the only part of the good defensive outing, though. As mentioned above, Hampton posted just 31.7% shooting overall (20-63) and 23.1% from 3-point range (6-26), both representing the lowest FG percentages allowed by the Wahoos so far (the 31.7% tied with the North Carolina Central game).
Virginia also tallied 8 steals. Chance Mallory led the way with 3 steals, but Grünloh, Thijs De Ridder, Malik Thomas, Sam Lewis, and Jacari White all had 1 each. For the season, the Hoos have 20 steals and 29 blocked shots with 10 players contributing to those columns.
That stingy combo of allowing a low shooting percentage while also creating turnovers or blocking shots is what Odom and company are looking for.
"Just be the aggressor," Virginia guard Sam Lewis said. "Being in 24, attacking them first on defense, making them feel us every single time, and that's what he wants us to be, a defensive team first. The offense is going to come."
Odom noted the intensity improved from his group and that's part of the reason for a more successful defensive effort than in prior games. The Cavalier coach though the first half in particular really set a tone.
If there are areas of concern still to address, it would be offensive rebounding and slowing down opposing guards consistently. While the Hoos did increase their defensive rebounding rate in this one (79% approximately), they did still give up 11 O-Boards. Also, Hampton guard Michael Eley led his team with 16 points on 7-11 shooting. That's now a three-game pattern. Against North Carolina Central, Gage Lattimore had 25 points that included 5-6 shooting from 3-point range. Rider's Flash Burton also had a good day against the Cavaliers with 17 points on 6-13 shooting.
"Defensively, they took a step forward," Odom said. "There was more intensity. There was more willingness. Even early in the game, we were able to get them deeper into the clock, which is certainly a goal of ours. Take some time up the court after we score a basket in our press and get them later into the clock in the halfcourt. That's a pretty good recipe for potential success. Then you have to contest right, block out, and rebound."
Passing, Not A Fad
Virginia fired off 22 assists on 33 made baskets on Tuesday to help light up the scoreboard. Individually, Dallin Hall led the way with 7 assists. Chance Mallory, Elijah Gertrude, and Onyenso dished out 2 assists each.
That outing pushed UVA's season numbers to 58 assists on 91 made baskets. The Hoos currently have a 63.7% assist rate. Virginia ranks 50th nationally in that category. Of course, that was expected. Odom wants a high tempo offense that gets a lot of good shots, which come more easily when the ball moves to find an open player. He called passing an entry ticket to playing time in one pregame radio segment.
The assist rate – number of assists per field goals made – has been regularly among the top half of the country and often higher for Odom’s teams. His 2021-2022 Utah State team, for example, led the nation with a 66.4% assist rate (Virginia was 17th that year at 60.3%). For players that took a lot of shots elsewhere before joining UVA, this is the style of play they expected and they've bought in to sharing hte ball so far. That's been a key component of the 3-0 start.
"In terms of usage rates and things like that, we share the ball so we're going to have multiple guys that have opportunities to make the decision," Odom said.
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