After Tony Bennett retired a little less than two weeks ago, the Virginia men’s basketball team’s preparations for the season ahead took on new urgency without him. In the days since, the Hoos played two scrimmages and held their annual preseason media day Monday at the John Paul Jones Arena where interim coach Ron Sanchez held his first in-person press conference in his new role.
Sanchez said the program’s overarching philosophy hasn’t changed. Asked about his time at Charlotte, he said it was also the starting point for his tenure there where he had a winning record in his final two seasons and the 49ers won the 2023 CBI.
“Yeah, obviously this stage is so much bigger than that one. Expectations are a lot higher,” Sanchez said. “The philosophy is the same. You have to eliminate losing to begin with. You have to prevent your team from doing the things that will cause you to lose games, and that's taking care of the basketball, blocking out, rebounding well, getting back in transition, preventing easy baskets, contesting every shot. Offensively it's taking great shots every single possession.
“This game is not as complex as people think,” he continued. “The objective here is to win more possessions than your opponent on both ends of the floor. That doesn't mean that you accomplish that, but if you understand that, that means that you play really hard. If you have to coach effort, then we have a problem. If you don't understand what good basketball means, then it's not going to work out. So we have to understand what is a quality shot and what is a quality defensive stop. ... Those two things work well in hand, but we do have a fairly young group, an inexperienced group that's starting to understand that, and that's the part that I'm most encouraged by.”
Within those guideposts, Sanchez has indicated that UVA will stick with its Pack-Line Defense scheme, but will stay with offseason plans to adapt the offense. The Cavaliers have moved away from the Blocker-Mover patterned motion of the past and toward a system with more movement, increased on-ball screen usage, and the frequency of things such as handoffs or slip screens.
Virginia also plans to play with more pace or tempo, though that should not be interpreted as carte blanche fastbreak basketball. Sanchez said Monday that the focus is on looking for more opportunistic chances to get a quick mismatch or opening. That probably means a dramatic increase in possessions is not on the horizon.
“Things are going to have to work well in hand with what we're trying to do,” Sanchez said. “It's not a new system [of transition basketball], we're just trying to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves, getting the 5 man to run hard to the rim in transition, having Isaac McKneely sprint hard to the 3-point line, trying to see if we can get a mismatch just as the game flows. Doesn't have to be anything that's super creative or overly complex. It's just more of concepts, just let's get the ball up the floor in three or four seconds as opposed to five or six seconds. Just little things like that that I think will make a difference.”
Jalen Warley Enters Transfer Portal
In the 24 hours since the media day interviews took place, another change occurred for the Cavaliers. Jalen Warley decided to enter the transfer portal and leave the program. Bennett’s decision to retire opened the transfer portal for 30 days for players on the roster.
Warley had joined UVA as a transfer with one year of eligibility remaining after three years at Florida State. He told On3 sports that he plans to redshirt this season. The 6’7”, 205-pound senior averaged 7.5 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 2.8 assists last season for the Seminoles.
In terms of the impact on the Virginia roster, Warley had been expected to play significant minutes on the perimeter. With 275 career assists, he was one of just two players on the roster with 200+ career assists so his departure removes a proven playmaker from the equation. With the Hoos’ offensive shift and a little more tempo, Warley had the potential to boost the team’s free throw rate and to be assertive in transition at times.
Warley’s decision to leave should open more potential minutes for Virginia perimeter players like Andrew Rohde, Dai Dai Ames, Christian Bliss, and Ishan Sharma.
Before the announcement of Warley’s departure, Sanchez said a lot of his time so far in the interim head coaching role has been focused on communicating with players and their families.
“Good conversations. We've spent a lot of time communicating with parents, with players about the situation at hand,” Sanchez said. “The overall message has been the university is still here; the program is still here; the need for your talent is still here and the stage is still here. Most of them have really embraced that.”
On The Interior
While the personnel shift changes the outlook on the perimeter, the frontcourt remains intact currently with Blake Buchanan, Elijah Saunders, Jacob Cofie, Anthony Robinson, TJ Power, and Carter Lang all available as options.
Buchanan (6’11”, 227) is the only one on that list that played minutes for Virginia last season. He played in 34 games with 6 starts as a true freshman while averaging 15 minutes. Buchanan, who looks to be in line for an increase in minutes this season, averaged 3.4 points and 3.1 rebounds in 2023-2024. Sanchez said adding strength and some offensive touch were things on the menu this offseason for the sophomore center.
“Part of his development was just in the weight room. He needed to get stronger,” Sanchez said. “You can't speed up Mother Nature, no matter what you do, so they have to spend time in the weight room kind of working on their physical development. His touch around the basket, his free-throw shooting, some of those things were also part of his skill development package. I do see him making improvements in those areas.”
Saunders, who Sanchez said is versatile enough to defend all the positions except for point guard, will be a frequent choice for the ‘center’ spot as well. The transfer played 20.2 minutes per game last season at San Diego State, but likely will have an expanded role on this Virginia roster. Saunders (6’8”, 240) started 21 games and averaged 6.2 points with 3.6 rebounds as a sophomore.
More About Those Scrimmages
While college basketball scrimmages are supposed to be closed door or secret in nature, information has increasingly been shared from those matchups in recent seasons.
The Cavaliers, for example, faced VCU at the John Paul Jones Arena on Saturday, Oct. 19 and hit the road to Georgetown on Saturday, Oct. 26. The Rams won 71-49, though McKneely and Buchanan were among players that played few or no minutes. The Hoyas prevailed 66-55 with one leaked box score showing that UVA made 19 of 26 free throws, but only 2 of 27 3-pointers.
Sanchez said Monday that Virginia “did a lot of good things” in the scrimmages and that young players picked up additional minutes with some of the returning players limited.
“I feel like we shared the ball well,” Sanchez said. “We understood the concept of offense. Our spacing was really, really good in my opinion, and like always, your defense is always trending. We like where we are defensively. Some things we have to do better. But as far as this group and this being their second exposure to a different opponent, I do feel like they're grasping things really well.”
Tipoff is now just days away as Virginia hosts Campbell on Wednesday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. While the two results and lower scoring totals raised the nervousness around the season ahead for some fans, Sanchez remained optimistic about the season ahead.
“What I will say is that they are eagerly pursuing the things that we as coaches are teaching, and that's the exciting part,” Sanchez said. “This is a journey. It's a process for them to unite and get together. We can't be so result-oriented after every single practice and say we're not here. The question is are we getting there. Sometimes you get there through failure, you get there through a bad practice, you get there through an exciting practice. For us it's managing the expectations of ourselves as coaches, but along the way understanding that we have to journey well, but I do like where we are as a team. I really do.”
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