When Virginia interim coach Ron Sanchez walked into the postgame press conference at John Paul Jones Arena for the final time this regular season, there was a sense of relief over his face.
The Hoos held on in their home finale to beat Florida State, 60-57, moving to 15-15 overall and 8-11 in ACC play as the conference tournament looms.
"A lot of grit," Sanchez said about the win. "This season has shown it."
There were 15 leads changes as the Cavaliers and Seminoles wrestled throughout a late night in Charlottesville. The first half included three technical fouls as the game got chippy between shoving under the basket and words exchanged with the opposing benches.
Elijah Saunders even took one to the chin, which resulted in a foul called on himself, seven stitches postgame, and a jersey number change from No. 2 to No. 55. When Saunders re-emerged from the locker room with the new, nameless jersey, he looked and played like a different player with two clutch 3's, including one to tie the game up at 53-53.
"Man, if I shoot it like that I might stick with No. 55," Saunders joked.
With the game tied at 55-55 in the final minutes, Andrew Rohde was called on for some late shot clock heroics, handling a fumbled pass out from Blake Buchanan before launching a falling away 3-pointer from the corner to give Virginia the lead for good. Rohde said he works on those shots before every game, so the motion came natural even if the shot looked like a prayer.
"I'm not really thinking at all in that situation," Rohde said.
Dai Dai Ames led all scorers with 18 points, while Rhode finished with a UVA career-high of 17 points to go along with 3 assists. The now No. 55 wearing Saunders scored 12 points, his best performance since mid-January.
"This is what growth looks like," Sanchez said of the performance compared to earlier season results.
Here are three takeaways from the regular season home finale.
UVA Guard Trio Carries The Load
Late in the year, rotations traditionally tighten up as teams ramp up for postseason runs, but usually not for a team trying to salvage the most of a down season. Ron Sanchez kept to his starting five of Dai Dai Ames, Isaac McKneely, Andrew Rohde, Elijah Saunders, and Blake Buchanan for the majority of the game on Tuesday night, though.
Each starter played more than 30 minutes, while no one off the bench played more than eight minutes or scored.
"I wanted to play our best ball-handling group, we just needed that today," Sanchez said of the decision. "Against that pressure you need guys that can make decisions, make plays and the guys that were on the floor are the guys that had the skill to do that."
The guard trio of Ames, McKneely, and Rohde each played 36-plus minutes on the night with Sanchez continuing to lean on them. Ames and Rohde led the team in scoring with 18 and 17 points, respectively, while McKneely played his usual active role in the offense despite finishing with just 9 points.
The guards combined for 44 points, the eighth time in Virginia’s last nine games the trio has gone for 40 or more points. During that nine-game stretch, the Cavaliers are 5-4 and have at times played their most complete basketball of the season in games at Pitt, against Georgia Tech, and at Wake Forest.
"Games like this, you need a guy to make a play," Sanchez said. "You just do."
The trio's importance was on display again against Florida State with Rohde hitting the go-ahead 3-pointer, Isaac McKneely tying the game with a tough layup or Dai Dai Ames’ continued dynamic playmaking. The emergence of Ames as a scorer and creator added a new dimension to the UVA offense and has seen the sophomore score in double figures in nine straight games.
"He's really grown in front of our eyes," Sanchez said. "He made really good decisions, good plays, made plays for himself, plays for others. Against a team like this, you needed Dai Dai to do what he did today."
Although UVA struggled with 14 turnovers on the night, the most since playing at Louisville in mid-January, the guards set the table again for Sanchez leading to a win.
Ron Sanchez Walks Off JPJ Court Into The Unknown
As soon as the final horn rang, Ron Sanchez quickly made his way down the handshake line.
First, he shared a few words with Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton, who will retire at the end of this season, after standing with Hamilton pregame to give the John Paul Jones Arena crowd a chance to applaud one of the league’s most enduring sideline presences. Sanchez then made his way to the student section and band, waving and clapping as a sign of his approval for 17 homes games. Virginia finished 10-7 in the confines of JPJ, the 16th consecutive season with 10 or more wins at home.
Finally, he stopped at the edge of the court and greeted each of his players as they made way to the tunnel before doing so himself. For Sanchez the walk through the tunnel is a bit like stepping into the unknown and could be the end of an era for Virginia men’s basketball as fans have known it for the last 16 years.
Only a trip to Syracuse to close the regular season and a stay in Charlotte for the ACC Tournament likely remain for Virginia this year, which means Sanchez's interim role will end soon in one way or another. Sanchez has maintained throughout he has not paid much attention to the decision-makers "across the street" as to whether he will return as the full-time head coach at Virginia or whether they will make the decision to officially cut ties with their most fruitful era of basketball under Tony Bennett and his staff.
Tuesday night could have been the final home game of an era ending, but of course that was not the topic on Sanchez's mind with a few games left to wear the title of head coach.
"Being the head coach, this is an honor," Sanchez said. "To be selected and trusted to lead a group for this assignment this season. Not one day of practice, not one venue, not one game did I personally take for granted. I'm very fortunate to have this opportunity, to coach against individuals like Leonard Hamilton is an honor for me and others in our league."
CBS Sports' Matt Norlander reported on Tuesday "it's only a matter of time” before Virginia moves on from Sanchez after his interim season, confirming a feeling long growing around the program. Norlander went on to say a search firm acting on behalf of Virginia, identified as Parker Executive Search by David Teel from The Daily Press, has already reached out to "multiple candidates" including VCU's Ryan Odom and New Mexico's Richard Pitino. The report also added Virginia expects to have around $7 million in NIL and revenue sharing for the men's basketball program for next season.
Those thoughts, at least externally, were distant on the court on Tuesday as Virginia players tried to rally to send senior Taine Murray off with a win in his final home game at JPJ. While this season has created plenty of debate about the product on and off the court for the Cavaliers, there is little arguing the team has endured multiple obstacles.
"Everybody is entitled to their own opinions," Rohde said. "Throughout the season, us as a team we tried to stay interior."
From the sudden retirement of Bennett, to the unexpected transfer of Jalen Warley, to the mysterious absence of Christian Bliss, to just the team trying to piece it all together, there was plenty to get caught up on. But the team as a whole leaving JPJ on Tuesday night felt a sense of accomplishment with the finish line in sight.
"A lot of adversity," Saunders said. "Something Coach Sanchez talked about earlier on was instead of saying 'why is this happening to me,' why is this happening for me. How can I grow from this situation and how can I learn from this, we've all had ups and downs and struggles, but we’ve also had highs."
Virginia Maintains Chance At ACC Tournament Bye
Far greater mathematicians are required to make sense of the ACC basketball standings in a league of 18 programs.
Heading into the final round of conference games on Saturday, only a few things are definite. Duke, Clemson, and Louisville will hold the top three seeds in some order, while Boston College, NC State and Miami will be the first schools left out of the ACC Tournament entirely. From there things are a jumbled mess with multiple tiebreakers needed to understand.
For UVA's point of view, though, things are little clearer. A win at Syracuse on Saturday should lock up the No. 9 seed in Charlotte, which would give the Cavaliers a bye into Wednesday and the second round. A loss and Virginia would have its first double-digit seed since 2009 in the ACC Tournament, when the conference only had 12 schools.
"Puts us back in the position we want to be," Saunders said of the chance to secure a first round bye on Saturday.
Not long ago after a disastrous West Coast trip featured blowout losses to Cal and Stanford, many feared Virginia would be miss the ACC Tournament entirely. The Cavaliers went on a five-game skid, the program’s longest since dropping nine straight back in 2009-10. Virginia shook off the poor run enough to finish 7-5 in its last games with key road wins at Pitt, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest, while still suffering against the ACC's elite in Duke, North Carolina, and Clemson.
"We were in a bad position in the standings, didn't know if we were going to make the conference tournament," Sanchez said. "To go from that to winning at Virginia Tech, winning at Pitt, winning at Wake, kind of finding a way to put ourselves in a good position, the group has shown grit."
UVA will close the regular season at Syracuse on Saturday with the end of the season now coming into full picture with the calendar flip to March.
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